by Mima
Or not. Stumbling to the still-open dresser drawer, Xia ripped T-shirts. And after that, she brought water to them. Voices roared up to the door and the young woman opened it. This time, there was no wild wind. The selkies dragged Robert’s smoking, sagging body in and laid him on the ground. Pushing the two table benches together, they lifted him onto the makeshift table. Like they’d done this before.
Gaelic filled the room. She understood urgency in any language. Another selkie was brought in and laid on the floor, with a very broken leg and a bloody torso. Then another, who was soaking wet but other than being unconscious, seemed fine. More selkies came in, gathering around the table. They shouted at each other and gestured. Bloody cloth was bundled out, as was her pot of puke, and a bottle of whisky was passed. Xia took a swig and rejoiced at the inner fire.
A cheer went up. The healers washed their hands with harsh modern gel that smelled of chemicals. Many of the men and women clapped for the healers. Xia looked at Adam’s beautiful back streaked with blood and padded with shredded T-shirts. She sat on the edge of the bed when her knees gave out. The older healer, with silver hair, came to Robert, while the woman went to the bloody selkie. Xia went to Adam. A man crouched near his head, whispering furiously into his ear.
“Is he awake?” Xia asked, shocked.
The man shook his head and kept talking in Gaelic. Xia got a pillow and put it under his head. Peeking under the T-shirts, she saw the bloody hole in his back was stitched closed. It looked awful. For a bad moment, she relived the knife sliding into him along the arrow, but she wrenched her mind from the vision. Someone jostled her as he came around to pick up the selkie-witch and lay him out properly. There must be two dozen people in the tiny cottage.
Everyone stopped when an orange glow began to shine. From Robert. The hush held as the light shone pure and vivid, like a cheerful fire on a winter’s night. Robert sat up, still glowing, and went to Adam. He put his hand on Adam’s back, and the glow shimmered over his skin like rain. Turning, Robert went to the panting man with the broken leg, and knelt by him, and the glow became deeper, from amber to pumpkin. Finally, he went to the selkie-witch and touched his forehead, but the glow did not pour over him, like it had with the others.
Robert stood. Xia looked into his eyes, his dancing, flickering eyes, and couldn’t move for terror. A dragon with the power of gods stood before her. He reached out a hand and held it palm-up in front of her face. An offering, as the glow began to fade and flicker. She lifted her hand but hesitated, unable to take the final step and touch him. He smiled and stretched his arm out straight, and touched his finger to her chin, a teasing flick, like her grandfather might do. She didn’t feel any different. But itching erupted on her knees and her cheek, her hand and shoulders and stomach.
Robert blinked. He stood before her, a very fit, very nude older man with a sprinkling of white hair on his torso. “I say, anyone have a pair of spare breeches?”
“Nay, but we’ve whisky, so who needs trews?”
Laughter erupted from the rough retort. Xia went to the dresser and gave Robert a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. He glanced at them with a pained look, but nodded his thanks. She turned as he dressed, noticing several of the men were nude. And were just as fit, if a bit younger. She passed jeans out and all but one accepted.
A gathering formed around the selkie-witch, as they all stared down at him with deep frowns. Xia gathered the dragon’s healing magic hadn’t been able to touch the wendigo’s spell. She assumed the creature wasn’t fit to be questioned. A few drifted away out the cottage door, and a man and woman began to cook in Adam’s small kitchen. Xia sat next to Adam and held his hand, watching it all.
Over the next hour, the selkie-witch was carried to a car that pulled up, those left were served breakfast, and Robert checked his email on her laptop. Three of the men were Adam’s brothers, and one of the women was a cousin. They all seemed to know who she was. Whenever she tried to introduce herself, they’d say, “Aye, you’re Xia, his new witch.” It occurred to her to ask if he had an old witch, as well.
Robert bade her check her email, and he was right. Thirty-eight responses and questions had already come in from eager philosophers who had read her experience.
“I thought my journal was only going to a few, highly placed people?” she asked Robert.
He shrugged.
Xia tried to answer their questions, ignoring the commentary both gushing, patronizing and snide. Many times all she could say was, “I don’t know.”
