Burning Lamp

by Amanda Quick

  Lodge raised the ruby stone, aiming it at the lamp as though it were a weapon. Adelaide sensed the surge of his energy field and knew that he was focusing all of his talent on the artifact.

  There was a moment of tense silence.

  Nothing happened.

  “I require more power,” Lodge announced, disgruntled. “I do not want to waste too much of my own energy in firing up the device. I will need my strength later.” He signaled to one of the enforcers. “You. Come here. Touch the lamp and use your crystal to focus all of your talent on it.”

  “Yes, sir.” The man hurried forward, eager to be part of the grand experiment. He put one hand on the lamp and took a crystal out of his pocket.

  “Now,” Lodge ordered.

  Dreamlight swirled violently in the artifact. The lamp glowed palely and then ignited with a flash of paranormal lightning. Currents of raw power sizzled across Adelaide’s senses. The lamp quickly became translucent and then fully transparent. Energy exploded in the atmosphere.

  It all happened so quickly that Lodge and the enforcer were caught off guard.

  The enforcer screamed and reeled back at the first shock. He crumpled to the floor, unconscious. His red crystal flared high and then went abruptly dark.

  But Lodge managed to cling to the lamp, his fingers clenched around the glowing rim. His lips were drawn back in a death’s-head grin. The red crystal in his hand blazed wildly.

  The dark shadows in the corner of the schoolroom took on shape and substance. Griffin appeared. He walked toward the desk where Lodge and Adelaide stood gripping the artifact.

  “Did you really think that you could control the lamp, Samuel Lodge?” he asked.

  Lodge stared at him, a savage, desperate expression heating his eyes. “I am controlling it. You aren’t even touching it. The lamp is responding to my power, not yours.”

  “I don’t need to touch the artifact in order to access its energy,” Griffin said. “Not when I am this close to it and there is a dreamlight reader to steady the currents. I am a Winters. The lamp is mine to command.”

  “No.” Lodge’s shriek of fury and defiance reverberated off the walls.

  Lightning crackled in the atmosphere. More energy swirled through the room, lifting tendrils of Adelaide’s hair. She was in the pattern now, riding the heavy currents of power. All but one of the stones set in the rim of the artifact blazed, creating a senses-dazzling rainbow.

  She knew the instant that Griffin accessed the third level of power. She had no notion what kind of talent he was about to unleash but she knew that together they could control the artifact. That was the only thing that mattered.

  Lodge clung to the lamp, his knuckles bloodless. His warped dreamprints were growing more disturbed by the second. The red crystal he had been clutching flared out and went dark. But in the next instant, he pulled another one from his coat pocket. A fresh tide of energy spilled into the atmosphere.

  She realized that Lodge was struggling to project his killing talent at Griffin. She almost laughed at the absurdity of the attempt.

  Lodge abandoned the effort.

  “Kill him,” he shouted to the two remaining enforcers. “Do it now. Then kill all of the whores and The Widow, as well.”

  The two enforcers leaped forward, their crystals glowing hot in their hands.

  The spears of light cast by the Burning Lamp intensified briefly. Griffin was reaching for more power. Adelaide fought to hold the center of the storm.

  Fleeting specters of terrible nightmares pulsed in the darkness inside the lamp. A high, shrill scream echoed through the schoolroom.

  Adelaide risked a glance at the hostages. The women sat, frozen, on their chairs. But the two enforcers who had been charging Griffin were sprawled on the floorboards, unconscious, their crystals opaque and lifeless.

  Lodge panicked. He tried to free his fingers from the lamp but it was soon evident that he could not let go of the artifact.

  “This is all your fault,” he screamed at Adelaide. “The legend is true. Dreamlight talents are all whores and cheats who cannot be trusted.”

  He aimed the ruby crystal at her. A wave of ice-cold energy slammed across her senses but she kept her grip on the lamp’s currents. She could not let go. Her intuition told her that if the energy in the artifact escaped her control everyone in the room, including Griffin and the hostages would die. She had to hold on.

