The Seventh Stone: A Novel in the Alastair Stone Chronicles

by R. L. King

  “So we’ve got a little time to rest,” Verity said. “And you should take it, Doc. Let’s talk to Ian, see if we can figure out what’s going on. The more information we have, the better our chances will be.”

  “This isn’t your fight, you know,” Stone said wearily, even though he knew it was pointless.

  Jason glared at him. “You done now?”

  “What?”

  “I know you, Al—you feel like you have to say that every time something like this comes up, and every damn time we have to remind you that we’re in this together. Could we maybe just stop doing it at some point and save us all the trouble?”

  “You said you hurt her tonight,” Verity pointed out gently. “If you’d taken us along with you when you went after her, you might have beaten her.”

  She was right, of course. He’d been close—so close that the memory was almost physically painful. He let his breath out. “You’re right, of course. I—” He met their gazes. “I just don’t want to lose anyone else. Trin doesn’t care who she hurts, who she kills—and she wants revenge on me. That means if she can’t hit me directly, she’ll go after the people I care about.”

  “She could do that anyway,” Jason said. “Unless we’re gonna stay together until we track her down, which isn’t exactly practical.”

  Stone looked at Ian again. “Can you wake him up, Verity? We need to talk to him. If you’ve got the oath blocked, I’m hoping he can tell us things he physically couldn’t before.”

  “What about the…other thing?” Verity asked.

  “You don’t have any idea what it is?” Jason asked. They’d already told him about their discussion in the SUV on the way back. “No idea what Ian’s promised to, and how much it’s influencing him?”

  “I doubt it’s influencing him at all,” Stone said. “Not like an oath, anyway. My guess is that Trin deceived him in more ways than one. She tricked him into swearing the oath, and in the process built in some other magic he’s not even aware of.” He sighed, thinking of the tattoos on Trin’s arms. “If Scuro is right about the tattoos meaning some kind of oathbound relationship with an extradimensional entity, it makes sense that is what she’s promised him to—probably in exchange for power.”

  “But how are we gonna beat it if we don’t even know what it is?” Jason asked. “We don’t know how powerful it is, what it can do—”

  “No,” Stone agreed. “But I’m reasonably sure it doesn’t have a lot of influence on this plane—at least not on anyone or anything not sworn to it.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “It would have done more,” Verity said. “Right?”

  “Exactly,” Stone said. “The red eyes I saw on Trin were probably an effect of it giving her extra power—but it didn’t enter the fight directly. Probably because it can’t, at its current level.”

  “Wait…” Jason said. “So you’re saying that could be what it wants Ian for? To…take his power? Make it more able to do things on our plane?”

  “It would make sense. Ian has a lot of potential power, even though he’s not showing it yet. Although I wonder if he’s been holding out on us. That blast he hit me with showed a lot more magical punch than he’s been exhibiting so far.” He shook his head and gestured at Ian. “We’re speculating. Let’s get some solid data—I hope. Verity, can you wake him up?”

  “Yeah.” She pulled her chair closer to the bed, then put a hand on Ian’s pale forehead. After a moment’s concentration, he began to shift, clamping his eyes more tightly shut and turning his head back and forth beneath her touch.

  “Ian…” Stone said gently. “You can wake up now. You’re safe.”

  Ian moaned softly, his fists clenching around his light blanket, and then his eyes flew open. When he saw Stone, Verity, and Jason arrayed around the bed, he gasped and shrank back.

  Stone gripped his shoulder. “It’s all right, Ian. You’re safe here. Nobody’s going to hurt you.”

  “Dad…” he whispered. His voice sounded ragged, beaten.

  “It’s all right…Everything’s going to be fine…”

  Ian didn’t meet his father’s gaze. “Dad…I’m sorry…I’m sorry…”

  “It’s all right,” Stone said again, gently. “I know what’s happened. I know about the oath.”

  “I tried to hurt you…I didn’t want to, but…”

  “But you had no choice. I understand.”

