by Lee Roland
Maeve insisted on sitting up front with Alex on the way home, eager to pry any information out of him.
“Is Erik okay?” She couldn’t think of any other way to start the conversation.
“I don’t know.”
“Aren’t you afraid of him?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid of him. Sometimes.” The dash lights gave Alex a more youthful appearance. Maeve hadn’t missed Alex’s care and concern when he helped him to the couch.
“Are you in love with Erik?”
Alex didn’t answer for a while, and then he said, “I don’t know.”
“Where are you from?”
“Arizona.”
“And you’re here because…”
“My grandpa died and, I didn’t have anything else to do.”
Maeve hadn’t expected so personal an answer. “Are you sorry you came to Elder?”
“No.” The reply came fast enough. No hesitation there. A genuine smile crossed his face. “I got to see…”
“You got to see…what?”
“Your dragon.” The smile grew wider, his joy obvious.
“How? Ordinary people shouldn’t be able to see dragons.”
“I didn’t at first. I was given a shot. They called it a vaccination. After that, I could see what I hadn’t before.”
Medicines Sethos had said. A shot that allowed ordinary humans to see magical creatures? Ah, Tana would be interested in that.
The limo rolled through the town’s dark streets, and as they passed the patriarch, fairies glittered among its branches, and it glowed with witch-light.
When they arrive in Tana’s front yard, Maeve asked, “Will you come in? Have you met Tana? Flor’s from Utah, the desert and—”
“No.”
She heard regret in his voice.
He opened his door, climbed out, and walked around to open hers. As she exited, she sat the suitcase on the ground and grasped Alex’s hand. He seemed surprised but didn’t pull away.
“Alex, won’t you let us help you?”
“No.” He shook his head.
Maeve squeezed her hands into fists to keep from grabbing him and dragging him inside. “Okay, but if you have no where to go, try to get to me or Tana.”
“Thank you.” His hand brushed her arm. “Please be careful.”
“I will. But I have friends. You’re alone. And I apologize for calling you a whore earlier. I don’t know your situation, so that was wrong.”
She decided she would save him from Erik and Sethos if she could. If he wanted to be saved, that is. She would probably have to save herself and Elder first, but he might come along with the package.
Maeve cautioned herself on overconfidence. An Elemental had rescued her twice, maybe three times, but she knew she couldn’t count on that again. Sethos, Claire, the factory, all pieces of a puzzle, waiting for her to put them together. If the Council was on Sethos’ side, everything was lost.
Chapter Twenty-One
Maeve waited until he drove away before she placed a foot on the first step to the porch.
The house screamed.
Not an audible scream, but anyone in the valley who knew magic probably heard the raging cry. The front door banged open, and Sutash whirled out like a windstorm. His ethereal body hit Maeve, a giant air pillow and shoved her ten feet backward. Then he spun away to form a barrier across the porch.
“Sutash, what’s the matter with you?” Maeve shouted. Tana and Flor rushed out, followed by Raymond.
“What’s wrong?” Flor asked. “Maeve?”
“I’m okay. Sutash doesn’t want me to come in. I don’t know what’s happening.”
Tana gasped. “Love, what have you been doing? Sutash says you’re nasâum.”
“What’s nasâum?” Another word Maeve didn’t know. How many more were there? Probably an infinite and disturbing number.
“An archaic word for dead-alive, touched by evil. Flor, would you look at her aura? I’m not sure I can stay neutral.” Concern echoed in Tana’s voice.
Flor walked down the steps with Raymond in tow. As they approached, Raymond’s nostrils flared, and he stopped. Flor came on, but with a look of despair on her face. When close enough, she reached out and skimmed Maeve’s aura with her fingers. She sniffed the air, held her breath, and released it with a sigh. “A stain, not an infection.” She glanced back at Tana. “It’s terrible, but I think we can sanitize her.”
“Sanitize? What do you mean, sanitize?” Maeve put her hands on her hips. This was too much.
Flor had a silly grin on her face, but Maeve heard relief in her voice. “Purify, decontaminate—a supernatural bath. You’ve apparently been rubbing up against incredible unknown evil.”