  The killing cold ceased abruptly. Adelaide heard another shrill, howling cry of despair as Lodge arched in mortal agony. In the next heartbeat he collapsed on the floor. His dreamlight energy winked out of existence.

  A few seconds later the howling power inside the Burning Lamp abated. The fiery glow faded. The rainbow disappeared. The artifact became solid metal once more.

  A hushed silence descended. For a timeless moment, no one moved.

  Then one of the young women in the first row of chairs spoke up.

  “I told you The Widow would find a way to save us,” Irene Brinks said.

  55

  THAT EVENING ADELAIDE SAT WITH GRIFFIN IN THE LIBRARY at the Abbey. The bookshelves were empty. Mrs. Trevelyan and the men had finished packing and crating the volumes in preparation for the move to America.

  The Burning Lamp stood, dark and ominous once more, on a small end table. Griffin had let it be known that he did not intend to trust it to the cargo hold of the steamship. He would carry it on board.

  “How did you know what you could do with the artifact when the time came?” Adelaide asked.

  “I’ve been able to sense the latent power in the lamp all along,” Griffin said. “But I did not know how to employ it until today when I was confronted with the necessity of using it. There was no other way to deal with three psychically enhanced enforcers and Samuel Lodge at the same time, not when they were all armed with those ruby crystals. I would have exhausted my own talent trying to take down just one or two of them.”

  “Your Winters intuition guided you,” Adelaide said. “I thought that would be the case.”

  Griffin got to his feet and went to the table where the lamp stood. He examined the artifact for a long moment.

  “It is a weapon, Adelaide,” he said eventually. “It not only greatly magnified my talent, but it also allowed me to focus it so that I was able to use it against a number of men at the same time. I could have killed all of them and several more besides had I been of a mind to do so. I was able to control the energy of the device with your assistance but had that not been the case—” He broke off abruptly.

  “If the lamp had burned out of control no one in that room would have survived,” she said.

  “No,” he agreed. “What is more, even after the experience today, I still do not know the full extent of what the lamp is capable of doing. I accessed only a portion of its power to do what I did.”

  She sipped some brandy. “That is a chilling thought. There is something else, as well. The Midnight Crystal did not illuminate today. I know we have concluded that it may not contain any energy but given what did occur, we might want to reconsider that theory.”

  Griffin touched the crystal that had failed to ignite. “I think it would be best to assume that everything about this device is very, very dangerous.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “In other words, the Joneses are right to be concerned.”

  “Unfortunately, yes.”

  She looked at him. “You said you could have killed all of those men today. But in the end the enforcers survived, although their senses appear to be shattered, at least temporarily. I wonder why Lodge is the only one who died? Perhaps it had something to do with the distortion in the pattern of his currents.”

  Griffin said nothing. He drank some brandy and looked at the lamp.

  She took a breath. “I see.”

  “I could not allow him to live, Adelaide. He was too dangerous.”

  “I understand.” She frowned a little. “I’m not sure how much longer he would have survived in any event. Using
the crystals over a long period of time was not only affecting his mind. I believe the damage was physical, as well.”

  Griffin turned to face her. The shadows around him seemed to deepen. “I used all but one of the crystals in the lamp today. What of my senses and my mind? Will I suffer the same fate as Lodge?”

  She shook her head, very certain. “You need not worry. The energy of the lamp and that of the crystals is tuned to you and those who inherit your particular talent. It is that tuning, I believe, that makes all the difference.”

  “So much power,” Griffin said. “And all of it intended only for destruction. What a waste of Nicholas’s intellect and talent.”

  “You said yourself, power is incredibly seductive.”

  The ensuing silence hummed gently.

  After a while Adelaide stirred. “I will write down everything we have discovered about the lamp in a journal. That way if one of our children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren inherits your talent he will have some notion of what to expect. I will leave instructions for the dreamlight reader as well.”

