There were no structures or buildings of any type. The only indication that someone had been here before us were the large circles covered in runes off to one side from where we arrived. Nothing grew on the island. I figured the lack of vegetation was due to the excess magic.
LD and TK were doing something near the circles. Dex was out of earshot, speaking to a screaming René. Jonno stood next to her, looking about as displeased as she sounded. Monty, looking more like his regular, scowly self, stood next to me and took in the lack of scenery.
“I think your destructiveness is contagious.” I looked around at the debris that used to be the Strix. “Maybe it’s a virus? Like a tristanullificationterminus virus. It causes the infected to obliterate things in proximity against their will.”
“A virus?”
“I could call it MontyNT? Guaranteed to leave an impression, or is that ‘depression’?”
He stared at me and then looked off into the distance before answering. “Your brain is very similar to the nexus, Simon.”
“Colorful and mysterious.” I nodded solemnly. “I get that a lot.”
He turned to face me. “I was thinking more along the lines of ‘empty and devoid of substance.’”
“Well, it’s good to see old age hasn’t affected that cutting wit of yours,” I grumbled. “Sharp as a butter knife.”
“Didn’t our brief visit to London teach you anything about listening to my uncle?” He looked over to where Dex and René were still conversing.
It was actually more Dex standing there as René waved her arms and yelled at him. Every so often, I could hear Dex’s baritone voice interject, and René would launch into another tirade.
“Are you saying the Strix was my fault?” I held up the pulsing entropy bracelet. “If I remember correctly, this whole limiter idea was yours to begin with.”
“It wasn’t entirely your fault. The limiter should have been masked or dampened.” He scowled and for a moment looked like his normal self. “If I weren’t preoccupied with other matters, like my accelerated aging, I would have addressed that. My apologies.”
“At least you look better.” I glanced over at him. “Is that because you used a reservoir?”
He nodded. “I need to be judicious about their use.” He looked down at his fingers. The black bands glistened in the morning sun. They were simple rings with intricate runes etched into the surface. One of them had faded to a lighter color, appearing more gray than black.
“How long does each reservoir last?”
“Depends on what spells I cast, it seems.” He held up the finger with the gray ring. “The lattices I used to contain your orb and creature were costly because they’re designed to remain constant, drawing power from me—or from the reservoirs, in this case.”
“And one of your flame orbs of obliteration?”
“Should be a minimal expenditure of energy, depending on the size of the target.”
“So orb-flinging and blowing up buildings, yes. Force fields and prolonged spells, no.”
“This from the person who just destroyed a state-of-the-art, one-of-a-kind stealth plane with…what do you call it? A magic missile?”
“That wasn’t my fault. Dex suggested we try it on the plane, of all places.” I held up the bracelet again. “Besides, it wasn’t the missile that destroyed the Strix. It was Peaches’ limiter and this crazy bracelet.”
“True, he should’ve known better, but he’s Dex. He also managed to get us off the plane safely. Sometimes I think he does it deliberately.”
“I didn’t know you could throw teleportation circles like that.”
“I can’t.” He shook his head and almost smiled. “I doubt there are any mages on the planet, besides my uncle, who can execute a multiple teleport mid-flight as the plane is disintegrating around us. Uncle Dex is a prodigy in many of the things he manages to do, including angering people.”
“René sounds pissed.” I looked over to where she stood. “Not that I blame her. The Strix was a nice plane.”
A green flash caught my eye and René and Jonno were gone. Dex came over to where we stood and narrowed his eyes at Monty.
“She didn’t want to say goodbye?” I looked over to where the green glow faded.
“Actually she did, but it required inflicting each of us with incredible amounts of pain.” He shook his head. “I promised to get her another Strix, and she calmed down to only wanting to maim us.”
“Were you trying to get us killed?” Monty asked. “You know Simon isn’t a mage and has no training.”
“Perfect—no bad habits to unlearn.” He narrowed his eyes at Monty again. “How much did you use?”
“I’m fine.” Monty waved away the words. “Cecil won’t be able to get her a Strix, you know.”
“I know. I have a contact in Division 13. They’ll get her a new one. They owe the Ten.”
“You have a contact in Division 13?” Monty raised an eyebrow. “Why am I not surprised.”
“I do.” It was Dex’s turn to wave the words away. “They’ll get her a new Strix with all the latest gadgets. She may not be giving us any rides in the near future. At least, not until she calms down.”
“She’s always been attached to her planes,” LD said as he walked over. “How’s Jonno?”
“A lot calmer than René. Out of the two, he’s the more dangerous.”
“I still remember his wind tunnel.” LD shuddered. “You don’t want him pissed at you.”
“Did you prep our arrival?” Dex looked down at the circles. “We have to get in without tripping the outer defenses.”
“I can breach the outer defenses and the wall.” He glanced at TK, whose eyes were no longer glowing green. “After the breach, we’ll maintain the exit. Once inside, you’ll have to do the heavy lifting.”
