The New Improved Sorceress

by Sara Hanover

  “I do. If necessary.”

  “Let’s hope it’s not,” put in Brian. “I have what I wish to bring.”

  I turned and inspected. “No blasting rod?”

  “No. Odd thing, the crystal appears to have cleared, but I cannot count on a full charge, nor do I wish to chance it falling into Devian’s hands. Therefore, it stays home.”

  “Wise. All right, let’s go. With no traffic on the road, I’d say we’ll arrive early, but I imagine he is waiting for us.” Carter held up Hiram’s SUV key. He couldn’t start the car remotely without the electronic key fob, but we all wanted to drive a vehicle that could hold the lot of us, and the SUV fit the need. We piled in.

  I heard a faint Arooo from the house. “Is that howling? Is he going to do that all morning?”

  “Doubtful. Go back in and tell him to guard the house and garage.”

  “He’s a dog; he should do that anyway. It’s natural to bark at intruders.”

  Carter gave me a “don’t argue with me” look. “Just tell him.”

  When I unlocked the front, Scout approached me, head and tail down. “No howling,” I told him. “Guard the house and garage. There are relics here that need you on watch. Got me?”

  His ears and tail came up. He dipped his nose down to his toenails and then sat, on alert, in the foyer.

  “Good boy.”

  I went back out to the SUV.

  “Well?”

  “He’s guarding.”

  “Don’t ever forget what you’ve got there,” Carter told me seriously. “I wouldn’t put it past Devian to have a team go through this place while we’re distracted.”

  “And now they won’t.”

  “Not without a great deal of trouble and a lot of pain.”

  “What about the tell-tales?”

  Brian waved a hand in the air. “They can react forcibly as well.”

  “How?”

  “Among other things, they emit a fragrance that can stun.”

  “I smell roses.”

  Brian grinned a little. “They’re happy. Trust me, they can turn nasty if they must. That’s why Steptoe gave them to you.”

  I watched out the windows as Carter drove through streets empty of everyone but the newspaper carriers, their cars burning yellow-white lights in the gloom. “I thought they were just an alarm.”

  “What good is an alarm without an offensive action?”

  “Not much, I guess. Stunning scent, huh?”

  “Very.”

  I counted myself lucky that Scout and the tell-tales hadn’t set each other off. We sat in relative silence the rest of the way, sipping at our paper cups full of goodness as the drinks cooled, and I had no idea what the other two thought.

  I know what I did. That Devian had people hooked, in one way or another, struggling to be freed, and we had to knock him out of his game. Whether we had game enough to do it was another matter altogether.

  I hadn’t worn my gloves or my bracers. Like the professor, I thought the Iron Dwarf–gifted item too valuable to lose, so I’d left them behind. As the car plowed through a very dark night, I worried I’d been wrong. The new moon, sunk very low on the horizon, revealed little of the streets and the streetlights dimmed in preparation for the coming day, which seemed to be delayed.

  We passed a sign for Chippenham Hospital, and Carter turned there. I rubbed an eye and leaned into the front seats. “Tell me it’s not the hospital.”

  “It’s not.”

  “There’s a subdivision here, brand-new . . . I don’t see this as being secluded.”

  He pointed. “Powhite Park.”

  And there it was, a gem of a park, tucked away off the freeway, between the roads and new homes and condos, looking as pristine and green as it could be. It was just off the road and yet as far away as it could be. I’d never heard of it even though I knew my mother and I had driven the freeway past this area a number of times.

  Tucking my now-empty drink away in a cup holder, I said, “How big is this place? There are trail markers.”

  “I believe it’s about a hundred acres, and much of it is wooded. Nobody will be about this morning, and I doubt later, because Devian will have shielded it. At least until after the confrontation.”

  “No witnesses, huh?”

  Brian answered me, as he pushed his car door open and got out, “None at all.”

