Black Gold

by Alexis Blakely

  Chase nodded.

  I went to Slaski, grabbed a fistful of shirt, and hauled him up out of his chair. Before he could protest, I shoved him in Chase’s direction. “Hurry up before I change my mind about being nice.”

  Slaski grumbled something about indignity, then took a deep breath and shook his fingers out like he was psyching himself up to jump off a cliff or something. When he was ready, he lifted his hands and began a series of complex finger manipulations, as though weaving a spellform with his hands instead of his mind. I’d seen people practice this way, favoring the physical focus over mental projection, so I wasn’t worried. From the looks of what I could follow beneath my mage sight, Slaski was unravelling his earlier handiwork in a very specific sequence, like a series of detonator backups that had to be defused in a certain order or else the whole thing would go kaboom.

  When it was done, Chase didn’t go kaboom, but he didn’t exactly look healed either. He fell to his knees, panting for breath and sweating profusely.

  “I’m not an idiot,” Slaski said quietly as he returned to his chair and fell heavily into it. “The old woman’s magic is all over the kid. He’s practically glowing with it. I removed the stasis spell, and her work took care of the worst of his injuries, but he’s going to need more healing as soon as you can get it. For reasons I don’t think I have to spell out, he isn’t going to get it from me.”

  “That’s fine,” I said with a shrug. “How do you feel Chase?”

  “Everything hurts again, but I feel more like myself again.” He accepted my hand in getting back to his feet. “I think we can move onto the next phase of the plan.”

  Slaski perked up at that.

  “Tell us about who’s making you do this,” I ordered him. “The hermitess is still alive. She told us that you were a slimeball, but that you didn’t have it in you to be this ruthless on your own. Why blackmail me? This is about more than the gold, isn’t it?”

  I’d hit a nerve, that much was clear. Slaski fidgeted in his seat, avoiding eye contact. He licked his lips nervously, then moved to grab the bottle of rye. Not bothering with a glass this time, he took a long pull then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “My hands are tied,” he said. “He’ll kill me if I give him up. You don’t understand what you’re dealing with here. This is way beyond either of us. You should have killed the woman and gone on your way. Hell, you could still leave. It’s too late for me, but if you run now, you can probably live a few more carefree months before he comes looking for you.

  I crouched down before Slaski’s chair, opting for the softer touch this time. “Before who comes looking? What power does he hold over you?”

  The old gnome seemed to be weighing his options, but eventually his shoulders slumped, and he gave in. Eyes drifting up to meet mine, he began speaking all in a rush. “I don’t know who he really is, but the guy’s more powerful than anyone I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been around, you know? I didn’t grow up here. You ever been to Europe? Africa? There are some seriously ancient bloodlines there, and the knowledge these guys have is like nothing you’ve got over here. This place is the goddamned Wild West compared to the big players in the old world. Sure, you got yourself some dead-eye shooters here, but we’re talking Kings and Queens with metaphysical armies at their disposal if you catch my meaning. Power so thick it brings you to your knees just to look at them.”

  He went silent, gaze drifting to the window and the darkness beyond. “But this guy. This guy is something else. He laid his hands on me and it made me sick. Like he’s got poison in his veins. I don’t know where he came from, but he could tear a swath through those uppity mages back in the Old Country. You know why? Because they’d never see him coming.”

  “Where is he now?” Chase asked. “How do we find him?”

  Slaski laughed, but it was a grim sort of laughter that made my stomach churn.

  “This one’s already met him,” he said, pointing at me. “Down at the gas station. Calls himself Gus if you can believe it.”

  The interaction was clear enough in my memory since it had only happened that morning, but I sifted through it for details that might confirm the healer’s story. It wasn’t unusual for arcane beings to hide themselves in plain sight, but if this guy was as powerful as Slaski claimed, greasy gas station attendant wasn’t exactly the kind of persona an undercover practitioner tended to gravitate towards. Though, had he really been all that greasy? Sure he’d had grease stains on his coveralls, and the way he’d swaggered over and spit his disgusting chewing tobacco saliva out had made my skin crawl, but now that I really thought about it, his hair had been not just combed, but carefully styled without a hair out of place. His eyes had been sharp and clear, with a predatory glint. I’d just been too distracted with my own problems to notice it at the time.

