Rite of Passage: An Alastair Stone Urban Fantasy Novel (Alastair Stone Chronicles Book 26)

by R. L. King

  To his disappointment—but not his surprise—he found nothing. Most of the rifts he’d been monitoring were still there; a few had disappeared and a couple more had showed up in the two weeks since he’d checked last, but all of them were in remote areas and were behaving as expected.

  He rose, stretching muscles cramped from crouching next to the globe, and pondered what to do next. He could go back to West Virginia and look around some more, he supposed. There was a lot more area he hadn’t checked, and he might get lucky.

  But probably not. Even the area Kolinsky had showed him was large, and without any clues to go on—like the location of the Evil’s portal or Harmony Farms—he had no way to guess where else he might start. It would be a long and arduous exercise, and probably wouldn’t even give him any useful results.

  Face it—this one was a bust.

  It hadn’t been, though, not entirely. Even if it had been completely unrelated, he’d found Daphne and Jeremy. Sure, they’d taken off and didn’t want to see him anymore, but she was still alive. If it truly was her, that was a miracle, and he was happy about it. While it was a shame her co-conspirators hadn’t made it out too, he still cared enough about Daphne after all these years to feel relief she’d managed to escape the deadly portal against all odds. He hoped she’d at least tell her mother she was alive.

  By the time he went back to work the following day, he found himself thinking more about Jason and Amber’s upcoming new family addition than the situation in Decker’s Gap. As he made the long walk back to his office from his one class of the day, he couldn’t help musing about what the future would bring.

  He’d been doing that a lot lately, and even more so after his ordeal with Portas Justitiae earlier in the year. Before that, he’d begun to suspect, ever since his return from Calanar, that it had become very difficult to kill him. But all the situations before—the crystal spike on Calanar, the doctored beer during the Cardinal Sin gig, even the time he’d been whacked over the head and buried alive—had been outside his control. He hadn’t chosen them, and in each case he’d been able to rationalize how they hadn’t been as bad as he’d thought. He’d had top-flight healers on hand during both the Calanar and the Cardinal Sin incidents, and he’d been buried in a shallow grave that might not have prevented him from breathing. Sure, he was hard to kill. But…impossible? He hadn’t been sure.

  But after his capture by the Portas people, he was having a much harder time denying that something was going on. He’d deliberately allowed them to stab him in the chest—hell, he’d provoked them into doing it—to avoid the horrific torture they’d inflicted on the Ordo Purpuratus mage Richard. Sure, he’d been prepared to die that day. Better a clean death than one following hours of screaming agony. But the point was, he hadn’t died. He’d recovered from an injury that should have been fatal, and there was no dancing around it this time. Even Eddie’s expert healer friend had expressed shock and confusion over how quickly the wound had begun to knit together.

  He wished Trevor Harrison was still available. There had been several times lately he’d wanted to talk to the man, but ever since he’d de-coupled Earth and Calanar, that hadn’t been possible. He hoped Harrison caught the people responsible for building the portal between the two worlds soon, so he could sync them up again. He needed to talk to somebody about this.

  There was always Kolinsky, or Madame Huan—but so far he’d deliberately avoided mentioning his strange new condition to them. Dragons might be ridiculously long-lived, but were they truly immortal? And even if they were, there were different kinds of immortality. Despite his burning curiosity about the whole thing, something continued to stop him from revealing that aspect of himself to the dragons. He wasn’t completely sure why, but part of it was that he was sure they were still keeping secrets from him, and therefore it wasn’t wise to show all of his hand in this cosmic chess game he’d been tossed into against his will.

  He was so deep in thought, he barely noticed Laura trying to get his attention as he swept by.

  “Dr. Stone?” she called, louder.

  He jerked to a stop. “Oh! Er—sorry, Laura. Woolgathering again. What’s up?” Had another of Kolinsky’s well-dressed messengers showed up?

  “You got…an odd call, a little while ago.”

