The Queen and the Tower

by Shannon Page

  It was nearly noon before I got back to my house with everything I needed. Working entirely alone, despite what Gregorio had said about Petrana’s being a part of me, I laid out the batches of blood samples and herbs, then sang the incantations over them. Elnor, confused, sat outside the closed door of the lab.

  I left the assays for two hours and went for a walk around the neighborhood. Upon my return, I sang the secondary incantation, very carefully did not inspect the contents of the dishes, and left again.

  Six more times, I repeated this process. When it was late in the night, I again resisted the temptation to peer at any possible results, instead going to bed, where I did not sleep.

  In the morning, I looked at the results—first alone, then with Elnor and Petrana. Then I looked at them again. Assay results can be ambiguous, sometimes very ambiguous, despite what I’d said to my mother during our tarot lesson.

  When I was as certain as I could be, I sent a message through the æther to Gregorio.

  I understand, he sent back, and then told me what we needed to do.

  Are you certain? I asked. Because if this much could be hidden…

  Now that we know what to look for, we can be prepared, he assured me. Meet me at high noon at the clinic.

  I shivered, thinking of the ancient Chinese curse about living in interesting times.

  — CHAPTER SEVENTEEN —

  High noon was over three hours away. Checking the results yet again and then packing them up took fifteen minutes. Taking a shower and arranging my hair in a secure but non-hideous braid took another thirty.

  I paced around my house, trying unsuccessfully to work out the nervous energy. When I’d tripped over Elnor for the second time, I hopped a ley line to Golden Gate Park, but it was of course full of human tourists. Their happy, relaxed energy rubbed me entirely the wrong way.

  So I went back home. And took out my still-charged cell phone, and called Raymond.

  “Callie?” He sounded very surprised. “Didn’t expect to hear from you again.”

  “Yeah.” I sighed. “Are you free for coffee?”

  “Um. Sure. Okay.”

  A few minutes later, we met in a small bar near his apartment. I got a decaf Americano; he ordered a beer.

  We found a table in the back, in a darkish corner. He took a long swig of his beer, set it down, and said, “So this is the breakup, huh.”

  “Raymond, there’s just so much—”

  He gave me a sad smile. “It’s okay. I get it. I won’t make trouble for you, hon.” He glanced around the bar. “We didn’t have to meet in a public place.”

  “It’s not like that!” I protested, too quickly. Because I had sort of wanted neutral ground. Because the last time we’d been alone together… “I…just…things in my life are only getting more crazy, not less. I have no time, and no focus. I think…I need us to take a break.”

  “A break.” He took another sip of his beer. “You mean, more than we’ve already been?”

  I gave him a helpless look. “I’m sorry. I guess I just want to, I don’t know, have it said, rather than just ghosting away like I did. I’m sorry I kept not calling back.”

  He thought about this a minute. “So what does a break mean, exactly?”

  “It means…” Damn it, this had seemed more clear in my head, when he wasn’t sitting in front of me, looking sad, and resigned, and gorgeous, and sweet. When I was just thinking about clearing the decks, getting ready for the challenges ahead. “It means I still love you, but this isn’t working out right now, because of all sorts of stuff—stuff in my life—and, well, until that stuff is worked out, it’s going to keep not working out.” Just how inarticulate can I be? I thought with chagrin. “I don’t want to say goodbye forever. But I can’t give you what you need right now. I can’t give you even a little bit of what you need.”

  “Yeah.” He pushed his pint glass around on the table a little. “Yeah, okay.”

  I sipped my coffee. It was too bitter, but I didn’t want to get up for more sugar. My taste buds were all off now. Couldn’t imagine why.

  Or was it just the air between us?

  “So…can I call you in a month or two to check in?” I asked.

  He drained his beer and set the glass down. “Callie, you can always call me.” He cleared his throat. “I gotta jet.” He got up, leaned over and pecked my cheek, and left.

  I sat a long while over my bitter coffee. When I finally got up to leave, I found that he’d already paid for my drink.

  I went to the clinic, carrying Elnor in one arm and a satchel in the other.

