A short, bald guy who looked like he was a hundred years old sat in one of the chairs. He reminded me of the man who used to run a Night-and-Day Mart back in Portland. Ghaz had been his name. He’d been from Central Asia. This man had the same features, but looked more like a hawk with those eyes. He had a goatee.
There was a woman next to him, olive-skinned, in a high-collared blue silk dress. Her black hair hung loose from beneath a round blue cap. The cap had what looked like stars embroidered on it in silver thread.
“Thank you, Yuri,” the ancient guy said.
“Come forward,” he said to us. His gaze bored into me.
Alex and I took a few steps toward him. My legs felt like rubber, and I dug my palm into my thigh to make the trembling stop. Couldn’t let fear run me, especially not now.
Men stood quietly behind Bey and the woman, as well as along the walls. They held what looked like stunners. Yuri stood behind us, a stunner in his hand. Where the hell had that come from?
The ancient guy leaned forward, stroked his goatee. “Breaking into the house of a friend isn’t the act of a friend.” His face was grim.
I tensed, began to send my power into the potted palms, stopped. A friend?
The corners of Alex’s mouth turned up into the beginnings of a smile. “Long time, no see.”
Bey glared menacingly at us for a moment longer, then an ear-to-ear grin broke out on that weather-beaten face. “Alexander! So good to see you again!” He motioned at his men. “Chairs, please.”
The door guards brought over low wooden chairs for us to sit in.
I scowled at Alex. “You two know each other?”
Bey put a hand on his chest. “I can’t believe you kept her in the dark about our friendship, Alexander! After everything we’ve been through together.”
I glared at Alex, and Bey laughed.
Alex looked uncomfortable. “I wasn’t sure you’d still be Bey.”
“What do you mean, still be Bey?” I asked.
“He means my name is also my title. I’ve been running this organization for many years, but I am only the latest Bey. When I die, there will be a new leader named Bey.”
“But why did you think someone else might be in charge?” I asked Alex. I wasn’t about to forgive him for not telling me about his personal connection to Bey, but I still wanted to know.
Alex hesitated.
Bey jumped in. “I suspect because my friend was worried my time would have passed.”
I must have looked confused.
“I am old, young lady. Very old. It’s not unreasonable to wonder if I’ve died.”
“Not yet, Bey,” Alex said. “There’s still a lot of life in you.”
“But you couldn’t be sure I still lived.” Bey cocked his head and grinned at me. “Besides, Alexander likes to surprise as much as the next man.” He gestured at a sideboard where there were plates piled with fruit and nuts. “Please, would you like almonds and dates?”
I nodded.
Alex grinned at me. “She’s thoroughly sick of protein bars.”
“You’re already in hot water for keeping your connection a secret,” I said, “don’t make me turn it up to scalding.”
Bey threw his head back, laughing hard, revealing a mouth of gold-capped teeth.
A man brought us plates. I wolfed down the almonds and dates.
“More?” Bey asked. Alex had nibbled on his.
I nodded, not caring if I looked like a pig, and wolfed down more. They offered me milk, but I stuck to water.
Bey gave Alex a stern look. “Now, my friend, you’ve been remiss. Who is your companion?”
“Sorry, Bey,” Alex said. He gave me a little half bow. “This is Mathilda Brandt.”
“Ah, yes, once called Vine. We’ve heard of you,” Bey said. “Mighty in battle. The name suits you.”
“I’m not called Vine anymore,” I said.
“That’s not the name I mean.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”
“Your name, Mathilda, it means one who is mighty in battle. We’ve heard of you and your exploits.”
“You have?” I asked. That seemed pretty unlikely. “How?”
“How could we not? You are the young woman who defeated Kai Jones, AKA Mutter, and saved the city of Seattle. The same young woman who rose to a position of prominence afterwards in the Scourge and went on to destroy Emerald Green. Support believes you died in the destruction. I’m very glad to see you survived.”
“You’re well informed,” I blurted.
