by Alyc Helms
Abby left off glaring at me to look at the final collection. “Yeah. Fine. I can finish up on my own.”
“Then I will meet you at the Academy whenever Sadakat and La Reina return.” Donning my hat and pulling the shadows back around my face, I quit the room. The loud clacking of my heels on the hallway formica was an unsatisfying vent to my anger.
* * *
Several days passed before I got a text from Abby letting me know that everything was ready. The California Academy of Sciences was dark when I arrived on the appointed night of our ritual, no yellow crime scene tape to be seen, but a pall lingered. The veil still felt thin here, the darkness thick as velvet. I wriggled my fingers and could almost feel it against my pads like the softness of cat fur.
Abby and two agents waited for me by the front entry. “Old Man,” she said. We hadn’t spoken since our conversation about families, and it seemed we weren’t going to speak of it now. “This is Agent Fuller. Agent Byrd. They’re in charge of security. They’re having a field day up there. Take us up, Fuller.”
The more baby-faced of the two agents – Byrd – frowned. “We’ll need some sort of identification.”
“Gimme your flashlight.” Abby took it from the agent and shone it in my face. I refrained from flinching away. The shadows around my face were more than enough to withstand the glare of a flashlight. Fuller also managed not to flinch, though Byrd didn’t exhibit such self-control. Abby handed the flashlight back to him. “Proof enough?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Fuller led us through the atrium and up the main stairwell. The displays from the Argent exhibit had been cleared out, even the model of the Kestrel and the fountain of clacking pins. The only light came from the rainforest dome, a soft blue glow that fluttered occasionally with the passing of birds and butterflies.
After the quiet of the building below, the activity on the rooftop was jarring. Floodlights lit the observation platform and the faces of the seven model hills. The grass covering those hills was a bit wilted from all the people tramping over them to set up more lights and cables and pedestals atop every hill with the nodes we’d selected from Abby’s collection.
No wonder Argent had trouble attracting qualified magic practitioners. My solitary translation in a darkened room was the proper environment for such workings. This circus… was not.
I spotted Sadakat first, her shell-pink hijab standing out from all the dark suits. Abby and I made our way to her side. “You have to dismiss all of these people, or this won’t work,” I said.
She cast me a rueful sidelong glance and a tired smile. “I know. I have told them this. But our security heads are insistent, and they have some legitimate concerns after Lahore, Melbourne, São Paolo, and Johannesburg.”
“Johannesburg?”
Sadakat grimaced. “There was another attack last night.”
I bit my inner lip to keep from cursing. Stupid. I was so stupid. Lung Di had warned me. I’d watched Sadakat and La Reina take off to deal with São Paolo, and it still hadn’t occurred to me that I had tools at my disposal. “I have a set of sigils that might help ward against these attacks. I’ll give them to you after we’re done here. Where’s La Reina?”
Sadakat looked up. “Patrolling. If our actions invite another incursion, she’ll be more useful than this entire lot, no matter how well trained they are.”
I nodded. Nobody could be trained for something like this. “How much weight do I have to bring to bear here?”
Sadakat’s brows raised, and some of the exhaustion lifted from her eyes and shoulders. “Mr Masters, where Shadow is concerned, you are the proverbial eight hundred-pound gorilla.”
“Excellent. You lot!” I raised my voice and pointed at… everyone, really. I swept my arm to include the agents fiddling with the cables leading to the floodlights. “All of you. Finish whatever critical task you’re about and then leave.”
“Mr Masters.” Agent Fuller exchanged a look with the agent he’d been conferring with – I recognized her as the young woman with the crush on Skyrocket. “The Academy has requested these security precautions to avoid another incident. Our presence is a requirement for our use of this facility.”
“And your absence is a requirement of my assistance. Go. All of you.” When he hesitated, I tipped my hat. “Or I can go. It makes no nevermind to me.” I headed for the stairs.
“No, wait.” Fuller’s outstretched hand closed into a fist when he realized I’d backed him into acquiescence. He exchanged a few more words with his associate, and she left to round up the other agents.
