by Steve McHugh
“It’s still on,” Caitlin said. “My neighbor’s kids watch it.”
“Ah, good. I did so enjoy what I saw. Michelangelo would have hated it. He was such a melancholy man.”
“He was human?” Caitlin asked.
Leonardo nodded sadly. “Yes, unfortunately. I often wondered what we would have achieved if we’d both still been around. But then, I didn’t get to meet Einstein either, so there are many opportunities lost to times gone by.” For a moment Leonardo appeared to lose himself in his memories, before grinning a moment later. “We can neither live in the past, nor in the opportunities lost to us. So, why are you both here? I assume you and Galahad still aren’t on talking terms, Nate?”
“I haven’t seen him in thirty years, although I get the impression everyone knows what happened.”
“The guard who came back told people, who told more people. They said you killed the mayor and then attacked Galahad because of a disagreement. I knew there was more to it than that, but rumor has a way of becoming fact if enough people believe it.”
I explained what had actually happened.
“They used you,” Leonardo said. “I can understand your anger. And I understand why you wouldn’t want people to think you had killed someone you’d left alive. But I also understand why Galahad’s guard told people it was you. People can’t think that Galahad will kill those who go against him; he doesn’t want to show himself as a tyrant. But the fact that you killed someone who had been responsible for the murders of many of Galahad’s subjects, that’s more palatable to the people here. They would have wanted a trial. Galahad couldn’t risk that, so he kept you in the dark. A new king, new rules. He was in over his head back then, although I’m glad to say he’s improved with time.”
“You seem to know a lot about it.”
“Well, I was an advisor when the plan was delivered to him. I advised him to ignore it and go a different route. He went with them. Political pressure I imagine, the advisor who had devised the plan had a lot of clout with the elite in the city. Although that vanished when it came out that his plan had failed and innocent people had died because of it. Galahad fired him the second he was back in the city and the advisor fled the city after that. Unfortunately, I can’t remember his name.” Leonardo tapped the side of his head and smiled. “Too full of more important things.”
“Well, whoever he was, he was an asshole,” I said.
“No argument from me,” Leonardo agreed. “He had too much power and nowhere near enough talent to use it.”
CHAPTER 26
Leonardo was an easy man to talk to, so the conversation carried on for a while, Eventually, after Antonio asked if anyone would like tea, I managed to get Leonardo back onto the reason for our visit.
“Simon Olson,” I said, which stopped any frivolity or laughter that had built up during our chat.
“An evil man,” Leonardo said. “I had to design a whole wing of the prison to house him. It’s covered in runes and is, if I say so myself, escape proof. Are you here to see him?”
I nodded and then explained about what was happening in Stratford. Leonardo listened intently, taking in every ounce of information and never once asking a question or fidgeting.
When I’d finished he turned to Antonio and said, “Make sure Galahad knows that Nathan is coming. We don’t want any surprises and I’m going to guess that the guard will still try and stop him on sight, with or without Harrison’s proclamation that he be allowed to see the king without trouble.”
Antonio nodded and picked up a coat and told us to wait until his return before going to see the king.
“So, you believe that Simon is still issuing orders?” Leonardo said.
“He is somehow, yes,” I said. “Does he have visitors?”
“That’s something you’d have to ask Galahad. All I can tell you is that he cannot get messages to anyone without help. He can’t escape his cell, let alone the prison itself. The runes won’t let him.”
“What do they do?” Caitlin asked.
“They link him directly to the cell he’s in. So if he walks more than about an inch outside of the cell, the runes ignite. Leaving him a messy stain on the floor. The same thing happens if he uses his alchemy on any part of the cell.”
“Why not just put a sorcerer’s band on him?” I asked.
“Oh, of course you don’t know, you’ve never been involved in trouble while you’re here,” Leonardo said. “Sorcerer’s bands don’t work here. Never have. We like to make people think they work just fine, but in reality we use runes to keep people’s abilities in check.”
I was a little surprised at that revelation, and at the extreme measures that Galahad had employed to keep Simon in prison, something that Leonardo picked up on.
“He murdered dozens, Nate. There was call for his death from a lot of people, but Galahad wanted him made into an example not a martyr. We alchemists live as long as sorcerers. Having to live that life in a ten by ten cell with no hope to use his abilities—that’s a harsh punishment for anyone. But in his case, a deserved one.”
“People supported the old king?” Caitlin asked. “Even after what he’d allowed Simon to do?”
“People believe what they want to. We still see the occasional flyer or poster in support of Whitehorn.”
“It’s a good thing you don’t have the Internet, then,” Caitlin said. “Actually I haven’t seen any electrical appliances. You have candles and gas lamps in here and those crystal things outside.”
“Electricity can’t be created here,” I said.
