by Matt Ryan
“We’re alive?” he asked, looking around.
“We are,” I said, and grabbed him in a hug on the dirt. Then I kissed him, happy to feel his warm lips against my own.
“No kisses for me?” Jackie said.
“Oh, Jackie. I thought you two were going to die on me,” I said.
“What happened back there?” Mark asked.
I gave them a quick rundown of what had happened, and Bridget gasped when I told her I’d used her stone on Verity, even though I’d left out the most grotesque parts. I also explained about the seer stone and looked down at the double-bagged sack at my hip. In that moment of silence, I heard the voices again. I even made out words this time. It sounded like a child’s voice, warning of danger. The sounds drew me in.
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you,” Mark said, breaking my connection to the stone.
“You were. If you two weren’t in need of me, I couldn’t have done what I did.”
“So there’s a whole hall of soul stones?” Jackie asked.
“Yes. I can’t even begin to imagine the harm Quinn has done to the world in his pursuit of the stone.”
Mark got to his feet, then helped me to my feet. Jackie joined us and brushed off her pants.
“I guess it’s back to Blane, then. Let’s see what he has in for us on the next go-round,” Jackie said.
I gasped. “My mom!”
Taking Mark’s hand, I turned and ran. He kept up with me, and we were followed closely by Jackie and Bridget. When we reached her house, I ran back to her room. The rest hung back near the door. “Mom?”
She opened her eyes and sat up leaning on her elbows, looking over to the doorway. “I’m so happy you all made it out alive. I heard we lost a good many people today . . . and all for nothing.”
I pursed my lips. She didn’t know. I pulled out the stone pouch and loosened the opening. The voices rushed into my head, and I ignored them as best I could. My mom watched with building anticipation as I opened the sack to give her a good look at what it held.
“You found it?” She reached for it, then stopped. Tears flooded her eyes, and she held her arms up for a hug instead. I leaned into the hug, holding the stone out so it wouldn’t touch us.
“I had to kill Verity.”
She shrugged and pulled back to look at me. “The world is better off without someone like that.”
The words didn’t feel right, and I knew I should care more about the people I had killed, even if they would have killed me given the chance. “How are you doing?”
“Chang says I’m dying, but seeing that stone gives me the will to keep moving.”
“What?” I sat on the edge of the bed. “You can’t be dying. How are you dying?”
“If it weren’t for you and Bridget, I’d be dead already. Chang used some stones on me and gave me a bit more time.” Mom shimmied to the edge of the bed next to me. “All the more reason for us to get the stone. You can heal me then. I’m sure of it.”
“Wouldn’t the stone heal you if you used it?” Mark asked, coming into the room.
“Allie hasn’t told you?”
“I have,” I answered, “but he doesn’t like the idea.”
Mom laughed. “I don’t like the idea of it either, but we need someone like you to take the stone.”
Blowing out a sigh, I looked from Mark to my mom. “I don’t think I should be the one to take the stone. After today, after what I did to those people, I felt cruel. The stone shouldn’t go to me.”
“Oh, sweetie. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. The world of alchemy is a vicious place. Why do you think I distanced myself so far from you? I didn’t want any of this for you.”
“I think Mark should take the stone,” I blurted, then covered my mouth.
“What?” Mark looked shocked.
“Mark?” Mom said. “I’ll have to think about it, but my gut tells me it’s a good idea. His do-goody attitude might be just the thing to bring us together. But first we need to make the stone. Let’s jump to Blane and get this done.” Mom grabbed at her stomach and groaned. Powering through the pain, she stood.
“Are you sure you can travel?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t miss this for the world. Grab some portal stones from my drawer.”
I pulled out the drawer and looked at a twelve-pack of portal stones sitting in an egg carton. “Stocking up?” I asked.
“You never know when you’re not going to have a portal stone maker. Better to be prepared.”
I passed the portal stones out, giving each of us two stones. We paired up and I held my mom’s hand. “Everyone ready?”
They all nodded in confirmation.
“Okay, us first.” I squeezed my mom and Mark’s hands. “Then the both of you.” I nodded to Bridget and Jackie.
Every time I jumped with another person controlling the stone, I got nervous, even if it was my mom in control. She dropped the stone on our hands and the floor fell out from under us. We reappeared back at Verity’s old academy. The small room hadn’t changed, except the hidden door was sitting ajar.
We walked into the dark hall and waited for Bridget and Jackie to arrive. A few seconds later, they appeared. It always fascinated me, seeing someone pop into existence like that.
My mom put more and more weight on me as we made our way, and I stiffened up to support her.
“Not much farther,” Mom said. She grazed her hand along the wall and found the entrance.
As we got closer to Blane, I could sense him. I hated having a connection to him. Blane had a jumble of feelings, much like the seer stone had an orchestra of noises. Each one pulled on me, but I willed them away. We entered Blane’s room, where he was standing with his arms crossed, glaring at us.
“Did you get it?” he asked.
“We lost a lot of people,” Mark said.
“I didn’t ask that. I want to know if you got my stone.”
I looked to my mom.
She nodded. “Show him, Allie.”
