by R. L. King
Stone swiped a hand through his hair, still damp from the shower. “Why didn’t anyone wake me up? Where’s Verity?”
“She and Jason were here earlier. They went off somewhere—I don’t know where. I figured I should stick around in case you needed anything. Feeling better?”
“Define better,” he said sourly, throwing himself into a nearby chair.
“Well, at least you’re speaking in coherent sentences now. That’s a start. Are you hungry? We got pizza before, and there’s some left in the fridge.”
Stone swallowed hard at the thought of cold pizza shining with congealed grease. “Er—no. Maybe later.”
“So, do you remember anything about last night?”
“It’s all a bit of a blur,” he admitted. “I remember you and Verity tracked me down at whatever pub I’d crawled into.”
“Yeah. That place was a real dive. I couldn’t imagine you in a place like that, but by the time we got there, you seemed to fit right in.” He shoved the book aside. “So, are you still planning to sacrifice yourself to get rid of the echoes?”
“Bloody hell, did I say that?” Stone’s stomach clenched. “I thought it was a bad dream. Guess I forgot to warn you, I’ve got three settings when I’m pissed, depending on the mood I started with: I either get silly, nasty, or maudlin. I think I can see which one you two got treated to last night.”
“A little of the last two, actually. It’s okay, though. Trust me, I’ve done some pretty embarrassing things after a few drinks. But yeah, you really did say it. So we’re done with that now? You didn’t mean it?”
He stared at his hands. “No. I didn’t mean it. But I did mean the bit about running out of options. I don’t think an exorcist is going to do the job. They might be able to get rid of some of the echoes, but I can’t imagine they’ll manage all of them. Even if they drive off all but a few, that’s still several angry spirits chucking things around and shouting their heads off. Won’t exactly lend itself to pleasant occupation of the house.” He sighed. “I wish Brathwaite hadn’t buggered up their remains. It would have been difficult to track down enough about them to identify them, but not impossible. But now…”
“Yeah.”
“Plus, we’ve got to work out what to do about Brathwaite himself.”
“Maybe not.”
“What do you mean?”
Ian shrugged. “We haven’t heard anything from him since the skeletons. Maybe he shot his wad. If he’s still around, maybe he’s got better things to do with his time than try to kill you.”
“Possibly. I wouldn’t count on it, though, given how the rest of this mess has been going.”
“Well, you said if mages make echoes, they’re probably more self-aware, right? Not just single-focused on whatever made them stick around in the first place?”
“That’s the theory.”
“So maybe he’s smart enough to realize it wasn’t you who betrayed him. The other echoes are stuck on punishing the whole Stone family, but maybe Brathwaite sees there’s not much point in that.”
Stone slumped in the chair. “You might be right. But then why did he send the skeletons after us in the first place? That probably took a lot of energy. I’m more inclined to believe he’s holed up somewhere, regaining his strength until he can try something else.” He shuddered, thinking about what would happen if Brathwaite managed to raise the remains in the cemetery or mausoleum on his property. Fighting nameless skeletons was one thing, but what if the mad necromancer sent his own father’s remains after him? Or Desmond’s, at Caventhorne? He knew nothing about necromancy, so he had no idea what Brathwaite might be capable of.
“Anyway, have you heard anything from Eddie and Ward?”
“Not yet. We didn’t turn your phone back on when we got you back here, so you should probably check your voicemail.”
Stone pulled his phone from his pocket and switched it back on. Sure enough, there were several more voicemail messages to go with the ones he hadn’t answered before, including three from Eddie. He punched the librarian’s number.
“Evening, mate. Nice of you to finally get back to me.”
Eddie didn’t sound annoyed, which Stone supposed was encouraging. “Sorry about that. I was…a bit indisposed last night.”
“Yeah, I ’eard. Pissed off your arse in some armpit pub in Hackney is what I ’eard, actually. Did you sort out whatever was eatin’ you?”
