Mortal Imperative: An Alastair Stone Urban Fantasy Novel (Alastair Stone Chronicles Book 24)

by R. L. King

  “Oi,” he protested, mock-glaring at her. “I’ll have you know my pants are exactly where they’re supposed to be. And so are my trousers.”

  “Okay, fair enough.” She tightened the hug again. “Just…don’t worry about Aubrey. If you want, I’ll take a surreptitious look at him next time I’m over there, and see if there’s anything I can do. I doubt it—you know magic sucks with diseases—but maybe I can do something to slow things down. I’ll talk to Edna and Hezzie, too.”

  “That would be…brilliant,” he murmured. “Thank you, Verity.”

  She pulled back. “Right now, though, you’d better get back to Eddie and Ward. I’m really not in favor of this whole crazy scheme, but if you insist on doing it, I want all of you focused on doing the best research you can.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he murmured. He leaned forward and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll call you soon. Do me a favor and chuck something at Ian on the way out, will you? I want him coherent for this as well.”

  31

  As far as his friends were concerned, Stone hadn’t had any second thoughts about this plan they’d put together to find Brathwaite’s echo and Miriam Padgett.

  At least that’s what he thought. If they did, they weren’t giving any indication of it. But they did all look nervous.

  And he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t having a few second thoughts.

  It was early afternoon the next day, but it was hard to tell because there were no windows in the basement. All the light in the large room came from the large number of candles set up on stands around the perimeter of the twenty-foot circle.

  Stone paced around it, examining the intricate symbols, sigils, and patterns that made up its design. He could see vestiges of a standard tracking circle in there, but complexity-wise, it was the magical equivalent of comparing a children’s book with a scientific text.

  The research, as well as the circle design, had taken longer than he’d hoped. He’d returned to Caventhorne the previous day and joined Eddie and Ward in their studies, but several issues had plagued them.

  The simplest was extending the range. A single-person ritual, even when conducted with Stone’s level of power, had a range that was far too limited to be useful in this case. Even if they packed up and found somewhere near the Atlanta portal to perform it, there was too much chance their targets would be outside the area the spell covered. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but Eddie and Ward both insisted that, if Stone was going to serve as the tether object, they only wanted to do this once.

  “There’s no way around it,” Eddie said soberly. “It’s gonna hurt. Probably a lot. There’s no way I’m gonna put you through that multiple times as we triangulate on the right spot. No arguments, Stone.”

  Stone didn’t argue. He wasn’t keen on the idea himself. Fortunately, the way rituals worked gave them an advantage: each person added to it increased its power to a significant degree. With five of them, they should be able to reach far enough to find Brathwaite even if he and Richter had returned to Europe.

  The problem was, tracking rituals were usually single-person affairs, so the first task was to redesign one to allow multiple participants.

  That didn’t prove to be a hard task. Eddie came through for them, remembering some old reference material back at the London library that covered just that. It was mostly theory, but they managed to get enough out of it to be confident their alterations would prove effective.

  The second, and much more difficult, challenge had been to coordinate using multiple tether objects in the same ritual—especially since they pointed at two different people.

  “You realize,” Eddie said, “if the echo and Padgett aren’t in the same place—or if you’re wrong and Brathwaite’s echo isn’t involved in this at all—the ritual could fail.”

  “I know. But I don’t think they’re far away from each other.” He hoped he was right.

  The final, and by far the most difficult, phase of the ritual design was figuring out how to safely use a living being as a tether object. It had been done before, usually with the target’s pet or, if the casters cared more about finding the target than about human life, the target’s child or other relative, but in every case Eddie and Ward could find, the living tether died during the ritual.

  “I don’t like this at all,” Ward had said. “We haven’t got time to do the necessary calculations to make sure this will work. It’s too dangerous, Stone.”

  “I trust you two,” he told them. “You’re some of the best and most meticulous magical researchers I know. And we already know how to design rituals so the tether’s not destroyed.”

  “Those are objects, though,” Eddie protested. “Not people.”

