He nodded. “You can’t touch the items, but you can press your nose against the glass if you wish. Most witches shy away from that case for some reason.” I didn’t miss the hint of curiosity in his voice, but I still couldn’t resist the pull of the relics.
The faint traces of magic that rolled off the items would be jarring to anyone who had grown up in Rome and never felt the stronger currents of magic that existed everywhere else. I was amazed there was any tingle to them at all, but something in that case had almost called to me. I peered at carved stones displayed behind the glass, translating the tiny labels that someone had made with a very old typewriter. My ability to read Italian was much better than my ability to translate it on the fly as someone spoke.
The artifacts were from the territories that encompassed the Eastern Roman Empire, including Mesopotamia, Syria, Anatolia, and Constantinople. I looked at the symbols and noticed a serpent shape that was similar to the one on the rock I’d found in the catacombs. Another symbol also caught my eye, and I felt a rush of excitement. I recognized the Vergina Star as a solar symbol used in Greece and Macedonia during ancient times. If I could figure out how the two symbols were connected, I might not only solve the problem of the jinn, but I might have a clue about the suppressed magic in Rome.
I turned to Antonio with a small smile of shame on my face. “I’m sorry. I’m an archaeologist like my grandfather.” I shrugged. I slid back onto the bench and looked chagrined. “That’s not really why I’m here at the moment, so I’d better get back to work.”
Antonio smiled. “You may come back anytime and look at our collection. We have many items that were gathered from the far corners of the Empire. The library has amassed quite an interesting collection through the years.” He pushed the lever again, and we whirred off down the stacks.
“Who finds the items in these collections?” I asked.
“There is a small network of our kind who keep the magical items out of collections in museums and such.”
“‘And such’ meaning private collections?”
“At times.”
“So, they’re stolen?” I asked, feeling protective of the relics.
Antonio laughed. “Each case we have is considered a special collection, maintained by a non-magical museum or educational institution. It is not safe to have such items in the mainstream, so various libraries serve to house the collections. This library is one of two such facilities in Rome. Private collectors sometimes also seek to keep their most valuable pieces here because we are equipped to protect the items.”
My mind was spinning with that information. I thought of all of the magical people who must work for large museums to ferret out the magical items and make sure those items get sent to special collections.
“So if you wanted to hijack magical relics, you could just knock off one of these libraries?” I asked.
Antonio gave me a bland look. “So far, nobody has survived an attempted heist.”
That was a whole other side to archaeology that I’d been oblivious to, but inside me, excitement rose like lava in a volcano. I made a mental note to gather more information on that specialty when I got back home - in case my current gig ended in a catastrophic collapse of my ancient and obsolete organization. Keeping my options open seemed like an excellent idea.
Antonio sat in the cart or wandered around, reshelving old texts while I flipped through dusty tomes piecing together my theory of the whole magical mess. After a few hours of pouring over manuscripts on jinn lore, I had garnered enough information to fit more of the puzzle together. It wasn’t leaving me with a happy feeling, though.
The jinn problem was way more complex than La Gilda led me to believe, and the mystery of the magic was an even bigger thorn in my paw. I turned to Antonio as he reshelved one of the books I’d looked through and thanked him for his time.
He took off his white cotton gloves and stored them in his jacket pocket. I tried to hand him the gloves I’d been using, but he waved them away, and I tucked them back in my pocket.
We talked about restaurants and Rome on the ride back, and I watched the cases slide by with a pang of regret. I would have loved to have been turned loose in that archive to explore all of the ancient artifacts, and I felt a tingle of excitement that I might have found a way to use my archaeology skills on a more consistent basis once I could turn the C.C.O over to the rightful leaders.
“If I can come back before I leave Rome, may I bring someone with me? A human?” I asked Antonio.
“There are no restrictions, Dr. Cerasola, but humans generally do not wish to have dangerous knowledge.”
I grinned. The human I had in mind had no such aversion.
