For a long time I was quiet, not knowing what to say to a man who had lived through so much. But I had to work to save this world now and I had to ask him questions. “Why is he here if your world worked for him and his people?”
“I can only guess.” Desmond shook his head. “It’s either for power, or my world must have turned against him, too. It just took a while for it to happen.”
“When I first came to your loft,” I said, “you were afraid. Like you expected this.”
“I was concerned it might happen one day here,” Desmond said. “The Earth Otherworld was his second choice.”
I had so many questions spinning through my mind, so much I didn’t understand.
Desmond walked between the holograms of Otherworld and Yorath, a sparkling wave of light rippling away from his path. He picked up a thick, heavy book that had to be at least a thousand pages off an end table. He rubbed his thumb on the cover. Neurology was written in large letters across the top of the book.
I raised my eyebrows. “Sorcerers use textbooks on the brain?”
Desmond gave a slight smile. “I’ve had twenty years to study the human species and how a norm’s brain functions.” He set the book down with a loud thump on the coffee table. “I have an entire section of my library devoted to it.”
“Science and magic,” I said with wonder.
From a bookcase he selected another thick book, this one with a red cover but no spine. Hand scribed in gold on the cover were runes I didn’t recognize. He opened the book and I smelled old parchment and dust.
The Sorcerer carefully turned a few pages of the book. “I’ve also researched as much as I can on nearly every paranorm race.” The parchment pages were covered with illustrations drawn by hand as well as elegant script I couldn’t read from where I was standing. I wasn’t sure I could read it if I was looking right over his shoulder. “Paranorms have not been brain-mapped in the same manner as norms, but I understand much of how each species’ minds work.”
“Has Sorcerer Amory studied humans and other races of beings in the same way you have,” I asked, “in order to perform such heinous acts against other beings?”
“I do not know.” Desmond carefully closed the book and I heard the soft brush of the parchment pages. “But it is a wise thing to do if the resources are available.”
“How different are paranorms and norms when it comes to the brain?” I asked.
“Even though paranorms and norms appear entirely different,” Desmond answered, “in many ways we’re not so. Our brains function in very similar ways.”
“How exactly does it work,” I asked, “when the Host body is taken over?”
Desmond eased the tall book back into its place on the bookshelf. “The Sentient who takes over the Host body now has access to every part of that person.”
I thought about what the Sorcerer was saying. “So even though the Host’s essence is removed and put into a stone, a part of the being the Sentient possesses is still there?”
“Yes.” He turned away from the bookcase, this time holding a textbook with Memory: Imprints on the Brain in block print on the cover. “The Sentient brings his own knowledge and his personhood to the Host, but he combines that with all of the physical and mental capacities of the person now in the stone. Therefore, the Sentient has total access to their brain, their speech, their physical abilities. They can transition between their own mind and the Host mind at will, conscious of both.”
All I could do was listen to Desmond and try to grasp what he was saying.
“Someone like you, a Tracker with powers of the Dark Elves, would be particularly appealing.” Desmond pushed the book back into its slot. “If your friend Olivia is a Tracker as well, Amory would use someone like her to infiltrate and take over your group. By now he knows what Olivia knows about your structure, your approach to the case. What you are aware of and what you are not. What your leadership structure is. All of it.”
I sucked in my breath. “The Sorcerer taking over the entire team of Trackers would be devastating.”
“Yes,” Desmond said. “Trackers are powerful and could threaten his effort, so you all would be prime targets. By now, if he has been here any length of time, there are government officials that have been taken as well and he knows everything they know.”
“I need to make sure I understand this all correctly,” I said. “As an example, Amory targets someone with intimate knowledge of nuclear weapons, perhaps a scientist. He then has a Sentient take over his target.… To everyone that scientist knew, he would appear to be the same person, someone completely trusted by others in the sense that he was before.”
“Yes,” Desmond said.
“That scientist would actually have the mind of the Sentient,” I said, “but all of the knowledge and access of the scientist. But the scientist himself would be in the stone.”
“Yes, and no one would ever know,” Desmond said. “Your friend Olivia … You could not tell she no longer inhabited her body.”
A slow chill rolled over me. “No, I couldn’t.”
“After his technique is perfected in his targeted world, Amory goes after people of power first. Those in government, law enforcement, military leaders and business leaders. He infiltrates every area of the world.” Amory looked at the floating magical hologram of the Earth Otherworld. “When Amory has his numbers in place, he will enact his plan … from finding Hosts for his Sentients, to genocide of the rest of the human race.
“How he will do that in this world, I don’t know,” Desmond said. “In my world, he wiped them all out. Every one of my people.” Desmond’s voice sounded hoarse. “Once he had tricked me out of my powers, I think he only left me alive so that I would forever be tortured by the memories of the people I love.”
For a long time silence hung between us. “I’m so sorry,” I finally said.
Desmond looked away from me and stared at a painting of a dark forest that hung over the piano. “So am I.”
I took a deep breath. I needed to find out as much as I could even though I hated the pain it obviously caused Desmond. “I have something to show you.”
