by R. L. King
Eddie was silent for several seconds. “Not off’and. You say it interferes with magic? That’s bloody rare.”
“Yes, and I know. It’s fairly weak, but I have a feeling if it were connected to the other part, that might change.”
“But you don’t know what this other part is.”
“No idea. I don’t even know if there’s only one other part. There might be more.”
“And it’s not in the collection?”
“Not that I saw—but remember, I wasn’t looking for it.”
“Are you plannin’ to go back and take another look?”
“I’d very much like to, but I don’t know if they’ll let me near it again, since it’s part of a police investigation. Dr. Martinez says she might arrange to have the stuff moved somewhere else prior to the auction.”
“Hmm. And since you’re connected with the University, you don’t want to raise too many suspicions.”
“Got it in one. So I’m hoping you and that incredible brain of yours can turn up some reference to this item and its history. And while you’re at it, could you see if you can dig up any history on Hiram Drummond? I’m planning to see if I can talk to his daughter and niece, but I want to know if he might have been one of us.” He chuckled. “You should know—you magical boffin types are great at staying under the radar. I’m still convinced there are a lot more mages out there than we know about, because they keep to themselves and don’t make waves.”
“Like you do.” Eddie’s tone was amused.
“Well—yes. I’ve been making too many waves lately, I know.” Over the past three months, he’d been watching, along with Jason, to see if anything turned up in the news about the aftermath of the fight under the mall in Tennessee. Nothing had, which meant either the authorities were keeping it under wraps, or the Ordo people had managed to clean it up before anybody caught on.
“Okay. I’ll look into it. I’ve got a few other little projects, but none of them are urgent. I’ll give Ward a ring and see if he wants to ’elp.”
“Of course he’ll want to help. You two don’t want to admit it, but you’re both as curious as I am and you know it.”
Eddie didn’t even bother to deny it. “Speaking of that—you said you nicked the pyramid. Where is it now?”
Stone felt suddenly uneasy about admitting such a thing over the phone—too much time listen to Jason and his paranoid ideas, he supposed—but brushed it aside. Nobody suspects you. They’re not tapping your phone line. “It’s at Caventhorne. I have a few things I need to do today, but I can pop over later and we can all have a look at it if you like.”
“Let’s see.” Eddie’s voice dripped with good-natured sarcasm. “Do I want to ’ave a look at what might be an ancient bit of magical kit that could lead to knowledge that’s been lost for ’undreds of years minimum? Nah, I think I’d rather go ’ome and watch something trashy on the telly.”
Stone chuckled. “I’ll talk to you later, Eddie. Thanks. Now let me try to get back to sleep, which I honestly doubt is going to happen at this point.”
8
Stone half-expected to get a call from the University asking him to take over Greene’s classes the next day. Apparently rank had its privileges, though, because by the time he left the house at close to ten a.m., nobody had contacted him.
When he arrived at Jason’s agency and pushed open the door, Gina Rodriguez looked up from her computer. “Hey, Dr. Stone. Was expecting you.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Jason said you wanted me to look into something, but he wouldn’t tell me what it was until you got here.”
Stone looked around. “Where is he?”
“Donut run. Should be back in a few—ah, there he is!”
The door opened again to reveal Jason bearing a box from Psycho Donuts. When he spotted Stone, he raised it in greeting. “Hey, Al. Didn’t know when you’d get in. Want a donut?” He set the box on a nearby table and opened it, revealing a half-dozen large, elaborately-decorated confections that looked less like basic donuts and more like the baker had lived up to the place’s name.
“Er…thanks, but I’ll pass.”
“Suit yourself, but you’re missing out.” Jason and Gina both grabbed one and began munching away. “Go ahead and give Gina the details about what we talked about last night.”
Stone prowled the area around the assistant’s desk as he told her about the break-in at the University. The only details he left out were anything about magic, obviously, and the fact that he not only knew what was missing, but had it in his possession. What she didn’t know couldn’t come back to bite her—or, more likely, him.
“Huh,” she said, leaning back in her chair. She set the remaining half of her donut aside, wiped her hands on a napkin, and began tapping on her keyboard. “So, what is it exactly that you want me to do?”
Stone spoke carefully. “I assume, since the collection will be sold at auction in San Francisco in a couple of weeks, there’s got to be some kind of online catalog showing the items available. I want to look at the catalog.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Sure, we can do that, but why do you need me?” She grinned. “I know you’re not exactly a computer whiz, Doc, but you’re a college professor. Finding something like that on the net is easy-peasy.”
“Not if he doesn’t want anybody to know he’s looking,” Jason said.
“Ah.” She nodded as light dawned. “I get it now.”
“Yes. Well.” Stone took a deep breath. “Given that I was one of the few people who was in that storeroom the day of the theft, it’s in my best interests not to arouse anyone’s suspicions by showing too much interest in its contents. I doubt the police suspect me of anything, but best if it stays that way.”
“Got it. No problem. Give me a couple minutes, and I’ll get you onto that site through a connection nobody can trace.”
“Thank you, Gina.”
