“Change? You don’t just…you know, shift…into new clothes?”
Kacey frowned at me. “Honestly, Oliver, sometimes I think Devan is right when she calls you an idiot.”
I laughed. Why was it that all the women around me felt the need to tell me the same thing? “Devan is right about a lot of things.”
She flashed me a smile and disappeared into the house.
I started my way around to the back of Jakes’s lot. His father’s house was a place of power, much like my father’s house. The Elder had a hand in creating both, so that should really be no surprise. The fence around the house had once prevented me from doing anything with much power, diffusing my painter power nearly as much as what was placed around the Rooster. Now that the fence had been damaged, there wasn’t much that really prevented me from using patterns around the house, which was good considering what I needed to do. It did make me wonder why Jakes’s father needed such protections around his house. It couldn’t have been all about what was stored in the shed.
The back yard stretched toward a wooded area separating his house from the one behind it. There was enough distance between the houses on this street that they were kept mostly isolated. It was one of the advantages of living in a house built before the construction boom that led to houses getting crammed closer and closer together. At least back when Jakes’s house was built, neighbors didn’t get squeezed together like they were today, so close that you could watch the guy next-door shaving if you wanted. For what happened in this backyard, such privacy was a good thing.
I made it to the shed about the same time Kacey came bounding out to me. She’d pulled on a long-sleeve navy T-shirt and jeans, form-fitting enough to still see her figure beneath them. She moved with a casual grace, more the shifter in her than anything, and leaned next to the shed as I started to open the lock on the door with the golden key my father had left me.
“What are you planning to do?” Kacey asked.
“The usual. Maybe release a powerful mage who nearly killed everyone while trying to destroy the Trelking.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” she deadpanned.
“I’m pretty much certain that it’s a terrible idea, but I need to know what he knows, and Taylor isn’t willing to help me create another orb so that I can do it with a little more control, so I’m going to hope that I can use my father’s orb without making a complete shit storm.” As I pulled open the door to the shed, I glanced over at her. “You might want to give me a little space.”
“Without Devan here? Who’s going to keep you alive?”
I laughed. “You’ve been spending far too much time with her, it seems.”
“She’s been at the diner a few times.”
“By a few, I think you mean daily. She won’t eat at home anymore unless it’s something she’s picked up a the gas station or something she’s brought back from the Rooster.”
“You should be happy about that. She’s a cheap date.”
I smiled as I started into the shed. The air cooled as I entered, the hint of damp earth lingering within it. “I would never call her cheap. Not to her face, at least.”
Kacey followed me down into the lower level of the shed. I didn’t know if she’d ever been down here before, but Jakes trusted her. Of course, he’d trusted Chase, too, and that had turned out all kinds of messed up. I couldn’t judge. I thought Taylor was nothing more than an attractive woman when she first showed up in Conlin. And I’d though Nik was nothing more than a semi-skilled tagger. My track record wasn’t so great.
“What would you call her?” Kacey asked.
“Nothing but nice names. Anything else would likely get me killed.”
Kacey barked out a laugh that died out as we entered the lower level of the shed. She swept her eyes around, her breath sucking in quickly. “Whoa. This all your father’s?”
“Yeah, though I don’t think it was only his.” The fact that it was on Jakes’s lot meant that there was some important reason for Jakes to be a part of whatever was down here, but I didn’t know what that was and Sam Jakes didn’t seem to know, either. His father would have known, but we lost him too soon. I considered whether it had something to do with the balance Jakes mentioned, the fact that power needed to be distributed on either side of the Threshold, but without having a better understanding of what my father had used this space for, I don’t know that I’ll ever discover the secret.
I stopped at the shelf where little Nik rested and stared at him. The miniature figures next to him hadn’t moved. In this form, they weren’t anything more than cold stone, trapped until the Elder—or some other idiot like myself—managed to release them.
“This is him?” Kacey asked.
There was a little heat in her voice, and I slid my body slightly to the side to prevent her from doing anything too rash. I could easily imagine her picking up Nik and smashing him to the ground. I don’t know if the statue could be broken or damaged, but I didn’t really want to take that risk.
“This is him.” I turned so that I could make eye contact with Kacey. “Now I need him so that I can learn how to keep Devan alive.”
Kacey had been inching closer to me and then stopped. “What do you mean?”
“She’s still tied to the Druist Mage. We don’t really know what will happen if he were to get her, but her father wants Devan to go to the Druist Mage to seal the bargain with him. You may not know that much about the Druist Mage, but think of what Nik did while in Conlin, only make it one hundred times worse. He’s powerful enough to get the Trelking’s attention.”
Kacey stared at the little Nik figurine and then took a step back. “Fine. But when this is all over, he and I will have a chance to talk.”
The casual, lighthearted girl was gone and left behind was the angry shifter who had nearly died because of what Nik had done. I don’t know if Kacey would ever be strong enough to face down Nik with his new abilities. Jakes hadn’t been strong enough, so what would make Kacey think that she could do it?
“If this goes as I intend, you’ll have your chance to speak to him.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“Then you’ll have your chance to speak to him.”