“Not…sure yet. But Verity and Ian found me and talked a bit of sense into me. I suppose that’s where you heard?”
“Yeah, Verity rang me after they tracked you down. Not that we was worried or nothin’, you understand. Just wanted to make sure you didn’t run off and do something monumentally stupid. You know, as you do sometimes.”
“Sod off, Eddie.”
“Anyway, you feelin’ up to visitors? Ward’s up at Caventhorne, but both of us want to get some more time with that stuff from Brathwaite if you’re willin’.”
“Sure, come on over. I think Verity and Jason will be back soon. I might even feel up to eating something by then.”
“We’ll bring takeaway from Baljeet’s.”
Stone’s stomach did a little flip-flop at the thought of spicy curry. “Maybe something a bit…milder, if you don’t mind.”
32
Eddie and Ward arrived around seven, bearing bulging bags of Chinese food. Verity and Jason showed up as they and Ian were spreading out cartons on the dining room table.
Verity found Stone in the kitchen, where he was gathering cutlery and plates. She looked him up and down and gave him a quick hug. “You look a lot better. At least you don’t smell like a brewery anymore, and you don’t look like you’re going to be sick any second.”
He took her hand, forcing himself to look at her. “Listen—I wanted to thank you for last night. For…tracking me down and talking sense into me, even when I didn’t want to hear it. I know I said some dreadful things to you, and I apologize.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it.” She waved it off. “I can’t really blame you for freaking out a little bit. You’ve had to deal with a lot of pretty horrible stuff lately. Even you have to crack every now and then. You okay now?”
“I’m not sure I’d say I’m ‘okay,’ but I’m better.”
She grinned. “Well, you couldn’t have gotten much worse.”
They returned to the dining room, where the others had finished unloading the bags. Stone retrieved a few bottles of wine and beer, then settled into the chair at the table’s head. “So,” he said. “What have you lot been up to while I was sleeping off my bout of idiocy?”
“Research,” Ward said. “And I think we might have a bit of good news for you.”
“You’ve worked out how to get rid of the echoes?”
“Not that good,” Eddie said with a snort. “No, but we might have a line on how to get rid of Brathwaite.”
Stone stared at him. “You do?”
“Maybe. A theory, anyway. That’s the best we’re gonna be able to do, since there’s blessed little material on echoes at all, less on mage echoes, and none on mage echoes who are also necromancers, since they’re not even supposed to exist.”
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense. What have you got?”
“I wish we’d found this information before the other echoes’ remains were destroyed,” Ward said. “It might have been the answer to them as well.”
“But it isn’t now?” Verity asked.
“No,” Eddie said, loading his plate. “The only thing we’ve found that might do the trick is to ritually destroy the body. That might—might, mind you—break the connection binding the spirit to this world.”
Stone frowned. “That’s all?” He couldn’t believe there wasn’t a catch. Nothing connected to this whole mess so far had been that easy. “What are you leaving out? Do we need to track down some rare and exotic ritual components? Do it on the night of a full moon? Find an old priest and a young priest?”
“None of tha
t,” Ward said. “It’s a fairly simple ritual, actually. We could do it tonight.”
Eddie lifted a bag from next to his chair. “I ’aven’t been holdin’ out an extra bag of egg rolls. We took the liberty of gatherin’ what we’d need, figurin’ you’d go for it for a shot at gettin’ rid of the old bastard.”
Stone toyed with his fried rice. Unlike the others, who were shoveling down food with abandon, he’d taken only a small portion. “Could be dangerous. Ian and I can’t go down there with you. What if he tries to fight back?”
“’E ’asn’t since the skeletons, ’as ’e?” Eddie seemed unconcerned. “What’s ’e gonna do? ’E’s run out o’ bodies to send after us. Besides, ’e might not even be around anymore. I’m willin’ to take the chance, if you give the word.”
