by Martha Carr
“The necklace leaves a strong trail for anyone magical to follow. This kid definitely had it for a while but it’s not here now. It hasn’t been long though.” Leira centered herself and drew up enough energy to see the bright, glittering trail mixed in with the teenager’s weak, twisting magical path. The darkness was already doing its best to pull the kid in closer.
“They’re keeping the necklace moving to stay ahead of us and the Silver Griffins. It’s not going to be easy to catch someone with it in their possession,” said Correk.
“Like they’re playing a giant game of Whack-a-Mole with us.” Hagan grimaced as his stomach gurgled.
“The mastermind behind all of this chose this kid for a reason. I want to know why. That’s the very thing that may help us finally get ahead of the necklace. Lois has it from a reliable source that there’s some kind of meeting happening today with the local followers. We wait and we follow.” Leira stretched, arching her back. They had already been there for hours. The tip from the older witch didn’t include an exact time or place.
“Good old fashioned stakeout. I like it,” said Hagan blowing on his coffee.
It was early in the morning and nothing else was stirring except for a young woman walking a small white chihuahua. Leira watched as the dog took a few steps and sat down till the woman gave a couple of tugs on the leash. The woman gave up half a block later and picked up the dog.
“We should take Yumfuck on walks. It’d be good for him.” Leira watched the woman tuck the dog into her jacket till only its head was showing.
“Yumfuck takes himself on walks when we’re not around.” Correk stretched out in the backseat, drinking a cherry Dr. Pepper. He was wearing his cowboy boots, his feet propped up on the far door handle.
“What would that even look like? Would you put a tiny harness on him like he’s a toddler?” Hagan shifted in the passenger seat in the front. His dark blue PDA jacket rustled as he turned. “Tell people he’s some kind of South American cat? I’ll bet people would buy that.”
“Did you remember to keep him in his nest this time?” Correk searched through the bag next to him. He pulled out a plastic sleeve of frozen Thin Mint cookies and slid one into his mouth, letting it slowly melt on his tongue. “Yaaauuummm.”
“You’re starting to sound like Yumfuck.” Leira reached over the back of the seat and took one of the cookies. Correk arched an eyebrow.
“Okay, so you got me on these,” she said. “It’s a Thin Mint. Love for them is universal. At least I occasionally eat a vegetable. You should try a carrot or a beet. Think of it as research into something actually grown on Earth.”
“I ate a potato last night.”
“Chip. You ate a chip. Doesn’t count. At some point, if you fry anything it doesn’t count as food anymore.” Leira was still distracted by the trails of energy. Something wasn’t right. She could feel the darkness pulling at the young man’s energy. It had a familiar taste to it. That thing from the world in between.
“That a rule?”
“Common sense.”
“It’s true.” Hagan grumbled, looking out the window. “Heard the same thing myself recently.”
Leira took a long look at him.
Correk slid another cookie into his mouth, staring at Leira as he bit down on the cookie. “I was supporting the small trio of girls in their quest.”
She looked back at him and let out a snort. “Those little girls saw you coming. Miniature little geniuses leaning into a badge for marketing. They set up by the Wag-a-Bag and are catching all the early morning party people trying to get coffee. And you.”
“This is my first magical stakeout. I gotta say, not as exciting as I pictured.” Hagan lifted up off the seat and hitched up his pants as he peered out the window looking for anything unusual. “Just how much magic does this kid have?”
“That’s the third time you’ve done that. What’s different about you? Why aren’t you eating?” Leira narrowed her eyes, licking the chocolate off her fingers. She glanced at his coffee as her eyes widened. “No cream, either. You’ve finally gone and done it! You’re eating healthy!”
“Errrr…. Healthy-er.”
Leira gave him her best dead fish look.
“Thanks, that’s sweet.” Hagan smiled. “I appreciate that. You know just how to say you care without the rest of it.”
“Very touching. Like watching two icicles slowly melting,” said Correk.
“Ignore him. Okay, spill it, Hagan. You’ve raised hiding food to the level of a cat burglar and now you voluntarily quit cold turkey. What happened?”