“Actually that’s incorrect,” Leonardo said with a glint in his eye. “Electricity can be created anywhere. We have thunderstorms here, just like in your realm. We can create man-made electricity without issues. In fact, the palace has something that’s based on the Tesla coil that it can deploy as a weapon. I modified it to use solar rays to charge the system until it’s ready for use. But you’ve got maybe five minutes of use and then it’s all gone. The problem is keeping that charge going for long enough, at a steady level, to be useful. We can’t use the electricity we create for any real length of time, certainly not to actually power something like a house or street lights. We tried and blew out every lamp for twenty square miles. It’s why we eventually settled on gas, which was collected from the mountains.
“It’s something that’s baffled me from the moment I arrived here, how to create a sustainable energy that doesn’t pollute. Unfortunately finding an answer made the act of gas drilling redundant. It made some people very unhappy.”
“Costing people money usually does, no matter what realm they live in,” I pointed out.
“Yes, well, jobs were found, for all the men who wanted them, in the collection of the crystals you no doubt saw on your way here.”
“I was going to ask you about that,” I said. “What are they?”
“Ah, come with me and I’ll show you.”
Leonardo led us through the house and out into the back garden, which was both expansive and immaculate. Stunning flowers that I’d never seen before, a mixture of reds and blues, adorned one side. We followed a short footpath to a large building with two huge doors, which Leonardo pushed to either side, opening the front up.
“Welcome to my study,” he said with obvious pride.
“What the hell is that?” I asked walking over to the sleek, black item that appeared to be a motorbike.
“It’s a motorbike,” Leonardo said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Or will be if I ever get it to work properly.”
“How does it work?” I asked, walking around the stunning bike and finding no kind of combustion engine that I could see.
“Ah, that’s where these come in,” he said and picked up one of the many crystals that adorned a large table along one side.
He tossed it to Caitlin, who caught it with a shocked expressi
on, as if it might explode.
“They’re safe,” Leonardo told her, but she didn’t appear convinced.
“What are they?” she asked.
Leonardo threw me a second crystal and I noticed it held the same blue light that I’d seen when first arriving in Shadow Falls.
“I’m no closer to an answer,” I pointed out.
“Okay, first you need to know something I’ve figured out. Magic is alive.”
“I know,” I said. “I’ve always known. Everyone knows that.”
“Yes, but not in the way you or your brethren think. You see, I think magic is dormant right up until it’s placed inside a living thing. Then it becomes alive, feeding off its host, needing to be used. Sorcerers have a special affinity for the stuff; it’s why you’re born with the innate ability to use it in the first place. But before all of that, it’s just an element like any other.
“Have you ever heard of the Norse dwarfs? They used magic in their creation of items; they were the greatest alchemists ever. It’s a skill no other alchemists have. And when they vanished, whatever secrets they had vanished too. This is one such secret.” He picked the crystal from my hand and held it in front of me. “This is magic.”
“It’s a rock,” I said. “A pretty colored one, but I don’t feel any magic from it.”
“Because it’s dormant and needs a trigger.”
“Like what?” Caitlin asked.
“Leonardo, how about you start from the beginning?” I said as I pulled two stools from under a nearby bench and offered one to Caitlin who sat beside me as if we were in school.
Leonardo took a deep breath. “Okay, magic. The reason you can’t use your magic properly is because this whole place is full of the stuff. Dormant, tiny particles, smaller than atoms, of magic. You use your magic and it’s like igniting kindling. It’s uncontrollable and impossible to wield, because those little pieces of dormant magic become little pieces of very active magic.”
“You’re saying there’s magic the air?”
Leonardo nodded. “Yes, exactly. It’s in the air we breath, don’t worry it’s harmless and evaporates on contact with anything, making it very difficult to study, but it’s definitely there.”
“So the crystals create magic?” Caitlin asked.
“No, they are magic.” Leonardo picked up a lighter and clicked it on, holding the crystal above the flame. The crystal immediately lit up brightly.
“This is what the dwarfs knew about?” I asked.
Leonardo’s smile would have been seen from space. “That’s my theory, yes. There are no alchemists who can use these crystals to work with. Any who try get a nasty shock when the crystals blow up, as you may have heard earlier. But if you apply even the slightest energy source to them for more than a few seconds, they ignite. It burns up all the magic in the area. In theory that would mean wherever these are burning, your magic would be normal.”
“So the lamps all have little fires in them?” Caitlin asked, although she didn’t exactly sound convinced by what she was saying.
“Nope, you see as well as activating when they’re heated, they also have another trick.” Leonardo grabbed a thick blanket and wrapped it around the crystal, which started to glow brighter and brighter. “Without any sunlight on them, they light up. We had no idea until someone removed some from the cave and as they walked back from the mountain it got dark and the whole batch lit up.”
“Are you telling me your street lights are solar powered?” I asked.
“Well, not exactly, they absorb energy and release it when it’s dark, but it doesn’t change that energy into electricity. But as soon as it gets dark outside, well, dusk really, the crystal activates automatically. It’s incredibly impressive. I’m currently trying to get them to power items, like the motorbike. It’s one thing to produce light, but can it produce a more potent form of safe energy? Oh and one last thing, they don’t run out of power. Ever.”