Chapter 12
Back on the street, I ducked into an alley and opened the top of the bag. Ka’Tehm blinked up at me, looking sleepy.
“Are you okay?” I whispered.
He yawned and blinked at me, shedding blue sparkles into the air.
“We have a fire to put out, but then we need to consider the larger picture. If I’m right, this is way bigger than La Gilda wants me to believe.” I said, shouldering the pack again. The closer I got to figuring out the jinn mystery, the more the pieces of the puzzle didn't fit so neatly.
When we passed a trash can, I dropped the cotton gloves inside in case Antonio had a tracking spell on them. Although he’d done his best to try and explain the reason I was wary of him, Antonio might also turn out to be yet another person in Rome who wasn’t exactly being honest with me. My suspicious nature had always served me well in the past, and there was no way I was going to take any chances I didn’t have to.
I walked by the front of the church, noted the continued presence of the firemen, and turned down the street to the metal gate that led around the back of the building. I ducked inside and waited in the shadows to see if anyone followed me. After a few long moments of listening to my own heartbeat and halting breaths, I snuck into the further recesses of the courtyard, forgetting to stroll like I belonged there.
The height of the building cut off the light from the streetlamps so I was concealed in deep shadows, but the ambient glow provided just enough light to let me see the small door that was set into an alcove in the far corner of the courtyard. I headed toward that little door and pressed my hand against the ancient wooden surface. I could feel the pulse of earth energy that lingered in the once living tree.
I pulled an unlock spell out of my pocket and blew the fine powder into the keyhole. I pulled on the current of energy from the wood, drawing it toward the iron lock that looked rusted from disuse. I pushed the power toward the metal and heard it click after only two attempts. I allowed myself a victorious hiss as the door creaked open slowly on rusted hinges. I slipped inside, still savoring the fact that I’d shaved five attempts off my lock picking record thanks to Kai’s spell and a little practice with the wonky currents.
I crept into a small room and found rickety stairs that led down to a root cellar beneath the rectory. I descended into the dampness and wound my way through narrow corridors, navigating by the light from my small tactical flashlight. A second set of stairs cut back in the direction of the church, and I followed my instincts. The temperature dropped as we descended into the crypts beneath the basilica, and I shivered.
The air was musty, and the high moisture level left my skin clammy. The narrow corridor opened into a large room with high, barrel-vaulted ceilings supported by ancient brick walls.
The bricks on the floor were set into a herringbone pattern that was worn relatively smooth in the center of the space, but graduated to a rougher texture along the perimeter. The air was chilly and the pulse of energy from the earth was more substantial than I would have expected beneath the city, considering the issues I’d been having with my own magic.
Inset into niches that lined the walls were ancient oil lamps. I bent and laid my hand on the bricks, feeling for the presence of any other beings in the darkness. I was relieved that there were no other e
nergies in the crypt; I didn’t want to run into Paolina Serafini or anyone else until I had a clearer understanding of who was a friend and who was a foe.
I took a deep breath to center myself, exhaling a faint plume of frost. I shivered and tuned into the energy currents that swirled beneath me. I teased them apart trying to find a path to follow that would lead me to the source of the flames. I walked forward, giving myself over to the soft pull of magic and trying not to focus on how broken it felt. I was so involved in concentrating that I must have closed my eyes.
I heard a distant rumble, and my senses seemed to blink off as my eyes snapped open. A void of darkness that had nothing to do with my vision engulfed me.
I tilted sideways and caught myself on a rough wall, dropping my flashlight and watching the circle of light dance along the bricks as it rolled away from me. I thought I was suffocating until I heard myself drawing loud, ragged breaths, and dizziness swept over me. I stumbled backward, and I felt Ka’Tehm vanish from the pack a fraction of a second before my shoulder smacked into the rough bricks. Panic shot through me, and I whirled around, trying to find my blue companion in the underground world that felt terrifying and deathly silent.
