Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser Series Book 5)

by Doidge, Meghan Ciana

  “The healer has a vehicle parked nearby,” Warner said, interrupting the biting retort I was formulating.

  “It bothers me, warrior’s daughter,” Qiuniu said. “Not only that this task falls to you … and the sentinel. But also that it brings you to my territory.”

  I nodded. I knew now what it felt like to have your home invaded, or even to house a potentially lethal weapon under your roof.

  “It bothers me more that I cannot accompany you,” the healer continued. “I’m considering defying the treasure keeper’s … assessment of the situation.”

  Warner’s shoulders tightened, then he forced himself to relax. “You have felt the magic of an instrument, guardian,” he said.

  Qiuniu turned his gaze from me to Warner. In this setting, he looked almost human. I guess he fit here. Or perhaps, surrounded by the magic of the grid point, his demigod status was lessened somehow.

  “I have, sentinel,” Qiuniu said. “I don’t see you fearing the possibility of feeling such again.”

  “It’s my duty.”

  “It’s my territory.”

  I glanced back and forth between Warner and the healer. “Geez, guys. We don’t even know for sure it’s here. Or, rather, where it is in Peru.”

  “Yes. It also bothers me that this … dragon could be in my territory without my permission … or sensing.” The healer closed his eyes and lifted his chin up as if listening intently.

  “Guardians can sense magic in their territories? Not just demon summonings?” I asked Warner, momentarily forgetting I was being pissy with him. “Like how Suanmi found us in London? She felt Sienna’s triple demon summoning.”

  “Only great amounts,” Warner answered. “Massive summonings or incursions. The child is not so powerful, healer. She walks unhindered because we hesitated to harm her and she resisted our offers of aid.”

  “She’s not big on the idea of returning to the nexus,” I added.

  Qiuniu opened his melted-milk-chocolate eyes and smiled at me. It wasn’t a pleasant smile — so that when my heart skipped a beat, it came with a wash of fear, not any sort of attraction. “You have my permission to return her as you see fit, Jade Godfrey.”

  Magic, called forth from his words, hung in the air between us. Reminding me of the life debt I’d offered to the healer and he hadn’t accepted … yet.

  I nodded. His ‘permission’ settled over my shoulders, and I automatically absorbed the magic into my necklace.

  Well, that was new.

  “I leave reluctantly,” the healer said, brushing by me before I could speak. He touched my shoulder lightly as he passed, leaving a kiss of his magic there — though I wasn’t sure he’d done so deliberately.

  The portal opened and the healer walked through, taking the comforting, buoyant, and warm portal magic with him.

  I turned back to find Warner squinting at me. His body language and expression were at the edge of pissed off, but not full-on glaring.

  I flashed him a blinding smile.

  “Don’t fake smile at me, Jade Godfrey,” he said. Then he marched off in the direction Qiuniu had indicated.

  Behind his back, my smile tempered into something heartfelt. The sentinel was jealous of Qiuniu. So though I might be having trouble getting him there, he did want to be in my bed.

  “So,” I said to Warner’s broad shoulders, “what was that? A ‘get out of jail free’ card?”

  “I’m not sure what a ‘jail free card’ is. But yes, I believe the sentiment is apt.”

  “Monopoly,” I said. “A human board game.”

  “A game you play while you’re bored?”

  “Yeah,” I answered with a laugh. “I guess so.”

  Warner didn’t ask any more questions, so I glanced around. It wasn’t as crazy cold as I’d expected it would be, based on Warner’s caution. But I wasn’t going to be unzipping my coat anytime soon. Sunshine reflected off the huge, clear, light-blue lake. With only patches of snow on their craggy peaks, the mountains didn’t look at all like the North Shore Mountains. But I had a feeling that was because we were standing in the middle of the range, as opposed to looking up at the mountains from below. The view was breathtaking but barren.

  “So you think Qiuniu has a house here?” I asked.