In very little time, the rooftop was cleared of everyone but myself, Abby, and Sadakat.
“Old Man, some days I could just kiss you,” Abby said into the descending quiet.
“I do hope you’ll manage to restrain yourself, professor,” I murmured in reply, watching a gold-lit figure descend, the tails of her duster rising with the currents caused by her churning wings. La Reina landed on the edge of the platform and came to join us.
“The area is clear,” she said. “The veil is thin, but I don’t sense demons amassing on the other side. You?” She gave me an expectant look. Accepted my nod with one of her own. “We’ll summon the fire demon at the convergence of the seven nodes and the four quarters. That should contain her until we can secure her cooperation.”
“You’re certain this contract is binding? That she’ll abide by the terms?” I murmured. From what little I knew about Asha, she didn’t seem the sort to keep her word or follow the rules.
La Reina plucked a feather from her wing – one of the long flight feathers, gold-tipped and easily the length of my forearm. Jaw tense, she set the feather in the center of the geomantic diagram the Argent agents had crafted out of tape and chalk. “If she does not wish to permanently join my Host, she will. Let us begin.”
La Reina’s ritual was very different from the sorts of ceremonies I’d become accustomed to during my years in China. The numerology in particular had me cringing as she called the four quarters and invoked the protection of the four archangels as represented by the four elements and four and four and four.
“Not inspiring of confidence,” I muttered as I initiated my portion of the ritual. I chalked my translated sigils along the taped lines of the seven-pointed star that connected the seven hills and the seven bits of metallic junk that we had deemed most resonant with our quarry. According to Sadakat, their combined resonance would create a prison that Asha wouldn’t be able to escape from without trapping herself permanently in one of the artifacts.
Assuming we were able to call her to our location in the first place.
“Turn off the floodlights,” I instructed when I was done with the sigils. The lights flickered out, leaving us bathed only in the ambient orange glow of the city. I took my position in the north quarter, waited for my three associates to take theirs, and began reciting the verbal translation of La Reina’s Enochian summoning ritual. I went slowly so as not to stumble over the Shadow speech. Shimizu’s Klaatu Barada Nikto was forefront in my thoughts. I was not going to foul this up with a stupid pronunciation error.
The darkness around us thickened, grew heavier, taking on the cat-fur feel I’d sensed on the ground level. The ambient light receded. In the east and west, Abby and Sadakat shifted uncomfortably. Across from me in the south, La Reina held herself still and ready, only the sound of the breeze ruffling her feathers differentiating her from a statue. I rubbed the pads of my fingers against my thumb and continued reciting.
As I spoke the last syllable, something crackled along the tape lines, a quick buzz-snap! like the charge of an active bug zapper. I held still, searching the darkness as I knew the others could not. Except for a faint smoke that rose from the tape lines and smelled of ozone, I didn’t see anything out of place.
“You said this would only work if she was in the Shadow Realms?” I asked La Reina.
She nodded. She, too, was looking around, wings raising and taking on a soft glow that was still
too bright for me to look at. “We will have to try again later and hope she didn’t sense this attempt.”
“You didn’t mention that was a danger,” Abby said, enunciating each word with the care of the supremely pissed off.
La Reina’s wings rustled and dimmed as she shrugged. “It is always a danger, especially with a trained practitioner, as I suspect she must be.”
I looked around again. Granted, I had no idea what a successful ritual was supposed to feel like, but that bug-zapping charge hadn’t felt like failure.
“Your chalk,” I whispered to Sadakat. “Give it to me.”
She cast me a puzzled look, but she handed over the chalk without argument. In the center of our circle, I scrawled out the string of sigils that had gotten us into this mess. The moment I chalked the final diacritical, I reached through the non-existent veil, grabbed what lurked on the other side, and pulled with all my might.
I emerged with a squirming armful. Nails raked at my face, knocked my hat askew. A braid thick as a rope whipped against my shoulder.
“Abby,” I grunted. “Someone. Grab her. I need to close the veil.”