  Stone sighed. He didn’t see a way around telling his friends something to reassure them, or they would refuse to continue. Eddie, especially, could be more stubborn than a convention of mules if he dug his heels in on something.

  It was already getting late, and all of them were tired. If they didn’t finish this up soon, they wouldn’t have time to rest before the ritual the next day, and that was a bad idea.

  “Look,” he said, regarding them from across the antique wooden table in the Caventhorne hall. “I need to ask you to trust me on something.”

  “What?” Both of them looked at him with a combination of curiosity and suspicion.

  “I can’t tell you everything. I wish I could, but I’ve made promises to certain people that I can’t break.”

  Eddie’s eyes narrowed. “Is this related to ’ow you’re gettin’ over ’ere so fast all of a sudden?”

  “It…is, yes. Sort of, anyway. Possibly.”

  They glared at him. It wasn’t hard to see the wheels turning in both their heads. Part of what made them so good at their jobs was their burning curiosity, and Stone could tell it was burning stronger than ever as they tried to work this out.

  “All right,” Eddie said, shaking his head. “Let’s ’ear it.”

  He swallowed, and looked down at the ancient, weathered page in front of him. “I’m not kidding—I can’t tell you all of it. So please don’t ask. But let’s just say I’m quite confident that I’m significantly harder to kill these days than I was before.”

  Their eyes widened. “What are you talking about?” Ward demanded.

  “It’s the truth. I’ve got multiple instances of proof—at least three, spread over the last couple of years. Times when I should have died, but I didn’t. Before you ask, I don’t know exactly what’s caused it. Believe me, I’ve been trying to work it out. It might be a confluence of things. But regardless, it’s true. That’s why I’m not as worried as you are about something going wrong with the ritual.”

  The two of them exchanged glances. “You can’t just drop somethin’ like that on us, Stone,” Eddie protested. “You’ve got to tell us somethin’.”

  He let his breath out as, in his mind’s eye, a whole crowd of worms wriggled merrily out of their can and streaked away into the late-afternoon sun. “I can’t tell you much. Some of it’s related to what happened on another dimension. Some of it might be because of some things that happened to me shortly after I was born. Some might be connected to my bloody strange family history. I don’t know. But regardless, we haven’t got time to go into it right now. That’s why I’m asking you to trust me. I trust you. I know you’ll do your best to make sure everything goes well. But I hope telling you this might boost your confidence a bit—give you a larger margin of error.”

  Eddie looked at Ward again, then at Stone, and finally at the papers spread in front of him. “You realize you’ve just mucked this up about ten times more, right?”

  “I know. I understand, and I’m sorry. But we’ve got to do this. We’ve got to stop Richter and Brathwaite, and we’ve got to save my friends. This is the only way I know how to do that. So…” He shot them both a look that was imploring and a little desperate. “Will you trust me and let’s get on with this?”

  The silence
hung in the air as unspoken communication passed between Eddie and Ward.

  “You’re sure of this?” Eddie finally asked.

  Stone shrugged. “Not a hundred percent sure. As I said, it’s happened before, and more than once. Will it happen in this case? I’ve got no idea. So I still don’t want you taking any chances. But I’m willing to trust it. And you.”

  His friend’s severe gaze settled on him. “You’re not givin’ us much chance to think this over, mate.”

  “I know. And I’m sorry. But I’ve got to know now. If you won’t go along with this, I’ve got to work out another plan.”

  “And you’ll do it too,” Eddie said wearily. “I guess it’s better to ’ave you where we can keep an eye on you.” He sighed again. “Okay. I’m in. On one condition.”

  “What’s that?”

  “If we manage to get through this without you goin’ up like a torch, you’ve got to promise you’ll tell us more about this…thing of yours.”

  Ward nodded agreement.

  Stone knew that was the best he was going to get. “Fine. Fine. I’ll tell you what I can. But it’s not going to be everything. If you can live with that, I agree.”

  Eddie looked at Ward. “Ward? You good wit’ that?”

