by Matt Ryan
“Iggy, no,” I said.
Niles pushed Blane’s limp body out of the hole and onto the ground. I stared, shocked to see the man’s body lying at our feet, blankly staring at the sky. He was wearing black wool clothing similar to what he’d had on in his world.
“Just leave him there and go,” Iggy said, still holding the knife against her throat.
My mom laughed, and Niles climbed out of the grave. “He’s ours,” she said. “Do what you need to do.”
“Iggy, no,” I said, and reached out to her.
Iggy took a step closer to me.
“Not another foot. If I have to, I will end your vessel,” Mom said, now holding a red stone with black lines swirling around it.
Iggy stopped and lowered her knife. She looked up and smiled. A trickle of blood ran down her neck. “You can’t win. None of you can. Try all you want; Quinn will win, and he’ll show all of you what it means to be a real alchemist.”
“She’s stalling us,” Niles said. “Beyond the tree line, I can see about twenty people coming this way. We need to leave now.”
Mom, in one swift motion, threw a stone at Iggy. She reached up to block it, but it struck her in the face. Iggy staggered back and fell face-first on the dirt.
“What did you use?” I asked.
“Nothing harmful. She’ll be out for a while.”
“Time to go,” Niles said, kneeling next to Blane.
“We can’t just leave her,” I said. “He’s done something to her. We have to help.” Mark pulled me back, and I tried to reach out for Iggy.
“There’s nothing we can do for her right now,” Mom said.
“She’s going to hurt herself.”
“I highly doubt that,” Mom said.
Niles easily picked up Blane’s portly frame and extended his hand with Blane’s.
“Two stones to do this right.”
A large explosion overhead rocked the trees and sent a great wind through the forest. The trees swayed and branches fell all around. My mom rushed to Niles and Blane.
Another stone crashed through the leaves above us and exploded. I winced and covered my ears. Mark grabbed me and held me against his chest. Another stone struck a tree, and it cracked near the base. The massive tree continued to pop and move toward us. Its canopy covered any possible escape route and I cringed, waiting for it to hit us. Then I felt the earth fall away from under my feet.
Floating, I watched the swirls around me coalesce into the town portal circle. I grabbed Mark and hugged him, looking up to make sure the tree didn’t move with us. “That was crazy close. You think Iggy will be okay?”
“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Mark said. “She wasn’t near that tree.”
Jackie ran up to us. “You okay?” She looked around. “Did you get him?”
“Yeah. My mom and Niles portaled with him right to her room. How’s Carly?”
“I don’t know. Chang’s checking her out. He’s trying to figure out what stone they used on her.”
I gazed at Chang’s building and knew she was in good hands. “Let’s get to my mother.” I had a morbid curiosity about facing Blane. I needed to see him as the man and not the omnipotent monster in a world of his own creation.
In this world, he wouldn’t have such power over me or Mark. I was stronger than he was.
We made our way to my mom’s warehouse-sized building. We reached the large steel door and I was about to reach for the handle when the door was flung open.
My mom looked shocked to see us. She seemed off—way off. Frantic, almost. She motioned for us to come in.
I walked in, with Mark and Jackie following. The place smelled wet, like it had water running through it and no circulation. Just past the door, a large floor-to-ceiling chain-link fence ran straight across the warehouse. My mom opened the gate and entered the next area. Sparse lighting hung from the ceiling, but not enough to really light the place up, leaving it feeling dark and dank.
On the side wall, I spotted a library of sorts with books piled high on a desk, and many more on the bookshelf behind it. At the center of the gated room sat two large glass tubes with just enough room to house Blane and a nearly naked Axiom. They were both unconscious and sitting in reclined chairs.
“What is this?” I asked.
“This is the end of it all,” Mom said. “But first, I need your help with Niles.”