“Can you compensate for the limiter?” Dex pointed at my wrist. “We all dropped the ball on that one.”
“That was sloppy. I didn’t think it would set off the nexus. Apparently, it’s not as dormant as I thought it would be.”
“Is this going to be a problem?” Dex frowned, looking down at Peaches’ collar.
“Maybe the hellhound can wait outside with TK and me?” LD suggested.
Dex cocked his head to one side. “You haven’t dealt with hellhounds much, have you?”
“I know they like to eat and destroy. He’s actually perfect for this group.”
TK stepped forward and rubbed Peaches’ ears. “You can’t hold a hellhound. His bond allows him to follow Simon anywhere. He’s better off going with them. We can hold the breach.” She turned to LD. “You can use the inverted masking rune on the limiter, darling. It should do the job in the short term.”
LD nodded. “That could work. Give me a few minutes.” He stepped to one of the circles and began drawing symbols into the existing design.
“How long can you hold it open before you need to abandon the breach?” Monty asked, looking over to where LD was working.
“LD will be keeping it open, that’s his strength.” TK looked down at her hands. “Mine is making sure he stays alive. You have three days at most before he’s too weak to maintain the exit. Then we leave, with or without you.”
“Excuse me? Three days?” LD grinned as he looked up from the circle. “You underestimate my greatness, dear. This is not my first break-in.”
“It’s the first time you’ve infiltrated the Sanctuary.” She gave him the ‘if you continue down this road, only pain awaits you’ smile. “It would be better to be conservative and not dead. Don’t you think, darling?”
“How many?” Dex crouched down and examined the circle with the inverted masking rune. “And don’t stretch it. I’ll not be answering to TK for your demise.”
“I can give you four, max. This is not my first break-in,” LD said again, oblivious to TK’s smile of impending doom. “If we get caught, it may be my last, though.”
“You’re opening the door,” Dex said, his tone serious. �
��We’re the ones going in. Your job is to make sure we can get out once we’re done. Or to make sure no one gets out if we fail. Three days. If we’re not at the exit by then, you’re gone.”
TK nodded but remained silent.
LD brushed off his hands and stood. “We’re ready. You want to check the circles before I start?”
Dex looked them over and crouched down, pointing to one side. He and LD discussed something in hushed tones. TK gestured and materialized a sausage for Peaches.
“Peaches says thank you, and that your choice of meat happens to be his favorite.”
TK smiled and rubbed Peaches’ ears again.
“He is most welcome.”
“Your opinion on this, nephew.” Dex called out and Monty headed over to where LD and Dex were crouched.
“What is Division 13?” I asked, looking at TK as she kept rubbing Peaches. “How are they going to produce a plane that runs about sixty-five million without the bells and whistles?”
“Dex isn’t part of the Ten.” She stood and moved away from the circles. “He’s been invited several times, but he’s just too free a spirit.”
“I get that from him,” I said. “He doesn’t like being tied down.”
“The same thing happened at the Sanctuary. He could have easily been an Elder by now, but he chose his freedom over the constraints of leadership.”
“What does this have to do with this Division 13? How is he connected to it?”
“I don’t know the details,” she answered. “But I’ll tell you what he told me when I asked about them.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me he needed to help them,” she replied quietly. “He said, ‘He who fights with monsters should see to it that he himself doesn’t become a monster.’”
“Was he talking about them or himself?”
“I don’t know. Maybe one day you can ask him.”
TWENTY-FOUR
WE WALKED OVER and joined Dex, LD and Monty.
“This isn’t a teleportation.” LD pointed at the circle beneath us. “It’s nothing as delicate or finessed as that.”
“Then what is it?” I feared for my digestive system. “And how much will I throw up when we arrive?”
LD chuckled. “You should be fine, more or less. What we’re going to do is more of a temporal shove.”
TK nodded. “That was actually an apt description, darling.”
“Thank you, dear. I thought you’d like it.”
“I do.” She waved a hand. “Carry on.”
“In order for all of us to make the trip, you need to be in sync with me. This is a Sanctuary failsafe so no one accidentally finds it.”
“So you can’t just Croft your way into the Sanctuary?”
“Correct. I don’t have an issue with the hellhound. I think he can pretty much go wherever he wants, but you aren’t a mage, so we need to get your thoughts aligned.”
“How do we do that?”
“For this trip, you need to think like a mage.”
“You mean, I need to be deranged and think in concepts that make no sense, even though I’m using English to describe them?”
LD glanced up from the runes he was working on in the circle. “He sounds like you, Dex.”
“Mages occasionally get caught in their echo chambers, yes. This is why we probably prefer to be alone.” TK gestured and materialized a spoon in her hand. “What am I showing you right now, Simon? What do you see?”
