Alchemy of Shadows

by David L Burkhead

  I sighed. We stood in the living room of my apartment. Jeff sat on the couch watching, but saying nothing.

  Jeff surprised me. I had expected more resistance to what I had been saying from him, but he had taken what I’d said with calm acceptance. The events at the hospital had unnerved him, but he simply waited to see what I would do about my own story.

  Becki, however, was a different story.

  “What could I show you?” I asked. “I suppose we could wait twenty, thirty years and you’d see that I don’t age.”

  “What about your philosopher’s stone? Isn’t that supposed to let you transmute base metals into gold?” Becki rubbed at her right arm. I noticed a tightening of her shoulders. The numbness of the Shadow’s touch was wearing off and the pain only just starting. Knowing what was to come, I wished I could do something, but nothing affected that freezing pain.

  My lips twitched. “You know the tales. It isn’t actually a stone. It’s...well, I’ll get to that part later if you don’t mind. There’s one thing I can show you.”

  I removed the vial of elixir from where I kept it tucked in a pouch behind my belt. I set it on the low table that fronted the couch.

  “What’s that?” Becki asked.

  “You’ll see,” I said. “One moment.”

  I left her and Jeff in the living room while I stepped into the kitchen. I returned with a paring knife.

  Becki’s eyebrows rose when she saw what I held. Jeff sprang off the couch. I held up my hand to placate them but they both eyed me warily.

  With a quick stroke, I sliced deep into my left forearm. I quickly shifted my arm over the table before blood could drip onto the floor.

  “My God! What the...” Becki stepped forward.

  I dropped the knife and held up a hand to forestall Becki’s approach. Jeff slowly edged to the side, clearly trying to circle to grab me from behind.

  “Give me just a few seconds,” I said. I picked up the vial and gripped the cap between my teeth. I spun the body of the vial free. Once it was open I pressed the tip of my right index finger over the opening and shook the vial to moisten my fingertip. I extended the fingertip and, holding the vial between thumb and middle finger spun it back into the cap.

  I left the vial between my teeth and ran my moistened fingertip along the still-bleeding wound in my left forearm. The wound closed behind my finger, leaving a red weal as though from several days of healing. The small amount of elixir would not completely heal the wound, but this would be sufficient to demonstrate.

  Another wipe of my hand cleared enough of the blood from my forearm to show the mostly healed cut.

  “My...God.” Becki leaned close, grabbing my hand, she turned it to examine my arm. “How?”

  “Elixir of Life.” I set the vial back on the table. “The transmutation of metals is trivial. This was the true goal of alchemy. With it you could cure any illness, heal any but the most instantly fatal of injuries, and—” I waved with my free hand indicating myself. “—extend life and youth indefinitely. I am over eight hundred years old. I am also nineteen.”

  “Nineteen?” Jeff pried my arm out of Becki’s hands to perform his own inspection.

  “I usually aim for a physical age of mid-twenties to mid-thirties, but I had to use a lot of elixir recently and...well, it saved my life and I suppose the drop in my apparent physical age was no real problem since I had to disappear and start over again.”

  I rounded the table and sat on the couch Jeff had vacated.

  “But...you could revolutionize medicine with this,” Becki said. She stood shoulder to shoulder with Jeff. From their position, they loomed over me.

  “Please, sit,” I said. “How could I revolutionize medicine?”

  Jeff sat in the chair. Becki, after looking around for a moment, joined me on the couch.

  “What?” Becki said. “You can cure the sick, heal injuries. That would...”

  “That would get me killed,” I said. “Or...something. I don’t really know what the Shadows want.”

  I sighed. “Look, it’s not as easy as you think. It takes months, literal months, to make a vial of elixir. You asked about the philosopher’s stone? Well, my blood is that stone. Albertus did something, I don’t know what, but it changed me. Most of what I do requires my blood. Oh, sure, I can use the elixir to restore my blood easily enough but whatever it is that makes my blood work in alchemy is not so easily recovered.” I tapped the vial. “This is all that I have left. It will be another three months before I have more.” I did not go into the lesser elixir and other things I could do as a backup until that time.

