Or was that wishful thinking? It made sense that she pursued him as well, that taking the pendant might have been more than random theft. Why else would she be here now? Why else would she know Rhi, especially as “Rhianon?” What did she know? But he had little more than supposition to help him reason it out.
Austin reached the tower and clambered up the metal staircase inside to its deserted top. Though there was little cover to be had from within the town, he took what he could find and used the higher vantage point to search below for Corinna.
“Boden,” he whispered, “Do you see her anywhere down there? Can you see at all?” Austin had a vague impression from their discussions that the dragon could perceive things somehow, even from inside the pack, but hadn’t thought to ask until then.
“I see what you see. I do not see her. What I also see is a man who should be running instead standing on high making himself visible like a fool.”
“She knows about Rhi. We need to know what she’s up to.”
“She is ‘up to’ pursuing us both. You heard what she asked, she seeks the crystal.”
Austin searched along the wall in either direction. Two people ate ice cream cones fifty yards to his right, but the section to the left was deserted.
“If she knew I found the crystal at Worm’s Head, then she knew it was there. If she’s after it, why didn’t she get it herself?”
“Clearly she did not know until after you took it. I am a spirit imprisoned for my wisdom. Why do you refuse to heed me?”
Austin spotted the bakery and scrutinized the area for Corinna. For someone with such eye-catching hair, she had a knack for disappearing when she wished. “Just an impression I get. About her. And she knows more than we do. We need to learn all we can.”
“Did I not tell you to trust no one?”
“I didn’t say I trusted her.”
“Then what do you propose? Will you merely ask her what you wish to know? Even if she did answer, how would you judge the truth of her words?”
“It’s better than nothing,” Austin answered. He shouldn’t have run so quickly. At the very least, he could have played along a while longer. A plan, he needed a plan . . .
“Maybe I can find her again. Follow her.”
“She will not tell you what you wish to know. Play into her web, and she will steal the crystal and leave you with nothing — perhaps not even your life. My own fate following that will be no less grim.”
“Talking to yourself?” The question, offered with what seemed friendly amusement, came from another man on the tower, just behind Austin to the left. Tall, with short dark hair broken by single streak of white above his right temple, the stranger smiled with a nod of greeting in response to Austin’s surprise.
“Sorry,” the man said, his polite smile widening. A well-tailored sport coat that matched the charcoal of his freshly pressed slacks fit on a lean frame atop a dark green button-down shirt. A finger-length silver icicle hung from a chain around his neck in place of a tie. Hands clasped behind his back, the man tilted closer on the balls of his feet. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Austin watched the man settle back onto the heels of his black leather Oxfords and said, “I didn’t see you there.”
“My apologies, I’m sure. You’re American? I only assume by the accent.”
“Be wary, Austin.”
“It stands out around here, I guess.” Austin glanced about for Corinna, just in case. He couldn’t place the man’s accent in return. “Are you from Conwy?”
“Oh, from here and there. I travel a fair amount.” He offered his hand. “My name is Maeron.”
Austin caught a glimpse of scrutiny in Maeron’s friendly expression. Though it vanished under the man’s smile, it was enough to keep Austin cautious. He lifted his open hand in apology.
“Just sneezed a bit ago,” Austin said. “I doubt I’d be doing you any favors shaking hands until I can wash.”
“Most prudent. Now, excuse yourself from the conversation.”
“I quite understand,” Maeron answered. “And how do you find your experience in this fair country so far?”
“Far more interesting than I expected,” Austin said, postponing Boden’s advice. Either the man had no connection to Corinna, in which case talking did no harm, or he had and Austin might manage to turn that to his advantage. He couldn’t keep running in the dark. “Are you here on vacation yourself?”
“At the moment, I’m here to speak to you. Though our actual meeting on this spot is rather serendipitous. I was a friend of Rhi.”
“And you just found me, all the way out here?”
