Steel and Stone: A Novel in the Alastair Stone Chronicles

by R. L. King

  “I don’t know,” she said. “It depends on what you have to say.”

  “Well…” Why was this so difficult? Life had been a lot easier when he’d had fewer attachments. As it was, there were people he should be talking to that he wouldn’t be talking to—he’d have to count on Verity to make sure word got around if something happened, because he didn’t think he could have this conversation multiple times. “I’ve made a decision.”

  “What kind of decision?”

  Her tension showed clearly in her aura; she’d never learned to hide it from Stone, even though she was normally quite good at concealing her feelings from others. “About something I need to do. And since it’s going to affect you—and I need your help—I need to tell you about it.”

  “What are you talking about? You need my help? With what?”

  As almost always happened when he was agitated about something, Stone found it impossible to remain still. He rose in an explosive motion and began pacing the room. “Remember the last time you—stayed over—and I mentioned that I was having a difficult time coping with being a black mage?”

  “Yeah.” Her expression stilled and grew fearful. “Doc, you’re not thinking about—anything drastic, are you?”

  “No. No, of course not,” he said quickly, then amended: “Well…yes, actually. But not the way you think.”

  She got up, dumping Raider out of her lap, and came to him, gripping his arm. “What are you talking about? Tell me.”

  “I—” He pulled away from her, walked to the window, and pushed open the heavy drapes. The sun hadn’t gone down yet; on the sidewalk in front of the townhouse two boys whizzed by on skateboards, followed a few moments later by a young couple deep in conversation. Stone watched them until they passed out of his field of view, marveling as he often did at how normal life could be just outside the window, oblivious to the turmoil behind it. He wondered how many of the other houses along his street concealed similar turmoil he’d never know anything about. “I’ve been thinking quite a lot about what Harrison said.”

  “You mean about having the means to find him?”

  “Yes.”

  He heard her breath catch. “You figured it out? You know how to find him?”

  “I think so, yes.”

  Footsteps, and then she was next to him. “Tell me. How?”

  “I’ve got to go where he is. Or at least where I think he is. That’s why I need your help.”

  “Wow. Uh…Yeah. Of course I’ll help. I’ll come with you. Just give me a day or so to talk to—”

  “No, Verity.” He gripped her arm with gentle pressure, touched in spite of himself by how quickly and readily she’d volunteered to accompany him on a dangerous and unknown errand. “No. I don’t want you to go with me.”

  “Well…what, then? How are you going to find him? What did you figure out?”

  “As I said, I thought again about what he said. ‘If he ever truly wants to find me, he already possesses the means to do it.’ It’s been driving me mad ever since you told me about it—I felt as if it should be obvious, but it wasn’t. Until three weeks ago.”

  He turned to face her fully. “I know how to find him, because I’m already using the energy from where he is.”

  “Huh?”

  “The way I use the magic he taught me—I open a conduit to another dimension and pull the power from it. I thought for the longest time that the place it came from was nothing more than a vast well of energy—that it would be insane and suicidal to ever attempt to travel there. I thought it would be like trying to teleport into the sun.”

  Stone released his grip and began pacing again. “I don’t think so anymore, though. It’s the only thing that makes sense, based on what he said—that wherever he’s getting the power, that’s where he is. And if I can get there, if I can find him, then I can convince him to teach me how to channel the energy properly.” He flashed her a rather manic grin. “Don’t you see? I won’t have to take power from anyone else anymore, because I’ll have all the power I could possibly want.”

  She stared at him. “So…you want to just…go to some other dimension, without having any idea what you’ll find when you get there? Did you find it already? You know how to get there?”

  “Yes. I’ve already worked out the ritual and set up the circle. I’ve double-checked it several times over the last couple of weeks. It’s as solid as I know how to make it.”

  “How do you know? How did you find it?”

  “That was what Harrison meant about already possessing the means to find him. I already access that dimension to pull power from it. If I can access it, I already know how to reach it. The only trick was figuring out how to reverse-engineer the process to get myself there, instead of pulling the power from there.”

  “So…” she said slowly, “if you don’t want me to go with you, then what do you want me to do?”

  And now came the hard part. No matter how he said it, how carefully he worded it, she wasn’t going to react well. He knew that. Best to just have it out, then, he supposed. “I…need you to take care of things for me here, if…it doesn’t go well.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, ‘if it doesn’t go well’?”

  “Verity…” He let his breath out. “You know as well as I do that traveling between dimensions is never easy or without risk, and the outcome is never certain. Any number of things could go wrong. I could be wrong in my interpretation, and the place I go might end up being nothing more than a well of energy. I could end up in the wrong place, and not be able to get back. Hell, I might find Harrison and something could go pear-shaped while I try learning how to channel the power.” He looked back out the window. “There are more ways this could go wrong than go right. And if they do…I’ve got a lot of obligations here. I can’t simply disappear. I need someone who will tell the right people what happened, and see to—things.”

  “Things.” She took his arm and turned him back around. Her eyes were hard. “You mean like telling people you’re dead.”