  Cycle tracks crisscrossed the dirt and grassy flat, leading up small hills and through thinning woods. Leaves too damp in the dew and mist rustled instead of crunched under our steps. Sunlight would dapple through the trees after dawn but for now, the park seemed hushed. The three of us trotted down a trail until a sign stopped us at a small, slat-wooded, and nearly flat bridge. Carter consulted his phone and tapped the sign. “One hundred feet in.”

  I read it as we passed: Wilson Memorial Bridge, Eagle Scout Project 2002, Thomas Chapman Troop 705. The sign had weathered better than the bridge, and I wondered when the troop would muster up a new effort to restore their legacy.

  The professor started to talk to himself. I couldn’t catch his words, low and soft and somewhat mumbled, and Carter didn’t seem to hear him at all. From somewhere in the woods about us, an owl hooted softly. I looked up but didn’t catch sight of it. I wouldn’t if it were flying, a silent presence, soaring between the canopy of the forest and the autumn-covered ground.

  “She’s here,” I said quietly.

  “Good,” Carter answered. He knew a little of what I’d planned but not all of it. I hadn’t dared to tell him.

  I yanked a scrunchie out of my pocket and pulled my hair back into a ponytail, but a low one at the back of my neck. Summer being gone, at least I didn’t have to worry about mosquitoes because I could smell bog somewhere up ahead. The cold snaps at night were setting in and driving the biters out.

  “Watch out for glops,” Carter called back, and I jumped at the break in the quiet. He chuckled at me and dropped back to catch up my hand. “Nervous much?”

  “Nervous a lot.”

  He squeezed my fingers. “But better now?”

  “Yes. Always.” I paused. “How much chance do we have?”

  “It depends on how well you can manifest the book. I don’t mean to put pressure on you, but we needed a diversion at the very least, and an outstanding illusion at the best.”

  “I’ll try for the illusion.” I moved my free hand behind my back, crossing my fingers.

  “Like I said, no pressure. I intend to go in like a marshal, remind him of the bargain we had . . . he’s got Hiram now, regardless of how, and the Eye needs to come back to us. He has no reason to involve mortal flesh like your mother and aunt and should release them immediately.”

  “And our deal?”

  “That’s on you, voluntarily. He’ll insist on your fulfilling it, of course, and I will insist you shouldn’t have to.”

  “Sounds like you’ve been talking to the Society.”

  “I have their backing if not their backup,” Carter said, his tone aware of the irony. He observed the sky. “No sign of our silent partner. Devian thinks he has us at a great disadvantage.”

  “So does the professor.”

  We looked at Brian trudging ahead of us on the trail, his shoulders bowed as if he thought he were an old man, despite his new body. He ran a hand through his thick head of hair and now Carter could hear his rambling, too.

  “What is he talking about?”

  Carter held up a finger to quiet me and listened.

  “What is it?”

  “Nothing,” he told me in that way people do when it’s definitely something, but they don’t want you to know or worry.

  “Not working.”

  Carter squeezed my hand again. “Don’t interrupt him.”

  I thought about my dream, and Evelyn’s near-oracle adv
ice to live and learn. I bit the corner of my lip.

  “Carter.”

  “Hmmm?”

  “Would Devian present himself as . . . oh, I don’t know . . . a vampire or something?”

  He tripped. Caught himself up and swung around to face me. “Why would you ask that?”

  “Just a stupid question.”

  He schooled his expression, but I’d already seen the alarm jump across his face. “Not Devian.”

  “Nico?”

  “Not here. Not now. You don’t want to call that name. Ever. Remember? I told you.”

  He had.

  But I had looked and learned. Seen a puppet master in the corner of my dreams. Melted a vampiric shroud off Malender. Knew that as bad as Devian was, something worse lurked behind him. The only question was: would we meet that personage today, or was Devian overconfident?

  So we let the professor ramble on as I sank into my own thoughts and dodged out of the way of low-hanging branches as they slashed across the path at us, as if the trees had suddenly come alive and hated us.

  Perhaps they did.

  Ten more minutes in, on a slope that doglegged abruptly to the right, with a steep and rocky ascent that looked like it might give a trail biker a real thrill when it jumped off, Brian halted. Carter and I caught up.

