Lost Cause

by S A Magnusson

  “There’s a message I need you to convey.”

  “It depends on the message.”

  “This one is to my daughter.”

  I took a deep breath. “What’s the message?”

  “You will tell her I still live.”

  I glanced at Darvish. Was that safe to do? If we shared that with her, would she be the kind of daughter who would come after him? It was possible she was as trained as her father, or had a way of reaching him. But if she did, would she be able to break him out? All that depended on us being able to return to the side of the Veil. And upon us being successful with what we were doing. At this point, I was no longer sure that was guaranteed.

  “If you help, and if you do what you claim, then I will get word to your daughter. You’re going to have to tell me how to find her.”

  “That won’t be easy,” he said.

  “Is that the catch?”

  “I’m just saying it won’t be easy to find her. She knows how to hide, and she has made a point of staying away from me over the years.”

  “Fine. If I can find her, I will get word to her that you still live.”

  “No. You will find her and get her word.”

  It turned back to him. “This isn’t a negotiation.”

  “Ah, but it is. You need something from me, and in order for me to be willing to do it, I will need assurances from you that I will get something I want. If I don’t get those assurances, you won’t get what you want. This is precisely a negotiation.”

  I gritted my teeth. I hated trying to deal with people like him, but more so, I hated that he was right. We did need him, and until we were successful in crossing the Veil and returning, then we would have to work with him.

  “Fine. I will do what I can to find your daughter and ensure she knows you are still alive.”

  He nodded. “Then I will help.”

  12

  We approached the circle carefully, with John watching the entire time.

  “This isn’t going to be easy,” Darvish said.

  “Barden has to come here to provide food and water.”

  “There’s a certain sequence of spells to release in order to lower them so he can’t escape. Barden would have far more experience in doing that than me. It’s possible that in coming here, we will lower the protections and he will find a way of escaping before we have a chance to hold onto him.”

  “Don’t you have a spell you can use to confine him?”

  “Anything we do will restrict me.”

  “We need him to help us across the Veil,” I said.

  “That’s right.”

  “So if that is the case, then we can hold him until we find out what he knows.”

  “I suppose,” Darvish said.

  He reached the first ring, and as he did, power built from him, crossing over the ring, lowering it. I reached into my pocket, grabbing a series of coins. I was prepared for the possibility I’d have to attack John Adams, though didn’t want to have to throw around such magic just yet.

  Darvish held onto a spell, pushing it outward as we made our way forward, crossing over one ring and then another, and then another. Power continued to build from Darvish. I realized then he was holding onto John Adams with a sort of barrier. How long would he be able to maintain it?

  We crossed the last ring. Darvish pushed out with his spell, but it wasn’t fast enough. John Adams lunged, his chains rattling before shattering, and without thinking, I reacted, pulling on one of my spell coins, and triggering it. The power exploded, slamming into John Adams, sending him flying across the room. He slammed into the wall, and he rebounded, correcting himself quickly, and began building power.

  “Dr. Stone!”

  I threw another spell coin, and this one exploded in a burst of power. I followed it with a paralytic, another coin I had on me, hating the fact that I needed to use this many coins already. They were to help us on the other side of the Veil, but if we didn’t have John Adams, then there would be no way for us to get there.

  The spells thundered, one after another. John Adams was thrown back, and then he fell, unmoving.

  I approached carefully, watching him. I didn’t know how long the paralytic would hold but considering it was only my magic flowing through the coin, it wouldn’t be long. Then again, the spell coin held the trapped magic of the creator, and Barden had been the one who had made a paralytic for me, so I had to believe he’d added enough power to hold someone like John Adams long enough for us to take care of this.

  “You’re going to have to hold him,” I said, glancing back to Darvish. He was on his knees, getting up slowly. Blood streamed down his nose, and I realized one of John Adams’s spells must’ve struck.

  Darvish took a shaky breath, making his way toward me slowly. “He has strength, and a spell I haven’t encountered before.”

  “He shouldn’t have been able to get free,” I said. “Barden would have been coming to him and giving him food and water, so it should have kept him from attacking us so easily.”

  “It should have, but unfortunately…”

  Darvish took a deep breath, and the bleeding from his nose abated. I suspected he was using an active healing in order to recover, though I didn’t detect anything from him other than noticing the blood drying up. He wiped it off his nose, and he started toward John Adams, kneeling in front of him. Another spell built, and this time, Darvish held onto it.

  “What did you do to him?”

  “I only added to what you placed on him,” Darvish said.

  “The paralytic?”

  “If that’s what you want to call it.”

  “That’s what Kate calls it. It has a way of preventing them from moving. Sort of paralyzing their muscles.”

  “I suppose that’s a reasonable term for it.”

  Turning my attention to John, I glared at him. “Now, John, are you willing to cooperate?”