  Gregorio met us in the empty front room, the part that still looked like an abandoned warehouse. I handed him the satchel; he took it without a word and, standing there in the dimly lit space, peered inside, first normally and then magically. Elnor sneezed several times, shaking off the last remnants of ley energy.

  After a long minute, Gregorio nodded his head and looked up at me. “I see.” He paused another moment. “Everything is in place.”

  We followed him down the long corridors, past my mother’s room and those of all the other patients, toward the clinic’s little lab in the back of the building. Gregorio stopped at his small office outside the lab door. “Go on in; I shall prepare these and follow you in a moment.”

  “Sure.” I opened the strong metal door and eased it shut behind Elnor and me. Strange that there was no door spell, but I guessed there was no need for one; humans wouldn’t be in the building in the first place.

  Sebastian and Flavius were both in the lab, sitting across from one another at a small desk, poring over a printout. “Oh, hi, Callie,” Sebastian said.

  “Hey,” I said, going to give him a peck on the cheek. Trying to stay casual.

  “Hey, Callie,” Flavius said, and I nodded at him as well. “What’s up?”

  “I’m here to see my mother,” I said, “but also to let you guys know what I’ve found out so far.”

  “Oh?” Sebastian said. Both warlocks looked interested.

  “Gregorio’s looking at it now; he should be in any minute.”

  “But what can you tell us?” Flavius asked.

  “It’s actually kind of interesting,” I hedged. Gregorio hadn’t warned me I would need to stall them. “But…parts were unclear, so I asked him to go over it all. What’s that you’ve got there?” I asked, pointing at their printout.

  Sebastian gave a frustrated snort. “Nothing. I thought I’d found a correlation between the illness and a bad batch of botanical elixir from the east bay, but it’s coming up blank.”

  “Ah.”

  Gregorio Andromedus finally walked in and set my satchel on the lab bench. “Calendula has some initial results she would like you two gentlemen to take a look at,” he said.

  Both warlocks jumped up and went to examine the unmarked vials that Gregorio unpacked. I stood behind, still trying to act casual. Elnor sniffed around the corners of the room. I wondered how often familiars came to this warlock-dominated space.

  “I would like you each to look at half the vials, blind,” Gregorio went on, “and then switch and each examine the other half. Calendula and I will leave the premises while you do so. Send me an ætheric message when you have reached a conclusion.”

  “Yes, Dr. Andromedus,” Flavius said, as Sebastian nodded. I could almost see my friend forcing himself to resist sending me a private inquiry. Even if he wanted to be a healer, he was enough of a scientist to know they needed to examine the results without any external influence.

  “Take all the time you need, gentlemen. Please be thorough.”

  “Of course, Dr. Andromedus,” Sebastian said.

  Gregorio turned to me. “Shall we?”

  “I’m going to stop in and see my mom,” I said. We left the lab together. Gregorio walked with me down the hallway, leaving Elnor and me at Mom’s room with a promise to stay close at hand.

  I tapped softly and opened the door a crack.

  Mom was lying i
n the bed in the dimly lit, sleep-infused room. I couldn’t tell whether she was awake or not. I took a deep breath of the unspelled air of the hallway and stepped inside, closing the door behind me. I hoped I wouldn’t be in here long enough to be affected by the spells.

  “Hey, Mom,” I whispered, coming to sit in the comfy chair on the far side of the bed. Elnor jumped up and immediately curled at her feet.

  “Hmm…Callie?” Mom murmured, blinking her soft brown eyes at me. Her hair lay quiet on the pillow. “Hi.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  She shifted in bed, tugging the sage-green comforter up under her chin. “Marvelous, but so sleepy. They say they’re going to let me go home soon.”

  “That’s great!” As she’d turned and pulled the blanket, she’d left a little bit of her arm exposed, above the elbow. I reached down and patted her there, surreptitiously taking the measure of her essence. Indeed, it did seem stronger. The ends of her hair twitched a little. “I’m looking forward to another tarot lesson,” I said.

  She gave a gentle laugh. “Now I know I must have really frightened you.”

  “I’m just glad you’re feeling better, is all.”