  “Oh?” That was unexpected. Generally, if someone was trying to reach him and didn’t have his direct number, they’d call the office and Laura would send them on to his voicemail. “Odd how?”

  “A woman was looking for you, but she didn’t want voicemail, and she wouldn’t leave a message with me.”

  Stone frowned. “Did she give her name?”

  “No. She seemed nervous.” She glanced at her watch. “I gave her your direct number and told her when I expected you back. She said she’d try again at one-fifteen.”

  Stone pulled out his phone and checked the time. One-ten. “I guess I’d best get moving, then. Thanks.”

  He hurried to his office, but wasn’t terribly concerned about the call. It was probably a student, too worked up about something to reveal what it was unless she got to speak to him directly. Students, he’d discovered in his many years of teaching, were strange creatures, with all sorts of unfathomable motivations. During his career he’d had them burst into tears while begging him for extensions on projects, hit on him, try to recruit him for their multi-level marketing schemes, drop off gifts for him (including weed, liquor, and a teddy bear in a bow tie), and threaten him if he didn’t change their grades to something more favorable. He’d even had one earnest male student offer to give him an “epic blowjob” in exchange for an A (he’d declined, but hadn’t reported the kid). This was probably another in the series.

  He’d just dropped into his chair and closed the door with a flick of magic when the phone on his desk rang. Guess I’m about to find out. “Yes, hello, this is Stone.”

  “Alastair? It’s Daphne.”

  11

  Stone jerked his head up. He’d been leaning back in his chair, but thumped his feet to the floor. “Daphne? Bloody hell. Where are you?”

  There was a pause. “I’m so glad I reached you. I didn’t have another number, but you said you were still at Stanford, so—” She sounded frazzled and tired, but also relieved.

  “Daphne—listen. Calm down. Where are you?”

  “I…the first thing I wanted to say is that I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to leave you out there in the middle of nowhere. I just sort of…panicked. I’m glad you got back okay.”

  “You do know it’s eight miles from Decker’s Gap to Highland, right?”

  “I know…” She sounded miserable. “I’m sorry.”

  He sighed. “All right. It’s all right. I only had to walk two miles before somebody turned up and gave me a ride. And thanks for dropping the Jeep off at the rental agency with the keys in. That was a big help, at least.”

  “I really didn’t want to cause you any more problems than necessary. I hope you believe that.”

  “I suppose I do.” He tilted the chair back. “So, why are you calling me now? If it’s just to apologize, then apology accepted.”

  “It’s…not just that.”

  “Where are you?” This was the third time he’d asked her that; he was beginning to think she was ignoring the question on purpose. “Are you still in West Virginia?”

  Another long pause. “Alastair…have you got some time? I need to tell you some things, but it’s going to take a while. And don’t try to trace this call. I don’t know whether you can do that, but it won’t work.”

  “So…you want to stay hidden.”

  “Yes. I think it’s for the best. It will be easier for me to explain everything to you if I know you won’t come after me.”

  “Is Jeremy with you? Is he all right?”

  “He’s fine.”

  “What do you mean, ‘if you know I won’t come after you’? Is there a reason you think I would? Have you done something wrong?”

  “I…hav
en’t done anything wrong. But my situation is…” She let out a loud sigh. “Have you got time to listen to me?”

  He glanced at the clock. He’d already finished his last class, and had a meeting at three. “I do, but—”

  “Will you listen to my story? There isn’t anybody else I can tell, and I have to tell somebody. I need help.”

  “You need help, but you don’t want to tell me where you are. I’m not sure how that’s supposed to work.”

  “Please, just—listen. If you’re willing to help me after you’ve heard what I have to say, we can figure out the rest then. Fair enough?”

  He glanced at the door again, half-expecting some student to show up even though it wasn’t technically his office hour. “Er—I suppose it is. Go on, then.”

