by R. L. King
“Almost noon. I woke you up, didn’t I?” She didn’t sound sorry; if anything, she sounded amused.
“How could you tell?”
“I know how you sound when you haven’t had your coffee yet. And a little bird told me you wore yourself out yesterday working at Jason and Amber’s new place. Let me guess—you’re one giant sunburn.”
“Surprisingly not. I didn’t spare the sunblock. But I do feel like every muscle and bone in my body has decided to go on strike.” He’d spent several more hours clearing brush and trimming bushes after lunch yesterday, and not for the first time he wished he could smuggle one of the Calanarian mechanomagical healing beds back home. He’d have paid a lot of money for a session with one now.
“Well…I was coming down anyway. If you can drag your ancient carcass out of bed, I’ll even buy lunch. What do you say? I want to catch up with you. Especially what you guys figured out about Jason’s magic thing.”
“I beg your pardon? I think you should be consulting Amber about that, not me.”
“Shut up, you perv,” she said fondly. “You coming or not?”
“How can I turn down such a charming invitation?”
They met at a diner in Menlo Park. Verity was waiting for him when he arrived, and immediately hurried over to fling her arms around him.
“It’s so good to see you. I wasn’t kidding when I said I missed all of you.”
He returned the hug, with only a slight regret that it was unquestionably a “dear friend” hug and not a more intimate variety. They’d made the right decision, he was sure of it. It might take a bit of acclimation (and possibly a few cold showers) now that she was physically here, but that was fine. They’d get there.
Pulling back, he looked her over. “You’re looking good. I think the trip was good for you.”
She smiled as they followed the server to a booth upholstered in bright blue and white. She wore stylish jeans, a V-neck T-shirt in the same green as her eyes, and a snug-fitting leather jacket Stone hadn’t seen before. Something about her seemed subtly different, but Stone couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
“I think it was too. Got a lot of perspective, and worked through a lot of things. I’m pretty embarrassed about the way I was before I left. Not sure how you put up with me. But I’m better now. I hope so, anyway.” She studied the menu, then tossed it aside. “I want to hear everything, but we probably don’t have time for that. So tell me about Jason.”
“He didn’t tell you himself?”
“He did, but…” She shrugged. “Mundane, you know? I want the gory details.”
“There aren’t that many gory details yet.” He told her what he knew, focusing on what had occurred at the house yesterday.
“Wow. That is cool. A little creepy, but cool.”
“Creepy?”
“Well…yeah.” She studied him. “My brother has your blood in him now. So…does that make us kind of related? Maybe it’s good we broke things off when we did.”
He chuckled. “That might be, but I hardly think a tiny bit of my blood means anything. That could cause a lot of trouble for blood transfusion recipients if it were true.”
“Yeah, but they’re not mages. Everything gets weird when you add in magic. Oh!” She stabbed a finger up. “Speaking of magic—did you ever find your space alien?”
“We did. She’s safely home where she belongs, and as far as I know, all is well.”
“You can’t tell me much more about that, though, can you?”
“Unfortunately not.”
“And you don’t expect to have to deal with it anymore after this?”
“I hope not.” He still wasn’t convinced Agent Todd/Fischer and his crew wouldn’t be showing up on his doorstep with questions, but if that happened, he’d deal with it. “Anyway—enough about me. I want to hear about your trip. You must have a lot of stories.”
“I do. A lot more than we have time for today. But at least I can start.” She pulled out her phone.
For the next forty-five minutes, Stone leaned back in his chair, enjoyed a loaded burger and fries, and listened as Verity regaled him with tales of her cross-country journey, punctuated frequently with photos from her phone.
“That’s the thirty-thousand-foot view, anyway,” she told him. “I’ll tell you some of the other good stories later. No hurry—some of them are really worth taking the time to tell right.”
“That’s amazing,” he said. “I’m a bit envious, to be honest.”
“How so? You travel all over the place.”