  “What does he want?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.” Slaski’s eyes flicked to the door as if gauging his odds of escape. He seemed to arrive at the conclusion that he was utterly screwed, and the last of the tension he’d been holding in his posture deflated. “He made me create that poppet. Honest truth, swear on my own mother’s soul, I don’t know why. He came to town a few months ago, and at first he was real friendly like. Then he starts asking me for small favors. Before I know it, I’m doing things for him without even thinking of asking for payment. Got to the point where I was too afraid to say no, and even more afraid to run. Gus gave me the hair samples and everything. Told me who the target was and where I should set it up. Promised me the guy wouldn’t get seriously hurt. I do care about that, you know. I’m not a total asshole. Any other situation, I’d have healed your friend here and let you two go on your way happy as could be.”

  Chase came closer, fingers clenching into fists. “So that means you set up all those traps around the altar? You’re the reason I was almost killed in the first place?”

  The gnome showed surprising courage in jumping from his chair to point his finger adamantly even though the top of his head barely reached Chase’s belly button. “I did not leave those traps! I made the poppet, lit the candles, and set up the altar. That’s it! I swear on everything I hold sacred!”

  “Based on what we’ve seen so far, that doesn’t mean much now, does it?” I asked him. “This is all beside the point. Why does Gus want the hermitess dead?”

  Slaski threw his hands up and wailed, “I don’t know! I don’t know anything. I’m as much a pawn in all of this as you two are.”

  I leaned back on the edge of the small counter in what passed for the trailer’s kitchen. This was just getting more and more confusing. If this guy masquerading as Gus was so powerful, why not go after the hermitess directly if all he wanted was the gold? Obvious a target as it was, I was beginning to think it wasn’t remotely important. Something bigger was at play here, and the more I learned about who was behind it, the less I suspected our client was the intended target.

  “I need a thaumatochalyx,” I said quietly.

  Slaski paled. “I don’t have one.”

  “What the hell is a thaumatochalyx?” asked Chase.

  “What Slaski has stashed somewhere very close by is some kind of rare stone or precious gem with a hefty magical charge stored inside,” I explained. “Like a magic backup battery. I can sense the damned thing, but not pinpoint its exact location. And I’m not exactly in the mood to tear this place apart to find it. I will if I have to, though.”

  “No,” Slaski pleaded. “It’s my only one. If Gus comes after me, I’m going to need it! You can’t take it from me. Haven’t you caused enough trouble?”

  I crossed the room in three quick steps, grabbed Slaski by the throat, and dug my fingers into the soft skin under his jaw, making it difficult but not impossible for him to breathe, but also putting enough pressure on his carotid artery to inhibit blood flow to his brain. Having had it done to me by an overzealous self-defense teacher, I knew first-hand how wickedly unpleasant the sensation was. As a healer, Slaski no doubt knew e
xactly how badly I could hurt him if I squeezed just a teensy bit harder.

  “Trouble we have caused?” I asked rhetorically. “We’re only here because of that poppet and the trap that nearly killed Chase. And let’s not forget the whole blackmail thing. I’m not much for killing in cold blood, but you’re starting to make me rethink my entire life philosophy. So let’s try again. Where is the thaumatochalyx?”

  Slaski pointed weakly to a painting hanging crookedly on the wall. After I let him go, he tottered over to it and pulled it down, revealing nothing but more of the dated and fake wood panelling that covered the walls. He pressed his palm to the surface of the wall, murmured something in gnomish, and then plucked open the small door that had appeared. From within it he produced a chip of uncut amethyst no bigger than a fingernail. Unlike your average fingernail, this fragile sliver of a gem was worth tens of thousands of dollars to those who knew its value.