Kacey nodded and stepped back to lean against the wall.
I went to the end of the room and took the orb out of the locked part of the wall. That it should be double locked told me how seriously my father had felt about keeping it safe. And here I was, planning on using it to release Nik, however slight that chance would be.
Tucking the orb under my arm, I grabbed little Nik and started back to the upper portion of the shed. Kacey frowned, but followed me without saying anything. When I stepped back out into the gray daylight, I pulled the shed closed and locked it again.
“What’s that about?” she asked.
I held out Nik and shrugged. “If this goes sideways, I don’t want him having access to the shed. My father’s protections should hold it closed against him.”
“And that?” she asked, pointing to the orb.
“If he manages to take me out, then you’ll have to destroy it before you get your revenge.”
A few different emotions flickered over her face before settling on a softer one. “Are you really sure you should be doing this, Oliver? If you’re this concerned about what might happen…”
“We don’t have a whole lot of time. We’ve got to find what the Trelking has demanded or we risk him forcing Devan back across.”
“He can do that?”
I shrugged. “Probably. Don’t really know. I wouldn’t have thought someone could manage to hold a doorway open quite as long as he did. You know how much power that takes to even open one. For him to just hold it like, he did…” I trailed off and shook my head. And the worst part of it was that he hadn’t seemed troubled by the effort of holding it open. There was power and then there was Power.
Kacey took a deep breath and nodded at me. “Good luck.”
Then she pul
led her shirt over her head and pulled down her pants. I turned away, unable to conceal the flush that washed over me. “Do you have to do that right here?”
“No one can see,” she said.
I glanced over. She was now in wolf form, her clothes stacked near the shed. Kacey had dappled brown fur and a long nose. Her golden eyes blinked, and she sat back on her haunches, waiting for me.
I set Nik on the ground and sat down across from him, holding the orb in my hands. On my previous attempts to make this work, I’d done it in the shed. This time, I intended to push a little more power through it if needed. That ran the risk of freeing Nik completely as I did, so I wanted to minimize the potential for damage to the shed, while also ensuring Nik had no access should things go sideways.
The orb caught the pale light, reflecting it back at me. I held it tightly, running my hands over the smooth surface. It didn’t feel quite right for me to be doing this without Devan present, but then again, the first time I’d ever seen the orb had been when she was missing. At least Kacey was here to keep me from doing anything too stupid.
Before starting, I decided to at least let Devan know where I was. She’d probably feel the magic the moment I started using it, but at least this way, I wouldn’t have her getting upset that I hadn’t told her when I was starting.
I cupped my hand over the medallion. Like so many things, it was a creation of Devan’s, her way of tying us together. With a trickle of focus, I pressed will and intent into the pattern on the medallion. This would send a flare of sorts to Devan, sort of like my bat-signal.
Kacey watched me. Her tail twitched and I smiled. “All right. I’m getting there.”
A soft growl rumbled from her.
“Hey. Nice doggy.”
She flashed her fangs and growled again.
I took a deep breath and pressed my power into the first pattern. This was a perfect circle ringing the entirety of the orb. From what I could tell, this pattern helped contain the others, locking them to the orb. If I managed to do this one right, I should be able to have better control when I activated the others.
The sequence was important. Had I not spent so much time working through the book of patterns my father had left me, I’m not sure I would have known exactly how to trigger them, but he’d left me a lesson plan, a way of seeing which patterns to use next. Each one required dividing my focus, splitting it into increasingly tighter levels of control. Without the practice I’d gained over the last ten years, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.
Pentagram. Triangle. Tight spiral wound around two interlocking squares set at odd angles. One after the other, I pressed my will into them.
Only a few remained. The last few were the key. When I’d worked with the orb before, this was where I’d started to flake out. I didn’t want to press too much power into the orb and risk releasing it fully onto Nik, but I hadn’t yet managed to figure out the secret to maintaining control. There’s always a first time.
Holding my focus divided like this was the draining part. If only I had power like the Trelking, but I was a painter, not one of the Te’alan. Or a magus like my father.
“You’re missing one.”
I glanced up to see Devan crouched next to me. She reached over and wiped a bead of sweat off my forehead. Her skin glowed softly, almost too distracting given the circumstances. “Took you long enough.”
“You sure you want to spend our time this way?” she asked.
“Need answers.”
Devan touched the orb softly, skipping over the next two patterns I was about ready to trigger. “What about this?”
I leaned forward to study where she’d touched and nearly lost all control of the patterns. There, hiding beneath her finger, was a pattern I had completely missed. It was a tiny crescent, barely more than a fingernail in size, and different from the others. And the way it appeared raised told me that it was an arcane pattern. Not like the ones I usually made, but arcane, nonetheless.
“Well, damn. I don’t know that I saw that when we made the other orb.”
“It probably didn’t matter then. Didn’t you add your own mark to it?”
That was what had allowed Adazi to use the orb. I hadn’t expected the orb to work for him, but then again, I hadn’t really known what the orb was for. Now I had some sense of why my father had crafted his crystal ball. I wonder if he’d used Jakes’s father to help him with his like I’d used Jakes to make mine.