“Yes, but usually by portal. I’ve often thought about getting out on the open road and exploring the country. And you’ve done it.”
“I recommend it,” she said, her tone halfway between happy and thoughtful. “It was definitely good for me—not just because I got to see a lot of cool stuff, but it did wonders for my independence.” She looked down at her plate. “I see now I still have a lot of growing up to do. I don’t think I’m all the way there yet, but this was a good start.”
Stone didn’t answer.
“Doc?” She was watching him now, her eyes narrowed in question.
“Oh—nothing. I think you’re right that the trip was good for you. I won’t comment on the rest, since that’s none of my concern. Are you ready to settle back in here, or will life at home be boring after all your adventures?”
She laughed. “Life’s never boring around you, Doc. Not around Jason and Amber these days, either. I think I’m good.” Sobering again, she added, “One of the things I spent a lot of time thinking about is that I don’t think Sharra would have wanted me to mope around too long, you know? I think if she was still here, she’d tell me to get out of my own head and live. So that’s what I’m planning to do.”
“I think you’re right, honestly. And I’m glad to hear you say it. I—” He stopped as his phone buzzed in his pocket. “Excuse me a moment, would you?”
She waved, focusing on draining the last of her chocolate shake.
The display showed no name or number. “Yes, hello?”
“Dr. Stone.”
Stone must have tensed, because Verity glanced up.
He shook his head at her and stood. “Er…just a moment,” he told the caller. Then, to Verity: “I’ve got to take this. I’ll be right back.”
He didn’t resume the conversation until he was outside. “Mr. Harrison. I hadn’t expected to hear from you so soon. Is everything all right?”
“I must speak with you at your earliest convenience.”
“Er—okay. I’m here now. What’s going on? Is the Traveler all right?”
“She is improving. She will likely be returning to her band within a few days.”
“That’s good. So I take it that’s not what you were calling about.”
“No.”
Stone waited for him to elaborate. When several seconds passed in silence, he said, “Okay. So…what is it?”
“I prefer to speak in person.”
Of course you do. “Mr. Harrison, I just got back from Las Vegas. Unless you’ve got a portal you haven’t told me about, I’m not going back there now. I’m sorry, but I’ve got too many other things going on at present to spare the time.”
“Understood. I will come to you. What is a convenient time and place to meet?”
He wanted to come here? That must mean something big was up. “Er—you can come to my house if you like. I’m not home now, but I can be there in an hour or so.” Stone wasn’t sure how fast Harrison could get here, but assumed he probably had one of his teleport points somewhere in the Bay Area. He gave him the address.
“I will be there in an hour, then. Thank you, Dr. Stone. Until then.”
The line went dead.
“Bloody hell…” Stone murmured, heading back inside. This was about as close to agitated as he’d ever seen Harrison, and already his mind spun with speculation about what might have caused it.
Verity looked up from her shake as he returned.
“Anything important?”
“Yes, actually. I’m afraid I’ve got to go.”
She frowned. “Everything okay? Nothing’s wrong, is it?”
“I…don’t know yet. That was Harrison.”
Her frown turned to a wide-eyed stare. “He called you?”
“He did. And he’s coming here. Well, to Encantada.”
“But he didn’t say why.”
“He barely said anything. It’s probably good he doesn’t turn up very often—he can be bloody annoying sometimes. Anyway, I’m sorry I’ve got to eat and run, but it’s probably best not to keep him waiting.” He signaled a server for the check.
“I got this, remember? Go on. It’s okay—I was gonna go hang out with Jason and Amber after lunch. I planned to invite you, but—”
“No, you three have fun. Probably more than I will,” he added sourly.
20
Stone made it home before Harrison showed up. He left the gates open and spent the intervening time wandering the downstairs area, picking up a few things he’d left lying around. Normally he didn’t care if visitors saw his clutter, but something about Harrison’s impersonal precision made him want to tidy up.
