by Matt Ryan
“China. Is there still a China?”
“Yes,” Mom said.
“Are they still stone-makers? During the short time I was there, I saw some incredible stones, but they were very secretive about their creations. I wonder if they’re still guarding the place . . .” He looked up at the ceiling, deep in thought.
I got a picture of a white pyramid with a crystalline-looking cap on the top. It glimmered in the sunlight, then it was gone. Blane glanced at me, and I wondered if he felt our connection as well.
“The Chinese make cell phones and plush animals now,” Jackie said, and I saw Blane fire up, but my mom spoke first.
“Chang is well-versed in Chinese alchemy. I can have him make a call and ask them about this location. Where is it, exactly?” Mom said.
Blane’s eyes narrowed. “You can’t trust the Chinese. We aren’t going to tell them anything.”
“Sarah, can you get Chang, please?” Mom asked.
“Yes, sure.”
“I told you I don’t want him alerting them,” Blane said.
“If we’re going to China, there’s no way in hell I’m not bringing a Chinese alchemist with me,” Mom said, and crossed her arms.
Sarah left, and Blane went on a rant about how the Chinese couldn’t be trusted. I bit my tongue, trying not to let him have it.
A few minutes went by, then Chang walked in with Sarah. He looked around the room as if for the first time and kept an eye on Blane. “Sarah said we’re going to China?” Chang asked, gazing at Blane.
“Yes, yes, and you’d better not be alerting your friends there,” Blane said.
“My loyalties are with Cathy, and I don’t appreciate you questioning me. I would assume you are the greatest liability moving forward,” Chang said.
Blane grumbled and looked away. “There is a pure white pyramid with a clear cap. Are you familiar with it?”
“They don’t look like that anymore, but I saw one when I was a kid. One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life. They are burial grounds, though. Why do you want to go there?”
Blane glared at Chang. “One of them isn’t, and I think you know that.”
Chang looked at the floor. “Yes, one of them isn’t. But it’s also a sacred alchemist temple. The people who protect it are zealots. They won’t let the likes of us use it.”
“Simpleton. You think we’re going to ask for their permission? You people are rich in stones, and you don’t even know it. We’ll prepare a few key stones and then we’ll burst past anything they can put up. Then Little Miss Special over there can make the master stone and we’ll be on our merry way.”
“Good,” Mom said. “Chang, can you get us close to this place?”
“Yes, there’s a cleared field surrounding it.”
“Are you okay to use a boosted portal stone to jump us all?”
“Yes, I should be all right.”
We left Blane’s room and stocked up on some more stones. Blane even directed me to make a few new ones, and became irate when Mom wouldn’t let him carry a single one.
Ready to go, we met up at the hub. A few people were walking around, and they took great notice of Blane. The way he was looking around, I didn’t think he’d been out of the cave yet.
“You ready?” Mom asked, and Chang nodded. “Bridget, did you make the booster stone?”
“Yes. It should be just enough to get us there, but we’ll all be on our own on the way back,” Bridget said. “So, everyone make sure you have your return stone.”
I patted the portal stone on my left side, and looked to Mark, who was standing next to me. Ever since we’d gotten back, we hadn’t had more than a minute alone. I had the feeling we were going to get into some serious trouble and didn’t want the last feeling I had to be regret.
I took a couple of steps and stood in front of Mark. With everyone around us, I pulled his head to mine and kissed him. I got so lost in his lips, the catcalls from Jackie and Bridget barely registered. Finally, I let him go and looked up at him.
“What was that for?” Mark asked.
“I didn’t want to leave anything unsaid.”
He glanced at Blane, then back at me. “After this is all over, we’re going somewhere away from this and never looking back.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
Jackie made a choking sound with her hands on her neck and Bridget rolled her eyes, pointing her finger into her mouth.
“Okay, Chang. Get us there,” Mom said, and gave Niles a nod.