  “Most likely nearby.” As Warner glanced over his shoulder, I caught sight of a couple of single-storey buildings at the edge of the lake in front of him.

  “What is that? A farm?”

  Warner shook his head. “I’m not sure what you could farm at this altitude.”

  “Llamas, maybe.”

  Warner laughed but didn’t comment further. I’d slowly been figuring out that the sentinel wasn’t actually all that much more worldly than I was. He knew a ton about dragons, magic, and duty. I’d even seen him get the better of the sword master in training — once. But other things were completely new to him. He just figured everything out a hell of a lot quicker than me.

  Now that we were closer, the simply constructed but well-maintained buildings appeared to be two-car garages. Their siding was painted a light blue that almost matched the lake, while their roofs were unpainted aluminum without a speck of rust. Both were also protected by a ward of some kind, and based on the residual coffee taste of its magic, it had been constructed by Qiuniu.

  “Warner,” I said.

  “I feel it.” The sentinel wrapped his fingers around the plain steel handle of the nearest double garage door, then waited.

  The taste of the coffee magic intensified, then abated. The door clicked open.

  “Keyless entry,” I said. “Handy magic. Though I’m not sure how the healer knew to key it to you specifically.”

  “He didn’t. Any dragon who walked here would need to access it.”

  The garage was protected by a different spell than we’d seen in Haoxin’s apartment. But that was a place we’d already gained entry to by way of a portal, so we simply had to remind the wards we were allowed to return. I had something similar on the alley door that led to the bakery, but Gran, Scarlett, Kandy, and I were the only ones who could use it.

  Warner swung open the double doors to reveal a silver Mercedes SUV. Yeah, after driving around London with Kett, I now recognized the logo enough to know that much. It had been used recently enough that it was still splattered in dried mud. It was also coated in layers of magic — more wards constructed by the healer.

  Warner grinned at me as he crossed to the driver’s-side door.

  “Wait,” I said. “You can’t even drive.”

  He shrugged. “It’s a long trip with empty roads. Sounds like a good time to learn.”

  “Seriously? Now?”

  “What could go wrong?”

  “I don’t know. Did you notice the huge lake? The cliffs?”

  Warner laughed and opened the driver’s door.

  I crossed my arms. “You’re supposed to open my door first.”

  He paused, surprised. Then he grinned as he crossed around the vehicle to open the other door.

  Completely haughty, I squeezed by him. But as I turned to step up into the seat, he blocked me with his hip. Then he laid a fierce kiss on me that started on my lips and exploded in my nether regions.

  I clenched the sleeves of his jacket, holding myself firmly away from collapsing into him, when all I wanted was to wrap my arms around his neck. With one hand curled around my waist and one at the back of my neck, he held me so firmly that I might not have been able to break away if I’d tried. And, yeah, that thrilled the part of me that wanted to be … wanted. My heart rate skyrocketed, and every pissy thought drained out of my pretty little head.

  The possessiveness of the lip lock eased, then turned teasing. Warner brushed his thumb lightly against my neck, pulling back until we were barely touching.

  “Always?” he whispered against my swollen, suddenly empty lips.

  “Always what?”

  “Do I always open doors for you? All doors or just cars?”

  �
�If you’re going to be old-fashioned about it.”

  He regarded me for a moment. Then he nodded and released the back of my head, stepping back to allow me entry to the vehicle.

  I almost moaned at being released, but I managed to control myself. Though my legs were rubbery, I climbed into the passenger seat without making too much more a fool of myself.

  The sentinel packed a lot into a single kiss.

  ∞

  We headed in the direction Qiuniu had indicated, finding the road easily. The SUV came fully equipped with heated seats, a GPS, and a charging station for an iPhone. Though I opted against blasting music while Warner was learning to drive.