A magical blackout. I thought to myself as I frantically looked around for the blue beaver. I dropped to my knees and scrambled after my flashlight, feeling fainter and more drained as the seconds ticked by. Something wet brushed the back of my neck, and I whirled around. A pale blue shimmer darted toward me, and a cold, damp thread brushed against my forehead. I knew it was Ka’Tehm, but I couldn’t see him or feel him like I usually did.
I forced myself to take a sobbing breath, panic clawing behind my collarbone. “Are you hurt?” I rasped into the void.
Again, a wet thread pushed against my forehead, and I whispered desperately. “Once for yes, twice for no.”
All at once, the currents surged, and I swayed from the flood of sickly energy that slammed into me. My companion’s paw, still on my forehead, brightened with the surge, bringing him back to his shimmery blue form. I trailed my fingers through his fur and bit my lip to keep myself from crying.
Thin, brittle magic flooded my circuits and the lightheadedness vanished, leaving a slamming headache that thumped along with my racing heartbeat. After a moment, my heart rate slowed, my breathing became less ragged, and I felt my chest heave with relief as the pain behind my eyes subsided a bit. With a sobbing sigh, I forced the last wave of panic out of my body as I flopped over on my behind and drew my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around my shins.
I felt Ka’Tehm atop my head as if I were wearing him like a hat. I reached my hand up and stroked through the cool, watery magic of his fur. I’d never realized how much magic sparked through my synapses, how much the power seemed to pump through my veins until it was gone. When it had surged back on, I noticed something about the magic that I hadn’t realized before.
Ka’Tehm floated from my head to bring himself level with my eyes. His expression was serene yet expectant. My voice was a whisper as I stroked my fingers through his magical blue fur. “There’s a strange current here, something that doesn’t belong in Rome. Can you feel it, too?” I asked.
He seemed to consider my question for a moment before giving me a single blink.
I laid my palm on the ground and tried to isolate the strange current again, crawling forward and feeling it buzz around in my head like static from an out-of-tune radio station. I ignored the pressure behind my eyes, and followed that current toward the front of the church.
The thread disappeared under a wall, and I had to walk around the next corridor for a few minutes before I picked it up again. While trying to tease the strands apart, I inadvertently disrupted the cushion of air beneath the foreign current. When the magic made contact with my skin, the headache ripped through my temples, and I made a hissing noise as the pressure hit full force. My magic rose to meet the current and the buzzing receded.
From out of the darkness, Ka’Tehm floated down, placing his cool front paws on my temples again. His water magic damped the effect and calmed my senses.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “Is this as dangerous as it feels?” I asked, suddenly wishing I had more back up than just the blue beaver. Then again, he was made of magic, yet he’d survived the magical blackout - how he’d done that was a complete mystery.
Ka’Tehm’s head tilted to the side, and his silvery eyes seemed to focus on the air around me. He blinked twice and floated away from me, diving toward the floor like he was searching for the current himself. If he wasn’t worried, I sure shouldn’t be.
I concentrated, but I had no idea how to isolate that one thread that didn’t belong. It was like trying to trace one fiber of wool through a crochet afghan, following every twist and turn while ignoring all of the other threads surrounding it. It took me forever, but finally, I connected with the prickly magic and managed to isolate it. The single strand of power seemed hot and dry once I’d stripped the others away.
“This one.” I whispered to Ka’Tehm, and we followed it through the tunnels until it disappeared beneath another wall.
“For Pete’s sake!” I hissed, as I faced the bricks. Ka’Tehm hovered in front of me, looking expectant.
He held out a blue paw. I looked at his tiny foot and the faint glow of the current in my own palm. I shrugged and placed the current on his paw. Ka’Tehm vanished into the wall without a second’s hesitation. My heart hammered at the sight of him disappearing again, and I ran around the wall and took the next left, meeting him again in another side chamber. We kept following the thread until I found my partner hovering above a spot where the magic zoomed into the ceiling directly above our heads. I guessed it was the spot where the purple flames still burned above the marble that lined the church’s aisles.