Tana walked up. “Please step back so Sutash and the house will calm down. I’ll get what I need, and we’ll go to the Rowan Grove.”
Flor moved away from the house with Maeve. “Thank you for bringing my suitcase.”
Maeve had forgotten it was in her hand. “That’s okay. I tried to get your car too, but he wouldn’t give me the keys.” She held out the case.
“The suitcase is enough.” Flor lifted it as if it weighed ten pounds, not seventy.
Raymond kept his distance, but he wouldn’t leave Flor.
“Raymond,” Maeve said. “Tana didn’t send you out west to get me. Who did?”
“Me and Harriet needed you.” He shifted uncomfortably.
“Okay. Where’d you get Tana’s mind-spell?”
He didn’t respond. They were far enough from the porch light that she couldn’t get a good look at his face. “Never mind,” she said. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. I’m here now and—”
Harriet crashed into Flor. Apparently, she’d aimed for Maeve, smelled the stain, and veered away at the last minute. Flor staggered under the impact. She dropped the suitcase, grabbed the harpy, and held her. She then set Harriet on her shoulder.
“Eweee-uu. Nasty, nasty.” Harriet trilled, her voice reaching a higher note than Maeve thought possible.
“Oh shut up,” Maeve said. The words taint and sanitize grated on her already frayed nerves. “What’s it like? I don’t feel anything.”
“It’s like death, but not,” Flor said. “Do you suppose I should get a bit of Immal to help?”
“No. This is Tana’s turf.”
“You’re right. I think that…” Flor’s voice trailed off. She gazed at the sky. She revolved slowly to take it all in. This was her first night in Elder, and Maeve realized she hadn’t been outside since darkness had fallen.
Maeve knew that look. Her own first glimpse of the sky outside Elder had produced the same wide-eyed sense of wonder. “Come on, Flor, you didn’t think all this, this valley, could exist in a world full of airplanes and spy satellites, did you?”
“But where are we?” Flor kept scanning the sky.
“We’re… I don’t really know. It’s the earth, because the Elementals, are here. Maybe a different time? Or a hidden pocket of reality. Sorry, that’s the best explanation I have, or anyone I know has.
Elder’s sky-blanket shimmered with stars. Billions more than had ever shone across the river and broken bridge in Tennessee. A bloody teardrop of stars, a savage, red supernova hung above Ogre Mountain, and the spiral of a lustrous silver galaxy spun like a celestial spider web over the valley’s far end. No smog, no glow of electric lights beyond the mountains, nothing between Elder and the pure, undefiled universe above. Flor stared silently at the sky. Tears formed in her eyes. Raymond came up behind her and gathered her in his arms. He held something in his hand, and she touched it with her finger. His lifestone. The magic quivered and struck a powerful note as Raymond and Flor came together in the heart of Elder and bound themselves to each other, into eternity, beyond life and death.
Maeve had heard of such bindings, and without exception, each had ended in tragedy. She offered a silent prayer to Inaras that it would not be so with her beloved friends.
****
Alex returned to the apartment and was dismayed to find the Commander sitting where he’d left him. He seemed to have recovered somewhat. He beckoned Alex to come and sit beside him.
“What do you think of this Maeve, Hania?”
Alex tried to keep the surprise off his face. The situation had changed, though he wasn’t sure how. “She’s not a coward. She’s a fighter. What happened before you went down? It looked like the room was full of fireflies for a minute.”
“How did you see…” The Commander frowned. “I told them not to give you more shots. Did they?”
“No.” Alex shifted, uncomfortable under that gaze. Wasn’t he supposed to see, just as he saw the other creatures?
The Commander frowned and grasped the back of Alex’s neck with one hand. A pressure formed between Alex’s eyes. He wanted to trust, so he forced himself not to fight. The Commander released him and smiled. “I thought the motel room was a coincidence. Your parents come from Tennessee, Hania?”
“No. Southern Arizona.” Alex ran a hand through his blond hair.
The Commander jerked as the door opened.