  All the technology was heavily warded against magic, and interestingly enough, by Qiuniu. I’d tasted similar, though less powerful wards, on the SUV Kett had stolen from Blackwell while we were hunting Sienna in Scotland. Magic and technology wore against each other. Gran went so far as to suggest that technology and human industry were destroying magic. As the earth died, so magic withered. But the guardian of South America obviously had a healing touch with more than just magical beings. As did Jasmine, the reconstructionist’s cousin, who’d laid the wards on Gran’s computer. So maybe everything wasn’t quite as dire as Gran thought.

  After figuring out that the gas pedal was seriously sensitive, Warner drove like he’d been doing so his entire life. Honestly, if he wasn’t so sexy — and judging by that last kiss, so into me — I might have hated him for his endless adaptability … just a little.

  I pulled out my cellphone and checked it for a signal every few minutes. The plan was starting to feel flawed. I knew I should trust my elders, but I wasn’t sure how being vaguely near the location of the instrument was going to draw Shailaja to me.

  Except if she figured out she couldn’t read the map, then she’d ‘demand my aid’ again.

  “Did you check on the bakery?” Warner asked.

  “It looked brand new,” I said. “Better than before. Hopefully, an overnight facelift doesn’t call too much attention to itself. Or didn’t call too much attention already, seeing as how a day supposedly passed between Vancouver and San Francisco.”

  “Blossom was just claiming her dominion. Perhaps putting it back to what she perceived as its original state.”

  “She left the broken trinkets, though.”

  “She can’t replicate your magic,” Warner said, sounding proud.

  “Thank you for introducing us,” I said, feeling oddly shy and overwhelmed.

  “Anything, Jade,” Warner said. “Anything you need that I can supply is yours.”

  I nodded, threading my fingers through the wedding rings of my necklace. I placed my left hand on top of his where it rested on the center console, but I didn’t speak.

  The comfortable silence between us was better than any words I could have come up with anyway.

  ∞

  We stopped at a gas station in Cerro de Pasco, even though after what felt like most of the day — but was probably only a couple of hours — the SUV still had a full tank of gas.

  We’d climbed farther up into the mountains to get here. The handy computer system in the SUV informed us we were now at 4330 meters. As Qiuniu had already said, this settlement at the very top of the Andes Mountains was known for silver … and for not much else.

  As we’d driven in, all the tiny houses and businesses appeared to be falling into a mining vortex. According to a quick Google search, the entire city of seventy thousand people was built around a gigantic pit.

  The Google search also unearthed some not-so-nice opinion articles and blogs about the area. Something about an environmental disaster in the making … or maybe it was already occurring. I wondered if Qiuniu worried about it, notwithstanding that he couldn’t interfere. Not even a guardian dragon had any power here. Their guardianship — aka ‘saving the world’ — only revolved around the use of magic, specifically magical disasters or demonic incursions. Environmental issues or other catastrophes created by humans weren’t under the guardians’ purview or control.

  As we climbed out of the vehicle at the gas station, the only magic I could feel for miles around was the power I brought with me … Warner and the SUV. That was exceedingly odd. Whether or not there were Adepts nearby, I should at least feel some sort of natural magic.

  I tried to dowse farther as we walked toward the convenience store situated behind the pumps, but I couldn’t taste a trace of magic in the area.

  After a few steps, Warner paused and shifted his shoulders oddly as if he was suddenly uncomfortable. “You feel that?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t feel … or taste anything.”

  Warner made a noncommittal noise, then continued into the well-stocked store. I paid twenty American dollars for three one-liter bottles of water — knowing I was getting ripped off, but needing to hydrate in the extreme altitude.

  Warner asked for directions, but those pretty much consisted of ‘follow this road until you get to Huanuco.’ But, you know, in Spanish, which neither of us spoke.

  Warner might have learned English in a matter of minutes when he’d woken up in my bakery, but he’d had me all demanding and feisty in his face then, plus way more time than we wanted to take with this pit stop.

  Thankfully, we had a translator app and spotty cellphone reception. So we muddled through a conversation and I texted Kett to let him know we were heading for the airport in Huanuco.

  We drove out of town only a dozen or so minutes after we entered.

