Shadows, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic (Dowser Series Book 4)

by Doidge, Meghan Ciana

“You know what I mean,” the green-haired werewolf continued. “You already take too many risks too easily.”

  Warner focused on me. “I apologize, alchemist,” he said, his words carefully deliberate. “I spoke before I thought. I will bring the matter up with the treasure keeper. Perhaps he will feel the same way as I do. It was an instant reaction.”

  “Let’s keep moving,” Kandy said. “The statue is starting to creep me out.”

  I totally got what Kandy was talking about, as I nodded to acknowledge Warner’s apology. Then I reached to touch the sides of the wooden box with my fingertips. Runes glowed underneath a layer of dust on the altar that I hadn’t paid much attention to when investigating. I supposed dust just wasn’t pretty enough to draw my attention. I wasn’t going to make any excuses for being a magical magpie — not even to myself. Such things were in my DNA, after all.

  I swiped my left hand across the runes nearest to me.

  “What is it?” Kandy asked.

  “Um,” I answered. “I can’t move my feet.”

  “What?”

  “Step back,” I said.

  Warner and Kandy took a step away from the altar to stand on the second stair of the dais. I stared at the incomprehensible runes, glowing blue before me now. “It’s sorcerer magic, but I can’t read it.”

  “Even an expert would need hours to discern the runes, alchemist,” Warner said. “Many are interchangeable. The intent of the use is usually key to the spell.”

  Wasn’t that sweet? The sentinel was trying to make me feel better about my ignorance. Yeah, I kind of missed Kett right now. Who knew I’d prefer tough-love mentorship. But then, Warner wasn’t my mentor — he was an equal. Or at least I should be seeing him that way.

  I cleared more dust to reveal more runes. The magic that was binding my feet to the dais crept up my calves.

  Kandy moaned, “Is that stone?”

  I looked down, assuming that the magic would appear the same way it tasted. But my feet now appeared to be encased in stone.

  I glanced back up at the statue that stood with her hand outstretched across the altar from me. “Same stone,” I said. “She tried to touch the box?”

  “Trying to move it seems to be the trigger,” Warner said. “It obviously encased whoever she was, but more quickly. From the rate it’s attaching to you, I assume you can break free?”

  The stone spell spread up and over my knees. It didn’t hurt, but it was exceedingly distracting. I ran my fingertips along the runes, finding a spot that appeared to be a circle with five grooves.

  “Alchemist?” Warner asked again. “You can break the hold of the spell, can’t you?”

  “Haven’t tried yet,” I muttered. “Kandy, toss me the key.”

  The stone made it up to my waist as I caught the key that Kandy threw.

  “To delay seems moot,” Warner said. He sounded like he was attempting to modulate the harshness of his tone.

  “Gotcha, sentinel,” I said. “But I’d like to figure it out properly, you know?”

  “No,” he growled, as the stone climbed up underneath my breasts. “I don’t ‘you know.’ ”

  Ignoring him, I pressed the key into the indentation. The dais absorbed it. Something shifted in the magic of the runes, but the stone continued to roll up over my shoulders and started to spread down my arms.

  “Well, that didn’t work,” I muttered.

  “You disabled the spell from triggering again, Jade. Not from its current manifestation.”

  If Warner’s use of my first name wasn’t an indication of how angry he was, his tone certainly conveyed his ire. I couldn’t see his face, because as the stone spell crawled its way up my neck, I was having a difficult time moving my head. As it hit the edge of my jaw, I felt the first pulse of panic.

  I closed my eyes to focus, reaching out to the magic of my necklace and knife. Though they were encased in the stone, they still responded to me. I drew what shielding power they offered. Then — painfully, slowly — the upward creeping of the spell stopped, just as it encased my chin.

  “Jade?” Kandy asked. She sounded concerned. Scared, even. I didn’t like scaring her.

  I stretched my dowser senses out to taste the magic of the stone spell. For the first time since I’d ruined it in Tofino, I wished that I still had the sword my father had commissioned as a vessel for my alchemist powers. But the katana was hidden away now in a treasure trove from which I’d plucked the key to the map and the fortress — filled with and twisted around Sienna’s dark magic.