  “But...still...”

  I was about to respond when Jeff spoke. “Why do those things want you?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “That’s part of the problem. It probably is related to my alchemy, but more than that, well, I’ve never stayed long enough to ask.”

  “Still—” Becki waved at my arm. “—you could cure cancer. You could...”

  “I could get myself killed,” I said. “And then what?”

  “Killed? I don’t...”

  “My own blood is one of the main ingredients in the elixir. If I went public with it, do you think people would be reasonable about how much they use? Or would they keep demanding more and more until...” I jumped up and began to pace. “But it’s more than that. For a long time, letting people know what I could do got me tortured and burned as a witch. That’s probably not an issue today but there are the Shadows. Were I to publicly demonstrate what I can do, that would bring them right to me.”

  I sank back into my seat and sighed. “I do what I can but I have to be careful.”

  “Are there any others like you?” Becki asked.

  “I lost track of Master Magnus a long time ago. Since then I’ve met three other alchemists who had their own formulations of elixir. All of them are dead now.”

  “Dead?” Jeff leaned forward. “How?”

  I cast a quick glance in Jeff’s direction then locked my eyes with Becki’s. “They weren’t careful.”

  I stood. “And that means I have to get out of here.”

  Jeff looked at Becki who looked back at him. I stood and turned toward the bedroom where my partially packed luggage waited.

  “What about us?” Jeff said.

  I paused. “What?”

  “What’s going to happen to us with these Shadows?”

  “You should be fine,” I said. “It’s me they’re after.”

  Becki’s face looked like she’d tasted something foul. “Are you stuck in a rut or are you just stupid?”

  I returned her gaze, puzzled. “What?”

  “Why did these Shadows take the coach and Darryl? Didn’t you say they didn’t know you were here?”

  Cold washed through me. I sank back to the couch. Stupid. Becki was right. Stupid. I had even thought knowing about the Shadows without them knowing about me could give me a chance to learn more about them, how better to avoid them. But the moment one became aware of me, all I could think of was to run.

  And if I had been keeping my own existence secret from the world, the Shadows had done likewise. What would they do to two people who knew of their existence?

  “Oh, God,” I said.

  “So what do we do?” Becki said.

  “We fight them?” Jeff suggested.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know how to fight them. I can drive them off for a bit with bright light. But beyond that...”

  “Have you ever tried?” Becki asked.

  “What?”

  “You said you run when you encounter them. Have you ever actually tried to fight them?”

  I threw up my hands. “I. Don’t. Know. How. Light seems to drive them back, but the brightest light I’ve been able to create only seems to pain them, nothing damaging.”

  “Then we all run,” Jeff said. “Damn, I hate doing that, but if what Adrian says is true we can’t stay here.”

  I got up and paced. Could I take the
m with me? I suppressed a grin. At least I had the funds. It’s not like I was actually the poor college student I pretended.

  As my pacing took me past the window, movement in the parking lot caught my eye. I frowned and leaned close, shielding my eyes from the brightness of the room. A car pulling into a parking spot. And emerging from the car …

  Ata.

  “Scheisse. We’re out of time.”

  “What?” Jeff asked.

  “Ata’s here.”

  I squatted by the couch and opened the cabinet built into the end table. From its recesses I pulled out a road flare. I handed that one to Jeff and reached in to grab another from the supply. When you spend centuries fleeing monsters with light being your only weapon you stash bright light sources wherever you can. I handed two each to Jeff and Becki, gripped one in my left fist, and shoved three more into my pockets. I just wished I had more of the magnesium flares with their far brighter light. Or...