  I reached out and snatched the thaumatochalyx from Slaski, ignoring his final pleas for me to be reasonable. It was so brittle, I could snap a sliver off with my fingers. I’d never used a thaumatochalyx before, so I wasn’t sure how it worked, but as it turned out the process was pretty simple. All I had to do was send a thread of my own magic into the amethyst, and before I knew it, fresh magic was flowing into me like gas from a pump. I let out an ecstatic little sigh when the thaumatochalyx was exhausted, and the amethyst crumbled to dust that I let fall to the floor.

  “Feeling re-charged?” Chase asked.

  “About forty percent,” I said. It was actually closer to twenty-five, but I didn’t want Slaski to know how weak I still was in case he had a way of communicating with Gus that I couldn’t anticipate. “Grab Slaski’s phone. We’re done here.”

  Chapter Ten

  “What now?” Chase asked as I slid into the passenger seat.

  “The gas station, I guess?” We knew nothing about Gus except where he worked, so it was the only real lead we had to follow short of going back to the hermitess to ask her if she knew anything. I wasn’t really up for the hike, especially now that the sun had set, and I figured if she knew anything useful about the guy, she’d have mentioned it the first time around. “How are you feeling, by the way?”

  “Better.” Chase had started the car and begun driving down towards the main road. “Still pretty terrible, but not like I’m going to die any second. I don’t know what the hermitess did to me, but it seems to still be working.”

  “Well, make sure you take it easy for a while,” I warned. “Magic healing can leave you feeling a little more energetic than you really are. Your body’s going to need some time to catch up.”

  “Oh, trust me, I’m not planning on signing up for a marathon or going to a Jazzercise class anytime soon.” Chase looked at the dash, then glanced at me. “Did you… get gas while Slaski was healing me that first time?”

  “Oh yeah,” I said, unable to keep a little pride from swelling in my voice. “I drove all over the place while you were unconscious. Drove your butt to Slaski in the first place, then went into town to get groceries for Slaski.” Chase looked at me funny. “Don’t ask. You’d have been proud of my driving, though. I didn’t crash once.”

  I left out the bit about my total failure to pull up at the gas station pump.

  “That’s great news!” Chase said with more enthusiasm than I’d expected. “Since I feel like I was literally revived from the dead today, you can drive us back to Vancouver after we’ve taken care of this Gus dude.”

  Dammit. When was I going to learn to keep my dumb mouth shut? At least most of the ride home would be on the highway. The idea of cruising along at faster speeds was a little scary, but at least it was mostly a matter of staying in my lane instead of worrying about pedestrians, and stop lights, and cyclists, and the hundred other distractions waiting to mess me up in the city. My anxiety flared just thinking about it.

  Somewhere beneath the dread of having to drive through Vancouver was confusion over why all this was happening in such an out of the way town. The poppet we’d come to find had been targeting a wealthy businessman back in the city. If Smith was this terrifying mage, what was he doing out here? How did the hermitess fit into his plans? We were missing an important piece of this puzzle, and until we figured out what it was, we were operating from a position of weakness. Too much planning had gone into this bizarre little plot we’d stumbled into. What was Gus’s endgame?

  “Should I pull in, or what?” Chase said, yanking me out of my thoughts.

  I looked up to see that we were idling at the stop sign within sight of the gas station. Last time I was here, Gus had commented on seeing me come down from Slaski’s place. If he was in there, that meant he already knew we were coming.

  “Might as well go knock on the proverbial front door,” I said, wondering how much Gus knew about fact that the hermitess was alive and well, or that Slaski had given him up.

  Chase drove into the station, then pulled into one of the parking spots near the road. There were no other cars in the lot or at the pumps, and I told Chase to wait in the car in case we had to get out of there in a hurry. After a bit of convincing that it would be easier for me to scope the place out alone, I got out and made my way to the little store and gas station office. From outside, I could see that someone was sitting behind the counter. I pushed the door open, mentally preparing a defensive spell without actually summoning power in case Smith could sense it. A little brass bell jingled over my head, and a teenaged girl looked up from her phone to scowl at me for interrupting whatever it was she was doing.

