The Cost of Magic

by S T G Hill

  “Sure are heavy for being made out of thin air,” Ellie said.

  “Just don’t forget what to do,” Thorn said.

  Then it happened. A smell of hot ozone filled the air, and they all looked at the spot on the pavement ahead of them where the breach portal appeared.

  It sliced through the air, creating a window into another place. A place that made Ellie think of a dragon’s hoard.

  Gold and jewels and chests and trunks were piled haphazardly around a vast space.

  But what caught her attention the most was the man who stepped through the portal. He wore a thick black cloak with the hood up, and the toes of his boots that poked out from beneath the hem were also black.

  As were the gloves that covered his hands. Gloves that held something that looked like one of those fancy, expensive Russian eggs.

  “He has a Dyatlov Passagemaker,” Arabella breathed.

  He stepped through and a bit of gray beard poked out of the shadows of his hood. Ellie got the impression of a gaunt face beneath that beard.

  And she also saw the covetous eyes that fixed immediately on her.

  As soon as the breach portal closed, Thorn started. He turned to Ellie, a look of strained effort on his face, and thrust his hands at her.

  The spell he cast did nothing but ruffle her hair and her shirt a little, but he made it look like it took a Herculean effort to hold her at bay.

  Arabella also held her fast, bracing herself as though Ellie struggled against the force of her grip.

  Simon the Polymancer observed all this for a few moments, cocking his head slightly to one side.

  “Such large shackles,” he said, his voice as dry as a dusty old book, “For such a small girl.”

  “You know what she is. Now tell us that you know so that we can put her back to sleep!” Thorn said.

  “Such a tone!” Simon said, “As though you think I don’t know what sort of a traitor and a liar you are, Thorn.”

  Simon walked towards them, smiling ever so slightly.

  Then that smile faltered. He started to turn around, and Ellie knew right away that some bit of magic had tingled in his mind, telling him that they were being watched.

  So Ellie gave the signal, lifting her hands up and tugging at the manacles that held her.

  They bit into her wrists, so twisted expression of anger and pain on her face was genuine. Mostly.

  “Let me go!” Ellie shrieked.

  That got Simon’s attention. He turned back towards them. “Such spirit.”

  “You have something to hold her… when we hand her over…?” Arabella said, making her hands glow and flash with power while Ellie struggled against her grip.

  “If this is all it takes to hold her,” Simon nodded at them, “Then yes. Although, I am not so certain. I thought she would be more… impressive.”

  Then Ellie gave the final signal, holding her hands above her head and stretching the chain links tight between her wrists.

  “Hold her!” Thorn shouted, increasing the wind blowing from his palms at them so that Ellie’s and Arabella’s hair whipped around their faces.

  Then it happened.

  Matilda, safe in her perch in the turret, directed a thin beam of heat that caught in the central link.

  The steel went from a dull gray to a cherry red to white hot in moments.

  “She’s breaking out!” Arabella said, “I can’t hold her!”

  Ellie struggled hard, Come on, make it hotter!

  The steel link stretched but didn’t break. It needed to break!

  Come on, Matilda! Ellie thought, gritting her teeth and pulling against the manacles as hard as she could. The magical steel bit into her flesh, and she ignored the pain of it.

  Simon backed up a step and raised his hands, both of them glowing in front of his face.

  “She’s almost free! Get back!” Thorn shouted to Simon.

  Then the chain linking the manacles snapped, the steel glowing white hot for a moment before tearing.

  Ellie grabbed one of Arabella’s glowing hands. The glow spread to her own arm. Then she threw her over her shoulder.

  Well, Arabella jumped, making it look like Ellie tossed her. She flipped through the air and landed hard on her feet.

  “If you can’t control her then the deal’s off!” Simon shouted, holding one hand out defensively while the other sought out the small box in his robe he’d used to summon the breach portal.

  They still needed to put on the show, Ellie knew.

  She lifted one hand up high and pointed the other at Thorn, who stood conveniently in front of all the stacked tables and chairs.