  The line crackled so long that he wondered if she’d hung up or lost the connection. “Daphne?”

  “I’m sorry. This is—it’s not easy to explain.”

  “Just forge ahead.”

  “Before I do…will you give me your word you won’t look for me? I know what kind of a mage you are. I don’t think you can find me, but I’d feel better knowing you won’t look.”

  What was wrong with her? Her voice shook with tension. Had she somehow got herself into some kind of legal trouble? “I…I don’t know if I can promise that, Daphne. It will depend on what you tell me. If you’ve done something horrible—killed someone—”

  “I haven’t done anything horrible. I promise that. I haven’t killed anybody or broken any laws. If that makes it easier, then please believe me.”

  He sighed. “All right. As long as that’s true, I promise I won’t look for you. I’m not even sure I could find you if I wanted to. It’s been a long time since we—”

  “It has.” Her tone was wistful now, but still stressed. “Those were good times, but what I need right now is a friend. You might be the only one I have left.”

  “Tell me what’s going on. I’ll help if I can.”

  Another long, drawn-out pause, but this time her harsh breathing came through from the other end. “Okay. I have to trust somebody. The first thing I have to tell you is that I lied to you.”

  “That’s obvious,” he said dryly. “Why else did I end up having to walk two miles in the dark, in the middle of the great bugger-all?”

  “No. That’s not what I mean. It’s a lot worse than that.”

  “Worse?”

  “A lot…more. A bigger lie.”

  “Go on…”

  “I…Remember when I told you how it happened, with the portal? How I barely managed to get out, and the others didn’t make it? How I’ve been in hiding ever since then?”

  “Yes…”

  “None of that is true.”

  Stone jerked the chair up again, dropping his feet back to the floor. “What are you talking about? How is it not true?”

  Pause again. “You probably aren’t going to believe this either. But I swear to you, this time I’m telling you the truth.”

  He could picture her sitting somewhere, gripping the phone, shaking, playing with a strand of her hair like she used to do when she was nervous about something. “Daphne, please—just tell me. You know I’ve got quite a lot of experience believing unbelievable things.”

  She gave a faint chuckle. “That’s true. Alastair—I told you I got out of the portal eleven years ago, back when it started to collapse. But that’s not what happened. Actually…I didn’t get out until the day before yesterday.”

  “What?” He wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. He replayed the conversation, but it didn’t sound any different in his head the second time. “What are you talking about?”

  “I…back in Decker’s Gap, I thought I remembered you saying you read my research notes. Is that right, or is my brain playing tricks on me?”

  “No. It’s correct.” Stone was having a hard time keeping his careening thoughts straight after she’d dropped yet another bombshell on her. “But how could you—”

  “You said you knew about the project we were working on. The temporary portals.”

  “Yes.”

  “How? How did you find out? You said something happened—”

  “Something did. But I want to hear your story first. I think you owe me that, Daphne. Just assume I’m up on the basics about the portals and how they were supposed to work. But what happened?”

  She sighed. “Actually, part of what I told you wasn’t a lie. Something did go wrong when we connected the portals. As soon as Neil and I stepped through, we knew it. Nothing was acting like it was supposed to. And we did see Artie and Rochelle on the other side.”

  “Okay…” Stone glanced at his door again. Murphy’s Law suggested that a student, or Laura, or someone would have to turn up right now, just as Daphne was about to get to the part he wanted to hear. At least his office door didn’t have a window in it, so nobody could peer in and see he was inside. So far, so good.

  “I…can’t explain what happened next. Not completely. Like I said, everything went wrong, and the whole structure started to collapse. We saw Artie and Rochelle screaming. I’ll never forget that, as long as I exist. There were these…black things swarming around them, and they…”

  “…tore them to pieces,” Stone finished soberly.

  “How did you know that?”

  “Tell you later, but it fits with some other things I know. So, what did you do then? You told me before that you and Neil got separated, and you managed to shield up and get out before the portal winked out. I take it that’s the part you lied about?”