Raider watched him from the top of the kitchen island (he’d given up trying to keep the cat from jumping on the counters—it was more trouble than it was worth), tilting his head in confusion.
“I’d make yourself scarce if I were you, mate,” Stone told him. He wondered if Harrison liked cats, then snorted. Yes, that was the important thing here.
He didn’t watch out the front window, but he did take a quick look when he heard the low rumble of a car pulling up at the front of the house, precisely one hour from when they’d ended their phone call. He smiled when he spotted the shining black Porsche 911 rolling to a stop. That fit the man a lot better than the pickup truck had.
He opened the door as Harrison got out. “Right on time,” he called. “Nice ride you’ve got there. Do you keep different ones all over the country, or just—I don’t know—shift them over from Calanar when you need them?”
“Good afternoon, Dr. Stone.” As usual, Harrison didn’t deign to respond to Stone’s attempts to lighten the mood. “Forgive me for interrupting your day.” Today, he wore gray slacks and a black polo shirt that somehow managed to look custom-tailored. In spite of Stone’s impression that he’d seemed unsettled on the phone, he looked as calm as ever in person. A quick glance at his aura revealed no hint of stress.
“Come on in. I wasn’t doing much—you caught me having lunch with Verity, but we’d finished. Would you like something? A drink?”
“No, thank you. I won’t take much of your time.”
Stone led him into the living room. “Have a seat, then.”
Harrison didn’t sit. “You will be pleased to know the Traveler has awakened. She was not seriously injured.”
“Well. That’s good to know.” Stone perched on the corner of the couch, noting Raider had indeed found somewhere else to be. “I assume getting back to a more magic-rich environment helped.”
“It did. Primarily, in fact. Once returned to Calanar, her natural healing abilities took over, with some help from the others.”
“So she’s gone back to her band now?” Stone wasn’t sure where Harrison was going with this. Surely he hadn’t come to California merely to provide an update.
“Not yet. With her permission and that of her associates, I questioned her about how she came to be where she was found.”
Uh oh. Stone tensed, but kept his aura under control. “Oh?” was all he said.
“She is very young. If she were human, her age would be the equivalent of the middle teens. She claims she wandered away from her band with her older sister while investigating an odd magical phenomenon.”
“I see. Did she say what this phenomenon was? And what happened to her sister?”
“She is dead. Her band found her shortly after the two disappeared.”
“I’m…sorry to hear that.”
Harrison inclined his head. “I spoke with the two other Travelers you saw as well. They are members of her band. Their examination of her sister’s body indicates the two of them were caught in a sudden and violent manastorm. Liria—she is the young Traveler we rescued—corroborates this story, though she has little memory of the details.”
Stone considered his words carefully. “Okay. As I said, I’m sorry for their loss, and glad Liria seems to be doing well. But I still don’t see why this was important enough for you to come all the way here to tell me about it. There isn’t anything I can do about it, is there? Do you suspect any other Travelers are here?”
“No. I do not.” Harrison leveled his laser-sharp gaze on him. “But I do suspect you have more knowledge than you are admitting to, regarding what might have occurred.”
And there it was.
Careful…
“Why do you think so? I barely know anything about Calanar. If there’s something going on there, it seems you’ve got a better chance of knowing what it is than I do.”
“That is true. If the problem were confined to Calanar, you would be correct. But I don’t believe it is.”
“The problem?”
Harrison was still focused on Stone. He barely blinked. “Dr. Stone, you are keeping something from me.”
Stone held his gaze, but it wasn’t easy. Harrison’s winter-gray stare held preternatural intensity, as if he were looking past Stone’s eyes and into his brain. “Yes. I am.”
Harrison’s expression didn’t change, but he nonetheless seemed mildly surprised at the easy admission. “Why?”
“It’s…a long story.” He broke the gaze, emphasizing he was doing it of his own accord, and rose from his perch on the sofa’s arm. “You said there was a manastorm. Is it still there?”