Chang held out a portal stone and Mom placed the booster stone on it. Chang fell back and the ground underneath us turned green, with the bright sun shining overhead.
“We’re in China?” Blane asked. “No, no, this is all wrong. Where is the pyramid? You lied to us, Chang. I told you they can’t be trusted!”
Chang, looking annoyed, pointed to the nearby hill. “The government had them planted in the forties. But I assure you, that grassy hill is the one you are looking for,” he said.
I smelled smoke and saw a plume rising from the edge of the grassy knoll. “You see that?” I asked. “Looks like a person lying in the grass.”
“Oh, no,” Blane said. “Someone sacked it before we could get here.” He reached out his hands, then fell flat on his face. I felt a shot of embarrassment from him as he jumped back up and jogged toward the hill.
We all found it easy to keep up with him. I kept my attention on the man lying in the grass at the bottom of the hill and the tendrils of smoke rising up from the ground near him.
We reached the base of the hill and discovered that the man lying there was indeed dead. The partially charred body smelled of burnt clothes and hair, and I had to look away.
“They got here before we did,” Mom said. “How do we get in, Chang? We don’t have time for this.”
“They could still be in there, Cathy. We shouldn’t rush . . .”
“Just open the damn door.”
Chang moved to the ground and dropped a stone into a small pipe, then stood and stepped back. The grass moved, revealing a door lifting up like an old pop-top. Smoke barreled out from the open door.
“We need to hurry. The other one must be getting close,” Blane said. “We have to be first. We have to be first!” He ran into the smoky corridor.
“Come on,” Chang said. “It opens up on the inside. Just keep your stones ready. Something is terribly wrong.”
“The extra-crispy body was the giveaway, wasn’t it?” Jackie said, and Bridget laughed.
“Dead giveaway,” Bridget added.
Mom held out two stones and glared at the girls. Then she turned and walked into the smoke. I walked in behind her.
The smoke stung my eyes and I took the smallest breaths possible. After fifty feet or so, the smoke cleared and I looked back at the room we’d passed. It was pouring out smoke toward the main door. I turned back to face the end of the corridor. I moved forward, giving everyone enough room to see what I was seeing.
“It’s amazing. Who’d think this was under a grassy hill?” I asked.
Just past the corridor, the room opened up to a high, pointed ceiling. The white walls glowed with light and they reached to the point high above us where a shimmering crystal the size of a bus sat on top. Through the crystal, I spotted some of the brown dirt encasing this whole place. Then I looked at the floor level and gasped. Several people lay dead on and around a stone altar. Some looked burned, one was blue and another was shriveled up like a human raisin.
“We'd better hurry,” Blane said, and waddled to the stone altar.
The altar sat on a raised platform at the center of the pyramid and jutted out about ten feet up. It was about five feet around, and it was the same brilliant white as the rest of the walls and floor. It had engravings on it, but I couldn’t read them.
I walked to the platform with Blane. I tried not to look at the bodies littering the floor around us and kept my attention on the altar and the symbols around it. I
recognized a few from alchemist circles, one for water and another for sulfur.
Blane dropped the bag on the platform and got a few ingredients out, placing them next to a mixing bowl. “Okay, make it, special,” he said, and pointed at the floor.
“Around all these dead people?”
“It ain’t like they’re gonna stop ya,” Blane said, and I shook my head. “You said she could make anything.” He looked at Mom.
“She can. Let’s clear an area for her, though,” Mom said, and directed Mark and Niles to move a few of the bodies nearest me. I cringed at the crunchy sounds the burnt ones made, which made me want to throw up on the stage.
When I had an area to work, I picked up the ingredients and placed them on the stone stage. It was about three feet tall and gave me a comfortable place to work. I took a deep breath and picked up the first ingredient.
A voice yelled out in a strange language.
I stumbled at the sound and almost dropped the ingredients. I turned and saw several men at the entrance. They took in the dead men scattered around the room.
“This wasn’t us,” Cathy said. “We got here after this all happened.”