  “I…I couldn’t stop myself. The voices…”

  “You don’t hear the voices anymore, do you, Ian?” Verity asked.

  Ian swallowed, appearing to be looking inward. He was silent for several seconds, then shook his head. “No…nothing now…How—”

  “Verity’s blocked them,” Stone told him. “You were under a magical oath—well, technically, you still are. Trying to break it without a lot more study would be too dangerous, and could hurt you. But it’s…diverted, so it can’t influence you any longer.”

  “Magical…oath?” He looked confused. “No…I’m not…How could I be—”

  Stone leaned forward. “Tell me about Trin, Ian.”

  “Trin?”

  “You know her as Blake. She’s an old enemy of mine. When did you meet her?”

  Ian’s entire demeanor radiated misery. He sat up, pressing back against the pillow, and looked down into his lap. “Two years ago. She helped me out of a…bad situation I was in. Then she told me about magic.”

  “So you knew nothing about it before that?”

  He shook his head. “Not a thing. I thought she was crazy.” He clenched his fists again. “Damn, I was such an idiot.”

  “You weren’t,” Stone said, still keeping his tone even and gentle. “Trin’s pulled the wool over the eyes of people with a lot more experience than you had. That’s what she does—she’s a manipulator, and she’s bloody good at it. So she’s been teaching you magic for the last two years?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’ve been holding back on me, haven’t you? Pretending to struggle with what I’ve been teaching you?”

  Ian let out a loud sigh. His gaze came quickly up to meet Stone’s, then dropped again. “Yeah. She told me to. Said it was part of the plan.”

  “And what was the plan? Obviously she wants to kill me, but there’s more to it than that, isn’t there?”

  He spoke hesitantly, almost as if afraid something would stop his words, but grew more confident when nothing did. “Yeah. She does want to kill you. She hates you. Said you messed up her plans, killed her friends—”

  “All of that is true,” Stone admitted. “But I suppose she didn’t bother telling you who her friends were, or exactly what these plans were about?”

  He shook his head.

  “Well…the first time, she and her friends tried to sacrifice my first apprentice to summon an extradimensional entity into the world, and in the process killed my apprentice, one of my best friends, and burned an old mansion to the ground.”

  Verity and Jason gaped at him. “Doc…” Verity murmured. “You never told us that.”

  “Yes, well, it’s not something I like to talk about.” Stone didn’t look at her, but pressed on. “The second time, she was working with another extradimensional threat, this time trying to create a magical portal to flood the world with their kind. Do you remember hearing about the massacre at Burning Man a few years back? Hundreds of people dead or injured?”

  Ian’s eyes widened. “Yeah…of course I remember. That was huge.”

  “That was Trin at her worst. She didn’t give a damn who suffered, who died, as long as she got what she wanted. She nearly killed me that time, too. I fought her, and I thought I’d killed her. Hadn’t heard anything from her since then. Apparently she’s gotten better at patience.” He took a few breaths to steady his growing anger. “I have to wonder how she found you in the first place—I don’t suppose she ever told you that.”

  “No…She didn’t tell me much, except that she hates you and wants you to suffer.�
� He blinked, and his expression tensed. “Dad…you weren’t really in Winthrop, were you? You didn’t go there and meet my mom in a bar?”

  Why did he keep asking that? “Ian—I promise you, I give you my word: I haven’t seen your mum since she left England. I’ve never been to Winthrop. I don’t even know where it is. Did Trin tell you I was there?”

  He nodded miserably. “Yeah. She said Bobby caught Mom and you together, and that’s why he killed her. She said it was your fault.”

  “Bloody hell…” Even knowing everything he did about Trin, Stone could barely believe the depths the infernal woman would go to turn the people he loved against him. “Ian, I promise, that’s not true. She lies. She manipulates. This whole thing has been nothing more than a plan to get to me through you.”