“Yes.”
“In the same spot?”
“Why is that relevant?”
“Just answer me, please.” Stone began pacing. He noticed Raider lurking in the doorway, peering at them with big green eyes but making no move to approach either of them.
“Yes. It has shown no signs of moving. That is not unusual. The Travelers have told me that manastorms sometimes appear quickly and unexpectedly, and then remain in the same place for anywhere from a few hours to several months. Even the Travelers have no way to predict how long they will last.”
Stone nodded. “And I assume the Travelers have noted its location and shared it with the other bands, so nobody goes near it?”
“Yes. That is their way. They maintain communication with each other. I am not certain how they do it, and they have not been forthcoming with explanations.”
Stone remembered the trip he, Harrison’s right-hand woman Errin, and the Traveler Jeritha had taken to rescue Harrison from the Talented. Jeritha had mentioned she’d informed her band she was safe, even though they were nowhere near each other. He assumed it was some sort of telepathy.
“Well, then,” he said, “You’ve got nothing to worry about. It sounds like that manastorm is fairly inhospitable, so if anyone did venture into it, they’d likely suffer the same fate as Liria’s sister. And nobody but the Travelers even goes into the Wastes at all, right? That hasn’t changed since I’ve been gone?”
“It has not. The residents of the floating cities are currently embroiled in their own issues, and of course the nonmagical people have no chance of survival there.”
Stone noticed Harrison did not refer to the mages by their own label of “The Talented.” He stopped pacing and faced him. “Right, then. If that’s true, then I can tell you with certainty it won’t be an issue. As long as nobody goes near that manastorm, the problem will sort itself out on its own.”
Harrison’s eyes narrowed. “But what is the ‘problem’? Clearly some magical phenomenon exists that allows living beings—or at least one living being—to move from Calanar to Earth. That is not something I wish to leave unexplained. I would not believe you would either, which suggests to me th
at you are already aware of the phenomenon.”
Stone dropped his gaze. “Yes.” Damn this bloody oath, anyway. When he’d sworn not to reveal the existence or behavior of the rifts to anyone else, he’d never thought it would turn into such a pain in the arse. If it were up to him, he’d happily share the information with Harrison, including why it would be unwise to close the rift from either side. But from experience, he knew even if he tried, he would be physically unable to get the words out in any form: spoken, written, or anything else.
“Why?” Harrison asked again. “I am certain you are aware that I will find the answer, one way or another. Is there some reason you refuse to tell me?”
“There…is.”
“And what is that reason?”
Stone sighed. He felt something inside him swelling, like a balloon that refused to pop no matter how much air he pumped into it. “I…can’t tell you that either.” He brought his gaze up to meet Harrison’s. “Listen, Mr. Harrison—it’s…complicated. I know I sound like I’m off my nut, but trust me, there’s a perfectly logical reason for it.”
“I see.” Harrison’s tone was as even as ever, but Stone didn’t miss the undercurrent of something harder.
He spread his hands. “Look—I’m telling you, there’s more to this than you know. And I also know you won’t listen to me when I tell you to just leave it alone and it will be fine. Right?”
“You are correct. I have no idea what is preventing you from sharing this information, but I cannot leave it at that. If you refuse to tell me, I will seek the information myself. Good day, Dr. Stone.”
Stone watched him as he turned away. Despite his calm words, everything about him now radiated a kind of spiky, closed courtesy. If he let Harrison walk away now, he was sure he would never see the man again—and he still had things he wanted to learn from him.
Damn you, Stefan.
“Wait,” he called.
Harrison stopped, but didn’t turn.
He took a deep breath and let it out in a loud sigh. “I can’t tell you now. That’s the truth—I literally can’t. I gave my word to someone, and I can’t break it. But if you’ll give me a bit of time—a day—I’ll see if I can’t do something about that.”