“I passed that treadmill test, but just barely. Doc said if I kept eating the same way, in a few years I was gonna have some real trouble.”
“That was a few years ago, wasn’t it?” Leira reached into the backseat for another cookie.
Correk arched an eyebrow again and slowly moved them out of her reach. “No. I offered to get you your own and you turned me down. I warned you about that the last time we got pizza.”
Leira pinched his leg. “I don’t want a whole box. I just want a few of yours. They’d be happy to sell you more.”
Correk sent out a pea-sized fireball as Leira ducked.
“You two are killing me.” Hagan frowned as he glanced back at the cookies. He turned toward the window till he couldn’t see them anymore. “If you must know, it was only last week. I made the mistake of taking Rose with me. We get home and next thing I know she’s pulling out our wedding photos. She was propping up pictures of a younger, thinner me all over the house. My life was flashing before my eyes everywhere I went. She saved the fat me for the door of the fridge.”
“Rose should interrogate prisoners. She manages to seem loving while playing with your mind. Eventually you want to help her put you away.” Leira glared at Correk. He was putting spray cheese on a Thin Mint. “Dude, that is nasty.” She rolled her eyes and turned away.
Hagan looked out the window, sipping his black coffee.
“If it helps, you do look better,’ said Leira. “What’d you do with your doughnut stash? I feel like a food pusher, now.”
“Hmm, not bad.” Correk pulled out another cookie.
Leira listened to the sound of the cheese spray and squeezed her eyes shut. “Take a look in the back seat. It’ll help your diet.”
“No thanks. I want to remember junk food in a good way.” His stomach gurgled again as he let out a sigh. “I brought the whole pile to the precinct when I went to say goodbye. Looked like a hero, so thank you for that.” Hagan grimaced, throwing up his hands. “Time to turn a page.” He stole a glance at Correk but quickly turned back. “Oooh, fuck me that is bad. Don’t ruin the memory of food for me. Hey, isn’t that the little pisser?”
Leira opened her eyes, leaning over the steering wheel. “Finally. What is he doing?”
The young man took a furtive glance around as he pulled out a wand and mumbled something, pointing his wand at the four corners of his house.
Correk sat up, swinging his legs around as he dropped the cookies back into the bag. “He’s doing a kind of glamour spell but in reverse. The house will glow brightly from a block away for anyone with an invitation. Apparently, the meeting is here and is imminent. That spell doesn’t last very long.”
A blue Lexus pulled up in front of the house and an older man with neatly slicked-back silver hair got out, buttoning his long cashmere coat.
“One lone wizard. Things are getting interesting.” The palms of Leira’s hands grew warm. She could feel the wizard’s energy pulsing in the air. “He’s got chops.”
“He doesn’t look like anybody’s flunkie.” Hagan set his cup down in the holder between the seats. “Is the necklace with him?”
Leira pulled in energy through her feet as her eyes began to glow. She sent out a stream to investigate his energy. It was strong and full of a shimmering darkness. That’s a first.
“Never felt such a strong… It’s like he’s built a wall around his inten
tions… Really hard to detect much of anything.” Leira let her magic coil around, looking for the telltale signs, opening herself up to feeling just a trace of the man’s inner thoughts.
“Don’t…” Correk leaned forward and put a hand on Leira’s shoulder but it was too late.
The man stopped suddenly and sharply turned his head, scowling in the direction of the Mustang. He swiftly lifted his arms, sending out a pulse of energy just wide enough to hit the Mustang and nothing else, making it rock hard on its wheels. Leira clamped her hands on her head as the force of the magic slammed down on her, throwing her back against the seat.
Hagan hit the passenger side door hard, his head banging against the window, knocking the wind out of him. He wheezed once or twice trying to draw back in some small amount of air, while keeping his attention on the man but it was too hard. His chest felt like it was going to explode. “What…the…fuck.” His eyes watered as he pressed his palms hard against his stomach.