  I dashed into the bedroom. The valise with the core of my alchemical supplies, including my current projects, lay on the bed. I grabbed it. Anything else I could replace. The time invested in those things could not.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  I opened the door. Someone had buzzed Ata into the building because I saw him coming up the stairs, looking up at us through his dark sunglasses.

  A slow smile spread on his face as he saw me. The lights in the hallway flickered and died.

  How did he do that? I wondered. I did not have time to consider. I set down the valise and struck the fusee in my hand. I held it before me, like using a cross to ward off a vampire in an old movie. To my right Becki did the same with one of hers. I grabbed my valise again.

  “You can’t escape,” Ata said.

  “Watch me.” I lunged down the steps and thrust my fusee into his face. He swept his hand up, knocking the fusee from my hand, but the shadow did not emerge from its safe hiding place within him. Becki extended her own fusee past my shoulder, not close enough for Ata to reach, but enough that its light shone full on his face. He stepped back.

  Behind me, Jeff lit another fusee. I pulled a spare from my pocket but did not set my valise down to light it.

  Ata backed up. One step. Two. I followed, accompanied closely by Jeff and Becki. Each extending their fusees past my shoulder.

  Becki touched my right arm. Realizing what she wanted, I bent my arm to hold my unlit fusee next to my shoulder. She took it from me and placed her lit one in my hand. A moment later she lit another one and we three advanced on Ata. He continued to back away.

  We were down to the first floor. Hallway doors opened. I saw people had their cameras up and out.

  This was not good. I could see the news reports already. College students threaten teacher with fire.

  “We have got to get out of here,” I said.

  Jeff slipped to the left and shoved his flare at Ata’s face. Ata moved to the right leaving a clear path to the door. Jeff pushed the door open.

  I touched Becki on the hand and slid my fingers down to wrap around the fusee she held, gently pulling it out of her grasp.

  “Go,” I said. I held the two fusees between me and Ata.

  Becki sidestepped behind me and out the door.

  I backed through the door then dropped the fusees on the concrete steps. Jeff did the same, leaving three fusees producing a pool of light in front of the door to the apartment.

  I turned and ran, leading Jeff and Becki to the Monster.

  We were in so much trouble.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The keycard slid into the lock easily enough. It only took two tries before the light flashed green and I was able to push the door open. I had rented a cheap hotel room on the outskirts of town which did promise WiFi. It even worked. Mostly.

  The full pain of the Shadow’s touch had hit Becki as we drove away from the apartment. Jeff had hugged her to him while she cradled her arm and moaned. I had pulled onto the beltway and circled the city until the pain had run its course.

  I picked up the bags and entered the room. Jeff sat at the room’s desk, drumming his fingers and staring at the wall. Becki sat on the bed, watching a local channel on the room’s TV. News was on.

  “Any word?”

  “They haven’t mentioned us.” Becki sighed and flopped back on the bed. “My dad is going to kill us.”

  I did not tell her that I did not know if she could risk seeing her father again.

  I was running out of ideas. I did not have another identity ready, not one I could safely use, not for an extended period. Henrik Gustav, the closest, was too old; even if I could pass, I’d left the identity fallow too long. Sooner or later someone would wonder what old Henrik had been up to in the intervening years. The lack of any visible background would trip me up. The identity would not survive any but the most cursory of checks. Augustin Ludwig was still a minor child—hardly an identity I could use, not for another five years, at least.

  I would have to go underground, become a non-person until Augustin aged to where I could use him. Five years. Not so bad.

  But what to do about Jeff and Becki?

  “Adrian?”

  I shook my head. “Sorry. Woolgathering.” I set the bags on the dresser. “I got some groceries. And some other supplies.”

  One bag contained fruit, bread, sliced meats, and a few bottles of soda. The other combined my purchases from half a dozen stops. Magnesium fire starters, strike anywhere matches, a few other oddments.