The leader said a few words in what I guessed was Chinese and the rest of the men spread out from the door. Several had black masks on and were holding stones in their hands.
“Make the stone, Allie. Then we can jump,” Mom said as she took a sideways stance next to me, facing the men coming into the pyramid.
“Get around Allie,” Jackie said, and closed in between Mark and Mom.
Niles hefted his gun up and glared at the men.
“They’re surrounding us. They’ll attack when they’re in position,” Chang said.
“We just need to make a stone and we’ll be on our way,” Mom said, and her voice bounced around in the pyramid.
“Americans,” one said, and gestured to the others. “You will pay for what you did here. We will use a stone to keep you alive for generations just so they can hurt you.”
“He’s stalling,” Mom said. “Get your stones out and remember your formation. Bridget.” She nodded to Bridget.
“We don’t want a fight,” Bridget said, holding two stones in each hand and glancing up at the high ceiling. “But, as my friend Jackie would say, ‘Suck it, bitches.’”
I turned away from the ingredients to see Bridget toss a stone high into the air. The Chinese surrounding us looked at it and threw two stones of their own. The first of the two missed her stone by a foot, but the second one struck it. Both stones turned clear and fell to the floor, doing nothing.
“Crap,” Bridget said, and threw her second stone.
“Protect me!” Blane ran behind Niles.
At the same moment, I heard Niles’ gun fire its first stone. A deep thump sounded.
“Make the stone, Allie,” Mom said as she threw her stone. It struck the floor in front of one of the Chinese and exploded. The detonation made the man collapse to the floor, and I shuddered as the shock wave roared around the pyramid. “Make it and we can get out of here.”
“Okay.” I threw one of my better stones at the closest man. He threw one back. The two stones passed each other in the air and at the last second, I pushed Jackie out of the way and the black stone bounced past us.
“Hurry,” Blane said. “I knew we couldn’t trust the Chinese,” he muttered, kneeling down and covering his face with his arms.
Jackie, wide-eyed, turned back to the fight. They tightened the half-circle around me and I moved close to the stage. Another stone clanked past me and bounced against the altar. It cracked open and a clear liquid poured out and dissolved into the stone. Yet another stone that would have killed one of us. I needed to get to work immediately, before one of them hit us.
I put in the dry ingredients in the amounts Blane had prepared. Next, I put in the solvent and the last liquid Blane had put together. I stopped suddenly, realizing I was filled with fear, not the best emotion for making a stone. I closed my eyes and felt a stone strike my back and fall to the floor. I didn’t need to look to know it would have killed me. These people wanted to kill my friends, my family.
My anger at our situation built, then I thought about Quinn and the possibility of him using that terrible stone on me. He might have had me for a month. Deep in rage, I felt the wind picking up. I ignored it as it swept past me, stirring my hair around my face. I kept mixing, funneling my emotions into the stone. I felt the power in my hands and the creation of the stone. I was making something for the ages. Then I heard the clunk and felt the stone with my spoon.
I went to reach for it, but Blane grabbed it with a black cloth and stuffed it in his pocket.
“Done,” I yelled, but I didn’t think they heard me over the hurricane of wind. I looked at the ceiling and was shocked to see a funnel.
I tapped Mom on the shoulder as she threw another stone, then I noticed a person missing. “Where’s Mark?”
“He got hit. I portaled him back.”
“Let’s get the hell out of here!” I screamed over the wind, feeling like I’d lift off the floor at any moment.
The others saw me holding my portal stone up and nodded.
A stone struck the back of my hand and I screamed, dropping my portal stone. The pain seared into the back of my hand. Everything but sheer agony left my mind. It was as if someone was holding a hot iron to the back of my hand and slowly gliding it up my arm. I screamed as the pain increased with each passing second.
Another stone hit Niles and he fell to his knees. Mom grabbed him and they popped out. I couldn’t have looked for my portal stone if I’d wanted to. I felt a person wrapping me up from behind and grabbing my hand.