I flipped through the packets of spells that Kai had left for me, trying to figure out the cause of the purple flames. Kai had a habit of listing all of his ingredients, probably because he wanted me to learn something without explicitly teaching me. I looked at the listed ingredients, and the thought bubbled to the surface of my mind. “Calcium?” I asked Ka’Tehm.
He gave me a long and confused look. I wasn’t sure that mattered, either, but I figured it was best to account for all possible variables when messing with power I didn’t understand.
I examined the walls and the mortar between the bricks. The Romans used limestone for mortar, and that should contain a considerable amount of calcium. I pulled the thread of energy down from the ceiling and felt the icky current zing through me. It was an unpleasant sensation like a million bees had been let loose inside my skin. I wove as thick a sheath of earth energy as I could muster around the thin strand to give myself something I was more familiar with controlling and sighed with relief when the buzzing stopped.
The calcium in the mortar would give the flames the purple color, but I didn’t know any other reason that element would be significant. Ka’Tehm moved his front paws in a way that looked like he was brushing something away and looking at me with a serious expression. I got his point.
Like I had in the hotel room, I formed the wedge shape of earth magic and cut through the foreign magic. I was about to celebrate when the loose end from the wall whipped back and lashed my hand, sinking into my skin.
My body went rigid, and magic zipped through me like liquid fire traveling along my nerve endings. My own earth born magic rose in a rush of green light and blocked the current, causing my arm to glow with a pale green light.
I watched in horror as the two powers locked in a battle that felt like a swarm of angry bees had been trapped in a thunderstorm which raged beneath my flesh. A piercing pain gripped my temples and my eyes squeezed shut reflexively. I’m pretty sure I made pathetic whimpering noises between gasps of pain. My muscles went slack, and nausea rolled through me even as my own magic magnified against the onslaught.
I was pulling power from the earth at levels I had never felt before, and it was dumping in
to every atom inside me. There was no way that was a good idea, but I couldn’t let the other current swamp me, either.
My knees banged against the dirt floor as I focused on my earth elemental power, trying to drive out the searing hot current and trusting my own magic more than the one that I couldn’t identify. I struggled to breathe as the foreign energy that made it past my barrier continued to sear a path through my body. It tightened my muscles to the point of spasms, and I could feel it working its way toward my elbow. The pain was excruciating. My fingers had begun to curl, and my wrist was twisting my palm toward the inside of my arm.
I pushed back with every ounce of earth power I could grab, and the purple thread surged as if I was just making it angry by resisting. The tendon that led from my forefinger into my wrist was stretched like a guitar string, so I couldn’t stop.
My hand twisted further into an unnatural shape from a muscle cramp, and I knew that if I let that current blast through my channels, the rest of my body would convulse the same way. I wove a ball of earth energy with my other hand, grabbing fistfuls of power from the ground beneath me, and slammed the glowing green ball onto my forearm to block the current.
I felt the strange current retreat just a little bit, but a tiny bit still seeped around the edge of my barrier.
As that bit of current traveled through my body, I could feel a numbness settle in behind the intense pain. I remembered what Kai had once said about my magic: I circulated it. I’d never tried to do it before, but I was out of options.
Grabbing more power from the ground beneath me, I cycled it through my body, pushing at the purple thread and the specks of foreign magic that had escaped my barrier. I needed to get it all out before it connected with Kai’s little ball of magic and made a bad situation worse. I concentrated on circulating the earth’s magic, driven more by panic than reason. I flooded my body with as much energy as I could find and felt the stinging magic retreat toward my hand. That thread felt like it had reverse barbs that caught and ripped through my own channels as I forced it back out, but that pain wasn’t any worse than the stretching tendons in my forearm and wrist.
Resistant Magic (Relic Hunter Book 5) Page 11