Correk closed his eyes, shutting out every distraction. He drew on the reserves of his own energy, fighting off the crushing pulse. Every muscle was straining as he raised his arm, the bicep rippling from the effort. He put out a hand, straining toward Leira till he found her shoulder, connecting himself to her energy, guiding the blue and silver stream around the Mustang, shutting out the dark pulse.
At last, the car stopped rocking. Hagan felt a gush of air fill his lungs making him lightheaded. Small bursts of light flashed in front of his eyes as he blinked rapidly, trying to get it to stop.
Leira felt her shoulders lift and she was finally able to take her hands off her head and focus. Correk’s magic was calming and she was able to feel him gently steering her.
“What the fuck just happened?” Hagan was finally able to get out a complete sentence.
“Leira alerted a Wizard with very powerful dark magic that we were intruding on his plans. He retaliated with a simple but effective energy pulse.” Correk finally sat back against the seat. His entire body ached.
“Was that the fucking bogeyman?” Hagan wiped the drool off his chin, still trying to get his bearings.
Leira let the magic gradually lessen and the glow fade from her eyes. “Sorry about that. I had no idea.” She looked out the window. The man and his car were gone. “I’m gonna go ahead and say the kid is gone, along with the wizard. Did you know him, Correk?”
“No, but I recognized the energy or at least his kind. He’s very powerful and has been practicing dark magic for a long time. They tend to have short tempers and can retaliate in ways we may not even see coming. Believe it or not that was just a warning shot.”
“A warning!” Hagan swallowed hard. “Feels like someone tried to hollow out my guts with a spoon!”
“He’s not the one who’s behind all of this. I could feel it in his energy. The little I got out of him.” Her thoughts were coming to her in pieces as she worked to recover from the blast. “He’s following someone else.” Leira knitted her brows together, worried. “If that’s a new follower of Rhazdon’s old teachings…”
“Then how powerful is their new master?” Correk finished her thought without saying what he already knew. It has to be the traitor among the prophets.
Leira’s phone buzzed and she looked down to see who was texting her. “It’s General Anderson. There’s a case. Correk, we’ll drop you off, first. Figure out our next step with the necklace later.”
Chapter Two
Charlie Monaghan stood on the wide granite steps of his house on River Road in Richmond, Virginia. Only in Richmond in the polite circles of old families and old money would a mansion with ten bedrooms and just as many bathrooms be referred to as a house. It was a sign of new wealth to talk about money. Charlie was new money but he got that rule.
He was waiting for the young man, Langston Rogers to park his old Ford Escort in front of Charlie’s neatly trimmed English boxwoods along the circular driveway. Charlie kept the smile plastered on his face despite his irritation that he was even having to go through the motions. He only agreed to meet the young college professor because he was from his alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University and was an old friend’s grandson. That and the grandfather reached out personally and struck a deal. I am all about the deal.
Fifteen minutes of Charlie’s time to get Langston to hopefully let this all go, take on something more suitable, in exchange for the man’s proxy on a few key boards.
Charlie was certain the young man was too coddled and slightly off. His emails all talked about an important discovery made in Peru and a powerful artifact. Charlie emailed him back out of curiosity and asked, powerful to do what, but Langston insisted it had to be seen to be believed and would revolutionize manufacturing.
At first, Charlie deleted the emails, all fifty-three of them but then his grandfather called and asked for that favor.
He raised his hand and gave a short wave as Langston got out of the car. Charlie was neatly dressed in expensive slacks and a cashmere sweater over a soft-collared shirt and soft leather loafers. Perfect for the mild winter. “Langston, good to see you. Your grandfather speaks so highly of you.” He stood aside and let the young man go ahead of him, even though he had no idea where to turn once he stepped into the large foyer.
It was a familiar tactic of Charlie’s to put someone immediately off their game. The young man blushed and stuttered, “After you,” still turning in a circle as he looked up at the high ceiling. Charlie smiled graciously and showed him to the wide doors that led to the library.
“I’m sorry about the limited time. Just about fifteen minutes. This was all last minute and I have a golf game to get to. Can’t leave my friends waiting at the first tee.” He waved his hands around as he talked.