  I sat chatting with her for about twenty minutes, trying to stay awake. Elnor had given up at once; I could hear her soft snoring. How did the healers manage it? Maybe they had something they took to fend off the sleep spell. Or maybe they just built up immunity over time.

  Or maybe being pregnant was making me more vulnerable.

  I was relieved when the knock on the door sent a shot of adrenaline through me. “Come in,” I called out, softly.

  Flavius stepped into the room, holding a syringe.

  “Callie, I’m glad you’re still here,” he said. His voice was calm, smooth. “Your results are astonishing—I’ve already called Dr. Andromedus back in, and he’s whipped up a quick antidote. We’ll put together something more subtle later, but he asked us to give this to all the patients at once—starting with Belladonna Isis.”

  “Gosh, that was fast,” I said, as Mom looked up at him, still seeming muzzy and a little confused. As well she should be: I had told her nothing.

  “So, Belladonna, if you’d let me see your right arm…”

  The door opened again. My father stood there, looking stern and forbidding. “Dr. Winterheart,” he said. “What exactly are you doing?”

  “Oh, Dr. Grandion,” Flavius said, taking a step away from Mom. “Dr. Andromedus has asked me to give this antidote to Belladonna Isis.”

  “That is only partially correct,” Gregorio said, appearing behind Father. “Lucas, Calendula: get that syringe.”

  My father darted into the room, lightning-quick, and grabbed the stunned Flavius. I snatched the drug out of the young researcher’s hand and took it to Gregorio, who flashed a spell of holding on Flavius, freezing him in position before taking the syringe. “I did ask you to administer an antidote to Belladonna Isis and the other sick witches,” Gregorio said. “Perhaps you can explain to me, Dr. Winterheart, why you have brought this instead.”

  Flavius stared back at Gregorio, unable to move or speak. Could not even blink his eyes.

  Gregorio waved a hand, releasing Flavius’s head from the spell. “I—what do you mean?” the young warlock blurted in desperation. “That’s what you gave me, Dr. Andromedus! I swear!”

  “You have switched what I gave you with more of your foul poison. But you were careless—or arrogant.”

  “No! I came here straight from the lab! I didn’t switch anything!”

  “Then why do I have the full complement of the antidote here?” Gregorio reached into the large pockets of his lab coat, revealing a dozen loaded syringes. “You insult everyone’s intelligence; you did not even try to hide the discarded syringes.”

  Sebastian stumbled into the room. His face was pale, and he held two more syringes in his hand. “Callie…Dr. Andromedus…what’s going on?”

  “My apologies for the subterfuge, Dr. Fallon,” Gregorio said, his voice now more gentle, “but it was necessary in order to coax Dr. Winterheart into showing his hand.”

  “Showing…what?”

  “Come, I will show you. You may put those down, they are nothing.” He gestured at Sebastian’s syringes; my friend set them on the counter in Mom’s room. She looked up at all of us in growing confusion. At her feet, Elnor slept on, oblivious to it all.

  Gregorio handed Flavius’s syringe to Sebastian. “Have a look at that and tell me what you see.”

  Sebastian, his hands trembling, took it and opened his magical vision. His face grew even paler as he examined it, turning the glass this way and that. The violet-colored liquid inside shifted and shimmered. “I…don’t believe it,” he said at last.

  “I did not want to either,” Gregorio said grimly. “But I must face the truth—as must we all.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Flavius sputtered. “This is crazy!”

  “It is madness indeed, to think that you could deceive me, deceive us all. But your most desperate madness was your attempt to augment your own power by using the stolen essence of innocent members of our community.” Gregorio waved his right arm with a dramatic flourish, and I felt the tug as we were all transported through the æther under his power—something I always hated. Blinking, I stumbled, regained my footing, and glanced around.

  We hadn’t left the building, but we were now all gathered in a large room. A conference room, perhaps, but one with space for dozens of people. There was a small wooden chair in the exact center of the room; Flavius was now confined there, tied by visible ropes of thick magic, shimmering golden about his ankles, wrists, and waist. A slender line encircled his neck.

  Gregorio, Sebastian and I stood before Flavius in his chair. Beside me was my mother, still in her hospital bed. Father stood on the other side of the bed, his hand holding hers. Elnor blinked awake, looked for me, and hopped down to sit at my feet.

