Alastair Stone Chronicles Box Set: Alastair Stone Chronicles, Books 1 through 4

by R. L. King

  “I never thought about that,” Lamar said. “I guess we’ve got enough to worry about with the ones that are already here, without thinking about them producing more.” He tilted his head. “Do you mind if I ask you a question, Dr. Stone?”

  “Not at all.”

  Lamar nodded. “Why are you so interested in the inner workings of the Evil? I understand that as a mage, curiosity is unavoidable, and this kind of phenomenon must be very interesting to you. But I sense that there’s more to it than that.”

  Lissy, unnoticed until now, giggled. “Magic man wants to kill ’em,” she said matter-of-factly, waving a long blade of grass for Marilee’s kitten to bat at.

  Lamar and Marilee both stared at him as that sunk in. “Is that true?” the old man asked in a near-whisper. He had a strange expression: not quite fear and not quite hope.

  Stone looked troubled. “I don’t know. The thought had crossed my mind. If we can track down the ones in charge, p’raps we can destroy them, or at least force them to go back to wherever they came from. That might put the rest of them into such disarray that they’d be a reduced threat and easier to deal with individually. But there are a lot of problems with that approach. For example, we don’t know where these so-called leaders keep themselves. And if driving the Evil out of a person requires killing that person, then what I’m proposing essentially amounts to mass murder. I’m not really prepared to go down that path.”

  “But it doesn’t,” Verity reminded him. “Remember—I can drive them out without killing the person.”

  “True,” Stone said. “But you’ve said yourself that you have no conscious control over your ability. And you’re only one person. Lamar said he’s never heard of anyone else with your ability. Even if you were willing to do it, the danger would be immense.”

  Verity shrugged. “I don’t care about danger. I’m pissed at these things for taking away a third of my life. If there’s a way to kick their asses, I’m in.”

  Jason started to say something, then got a look at his sister’s face and decided not to.

  Stone sighed. “Well, in any case, it’s not something we could do overnight, even if we decided to give it a go. It will require thought and planning—and probably more than a bit of help on the part of the Forgotten, if they’re willing. I don’t see any way this can work unless we can identify where the leader—at least the one who’s taken over our area—is located, and I don’t see how Jason or I would be much help there.” He looked at Lamar. “Your group—the other groups you talk to—you see things. You hear things. You communicate with each other. That’s what we’d need. But perhaps you don’t even want to get involved, and I certainly don’t blame you. It could be dangerous for you as well, and I wouldn’t want to put you and your people in danger.” When Lamar started to say something, he held up his hand. “Please. Don’t make any decisions now. I’m not going to either. Just—talk it over with your group, and any others you happen to encounter in your travels. If you all decide you’re willing, then I’ll do what I can to help you.”

  “Me too,” Verity said, nodding. She looked at Jason.

  He took a deep breath. After a long pause, he nodded. “Back to the Twilight Zone,” he muttered, just loudly enough for Stone to hear.

  “Good,” Stone said briskly. “Now, then. I’m going to have to head back home for a while, and I think Jason wants to come along as well. The question is, will it be safe to bring Verity along with us, if we get her back to Susanna’s care by tonight when you’ve arrived at your new location?”

  “I think it’ll be okay,” Verity said. “A couple of days ago she left for a few hours and I was fine. I could feel something trying to touch my mind a couple of times, but I think it has to—I don’t know—kind of build up a bit before it really takes hold.”

  “A few hours should be plenty of time,” Stone said. Slowly and carefully he got up, and turned to Lamar. “Thank you again for all you’ve done for me—for all of us. Believe me, although there’s no way I can adequately repay you for saving my life, I’ll do my best to help you if we decide to go through with this mad plan.”

  Lissy giggled again. “He talks funny,” she announced.

  Jason and Verity got up too. “Yeah,” Jason said. “Thanks for everything. I don’t even want to think about what might have happened to V out there on the streets if she hadn’t found you guys.”