When she’d done with that, Markos had landed and was renting a car. Thinking of the dead watcher in Glasgow, she made sure Tasha was still with him.
“That was your bull?” Robert asked.
Xia blinked at him until she figured out he meant Markos. It was so rudely dismissive to reduce Markos to his animal attribute. Perhaps she should call Robert a lizard and see how he liked it. Maybe not. “My advocate is a minotaur, yes.”
He grunted. “Righto.” Raising his voice, he called out to the room. “If you’ll excuse us, I need a private word with this couple.”
The selkies left with a simple goodbye. Xia tried to thank them, but they waved her off. She noted that none thanked Robert. Magicals still held discomfort over accepting debt.
When they closed the door, Robert said, “You can put your knife down now.”
Xia looked at Adam, unconscious on the table. She thought of the Chamber’s own watcher dead in Glasgow and Markos’s stories of political intrigue. “No. Thanks.”
Robert leaned forward and touched Adam’s bare shoulder. He coughed, moaned, coughed. Leaping to her feet, Xia held her breath. He rolled onto his side, with his back to her.
His voice was rough and low, but so thrilling all the same. “Your wendigo went rogue.”
Robert sighed. “The tragedy is that she didn’t. She had an encoded assignment from the Chamber. It was our own member that was rogue.”
“I don’t believe you sky-hopped here just for us.” Adam’s voice was hard and suspicious. “Why did you come?”
Xia put her hands on his shoulder. Or rather, one hand and one fist-still-clutching-her-athame.
“But I did, my boy. I did come just for you. Your water-bound self, with your dreaming witch who’s dragged strange truths from the heart of Terra, and her fire-bound bull. It’s times like these where I’m quite sure I’m a Christian, for who couldn’t believe in the meddling Yahweh who brings such moments together so neatly?”
He turned and poured a shot of whisky into a coffee mug. He slid it onto the table, and Adam took it, tossed it back. Carefully, he rolled over and sat up, so that his legs hung over the table’s edge to the side of Xia. She looked at him, his eyes clear to her. His gaze drifted down her body, and she became aware she was filthy and bloody and tear-stained and exhausted. It seemed she was always exhausted now. Maybe Terra’s love of sleep would never fade.
“Hello, Rampart,” Xia whispered.
“Hello, Morphi.”
He opened his arms and she stepped up and hugged him tight. He sighed, his nose in her ear, and she bit her lip against new tears.
“Damn, I love dragon magic,” he murmured.
“I need your attention, Prince.” Robert sounded impatient.
She was in the arms of a topless prince. Xia giggled. Adam looked at her strangely and she folded her lips in, clamping them in her teeth.
Adam stood and got his first glimpse of his cottage. His face darkened. Xia felt bad for the mess of his home, but knew that it was generally a matter of hard work to put it right, so considered the battle mostly a success.
Glancing at Xia, he bit out, “Did you need dragon healing as well?”
“No. Well, I mean, I did have it, but it was just little things.”
Adam looked at Robert, who nodded.
“Did you just check with him to see if I lied?” She was outraged.
Adam ignored her. They sat at the ash-and-blood-covered benches and spoke over shots of whisk
y.
“Aqua has woken. She’s not fully awake, but she’s passed from the grip of sleep. Our High Mages have been consulted. They have constructed two rituals to bind Aqua into Aer. Once she is there, Aer’s chaotic and busy nature will see that she’s held for a good long while. Long enough for us to plan for sending her to sleep when they separate.”
Xia smoothed her fingers over the thick shot glass. Her daring, dangerous idea was going forward. Aer was the only element that wasn’t a still sleeper. It was like a sleepwalker or a befuddled elderly family member. Like Aunt Natty. Aer could be worked, but wasn’t reliable because really you were working with a sleep-walking shell.
“The good news is that both are simple rituals that can begin with little preparation, almost immediately. If the first one fails, there is a backup.” Robert smacked his lips over the whisky.
“And the bad news?” Adam asked.
The old dragon rubbed a hand over his face, clearly worried. “The backup is death magic.”