  Griffin put aside his empty glass. He walked to the chair where she sat, reached down and raised her gently to her feet.

  “Our children?” he said. “Grandchildren? Great-grandchildren?”

  “We are going to make a home together, you and I.” She touched the hard planes and angles of his alchemist’s face. “And that means children.”

  “Until I met you, Adelaide Pyne, I had convinced myself that such a future was not to be. Not for me.”

  “And now?”

  “You have saved me from the extremely unpleasant and no doubt rather violent fate that awaited me.” He smiled. “Crime lords rarely die in bed. I believe that anything is possible as long as I have you.”

  They held each other very tightly for a long time.

  56

  THE WEDDING TOOK PLACE IN THE MORNING, AS WAS THE custom. The ceremony was brief, brisk and efficient. Caleb Jones, Delbert, Jed and Leggett acted as Griffin’s groomsmen.

  Lucinda Jones and Mrs. Trevelyan served as Adelaide’s bridal attendants.

  Following the first ceremony there was a second. Several members of the wedding party changed places so that Delbert and Mrs. Trevelyan could be married.

  Afterward everyone piled back into carriages and set off for Caleb and Lucinda’s home, where a traditional wedding breakfast had been set out in lavish style. The table was heavily laden with dishes of cold salmon, lobster salad, eggs, roast chicken, savory pies, fruit tarts, blancmange and a magnificent wedding cake.

  Some time later Griffin stood with Caleb on the front steps of the big house.

  “One thing before you go,” Caleb said.

  Griffin watched Delbert, Jed and Leggett organize the luggage on the roofs of the two heavily laden carriages. Adelaide occupied one vehicle. A radiant Mrs. Trevelyan and the two dogs were visible inside the other. The women were busy exchanging farewells with those who stood around the front steps.

  “You want to know how much of the legend of the lamp is true,” Griffin said.

  “Do you blame me for being curious?” Caleb asked.

  “No. In your place I would also ask questions. But I’m afraid I cannot give you all the answers, Jones.”

  “Cannot or will not?”

  “Cannot.” Griffin did not take his eyes off Adelaide. “I do not have all of them. But I can tell you that some parts of the story are accurate. It takes a man of my bloodline to light the lamp and it requires a powerful dreamlight talent to maintain control of the energy.”

  “And if that energy escapes control?”

  “I don’t know exactly what would happen,” Griffin admitted. “Just as I cannot tell you why one of the crystals remained dark when I used the artifact to rescue the women at the Academy.”

  “The Midnight Crystal?”

  “I think so, yes.”

  “Perhaps it is powerless?”

  “That is certainly one possibility.”

  Caleb was silent for a moment.

  “At the third level of power the lamp becomes a weapon of some sort, doesn’t it?” he asked finally.

  “Yes.”

  “But you are certain that only a man of your bloodline can activate it?”

  “Adelaide assures me that is the case.”

  “Huh,” Caleb said. “Perhaps it would be best to store the artifact at Arcane House. Security is much tighter there now than it was in the old days. Gabe has made that a priority.”

  “The lamp stays in the Winters family.”

  “I thought you would say that,” Caleb said. “Well, it was worth a try. I suppose the Joneses will just have to trust the Winters family to take damn good care of the thing in the future.”

  “We intend to do just that.”

  “What will you do in America?” Caleb asked.

  “I don’t know yet. Whatever it is, it appears that it will likely be an occupation of a somewhat respectable nature.”

  “That’s what you get for marrying a social reformer.”

  “A small price to pay. Fortunately, I have a talent for investments.”

  “Lucinda and I are planning a trip to America later this summer,” Caleb said. “The crossing to New York is about five days. We would want to see something of that city, naturally. Then, of course, there would be the train trip to San Francisco. Another four or five days, I believe. How do you feel about houseguests?”

  Griffin felt oddly stunned. “Houseguests?”