Claire Sethos walked in, and the smile on her face made Alex’s heart race. The Commander rose to face her.
“Your father wants you to come downstairs,” Claire said. “He wishes to discuss your inability to bring my daughter to him, so we could protect her from certain…inappropriate influences.”
They had excluded Alex from the scene. Coward. The word twisted in his guts, and he rose too. If the Commander needed him… Claire raised her hand, and he stopped. His body froze.
“Remain here.”
She walked out the door.
The Commander followed.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Maeve shivered. How utterly miserable. But given earlier events, sitting butt naked on the Wandering Stone with the temperature dropping every minute, added to an already interesting evening. The rough, mottled rock, three-feet high and four-feet across, prickled the skin on her backside and thighs. “Hurry up Tana. I don’t think it likes me.”
Tana glanced up from the mixing tray Flor held for her. “And why would that be? To the best of my knowledge, the Wandering Stone isn’t sentient.” Her face was grim when returned to mixing her potions.
Maeve decided she wouldn’t tell Tana about the time she’d used a spell and lifted the Wandering Stone a few inches. A fairy with an odd sense of humor had told her someone stashed a treasure under its considerable bulk. No, the rock shouldn’t be sentient—neither should the house. Things in Elder had a way of coming to life—or something like life—when soaked with magic.
Flor had provided several glowing jars similar to the one she’d used in the warehouse to provide light. Captivated by the spectacle, Harriet, Orcus, and a few owls watched from the trees. A couple of ghosts flitted on the clearing edge, and a water sprite sat by the small spring that blessed the rowan trees. The water sprite smiled and waved. Maeve waved back. See, not everyone was mad at her.
“Why is it called the Wandering Stone?” Flor asked.
Tana held up a glass bottle filled with dark liquid. “The Wandering Stone is supposed to be the hearthstone from the house of the High Witch of Ataro. The old stories say the hearthstone rose from the ocean bottom after the destruction, and a dragon picked it up while it floated over the island’s grave. It’s one of the more implausible and improbable myths. One of the Skye witches wrote a lewd poem, comparing the stone’s rigidity to a male body part. They continue to recite it when they consume enough alcohol.” She mixed another liquid with the dark one in her hand. “This should do it.”
The prickles on Maeve’s backside increased while Tana walked in a circle around the rock, speaking a spell so soft the words blurred together in a monosyllable hum. She’d stop occasionally and flick a bit of potion on Maeve’s bare skin. The drops hit like a winter rain. Magic swirled around her, and she tried to ignore the discomfort.
A stain, Flor called it. Sethos had a weird kind of power and whatever was in the factory could be a product—or source—of that power. Not for the first time, Maeve cursed her inability to take the study of witchcraft seriously. If only she could—
Ow. A tree branch smacked her head.
Maeve jerked and realized she and the Wandering Stone were no longer earthbound. She glanced over the rock’s edge into Tana’s shocked face. Before she could gather her wits, grab a branch and jump off, she’d cleared the treetops. All she could do was try to hang on and hope the landing was as gentle as the ascent.
The Wandering Stone stopped climbing and slid sideways toward the river. The chill wind caressed Maeve and ignoring the fear and discomfort, rejoiced in its breath. If only her stony magic carpet wouldn’t fall out from under her. Had the stone become sentient? It was possible. Could she communicate her concern before it became pure terror?
“Hey rock, did I ever tell you how pretty I think those little gold veins on your side are? And you’re very, very firm. Listen, there’s a nice little glen in the ash trees over there. Two springs instead of one and—”
The rock stopped.
The night grew thick and heavy with anticipation. Magic swelled and buffeted Maeve with spectral waves, surging before a heartbeat of power. A vast envelope of energy surrounded her and the Wandering Stone, and it carried the clear, cold essence of the air above the world. The dominion of Merisin, Dragon Lord and Master of the winds.
“Maeve.”
Merisin spoke. She lowered her head and covered her eyes at the sound of the voice in her mind. The Random witches belonged to the earth, not the sky. All her life she’d addressed her spell casting to Inaras, not so much out of belief as habit, ground in by Tana. Tana who never once in her long life bowed in the actual presence of an Elemental. Reverence and amazement compelled Maeve to answer.