  “Yeah. That’s always been her plan. She wanted me to bond with you, get you to love me, so she could see your face when I betrayed you. Then she was going to kill you.” He let his breath out. “I’m so sorry, Dad. I’ve been thinking for a while that she’s been keeping things from me, but every time I tried to say or do something about it, something stopped me. Something made me think about how ashamed you were of me, how you caused Mom’s death, how everything bad in my life is because of you…it’s like I couldn’t make those thoughts go away. And even when I resisted them for a while, I couldn’t say or do anything, no matter how much I wanted to.”

  “That was the oath,” Verity said. She took his hand and squeezed. “It’s okay. Don’t feel bad that you couldn’t stop it. Especially since you didn’t even know it was there. You probably thought you were going crazy.”

  “I did…yeah.”

  “Do you have any idea when she might have done this?” Stone asked. “She couldn’t just place an oath like that without some kind of ritual—not unless she’s a hell of a lot better than I think she is.”

  Ian sat up straighter, pulling his hand away from Verity. His expression hardened further, and disgust wreathed his features. “Yeah. I know exactly when it must have happened.”

  “When?”

  “Just after we met. She took me back to her place, showed me her magic, told me I could learn magic—but I had to agree to her rules.” His gaze settled on Stone. “She said that was how it worked. Remember back when I agreed to learn from you, I seemed surprised there wasn’t any kind of ritual or oath involved?”

  Stone rubbed his forehead. “Because you’d gone through one when you signed on to study with Trin.”

  “Yeah. I didn’t know any better at the time—I was dazzled by the idea of actually learning to do magic. She could have slipped anything into that ritual and I wouldn’t have had a fucking idea of what I was agreeing to.” He slammed his fist down on the bed. “How could I have been such an idiot? I never trusted anybody back then—it was safer that way. And I let her play me like some kind of stupid kid.”

  “It’s all right,” Stone said. “I don’t blame you for it, and you shouldn’t blame yourself. Trin is a master at that sort of thing, and as I said, she’s fooled people with a lot more experience than you have. Hell, she’s fooled me before, and she’s had a few years to practice since then.” He leaned forward. “We’ll get through this, Ian. Now that we know what we’re dealing with, it will be easier. But you’ve got to tell me one other thing.”

  “What’s that?” Ian still didn’t look at him; he still looked as if he wanted to believe Stone’s words, but couldn’t quite bring himself to do it.

  “You said this voice in your head prevented you from saying or doing anything about your suspicions. But did you ever feel anything else in your head? Or do you remember Trin ever having anyone else around? Talking to them?”

  Ian shook his head, confused. “No, nothing like that. It wasn’t exactly a voice in my head, though. It didn’t talk to me or anything like that. It was all just…feelings.”

  “But you don’t feel them any longer, now that the oath’s been blocked?”

  He considered, closing his eyes. “No. Right now the only anger I feel is at Trin, for messing with me like this. And at myself. I could have killed you when I hit you. And if I hadn’t managed to stop myself—” He gestured at Jason and Verity. “—if you two hadn’t stopped me, I’d have called Trin and she’d have come over there and killed you.” He blinked and focused back on Stone again. “Why? Do you think there’s something else going on?”

  “I think there might be—but it might not be affecting you directly.” Stone stood. “Rest now, Ian. You’ve been through a lot, and nothing else is going to happen tonight. We’re safe here—the house is warded, and she’s not getting anywhere near it without my knowledge. We’ll get some sleep, and revisit this in the morning.”

  Ian looked as if he might protest, but then sighed and bowed his head. “Yeah. That’s probably a good idea. But be careful, Dad. She’s tricky.”

  “She is,” Stone agreed grimly. “But I can be tricky too, and now that she doesn’t have surprise on her side, I think she’ll find me a bit more difficult to handle.”

  62

  Stone remained awake for the rest of the night. He was in the living room, staring out into the early-morning fog, when Verity came padding downstairs.

  “You okay?” she asked. “You never came to bed. Did you sleep at all?”

  “Not really.”

  “You weren’t as convinced as you tried to make Ian think you were that Trin wouldn’t come here, were you?”

  “Not completely, no.”

  “No problems, though?”