  “No. But that doesn’t matter. He’s not going to agree to anything else, and you’re right—if he’s intent on doing this, better with us than without us.”

  Stone gave them a tired smile. “Thanks, you lot. I know I’m a right pain in the arse, but I do appreciate your help.”

  “Just don’t get your brain scrambled and forget what you said about Desmond’s cellar,” Eddie said. “Because we are definitely holdin’ you to that part.”

  The rest of them gathered in the basement, all of them looking sober and uneasy about what was going to occur. As Verity, Jason, Amber, and Ian sat on various chairs and sofas, avoiding the area near the portal, and Stone paced like a caged cat, Eddie and Ward explained what was to happen.

  “Okay,” Eddie said. Dressed in his East Ham football jersey and jeans, he was back to looking more like a sports hooligan than a respected magical researcher. “’Ere’s what we’re gonna do today.” He pointed back toward the circle. “Ward, Verity, Ian, and I are gonna stand at the four cardinal points of the circle.” He indicated the spot in the circle’s center, which was much larger than normal for a tracking circle. Three objects lay inside: on the east side, Brathwaite’s box with the broken bones of the cat-thing inside; to the west, Miriam Padgett’s red doll dress, inside a bronze brazier; in the center, a cushion taken from a chaise longue. “Stone, as the main focus of the ritual, will be in the middle, gettin’ comfy and grumblin’ about the fact that ’e can’t be actively involved in this thing.”

  “I’m counting on you lot,” Stone grumbled.

  “Each of us will have a role in the ritual,” Ward said. “Verity, Ian, have either of you ever participated in a multi-person ritual before?”

  “Never more than two,” Verity said. “And that was a while ago. A refresher would be good.”

  “Not me,” Ian said. “My ritual knowledge isn’t great.”

  “That’s fine,” Ward said. “You’ll have the simplest job, but one of the most important: you’ll be providing raw power.”

  Ian grinned. “That I’ve got.”

  “That you do,” Stone agreed.

  “You’ll need to ’ave control over it,” Eddie reminded him. “We’re not talkin’ fire-’ose ’ere. You’ll need to keep the power levels strong and steady, so we can focus on our part.”

  “I can do that. Don’t worry.”

  “Verity,” Ward said, turning to face her. “Your job will be twofold. First of all, you’ll help us gather the energy and direct it toward searching for our targets. Second, and more importantly, since your specialties are healing and aura-based magic, you’ll be responsible for monitoring Stone. Make sure everything is all right, and if you see anything worrisome, say something.”

  Verity nodded soberly, with a glance toward Stone. “I got this. I won’t let anything happen to him.”

  “Don’t be too cautious,” Stone warned her. “I mean it. I can handle this. I don’t want the ritual to end up failing because you’re worried about my blood pressure.” He fixed his gaze on her. “Can I count on you, Verity?”

  She didn’t look happy about it, but she nodded. “Yeah. I know how important this is. And you know I want to get Brathwaite as much as you do.” Her expression hardened. “But if I see anything serious, I’m calling it.”

  “Brilliant,” Eddie said. “That’s what I needed to ’ear.” He paced back and forth across the front of the circle. “Okay. So this isn’t gonna be quite like a standard tracking ritual. First of all, obviously our number-one priority’s got to be keeping Stone safe. Second, we’ve got three tether objects instead of just one. And third, we’ve got to increase our range by a potentially immense amount. All that means there’s gonna be a lot of energy flyin’ around inside that circle, so everybody’s got to stay focused.” He turned to Jason and Amber. “That’s where you two come in. I bet you thought you could just sit back with a bottle o’ wine and a bucket o’ popcorn and watch the show, right?”

  “Uh…kinda,” Jason said. “What can we do? We’re not exactly a big help in the magic department.”

  “No,” Stone said, “but you don’t need to be. You’re security. Once the ritual starts, the participants are going to be one hundred percent focused on maintaining the spell and managing the energy. I won’t be any help because I’ve got to stay still and not distract anybody. That leaves you two to make sure nothing threatens the ritual from the outside.”