Xia gasped. Whatever happened to the British code of death before dishonor? “We have lived and died by the law against all death sacrifice. It is a primary mandate of Chamber operations.”
Robert stared at her with his orange-star eyes. “The Chamber has already signed the ritual’s grant.”
Putting his mug gently on the table, Adam wiped absently at some drying blood. “You should have no reason to be telling us this. Somehow you’ve made a decision to tie us in. That’s why you used High Magic to come here and help us.”
“You have a new assignment, my old friend.” Robert’s gaze slid to his hands.
Adam’s face was very calm, very flat. “Are you sitting across from me to tell me you’ve saved my life because you want me to give it for the good of the earth?”
“What?” Xia screeched. Slapping her hand on the table, she surged to her feet. Pointing her athame at the dragon she shouted, “No! Never!”
“Don’t point your weapon at me, young miss.” He sounded indignant.
Scowling, she lowered it.
Stroking his finger down his mustache, he nodded at Adam. “Good. I’m glad you feel that way. It will make the alternative seem much less a trial.”
“Xia.” Adam put his hand on the bench.
She sat. Dread and panic still swam together in her blood.
Adam asked, “Do you want to put down your athame?”
“He just insinuated he wants you dead!” Oh Lady, she sounded like a sulky teen.
“Oh, I don’t wish Adam harm. I’m quite fond of the lad.”
“Xia, he could kill me with a touch or eat me in one bite. I know it’s been rough, but set it down now.”
She pouted. “No.”
Adam turned to Robert. “Tell us of the other ritual.”
“The answer, as your intuitive and insightful morphi told us, is steam. We’ll simply use Surrendered Psyche Assignment.”
Xia rolled her eyes. If it was so easy, it would be done. He was hiding something, something he wanted from them.
“And that is?” Adam asked.
“Adam, it’s shamanism 101,” she said.
He looked at her, and it was still a thrill, to see him with open eyes, aware, alive. “And that is?”
Xia frowned at him. “Haven’t you ever meditated on the nature of a seal? And become the seal? Experienced the seal through your eyes, while you were still you? It’s advanced visualization.”
“Our children pretend to be seals.”
Xia glared at him. “You are an elite psychic warrior. Stop playing dumb.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Xia looked at Robert. He looked calmly back.
She gave stupid-talk her best shot. “He’s going to ask someone to become Aqua, like a very deep role-play, and someone to become Ignis, and Ignis will symbolically, magically, press someone representing Aqua into Aer.”
Adam’s head whipped toward Robert. “She just came out of Terra. She’s not going to be subsumed again so soon.”
Robert tutted. “It’s actually the opposite of a subsuming ritual. In that case, the person goes into the element. This calls for a person to draw the element into himself and control it. And it won’t be her. It will be you, Elemental.”
Adam looked at Xia, his jaw clenched. Dear Lord. Robert wanted Adam to invite Aqua inside, to become her.
Quashing the fear and pity that formed, she explained. “This is something all witches do to test elemental affinity. Open yourself up, invite an element in, and see if they’re interested in your brain. One of the reasons I’m such a good morphi is that I have no elemental affinity. I’m like a universal donor. You, with your magic sourced in water, have a bond with her. The ritual will have you invite her in. She’ll become you, if she has reason enough to be interested. If you can stay in control, she’ll be trapped into the ritual via you.”
Xia tossed back her whisky. “The trick will be somehow forcing yourself into discomfort from Ignis. The ritual will require you to mirror the agitation of boiling, so that Aqua will be changed to steam, and given over to Aer.” Xia breathed hard through the burn down her windpipe. Images of Adam being tortured with flickering flames filled her mind. She shook her head once, hard. “Your emotions will affect the pure consciousness of Aqua, dragging her reality into the one we want to create.” Setting the cup carefully on the table, Xia looked at Robert. “I assume there is a spell.”
“Indeed.” Robert inclined his head.
“But, if I’m Aqua or Aqua is in me, how am I going to turn into steam?”
“You won’t have any choice. Ignis will enter the picture, and you won’t leave, so Aqua will become dispersed,” Robert answered.