“As I said, serendipity.” He chuckled and brushed a bit of lint from his cuff with a motion as smooth as his voice. “Or fate. I happen to believe in that sort of thing, as I often told Rhi. Just as she often told me of you, Mister Blanchard.”
“Keep your distance, if you insist on this folly.”
Boden’s voice faded away to nothingness. Austin belatedly realized Maeron now stood between him and the stairs down the tower.
“She never mentioned you.”
Maeron looked amused. “Didn’t she? Well, I suppose she wouldn’t. You’ve nothing to worry about. There was nothing untoward between us. We were associates on a project with which I believe you have some familiarity. A crystal, lined with gold. I think you know of it?”
Austin didn’t know whether to believe the man or not. “What sort of project?”
“I’d be happy to explain that somewhere more private.”
“There’s no one else up here.” The couple eating ice cream had since moved further off along the wall.
Maeron chuckled. “Something valuable, or so she claimed. She hid it, and left instructions for me should anything happen to her.”
“What instructions?”
“My promise to her prohibits me from answering. I apologize.”
“I’m sure she’d want you to tell me. We dated for over a year and a half. There’s nothing I wouldn’t have done for her; we were that close.”
“But not so close that she ever told you of me, if you’ll pardon my saying so.” Regret crept into his eyes. “Rhi considered the matter important enough to keep secret. I can only say that it’s vital I find the item in question.” He stepped closer. “Will you help me?”
Austin frowned, searching Maeron’s face for sincerity or deception. He could be certain of neither. “Do you know about anyone chasing her?”
If Austin’s evasion disappointed Maeron, it didn’t show in his shrug. “No one, so far as she felt prudent to tell me. But, obviously, she did not tell me everything.” His eyes narrowed in what might have been concern. “Was someone after her?”
Austin leaned against a metal railing installed to keep tourists from falling into town, and then slid to one side for more room. While Maeron didn’t seem threatening, his instincts after the past few days were to avoid getting cornered.
“I don’t know,” Austin answered, finally. “Did she ever mention someone named Corinna?”
Maeron appeared to consider that a moment. “Maybe. Does this Corinna have a last name?”
“I don’t know it. Red hair, short. I met her in Cardiff.”
“She claimed to know Rhi?” Maeron made it a statement.
“It’s probably nothing. Serendipity, like you said.”
“Which leads us back to the topic of the crystal.” Maeron pitched closer with a conspiratorial smile. “I’m sure you know of it.”
Austin held the other’s level gaze. “I’ve heard of it,” he admitted, watching the other closely. “I think I know how to find out where it might be. But I won’t help you until tell me the instructions she gave you.”
“That’s not what Rhi wished, Mister Blanchard.” Regret softened his smile. “I made a promise. If there’s nothing you wouldn’t do for her, you have to respect that promise.”
“See, the problem is that I have only your word on that, not hers.”
&n
bsp; “Short of producing some non-existent notarized document, I don’t know what more I can do to convince you. You ‘think’ you know how to find out where it ‘might’ be. If I’m to break my word, I’ll need more certainty than that.”
Austin felt the weight of Boden’s crystal in his pack, which was slung over one shoulder. As he considered giving more to coax the same out of Maeron, a question sprang to mind that made him wonder why he hadn’t asked it earlier. “How did you know she died?”
Maeron sighed. “She failed to contact me at an appointed date. I looked into the rest from there. I understand your suspicion, Mister Blanchard. Austin. But time is a factor.”
“I’m getting that a lot lately.” Austin muttered it, then responded to Maeron’s questioning glance with, “How much time do we have?”
Maeron stiffened, and his smile grew darker. He lowered an impatient glare onto Austin. “Precious little.”
Austin froze. It felt like a threat, though he couldn’t be sure. Though Boden gave no opinion on the matter, his previous advice hung heavy in the air. As casually as he could, Austin slipped his arm through his pack’s free strap and tugged it on fully.
“Let me check something first,” Austin managed. “Check an email, make sure I’m right about something, so we won’t waste time. I’ll meet you back here in a couple of hours.” He needed time to think. Getting away from Maeron at that moment felt wise in any case.