The Sorcerer turned and studied me as I set my purse on an end table and opened it. I brought out the two cloth-covered stones and started to unwrap one.
Desmond’s face went ashen.
“No.” He stepped back, his hands held up to ward me off. “Put them away. Put them away!”
All of the holographic Otherworlds in the middle of the room sparked and exploded into showers of blue, green, red, and purple as Desmond backed away. The images of the Sorcerer Amory and the two other beings disappeared as well, and then there was nothing. All of the holograms were gone.
Desmond’s eyes looked wild again, like they had back at the loft. “Keep those forsaken stones away from me.”
I stared at him. “This is part of the reason I’m here. The Magi said—”
“Magi.” The Sorcerer started pacing. “Magi, Magi, Magi.” He continued to pace for several moments and scrubbed his hand over his stubbled jaws. “Of course. Of course I’ll help.” He seemed to be having a conversation with himself and his sort-of-Scottish brogue sounded stronger. “There was never a question.”
Desmond came to a full stop. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll take a look at those stones now.” He pointed to the coffee table. “Set them there but do not unwrap them yet.”
I picked up my purse on the end table and held the wrapped stones in my other palm. In addition to the pricking feeling I always got when I touched them, they seemed to weigh me down and my arm felt tired, aching, until I set the stones on the coffee table. They’d felt so heavy that I could imagine them breaking through the wood and landing on the floor with hard thumps.
Desmond closed his eyes for just a moment, then seated himself on the edge of the couch. He gestured for me to sit and I took the closest chair and set my purse on the floor. I leaned forward, my forearms on my thighs and my hands clasped.
&nbs
p; The Sorcerer looked at me with a sad expression. “I am sorry, but I never expected to see one of these again and here you have brought two to me. Just knowing they are here made the memories somehow fresher than before.”
I waited for him to gather himself and tried not to let the feeling of sadness take away from my concentration on what was happening now, in this world.
When I finally spoke, I said, “One is from Otherworld.” I gestured toward the larger of the two still-wrapped stones, then to the smaller one. “The other we got a hold of last night.”
“Have you touched either of them?” Desmond asked.
“The larger one, when I brought it back from Otherworld,” I said. “I haven’t touched it since the Magi gave me the cloths and told me to keep it wrapped.”
“Damn.” The Sorcerer pushed his hand through his wavy hair. “You touched one.” He stood and pointed at me. “I have no choice but to do this.”
Desmond’s finger sizzled green right before he zapped me with a powerful dose of magic. An electrical sensation rolled over my skin. I tried to move but I was frozen in place. It was a helpless feeling and my chest constricted with fear.
My heart pounded. I couldn’t move my lips, much less speak, as he strode over to me. I wanted to pull away, but I couldn’t as he pushed my hair from the left side of my face and looked behind my ear.
He gave what sounded like a sigh of relief. “It must be benign if there was no instant transfer.”
A moment later I could move again.
As he went back to his seat on the couch I straightened in my chair, narrowed my eyes and glared. “Don’t ever do that again, unless you want to be eating one of your own paintings.”
“I needed to make sure you were not a Host since you have touched a stone,” he said.
I was still glaring at him. “Why did you look behind my ear?”
“When a Sentient takes a Host body and removes its essence,” Desmond said, “the entry and exit point are always behind the left ear. Neurologically this is because it is the analytical part of the brain that processes the information it receives and allows the Sentient to take control of the Host.”
Science and Sorcerers. It still took me aback as he explained.
“The fact that you touched a stone can draw the Sentients and Zombies in,” Desmond continued.
“That must have be how the coffee shop attack happened to me and Colin, another Tracker,” I said.
Desmond nodded in agreement. “That is how it happens.”
I tried to process the information he was giving me even as I asked, “So what does this have to do with why you were looking behind my ear?”
“There is always a burn mark behind the left ear where the entry and exit point is,” he said. “When it heals, which is very fast, a scar remains.”
“In the shape of a crescent?” I pictured both Olivia and Candace Moreno. He nodded and I said, “When we were leaving I saw a mark like that behind my partner’s ear.”
He nodded. “That is correct.”
I gestured toward the second stone. “And I noticed one on Candace after she was hit by the truck.”
“Explain.” He looked with a wary gaze at the stone. “Although I have a good idea of what you have here.”
I told him what had happened and about what looked like a real woman in the stone.
Desmond pulled the chain on a Tiffany lamp on an end table. Muted patterns of green, blue, purple, and orange scattered on the coffee table as the light made its way through the lampshade’s colored glass. “Go ahead and unwrap the stones,” he said.
I started with the smaller one and turned it so that the glossy side was facing us. The woman was in the stone just like she had been last night.
Desmond was studying the stone but not touching it. Almost like a doctor examining a patient.
I leaned forward so that my forearms were resting on my thighs again. My eyes met Desmond’s. “She’s in there, isn’t she? The woman’s essence was stolen and put in that stone.”
“Yes.” The Sorcerer’s voice was quiet. “And a Sentient took control of her body.” He moved his gaze from the stone to me. “Where is the Host now?”