  I couldn’t see it, but I could hear the faint, jagged music of an elven archway and another world. An aroma came from the red cedar junipers nestled in the brush around us, driven by our trespass. I found I couldn’t remember what the other doorway had smelled like but knew I would recognize it the moment I did. I let go of Carter reluctantly and flexed both my hands.

  Carter checked his watch. “Ahead of time.”

  The professor’s chanting under his breath grew even more inaudible, but he did not give it up. I began to feel a bit freaked. I would have nudged him to get his attention, but I thought I could tell he was fully aware of where we walked and what was happening. His steps seemed steady.

  Devian’s sulky tones filled the clearing. “Not even dawn, yet the early birds are determined to catch their worm, as they say.”

  He stepped out of the lee of a tree, dressed in resplendent black and silver as his bowmen had been garbed a few days before, but in a suit and greatcoat, silky shirt and pearl-gray tie. He saw me assessing him. “Like it? Bespoke, of course. Nothing quite like it to be found anywhere, on this earthly plane, that is. Come with me and I’ll have a gown tailored just for you, one that will win you hearts the world over, spun of magic and spider silk.” He held out his hand to me. I didn’t answer, and after a long moment he dropped it. “No? An experience you shouldn’t miss. Perhaps you had a rough evening.”

  “He’s goading you.”

  I gave Carter the side eye. “No kidding. I thought you were going to come on like a boss.”

  “We’re here for the return of the Queen’s gem and the Iron Dwarf known as Hiram Broadstone. We also expect Mary Andrews and April Andrews to be handed over immediately, as they are mortals you have no quarrel with and no right to be detaining.”

  “All that in one breath. Admirable.” Devian looked behind him, and then we could all see the portal opening behind him, the same shocking colors of a vibrant autumn, and just after dawn there, but then the doorway stood to the east. Did they even have the same sun? Devian arched an eyebrow up, looking quizzical. “Did we not make a new agreement?” He spread both of his arms. “Carter Phillips, you have far less authority with me than you have with others. I treat with young Tessa.”

  “Not if I don’t allow you to.”

  “And who would stop me? You?” He shifted his gaze to Brian, who had not stopped his near-silent chanting. “Him? Both failures at what you seek. Nothing compared to the untapped potential of our little sorceress here.”

  I put my hand out slightly, concentrating on illusion, my fingers curled to hide the stone as I reached for the awareness I had forged within it. It warmed in answer. As I strengthened our partnership, that owl—or perhaps it was a different one—gave a soft hooting nearby. I nodded in response to its question. A leather booklet arose from a gathering mist in my hand.

  Devian inhaled tightly. As both Carter and the professor warned me, he could sense it—taste it, he would say—and its reality. His silvery blue eyes watched me eagerly.

  “My mother and aunt. Hiram. The jewel.” I spoke short sentences and words, trying not to break my focus.

  “For the book?” He looked back over his shoulder. “Not a good trade for me. The women, agreed, and the jewel is no good as it is—but the dwarf stays with me. He has a contract to fulfill.”

  “No,” answered Carter.

  Devian looked from me to him and back. A shape behind him moved, flashed, came into being and then stepped backward into autumn country again, but I had seen it and so had Carter. He scrubbed a hand across his chin to hide his expression.

  “You don’t deal in good faith and have not from the onset. Fulfill what you vowed or take the consequences.”

  “Brave words from a mage without his Society, and powerless in the night.” Devian shrugged him off and returned his attention to me.

  I could see my mother and Aunt April in the elven doorway, both pale and drawn, holding onto each other as if a storm wind threatened to tear them away. Mist began to boil up, frothing and wild, clutching at them. It must have stung, too, for Aunt April cried out and Mom . . . well, her lips went tight and she winced, but she wouldn’t make a sound, her bright gaze fastened on me. My hand shook from the effort to hold the book’s illusion.