  I’m an alchemist. But sometimes ordinary chemistry is the correct solution. I’d need flares, brighter than the road flares we’d used to escape Ata. And while my experiment with essence of magnesium was not spoiled yet, we needed something I could prepare faster. Simple magnesium flares would provide the best option. And while I could have simply bought some emergency flares, my own mix burned faster, trading off duration for brilliance.

  I shoved the grocery bag forward and began to dig in the supplies bag, laying out items on the dresser top.

  Becki made a sandwich and passed it to Jeff, who took a quick look at it then set it down. She handed him a drink which he treated with equal disinterest.

  She made a sandwich for herself, then looked at me.

  “No, thanks. I have to work on this.” I continued filing tiny chips of metal from the magnesium fire-starter blocks.

  She nodded at me and returned to the bed with her sandwich and a bottle of soda.

  The news program ended and some silly sitcom came on. Becki turned off the TV, finished her sandwich and flopped back on the bed.

  “We are so screwed.”

  I shrugged. “I’ve faced worse.”

  “What? The Plague?” Becki pushed herself up on her elbows to look at me.

  “As a matter of fact, yes.”

  Her mouth closed with a snap.

  I sighed. “I may look like I’m nineteen years old. Most of the time I feel like I’m nineteen years old. But I am not. And I’ve learned the wisdom in the old expression, ‘This, too, shall pass.’” I grinned. “The trick is surviving long enough to let it pass.”

  As I talked, I mixed a small handful of the magnesium with additional chemicals, both to enhance its combustion and to moderate the rate. I packed the mixture into a cardboard tube and wrapped it in tape.

  “And how exactly are we to do that?”

  “We get away.” I held up my handmade flare. “And if they catch up to us, we drive them back enough to get away again.”

  “We can’t just run.” Jeff’s voice caught me by surprise.

  “Best thing to do,” I said. “If I’m gone they won’t have any reason to...”

  Jeff shook his head. “You said they didn’t know about you until just now. So, if they didn’t know about you, what were they doing here?”

  “I know.” I sank back onto the other bed, the one Becki was not sitting on. “But I don’t know what else to do. I’ve never been able to do more than temporarily hurt them enough to get them to b
ack away slightly. That gave me time to run but no more.”

  #

  Becki and Jeff finally drifted off to sleep. I sat working on the new flare, adding the last ingredient to what I was calling Tru-Magnesium. If it worked as I hoped, it would burn hotter, and far, far brighter than the standard magnesium flares.

  I stuffed a pinch of magnesium shavings into the end of the Tru-Magnesium flare, then a few match heads in behind that. If all worked well, a quick rub against an abrasive surface would ignite the match heads. The match heads would ignite the magnesium and the magnesium would ignite the Tru-Magnesium. A small piece of sandpaper glued to a loop of string and held in place over the match heads by some rubber bands gave me that abrasive surface.

  I reached for a drink and found the bag empty. I looked back at Becki and Jeff, both asleep, and shrugged. No need to wake them. There was an all-night gas station and convenience store just up the street. Expensive, but less so than the vending machines. While I had a ready supply of gold, you cannot use gold to buy groceries. Cash was a little shorter.

  I dropped a couple of my makeshift magnesium flares in my left pocket and the new one in my right. It would just take a few minutes to run to the store and back.

  I opened the door.

  “What?”

  I looked back and saw Becki propping herself up on one elbow.

  “Sorry,” I said. “Go back to sleep. I’m just going for more drinks and food.”

  She collapsed back onto the bed without saying a word.

  I checked my shirt pocket to ensure I had the room key and let the door close behind me.

  When I returned, the gleam in the peephole told me that lights were on in the room. I opened the door and saw Becki sitting at the desk and tapping at the screen on her phone. Jeff continued to sleep on top of the covers of the second bed, one arm across his eyes.

  “Checking the web,” Becki said before I could say anything. “Still no mention in the news about us.”

  “Probably won’t be.” I set the bag on the dresser. “The Shadows don’t want to draw excessive attention any more than I do. It’s not the police we need to worry about.”