  “Yes.” She was back to sounding miserable again. “Neil and I didn’t get separated, and we didn’t get out.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You have to see—it was a panic situation. We only had a few seconds to make a choice. There was no exit back through. That was the first thing we looked for, but it had already collapsed. And those things were coming fast. We knew if we didn’t do something, they’d get us like they got Rochelle and Artie.”

  “What other choice did you have? If you couldn’t get out—”

  “That’s just it—we could get out. Just…not the way we expected.”

  Stone leaned forward, putting his elbows on his desk. “I’m still not following.”

  “There were…other exits. Not just to wherever those things came from. I wish I could describe it, Alastair—you told me you tried drugs a couple times when you were in college, right?”

  He was surprised she’d remembered that, of all things. “Er—yes. I tried LSD, to see if it would enhance my magical experience. Worst decision I ever made. Still have nightmares about it. But what’s that got to do with—”

  “I did too. I think a lot of mages did. And that’s the closest thing I can compare this to. It was like the world’s worst bad drug trip, with all these spaces opening and closing, and the things we saw through them were…” He couldn’t see her shudder, of course, but he heard it in her voice. “…terrible.”

  “So…what did you do?”

  “We held on to each other as tightly as we could, knowing if we got separated we’d never see each other again. In the space of a few seconds, a whole lot of these little—I guess ‘windows’ is the best way to describe them—opened and closed around us. Most of them were horrible. The kind of stuff that tries to break your brain. But then one appeared that didn’t look horrible. I saw a snatch of sky and green and—I panicked. I grabbed Neil’s hand and dragged him to it, just as those black things reached us.”

  Stone remained silent, listening with growing shock—and more than a bit of curiosity.

  “We made it through—but a couple of the things got to Neil before the doorway closed. He was terribly injured—they’d taken a chunk out of his leg, and he was bleeding. At least the things didn’t get through too, so I suppose we had that to be grateful for.”

  “What did you do? If I recall correctly, you’re as rubbish at healing as I am.”

  There
was another long silence. “We…had help.”

  “Help?”

  “Where we ended up…there were people there, Alastair.”

  Stone went still. “People? You mean like…humans?” Immediately he thought of Calanar. Had she, against all possible odds, ended up there?

  “Not…quite like humans. But…close enough.” She chuckled, but it sounded stressed. “We definitely weren’t in Kansas anymore—or West Virginia. Or anywhere else on this plane.”

  “Bloody hell…”

  “Please tell me you believe me. I know it sounds farfetched, that we’d somehow find a populated dimension, but—”

  “No. I do believe you.” He spoke carefully, with no inflection. “Please, go on.”

  She paused again to gather her thoughts. “There were a few of them…the beings, I mean. Naturally we were scared when we saw them. Hell, we probably scared them, popping in like that. But they somehow realized Neil was hurt. They took us back to their settlement and…did something to him. Maybe it was magic, but it wasn’t like any magic I’d ever seen before. But whatever it was, it healed his leg, good as new. Neil was still woozy from blood loss and shock, but…Alastair, these people took care of us. Even though we couldn’t communicate with them except through hand gestures at first, they helped us.”

  “That’s…amazing, Daphne. Unbelievable.”

  “But you do believe me?” she asked anxiously.

  “I…do. I think I do. I’ve had experiences myself that make your story a lot more plausible.” He leaned back, thoughts still spinning. “So…what did you do? How did you survive? Did you ever learn to communicate with them? I’ve got so many questions…How did you get back? Where’s Neil now? And where does Jeremy come in?”

  “Slow down.” For the first time, she sounded less stressed—almost relieved. “I’ll give you the short version now, because I want to hear your story, about what happened here after the portals collapsed. The truth is, I’m not sure how long we were there. It didn’t feel like eleven years, but…I think time might have run differently wherever we were. We’d done some research about that, too.”