by Matt Ryan
As we gathered around the center of the hub, we prepared for our last master stone.
“So, where are we going, Blane?” Mom asked.
“An alchemist circle in my home country.”
“Never heard of it,” Niles said.
“What’s it look like? Maybe we call it something different,” Mom said.
“It’s an ancient stone circle made from balanced rocks. They stacked them on top of each other,” Blane said, making the letter T with his hands.
“Are you talking about Stonehenge, mate?” Niles asked.
“I don’t know. It’s a circle of stacked stones, west of London,” Blane said.
“Sounds like Stonehenge to me,” Niles said.
“I’ve never heard of an alchemist using that place,” Sarah said.
“You wouldn’t have.” Blane laughed. “I’m probably the only person in the world who knows about it. They used it thousands of years ago. I read about it on some lost scrolls from Alexandria.”
“That place is going to be riddled with people on holiday,” Niles said.
Blane sighed. “Then we’ll have to work around them. I’m sure you have some simple stones to take care of the regulars, right?”
“It’s a blooming national treasure,” Niles said, rubbing his hair. “We shouldn’t just burst into the place, throwing stones.”
“It’s the last of the master stones. Without it, we might as well leave it to Quinn to finish up his stone.”
I shook my head in disbelief. I knew about Stonehenge—we’d studied it briefly in school—but I’d never heard of it having any practical use in the modern world. The idea of using a wonder of the world to create a stone intrigued me. I smiled and looked at Mark, but he looked as upset as ever.
Mom was pacing in the middle of the circle we’d formed. “This is the last master stone . . .” she muttered. “After this, we can make the philosopher’s stone. The one to end all wars and unite us under one rule.”
“My rule,” Blane said.
“Yes, Blane’s rule,” Mom said. “But I’m worried. It’s almost like they knew we were going to be at the last two places. Like they were getting their information firsthand about our location.”
If I was hearing her right, she thought there was another mole right here in this circle. That couldn’t be, though. Each person had earned a spot here. I scanned the faces of the group, seeing if anyone looked peculiar, and then I saw Niles stepping back from Blane.
Niles moved before I could warn the group. He hurled a stone, and it flew past Blane toward Sarah. She saw it coming and leaned back as she blinked away. She must’ve had a portal stone in her pocket.
“Mark, did you know about her?” Mom turned to face him.
“I had my suspicions,” he said, looking at the floor.
“Then why didn’t you tell any of us?” Mom asked.
“Because I have my suspicions about all of you.”
“Even Allie?” Mom walked closer to him, waving off Niles.
I froze, completely at a loss about what was happening. Mark’s mother is working with Quinn? He’d always said she worked both sides, but this didn’t make sense. She could have sabotaged us a hundred times since I had arrived at the Academy, and she knew Mark was with me on this. And now my mom was moving closer to Mark with questions in her eyes.
“I trust Allie with my life, but I don’t trust her life with you,” Mark said. “And I’m still not sure about my mother. I doubt she’s feeding Quinn any information. When Niles tried to stone her, she portaled out of self-preservation more than anything. Tell me, did you get rid of her because she was competition, just another person to make a grab at the final stone?”
“Maybe,” Mom said. “And we’ll find out soon, because we fed her that lie about Stonehenge.”
Niles and Blane laughed.
“It’s not Stonehenge?” I asked.
“No,” Niles said. “Like alchemists would use a place that, out in the open.”
“Fools,” Blane said, and stopped laughing. “Now we can go.” He walked to the center of our group and held out his hand.
“Wait. What just happened?” I asked.
“We don’t have time for this,” he said. “Every second we waste is another second Quinn gets closer to the stone.”
Mark turned to me. “It isn’t too late.”
I knew what he meant, and glanced down at the stone in his hand. I wondered if anyone else in this group could make the master stone. My mother, maybe . . . but if they couldn’t, it meant Quinn would win, and there was no way I’d let that happen.
“Two more stones, and then I’m yours,” I said.
“Who’s going to carry that final stone?” he whispered to me.
“Are you sure you know where to take us, Blane?” I asked, and got a flash of the ocean and a seagull.
“The last element we’re looking for is water,” Blane said.
“I checked it out. It’s clear,” Niles said.
“Then why don’t you portal us?” Mark asked.
“Nah. I’m better at tossing stones than using something as tough as that portal stone,” Niles said.
Mom walked next to Blane and nodded to him. He dropped the stone on his bare hand, ending any argument we had, and then Mom touched her booster stone and we jumped.
The ocean rolled in and out on the sandy beach. I looked around at the grassy bluff behind us, blocking the inland view. The beach ran straight out in both directions and I couldn’t find a single structure or road. A few seagulls were flying overhead, squawking at our sudden appearance.
“Ha-ha,” Blane said, and jumped around in a circle, kicking up sand as he did. “I knew I could do it. My powers are coming back, and it couldn’t have happened soon enough.”
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Better we don’t even say. He might be listening,” Blane said, looking at the sky.
Mom laughed and shook her head. “So this is why we needed these stones. It’s out there, isn’t it?” She pointed to the sea.
Blane gave a quick nod and looked out beyond the waves.