  That was a mystery for another day. Unless I didn’t manage to break out of the stone spell.

  So, yeah, it would certainly have been handy to have the sword now.

  I focused on the flavors filling my mouth in an attempt to sort through the magic. If I could understand it, I could try to manipulate it.

  I tasted rich, fertile earth. “Mushrooms. Moss. And something almost sweet … honeysuckle or …”

  “What?” Warner asked.

  “The magic,” Kandy answered. “She’s tasting the magic.”

  Now that I’d identified the root of the spell, I attempted to channel its magic into my necklace. The stone crept farther around the back of my head, even as it covered my mouth.

  “Jade!” Kandy shouted, but her cry was muffled as the stone poured into my ears.

  I’m not going to panic. I’m not going to panic. No panicking. Come on, Jade! You’re a freaking alchemist! And a half-dragon. What would a dragon do now?

  I visualized the stone everywhere it touched my skin. I visualized my magic coating me like a protective layer. Then, just as the stone flooded over the top of my head, I visualized thousands of spikes of magic shooting out of me.

  The stone exploded in a burst of energy that struck Warner to my left. He stumbled down another step, shaking his head as bits of stone rained down around and behind him.

  The blast hit Kandy to my right, throwing her clear of the dais altogether.

  The blast hit the statue across from me, cracking it in a series of radiating hairline fractures. As I watched, those cracks began to spread, widen, and crumble.

  “Kandy?” I called.

  “I’m okay.”

  I reached for the closed wooden box as the statue crumbled before me, revealing a young girl who looked to be about four years old. Same clothing and everything, but with a younger person inside them.

  “What the hell?” I murmured, even as I felt Warner step up on the dais behind me.

  The child opened her eyes, and for a moment, I could have sworn they glowed with the golden magic of the portals. But then they cleared to light brown orbs that were way too large for her gaunt face.

  No child should be that close to starved. The circlet that the woman-sized statue had worn fell down around the girl’s neck. Her long, light brown hair looked as if it had never been cut.

  There was nothing childlike about the intensity of her sooty, sweet magic, though.

  Not even remotely hampered by the bodice and skirt that were now far too large for her, she lunged across the altar for the box. “Mine!” she declared. Her accent was so heavily English and posh, it was disconcerting to hear it coming out of a child’s mouth.

  I lifted the box that contained the five-strand braids, holding it out of her reach. With the box clear of the altar, I could feel the intense magic thrumming within it. It momentarily scrambled my brain, which wasn’t completely clear of the stone spell yet — discombobulating me just long enough for the child to scramble up and across the altar, and to try to wrestle the wooden box from my grasp.

  Warner swore something German-sounding under his breath as he stepped forward, but then paused as if unsure if he should interfere.

  “Jesus,” Kandy whispered as she stepped up to my right.

  The girl was oddly strong for a four-year-old. But then, by the sooty taste of her magic and the gold that had rolled over her eyes, I could tell
she was a fledgling dragon.

  “Hey!” I said, unsure of what else to say to the half-starved dragon toddler before me. I’d always been terrible with kids. I usually just ended up feeding them too many cookies, but cookies were something I obviously had no current ability to make.

  The girl, who was half-hanging off the altar and half-hanging off the box, chomped down on my wrist. And drew blood.

  I shrieked and snapped my wrist to shake her off. The girl tumbled back onto the altar, then sat on her haunches and licked her lips.

  “Enough,” Warner said. The dust on the altar rippled from the power of his rebuke, but the girl simply grinned at him.

  “Jesus,” Kandy repeated. “What the hell?”

  Yeah, the supposedly powerful adults just stood there staring like idiots at the four-year-old on the stone altar. The bite on my wrist had already healed, but it continued to sting as if it was infected.

  “She’s dressed like, what?” I whispered. “Eighteen hundreds?”

  “Sixteen hundreds,” Warner said. He sounded terribly grim.

  “Jesus,” Kandy repeated.