“I’ve lived for more than a century precisely because I am informed, and use that information in conjunction with my gift.” He grew serious. “I was one of the first in our so-called modern age to become Empowered. I knew James Goldin, who the world once called Doctor Prometheus.” He looked sad. “His death was a blow.” Bey’s face took on a faraway look for a moment. Then he smiled. “Forgive a very old man, Mathilda Brandt. The past is gone, and the future is yet to be. All any of us has is the present.”
He nodded at Alex. “My organization deals in many things. Things deemed contraband by the powers-that-be, helping the hunted find a new home, providing information and local aid to certain covert activities our mutual friend’s agency is engaged in.”
“You mean, Support? But aren’t they in bed with the Shah and SAVAK?”
Bey chuckled at my words. “Nicely said, Mathilda. In a real sense, yes. But there are factions within factions inside of Support, the Shah’s government, and his security forces. Some would pay handsomely for my head. Perhaps I flatter myself, but others within the same groups would pay perhaps slightly less generously to keep this ancient head on me.”
“He’s right, Mat,” Alex said.
“This is whacked,” I muttered.
Alex shrugged. “That’s how it is.”
I yawned suddenly. “Sorry,” I said.
“No need to apologize, Mathilda. You’ve had a long journey,” Bey said, glancing at the beautiful woman beside him.
The woman smiled. “The road you took to get here weighs heavily on you,” the woman said. She was stunningly beautiful. She had the kind of gorgeous black hair that I’d kill for. Longer than mine, it practically glowed.
“This is Surrell,” Bey said.
She nodded at me. My skin was still tingling hot. She had to be Empowered as well.
Her large eyes felt like they would swallow us up, that there was no way I could hide anything from them. There were no telepaths, no mind readers. Everyone knew that. It was the one power no one possessed.
Thank God for that.
But it felt like she was reading my mind. Felt like she was looking into my soul.
I twisted my hands in my lap, glanced down at them, stopped.
“Apologies if I make you uncomfortable, sister.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“Sister in that we both possess the gifted talent,” she said with a slight smile.
“You mean, Empowered.”
“That is what the world calls it, what people believe it is. But it’s a gift. A gift granted us.”
I looked away.
“I see you feel it is a curse,” she said. “That speaks well of your heart.”
“It’s been a curse for me,” I said.
“You were stuck in a very bad position,” Bey said. “Given two choices, neither of which you liked.”
“How do you know all this?” I couldn’t believe he had all this information on me.
He tapped his nose and winked. He turned to Alex. “So, Alexander, what brings you to my part of the world?”
“We need a location,” Alex said.
Bey nodded. “The place known as Sanctuary.”
I blinked. “How do you know that?”
“Some of it was putting two and two together.” He nodded at Surrell. “Also, she saw.”
A cold feeling filled my stomach. “Saw? What does that mean? You mean you saw through someone else’s eyes?”
If Surrell was a peeper, she’d need to be in line-of-sight of someone else, to use their eyes.
“I have visions of other gifted,” Surrell said. Her voice was quiet. She sat erect, perched on the edge of the seat, legs crossed.
“Visions?”
She nodded. “For instance, I saw you take the Earth road here.”
“Earth road? I’m not sure what we took, because…” I trailed off. How could would I explain it? There was just no way to put it into words, really. The whole thing was like a drug trip. I had started to think Alex and I had been knocked out somehow, and had a shared hallucination.
Bey leaned forward, resting his chin on his clasped hands, his arms propped up on his legs. “The Dark-Net is real, Mathilda Brandt. Part of the larger reality.”
“You mean some sort of freaky fairy road?”
He snorted. “That is an apt way of putting it,” he said. “Yes.”
“Well, then what’s really going on?” I glanced at Alex, who looked as puzzled as me.
“The Dark-Net has existed for ages untold. But James Goldin harnessed it.”
“Why? And why doesn’t everyone know about this?” I asked.