My mom sighed and turned to me. “I’m sorry, Allie, but this is going to require your and Mark’s combined efforts.”
“What do you mean?”
“The place we need to go has slipped into the ocean,” Blane said. “We have stones that can move the water in a sphere, but it requires one person to hold on to the stone while the other creates the master stone.”
“I’ll hold the sphere stone,” Mark said.
If they thought I was going to go into that ocean with some sphere stone protecting us, they were crazy. We weren’t freaking Moses.
Niles unloaded a case from his backpack and set up a table. He gestured for me to come over. “We need a potent booster stone to give us the space we’ll need for the master stone. Think you can do it?”
“Yes, I guess I can do that.”
“You’re going to need it, you ugly whore,” Niles said.
“Excuse me?”
He winked. “Just stoking the ashes a little bit. Don’t want you messing up again, like at the volcano, and almost killing us. You’re a crap alchemist.”
I laughed. “I see what you’re doing. Nice build-up.” Truth was, his little comment did give me the spark I needed. Boosters were easy to make, but a concentrated one was as difficult as any. I poured large amounts of the ingredients into the mix and stirred it all around.
Niles reached in and picked up the stone when I was done. “Whoa, that’s several kilos.” He hefted the stone around in his hand. “Nice.” He held it up for the others to see before handing it over to Mom. He then packed up the table and put it back into his bag.
“Mark,” Mom said, “I don’t have to tell you that you’ll have all of our lives in your hands. This stone is going to take great concentration, and we’ll all have to move as a group.”
He nodded. “I won’t lose it.”
Mom gestured to Chang and
he walked over with a stone in his hand.
“Now, listen to Blane. He’ll be our guide. Are you ready?”
“Let’s do this,” Mark said.
“We all need to link up to him, otherwise we’ll be shoved right out of the sphere,” Blane said.
We gathered near the water’s edge. I put my hand on Mark’s bare arm and felt his muscles flexing as he prepared to take the stone. My mom took my arm on one side and Chang on the other. Niles held Mark’s left arm, and Blane took his.
“Everyone linked?” Mark asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Okay.” Mark took some slow breaths and I felt his bicep flexing in and out. Then his whole arm went stiff and he placed the stone on his bare hand. A sound like a bubble bursting came from the stone and I felt a wave of air wash over me. The sounds of the ocean dulled, and all that could be heard was a dull white noise.
“We’re in,” Blane said. He sounded as if he was speaking in a phone booth. “Now the booster stone.”
Mom let go of my arm and walked over next to Mark. I looked at the sand and noticed it had smoothed out in a ten-foot radius around us. A small wave pushed up against the sphere of air and moved around it.
“This is the hard part. Be strong,” Mom said, holding the powerful booster over the stone Mark was holding in his hand.
He nodded, and I saw the sweat beading on his temple.
Mom placed the booster stone on his and a popping sound crashed over us. I screamed and covered my ears. I moved my jaw, popping my ears, then opened my eyes. I stumbled back into Blane, who moved to the side, letting me stumble back a few more steps. I gawked at the sight in front of us.
The sphere had pushed deep into the ocean. The water sloshed around it, but inside, it looked like the world’s largest aquarium. A seagull hit the upper edges of the sphere and slid down the side and onto the sand.
Mark groaned and his body convulsed.
“Move forward, you fool,” Blane yelled.
Mark took a step forward and then another. The sphere pushed into the water with each step. We walked past what would have been the break line of the water and went into the ocean. The whole diameter of the sphere had an ever-growing wall of water pushing against it. As we kept walking into the ocean, my sight line finally went below the surface, and the sounds of the gurgling, thrashing ocean made me think of turning and running to safety.
The sandy sea floor became grassy and scattered with rocks and starfish. It felt squishy but surprisingly firm.
“There,” Blane said, pointing ahead. “That’s the start of it.”
A large pillar of granite breached the sphere. That was when I made the mistake of looking up. We were much deeper. The wall of water on each side of us reached thirty feet and we were traveling down a steep incline. The sun’s rays darkened and I felt the pressure of the water around me. It might have been my imagination, but I had trouble taking deep breaths.
We got to the pillar and I saw the circle of stones around the whole thing. They were stacked up, looking much like Stonehenge, and all of them were still in place, forming a perfect circle.
I stepped through one of the stacked stone arches and all of us stood in the circle. It had a thick stone floor covered with a thin layer of sand. I scraped my foot along the bottom and gazed at the gray stone beneath. At the center of the circle sat a stone sticking out of the floor like a two-foot-tall thumb. It seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t place where I’d seen it before.
The dome over us shuddered and the water sloshed around with a deep bass tone. I tensed, expecting the water to crash over us. Mark grunted as he held it together.
“This lad can’t hold this up for much longer,” Blane said.
I looked at Mark’s face and saw the strain in it. His mouth twitched and his eyes were glazed over.
Niles rushed to get the table and ingredients out.
The waves overhead crashed against the sphere and rolled to the sides. Each one sounded like a deep bass reverberating in our bubble. The walls of water felt as if they were closing in on me.
“He’s losing it,” Mom said.