  He turned away from the window. “Come on—I’ve got coffee on, and I need a refill.”

  She followed him out to the kitchen. “Did anyone or anything come near the place?”

  “Nothing. Trin might be off licking her wounds—I did hurt her, I’m sure of it—or she might be planning something else.” He poured each of them a cup, but didn’t sit.

  “So what do you plan to do? Track her down?”

  “I want to see if Ian knows where she might be. Now that the oath’s blocked, he should be able to tell me. Assuming he even knows, of course.”

  “He’s still sleeping—I checked on him before I came down.”

  “That’s comforting, at least.” Stone didn’t tell her, but he’d checked on his son a couple of times during the night as well. Even though he knew Verity’s capabilities and was sure she’d successfully blocked the connection between Ian and Trin, he didn’t completely discount the possibility that the boy might try to sneak out while they were sleeping, called by some other bond he didn’t understand yet. Don’t be absurd, he told himself after the last time he’d checked, a couple hours ago. He’s safe now. He’s not going anywhere. Now is when you need to help him work through this.

  Jason appeared in the doorway. “I smelled coffee. You’re up early, Al. I didn’t think you did mornings.”

  “He didn’t do nights, either,” Verity said. “He didn’t sleep.”

  “Not surprised.” He claimed a cup of coffee and took a seat at the kitchen table across from his sister. Raider jumped up and settled between them. “Ian’s still asleep. I checked on him on the way down.”

  Stone exchanged glances with Verity. Apparently they’d all had similar thoughts.

  “Okay,” said another voice. “You guys can all stop checking on me now. I’m awake, and I haven’t blown up the house or anything.”

  Stone jerked his gaze up. Ian stood in the doorway, tousle-haired and unshaven, clad in the same jeans and T-shirt he’d worn the previous day. “Ian. How are you feeling?”

  “Eh, as good as I can, I guess, all things considered.” He bowed his head. “Still feeling pretty damned guilty about everything that’s happened—and pretty pissed at myself for letting it happen.”

  “Enough of that,” Stone said. “We won’t get anywhere by wallowing in guilt. It’s over now, and Trin’s not getting her hooks into you any longer. I promise that.”

  “How can you promise that?” He paced the kitchen, looking
bitter. “You said you blocked the oath she’s got on me, but will that last forever? What if she tries to reinforce it or something? Can she do that?”

  “Doubtful, at least not without having you present. And in any case, I’m not planning to let this remain a problem for long.”

  He glanced at Stone, suspicious. “What’s that mean?”

  “Ian, do you know where she is?”

  “What?”

  “Trin. Do you know where she is?”

  “Why? Are you going after her?”

  “Yes. This has got to end. No way am I letting that woman slink away into the shadows again this time.” He sharpened his gaze, and switched to magical sight. “If you know where she is, please tell me.”

  “Let me come with you. I want a piece of her too. I deserve the chance, after everything she’s done to me these last two years.”

  “No. Out of the question.”

  “Why?” he demanded, his voice rising in anger. “Dad, I’m not a kid. I’m not a feeb mage. I’ve got a lot more power than I’ve been showing you. I can help.”

  Stone turned away, gripping the counter and looking out the kitchen window. “No, Ian. It’s too risky. I don’t want you anywhere near her.”

  “So, what, you’ve decided you need to protect me or something? You don’t think I can take her?”

  “Frankly, no, I don’t think you can.”

  “Dad—”

  He spun back around. “Ian, there’s more going on here than you know about. I’m going to level with you, because you’ve got a right to know. Remember last night, when I asked you if you’d ever sensed anyone else around Trin, or heard her talking to anyone?”

  “Yeah…why?”

  “You said you thought you saw her tattoos moving. You asked Scuro about it.”

  Ian’s suspicious gaze flicked to Verity. “Did he tell you about that?”

  She nodded. “He was concerned, Ian. Moving tattoos aren’t a good thing.”

  “What do you mean? He said he didn’t know what they were.”

  “He did some research and found out. They mean Trin is connected with…something else.”