Asha’s struggling form was dragged from my grasp. I used my coat to smudge out the first set of sigils, then scrabbled for the chalk to scrawl a second set outside the boundaries of our circle, setting down the counter-ward so that she couldn’t flee the way she’d come.
I sank back on my haunches, breathing heavily. My hat appeared before me. I looked up. Abby held it out to me, grinning wide enough to split her face.
“I owe you one, Old Man. We got her.”
* * *
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Abby growled after an hour of Sadakat and La Reina explaining Asha’s situation to her and the requirements for her freedom. Asha sat in the center of our seven-pointed binding, turning La Reina’s feather over and over in her hand. She had met those explanations with silent composure, her gaze never leaving Abby.
And Abby, who had agreed to let cooler heads try to prevail, was finally losing patience with that steady gaze. She and I stood in the shadows at the edge of the observation platform, but that didn’t seem to prevent Asha from noticing Abby’s growing agitation. Every time Abby shifted position, Asha’s full lips tightened with the hint of a smirk. When I placed a restraining hand on Abby’s arm in response to her low growl, one of Asha’s perfectly drawn brows lifted.
That seemed to do it for Abby. She shook off my hold and stalked forward, careful not to break the chalk-and-tape outline that seemed all that was necessary to keep Asha contained. “Forget it. Both of you. She’s not going to do anything for us unless it’s me doing the asking. Are you?”
“Professor Trent,” Sadakat traded a wary glance with La Reina, “I do not think that it is wise for you to lead the negotiations, given your feelings regarding our guest.” Both women frowned at me as though I’d failed in my job to keep Abby in check.
“Are you?” Abby repeated, glaring at Asha.
Finally, there was movement in the circle. Asha rose to her feet, twirling La Reina’s feather like a child’s toy. “Why should I agree to anything? You cannot hold me in this circle indefinitely. Not when we’re in such a public place. And even if you could manage it, surely one of you might grow a conscience and question the ethics of such unlawful detainment.” Her eyes passed over all of us, seemed to rest just a bit longer on me than on the others. Her taunting words hit home, my pragmatic side warring with the larger part of me that cared about things like due process. The only thing that kept me from smudging out the chalk sigils binding her was the knowledge that she’d known about the attack and used it as cover for her own illegal activities. She’d embroiled herself in this of her own free will.
Pragmatic rationalization. It’s a skill.
“One of us might,” I said. “If we did not all feel that we were offering you a fair and simple alternative to a messier and more prolonged legal process. You’ll be freed once you agree to assist Argent’s agents in recovering their stolen technology from the Conclave.”
“Mr Mystic, you don’t know the Conclave as well as you should if you think that is a fair and simple alternative. I might be better off trying my chances with your legal system. I’d definitely be better off as cannon fodder in the Host’s army.”
“You won’t be,” La Reina said, and the hardness of her tone made me shiver.
Asha took a step back. The smile she turned on Abby was brittle, lacking the confidence of her previous smirks. “All this for… what did you call it? A bit of stolen tech?” The smile widened when Abby flinched. “Really Abby? Is that really your wish? Is that really how you want to spend your one chance to make me do whatever you want? To give you whatever you want?”
“Shut up.” Abby’s voice trembled. “You don’t have what I want.”
“No. But I know where it is. I know who has it. Our father trapped, all this time…”
I must have gasped when I realized what she was talking about, what I suspected she was offering Abby to betray us. The carpet their father was trapped in. Asha’s glance flicked to me. “And I believe I even know how we might–”
“Shut. Up.” Abby’s hand went to her side.
“Abigail!” I caught her elbow before her revolver cleared her holster. “You need to step away. Now.”
“Let go of me, Masters,” she growled. Not Old Man. Masters. She was talking to the person behind Mr Mystic. Which was fair. I wasn’t sure Mitchell would have stopped her.
“Keep your weapon holstered, professor,” I said.
Abby’s muscles tensed, and she tested my grip a few more moments before relaxing and ducking her head.
“I wouldn’t have shot her, you know,” she grumbled. “No matter how fucking annoying she is, she’s still family.”
“Yes,” I murmured. “And you only shoot strangers, as I recall.”