I spotted him lying on the floor near the glass encasing Blane and Axiom. “What’s wrong with him?” I darted around a mixing table and slid down next to Niles. I glanced at Blane sitting in his chair. At least someone had closed his eyes. I didn’t want them on me.
“He took a stone that would’ve killed most men.”
“The strength stone,” Mark said.
“Yes. It gives you the strength of Hercules but your candle burns out quickly when you do.”
“He’s going to be fine, right?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t you have a life stone?” I asked. “Use it on him.”
“That takes the life of another, and we only have one of those to spare.” She pointed at Axiom.
I winced. That was a fate I never wanted to inflict on another person for as long as I lived. Even Axiom didn’t deserve something like that to happen to him. “There has to be another way.”
“There’s a healing stone,” Mom said, as if she was talking to herself.
“Do you have the ingredients? I can make it now.”
“Yes, but—”
“Come on. Let’s make it,” I said, getting to my feet.
“It’s not that simple,” Mom said. “Much like the life stone, the creation of it takes from the alchemist making it. Years, possibly.”
“Then have Douchebag McBlondie over there make it. I’m not going to lose any sleep over him aging a few years,” Jackie said. “Wait—where’s Leo?”
“We sent him to another place, a safe place. He’ll be taken care of.”
Jackie moved closer to my mom, narrowing her eyes. “He’s mine.”
“Let’s concentrate on the problems in front of us, shall we?” Mom said, and Jackie crossed her arms in a huff. “Now,” she said as she faced me, “if it were a passive stone like the life stone, then I could involve Axiom, but this one has to be made. He wouldn’t volunteer to help us, and we don’t have the time to force him.”
I stared at Nile’s limp body. “I’ll do it.”
“No,” Mark said. “Remember, I took a life stone. I’m virtually invincible. I’ll do it.”
Like I could ever forget using the stone on him. I would have done anything to save him, and I had used a stone that had killed another person to do it. He didn’t like the idea of it, but this was the first time he had mentioned any special abilities associated with using a life stone. Could it have bestowed him with extra benefits? I would have to look into that idea later.
“Yeah, let Mark make the stone. As much as he works out, he’ll be more than fine losing a few years,” Jackie said.
“I don’t like this,” I said.
“Are we going to just let Niles die?” Mark said.
I sighed. “Fine, but if it does anything to you, I’m going to hold my mother responsible.”
Mom nodded and rushed to the mixing table. “I’ve already set up the ingredients right here.”
Mark walked up to the table and arranged the ingredients. I only recognized the universal solvent in the mix. Mark poured in a white liquid that looked like eggnog, then a brown dust, and finally the solvent. He didn’t waste any time building up, and stirred right away.
I wanted to slap his hand away from the bowl, but then the sound of a stone clunking stopped me.
Mom walked up to him. “Very nice job, Mark. You made it, so you should have the honor of healing him.”
He reached for the bowl and then fell to one knee.
I jumped to his side and grabbed him by the shoulders. “Mark, what’s wrong?”
“I feel weak.”
“It’s the effects of the stone.” Mom plucked up the stone with her gloved hand. “I’ll take it to Niles.” She held it against his neck and Niles jolted awake.
Sitting up, he looked around. “Who made it?”
Mark, still kneeling in front of the mixing table, looked back and raised his hand. I hated that the stone had hurt him, and I regretted not having made it myself.
“I owe you now, Mark, and I don’t forget a debt.”
“You would have done the same for me,” Mark said.
“I will now.” Niles got to his feet and then regarded Axiom. “We’re going to use him for the life stone, I take it?”
“Yes,” Mom said.
“Good. That man has done more to harm us than anyone but Quinn himself.”
Mom took in a deep breath and held out two stones in her hand. I recognized them: the same stones Verity had given to that boy.
“There’s got to be another way,” I said.
“There isn’t. Unless we get a volunteer.”
“We can’t just kill him. We aren’t like that,” I pressed.