  Amber narrowed her eyes. “Do you expect it to?”

  “Not at all. Frankly, if there are any problems, they’re almost certain to be magical. But I’ll feel better knowing you’re keeping an eye on the mundane world. Just in case.”

  “We’re on it,” Jason said firmly. “If anything tries to come in here, we’ll take care of it.”

  “Brilliant.” Stone stretched, running his hand through his hair. “Shall we get on with it, then? The sooner we track them, the sooner we can go where they are and end this mess once and for all.” He took a drink from a bottle of water on a nearby table, then levitated himself across the circle and settled onto the cushion. “I trust all of you. You’re all bloody good mages, and I’ve seen the design for this ritual. It’s solid. Everybody just do your jobs, and we’ll be done with this before you know it.”

  “Oh,” Eddie said, looking even more sober than before. “And I’ve got to make sure everybody knows one more bit before we start.” He settled his gaze on Stone. “There’s no way around it—this is gonna ’urt, Stone.”

  “I know. I’m ready for it.”

  “I just want to make sure everybody else knows it, so they won’t be surprised at what they see. The energy we’re gatherin’ is gonna have to get right inside him, which isn’t gonna be at all pleasant. But if we do this right, it won’t do any permanent damage.”

  “Yes, so don’t any of you lot get too worked up over it,” Stone said firmly. “It’s got to happen if we’re going to find them. I’m counting on you to make this as easy as possible.”

  Ward, Verity, Ian, Jason, and Amber exchanged uncomfortable glances.

  “Places, everyone,” Eddie called.

  The three other mages moved with some reluctance to their spots around the circle.

  “Okay,” Eddie said, all business now. “Let’s start powerin’ up the circle, slow and steady. There’s no need to rush this. The foundation’s got to be strong before we can move on to the next stage.” He raised his hands and began reciting the incantation in a calm, measured tone.

  A moment later, Ward, Verity, and Ian all took up the chant, their voices blending into harmony.

  Inside the circle with nothing else do to, Stone switched to magical sight. All around him, arcane power began to grow, feeding on the ley line that stretched throu
gh the house. He couldn’t see all four of the participants from his position—Eddie was directly behind him—but he watched in satisfaction as the swirling, multicolored magical energy grew and shaped itself into the familiar ordered lines. The four practitioners had things well under control. His friends and his son were good.

  He glanced to either side, still using magical sight, looking at Brathwaite’s box and Padgett’s doll dress in the brazier. Energy swirled around both of them, the former a bruised purple, the latter a soft pink, as they were each brought into the tapestry of the spell.

  So far, the energy hadn’t touched Stone. He would be the last, most delicate, and most important part of the ritual to bring in, so it was necessary to have everything else under control before it was his turn.

  The energy continued roiling around the two other tether objects. As Stone kept watching, tendrils began snaking upward from each of them. They didn’t shoot through the ceiling, though, as they would have in a more typical ritual. Instead, they hovered above their respective objects as if waiting for something else to happen.

  Which was exactly what they were waiting for. Eddie and the others continued to drone softly on, the incantation and the force of their wills holding the growing energy in place. Ian’s purple-and-silver aura blazed brighter than the others, pouring more power into the working, and Stone smiled with pride at the strong mage his son was already becoming.

  Any minute now, they would be drawing Stone in. He lay back, staring up at the ceiling and the energy above his head, taking deep breaths. It would be easier for the participants to do this if he made no attempt to resist, or even to aid, their efforts.

  You’re the tether, he reminded himself. They’re doing all the work.

  He hoped he was right, that Brathwaite’s time in control of his body had forged a connection between them. If this went as they’d planned, it would be easier for the energy to swirl around inside him and do its work if he didn’t do anything to try impeding it.

  That was easier said than done, though. The human body had a natural reluctance to letting in outside influences, and that was even more true for a mage’s body. Stone would have to use all his concentration to hold back his formidable natural defenses.