  “Yes. Dead or…not coming back. And see to any—arrangements that need to be made. I’ve got my wills—magical and mundane—in order. If anything happens, go to England and find Ward and Eddie. The wills are with a man named Atthill—the contact info is in the desk in my study at the Surrey house. Aubrey can show you where. I’ve arranged with the University that I’m planning an extended research trip, in case I end up needing to be away for a long time. Even if I find Harrison and he agrees to teach me, I’m sure it will still take time. They didn’t like it, but with the new endowment providing money for research, they can’t exactly argue with me about it. And I’ll need someone to look after Raider, of course; I assume I can count on you for that?”

  Her face could have been carved from rock, for all the expression she showed.

  “Verity?”

  “Let me get this straight,” she said in a low, even tone. “You’re planning to go off and do something that will probably get you killed, and you want me to take care of your cat and let your friends know you’re dead so they can go find your will?”

  “Verity—”

  “Why?” she demanded. “Why are you doing this?”

  “I told you already. I’ve got to do it. I can’t live this way any longer. Not without at least trying something else.”

  “So you’re telling me you’d rather go off and try some crazy plan that will probably get you killed than to learn how to live with taking power from Jason?”

  His heart pounded. His thoughts whirled. “I’m telling you,” he said, in the same even tone she’d used, “that it’s more than that. If that’s all it was, I’d do it. I wouldn’t like it, but we all have to deal with things we don’t like. But Verity, I nearly killed someone. Even if Acantha was justifiable—and I don’t regret what I did there, not at all—Tate wasn’t. If Blum hadn’t been there to stop me, I’d have killed him, and I didn’t have to. I could have stopped him without killing him, but once I start
ed, I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop.” He shook his head. “I won’t risk that again. Not if I have an alternative.”

  She glared at him for several seconds without replying. “Okay, then,” she said at last. “I want to come with you.”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because this isn’t your problem. I’m not dragging someone else along with me in this. Either I’m right and I’ll find him—either he’ll agree to teach me or he won’t—or I’m wrong, in which case, there’s no way I’m risking your life, or anyone else’s. That’s not negotiable.”

  She whirled away from him. “Damn, but you can be maddening sometimes. You know that, right?”

  “More than one person has told me that, yes,” he said dryly.

  “This isn’t funny,” she snapped, spinning back. Her voice shook and her aura erupted with billows of red agitation. Tears glittered in the corners of her eyes, though Stone couldn’t tell whether they were tears of anger, frustration, sadness, or all three. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to take this kind of risk. I’ll help you. Jason will. Ward and Eddie, and Aubrey—they all will. You can do this.”

  Stone took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and settled his gaze on her. When he spoke, his voice held no inflection. “Verity…you aren’t my apprentice anymore. There’s nothing I can say to force you to do anything. All I can do is ask. Can I count on you in this, or do I need to find someone else to do it?”

  For a moment, he didn’t think she’d answer. The way her aura looked, he wouldn’t have been surprised if she simply walked out and slammed the door in his face. She held his gaze for several seconds, long enough to show him without any ambiguity that she wasn’t in favor of this and she wasn’t backing down. “Yeah,” she finally said in a dead tone. “You can count on me.”

  “Thank you,” he said softly. He pulled a card from his wallet and offered it to her. “I’ve set up a bank account and given you access to it, for any expenses that might come up. I’ve already made arrangements with my accountant to take care of the rent on the house, the bills, and all that sort of thing, so you shouldn’t have much to do. I’ve no idea how long I’ll be gone—even if this works, I doubt it will be quick. Thank you, Verity.”

  “Yeah.” Once again, she looked as if she might simply leave, but instead she came over and put her arms around him. “Take care, Doc,” she whispered. “Come back, okay?”

  “That’s the plan.”

  “Yeah, but you know your plans almost never work out like you want them to.” She tightened the embrace, then stepped back to take him in. “When are you going to do it?”

  “I thought tomorrow. No point in waiting.”

  “Can I watch the ritual?”

  “Best if you don’t, I think. There’s nothing you can do to help.”

  “That doesn’t matter. I’d just like to—see you off. That way at least I’ll know nothing went wrong at the start.”

  He studied her a moment. “I suppose if you want to, then. If you’ll give me your word you’ll just watch.”

  “What, you mean instead of doing something to mess up the ritual so you won’t be able to do this stupid thing?” She sighed. “Yeah, I promise.”

  “Right, then. Tomorrow night.” He paused, and when he spoke again he heard a hesitation in his voice that hadn’t been there before. “Would you like to…stay tonight?”

  She, too paused. “I don’t think so,” she said softly. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Doc.”

  3

  When she arrived the following evening, he half-expected her to have someone with her—most likely Jason, though he wouldn’t have put it past her to take the portal to England and bring back Eddie Monkton or Arthur Ward in an attempt to talk some sense into him.

  But no, she was alone. She didn’t even have any grocery bags with her this time.

  “Hi,” he said, stepping aside to let her in.

  “Hi.”

  Raider stopped threading himself around Stone’s legs and looked hopefully up at Verity. She bent to pick him up, scratching his ears until he purred.

  “He’ll be in good hands, I see, until I get back,” Stone said. “No secret he prefers you to me anyway. He’ll probably consider it a holiday.”