“Why don’t you tell me what I want to know now.”
“I don’t know what you want to know now.” Austin edged to one side along the rail. “I mean I’m not sure.”
Maeron advanced, the last of his smile dissolving. “Oh, I know you do, Mister Blanchard. I didn’t want to do it this way, but I’m losing patience with our game. Tell me where the crystal is, or I’ll find out my own way. I assure you, it will hurt.”
Austin edged away as best he could along the rail. “Who are you?”
Maeron grabbed for his neck. Austin dodged, but not far enough. Nails raked aside his throat as he pulled away. Austin pushed forward, outside Maeron’s arm, driving his fist into his gut with the full weight of his body. Momentum carried him past Maeron and toward the tower stairs. He jumped down to the first landing and continued down without pause, certain the other would follow — yet he saw nor heard no sign of pursuit. Austin didn’t stop.
Upon reaching the bottom, Austin dashed out the stone archway to the wall’s exterior. He found himself on a wide lawn separating the wall from a concrete parking lot along the street. He clutched his pack. Did it still have the crystal? His hotel was up the street a few blocks to the left. He couldn’t go that way. He would need to lead Maeron away, then double back —
Pain slammed Austin’s face and chest out of nowhere, as if he had been swatted with an invisible hand. Stunned, he found himself on his back. His head swam with the impact. Before he could think to get up, Maeron stood above him, one hand outstretched. A formless weight gushed onto Austin and crushed him to the grass. It happened too fast. There was no room to struggle. He could barely draw breath!
“The magic comes easier than it should,” Maeron reflected. “Marvelous. You have the crystal after all, don’t you?”
Austin didn’t answer — a fit of resistance which served only to return the smile to Maeron’s face. He knelt beside Austin, still holding outstretched the hand from which the constricting weight seemed to come. Austin’s heart pounded through his chest against the pressure. Immobility only made the instinct to flee more frantic. His yell for help came out a strangled gurgle.
“You shouldn’t have lied to me, Mister Blanchard. How will I trust you now?” Maeron sighed without regret and reached for Austin’s face with his other hand, palm out, fingers spread. “Resisting will make it worse. The pain will soon be forgotten.” Maeron’s smile widened as someone about to give an extravagant present, adding, “One way or another.”
The hand lowered. Austin could only press himself further to the ground in a desperate attempt to get away. It wasn’t enough. Another sensation pressed to his forehead: unseen tendrils slipping like molasses across his skin and eyes. They brought a heat as though he were holding himself close to a fire. It grew hotter, to where he would need to pull away — only he lacked the power to do so.
Suddenly Maeron withdrew his hand. His head cocked to one side as if in thought. Though the sensation receded, Austin remained locked to the ground.
“I suppose I owe you a debt of gratitude,” Maeron mused. “I’ve gotten so tired of your world, did you know? Now, at long last, I may leave. I suspect I should be thankful. Merciful? Let you live?” He shrugged. “But I also suspect I’ve grown quite mad in my exile, so I can’t really be certain.” Maeron sat back on his heels in a moment of reverie that seemed to bring revelation. “We’ll just see what happens, won’t we?”
The hand lowered. The heat returned. It built white-hot, invading Austin’s skin and eyes as fire slid through his ears. He felt a vague awareness of his feet quivering impotently in the grass. He couldn’t yell, couldn’t breathe. The flame poured into his mind and tore recent memories to the forefront: Finding the crystal. Losing Rhi’s pendant. The thin man. Boden speaking to him. Others too rapid to discern.
Something within him resisted. It struck against the fiery probes in furious impotence while Maeron pored over each recollection like a book flung open. Was it Boden, trying to defend him? Austin tried to focus on that resistance, to somehow direct Boden, partner with him — but every attempt lashed his mind with electric pain.