  A miniature storm, courtesy of Matilda, formed over Ellie’s head. A moment later, a tongue of lightning flickered down into her raised arm.

  Then it shot out from her other hand, straight at Thorn.

  The electricity tingled its way over her skin and made her hair stand on end, but even Ellie had to admit it looked good. Convincing.

  Just like Thorn boosting himself up into the air so that the forked electric bolt could slam into the arrangement of tables.

  Steel, aluminum, and wood exploded outward as so much shrapnel.

  Some shot right for Ellie, whose breath caught in her throat just as her brain realized that she couldn’t duck out of the way.

  The shrapnel, a shattered 2x4 and a jagged spear of chair leg, stopped and hovered inches from her skin.

  Cutting it close, aren’t you, Matilda?

  She could picture the haughty blonde laughing to herself, managing to bully Ellie even in a situation like this.

  There was no time to think about it further.

  Simon took out the little box and held it up. A breach portal cut its way into the air.

  Arabella shot them all a worried look. They needed to bring this to a close.

  “You can’t hold me!” Ellie said.

  Then she ran towards Simon and his portal. Simon raised his hand to blast her with some spell.

  Before he could, Thorn leapt between them. Glowing ropes of power shot from his outstretched hands, bundling Ellie up in their cords.

  Arabella came up behind her and administered the coup de gras. She grasped the sides of Ellie’s head and made her hands glow quite convincingly.

  Ellie gnashed her teeth for a moment and then went limp, her eyes closing.

  She kept them closed as she felt Thorn lower her to the ground.

  “That enough for you?” Thorn said.

  Ellie wanted to hold her breath while she waited for the reply, but thought that Simon might notice.

  “Suitable,” Simon told them. “We have a deal, then? The specimen for the horn fragments?”

  Ellie felt and heard Arabella and Thorn come and stand side by side in between Ellie and Simon.

  “We do,” Thorn said.

  “Excellent. Give her to me…”

  Ellie couldn’t help but catch her breath when new, less kind magic grabbed greedily at her like a hungry octopus.

  Arabella sliced through the binding spell. “Not until you give us what we’re owed.”

  “What? You don’t trust me?” Simon chuckled and Ellie didn’t need to open her eyes to know that Thorn bristled.

  “Let’s just say that we leave trust out of this and get this deal over with,” Thorn said.

  Simon regarded them, cocking his head like a bird considering its prey. “That is acceptable.”

  The destination of his breach portal changed.

  “That doesn’t look like your warehouse,” Thorn said.

  “You’ll forgive me if I don’t want to take a known thief to all of my treasures. No, I moved the horn fragments to another, neutral location in anticipation of a successful negotiation.”

  It took most of Ellie’s willpower to stay still and “asleep.”

  This didn’t feel right.

  The plan was to get Simon to take them to his dragon’s hoard of magical artifacts, wrest the horn fragments from him, and then make him
open a portal back to New York.

  But we need the horn, she thought, her spine tingling with unease.

  Arabella and Thorn felt it, too. They looked at each other.

  “Such little trust!” Simon chortled, “Don’t worry: this is for all our benefits.”

  Arabella nodded finally, and Thorn turned back to Simon.

  “We accept. Lead on,” he said.

  Thorn levitated Ellie himself, making sure to support her head so that she didn’t have to have it lolling and swaying about.

  Her stomach didn’t like the sensation of gliding several feet over the ground, but she remained still.

  The air in Central Park that morning was cool and crisp, scented with fallen leaves.

  The place that Simon led them to was warm, the humidity immediately sticking some of Ellie’s hair to her forehead.

  She risked opening an eye, just a little. She needed to see something, anything, that wasn’t the darkness of the back of her eyelids.

  Simon had led them to some ancient ruins. Little more than a few columns and some crumbling wall.

  Vines crawled over everything, including the cracked and broken flagstones that made up the floor. And beyond those, lush green jungle swayed in the decadent heat.

  It felt wrong, though. Ellie wanted them to get out of there. Rush back through the portal to Belvedere Castle where they could regroup.