Stone considered, reluctant to answer. The last thing he wanted to do was put his friends in danger. “I don’t know…”
“I’ll go with them, Doc,” Verity said. “I think between the three of us, we can handle him if he tries anything—at least long enough to get out of there.” She patted his hand. “It’s worth it if we can get rid of him. That’ll make it easier for us to figure out what to do about the other echoes.”
He remained silent, looking at each of them in turn. Eddie, Ward, and Verity looked determined, as did Ian, even though he couldn’t be part of this any more than Stone could. Only Jason looked concerned, and Stone didn’t blame him—as a mundane, he couldn’t affect what happened. You couldn’t whack an echo with a baseball bat.
“Fine,” he said at last. “Try it, anyway. But only if you give me your word you’ll get yourselves the hell out of there at the first sign of trouble. I don’t want your deaths on my conscience. Do you agree?”
Eddie nodded instantly. “Of course, mate.” He offered a cheeky grin. “I mean, I love ya and all that, but I ain’t dyin’ for ya.”
“That’s good—it saves me the trouble of coming up with something complimentary to say at your funeral.”
Ward chuckled. “We can do it tonight if you like—in fact, I’d like to. Eddie and I would like to study those papers from Brathwaite’s hidden cache if you’re willing, and that will likely be both easier and less dangerous if we don’t have his echo to worry about.”
Stone shrugged. “Might as well get it over with, I guess. We’ll head down after we’re finished here.”
When everyone had eaten their fill, Stone used magic to gather the plates. “Verity, could you help me in the kitchen for a moment?”
Perceptive as ever, Verity caught on immediately and leaped up. “Sure.”
Stone had already stacked the dishes neatly in the sink when she arrived. “What’s up?” she asked. “You’re not having second thoughts about this, are you?”
“No, not at all. I know how Eddie and Ward work—if they say they’re ‘reasonably sure’ of something, you can safely bet the mortgage on it. They’ve probably been off researching this whole mess all day.”
“What, then?”
He leaned against the counter and studied her. “I remember something from last night, but it might just have been my brain having a go at me.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What?”
“Ian had mentioned something about fooling the echoes into believing I’m dead. I said it wouldn’t work and wouldn’t be right anyway. And then some time later, when we were outside waiting for the cab, you said maybe we could do it, and that you had to check something. Did that really happen, or was it a figment of my drunken imagination?”
“Wow, you’ve got a pretty good memory even when you’re sloshed. Yeah, I did say that.”
“So…what did you have to check? And what did you find out?”
She frowned. “I’ll tell you. I do have an idea, and I’ll tell you about it later. Let’s deal with one problem at a time, though. If this thing with Brathwaite goes wrong, it might change some things.”
“Verity—”
“Come on, Doc,” she said with a grin, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “I learned a lot of things from you when I was your apprentice, including a few you probably didn’t want me to. Like not telling things until I’m ready. And I’m not ready yet. But I will, I promise. You need to concentrate on this right now, though.”
Stone sighed. “Am I this annoying when I hold things back until I’m sure of them?”
“Every bit. A taste of your own medicine will do you good. C’mon—let’s go back out before Jason starts thinking I’m doing you over that fancy range.”
He glanced at it with a sly smile. “You know…”
She punched his arm. “I can’t take you anywhere.”
He didn’t miss the tension in her aura, though, and he doubted she missed his, either.
33
Seeing no point in waiting any longer, the group adjourned through the portal to the Surrey house immediately after dinner.
“Hey,” Verity said to Jason as they all stepped through into the tiny room beneath the mausoleum. “You’re getting pretty good at this whole portal-travel thing. You didn’t look even once like you were going to wet yourself.”
He glared at her, but then shrugged. “It was a short trip, and I’m surrounded by five mages. I figure I’m probably pretty safe. But don’t get any ideas about taking me on any world tours.”