“Of course, I appreciate the time. I’ll get this started.” Langston fumbled with an ornate wooden box he was carrying, setting it down with a thud on Charlie’s antique oak desk. A momentary wince passed across Charlie’s face but he let it go. Thirteen minutes.
Langston put both hands inside of the box, gingerly lifting out a metal wheel decorated all the way around the rim in hieroglyphics. He laid it carefully on the desk and took a short, hollow brass metal pipe out of his pocket, giving the wheel a solid hit in a specific pattern across the symbols. Each time he made contact the wheel let out a loud ding in a perfect pitch of C. On the twelfth ding, the wheel started to rattle on the desk as Charlie took a step back.
The symbols along the rim lit up as the wheel lifted, spinning in a circle, rotating a few degrees to the east with each turn. The smile froze on Charlie’s face as he watched. “It’s an impressive magic trick.” What the hell?
“Just keep watching.”
The wheel spun even faster until sparks flew out, some of the cinders landing on the heirloom rug, quickly sputtering out. An opening emerged the size of a window just above Charlie’s desk and he found himself staring at the backside of a tree.
“How the…” He took a step forward, blinking his eyes to see if he could detect the edges of the illusion. It’s real… It’s real! “It’s fucking real!”
Langston looked at him and smiled, a sheen of sweat across his face. “It’s a tree in a world called Oriceran.”
Charlie stepped closer and felt the warm air on his face as the smell of blossoms filled his nose. “Not Earth?” He cautiously put out his hand and felt the bark of the tree. “That’s an elm…” he said in a hushed tone.
“Who goes there!” A loud, angry voice shouted from somewhere in the depths of the forest. Charlie quickly pulled back his hand as the Gardener of the Dark Forest appeared in front of them, his four pupils all focused on Charlie. The Gardener saw the spinning wheel and leaned out of the portal toward the desk.
Charlie froze where he was, unsure for once in his life what to do. Langston quickly hit the sides of the wheel again, sending a shower of gold sparks as the portal shrunk in size, sucking the Wood Elf back to Oriceran, and closing with a loud pop.
The
wheel slowed its spinning, finally coming to rest as Charlie came closer, scrutinizing it over and over again, saying nothing.
“You had it half right,” said Langston. “It’s magic but it’s not a trick.”
“Can’t be magic. Has to be science! Why didn’t your grandfather mention this?” Charlie was stunned, his mind spinning.
“Because I never told him. He would have told the world before they were ready. Something like this has to be handled correctly or it could cause panic. I knew you were the right person. All of your connections. I mean, your company stretches across the globe. You know every important politician, every foreign leader. You could help tell the world.”
“Langston, what you just did… I’m not even sure what I just saw…”
Langston smiled and shook his head. “Sorry, I do that. I get so excited I forget to fill in the details. But I knew I had to show you before I told you, or you would have kicked me out of here. That hole that you saw just hanging there in space? It’s called a portal and that tree you touched is in another world, in another dimension. They call it Oriceran. Over there, magic is commonplace. It’s more like a form of energy that runs through everything that lives on the planet.”
“In one of your emails you mentioned something about that place. How do you pronounce it?” Charlie walked across the rug where the portal had opened up. There’s nothing here. His mind worked to hold onto the idea. It’s like bad mushrooms. Never liked being high either. No control. Fuck.
“Or-i-sar-en. I found all of these ancient writings that talked about gates and portals inside of a large vault, along with that wheel. Think of it this way. The same way electricity revolutionized this country… another kind of magical energy at the time… take that and multiply it by a thousand. That wheel…” He pointed at the wheel, his face flush with excitement. “It’s like a battery.”
“It holds this energy…” Charlie was taking in shallow breaths fighting to maintain his composure.
“Exactly! The last time the gates were closing the ancients poured their energy into it to store for later use. The missing capstone from the top of the Great Pyramid in Egypt? A crystal artifact that someone else got to first. You see what I’m saying? These artifacts are everywhere.” Langston’s voice cracked from the excitement.