It felt as if it might go on forever when a crackle of energy lanced over him and into Maeron. At once, the weight and the fire upon him vanished, leaving Austin abandoned and reeling on the ground.
Maeron was gone. Someone was screaming something. Dazed, Austin spotted Maeron in the grass against the town wall. Brilliant flames wrapped his upper body. Austin stared in vindictive satisfaction at his torturer’s obvious pain, though the fire with which Maeron wrestled appeared to singe neither skin nor clothing.
“Hey! Yank!”
Someone screamed it from the nearby parking lot a third time before he realized it addressed him. There, in the driver’s seat of a running, black compact, sat Corinna. She flung the passenger door open and gestured frantically. “Get in!”
His head swimming with the effort, Austin scrambled to his feet, caught between obedience and flight. He couldn’t stay there. He couldn’t run — Maeron fought a winning battle with the flames and would catch him again if Austin fled on foot. His mental chalkboard sat charred and smoking.
Corinna got out of the car, her eyes desperate. Maeron stood up.
Austin bolted for the car, surrendering to an instinct and horrified that he might already be too late. Corinna’s hand glowed — actually glowed — white as he neared. In an instant, she flung a nimbus of fire toward him.
It passed over Austin’s shoulder before he could react. Momentum carried him into the passenger’s seat even as his mind screamed at him to stop, that she was attacking him, too, that it was a trap — only to find Maeron, the nimbus’s target, on the ground again as the flames renewed.
Corinna threw herself into the driver’s seat and launched the car forward. Physics slammed the doors shut. She tore out of the parking lot with Austin, turned hard into the main road, and sped them away.
NINE
“Bollocks!” Corinna hissed. “Why did I blast him twice?”
She flung the car down a new street, passed another car, and headed for the highway. “Are you alright?” she demanded. “Tell me you still have the crystal!”
Austin clutched at the door handle. Still reeling and watching the road far more than Corinna was, he managed to make eye contact and nod before pointing wildly ahead. “Watch for the — !”
“Bloody hell!”
They swerved around an oncoming truck, fishtailed to the shoulder, and barreled forward once more. Try as he might, Austin couldn’t bring himself to tell her to s
low down — or even check behind them — for fear of Maeron’s pursuit.
Corinna paid their course more attention now, despite constant glances at the rear-view mirror. “I hope to goodness that nod means you still have the crystal, because you sure don’t look alright. Don’t worry, you’re safe. Really.”
He shot her a glare, unwilling to believe that until they had fled further and he could figure out more about her. Though not so fresh as the pain he had just escaped, Boden’s warning still boomed in his mind. Belatedly, Austin confirmed he did indeed still have the crystal, yet the spirit’s voice remained maddeningly silent.
Corinna blew through an intersection amid a chorus of angry horns. Austin jerked around to look. They weren’t hit. Behind them a bus resumed its aborted course. There was no sign of Maeron.
Austin was hyperventilating.
“Hey, just take your time,” she told him. “Try to breathe.”
A river of trees sped past them. Austin gingerly checked his forehead and temples for the scarring he felt sure must be there, but found nothing.
“Though,” Corinna kept on, “if you could manage to breathe a, ‘yes, I’ve still got the crystal,’ too, you would make my life that much brighter.”
“Who are you?” he burst.
“That’s really a long story. Not someone worth running from, that’s for sure.”
“You’re a thief. That’s all I know for sure.”
“Ah. Rescuing you from pain and death counts for nothing, then? I’ll bet you’re probably a lousy tipper to boot. Going to tell me your name?”
Maeron knew his name. The thin man knew his name. Austin took it as a good sign that she needed to ask. Unless that was part of the ruse. She might still be an enemy, only of a different nature than the other two. He tried to sort through it all, but flaming tendrils sliced into Austin’s mind. It was only a memory, but he winced nonetheless. He refocused on the road ahead.
“No?” Corinna pressed. “I’ll keep calling you ‘Yank,’ then. I know I keep saying so, but you really are safe, for the moment.” Her tone lacked much confidence.
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