“Okay.” I pulled out the sack and showed Blane the red and yellow stone inside.
His eyes lit up, and he began to walk toward me.
“That’s close enough,” Mark said.
Blane’s eye twitched, but he stopped. He licked his lips, and his hands shook as they reached out. I knew he was trying to float the rest of the way to me, since getting this close to Blane made his thoughts come back into my mind. He wanted the stone badly, but fear was holding him back.
“Tell us about the final part, and we can finish making this stone,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow. “The final part is something I don’t know if you can bear. I’ll tell you what you need to know, if you can put that seer stone in this glass jar. I’d love to look at it closer.”
I accommodated the request and placed the stone in a glass mason jar and sealed the lid. I set the jar on the table and stepped away. The voices left my head; I hadn’t realized how loud they were until it was silent. I resisted the urge to get closer to the stone and listen to the white noise again.
Blane gasped and looked at the jar as if it might attack him. He built up enough courage and leaned over, getting his face close to the stone.
“The man you took this from won’t be happy he’s missing such a relic,” Blane said.
“We don’t care about that. What we want is to make you that stone and bring the world back to peace,” I said.
Blane rose back up and stared at me. I hated when he did that. It made my skin crawl, and I got the feeling he could still get into my head and listen to my thoughts, or interject his own.
“Why do you look at me like that?” he asked.
“Like what?”
“I feel you in my head when you come in here,” Blane said before he went back to the ogling the seer stone.
I looked at Mark, wondering if he too was feeling Blane’s presence. He must have been. We’d had the same experience with Blane in his white world. I made a mental note to
discuss this with Mark later.
“I don’t feel anything,” I said. “Maybe you’re still feeling the effects of being suspended for so long.”
“Aye, I suppose it’s possible.” Blane gazed at me with questioning eyes. “Now we move on. Knowing your head,” he said, pointing at me, “you’re not going to like the next step.”
“Just tell us. Time isn’t on our side,” Mom said.
“The creation of the philosopher’s stone requires great sacrifice: upward of a thousand soul stones, minimum. In fact, it may take more. No one really knows how many.”
“A thousand,” I whispered, looking at Mark in shock. I already knew exactly where they were, and now I knew why Quinn was keeping so many. He had all the ingredients right in front of him, but he didn’t have the knowledge of how to make the stone.
“I know where the stones are,” I said, and looked at my mom. She was the only other person besides Blane I hadn’t told about Quinn’s collection. When I described the room, Blane salivated over my story. At the end, he jumped and squealed with glee.
“Go now,” Blane said. “Get me my stones.”
We left Blane as he danced around the room, collecting ingredients.
Once we got into the endless hall I said, “I can get us there, but there are so many stones. We’ll need a few people to carry them all.”
After we’d grabbed some duffle bags, we met up at the portal area. My mom smiled, but she looked pale and leaned on Mark for support.
“Mom, you should stay back on this one, to make sure no one gets near this circle.”
Mom let go of Mark and stepped out of the circle. “Okay, ladies.” She looked at Jackie and Bridget. “Which of you will go in my place?”
“Bridget, you should go. I’ll stay here with Mrs. C,” Jackie offered.
Bridget looked confused, but she nodded and stepped into the portal room.
“You ready?” I asked Bridget and Mark.
“Yes,” they said, and put out their hands.
I dropped the stone while concentrating on the stairwell next to the hall of souls. We drifted and landed on the bottom of the stairs.
Mark and Bridget looked around, holding stones at the ready. I walked to the door and opened it.
The room looked just as I’d left it. The stones were sitting on the shelves on both sides of the room. We dropped the two large duffle bags and went to each row, pulled out stones and put them into the bags. I kept looking at the door, to where Verity’s dead body was lying, or what was left of it. My imagination made me think her skeleton might awaken and crash through that door. The world of alchemy made so many unbelievable things seem possible, I was prepared for almost anything.
After a while, the bags were getting heavy. As we finished up the last of them, I heard voices in the hall. Someone was screaming.
“Come on, we’ve got to go,” Mark said.
I jammed the last few stones in the bag and carried it with Bridget. Mark finished off his last section and hefted the bag onto his shoulder. We made it to the stairwell and I turned, facing the room. The large wooden door with the horrific scene carved into it opened and Quinn stepped inside.
“The stone,” I said to Bridget, and locked my hand over Mark’s.
Quinn stopped and stared at the empty shelves. “What the—” He looked at us at the end of the hall. “No!”
He ran at us.
Bridget dropped the stone, and I saw Quinn’s stone flying at us as we jumped. The small stone room appeared. I looked around frantically, making sure nobody had gotten hit. Both Mark and Bridget gave me small smiles.
We carried the bags through the hidden hall and into the endless hall. There, Mom was lying against the wall with her eyes closed. Jackie was holding the jar with the seer stone. She hadn’t noticed us yet.
“Jackie?” I asked, but she didn’t respond. “Jackie, put that thing down.”
“I can find him,” she growled.
“Who?”
Bridget snatched the jar from Jackie and stuffed it in her duffle bag. “Stupid twit. You can’t hold on to that stone for long. It’ll drive you mad.”