“You knew eventually we’d be at this point,” Mom said. “Niles, can you get the winch ready to raise Axiom’s chamber?”
I looked around for support. “Mark?”
“There isn’t another way, Allie. Unless we don’t bring Blane back at all.”
“Niles, the chamber,” Mom called out.
He pressed a button and a steel cable lifted the glass chamber. If Axiom was aware of anything, he was the best actor ever. He didn’t even flinch.
I wanted to stop it, but I didn’t know how, or even if there was another possible way. Maybe this was our only option. I winced, hating myself for rationalizing the killing of this man. “Mother?”
“There will be no more debating this, Allie.”
“She’s right—we need this life stone, and Axiom is the only spare,” Jackie said. “Better him than us.”
My mother approached Axiom. “He has to be awake for this,” she said. She placed a stone on his hand and Axiom burst awake.
Pulling at his constraints, he turned from a sleeping beauty to a tethered honey badger in under a second. He pulled at his constraints and looked wildly around the room, searching for anything that might help him out of the chair. Then he spotted the stones in Mom’s hand and Blane sitting across from him.
“You can’t do this,” Axiom said.
“I have to.” Mom presented the two stones.
He glared at her. “No. I’m not going to give in to this, ever. I won’t let those stones inside me.”
“You can try.”
He flailed and yelled, “My sister will kill you all when she finds out what you did!”
“We grabbed her once. We can do it again. Besides, none of it will matter soon enough.”
Spittle dripped from Axiom’s mouth. “Listen, you don’t know everything about the stone. Maybe we can make a trade for what I know.”
“No.”
Axiom shifted in his chair and made eye contact with me. “You’re going to let her kill me in cold blood? I don’t believe it. You’re not that jaded.”
I didn’t answer, and looked to Mark. He held me and pulled me tighter to him.
“Screw you all,” Axiom said. “Quinn is so close to getting the stone, he doesn’t need Blane or any of you. Soon he’ll have it and then you’ll all be sorry for what you did here. I hope he spends plenty of time on your daughter. He’ll make sure to fulfill every demented fantasy he has, before he discards her like—”
Mom backhanded him across his mouth.
He laughed, then licked the blood from his lip and spit it on her face. “Come on, do it, already,” Axiom said, and held out his hand, palm up. “I can keep those stones at bay until they rescue me.”
Mom wasted no time and dropped the two stones in his hands. “Give me some tape,” she called out, holding his hand shut over the stones. He convulsed and stared into nothingness.
I stared in awe as they didn’t dissolve into his skin.
Niles ran over to a workbench and came up behind Mom. They worked together to tape Axiom’s hand closed. Mom waved her hand in front of his face and he didn’t flinch. He hadn’t even blinked, as far as I could tell. “Impressive, really.” She turned to face us. “Anyone else ready for lunch?”
“I am,” Niles said, feeling his arms and showing strain on his face. “I made some turkey sandwiches earlier. They should still be good.”
“Perfect,” Mom said. “Would you mind grabbing them?”
“Aye.” Niles went to a room in the back of the warehouse and came back with some wrapped sandwiches.
Eating something while this man held on to his life a few feet away from us had no appeal for me. Mark and I stood and eventually sat in silence as we watched and waited.
After about four hours, the sun set, and the warehouse took on a much darker feeling. The only light came from a few weak bulbs dangling from the ceiling, which cast an ominous shadow over the man we were all watching: Axiom. A spotlight, really. He didn’t have the same calm look he had hours ago, but he was still holding on to the stones just the same.
“This suspense is killing me,” Jackie said. “I’ve got to get out of here for a while.” She got up from the mixing table and left the warehouse.
Axiom shook in his chair and groaned, then steadied and stabilized. The stones held.
“I’m taking a walk,” Niles said, getting up.
“Don’t be long. Once we have the life stone, I’ll want to use it right away,” Mom said.
Niles nodded and left the building.
“How is he keeping it at bay for so long?” I asked.