  Verity went over and hugged Lamar, then Marilee. “You guys rock,” she said. “We’ll be back. I promise. If they try to keep me away, I’ll sneak out and hitchhike.” She looked back at Jason and Stone. “I’m gonna go get my stuff and say goodbye to the others, and tell Susanna I’ll be back soon.”

  Jason and Stone waited for her to return, getting the group’s proposed new location and directions from Lamar. “We’ll be back later today,” Stone told him. “Just need to take care of a few loose ends and see if p’raps I can’t do something a bit more permanent to help Verity.”

  “So she doesn’t have to stay,” Marilee said a little sadly. When Stone started to speak up, she shook her head. “No, don’t worry about it. Of course she shouldn’t have to stay here. This is no life for a young girl—or anyone—if they have any other choice. Maybe if your plan—whatever it turns out to be—works out, then some of the others of us will be able to go back to their ‘other’ lives.” She sounded wistful.

  Stone leaned down and patted her shoulder. “We’ll do what we can to help you all.” He cocked his head toward the kitten, who was now playing with the hem of Lissy’s dress. “After all, I’ve taken a liking to that little one there. I can’t let anything happen to her friends.”

  Verity was coming back across the camp now, carrying a small backpack. “Okay,” she said, “I’m ready. Susanna says she thinks I’ll be okay for six or eight hours.”

  “Well, then, we’d best get moving,” Stone said.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Amazingly, the car was still where they’d left it, and didn’t look like anybody had messed with it or was currently watching it. Stone let out his held breath in a rush of relief as he opened the trunk and discovered the leather-bound book was still there, safe in its briefcase. “I’m glad I was too out of it to think about this last night,” he said. “I would have been frantic worrying about it.” Leaving it where it was, he climbed into the passenger seat and motioned for Jason to drive.

  Verity got in the back. “Nice ride,” she told Jason, grinning. “Very attractive. Never thought I’d see you in something with four wheels. Especially something old ladies would turn down for being too uncool.”

  “Yeah, well, Al doesn’t like to ride on the back of my bike,” he told her. “That, and the DMW blew it up.” He turned to Stone. “Where are we going?”

  “Back to Palo Alto,” he said. “Ideally I’d like to stop at the nearest restaurant and order one of everything on the menu, but given how we look—and doubtless smell—I think a stop at home for showers all around should be our first destination. Then I want to go to my bank and put that—” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder toward the trunk, “—in my safe deposit box. Then food.”

  It took them a little over an hour to get back to their temporary home near campus, clean up and change clothes, and take the book to the bank. They did most of this in comparative silence, each content for a while to just sit back and catch up with his or her own thoughts. It was only after they were all seated around a table in the back of a little diner off El Camino and polishing off pancakes, eggs, and the rest of the sizable late breakfast they’d ordered that they started to discuss their plans.

  “So,” Jason said around a large mouthful of sausage, “You think you might be able to help V with her problem?”

  “I might,” Stone said. “Once we get back to the house I’ll see. I don’t really understand how these Forgotten powers work—they’ve got to be some sort of magic, but as I said before, it’s no type I’ve ever seen. Nor do I understand the way the Evil—or whatever it is that
’s causing these widespread issues—operates. So it might take a bit of effort to figure out how to block it.”

  “I hope you can do it,” Verity said. She looked like she was hardly daring to hope that it might be possible. “I want my life back.”

  “Too bad she’s not a mage too,” Jason said, offloading more eggs onto his plate. “You have to admit, it would make things easier.”

  Verity rolled her eyes at him. “Yeah, and while I’m at it, I’ve always wanted a unicorn.” She started to laugh, then stopped abruptly. “Uh—why are you staring at me like that, Dr. Stone?”

  At Jason’s words, Stone had stiffened in his chair, fixing his probing gaze on Verity. “Al?” Jason was looking at the mage now, too. “Did I say something wrong?”

  “I’m a bloody fool,” Stone whispered, looking disgusted with himself. “I seem to be making a habit of that lately.”

  “What’s going on?” Verity demanded.