Stone glanced at Ian at the mention of “world tours.” Watching his son follow the others out of the room and up through the sarcophagus, he wondered when the boy would tire of his hedonistic travels and return home. Ian certainly seemed to be enjoying magic, and between his quick mind and his prodigious potential, he had the makings of a fine practitioner—if he’d devote himself. Stone didn’t want to admit it, even to himself, but he often feared Ian would choose to continue as he had, learning the Art in bits and pieces from various friends while gallivanting around the world. There was nothing wrong with that, per se—Stone didn’t even mind supporting him, as long as he didn’t develop embarrassingly expensive tastes—but there was no denying it would disappoint him, on several levels.
No time to worry about that now, though. If they didn’t deal with this situation, he’d have a lot bigger issues to concern himself with than whether his adult son wanted to find a magic teacher. He followed the others out and pulled the cover back over the sarcophagus.
It was already dark, a clear, cool night with a half-moon that settled silvery light over the headstones in the small cemetery. Stone wondered if he’d ever feel peaceful here again as he always had before, or if every visit would bring memories of shambling skeletons and uneasy thoughts about whether the place’s denizens might someday make a return appearance as well.
Verity noticed him hanging behind, and dropped back to join him. “You okay? You look like you’ve got something on your mind.”
“Nothing specific. Just…hoping we can deal with this.”
She slipped her arm around him. “We will. Eddie and Ward are good. They’ve got this.”
“I know. And you’re good too. Don’t forget that.”
“Oh, I won’t.” Her eyes twinkled in the moonlight. “Just trying to be humble.”
“Around me?”
She laughed. “Gotta get some practice in. C’mon, let’s catch up. The faster we do this, the faster it’ll be over.”
They reconvened in the garage, where most of what they’d spread out on the table remained. Eddie dropped the bag of ritual materials on top of it. “Okay,” he said. “We’ll go back down to the catacombs and put up a new circle around the altar, and then see what we can do.”
“How are you planning to destroy the body?” Stone asked.
“Burning’s the best way, I think,” Ward said. “Since it’s mostly still interred inside the altar, there shouldn’t be any issue with the fire spreading.”
“Yeah, and we can use magic to contain the smoke,” Eddie added. “If we use a ’ot enough fire, it’s essentially like cremation. Should be in and out in less than an hour.”
“Be sure to check
it first,” Stone said. “Make sure there aren’t any other journals or papers secreted away.”
Eddie patted his arm. “We’ve got this, mate. Don’t worry. Do you honestly think Arthur and I are gonna take any chances of destroyin’ perfectly good research material?”
“Good point. All right—let’s do this. But remember your promise. Get out of there at the first sign of danger. And stay in communication as long as you can.”
“I want to go along,” Jason said suddenly.
They all looked at him in surprise.
“Why?” Verity asked. “You can’t really help, and I thought you hated it down there.”
He picked up the baseball bat, which he’d left leaning against the table. “Just in case. Yeah, I know that guy probably isn’t gonna get up and attack you, but if he does—” He raised the bat. “I got it covered.”
The mages exchanged glances, but nobody could come up with a good reason for him not to accompany the group. “Right then,” Eddie said, reclaiming the bag. “Let’s do this.”
The process, after all their careful planning, research, and concern, turned out to be almost anticlimactic. Verity and the others returned an hour and a half later, dropping into chairs.
“Well, that was a lot less exciting than I expected it to be,” she said.
“That’s a good thing,” Ward reminded her. “I could certainly do with a bit less excitement for a while.”
The group hadn’t found anything amiss in the catacombs. Brathwaite’s body had been right where they’d left it, with no indication that anything or anyone had been moving around down there following the mass breakout. Ward had searched the body while Eddie and Verity altered the circle around the altar, and was disappointed to find no other papers or books hidden among Brathwaite’s rotting clothes.
After that, it had been a simple matter of performing the ritual and burning the body with magical fire. The smoke hadn’t even been an issue, because Eddie had discovered a hidden vent in the ritual room’s ceiling, probably used by those performing the sacrificial rites. They had to take a few minutes to unstick and clear it, but once they had, the smoke had vented nicely upward and disappeared.