“Seriously?” I asked.
“So far, no. We replaced every lamp ten years ago. Not a single crystal has required renewing since. We’ve been working on an idea to place them in every house, but it’s taking a lot of planning before we can get that far.”
“Wait a second,” Caitlin interjected. “You said Nate can’t use his magic, why?”
“Well, technically he can use it, but it’s not advisable.”
“Because of the magic in the air?” Caitlin asked.
Leonardo nodded.
“I can switch my magic on okay,” I said. “But instead of a small flame, it would be an inferno. One I can’t shut off without a lot of effort. While I’m trying to shut it off, my magic is just flowing out of me, destroying everything. Magic here is a dozen times more potent, but it’s also a dozen times more difficult to wield. Even experts, the true masters of sorcery, would have a hard time. It’s one of the reasons Avalon allows this place to remain; they’d lose any conflict because any magic used would hurt their own men as well as the enemy.”
“But aren’t alchemists using magic?” Caitlin asked.
Leonardo glanced at me with a look of shock on his face.
“No one taught her,” I said.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. To answer your question, alchemy isn’t magic, at least not in the same sense that Nate has. Whereas Nate’s magic is from an internal source, we use our alchemy as a sort of catalyst to change the world around us. So long as we’re touching the object we want to change, we can shape and create whatever non-organic matter we see fit. I can touch that wall there and make a doorway, or a staff or any of a hundred things. I can take the components of an object, say glass, and so long as they’re all touching, I can make those components into a beautiful vase, or a mirror. There’s very little limit on alchemy’s use, beyond our own exhaustion and being unable to change living matter. As our alchemy isn’t magic-based, we don’t ignite the magic in the air. It means, we don’t have the same concerns with our powers being overly charged within Shadow Falls.”
“So these crystals have given Shadow Falls a near limitless supply of energy that, under the right conditions could also be used as a weapon?” I said.
“A weapon?” Caitlin asked.
“They blow up when alchemy is used on them,” I explained. “I’d say that’s probably counts as a weapon, even if it’s an unreliable one. Who outside of Shadow Falls knows about this?”
“No one,” Leonardo said. “Only half a dozen people know what the crystals actually do. Most assume they require an external power source to work, if they think about them at all.”
“Are these crystals in other realms?” Caitlin asked.
I shrugged. “No idea, I’ve never seen them before, but then I’ve never started digging in mountains either.”
“This is the first realm I’ve found them,” Leonardo said. “Although it does raise interesting possibilities. And very dangerous ones.”
“Can they be used in our realm?” I asked.
I’d known Leonardo long enough to recognize when he didn’t want to answer a question. “I’m not sure,” he said eventually. “My guess is yes, but I don’t really want to find out. The fewer people who know how they really work the better.”
A terrible thought occurred to me. “If someone like Avalon, or maybe Charles Whitehorn found out about them.…”
“They will eventually take them if we don’t give them up,” Leonardo finished for me.
“Who knows about them exactly?” Caitlin asked.
Leonardo looked taken aback. “Me, Antonio, Galahad, and a few of his advisors. The men and women who mine them only know they’re crystals, and we no longer ship them during the night just in case someone figures out how they work.”
“You think that’s what all of this is about?” I asked. “Finding a way in here to get the crystals?”
Caitlin nodded. “As much as r
evenge is always a good motivator, money is a better one. I’m sure selling an infinite power source would make them more than a little money, and probably a lot of power to go along with it. I hope I’m wrong, but it fits.”
“How do they get in here?” Leonardo asked. “They’d need an army to get through Rebecca’s.”
“Yeah, I don’t get that either,” Caitlin said. “We’re missing something.”
The idea was a grave one, and everyone took a moment to pause until Caitlin asked, “And how are they used to power the bike? Is there any way they could be smuggled out in it?”
“Ah, that’s the problem. These crystals can only be used to power something of very low capacity. A bike, well that’s a lot more complicated. I can get the crystals to power it, but I can’t get them to switch off. Once you remove the light they come on and don’t go off.” Leonardo walked over to the bike and ran his hand over the sleek chassis. “I’ve been trying to come up with a way to have a retractable array of panels covering the crystal, but then you can’t select how fast you go, you just go. And you don’t stop until the crystal is exposed to light. I’ve been working on it for a few months; if I can crack it, I can revolutionize the way we travel in the city.”
“But can they be used to smuggle?”
“Only if you want to ride a really big bomb. There’s one crystal in here and that goes bang with enough force to eject the rider. You put any more than that and you’re going to make a crater with you smeared in the middle.”
“What about the trams?” Caitlin asked. “Don’t they work on crystal power?”
“Yes, but the trams have go and stop. They can’t change their level of power or speed—it’s all or nothing. It’s a conundrum I haven’t quite figured out. I thought I had it, apply a small amount of external power to the crystal, albeit not directly, but you probably heard the explosion before you arrived. And as for smuggling on them, they’d need to get through Harrison and his men. They search everyone coming in and out.”