  Stone didn’t answer. He continued staring at Verity, unblinking, until she shifted in her chair. “Jason, tell him to stop looking at me like that. It’s creepy.”

  “Al, what the hell is going on?” Jason asked, looking angry.

  The mage broke his gaze away from Verity with obvious difficulty, shaking his head as if clearing a vision. “I’m not certain,” he said. “I’d need to do more checking. Finish up—we need to get back home.” There was a certain urgency in his tone now.

  “Is something wrong?” Verity asked, looking back and forth between them.

  “Al, stop being cryptic, damn it!” Jason’s voice raised a little now, causing an elderly couple two tables down to glance over at them in disapproval.

  Stone fixed his focus on Jason. “I didn’t tell you something before,” he said evenly. It was clear he was trying to keep something under tight control.

  “What?”

  “Remember when we were in England and you were asking about my gateway? I told you it was many years old, and that I came from a long line of mages?”

  Jason nodded. “Yeah, and—?”

  Stone sighed. “Magical talent is hereditary. It doesn’t always show up—I don’t think anyone’s ever studied the genetics of it, but it’s fairly uncommon, even if both parents are mages. But when it shows up, it’s much more likely to follow the same-sex line, for whatever reason. Fathers tend to produce magical sons—and mothers tend to produce magical daughters.” He emphasized those last words, driving them into Jason’s brain like bright nails.

  Sometimes it took Jason a little while to catch on to things—particularly things in the realm of the strange and unbelievable—but when Stone’s words finally sunk in he just sat there, eyes wide, mouth open, looking like somebody had just punched him hard in the soul. “Oh, holy shit—”

  “What?” Verity yelled. “Look—I hate to sound like a kid butting into the grown-up conversation here, but it sounds like you two are talking about me. I’d kinda like to be in on the joke.”

  “I assure you, there’s no joke,” Stone said. He looked deadly serious.

  “V—” Jason turned to face her, forcing himself to be calm. “Al told me before—the reason he agreed to help me find you after we ran into each other. Remember, I told you last night: he knew Mom, a long time ago.”

  She stared at him, then turned to stare at Stone. “I forgot about that. You really knew our mother?”

  He nodded. “I did.”

  “But that’s not all he told me—” Jason continued, dragging her attention back to him. “V—he says that Mom…was a mage.”

  Only the fact that the diner had gotten much busier over the time they’d been there masked the loud clatter of Verity dropping her fork onto her nearly empty plate. “Mom was—?”

  Jason patted her shoulder. “It’s okay. I understand how you’re feeling. I’ve spent the last few days in a perpetual state of ‘what the hell’s the next weird thing going to be?’ You get used to it after a while, but it’s a little hard at first.”

  Verity looked like she wasn’t sure who she should be paying attention to. She darted her gaze back and forth between them and finally settled on Stone. “You’re saying that—our mom—was a mage? Like you?”

  Again, Stone nodded. “Quite a good one, too.”

  “I—never knew her. She died when I was a baby.” She stared down at her plate, then back up again. When she spoke again, she sounded uncertain. “Am I understanding you right? You said magic can get passed down? And that mothers pass it to daughters, usually?”

  “Yes.”

  “So—there’s a chance—?”

  “There is. And from the look of my very preliminary once-over, a strong one. But I wouldn’t say for sure until I’ve had a chance to give you a proper examination.”

  She cocked her head at him and gave him a sideways look. “Examination?”

  “Don’t worry. It’s quite painless. It mostly involves you sitting in a chair and me running a few tests.”

  She didn’t answer for a long time. Then she asked, “And if it’s true? If you find out I am one—then what?”

  Stone shrugged. “Then it’s up to you. Being a mage isn’t something you simply wake up one day and discover. Even having the Talent doesn’t give you the ability to cast spells or perform any other sort of magical rituals. It takes years of study to be any good. I’ve been at it for over twenty years now, and I still have a lot to learn.”

  “Where—do you study?”