  He stared at me. He couldn’t blink, though I knew he could breathe. Because of that, I knew he’d be able to talk, though it would be hushed, little more than a whisper. It had been the same when I had experienced the effects of a paralytic. It didn’t take long to wear off, though that time had been when a hedge mage had triggered the effect.

  “Say yes or no,” I said.

  “…Yes…” he whispered.

  “Good. Now, where do we need to go?”

  “…Tatter…”

  “What’s that?”

  “…Tatter…” he said. “…Neutral ground…”

  I frowned, glancing over to Darvish. “Do you have any idea what he’s talking about?”

  “Unfortunately, I do.” Darvish grabbed John Adams, hoisting him to his feet. “There are places of power across the Veil. Those on the mage council refer to them as neutral ground. It’s a place where the mage council has been able to communicate with the fae and other powers on his side of the Veil.”

  “That’s what he said—tatter?”

  “I’ve never heard that term, but it fits. Kate always thought power flowed from the other side of the Veil through, but she also suspects it works the opposite way. There is power from our world sent through to the other side.”

  “And could we cross at one of these neutral grounds?”

  “I suppose we could. It’s closer to the other side of the Veil. With the right connection, we should be able to use that and make the crossing.”

  “Wouldn’t you have known about that?” I asked.

  “I don’t have any experience with neutral ground. No one within the Dark Council really does. It’s a place of the mage council, and because of that, we’ve avoided it as best we can. Anytime we’ve got too close to it, we were risking getting caught by the mage council.”

  “You don’t need to worry about that anymore.”

  “Not in Minneapolis.”

  “Why only there?” I asked.

  “Unfortunately, other places still haven’t made the same transition we have in Minneapolis. Here, there is an openness
to both councils working together. There are other places where such openness has not yet occurred, though it’s changing, however slowly.”

  “Not as openly as Barden can operate in Minneapolis—”

  “He can’t operate the same way in other places. At least, not yet. I think in time, he will be able to do so. When that happens, then much will change for both sides.”

  I could imagine. A lot had changed for both sides of the council already, and I was surprised it hadn’t been rolled out to other places, though why should I be? There were others who had known that type of interaction their entire lives, and they were dependent upon keeping the status quo. It was the same as we had in medicine. There were plenty who didn’t want to disrupt the balance of power, enjoying keeping things as they were, thinking they would lose their own power.

  We stepped outside of the prison, still dragging John Adams with us. He couldn’t move, but in order for us to transport ourselves anywhere, I suspected Darvish would have to release the spell holding him. The moment he did, there was a risk John Adams would be able to escape, and that was something neither of us could afford to do.

  I reached into my pouch, flipping through the coins until I came up with one. “I’ll place another paralytic on him, and then we can transport them,” I said.

  “There’s no need,” Darvish said.

  “I thought you had to hold onto it in order to maintain it.”

  “The paralytic will hold regardless of whether I’m holding it. The real key is how long it takes us to transport.”

  “Why is that the key? I’ve never had a transport spell take so long.”

  “Most of them don’t, but if for any reason he tries to fight us…”

  “I didn’t realize he could fight us.”

  “He shouldn’t be able to, but again, he isn’t what I was expecting. He must have considerable talent.”

  “You wouldn’t believe it.”

  Getting into the car, I sat behind the wheel. “Do you need to drive?”

  “Driving doesn’t make it any faster,” Darvish said.

  We were squeezed as his spell suddenly shifted, releasing from John Adams and focusing now on the car. It happened quickly, and when it was done, we emerged on a street in Minneapolis.

  Darvish grunted. I glanced back, realizing something was amiss.

  John Adams sat with his arms around Darvish’s throat. A smile on his face. “Keep driving, Dr. Stone.

  “You aren’t going to get out of this,” I said.

  “Won’t I? Your friend might die if you don’t do as I say.”

  “I think my friend is strong enough to withstand anything you might do.”

  “Your friend underestimated the nature of his spell. Certainly there is some power to it, but it’s not complicated. Since Barden revealed it to us, we were able to parse it apart until we were able to figure out how to counter it quickly.” He flashed a smile at me. “I must say that your plan would have been more effective.”

  “Which plan?”

  “Holding me. Had you been the one to hold the spell, perhaps—”

  I flicked a spell coin over my shoulder, triggering it. There was a burst of power, and it slammed into both Darvish and John Adams. I jerked the wheel, pulling the car off the side of the street, and jumped out of my seat, racing around and flipped open John Adam’s door.

  When I did, I grabbed another spell coin and slammed up against his chest. This time, I triggered it, knowing it would cause a sequence of pain running through him. It was something we should have done before. Pain was enough of a distractor he wouldn’t be able to escape as he had the first time.

  It gave me an opportunity to flip through my bag, and I found another paralytic and pulled it out of my pouch. I waited, knowing the effect would begin to wear off fairly quickly, and when it did, I wanted to be ready. I pressed this up against John Adam’s chest again, waiting, and as soon as the effect faded, I triggered the other spell coin.