  “What’s a four-year-old from your century doing here?” I asked Warner.

  The kid started messing with her clothes, yanking the bodice and skirt off, tearing through the fabric until she was free of it. She then tied one side of her chemise in a knot. Her feet were bare. If I looked on the other side of the altar, I’d probably find her too-big shoes abandoned there.

  And yes, we were still just standing there staring at her.

  “Look closer at her magic,” Warner said.

  The child smiled at me. The expression stretched her thin face further, and a pang of pain went through my heart. She was just a little girl —

  “Hail, sister,” she said. “I like your blood. Spicy sweet.”

  “Dragons don’t consume each other’s blood,” Warner said, instantly going all big brother on the kid.

  The child cackled. All the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I finally saw what Warner had picked up before me.

  “Her magic is diminished,” he said. “Locked away.”

  “Contained.”

  “In the form of a toddler.”

  “Preschooler,” Kandy corrected. Like that made a difference.

  “Hail, sister,” the kid tried again.

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t play the sister card,” I said. “I don’t have a great track record with siblings.” I couldn’t figure out if I felt sorry for her or if she scared the crap out of me.

  I cracked open my ruined satchel — willfully ignoring the bits of its vegan ‘leather’ that were now crumbling off it — and started to try to wedge the box into it. Frustratingly, it didn’t seem to fit.

  Warner thrust his hand past mine to yank out the sacrificial knife, which was still bundled in my wet T-shirt and the tea towel. He ripped the T-shirt and towel off the knife, then shoved them back in the satchel. I stumbled against him as the force of him doing so pulled down on my right shoulder.

  I would have sworn the knife started purring contentedly in his hand the second he unwrapped it. You know, if I believed that magical objects could have moods.

  “Hey!” I cried.

  Shadow demons rose out of the ground all around the top stair of the dais.

  The child clapped her hands, which shifted her firmly into the scared-the-crap-out-of-me category. God, I hated that clapping-while-diabolically-pleased thing. Sienna used to do that all the time.

  In a blur of motion, Warner spun around and slashed the shadow demon nearest to us in half. No ripping necessary. The sacrificial knife, which was deadly enough to kill an ancient vampire, sliced through the creature like butter.

  “What is it?” Kandy screamed. She couldn’t see or scent the enemy right in front of her.

  “Shadows have come to play, wolf,” the child answered.

  “Stay right beside me,” I said to Kandy as Warner slashed through a second shadow. Then he pressed his back to mine. The remainder of the shadow demons stayed back from us, as if waiting for some signal.

  “Come,” I said to the kid, who was still perched on the altar like a malevolent vulture. “We’ll get you out of here, get you to the guardians. They’ll figure out what’s wrong with your magic.” I held my hand out to her.

  She glowered at me. “I don’t need the help of a half-blood.”

  “Well, there goes the sister bond I was so hoping for.”

  “Give me the garrote vil.”

  “What?”

  “The instrument of assassination. Now!”

  “This?” I held up the box. “It’s braided threads. They aren’t murdering anyone.”

  The kid snarled at me.

  “Rabid,” Kandy said.

  “Being stripped of magic would make anyone crazy,” I said. “Who’s your mother?”

  “Mother?” the child echoed.

  “I’m laying money on Suanmi. You’ve got that instant-hate-for-me thing in common.”

  “Who’s my mother?” the kid repeated, obviously confused.

  I sighed. “Come on. Warner, can you cut us a path?”

  “If we move quickly.”

  I held my hand out to the kid again. “Don’t bite me,” I said. Then I wiggled my fingers at her like she was a pretty kitty.

  She grabbed my hand, yanked me forward, and kicked me in the side of the head.

  Yeah, a four-year-old kicked me in the head. I stumbled sideways and knocked Kandy off the dais for the second time.

  The shadow demons swarmed the green-haired werewolf. Kandy might not have been able to see them, but by her terrified screams she could feel them.

  I shook off the kick to the head — freaking dragon kids — then cradled the box in my left hand as I willed my knife into my right. I spun, stepping out of the kid’s path as she leaped for me from the altar. Then I made a beeline for Kandy.