  “Generally you apprentice yourself to another mage. As I told Jason before, there are no ‘magic schools’ per se. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I don’t want to get your hopes up, and then find out that you don’t have the Talent. But I will say this—if it turns out that you do, it will make things easier on us.”

  “Why is that?” Jason asked. He still looked like he was recovering from being gut-punched.

  “Because it means I’ll be able to teach her to do her own blocking. She won’t need to depend on me, or Susanna, or anyone else to keep her mind safe. She’ll have control over it on her own.”

  Verity was getting that ‘I’m not even daring to hope’ look again. “I—will?” she asked in a near-whisper. “You mean—whatever it is that’s messing me up won’t be able to do it anymore, and I’ll control that?”

  “If you have magical talent and apply yourself, yes.” Stone waved to the waitress for the check. “If it turns out that you don’t, then I’ll do my best to put up the blocks myself. You’ll probably have to come back to me to have them renewed every once in a while, but either way, you should be able to live a normal life.”

  Verity’s shoulders slumped a little and tears shone in her eyes. She swiped them away in frustration. “I can’t believe it,” she said softly. “Finally, after all this time…”

  Stone paid the check and they got out of the diner. He walked fast toward the car, seemingly lost in thought, so Jason hung back to walk with Verity. “Do you—do you really think he can do it?” she asked him.

  “I think so,” he said. “I’ve seen him do a lot of fairly amazing things. And some damn weird ones, too. He’s an odd guy, but so far everything he’s claimed to be able to do, he’s done.” He ruffled her hair. “A mage.” He shook his head. “That’s gonna be pretty freaky if it turns out to be true. It’s hard enough having a mage for a friend—now I’m gonna have one for a sister?”

  “You’d better treat me right,” she said, laughing. “Or I’ll turn you into a frog!” Then she got serious. “I don’t know, Jason. This is all too weird. Why can’t things just be normal, like they used to be when we were back home?”

  “I’ve been asking myself that a lot in the last few days,” he admitted. “I think we might be done with normal for a while, though, so we better get used to it.”

  “Pick up the pace, you two!” Stone called. He’d already reached the car and was waiting impatiently for them to catch up.

  “Yes, master,” Jason replied in his ‘Igor’ voice.

  “If I en
d up being a mage and studying with him, I don’t have to call him ‘Master,’ do I?” Verity asked, wrinkling her nose. “‘Cause that would be creepy.”

  “He’ll probably make you do his laundry, too,” he told her, keeping his face deadpan and ducking as she aimed a punch at his shoulder.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  They arrived back at the house, and Stone waved Verity toward a chair in the living room. “We’d best get this sorted now, because it will affect some of the things we do going forward.”

  Nervously, Verity took the indicated seat. “So—I don’t have to do anything?”

  “Not a thing,” Stone assured her. He pulled up a stool in front of her and sat down on it, facing her and about as close as he’d been to Jason when he’d shielded his mind before they went into the Overworld.

  “And it won’t hurt? Or feel weird?”

  Stone shook his head. “No. And I won’t have to touch you in any way, if that concerned you.”

  She looked relieved, and Jason knew from her expression that it had concerned her. “You—uh—want me to clear out?” he asked.

  “No need. This won’t take long.”

  Jason nodded and took a seat on the couch. “Uh—Al?”

  He didn’t look up from what he was doing. “Yes?”

  “Is there any chance that I—?”

  He did look away then, facing Jason with a gentle, rueful smile as he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Jason. No. I would have noticed when I did your shielding before our—return trip. You’re 100% non-magical.”

  Jason sighed, not sure whether he was happy or dismayed to hear that. He supposed it didn’t matter, since it wasn’t going to happen either way. “Okay. Thanks for checking, I guess.”

  “I’d have told you if I’d found something, but I saw no point in disappointing you.” He turned back to Verity. “All right then, let’s get this over with, shall we? I’ll go ahead and put up the block if I can—even if you have the Talent, you’ll need a bit of study and practice before you can do it on your own.”