  “I was wondering if you could help me out,” I said, flashing my friendliest smile. “I was here earlier and talking to a guy named Gus? He invited me for a drink tonight, but I thought he said for me to meet him here. You know where he is?”

  The girl’s brows titled downwards into a confused V. “Gus? He’s probably at the Pig’s Ear like always.” She looked me up and down like it would reveal some deformity that made my romantic interest in the guy make sense. “You sure you’re talking about the same Gus that works here? Squirrelly looking guy who’s always spitting that disgusting dip everywhere?”

  I shrugged. “He’s got sweet eyes,” I lied. “Plus I’m only passing through, you know? Just looking for one night of fun, not a wedding ring or anything. Speaking of which, he’s not married, is he? I’m not picky, but I won’t mess around with another woman’s man. That’s where I draw the line.”

  “Nah, Gus is definitely not married.” The girl wrinkled her nose and looked over her shoulder as if she could see the Pig’s Ear Saloon through the wall. “I don’t know if I’d wanna go back to his place if I was you, though. That house should have been torn down years ago.”

  “Fixer upper?” I leaned both elbows on the counter. “I like a guy who’s good with tools, if you catch my drift.”

  The girl laughed. “Far from it. It’s down by the river. So close to the waterline that the bottom floor flooded after a big storm about ten years back. From what I’ve seen on the outside, the walls are so rotten I bet rats and raccoons just walk on in whenever they feel like it.”

  “Oh,” I said, feigning a look of mortified shock. “I think I’ve seen that place. Is that the one just down the road behind the gas station?”

  The girl shook her head. “You must be thinking of the Crastor’s house. Gus's is way worse. It’s on a gravel road at the edge of down. You can’t see the house from the highway, but kids used to use it as a party shack before Gus moved in.”

  The headlights of a car pulling into the gas station flashed through the windows, and the girl seemed to remember that I was a stranger with no intention of buying anything. She went back to her phone, and I went back to the car to check in with Chase.

  “If the place is that dilapidated, should be easy to break into for a look around,” Chase said. “Maybe we can figure something out about who this guy really is or what he’s after?”

  “Probably a good idea.” I glanced
at the Pig’s Ear Saloon as we drove by, but I couldn’t sense anything. Whatever Gus was, he clearly knew how to mask his power. “Doubt we’ll find his evil master plan tacked up to the wall, but it’s worth a shot.”

  The unmarked gravel road was easy enough to find in such a small town. Once we were off the highway, Chase turned his lights off and drove the last quarter mile slowly in order to minimize how much noise we made on our approach. Not that there was anyone around to hear us. There were no other houses on this particular road. Just the one lone two story wreck of a building sitting precariously near to the muddy embankment of the river’s edge. It was easy to see how a high water level could have washed right through the main floor. Just the thought of being trapped in there during a flood made my skin crawl.

  “Did you notice there aren’t any power lines down here?” Chase asked after he cut the engine. “No phone lines either. Doesn’t look like there’s any light coming from the house. That girl at the gas station wasn’t lying about the holes in the wall either. We can literally walk on in.”

  “Yeah,” I said, squinting at the place through my mage sight to see if there were any wards in place. “Looks completely unprotected. At least as far as I can tell. Ready for a closer look?”

  Chase groaned. “I’m beginning to regret suggesting that we come here. If there are body parts hanging from the ceiling or some other freaky shit, I’m out of there.”

  I unbuckled my seatbelt and laid my hand on the door handle. I was having similar thoughts of my own as I stalled before getting out of the car. It was tough to believe someone actually lived there. Just driving down the road had been spooky enough, but this house looked like it had been ripped straight out of a horror movie. I couldn’t even imagine kids willingly coming here to drink, desperate as they might be to get away from their parents when the weather was too nasty for a proper bush party.