“Probably in the infirmary,” I said. “She was hit by a truck and went into a coma. At least I hope she’s still alive.”
“She is,” Desmond said. “Or the stone would be empty. If the Host body dies then the essence dies in the stone as well.”
I thought about Olivia. “What about my partner? Where is the stone that contains her essence? Is it possible to return her to her normal self?”
“Yes, it is possible,” he said. “If you can get the stone back from the Sorcerer in the Doran Otherworld.”
“She’s not here anymore?” My skin went cold. “How do I get to her and bring her home?”
“I have to think on it.” Desmond stood and started pacing again. “I didn’t expect this to happen here so I am unprepared.” He stopped and his expression was serious. “It won’t be easy, but I will do whatever I can to aid you and the people of my adopted world.”
“Thank you.” Thoughts of Olivia made it hard to concentrate on anything else. “How is it that you didn’t hear about the disappearances and the attacks on all the media reports,” I asked.
“When I came here, I chose a lonely life,” he said “I do what I love and I love to paint. It is how I make a living. I visit with very few people and choose not to get involved in this world in any other way. I watch no television nor read any newspapers. So that is why I have missed any reports.”
I drew out my cell phone. “I need to call my boss again.”
When I reached Rodán I explained that I was in Greenwich Village with the Sorcerer, and then I told him about the crescent-shaped burn mark. “Hold on a second,” I said to Rodán.
To Desmond I said, “Wouldn’t the mark heal or go away when a being shifts?” I asked. “Like a Doppler, Shifter, or other being that can transform?”
Desmond shook his head. “It is a permanent mark magically received so it cannot be removed by any means.”
I relayed that information to Rodán. “Check Lawan,” I added. “She was missing for that time period and didn’t call in.”
I told Rodán that I’d be getting back with him again to explain what I was learning about everything that was happening. “The enemy knows all that Olivia would know,” I added. “We have to be on high alert from this point on.”
When I ended the call, I looked at the essence of Candace Moreno. “What’s going on in there with her?”
“Time means nothing to a being when his or her essence is transferred to a stone.” Desmond glanced at Candace. “What will be years to us will be but moments to them. At least they have that.” He picked up the cloth and dropped it over the stone and I couldn’t see Candace anymore. “Like the Magi told you, cover it and keep it safe.”
“If the Sorcerer takes all of the stones,” I asked as I took the cloth and wrapped the stone, “why is this one here?” I slipped the stone into my purse.
“It is likely she had just taken over the Host and had not returned to Amory yet,” Desmond said. “Which would mean she is not sealed by the Sorcerer.”
“You mentioned sealing earlier,” I said, “but I’m not clear on it.”
“Because the Candace Host is probably not sealed, another being could take the place of the Sentient who made Candace her Host,” Desmond said.
“Which probably makes it still dangerous to touch,” I said.
“Yes.” Desmond gestured to the other stone on the table. “Let’s see that one.”
When it was sitting on the table, Desmond was staring at it with shock on his features. “You have a keystone.” He looked at me. “A keystone.”
“That’s what the Magi called it.” My stomach did a little flip from either excitement or concern, I wasn’t sure.
“Incredible.” He leaned forward from his seat on the couch but didn’t touch it. “You obtained this in Other
world?”
I nodded. “I’m not sure how it was found but a Drow Seer kept it all of these years.”
“This stone will help you find a portal to Doran.” Desmond flicked his gaze to me. “It will help you get to the world where your friend’s essence is being kept in a stone.”
“How?” I asked.
“When we’re ready,” he said, “it will show us.”
I thought about that for a moment. “Are you sure?”
Desmond rubbed his jaw again. What hours ago had been a day’s growth of stubble now looked like two days’ worth. “I will show you how it works once you are prepared.”
I told him what happened with the Magi with the keystone. That I’d seen New York City, then a world of incredible beauty with lavender skies, and a man. I described the male I’d seen, one with a featureless face and colorless skin.
Desmond didn’t say anything so I asked, “Where do we go from here?”
“First,” he said, “tell me what’s been happening.”
I started from where I came in—the massacre at Riverside Park, our research on other instances, and even what seemed like ties to the homeless.
“What people are seeing are not homeless people,” Desmond said when I paused. “Zombies and Sentients have been sent here on a mission.”
I gave a frustrated shake of my head. “What is this mission and what is happening?”
“The Sorcerer isn’t just taking Host bodies.” Desmond sighed. “He’s infiltrating this world and he intends to conquer it.”
“That’s impossible,” I said.
He cocked an eyebrow and I was reminded of the conversation with Colin when Desmond said, “Is it?”
“Please continue,” I said.
“Amory and his people are ruthless, aggressive conquerors.” As Desmond told me that Amory’s people had probably been here for months, more and more horror twisted my gut. According to Desmond, Amory and his people were likely busy transforming Hosts and testing the atmosphere.
His expression was grim. “They will and probably have been infiltrating major financial hubs, military, law enforcement, municipal and national governments, and those in control of natural and synthetic resources. As I said earlier, they will take people of influence and power as Hosts first.”
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