  A thin and shiny obsidian rope slid around their waists and began to quietly draw them forward out of Faerie. My mother fought the tug for a half-second, and then seemed to relax and go with it.

  We needed a distraction, and now.

  I flipped my hand. The illusion disappeared with a spit and hiss like an angry cat. “No. No deal to liars. I have but one thing to trade for the whole kit and kaboodle, and you take it or leave it.”

  “And what might you have more than that book which, it seems, was but an illusion.” Devian’s lip curled in a sneer.

  “Oh, I have the book, but that’s off the table.” Carter stirred, and I put a hand out to stop him. “I have this.”

  And I put my hands out and took the maelstrom stone from my palm. I waved it at him, glamour gone, power shining through my fingers. It had leaped out of my hand at my bidding, just as I had hoped.

  Gasps filled the air. Carter swung wildly toward me, but I stepped aside.

  “Done!” Devian cried in triumph.

  The doorway opened wide and Hiram thrust through, on the heels of my mother and my aunt. My aunt, I could see now, wore the Eye of Nimora perched atop her head and a stunned look on her face. Did she see the truth as I did when I touched it? She stumbled slightly. The obsidian tie around them both drew them safely off to the side and they scarcely seemed to note it, but I did.

  “Here.” And I threw the stone up, arcing through the air, like a three point toss for a basketball rim from half court. It tumbled over and over on itself, gleaming in its ivory, caramel, and jet tones, beautiful in the twilight before dawn. I saw it all and the flash of Malender and his golden voice telling me, This is the way the world ends . . .

  Not if I had anything to say about it.

  Devian leaped for it, as graceful as a stag soaring over a fallen log and even as he did, I felt myself caught up, and his voice in my ear. Two of them, in simultaneous places at once.

  “Now I have both you beauties. Cannot learn, can you, between the fake and the copy?”

  “Take it!” I yelled, but the owl already had plunged into flight, white-and-gold wings wide spread, talons out. She dove and plucked the maelstrom stone cleanly out of reach of grasping elven fingertips and carried it off.

  I dragged a hand free as Brian shouted, “Throw
it, and Carter—you know what to do!”

  The flash-bang left my hand in a smash among the broken stones that littered the forest path. It detonated in a dazzling blaze of light and smoke, noise and showering glitter at Devian’s smartly shod feet. He reeled back, vision stunned.

  Pixie dust fountained upward and then fell over him like a cloudburst. He did not freeze entirely but swung about in excruciatingly slow motion, his hand beginning to trace a sigil of red fire in the night sky.

  Too late. Brian grabbed him in a hug and could not be shaken off, imprisoning the two of them together.

  Carter, bathed for a few blinding seconds of pure light from the flash-bang, let out a shout. He threw a flare as only he could. Fire, pure flame as bright as the sun, blazed from his pointing finger, striking the professor and Devian.

  They went up like dry kindling. The clearing exploded in sound and fury as flames shot skyward. The explosion knocked them backward through the arch, and a bigger conflagration roared, illuminating Brian’s body and I thought I could see the professor transposed over it, for just a split second before everything went white-hot.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  AFTERMATH

  “BLIMEY.” STEPTOE APPEARED out of thin air, unlashing his tail from my mom and aunt. “Got them out in the nick o’time.” He bowed to them, bowler hat in hand, and a saucy grin across his face.

  I staggered, going to one knee, as my doppelganger captor disintegrated in a flash. The gate, gone. Faerie, gone. Devian, gone.

  And Brian and the professor nowhere to be seen.

  I expected Carter to give me a hand up, but he dropped to a knee beside me and threw his arms about me.

  “Are you all right?” he asked me as I asked him, “What was that?”

  “That was your young lion,” Goldie remarked, as she stepped from the forest behind us. She dropped my stone into my hand where it quickly reset itself in my palm. She added, “Sun lion. Carter. Or didn’t you know? As far back as ancient Ra, the sun god, had two lieutenants to aid him.”

  “Sun lions.”

  “Yes. Almost as powerful as Ra Himself. And you had no idea?” Goldie smiled down at me.