It was progressively becoming much darker. I looked up and noticed the sphere getting smaller. The ocean rolled over the sphere, and the sunlight danced through the water, sending moving reflections around us.
“Stay strong, Mark,” I said, but his face stayed steady and I knew he couldn’t hear me through the deep concentration he was in.
“Ready,” Niles said, and stepped away from table.
I jumped up and arranged the ingredients the way I wanted them. I opened a jar and gagged at the rank, rotten-milk smell. The first two were the dry ingredients, a cup of shiny powder and a flaky substance.
I looked back at Mark and noticed that the way back to the beach was gone. In fact, the whole ocean had now moved over us and only glimmers of light shone through. A large fish, maybe a tuna, swam near the edge, rubbing against the only thing standing between us and a million tons of water.
My hand shook as I grabbed at the rotten-milk-like liquid and set it back down. The fear consumed me, and all I could think about was the darkening sky and the tuna watching us.
“Running out of time. You need a real alchemist to make this stone for you?” Niles called out.
His words helped. The sphere shrank even more and it became so dark that Mom used a glow stone to light the area.
“Get your portal stones ready,” she said.
I closed my eyes. All I could think about was water and Mark struggling. He was struggling because I was failing. The idea of failing Mark lit the anger deep within me and I churned it into an inferno, with a montage of Quinn and Verity. I dumped the milky liquid and then the universal solvent. I mixed away and felt the water at my elbow. The stone clunked around in the bowl and I grabbed it before Blane could. That was when I realized how close we all were and Mark was yelling.
“Jump!” I yelled, scrambling to get my portal stone out.
Blane jumped first, and then Niles and Chang. My mom nodded and used her stone. The second she portaled, Mark fell to the ground. I jumped on him with my portal stone, bracing for the water to crash against us. When it didn’t happen, I opened my eyes. We were flying in the void, then landing on the floor of the hub, soaking wet.
I rolled Mark onto his back and he groaned.
“Did we get it?” he asked.
“Yeah, we got it.”
“Good, because that sucked.” He gave me a small smile.
I bent over and kissed him. He tried to hug me, but his hands only made it to my arms. I felt tears building in my eyes, but I laughed. “We almost died again.”
Mark laughed as well and then started coughing.
“Let’s see the stone, missy,” Blane said with an extended hand.
“It’s Allie, you asshole. At least have the decency to learn our names,” I said.
“Show me the stone!” Blane yelled.
I opened my hand and showed him. He reached for it, but I closed my hand around it again. “Can we make the final stone now and be done with this?” I asked.
Blane took a step back and looked around at the group. “Yes, the final stone. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to be so close to taking this stone. The final destination we will be going back to is where it all started for me.”
I hated hearing how he thought he would get the stone. I’d made these master stones, and I’d be making the final stone. So I got to choose who’d take it. I knew one thing: I’d never let Blane get close.
The closer we got, the more I wanted to use the stone for myself. If there was anyone in this world who could use it for the good of mankind, it would be me, with Mark at my side. Together, we’d finally be at peace.
Standing dripping wet in the hub, Blane began to explain the final part of the stone. We listened to him describe patterns and alchemists’ circles that he drew in the air with his hand, as if we could tell what he was drawing or even talking about.
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Great—this was the guy to lead us to the final stone. A crazy person, talking near gibberish. I looked around to see if anyone else was following along. Mark gave me a shrug, and I began to wonder if Blane was just talking in circles. Maybe he didn’t know how to make the stone. Maybe this whole thing had just been a ruse to get him out of his prison.
Blane continued to talk about doors and travelers, and I heard the city Rome mentioned.
Then Niles burst out, “Bloody hell. You were the one who created the Porta Alchemica?” Skepticism filled his voice.
“Myself and a few others, but mostly me, yes,” Blane said.
“Hey, I left my master’s degree in alchemy back at home. Can someone clue me in to what you’re talking about?” I asked.
Niles cleared his throat. “Around 1680 came a tale of a mysterious man who visited a renowned alchemist. This traveler wove stories about how close he was to creating the philosopher’s stone. The owner of the house was skeptical but curious, and they spent the night drawing out the details and making preparations. But the next morning, the traveler went missing. Even though he’d disappeared, the man—believed to be Giustiniani Bono—had left behind a riddle of clues and various alchemists’ patterns.”
Blane laughed. “It’s incredible what gets lost over centuries of retellings. Bono was indeed working on getting the stone at the same time as me and Evers, but he decided to work with me in the end. We spent years working on the preparations, trying to keep it as secret as we could from Evers.” He shook his head in delight. “By the end, we had created seven doorways and strewn them with nonsensical writings and symbols. We wanted to hide the true door in plain sight because we knew Evers was close. I suspect he could feel it, as I am sure many of you can feel it right now. We are so close. Knowing now how he disposed of me, I realize he took care of Bono and probably Faust as well before sending me to my stupor.”
“Is the key to making the philosopher’s stone truly at the Porta Alchemica?” Mom asked.
“It is, but only to those who know how to use it,” Blane said.
“Wait,” Mark said. “You’re talking about the alchemists’ door?”
“He is,” Mom said.