  “So, you’re still planning to do this.”

  “Are you surprised?”

  “I was hoping you’d reconsider.”

  “I…can’t, Verity. I know you don’t understand that, but—I can’t. I’ve got to do this.”

  She set Raider on a nearby chair. “Did you even try to call?”

  “What?”

  “Harrison. Did you even try to call the Obsidian first, to see if he might be there?”

  Stone blinked. He hadn’t tried that. “Er—”

  “I’ll take that as a no.” She pointed at the phone. “At least humor me that much. Maybe you don’t even have to go. That’s what I’m talking about, Doc—why you need to not do this kind of thing on your own. You can’t think of everything, and sometimes it’s the obvious stuff you miss.”

  Sheepishly, heart thudding, Stone picked up the phone and pulled the Obsidian’s number from his wallet. Was Verity right? Had he missed some other vital bit of his planning because he was too close to the situation, too emotionally involved? Could he avoid this entire process with a simple phone call?

  The hotel’s operator answered, and at his request connected him with Nakamura’s office. Harrison’s assistant answered quickly. “Yes, this is Nakamura.”

  “Mr. Nakamura. Alastair Stone.”

  “Ah. Good evening, Dr. Stone. How are you?”

  “I’m looking for Mr. Harrison. He doesn’t happen to be there, does he? Have you seen him recently?”

  In the moment before Nakamura replied, Stone allowed himself hope. The man’s next words quickly dashed it, though. “I’m sorry, Dr. Stone, but I’m afraid not. I haven’t seen him for quite some time. Is something wrong?”

  “No…nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to discuss something with him. You don’t expect him back anytime soon, do you?”

  Nakamura made a sound that might have been a rueful chuckle. “You must know by now, Dr. Stone, that one doesn’t expect Mr. Harrison. He shows up without warning, and leaves just as quickly. I wish I could be of more help. Do you want to leave a message for him, in case he does show up?”

  “No…no, it’s—nothing important. Thank you, Mr. Nakamura. Have a good evening.”

  As he hung up, he glanced at Verity. Her expression told him she’d gotten the message.

  “Hey, it was worth a try,” she said, looking disappointed.

  “It was.” He gripped her shoulder. “Don’t look so upset. This might turn out to be far less complicated than I expect. If I can find him, perhaps I can convince him to come back here and teach me. I might not even be gone that long.”

  “If you get there at all.” She bent to pet Raider, who was making circuits around her legs. “What if he won’t teach you? Have you thought about that? What if he says, ‘Sorry, but that stuff I sent you is all you’re getting’?”

  “I’ll deal with that if it happens. I’m hoping we can make some kind of arrangement. He’s a businessman—there’s got to be something I can offer him.” He nodded toward the stairs. “But come on—you’re stalling, and I want to do this before I lose my nerve.”

  “Can’t blame me for taking a shot, can you?”

  Without replying, Stone picked up Raider, holding the cat up to stare into his big green eyes. “Now, listen, Raider: you’re in charge while I’m gone. You take care of Auntie Verity, and I don’t want to find out you’ve been throwing wild parties while I’m away. Got it?”

  Raider’s only answer was to tilt his head forward and lick Stone’s nose.

  Stone swallowed hard and pulled the cat in for a hug. Warm and purring, Raider settled into the crook of his arm.

  “He doesn’t want you to go either,” Verity said.


  No more stalling. Get on with it, or you never will. Gently, he set the tabby down on the nearest chair and headed for the stairs. “Come on, if you’re coming.”

  He didn’t turn back to see if she’d followed, but after a moment he heard her slow, reluctant footsteps behind him.

  “Wow,” she said, stopping just inside the doorway to the ritual room. “You have been busy.”

  He’d used nearly every inch of available floor space in the construction of the ritual; he’d even had to push some of the bookshelves to one end of the room. He stood next to her, trying to take it in with the fresh eyes of someone seeing it for the first time. One last check—he couldn’t afford any complacency, or to take anything for granted.

  The semi-permanent circle he’d created many years ago served as the basis for his work, but even that had been altered with additional chalk lines, arrangements of candles, braziers, crystals on stands, small mirrors, and carefully drawn sigils of sand and other powders. From that circle, he’d extended the design outward, augmenting the circle’s original seven-foot diameter to nearly twelve feet. Most of the additional work had been done with chalk and various colors of sand and powdered minerals, but he heard Verity’s gasp as she spotted some of the intricate work he’d done near the outer edges. “Is that…blood?”

  “Yes. And before you ask, yes, it’s my own, supplemented by a technique to extend it and keep it magically viable for a longer period. It would be easier if I had some of Harrison’s blood too, but…that would rather defeat the whole purpose of the thing, wouldn’t it?”

  She pointed at the most unusual aspect of the circle. “What’s with the doorway?”

  Stone studied it. It was a simple, sturdy wooden door in a frame, which he’d purchased from Restoration Hardware last week. Both the heavy door and the frame were made of dark walnut; he had attached a stand that allowed it to remain upright without additional bracing. The door stood on the north side of the circle. Currently closed, it displayed additional sigils he had painted on it in white paint mixed with his blood. “You should be able to work that out on your own.”