“It’s a life stone. It takes love to make it, and I doubt very much Axiom has much love in his heart. But, eventually, the stone will find that thread. Maybe there’s a sibling or a secret lover in his life. There’s something he loves.”
“So, the thing he loves is the thing that will kill him?”
“Yup,” Mom said.
“What a despicable stone.”
Mark shifted in his seat next to me and crossed his arms. I cleared my throat, but my mother spoke first.
“Shouldn’t be long now.” My mom leaned forward with anticipation.
It was then that I realized that I was nearly alone with my mom, and once this Blane guy came back to life, I might not have another chance to talk with her privately. I hadn’t told Mark about the note or the microphone I had found, and I really didn’t want him hearing the conversation. “Mark, would you mind if I talk with my mom for a little bit?”
“Uh, sure. I can wait outside. I could use some fresh air.” Mark gave me an are-you-sure look, and I nodded. I waited for the door to close before I addressed my mother. “I found something the other day.”
“And what was that?”
I pulled out the small device I had found in my room and slid it across the table. She picked it up with curiosity and set it back down. “You’re spying on us.”
“Yes.”
The admission stunned me, and I leaned forward. “Why?”
She leaned forward as well and glanced at Axiom before going back to the device on the table. “Allie, I don’t need to tell you how important you are to the mission. Without you, we would have never gotten to Blane. He’d be stuck in that hole for eternity. You saved him, and in the long run, you’ve saved us all.”
“What does this have to do with spying on me, writing down everything I do and recording it?”
“It was all under my orders. You can hate me if you like, but since the moment I saw you, I’ve felt the need to protect you from those who’d do you harm. I know how teenage girls are, and I know you and Mark would like nothing more than to leave us.”
“Are you saying I can’t leave?”
“No, of course not, but we need you here more than I think you realize.”
“Why, because I’m a special?”
Mom appeared to struggle w
ith her next words. “You know, what Iggy said is probably the truth. If I possess the stone, I may not do what’s best for the world. I’ve seen a lot in my time, and I’ve suffered so much. I’ve become . . . jaded, weary.” She looked at Axiom. “Do you know how I felt, putting those stones in his hands, condemning him to a slow death?”
“No.”
“I didn’t feel a thing. But you did. You knew it was wrong, and that’s what makes you different—the better bearer of the stone. I need you to stand next to me until the end, Allie. I put those devices in your room to watch over you, so I could understand the kind of person you are. I also had a selfish reason. I wanted to watch my daughter.”
“Why didn’t you just spend some time with me? I’ve been here for a couple of months and we haven’t spent more than a few minutes together.”
“I never wanted to box you in. I needed to make sure you were here for your own reasons. I know Mark doesn’t want to be here.”
“He’ll go where I go.”
“I know, and I love him for it. He’ll be there for you through it all. Something I wasn’t capable of doing.” She gripped her necklace and rubbed the chain. “I had a man like that, and it may hurt for you to hear it, but it wasn’t your father. I lost him when he was killed by the sunder stone you made.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“No, it wasn’t your fault. It was mine. We should have found the philosopher’s stone a long time ago. If we had, none of this death and strife would have happened. Don’t you see, Allie? You’re going to be the one to save us all. You are the one who should take the stone, not me.”
My mouth hung open. I couldn’t believe what she was suggesting. “I don’t want that. I just want to live in peace with Mark, and you, and the rest of my friends. I don’t want this great power to rule over everyone.”
“And that’s exactly why you have to be the one to take it.” Mom leaned closer to me. “The closer we get, the more I want it. I’m afraid at the end, I won’t be able to stop myself.”
I leaned back and crossed my arms. I wasn’t some savior. I was more selfish than my mom was letting on. I wanted to create the stone to end the war solely so I could move on with my life. I loved alchemy and would keep it as a part of my life, but the last thing I wanted was to rule over it all. “I won’t take it.”