  My phone pinged with a text from Kett as Cerro de Pasco was dwindling in our rearview mirror.

  >On my way.

  “The vampire?” Warner asked.

  I nodded, but didn’t answer out loud. I hadn’t completely absorbed what I’d just seen and felt at the top of the Andes Mountains. I knew I’d been sheltered my entire childhood from magic. But I hadn’t completely realized how sheltered from the wider world I was as a Canadian, and a Vancouverite especially.

  “I’ve never seen anything like that … place,” I said.

  “Silver is exceedingly valuable to human society.”

  “But not so good for magic.” Something about silver made it almost antimagic. Most alchemists used gold or platinum and gems to build objects of power. And the whole werewolves-being-allergic-to-silver mythology was pure truth.

  The only Adept I’d ever known who could work with silver was Hoyt, the slimy spellcurser. He used silver ball bearings to hold his curses. When those curses triggered or exploded near another Adept, the silver added to their damage, even though it wasn’t conducive to magic in general. I’d be interested to know how Hoyt had figured out how to contain a curse in a ball bearing, but I wasn’t even remotely interested in having an actual conversation with the spellcurser. Unless maybe it involved breaking his collarbone, then dragging him around Stanley Park by horse-drawn carriage.

  Yeah, I’d thought about that scenario enough to refine it down to one particular daydream.

  “Did you notice the way the very earth rejected our presence there?” Warner asked.

  “Ah, no,” I answered. “I noticed a complete lack of magic, but you felt rejected? Just walking around?”

  He nodded, obviously perturbed.

  “Where dragons dare not tread,” I muttered, quoting the text that appeared whenever any dragon touched the map. “You think the silver in these mountains is a natural repellent?”

  “Not necessarily just to guardians or dragons,” Warner said. “But I’ve never felt so unwelcomed by a physical place before.”

  “But I didn’t feel it.”

  “You hold your magic differently. You collect it as you pass by, but because you also store it, perhaps you don’t need to.”

  “And dragons?”

  “Have evolved to walk the earth. To be anchored to stone and gem … to the magic that fuels creation.”

  Okay, suddenly it felt like we were on the edge of a spiritual conversation, and I felt uninformed. Or,
rather, too uninformed to have settled on my opinion. “Instead of the skies, you mean?” I teased, wanting to continue but not quite so seriously. “With tooth and claw?”

  Warner glanced over at me, deadly serious. “We no longer take that form.”

  “Excuse me? Dragons could be … dragons? I mean I’ve been reading up on dragon lore, but I … you know … didn’t totally believe it.”

  “Only one guardian is capable of such now … if she can even recall the form. The power of shapeshifting is entrusted to her alone.”

  “Right, Bixi. But you don’t think she’s ever turned into a dragon-dragon?”

  “Not that I know of. I understand it’s a last resort sort of thing. A massive use of her magic. The guardians are not gods.”

  “But?” I could hear something left unsaid, hanging behind Warner’s words.

  He didn’t continue.

  “But …” I repeated, before supplying my own observation. “But we know at least one dragon who is an immortality seeker.”

  “Yes.”

  “And with age comes power? Like with vampires?”

  “I’m not certain that is due to age only. Especially not in Kettil’s case.”

  “He was … created already powerful?”

  “Perhaps. But I think he’s earned the power he has … or sought even greater power.”

  “Which is why he’s called the executioner.”

  “The vampires keep their secrets close. I’m not sure what an execution entails. Does Kettil drain those condemned by the Conclave? Does he add their power to his own? I have no idea. In any case, he fulfills a similar role to your father.”

  “Who dragons call the warrior, rather than the executioner.”

  “The vampires selected their own titles. It’s not our prejudice that named them.”

  “Fine. Back to the dragons.”

  “The power of the guardians doesn’t grow with age. Their potential is there from the moment a dragon assumes the mantle of one of the nine. They must learn to control and access that potential, but its extent doesn’t change. And no one guardian is more powerful than another.”