  All around us were more people.

  I swallowed a gasp as I understood. Gregorio had told me of his plans…but not that he had meant to implement them so immediately.

  To our left, seated behind a long table, were four more Elders, and two empty chairs, for Father and Gregorio. To our right sat six coven mothers, including Leonora and Sapphire. I recognized Beatrice, who led a coven in San Jose focused on research and training in the healing arts, but I did not know the other three. Their cats were mostly at their feet, though Grieka sat on the table before Leonora.

  I turned around; behind us there was a small audience. Jeremy was there, as were Niad, Peony, and Maela from my coven, along with a handful of other witches and a warlock.

  Gregorio cleared his throat. “With six Elders and six coven mothers, this tribunal is at quorum. I call the proceedings to order.”

  In his chair, Flavius had been stunned silent for a moment. Now he erupted in protest. “Tribunal? What? Why?”

  Gregorio wheeled on him. “You will speak when spoken to, Dr. Winterheart. Do not make me silence you.”

  Flavius shut his mouth.

  Beside me, Sebastian took my hand; I gripped his, hard. Maybe it helped us both tremble a little less. Elnor curled against my ankles, purring nervously.

  “Flavius Winterheart, in the presence of these witnesses,” Gregorio indicated Sebastian and me, “and before the judgment of your betters,” he indicated the Elders and coven mothers, “I charge you with a wicked conspiracy to steal essence from unsuspecting members of our community in order to boost your own power and position. I further charge you with disguising these intentions and misrepresenting yourself as an honest student of mine, in order to gain access to my knowledge and resources, and to spread your harm more widely. I finally charge you with so overstepping your own capabilities, as well as common witchkind decency, that you drained the unaffiliated witch Logandina Fleur beyond her body’s capacity to contain her spirit. A spirit which is now missing entirely, lost somewhere between our plane and that of the
Beyond. How do you answer these charges, Flavius Winterheart?”

  I hadn’t thought it was possible for Flavius to grow more pale, but he had done so, through Gregorio’s recitation. Now he gulped, swallowed, and choked out, “I…I didn’t do any of that, Dr. Andromedus. I’ve been trying to help the sick witches, not harm them. I don’t have any extra essence anywhere in me! Can’t you all see?”

  “Of course you would not store any excess inside your person,” Gregorio said, with a barely-voiced sneer. “You must tell us where the stolen essence is, so that we may restore it directly—whatever you have not already used up. The community has been most generous in supplying donations, which has been a drain on us all.”

  “I don’t have it—I didn’t do it! This is all crazy!”

  Gregorio gave a sigh and slowly turned his head to the left and the right, taking in all the members of the tribunal before returning his gaze to Flavius. “My colleagues, the prisoner appears to deny all charges. What say you?”

  “I move we look inside,” Beatrice said. “I suggest beginning with a tanglefoot scry, and proceeding to a Foulian search if the scry does not suffice.”

  “I concur,” Leonora said. One by one, the other coven mothers, then the Elders, gave their assent.

  Gregorio turned back to Flavius, who trembled visibly in his chair. “I advise you to not resist these methods of questioning. We will find our answer. You have the choice of whether it shall go hard for you, or harder. You may still speak now and prevent this.”

  “I am telling the truth! I have nothing to hide!”

  Gregorio shook his head slowly. He looked much closer to his eight hundred years than I had ever seen him. “Do not think this does not sadden me.”

  “Please!” Flavius wailed, but Gregorio reached out his right arm and pointed at the warlock.

  I shivered, turning my eyes away, as though I could escape the feel of the ugly, invasive magic being wielded right beside me. Gregorio’s spell, reinforced by the rest of the tribunal, entered Flavius’s body and scoured through his energetic channels. I could almost feel the pain it caused him; I could not block my ears to his screams. Sebastian’s grip on my hand grew tighter. I wanted to bury myself in his arms, but I didn’t dare move, for fear of disrupting the wild dark energy flowing through the room. Elnor howled. I did not hear the other familiars, who were likely assisting in the spell. Poor cats.