Somehow, I knew this was a trick question. I narrowed my eyes in my best Eastwood squint, easily a three on my glare-o-meter, and gave her the answer I thought she wanted to hear.
“That… there is no spoon.”
I was confident I had koaned the hell out of her question, and smiled smugly.
She looked at me, looked at the spoon, and then looked at me again. She held the spoon up a little higher. My eyes tracked it as she slid the spoon side to side and then thwacked me in the center of the forehead.
“Does that feel like I’m not holding a spoon?”
“Ow! What the hell?”
LD and Dex chuckled, and Monty turned away with a smile almost crossing his lips. The pain radiated outward from the center of my forehead. I rubbed it as she stared at me. Peaches chuffed at my feet.
TK sighed and looked at LD. “Maybe we can leave him and the hellhound here?”
“No,” Monty said quietly. “Show him. Use a transference burst.”
TK looked at Dex, who nodded. “We need to get off the nexus, and we’re running out of time. It’s the fastest way.”
“He’s not a mage,” she answered. “The pain…”
“No choice.” Dex put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t take this personally, but your brain just doesn’t function like a mage. This is to help you see things differently enough to get you to the Sanctuary. It’s going to hurt.”
“What kind of pain are we talking here? Is it like a migraine or something? Do I get a warning or will—?”
TK placed two fingers on my forehead and images blasted into my brain. The pain was a migraine, followed by the feeling of an axe splitting my skull open.
This allowed the jackhammer to pound my brain to a mushy pulp so it could drain out my ears. This was then followed by an ample dose of hydrochloric acid to clean out what was left.
Finally, she used a blowtorch to distract me from the pain and seared everything to dust as I nearly collapsed, holding my head. LD and Dex held me up when my legs stopped working. I heard Peaches whine at my feet. She removed her fingers from my forehead and the pain subsided.
“Monitor the hellhound,” I heard her say from a distance. “He’s going to experience some backlash along their bond.”
I thought she was done, when she placed two fingers on my forehead again. She said something under her breath and the Vulcan mind-meld from hell started again with the migraine. The cycle repeated, and I started to scream. I blacked out shortly after that.
TWENTY-FIVE
I OPENED MY eyes to a rainbow sky.
TK stepped into my field of vision. She flashed a light in my eyes and nodded. “He’s back.”
“Good, we need to get off this rock,” Dex growled. “I’m starting to feel the effects of the runic interference.”
She held up the spoon in front of my face. I felt the warm flush of my curse deal with whatever damage I had just gone through. All I wanted to do was lie down and sleep for a few centuries, except it hurt to breathe and think.
“What did you do?” I was groggy and sore all at once.
“Simon,” she said in a low voice, “what do you see?”
“A spoon,” I answered, upset. “What did you expect me to see? You melted my brain just so I could explain to you that you’re holding a simultaneously convex and concave construct designed to displace food?”
“He’s ready,” she said with a smile. “I don’t know how long it will last, so let’s go, darling.”
“Watching you work is just...wow, dear.”
“Eloquent as always, darling. Can we go now?”
LD shifted to the circle under us as I looked on in wonder. I actuall
y understood what he was doing. The symbols he manipulated were clear. I understood their purpose and how they interacted with each other. I bent down to touch one of the symbols, and Dex smacked my hand, standing me up.
“I can see it, Dex,” I said in awe. “I understand it now. I can help. It’s only a matter of shifting the temporal axis several degrees until we align with the Sanctuary’s position in time and space.”
“Not bad,” LD said from the ground as he manipulated more of the symbols. “Keep the newly enlightened member of the team away from the symbols so we’re not scattered all over the place.”
TK grabbed my arm and gently but firmly guided me away from LD.
“What did you do to me and why do I sound like Monty?”
“I gave your brain a little nudge and accelerated your understanding a bit. It’s just firing a bit faster now.”
“You used your creative ability to augment the synaptic firing rate and load capacity of my neurons?” The words spilled out, and I looked at her, surprised. “How did I do that?”
“How long will it last?” Dex asked. “More importantly, did you give him brain damage?”
“Not very long.” TK raised her voice and glanced at LD.
“Don’t rush me, woman,” LD muttered under his breath. “This isn’t as easy as I make it look.”
“I can’t give him another transference.” TK looked at me and pulled me back as I started drifting over to where LD was working on the runes. “I’m surprised he survived this one. He should be a basket case or comatose after that.”
“I would attribute it to the protective measures of the curse that is currently keeping my body in a state of molecular stasis. This prevents my body from aging or taking damage,” I said. “If you allow me to assist LD, I’m certain I can expedite the process and remove us from this location, before any of you suffer from the detrimental effects of exposure.”
“Wonderful,” Dex said with a sigh. “That sounds like a great idea, but why don’t we let LD get us to the Sanctuary?”
Homecoming A Montague & Strong Detective Novel Page 12