  Warner got to the werewolf before I did. Even as they swarmed and attached themselves to him, he slashed the shadows away from Kandy. I could actually see them sucking the shapeshifter magic out of my friend, like leeches.

  Warner freed Kandy and shoved her behind him. Her arms, neck, and face were covered with red hickey-like marks as she pivoted, spotted something behind me, and lunged forward.

  I felt the child make a second attempt to jump on my back. Kandy threw a punch over my shoulder and knocked her off.

  “Fuck!” Kandy screamed, shaking her fist. “The kid has a hard head.”

  I spun to see the kid fly back and tumble down the stairs of the dais. The crazy child was cackling with some sort of evil glee. I lost sight of her in the midst of the shadow leech swarm.

  “Jesus, Kandy,” I said. “She’s a preschooler.”

  “She kicked you in the head first.”

  “Go now!” Warner yelled. The shadows were pressing him as he continued to slash them away. His arm and the sacrificial knife were a blur of motion, the magic of the knife flashing and humming as it cut through the leeches. Cutting through magic was what the knife seemed to be made for, but it was insane that I felt like this made it happy. That was way too far down the crazy road, even for me.

  “Behind me,” I said to Kandy as I pressed the wooden box with the five-stranded braids into her hands. She couldn’t see the shadows, so she couldn’t hope to fight them. And I needed my hands free.

  I sprinted for the entrance, but got only three stairs down before the shadow leeches pressed against us. Warner shifted along the edge of their mass and moved to block them from me. I thrust my knife into what looked like the head of the nearest leech and felt its magic grab hold of the magic in my blade.

  “Not for you,” I muttered as I sent a pulse of my power through the knife. The shadow leech exploded.

  The others nearby backed off.

  “What the hell are they?” Kandy asked. I could feel her frantically looking around behind me.

  “Magi
cal leeches of some kind,” I answered as I flew down three more steps. “Sentient, though. They’re scared of my knife.”

  “Yeah,” Kandy snarked. “I think it’s the warrior’s daughter who really freaks them out.”

  From out of the shadows, the kid appeared before me and kicked out the side of my right knee in the same instant. Bone crunched, fiery pain exploded in my knee, and I stumbled. Then the kid leaped by me and tackled Kandy.

  The shadow leeches swarmed over all of us, sucking at any hint of magic they could find. Kandy shrieked, but in frustration rather than fear. She couldn’t get the kid and the leeches off her at the same time, but the kid couldn’t get the box away from the werewolf either.

  As I stumbled around, still half upright but with a useless right leg, the leeches tried to attach themselves to me. I pulled magic from my necklace and knife to create a personal shield between them and me. It didn’t stop them from constantly trying to suck on me though, which was seriously creepy.

  Warner stepped between Kandy and me. He was attempting to wrestle the kid off the werewolf, even as he kept fighting the leeches. I managed to grab the kid’s legs and half-yank her off Kandy.

  The green-haired werewolf tore the box from the kid’s loosened grasp. Then she proceeded to smash it into the tiny, crazy dragon’s face. The wooden box splintered into pieces.

  The kid cackled gleefully again. Though I still had her legs pinned, she grabbed for the braided threads as they fell free from the box. She snagged two, but then immediately shrieked when she touched them. I got my arm around her waist, clumsily yanked her off Kandy, and threw her down the remainder of the stairs for the second time. The shadows swarmed her, swallowing her so completely that I couldn’t taste her magic anymore.

  My right leg was still a fiery column of pain as I stood to scoop up the three five-stranded braids off Kandy’s chest. They didn’t burn, or hurt me in whatever way they’d hurt the kid. But I’d already put two and two together before I touched them. Though they felt benign to me, they — along with the magic of the fortress — were obviously dragon-kryptonite somehow.

  Warner stepped almost rhythmically around us, slicing through leeches, though I wasn’t sure he was actually vanquishing any. He might have been weakening them, but he wasn’t reducing their numbers.