Xia slammed her athame on the table. “For Lord’s sake, quit dicking with us. Tell us what you’re going to torment him with.”
“Xia,” Adam rebuked.
Robert just chuckled. His indulgence was deep into patronizing now. “It is a reminder that the recently sleepy, earthen witch has also danced with Ignis in the past.”
“And Aqua too. I can do bitch real good.” She stared hard at the Chamber dragon, but he wouldn’t look at her.
“Xia,” Adam growled.
She realized she was breathing too hard. Something unpleasant was coming. He’d wanted to set up death as an option, first. Robert, the coward, kept his eyes on the table. Adam, of course, simply sat, waiting patiently. She clamped her jaw shut and counted, refusing to start screaming like a lunatic at an ancient dragon.
Finally, he decided to tell them. “The spell will use sex magic. The ritual space is enclosed. Aqua’s essence will enter you, Adam. You are in control, but your thoughts and reactions will be influenced by Aqua. Markos will become Ignis. Fire will overtake Aqua, because you will let it. Aqua’s new, altered state will be captured by Aer, which can be controlled by Xia. She will then perform the draining spell, holding Aqua with her hard-earned understanding until the ritual is finished. We will have a new elemental reality, at least for a generation or so.”
Xia stared at Robert with her jaw hanging open.
Adam stared at Robert too. Slowly, he rose, his fists on the table. “You. Are telling me. That to save the world. I must let myself be raped?”
Robert looked just as aghast as she felt. “No! Not at all. It is Xia who can be taken.”
Adam leaned over his fists, jaw jutting forward. “My female must be raped?” His voice was low and vicious.
“No, no. Nothing of the sort. Sit down, boy.”
Adam did, as slowly as he had risen, like if he let himself move too quickly he would attack. Robert bustled over to the stove. He put a pot on it and filled it with a ladle of water. Then he lit the gas flame and kept it high, the blue tendrils licking up the edge of the metal.
“Here is water.” Robert gestured to the pot’s interior. “And here is fire.” He flicked at the flames. “Water prefers its liquid state, but in this location, will not have a choice. If fire is fed and kep
t steady, water will be boiled away. What is the key piece that binds these two elements in this reaction?” He gestured in a circle with his hands at the whole setup.
“The pot,” Adam said cautiously, suspiciously.
“Precisely.” Robert beamed at him, so proud. “Xia is your pot. In your case, as an ambulatory, thinking entity, there is no way you would stay in a situation that was making you uncomfortably”—he fanned the steam wafting from the water—“hot. Your entrapment, your reason for staying, is her.”
“And Ignis will be making me uncomfortable how?”
“Why, fire is just as trapped as you are. Fire is applied in one spot, fed by the gas jet. It must stay and do as it is bid. Fire is focused on the pot, as are you. You both don’t really care about each other. You just dwell on the pot.”
Hands behind his back, he rocked on his heels, delighted. “Sex, my boy. A nice, rousing bout of elemental sex will be the source of this little game. Between fire’s intensity and your emotions for Xia, you will let Ignis take the advantage. Then the pot will spring the trap and drag Aqua into Aer’s keeping.” Robert smoothed his mustache, orange eyes veritably twinkling. “Its very distracted, very dispersed, very busy keeping.”
Xia felt her face burn with a blush. The leader of the Chamber had just ordered her into a ménage. “Surely you must have other, more powerful choices for this ritual.”
“Certainly. But when I realized in our brainstorming session that the pieces were all present in the very team that gave us the idea, I insisted you be given the task. It’s too succinct not to be meaningful. There’s no reason at all the three of you can’t do this. You’re all qualified.”
Oh. How reassuring to know she was qualified to have wild sex with two wild elementals. Silence almost filled the disheveled cottage. But the sound of the waves was constant.
Adam ran his hands through his hair. “Robert.”
“Yes, Prince?”
“Are you wearing my clothes?”
He huffed. “You’re quite welcome for the arrival, battle, and healing that saved your life.”
Adam didn’t even blink at his sarcasm. Blandly, he replied, “That was your mess to clean up, so thank you for doing the right thing. I need some sleep. Badly. Will you be staying?”