“Because the Dark-Net is only visible to a few.”
“Why?” I asked.
Bey shrugged. “Alas, that I do not know. But that it how it is.”
Well, it didn’t change what we needed. “So, you can tell us exactly where Sanctuary is, and how to get inside?”
He leaned back in his chair, shook his head. “Yes, Mathilda Brandt. But, you’ll need to see yourself.”
I squinted. “What do you mean, ‘see yourself’?”
Bey didn’t blink. “You need to see yourself,” he repeated.
“Do you mean ‘see for myself’?” I asked.
“No.”
This wasn’t making sense. I shot Alex a look. He shrugged.
Damn, Alex was no help. “I still don’t get it,” I complained. “I don’t know how to see myself.” I didn’t even know what that meant.
Surrell tilted her head. “I know this must be difficult.”
“Yeah, you could say that,” I groused.
“It’s something that you must be able to perceive in your mind,” she said.
I sighed. “How, though?” and then frowned. “What’s the price?”
“We’ll freely tell you,” Surrell said. “But first, you need to see. Then, you must come to understand that you will be tested in Sanctuary.”
“Tested?”
She nodded. “It is the nature of a place of power.”
Place of power? “I’m just trying to bring my sister home,” I said.
“I know you think that is what you are doing, but this is about much more.”
I was always dealing with crazy people. Some were more obviously crazy than others, like Mutter; some seemed reasonable and normal until they suddenly went batshit insane, like Nefarious and Ashula. Then there were the kind you couldn’t tell, like Zhukova, they were just super intense. Bey and Surrell didn’t seem crazy at all, which made what they said even weirder.
“We should have just tried to find the entrance ourselves,” I told Alex. I stood up, knocking the chair backwards. “Let’s go do that.”
Surrell raised a hand. “Please, there’s no reason for this.”
“You need to see before you can enter,” Bey said. “It’s hidden in many ways. After all, how else could it remain hidden for so long? A place of power and lore, hidden from the world for thousands of years, in the middle of a desert.”
“If it’s that well-hidden, how did the Fellowship find it?” I asked.
“They didn’t,” Surrell said. “It found them.”
These two were rapidly going from being hard-to-tell-what-kind-of-crazy to full on batshit nuts.
“That’s… really hard to believe,” I said.
“This is why we can’t tell you what you want,” Bey said. “Your mind would understandably reject it. You need to see. And we have a test of our own that will let you see.”
Surrell reached into her dress pocket and held out a little leather bag, tied with a green ribbon. “You must swallow what’s inside this after the test. It will bring you understanding.”
More craziness. I was supposed to swallow God-only-knew-what after an unknown test, just because she said so? No, thanks.
“It isn’t necessary to decide that now,” Bey said. “Decide after the test.”
All right, I could play along with that. “Okay, I will. Now can we have the information on finding the entrance?”
“We need you to do something for us, first,” Bey said. “Please.”
“I thought you said there was no cost.”
“This is an exchange,” he replied.
I nodded. If this exchange led to me and Alex getting Ella out, I was fine with whatever it was.
Surrell got up and went to a little table where there was a tray with legs holding a pot filled with dirt. She brought the tray over, placed it on the floor in front of me.
“We would like you to grow the root within into a bush.”
“That’s the test?”
Bey chuckled. “That’s it, Mathilda Brandt.”
That was pretty straightforward. Of course, if it were something illegal… I dropped the thought. That didn’t matter at this point. I just wanted to get into Sanctuary.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I stretched out my power into the dirt, seeking the root buried there. I found it, an old, gnarled thing, like a stone. It made no sound. I tried reaching into the root. But my power kept sliding off it.
I pressed harder. It was like trying to push my power into granite. I leaned back, gasping. My chest hurt from the effort.
“That’s not a plant,” I said.
“It is,” Bey replied.
“But there’s no life there.”
“It is locked inside.”