  It slammed into him, and power knocked him back again.

  “Thanks,” Darvish whispered.

  “Get rid of the spell, and then we can talk,” I said.

  “It’s already starting to fade,” Darvish said. He sat up and stared at John Adams. “I wasn’t expecting him to be able to do that so quickly.”

  “I told you he was powerful.”

  “It seems I continue to underestimate him.” Turning to me, he frowned. “And you.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “That’s not an insult. It’s just that I haven’t been around all so many hedge mages who are able to take out a fully fledged mage as quickly as you have. These coins are something I’ve never experienced before.”

  “Then you should see what it’s like facing a whole group of his soldiers.”

  “Are they all like that?”

  “They all have the ability to use the same spells. I’ve seen a hedge mage take on a vampire elder by himself and nearly succeed.”

  Power built from Darvish and streamed into John Adams. “I think I will take it from here.”

  “Maybe this time we don’t release the spell until we’re sure we have the effect we want.”

  “Perhaps you are right.”

  “Somehow, he might be needed to help us cross the Veil,” I said.

  “There are ways to ensure he cooperates.”

  We got out of the car, and I looked around, realizing where we were. “The Basilica?”

  The Basilica of St. Mary was an enormous building near the interstate running through Minneapolis. It was an old Catholic church, beautiful and distinct, and I remembered taking a tour of it one time when I was younger. Though we were near the church, there wasn’t anyone else out today. Maybe our use of magic had deterred them.

  Darvish nodded. “Many places of neutral ground are like that. Most of them are found at churches, which, considering we are dealing with magic and the kind of thing that requires a suspension of belief, I suppose makes sense.”

  “You’re not a religious individual?”

  “I have seen enough in my life to know better than to be too religious,” he said.

  We entered through the side door of the Basilica, and once inside, the musty odor of the church struck me first. Following that was a strange energy. Had I not been as attuned to magic as I now was, I might have thought it was a connection to a higher power, something which would bring me closer to God, but in this case, I recognized it as the steady chill of magic which flowed everywhere. It called to me and told me where to find the source of it, leading me down. “Can you feel that?” I asked Darvish.

  “By that, I presume you mean the sense of magic here?”

  “Right. The sense of magic. Can you feel it?”

  “As we get closer, you will feel even more acutely. It takes me using a spell in order to detect what you are able to come up with.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Why are you able to detect magic?”

  I nodded. “I understand it’s pretty rare. Which means I shouldn’t be able to detect it, should I?”

  “It is rare, but you have a unique power, Dr. Stone.”

  “But not much power.”

  “The quantity of your power is not as important as the quality of it. In your case, it seems as if the quality of your power is impressive.”

  I looked around the inside of the Basilica. I’d never been here before, though from living in Minneapolis, I was familiar with the building and its grounds. There was a tour group now making its way through, and one of the people in the group glanced over at us. Somehow, Darvish managed to prop up John Adams so it looked like he was leaning on him, merely sleepy rather than unconscious. At least it wouldn’t draw as much attention, though it would still draw attention to us. We needed to find this place of neutral ground quickly so we could get this over with and get to Kate.

  It troubled me that throughout everything we had encountered, there had been no sense of power surging to me. I kept waiting for another se
nse from Kate, another call for help, but it had never come. Had she been silenced? Or worse, had something happened to her to make it so she couldn’t communicate with me?

  After all these months where I’d heard nothing from her and had felt nothing from her, for me to now have done so and for it not to return was troubling me.

  “Down the hall,” Darvish said.

  He guided us to a back hallway, and I hurried alongside him, helping him keep John Adams on his feet. “I thought you said you hadn’t been here before.”

  “We haven’t spent much time on neutral ground, but I have been here before. This is a place where we first made our agreement with Dr. Michaels.”

  “What agreement is that?”

  Darvish smiled. “The one where she no longer attacked us.”

  There was a stairway leading down at the end of the long hall, and we turned toward it. As we went, the sense of magic continued to increase, growing stronger. I glanced over Darvish, who only nodded. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a simple door. I looked to see if there would be patterns on it, runes, but there was nothing.

  “There hasn’t been anyone here to stop us,” I said.

  “Had we not been permitted to come, someone would have prevented us,” Darvish said.

  “Is the door going to be locked?”

  “Probably not,” he said.

  “If this is a place of power, then why not?”

  “Just because it’s a place of power doesn’t mean others who have power shouldn’t be able to access it.”

  I tested the door, and found it opened easily. The other side of it looked to be little more than a storeroom, and I frowned at it for a moment. “Are you sure this is a place…” Even as I said it, I realized it was the place. I could feel the effect of power in here. Walking inside, I noticed a ring at the center. It appeared to be made of gold or bronze—a perfect circle.

  I started toward it, moving slowly, carefully, and felt Darvish behind me. The door closed behind us, and a sense of power built.