Jackie’s face blazed with anger, and I moved to stand between her and Bridget. “Jackie, she’s right. That stone . . .”
“I heard him,” Jackie interrupted me.
“Who?” I asked.
“Leo.” She had tears in her eyes.
“What did you do to my mom?” I asked.
Jackie’s lips thinned as she looked back. “Just a sleeping stone. She’s not hurting any more than she was. She won’t tell me where Leo is.”
“We’ll get this philosopher’s stone made, and I’ll make sure we get you to Leo, okay?” I said.
Jackie nodded and knelt next to my mom. She placed a stone on the back of her hand and stood.
My mom blinked and looked around. She got up off the floor and her eyes went wide as she stared at the large bags we were carrying.
“Is that . . .” Mom asked, pointing at the full bags. I nodded, and she covered her mouth. “I had no idea he had so many. I mean, I heard rumors, but I never thought . . .” She looked at me with pain in her eyes. “Come on. Let’s get these back to Blane.”
We carried the bags through the halls. When we entered the room, Blane jumped around like a child on Christmas morning. Sarah, who was standing in the corner, lit up when she spotted Mark. Sarah had lied to Mark, Mark had lied to Sarah, and in the end, we were all lying to Blane. At some point, the lies would become impossible to hide, and that moment appeared to be rapidly approaching. I feared Blane knew it as well.
“Is this all of them?” he asked.
“Over a thousand, if we include our own,” I said. The number made me sick.
Blane clapped his hands and jumped in a small circle. His large body jostled around during his exuberant exercise and before long, he ran out of breath and beads of sweat ran down his forehead. “Where is the seer stone?”
I glanced at Bridget.
“I have it,” she answered.
Blane stood frozen with his mouth open, staring off into the distance. “I can’t believe we’re actually getting this close to the stone. I never thought you’d get me this far, and so quickly. Thank you.”
For a second, I thought I saw a man in there. A person who might not be as horrible as I had taken him for.
“Well, go on and show us how to make the philosopher’s stone,” Mom said.
Blane laughed. “You think this is the end? You think we’re done?”
I kind of did. Or at least, I wanted it to be over. The idea that we weren’t at the end made my blood boil.
“What are you not telling us, Blane?” Mom growled.
“Most of the materials we’ve gathered from around the world aren’t for making the one stone. Not yet. First we have to make the four, and I’ll bet you can guess what four we need.”
“You’re talking about master stones, aren’t you?” Mom said, walking closer to Blane.
“You’ve heard of them.”
“Yes, the four elemental stones. There were several books in Verity’s library about them. They mentioned some of the processes to make them, but many of the pages were torn out.”
Blane laughed for an uncomfortable amount of time. “Alchemists are a secretive bunch. Get one ounce of information for a pound of pain, we used to say.” He laughed some more.
“The book alluded that these stones need to be made in their extreme environments,” Mom said.
“Precisely. You couldn’t expect to catch the blowing air in this dungeon.”
“I’ve heard Bridget can blow pretty hard,” Jackie said.
Bridget shot her a dirty look.
“I don’t like you,” Blane said, glaring at Jackie. “You say things I don’t understand, as if there is hidden meaning behind them. I find you secretive and smug and I want you to leave.” He pointed at the door.
Jackie scoffed at the idea and gave me a look.
“She’s not
going anywhere. You think we like you?” I said.
Blane sighed. “Just tell her to keep her mouth shut or I’ll close it for her. Women didn’t even study alchemy in my time. Now look at you: five women with a weak boy of a man. Strange times you people live in.”
Mark hopped off the edge of the table he had been sitting on and walked toward Blane.
“Mark, stop,” I said.
“Yes, make sure your lady has a good grip around those balls of yours, boy,” Blane said.
“Are we done?” Mom said, looking around at everyone. “Good. Now, these master stones, how and where do we make them?”
Blane laughed again. “I will select the ingredients, and then we can be on our way to the first location.”
“We?” Mom shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Fine, but every second we waste is a mistake.”
“You don’t think I know about wasted time?” Blane said. “Try being trapped in your head for a few hundred years. Creating these next five stones will be the most important thing that has ever happened to alchemy, maybe the world.”
“You still have no idea what the stone does, do you?” Mark asked.
“Do you know how close I was before Evers sacked me?”
“Not close enough,” Mark said, clearly annoyed by Blane.
“We didn’t have these portal stones in my time. It took me two years to create just two of the master stones. Now we can do it all in a day.” Blane ran his hands back and forth over his unkempt hair. “No, stop talking,” he screeched, pulling at his hair. “I need to concentrate. Which master stone first . . .”
He went around to the boxes that had been prepared for him and took out different ingredients, then set them in a bag. After a few minutes of gathering everything, he zipped the bag and looked up at us. “Give me one of those portal stones.” He held out his hand, looking at Mom.
“Quinn will make every attempt to capture you. Don’t you remember the last time you were this close to creating the stone? What Evers did to you?” Mom said.
Blane grimaced and shook his head. “We go together, then. How many can one stone take?”
“Three safely, four in a pinch,” Mom answered. “Where are we going?”