I closed my eyes, tried again, pressing until my temples screamed with a pounding headache. I tasted copper in my mouth. Opened my eyes and fingered my lip. I’d bitten it.
“Please do not injure yourself,” Surrell said, her brows drew together in concern.
“Too late,” I muttered, then regretted it. I had chosen to do this.
“I’m sorry,” Bey said.
“I couldn’t do it.” I winced. A jackhammer banged away at my temples.
“It would have been remarkable if you could have,” Bey said.
I frowned. “Then, what was the point?”
“To see if you could. As we said, it was a test. A very difficult test. But one that prepares you.”
“What is that root?”
“It belongs to an ancient tree, hundreds of thousands of years old,” Bey said. “The tree is long gone, for many centuries, but the root remains.”
“Who cares about a musty old dead root? The thing’s probably fossilized. That would explain why I couldn’t reach it.”
“No, it’s not a fossil,” Surrell said suddenly sounding like she was talking to an idiot child. “But it is dormant.”
Alex watched the whole back and forth without saying a word. “What do you think of this?” I demanded.
He shrugged. “I’m not Empowered.”
I ground my teeth. “But you were the one who said we should come here. Now it’s a madhouse.”
Bey grew more serious. “It’s not just any old root, Mathilda Brandt. It’s a key to the mystery of where our powers, as you call them, come from.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because nothing can affect it. We’ve had finders attempt to read it. Nothing. We’ve had fire creators attempt to singe it. Nothing. The same for any attempt at using any of the powers, the gifts, on it.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“No, it doesn’t, but it doesn’t change the fact that we can’t seem to affect it.”
“But you can cut it with a knife, or can’t you?”
He nodded. “We have scored the o
utside with a knife edge, made a very small mark. The root resists our powers. The question of course is, why, rather than how.”
He paused. “We’d hoped you would be able to affect it, because of your own burgeoning power, and the way your gift is developing.”
The word developing made me shiver. The sound of that was creepy for some reason. “I never asked for my power,” I said.
“No one who receives it truly does. Certainly there are those who crave the gift, but they are never answered.”
I rubbed my temples. They hurt like hell.
“So, what’s the deal now?” I asked. I pointed at the little bag in Surrell’s hand.
Bey nodded. “You must swallow what is in that bag, now that you have prepared by taking this test.”
Surrell undid the pouch strings, and reached inside, plucking something out, and showing it to me. Another root. This one was a dried, purplish-green little thing. I sent my sense into it, and felt it waiting. Waiting. There was no other word for it.
“You want me to swallow that?” It was small, but not so small that I might not choke on it.
Bey slapped his thigh, and grinned. “Certainly you may chew it first, Mathilda Brandt. He snapped his fingers, and Yuri went to the sideboard, and brought back a bottle of some dark glass. Yuri uncorked it.
“Drink this,” Bey said, “when you have chewed the root. The drink will help you swallow.”
“What is it?”
“A wine of a very special vintage,” he said.
I wasn’t a big wine drinker anymore, but whatever. I took the root from Surrell’s fingers. I lifted it, and as I did, it whispered a vision to me. A dark space calling. Another damn cave somewhere.
I held the root inches from my open mouth, hesitated. The root smelled like wet grass and old Earth. My nose wrinkled.
Well, at least I had the wine to wash it down with. Screw it. I popped the root into my mouth, bit down. It was like chewing on grass, and dandelion and rutabaga, with a side of dirt. I snatched the wine bottle from Yuri, and took a big swig.
The wine was sweet in my mouth. I swallowed, took another swig.
The room spun. That was fast acting wine, I thought and swayed. Alex jumped up to steady me, but I fell before he could reach me, and fell into darkness.
A vision lit the darkness. A cave filled with a forest of glittering, crystalline waterfalls. The cave’s walls were covered with a carpet of golden moss that sang power to me. The largest crystalline waterfall, at the center of the cave, had a figure inside. A woman, tall, with dark hair. I could barely see her face, but it looked familiar.
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