The Other Side: A Novel in the Alastair Stone Chronicles
Page 50
She nodded.
“Did you talk to Edna about this at all?” He let go of her hand and resumed his former position.
She shook her head. “I didn’t tell her. I was afraid to. I felt like I…betrayed her teaching or something.”
“And that’s why you want to come back to me, then? Because you can’t face Edna?”
“No!” She spun back toward him and Raider leaped, indignant, to the floor. “No. I…was almost certain I wanted to before. But now…” She paused. “Doc…You…will take me back, right?”
“Verity…How many times do I have to tell you—you’ve always got a place here. You’re my apprentice. Nothing you could do will change that.”
“You didn’t answer my question, though—what if I do lose my temper and—”
“You aren’t going to do that.”
“How do you know? If I killed one guy, maybe the next time—”
“The next time you meet a black mage who’s running a child sex ring and is threatening to kill your brother? Is that likely to happen?”
“Somebody might threaten Jason again…or Edna…or you…”
“And next time, you’ll have more control.” He patted her hand, then walked over to his liquor cabinet and poured her a stiff glass of Scotch. “Here. I think you could use this. And I’m not contributing to the delinquency of a minor anymore by offering it to you.”
She took the glass, sipped, and wrinkled her nose. “You like this stuff?”
“Oi,” he said, glaring. “That’s the good stuff, right there. No cheap drinks for my apprentice.”
She smiled a little in spite of herself and took another sip. “I guess it’s an acquired taste.” She looked startled as a thought seemed to occur to her. “Doc…I’m confused about something.”
“What’s that?” He poured himself a glass and sat back down, pushing Raider aside as the cat tried to investigate what he had.
“You said ‘a black mage.’ But—I’m not sure he was. I thought black mages were terrible at things like wards and permanent spells.”
“Not terrible,” he said. “They just find them more difficult in general, and they need to draw a lot more power to keep them going.”
She nodded. “Could it be that he wasn’t?”
“Wasn’t what? A black mage?” He was pleased to see she appeared to be emerging from her guilt-wracked funk—and to his surprise, he felt her presence might be drawing him from his own.
“Yeah. Could a white mage…do the kinds of things he was doing? He seemed angry when I accused him of killing people—killing kids, even—to keep his spells going. So…could he have been a white mage?”
“Of course.”
She looked startled. “Really?”
“Why not?” He sighed and took another sip. “Verity, this is still the hardest thing I ever have to get through to students—even ones as far along as you are. It doesn’t help that the sides usually line up as you’d expect them to—the so-called “good” mages on the white side, and the nastier sorts on the black side. It makes sense, when you think about it—if you’re willing to let your personal principles shift to achieve your ends, it’s easier to let other things shift—like justifying taking energy from others. But it doesn’t have to be that way.” He gripped her arm again, hoping what he’d say next wouldn’t upset the fragile balance she’d achieved. “You’re a white mage. I am too—mostly, anyway. But yet, both of us have done things we’re not proud of, right?”
She shuddered. “Yeah. I guess we have. And this guy…he seemed like he was proud of what he was doing. Like he…thought he was doing the right thing.” Her face twisted in disgust. “Fuck it, Doc, I don’t want to think about it anymore right now. It’s probably gonna give me nightmares for months—but I guess that’s part of this whole magic thing, isn’t it?”
“Sadly, I wish I could tell you otherwise.” He thought about Brunderville again, and clenched his fists. Then he stood, once again evicting Raider from his perch. “Come on—we both need to get the hell out of here for a while. Go sort out your makeup, and let me take you out to a proper dinner. We can discuss the details of your move back up here.”
“Sounds like a plan.” She gave him a shadow of her old smile and started toward the downstairs bathroom, but then stopped. “Hey, Doc?”
“Yes?”
“I almost forgot, with everything else that happened—I saw Mr. Harrison in Vegas. At the Obsidian.”
Stone went still. “Did you?”
“Yeah. I talked to him for a minute. Not for long. He said he almost never comes back these days, so I guess I got lucky to spot him. He gave me a message for you before he left.”
“Oh?” Stone kept his voice even, despite his sudden desire to hop the next flight to Vegas and try to track the man down before he disappeared again.
“Yeah. He said…” She paused, thinking. “He said to tell you ‘If the time ever comes when he truly needs to find me, he already possesses the means to do it.’” She frowned. “I have no idea what that means, and he wouldn’t say any more about it.”
“Hmm.” Stone turned the words over in his mind as she disappeared into the bathroom and ran water in the sink, but they didn’t make sense. How could he have the means to find Harrison, when he had no idea where he’d gone?
Ah, well. Maybe he didn’t even need to find the man anymore. He was making steady progress with Harrison’s magical style—maybe someday he’d get to the point where he could use it without burning himself out. Or he wouldn’t, and it would have to remain as a last-ditch nuclear option if nothing else worked.
For the present though, best to focus on what he could do, not on what he couldn’t. “Well, thanks for passing it along. But right now, all I’m thinking about is that I haven’t had anything to eat all day. Fancy a steak? Chinese? Mexican?”
She emerged from the bathroom. Her makeup was back in order, even if her aura wasn’t, entirely. “Whatever you want’s fine with me, Doc. I’m just glad to be back.”
“It’s good to have you back.” As he said it, he realized how much he’d missed having her around, even though he’d refused to admit it even to himself. “Come on. I know an excellent Mexican place down in San Jose. You’re in charge, Raider,” he called back over his shoulder as he motioned her ahead of him. “No parties.”
Raider, wisely, said nothing as the door closed.
Alastair Stone will return in
PATH OF STONE
Alastair Stone Chronicles Book 11
Fall 2017
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Jason Oak, from the Stone Chronicles Facebook group, for suggesting the topic of Stone’s academic paper, and various other folks from the Stoner Facebook Foodie Brain Trust for suggesting cuisines for Stone and Kolinsky to try. If it were up to me, they’d be eating pizza and burgers.
Want to be notified when the next Alastair Stone Chronicles novel will be released? Please sign up for the mailing list by going to http://www.alastairstonechronicles.com. As a bonus, I’ll send you a free copy of Shadows and Stone, a Stone Chronicles novella not available anywhere else! We’ll never share your email address with anyone else, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
If you liked what you read and want to find more books in the Alastair Stone Chronicles series, go to http://www.magespacepress.com/page.html or your favorite online bookseller for links and more information.
BOOKS BY R. L. KING
The Alastair Stone Chronicles
Stone and a Hard Place
The Forgotten
The Threshold
The Source
Core of Stone
Blood and Stone
Heart of Stone
Flesh and Stone
The Infernal Heart
The Other Side
Path of Stone (Fall 2017)
Shadows and Stone (novella)
Shadowrun (published by Catalyst Game Labs)
Borrowed Time
Wolf and Buffalo (novella)
Big Dreams (novella)
Veiled Extraction (coming 2018)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
R. L. King enjoys hanging out with her very understanding spouse and small herd of cats, watching way too much Doctor Who, and attending conventions when she can. She is an Active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Horror Writers’ Association, and the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.
You can find her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AlastairStoneChronicles and on Twitter at @Dragonwriter11. Her blog is at www.rlkingwriting.com.
Reviews are Always Appreciated!
Reviews and recommendations are extremely important to the success of the books and authors you enjoy. If you liked this book, please tell your friends about it, and consider leaving a review at the location where you bought it. Even if you only write a few lines, it helps other readers decide if it’s something they’d enjoy reading.
Thank you very much!