“Fuck you, Old Man.”
I glanced warily at Asha. If she’d been serious about the offer she’d made, then it was no wonder she looked unaccountably smug. Given everything that Abby had told me… “Abby, if she knows where that carpet is–”
“She doesn’t know jack or shit,” Abby snapped. I flinched back. “And even if she did, fuck her if I’m going to let her use that to get out of this. I’ll find it some other way.”
Shoving her way past La Reina and Sadakat, past the tape-and-chalk circle, Abby grabbed Asha by the back of the neck and slammed her to the ground. “Here’s how it’s going to be. You are going to sign La Reina’s fucking contract, or I am going to wring your goddamned neck and nobody is going to care.”
I hesitated on the edge of the ritual markings, appalled and helpless to do anything. “Abby, stop.”
“Stay out of this.” Abby pressed her knee into Asha’s back, grinding her cheek into the trampled ground. “You will sign that contract. Got it?”
Asha clawed behind her head at Abby’s forearms, eyes wide and white, feet kicking against the pavement. “Got it,” she croaked.
Abby released her neck, but only to grab her braid at its base. She held Asha like a recalcitrant dog and shoved the feather into her hands. Hesitantly, Sadakat unrolled a thick length of golden parchment. Asha didn’t even read it – how could she, with Abby jerking her head about by the braid? My niggling unease blossomed into full-fledged nausea as I watched Asha scrawl her name with the golden feather and did nothing to stop it.
“There. It’s done. She’s ours until this is finished.” Abby shoved Asha to one side and stalked past the three of us to the stairwell. “I’ll have Fuller round up the crew to start the cleanup.”
Several moments passed in quiet and stillness. La Reina and Sadakat watched the stairwell where Abby had disappeared. Asha sat in the center of the circle, head bowed, hands clasped to the back of her neck. A distant siren from somewhere outside the park broke our tableau. La Reina kicked the tape line, breaking it. Sadakat retrieved the fallen feather and rolled up the signed contract. Asha stood and
sauntered out of the broken circle with a dignity that seemed as fragile as a soap bubble. Unnoticed, perhaps forgotten, by the others, I backed into the shadows behind one of the extinguished floodlights. The discomfort raised by the presence of shadow creatures was nothing to the sickness I felt now as I considered the full extent of the violence I’d just witnessed and the violation I’d just participated in.
Eight
Balancing Act
I escaped the Academy while everyone else was still busy with Asha. I spent several hours wandering Golden Gate Park, past the rose gardens and the tea gardens and the botanical gardens before meandering up to the bison paddock. I came out the other end between two of the windmills and turned north. The Pacific Ocean was a night-dark shadow to my left: all sound and darkness. I wandered past the ruins of the Sutro Baths and along the cliff leading to Land’s End. The taffy-twisted boughs of California cypress supported evergreen thunderheads. Fog drifted through the tree breaks in sheets unwinding, dampening the city noise and traffic. The only sounds here were the rush and flow of the ocean and the lowing of a foghorn. Sometimes, I have difficulty telling the difference between the real world landscapes and the sorts of strange places you can stumble across in the Shadow Realms.
I meandered until I reached the shelf that held the rocky remnants of the Land’s End Labyrinth. I’d been so disappointed the first time I’d come here with my grandfather. I’d been expecting David Bowie levels of awesome, not an ankle-high rock spiral covering an area no bigger than my local Starbucks.
It was just what I needed now, though. I paced the maze like a mandala, going over each step of my fall. My actions had all seemed so reasonable in the moment. I saw a chance to see my son, so I accepted Argent’s invitation to the exhibit, all the while knowing that they weren’t the friendly face they showed to the world. The shadows attacked a public place, and I thought, who better than Mr Mystic to investigate and assist? Abby needed my help, and didn’t I owe her for… what? Shooting me? Not selling out my true identity to Argent? Each time I hit an obstacle, I took it as my cue to try harder rather than a hint that I might want to consider whether I should be trying at all. Going to Lung Di should have been a glaring red flag that I was straying far afield, but it had proved so very effective.