Stone drifted to the front of the office, and Jason followed him. “Did you find out anything else last night?”
“Not too much. I’m going home to chat with Eddie and Ward when we’re done here.”
Jason lowered his voice, glancing over toward Gina, who was deep in concentration. “Are you gonna show it to them?”
“That’s the plan. Maybe Eddie’s heard about it, or seen something in one of the books in the Library.”
“You’re hoping he might find a reference to the other piece, right? The one it looks like it plugs into?”
“That would be more than I’ve got a right to ask for, but yes, that would help things along considerably.”
“Got it!” Gina called.
They both hurried over to look over her shoulder. Her screen now showed the home page for a company called Pressman Auctions. The design suggested a staid, respectable operation.
“Brilliant,” Stone said. “And they can’t trace this?”
“Not unless they’re a lot better than local police. I won’t explain it in detail unless you want to get really bored, but trust me—unless they’re watching the auction site for specific traffic, nobody will trace us. Especially since this is a public site, so they expect people to be checking it out. This would be harder if we were trying to break in somewhere we weren’t supposed to be.” She rose from her chair and picked up the remains of her donut. “Have at it.”
Stone sat down and studied the page. It didn’t take long to find the “Upcoming Auctions” link, and not much longer to find the Drummond Collection, slated for auction later in the month. The catalog was a PDF file, which he downloaded.
“Do you see it?” Jason asked, looking over his shoulder.
The catalog contained all sorts of interesting items, one or two per page. Each included a photo and a brief description, along with the auction tag number and any miscellaneous details. Stone quickly realized there were a lot more items in the catalog than he’d seen, probably because they’d either been in boxes or hidden behind other objects. “Going to have to give this a
good going-over,” he murmured.
“Yeah, but let’s focus. Do you see what you’re looking for?”
There was no table of contents, but the items were arranged sequentially according to their tag numbers. Stone pulled out his phone and checked the photo he’d taken, making sure to hide the screen from Gina. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her, but the less she knew, the better. He flipped through the catalog until he reached the page.
“Huh,” Jason said. “So that’s it. Weird-looking thing.”
“It is.” Stone spoke distractedly, barely paying attention to his friend as he leaned in closer to get a better look.
The entry included several color photos of the pyramid, showing all three sides and the bottom with its two holes. The title was listed as Carved Black Pyramid with Markings.
“The purpose and origin of this object are unknown,” Jason read aloud. “It is unclear whether the markings on three sides are an ancient, lost language or merely decorative. No documentation is available in Hiram Drummond’s notes, except that it was originally purchased from the collection of Leander McGrath following his death in 1964.” He looked up at Stone. “Ever heard of this McGrath guy?”
“No, but given he died over fifty years ago, that doesn’t surprise me.” Stone took out his notebook and jotted the man’s name down. “I’ll put that on my list of things to ask Eddie.”
He flipped quickly through the rest of the catalog, which still took several minutes, looking for anything else with similar markings or prongs that might match the holes on the pyramid. He didn’t find anything. “Gina,” he called, “Can you send me a copy of this catalog?”
She came back over, wiping her fingers again. “Sure. Find what you were looking for?”
“Not sure yet. There’s a lot of stuff here, so I want to look it over at home so I don’t take over your desk for too long.” He rose from the chair.
Gina plopped down, pulled up her email, and sent the catalog. “You want a copy too, Jason?”
“Sure, why not? I don’t even know what I’m looking for, but maybe I’ll take a glance through and see if anything pops up.”
“Okay. Guess we’re done, then? That was a lot easier and less exciting than I expected.” She flashed Stone an amused smile.
“What can I say? It can’t always be interesting.”
As she returned to her work, Jason walked Stone to the door. “Let me know what you find out, okay? Keep us in the loop.”
“I will. This still could turn out to be nothing, but I very much want to find out who was behind the theft. I’m convinced they—or the people who hired them—know more about this item than I do.”
9
Eddie and Ward were waiting at the London library when Stone arrived.
“Find out anything else interesting?” Eddie asked.
“I was about to ask you the same question.” Stone wasn’t surprised at the eagerness on both his friends’ faces. This was the kind of thing they lived for—an intriguing magical puzzle that required research into the past.
“Okay, fair enough. We’ll go first.” He waved Stone to a seat in the fussy, maiden-aunt sitting room that served as the library’s receiving area. “Ward?”
Arthur Ward took a spot on the brocade sofa opposite Stone. “The first thing is, as far as either of us can determine, Hiram Drummond wasn’t a mage.”
Stone frowned. “That’s a bit unexpected, but not entirely, I suppose.”
“There are plenty of mundanes out there who collect odd stuff,” Eddie pointed out. “Looks like in this case, Drummond was one of ’em.”
“And I assume that means his daughter and his niece aren’t mages either. They wouldn’t be selling the collection if they were.”
“No indication they are,” Ward said. “Although I suppose it’s possible, if they were, that they’ve held on to the magical pieces.”
“Except I found three of them in the storeroom.” Stone rose and wandered the room. “Four, if you count the pyramid. None of the other three were anything special, but they were definitely both old and magical.”