We jumped.
I screamed and fell to my knees in the middle of the hub. When I grabbed my burning arm, the pain traveled all the way to my elbow, then the hot poker edged over my biceps and triceps. Tears flowed down my face and I wished for the fountain to still be there, anything to dunk this burn in.
I cried and fell all the way to the floor, curling up and holding my arm as the flames licked their way up. I didn’t dare look at it. I knew it had to be burned to a crisp, black and shriveled.
“Allie.” Mark was lying next to me. His face was swollen, disfigured, and red.
“No,” I said. It hurt just as bad to see him in so much pain.
He took my burnt hand and I dared a look. To my shock, it appeared to be normal. Not a mark on it. That didn’t stop the pain, though. I pulled my hand back and screamed as a fresh wave of molten heat inched its way through.
My mom pulled on my shoulder and rolled me onto my back. “They hit her with a red-hot,” she said as she yanked my arm around. “Cooling stone, Chang. Jackie, go and make sure it gets made quickly.”
Jackie and Chang ran.
“Niles, find Blane,” Mom said. “Bridget, go with him,” she commanded, then returned to me. She looked so powerful from this angle and just knowing she was going to help me made me feel a touch better. Then the poker flared up on my shoulder. I shook and screamed, grabbing at the invisible flames.
“Hurry up! It’s at her shoulder already,” Mom said in near hysterics. “Hang in there, Allie. Try to use your inner power to push it back. You can’t let it get to your heart, or you’ll die.”
I clutched my chest and looked for Chang and Jackie. My mom watched my hand squeezing the area.
“Allie, you’ve got to find a way to slow it down.”
“How?”
“Use your mind. You can control your body and the elements around you. Just feel the spot of fire and douse it with water. Push it back with your mind.” She looked toward Chang’s class. “I don’t think they’re going to make it back in time. You’re going to have to reverse its path.”
“I’m right here with you,” Mark mumbled through his swollen lips. He reached to me and took my hand off my shoulder.
“You need help,” I said to Mark, touching his distorted face.
“This will pa
ss.” He took my hand in his, and I felt something in our touch, as if he had pushed some of his power through my hands.
“I can do this,” I told him.
I closed my eyes and felt Mark holding my hands. I moved through my body and over to my shoulder. A fire was burning around the muscle fibers and all the way to the bone. I screamed at it and summoned a wave of water. The water crashed over the area and the fiery pain subsided.
I took a long breath for the first time since we’d landed at the hub. Then the fire reignited and I screamed, squeezing Mark’s hand harder than he probably liked. I felt his energy mixing with mine and I went back to the fire.
It raged hotter and more intensely, as if my last wave had been gasoline. I concentrated my energy and effort into an icy breath and I blew an ice storm onto the fire. To my relief, the flames died down and my shoulder felt numb.
I relaxed and opened my eyes. The pain felt distant.
Mark’s hand fell from mine and he rolled onto his back. I jumped over to him as his face turned blue.
“I don’t think he can breathe!” I gasped.
“There’s nothing we could have done,” Mom said.
“No, there’s always something we can do. We’re freaking alchemists.”
“We’re not gods.”
I refused to listen to her and shook Mark. “Wake up.”
Jackie ran up and touched the back of my neck. I felt a cold wave rush over my body and down my arm. I didn’t think I needed the stone, but the final remnants of pain subsided.
Mark’s face looked blue as I grabbed at his neck. I didn’t know what else to do, but if I could heal myself, why couldn’t I heal him? I had to. I leaned close to him, placing my ear over his heart. I heard a lazy thump and knew it was one of his last.
“Get off of him.” Niles shoved me to the side and placed a stone on Mark’s forehead.
I didn’t get a good look at it, but Mark opened his eyes. The swelling over his whole body cleared up and he took a deep breath. Sitting up, he looked around.
I stumbled back and looked from him to Niles. “How?”
“There’s only one stone that could have done that,” Chang said.