  “Arcane has a small office on the East Coast but Gabe feels it’s past time that we paid attention to the rest of the country, especially the West. He wants me to study the situation there and devise some long-term plans for setting up additional branches of the Society as well as regional offices for Jones and Jones.”

  Griffin looked at Adelaide. She smiled at him through the open window of the carriage. Entertaining houseguests was one of the things that normal, married people did, he thought.

  “I’m sure we’ll be able to find room for you and Mrs. Jones,” he heard himself say.

  “Excellent. In that case, plan on seeing us on your doorstep in a few weeks.”

  Griffin smiled. “I’ll do that.”

  He went down the steps and got into the carriage. Jed flicked the reins. On the other box, Leggett did the same. The two vehicles set off down the street.

  “What were you and Mr. Jones discussing a moment ago?” Adelaide asked. “You had a rather strange expression.”

  “Jones and his wife are planning to visit San Francisco in a few weeks. They’ll be staying with us.”

  “Of course they will,” Adelaide said. “They are practically family, after all.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  She laughed.

  He pulled her off the seat and into his arms. “What you and I will build together will be a real family.”

  “Yes,” she said.

  He was aware of the dark energy of the artifact leaking out of one of the trunks on the roof of the carriage. The paranormal forces infused into the artifact were forever linked to him. The connection to the lamp was in his blood and could not be denied. But the bright, strong love he shared with the woman of his dreams was far more powerful than the dangerous currents trapped in the Burning Lamp, more powerful than any curse.

  “I love you, Adelaide,” he said.

  “I love you, Griffin, with all my heart.”

  He was holding his future in his arms, Griffin thought. He would hang on to what was his.

  MIDNIGHT CRYSTAL

  BOOK THREE IN THE DREAMLIGHT TRILOGY

  The lady from Jones & Jones looked very good in black leather.

  Adam Winters waited for Marlowe Jones in the shadows of the ancient ruins. He had heard the trademark growl of the big Raleigh-Stark motorcycle for almost a full minute before the bike rounded the last curve of the narrow, winding road. Sound carried in the mountains.

  The nightmares and hallucinations that had st
ruck a few weeks ago had destroyed his sleep. He was living on the edge of exhaustion these days, fighting off the worst of the effects with short bouts of edgy rest, a lot of caffeine, and a little psi. But in spite of the toll the change had taken on him, a surge of exhilaration coursed through him when the newly appointed director of the Frequency City offices of J&J brought the bike to a stop and derezzed the engine.

  She was close enough now for him to feel the power in her aura. Her energy sang a siren song to his senses. Too bad she was a Jones. He would just have to work around that awkward fact.

  She kicked down the stand with a leg clad in leather chaps, planted one booted foot on the ground, and raised the faceplate of the gleaming black helmet.

  “Adam Winters,” she said.

  It was not a question. He was the new boss of the Frequency City Ghost Hunters Guild. Anyone who had bothered to glance at a newspaper or watch the evening news in the past month could recognize him.

  “You’re late, Miss Jones,” he said. He did not move out of the quartz doorway.

  “I made a few detours.” She unfastened the helmet and removed it. Her hair was the color of dark amber. It was caught in a ponytail at the nape of her neck and secured with a black leather band. “Wanted to be sure I wasn’t followed.”

  He watched her, trying to conceal his fascination. Objectively speaking, she certainly qualified as attractive, but she lacked the bland symmetry of real beauty. Marlowe Jones did not need a cover model’s looks to rivet the eye, however. She was striking. There was no other word to describe the strength, intelligence, and passion that illuminated her features. Her eyes were a deep, mysterious shade that bordered on blue, almost violet. The color of midnight, he thought. Midnight and dreams.

  And just where in hell had that poetic image come from? He really needed to get more sleep.

  She was watching him now with those enthralling, knowing eyes. Energy shivered in the atmosphere. He knew that she was checking him out with her talent. Everything inside him got a little hotter in response to the stimulation of her psi.