“Speaking of the pyramid,” Eddie said, “did you bring it?”
Stone chuckled. “You’re not subtle at all, are you? I’ve seen starving dogs look less excited about a raw steak.”
“What can I say?” He didn’t look apologetic in the slightest, and neither did Ward. “That’s the price for draggin’ us into these things o’ yours—we get to play with the fun stuff.”
Stone had collected the pyramid from Desmond’s vault before he arrived. He pulled it from his coat pocket and placed it on the coffee table.
Eddie and Ward leaned forward with identical expressions of interest. They both fuzzed out, clearly using magical sight.
“You won’t get anything.” Stone didn’t bother to shift. “The thing looks as mundane as Jason’s hat.”
“It does…” Eddie murmured. “All right if I touch it?”
“Be my guest. I don’t think there’s anything dangerous about it.”
He pulled a pair of gloves from his pocket, donned them, and lifted the pyramid. Ward moved closer, both of them examining it from all angles as Eddie turned it in his hands.
“You said it’s ’ard to levitate, right?”
“Give it a go.” Stone waved toward the table. “It took a lot more energy than normal for me to even move it—and still more to lift it.”
Eddie placed the pyramid back on the table and concentrated on it.
Nothing happened.
His brow furrowed, his eyes squinting as he obviously poured more magical energy into the effort.
The pyramid jiggled slightly, but nothing else.
“Huh.” Eddie didn’t sound annoyed, merely interested. “You try it, Ward.”
Ward, however, couldn’t get it to move at all.
Eddie wrote something on a notepad. “Blimey. So it takes some significant power to even get the thing to wiggle. Stone, you said you were able to lift it?”
“Yes, a few inches off my worktable. But it felt like it weighed a lot more than it actually does. It was definitely resisting me.”
“No surprise, is it? You’re a bloody powerhouse compared to us magical weaklings.” Once again, Eddie didn’t sound like he resented the fact.
“You two are hardly weaklings.” Stone resumed his seat across from them. “But you’re right—that does tell me it takes a relatively large amount of magical power to overcome even this little thing’s anti-magic properties.”
Ward donned gloves—Stone found it amusing that the two of them always seemed to have at least one pair on them—and picked up the pyramid again, turning it over to examine the bottom. “It seems logical that the holes here are designed to line up with something else. But you don’t know what that is, Stone?”
“No idea. I’ve got the auction catalog showing the rest of the collection, but a quick scan through didn’t show anything else that looks like it might go with this.”
“Can you send us a copy of that catalog?” Eddie asked.
“Of course.” While his two friends continued studying the pyramid, Stone took out his phone, called up the email with the attachment from Gina, and forwarded it to both of them. “I’m planning to take a more in-depth look later, but I wanted to check in with you two first.”
“Don’t suppose you’re willing to leave it with us for a bit, are you?”
“Probably best if I don’t. One person was already almost killed over it. Even though I doubt anyone could track it here, I don’t want to take the chance.”
“I was afraid you’d say that. ’Ang on, then—let me snap a few photos of it. There’s something about it that looks familiar, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“I thought the same thing.” Stone leaned in to look at it in Ward’s hand. “But I thought you were the one with the photographic memory.”
“I am, but it’s not foolproof. Sometimes it takes a bit o’ time for things to come back to me. In the mean
time, anything else you want us to look into?”
“Yes. I found out from the auction catalog that Drummond bought this from the collection of a man named Leander McGrath, who died in the middle Sixties. Have you ever heard of him?”
Eddie and Ward exchanged glances.
“Not sure…” Eddie said. He jumped up from the sofa. “Sounds a bit familiar, though. Give me a few minutes—I want to check something in the library.” Before either of the other two could reply, he dashed off.
Ward was still studying the pyramid. “What interests me about this thing,” he said slowly, as if deep in thought, “is that you said it could literally destroy weak magical items?”
“Not destroy them. De-power them, is probably the better word. I wouldn’t put it near any magical documents.”
“Even so, that means it’s got a lot of power all by itself. It makes me wonder if whatever the other object is—the one you think it might fit together with—would make it even more powerful.”
“Interesting thought. You mean like some kind of amplifier?”
“Just a speculation.” He put it back on the table.
“Do you have any idea why it has these properties?” Stone was tempted to pick it up again, but he didn’t have gloves so he settled for staring at it. “Part of me wants to crack it open and see what’s inside, but I’m not ready to do that yet.”
“Could be something inside,” Ward agreed, nodding. “It could also be something in the composition of the item itself, or the figures etched into the sides.” He sighed. “It’s really sort of a chicken-and-egg problem, isn’t it? If it’s magical, it should be detectable as such. And if it’s not magical, it shouldn’t be able to do what it’s doing.”
“That’s why I brought it to you two. You’re the best I know at twisting your brains around into all sorts of mad patterns.”
“Thank you…I think.”
Eddie bounded back into the room, now carrying a leather-covered book. “’Ere we go,” he said triumphantly, slapping it down on the table. “I knew I’d ’eard that name before.” He opened the book to a page he’d marked and turned it so Stone and Ward could read it.