  But out of the corner of her eye she saw the breach portal they’d come through shrink to a single sharp line that hung in midair. Even that disappeared, leaving nothing behind but a faint trace of ozone.

  “Give me the specimen,” Simon told them, the eagerness in his tone made Ellie’s skin crawl like the shiny green beetles that were now this ruin’s only tenants.

  “You verified your goods. We want to verify ours,” Thorn told him.

  “Of course. As you wish.”

  Simon stepped aside, revealing a stone plinth behind him. It was empty.

  He waved his hand and a carved box much like the one Belt himself had used to keep his unicorn horn in shimmered into being.

  “I think you’ll find it’s exactly what you need,” the polymancer said.

  “I’ll check it,” Arabella started forward.

  This is wrong. Something is wrong, Ellie kept thinking. Within her mind, the Gem seemed to agree. It put pressure against her forehead and the back of her eyes.

  Thorn felt the same thing a moment later. “Arabella…”

  He never got to finish.

  Arabella stood in front of the ornate box with its carved unicorn. She touched the sides of the lid lightly, and frowned as she lifted it.

  “No!” Ellie sat up and held an imploring hand out. She was too late.

  The ornate box spat a cloud of shadow at Arabella’s face. She whipped a glowing hand up to stop it, but couldn’t.

  When it hit her, she staggered backwards, both hands clapped over her eyes, her mouth hanging open and her lips pulled away from her teeth.

  “Simon!” Thorn said.

  He reached out and plucked half a dozen flagstones from the ground. The shards dripped bits of rock and dirt to patter on the ground.

  Then he hurled them at Simon.

  The polymancer laughed, “Now you know how it feels. Now you know!”

  He clapped his hands together and the chunks of rock hurtling at him disintegrated.

  He followed this up by shooting a column of eerily white flame at Thorn, who responded with ice.

  When the two spells met, they hissed. Clouds of steam rolled over the ancient ruin.

  Ellie rushed through that fog to Arabella, who clawed at her face with a spell even as she sank to her knees.

  “Ellie… Ellie… I can’t see! It hurts!”

  Then Ellie recoiled. As she watched, black, malignant tendrils of dark magic threaded and webbed their way across Arabella’s cheeks.

  “What is it?” Ellie said.

  “It’s a curse, child,” Simon calmly beat back Thorn’s attacks as he spoke, “One of my own devising. A variant of the one used by the Lich Lord of the Levant to torture what he needed from his enemies.”

  “Arabella, I don’t know what to do. What can I do?” Ellie said, reaching for Arabella but not quite touching her.

  Before anything else could happen, another breach portal opened. Ellie recognized the marble floors, the broad halls, the many levels she could see within.

  Darius Belt and Caspian, both in their traditional sorcerer’s robes, stepped out onto the broken flagstones.

  Caspian floated a large box that looked like a pirate’s treasure chest in front of them.

  “No…” Ellie moaned. A heavy ball of lead appeared in her stomach, and she shrank backwards and tried to scoot away.

  Belt clasped his hands together and surveyed the scene calmly. His eyes landed on Ellie and his thin lips sketched a small, sympathetic smile.

  “I told you, Miss Ashwood, that there was nowhere you could go. That there was nothing I wouldn’t do to find you.”

  Thorn saw. With a flick of his hand he ripped a large block from one of the nearby pillars and tossed it at Belt.

  Darius Belt didn’t even both to look up. The block halted in midair and settled on the ground with a scrape of stone on stone.

  “You have what I asked for?” Simon asked Belt.

  Belt glanced at Caspian, who sent the treasure chest floating forward. “As promised.”

  “We had a deal!” Thorn said.

  “We did. But Magister Belt made me a much more enticing offer. Certainly, no single artifact can rival the girl…”

  “But I offered more than a single artifact,” Belt finished for him.

  The heavy padlock on the trunk unlatched itself and fell from the hasp. Then the trunk lid opened, revealing a trove of artifacts.

  He has a collection to make Darius Belt blush, Ellie remembered the words.

  In other words, a collection only rivalled by Belt’s own.