“Dragon Lord. What would you have of me?”
“Only to greet you.”
If time passed, Maeve wasn’t aware. What did these powerful, secretive beings who accepted the prayers of Elder’s mystical inhabitants want from her?
She came back into the world as dragon talons gently grasped her body. Raymond to the rescue. He hovered over her, and when he lifted her, whatever power bound the Wandering Stone broke. The wind whistled around the rock as it plummeted down. The whistling ended in a catastrophic crash of broken timbers.
Ninety-nine percent of Elder Valley stretched open with meadows and forests. Of all the places the Wandering Stone could have landed, it smashed into the Witches’ ancient Council house.
Maeve groaned.
Raymond didn’t speak as he carried her back to the Rowan grove. She slipped out of his talons and to the ground in front of Flor and Tana. He changed shape and joined them.
“Are you all right?” Tana came to her. She brought a robe that Maeve gratefully slipped on and drew it tight around her chilled body.
“I’m fine. What happened?”
“Love, I don’t know.”
“What was that noise?” Flor asked.
She blew out a breath of air. “The Council House. I was at least a hundred feet up when the Stone cut me loose.”
“Oh dear,” Tana said. “That’s going to complicate things. I wish I knew what’s going on. Raymond!”
Raymond had started to ease away from the group. Tana stepped over and caught his arm, then dragged him to the side. Maeve couldn’t hear them, but it seemed like Tana wasn’t having any better luck with answers than she had. Raymond and Harriet wouldn’t have left Elder of their own will.
Who or what had the power to counterfeit the mind-spell of Elder’s predominate witch? The Elementals’ possibly, but they were forbidden to interfere directly with the Iameth’s affairs. Or at least that’s what she’d been taught. Who actually knew that much about the Elementals, though? They had not only offered Maeve greetings and power—they had certainly intervened in her life.
Tana had given up and walked back to Maeve and Flor.
“He can’
t tell you anything,” Flor said. “He’s under a ban. I can feel it.” She frowned. “Tana, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but you’re like Maeve and me. I think we’re supposed to do something, but no one’s given us a clue what it is. I think we’ll have to learn at the appropriate time—like magic.”
Maeve laughed. “Do something? Let’s see, so far I’ve blacked out one city, flooded part of another, smashed a bridge, and probably wiped out Elder’s equivalent of Congress.”
Tana draped her arm around Maeve. “Well, at least the taint is gone.”
“Do you know what it was?” Magic, deep dark magic in the factory had touched her.
“No.” Tana hugged Maeve and kissed her cheek. “I don’t know, and guesses are dangerous. Let’s go home now. You can tell me about the dinner party while I feed you again.”
****
Alex had waited. He’d then dozed off and woke when Captain Harlan entered the room. The clock said he’d slept four hours.
“Come on, Hania,” the captain said.
He rushed after him.
They walked at a brisk pace down the hall to the elevator. The captain pushed the button for the ground level. When they exited the elevator, Harlan hurried to a door, opened it, and Alex followed him in.
Alex gagged and staggered at the overwhelming stench of rotted meat. The enormous room contained six, twenty-foot high, round stainless steel cylinders, each spaced twenty feet apart. The air trembled with bubbling sounds and immense tattered clouds of steam billowed toward giant air vents in the ceiling, fifty feet above his head.
A series of balconies and catwalks stretched along the wall and above the vats. If the stink choked him here, what would it be like up there?
“Watch your step,” the Harlan said, his voice tight.
Alex glanced down and wished he hadn’t. Blobs of thick, greenish slime lay here and there, and when he stepped close to one, it reached for his foot. He put his hand over his mouth to keep from screaming. It couldn’t get worse—until he saw the Commander.
Erik Sethos lay naked on a steel table. Leather cuffs banded his wrists and ankles. Chains attached to the cuffs allowed him to move, to struggle, but not much—and he had struggled. He had no obvious body injuries, but he’d torn the skin under the leather into a bleeding mass.