“Yeah.”
Kacey prowled up alongside us and stuck her nose toward the orb. “Will it let you use it?” Her voice came out rough, half-shifted so that she sort of growled as she spoke.
“I think it’ll do more than that,” I said.
Then I pushed my focus through the arcane pattern. Doing it suddenly removed the strain of focusing through the other patterns. It was like lifting a heavy weight through water. Slower, but easier to move. Suddenly, I was able to finish the series and managed to reduce the power I pressed through it, lowering it to barely more than a trickle.
“Hold on,” I said.
The orb started to glow and power built within it. I aimed it at little Nik, pushing the tiniest amount of the power through the sculpture. At first, nothing happened. Then it started to tremble. I pushed a little more through, and the sculpture elongated.
That wasn’t what I wanted. I withdrew the power, and little Nik returned.
“What is it?” Devan asked.
“I don’t want him back to full size. I want him animated, but miniature. That way, hopefully anything that he attempts will be on a smaller scale, too.”
Devan lifted Nik and studied him for a moment. My medallion went cold as she did. When she set him down, she pointed to the back of his head. “Try this,” she said.
A tiny indentation was there, almost like the beginning of a pattern. I focused on it and pressed some of the orb power through the spot Devan had indicated. Little Nik trembled again and then shook, flopping like a fish out of water. With a little more energy from me, the flopping subsided.
Little Nik’s eyes flipped open. His tiny arms moved, waving toward me in a small motion that still moved in a bit of a blur.
“Shit.” I grabbed a pinch of ink and dusted a small circle around Nik. Infusing it with power took another division of my focus. Somehow I managed to do it.
Nik’s attempted attack battered at my barrier harmlessly. There was power in it, but like him, it was diminished. I released the power I pressed through the orb, and the glow eased.
Nik stood in the center of the circle, staring at me defiantly. I took the cylinder out of my pocket and held it in front of him. “Try that again and you’ll be back to Rock Nik,” I said.
He glared at me. “What’s this about, Oliver? You want to torment me now that you’re bigger than me?” His voice came out something like a whisper, higher pitched and softer than his usual voice, but still plenty easy to hear.
“I need the keys,” Devan said.
I glanced up at her, curious about what she was doing, and Devan nodded. “All right.” I grabbed the keys and tossed them to her.
Devan caught the keys out of the air. “Don’t release his circle until I get back.”
I gave her a look. “If you say so.”
Devan turned to Kacey. “If he starts to get out, eat him.”
Kacey growled. “Oliver? Or the mage?”
“Oh, come on!” I snapped.
Devan laughed and went running across the yard. I watched her as she disappeared.
“About time you two got together,” Nik said.
I looked back down at him, lowering my face so that I could watch him closely. He wasn’t going anywhere now that my protective circle was in place, but I decided not to chance it and made another pattern around the first, this one looping with arcane spirals. As I infused it with power, Nik watched me, a flat expression on his tiny face.
“Just in case you get any ideas,” I said.
“You think there’s anyt
hing I can do in this form?”
“You seem to think there is, so yeah, I guess I’m being careful until I know whether I have anything to worry about.” I glanced over at Kacey. “And if you try anything stupid, I think my wolf buddy here might be hungry. You’re small enough that I doubt you’d even hurt her as she swallowed you.”
Nik turned to look at Kacey. His body wobbled slightly, still not completely under his control. I wondered if I could change the focus of the orb to keep him from moving at all. All I really needed right now was for him to speak.
“I assume the Trelking still lives?”
“He lives. He even came here to thank me himself.”
“What are you doing, Oliver? You’re dealing with power beyond your ability. Send me back across the Threshold and release me. The Druist will be in your debt. And I’ll be in your debt. You know what that means.”
Magical debt was real and couldn’t be avoided. I actually considered Nik’s suggestion for a moment. If I sent him over, there was a real chance that he might delay whatever the Druist had planned, but there was a greater chance that the Trelking might come after us for the simple reason that I’d released Nik.
“You know I can’t do that. Besides, with as much time as I spent on the other side, I always wanted a little mage apprentice doll.”
Nik shook his head. “You’re a fool, Oliver, you know that?”
“I know that I’ve got you stuck in a little circle of power. I know that if you try to attack me again, I’ll send enough power through my father’s cylinder to trap you completely before I hand you over to the Trelking. I know that if I did that, the Trelking would see that you suffered for what you did to his Nizashi and your attempted attack on him.” I smiled. “Did I miss anything?”
Nik settled back on his heels and stared at me. “No. I think you’ve summarized my position quite well. What do you want?”
“Oh, not much really. I need to know what you’ve learned from the Druist.”
Nik laughed. That might be a bit strong. With as little as he now was, it came out something like a wheeze. “You can’t think to learn what I know by asking. I’ve spent five years practicing with the Druist. Five years learning only a fraction of what the Druist knows. You’d be better off swearing fealty and crossing the Threshold to learn yourself. Considering your father, you’d probably be accepted.”
Stolen Compass (The Painter Mage Book 4) Page 10