  Simon’s eyes twinkled with avaricious light, his attention drawn to the contents of the chest like a magpie to a pile of shiny trash.

  His attention to his fight with Thorn wavered.

  Thorn took advantage of the distraction.

  He captured the block that Belt had set on the ground. He flung it at Simon. And with a deft twist of his fingers he set the stone itself on fire, turning it into a flaming meteor.

  Caspian started to rush after it, but Belt stopped him.

  Why trade away some of his most valuable artifacts when he could keep them and Ellie both?

  Thorn continued distracting Simon with a torrent of magic. Fire, lightning, ice. It all shot at the polymancer, who blocked it all with one hand while floating his new chest of treasures closer for a better look.

  Ellie couldn’t keep herself from watching, now getting a better understanding of when people compared awful scenes to being unable to tear their eyes away from a train wreck.

  Simon’s precognition, pushed to the back of his thoughts by the fight and his own greed, managed to grab his notice a moment too late.

  He looked back over his shoulder at the approaching conflagration and issued a single, “Oh.”

  When the meteor struck him it exploded. So did Simon the Polymancer.

  Fragments of molten stone shot out in all directions.

  They stopped dead before they could get close to Belt and Caspian. Thorn cast a semi-transparent curve of shield in front of himself off which the flaming shards bounced.

  Ellie threw herself between Arabella and the oncoming shards, shielding them both as best she could with her forearms thrown up as a paltry, fleshy barrier.

  Arabella snarled, the power pouring in great torrents from her hands against her eyes. She cleared them up in time to see the explosion.

  She hugged Ellie close and a globe of cracking power surrounded them.

  When the flaming stones hit that barrier, they vanished in little flickers of light.

  The dust cleared, revealing
only a smear of ash where Simon once stood.

  Darius Belt clicked his tongue, “Not an undeserved fate. An excellent reminder of the way greed rots your soul.”

  Then Belt pursed his lips and blew. At once, all the dust and smoke and fog dissipated from the ruin.

  “Stay close,” Arabella whispered to Ellie, still clutching each other tightly, “I won’t let him take you ever again.”

  Belt looked fairly young, yet again. He’d consumed some great source of power once more, Ellie figured.

  Except something was off. Yes, he looked younger, but also gaunt and drawn. His eyes were sunken, and his face pulled tight across his skull. His cheekbones looked ready to cut through his flesh.

  He reminded Ellie of Mr. Kleinberg, one of her early foster parents, who’d lost a battle with leukemia looking something like that after numerous rounds of radiation and chemo.

  The difference being the Belt kept his hair, which was black and now formed a pointed widow’s peak.

  Thorn lifted his hands up, readying another attack.

  Belt shook his head, “Wait just a moment if you would, Thorn. Just a moment, I promise. Then you may attack if you still wish it.”

  Ellie caught Thorn’s eyes with her own, pleading with him. They both knew he was no match for Belt.

  Belt nodded, expecting as much when Thorn lowered his hands.

  “What do you have to say?” Thorn asked.

  “To you? You know that already. No, this offer is addressed to Miss Ashwood.”

  A shock of defiance ran up Ellie’s spine, and she could no longer cower on the ground.

  “It’s okay,” she whispered to Arabella when she extricated herself from Arabella’s clutching fingers.

  Ellie stood up, swallowing hard against the ball of apprehension blocking her throat.

  “What do you want?” Ellie said. She hoped she sounded more confident and defiant than she felt.

  Belt spread his heads and then glanced around him, “Look at this place. No high ledge to jump from. Nothing you can use to provoke the Gem into protecting you again. It is no accident that Simon brought you here. I want you to know that I am not without mercy…” here he glanced at Caspian, whose breath caught and who continued to stare straight ahead, “And that I am not without sympathy. Therefore, I am making to you, Miss Ashwood, this onetime offer. You are trapped. You are mine here, either way. But that doesn’t mean you have no choice in the matter. Come here to me now, willingly, with no resistance and a promise of no future resistance. Come to me willingly and I will spare Thorn and Master Thrace their lives, so long as they pledge to attempt no future rescue of you again.”