Circle of Stone

by R. L. King

  “But what are you gonna do?” Jason asked with a shrug. “You can’t deal with it yourself. You can’t send other cops to deal with it—even if they could find these guys, sendin’ mundane cops in who don’t even know what they’re in for isn’t right. Some of the Harpies are mundanes, sure, but at least they know what they’re getting into.”

  “And look where it got one of ’em.” Blum still had his face in his hand. “Fuck…”

  “It sucks. I know it does. Everybody knows it does. But what I’m talking about doesn’t involve sending mundanes after these magical threats. That would be suicide. But wouldn’t it be useful to just know things? If the mages barely pay attention to what the mundanes are doing, reporting on them if they get up to anything illegal should be fairly safe, right? Passing along rumors? Sharing information about weird stuff they might have heard about?”

  Blum didn’t answer.

  “Look. Al says most of the mages out there are either wild talents—people who are decent with one thing and shit with everything else—or else they’re low powered or untrained, or both. Point being, you’re not looking at the threat level of somebody like Al. Those kinds of talents don’t waste their time on petty crime, and even if they were up to stuff, it wouldn’t be the kind of stuff we could deal with. But what it looks like we’ve got here is street-level mages figurin’ out they can use their powers to get a little extra. And since the big mages don’t want to get organized to deal with it themselves, havin’ a little side help might be just the thing.”

  “I don’t know, Thayer…” Blum took another sip of coffee and appeared to be mulling Jason’s words. He shook his head. “It would be a hell of a lot easier to deal with if the mages would step up and clean up their own messes. I mean, it’s good that Stone’s willing to help, but he can’t be everywhere at once.”

  “Yeah, but from what I understand from both Al and V, that’s not happening any time soon. V agrees with you. In fact, she’s considered trying to convince some of the more powerful mages that that’s exactly what they do need—some kind of formal, official law-enforcement organization for mages. But given that before they could do anything like that, they’d first have to agree on laws to enforce…” He shrugged. “I’m guessing that’s not happening any time soon. So we work with what we got.”

  Blum sighed. “So, what are you askin’ me? Do you want me to set something like this up? Because I can’t—”

  “No. I get it. You’re constrained by what you can do working within the system. I know even the times you’ve asked Al to help out with magical crime, you’re doin’ it on your own, off the record. I’m not askin’ you to put any of that at risk. I guess the first thing is, I want to know if you think it’s a good idea. I haven’t mentioned it to Al or V yet, because I wanted to get a perspective from another mundane who’s been there.”

  “Well…” Blum looked around the room, just as Jason had been doing previously. “I guess? I mean, I suppose it couldn’t hurt, as long as all you ask them to do is share information. You’re not gonna propose anybody actually get involved, right?”

  “Oh, hell no. Way too dangerous, especially since most of these people probably aren’t even in any kind of shape to do it.”

  “That’s good, because the last thing I—or anybody else in law enforcement—needs is a bunch of clueless civilians poking around in our cases. It’s bad enough bringin’ Stone and his crew in, but at least they can handle themselves in a tough spot. Mostly, anyway.”

  “Yeah. I get it. Information network only.”

  “So what’s the other thing?”

  “I was hoping you might be able to put me into contact with some of the people you know. Right now I’m pretty light on names, but I figure if I can get a few from you, maybe they know more, and so on. There’ve got to be a decent number in the area, but finding them and convincing them to help will be the hard part.”

  “Yeah, you got that right.” He considered. “Like I said, I know a few, and some of them know a few more. But I can’t compromise them by giving you their names.” As Jason started to protest, he raised his hand. “No, listen to me. It’s not that I don’t trust you. Hell, if Stone trusts you that’s good enough for me. But it’s not good enough for them. You know as well as I do that the whole magical grapevine is very secretive. That’s why nothing like this has ever happened before, far as I know. The best I can do is take your contact information and pass it along to them. I can tell them a guy I know and trust is tryin’ to set somethin’ up, and then they can decide if they want to participate. That work?”

  Jason hadn’t considered that, but he supposed it was a fair point. “Yeah, that works. If anybody gets back to me, I’ll see if I can set up a meet and we can go from there. Hell, who knows? We can start with the Bay Area, and if it works out, maybe we can expand into other areas.”

  “Hey, more power to you, man. I can’t be involved officially, of course, but feel free to give me a call if I can help.” He finished his coffee and plunked the cup down. “I gotta get goin’, but one more thing before I do.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re gonna want to keep in mind that if you do find any of these folks and they’re willing to talk to you, they’re most likely not gonna want to tell you who their mage buddies are. And I wouldn’t tell them who yours are, either. If word gets out to the mages that a bunch of loose-lipped mundanes are outing them at Junior Magic Scout meetings, you could be buyin’ more trouble than you can handle. Not to mention puttin’ both the mages and the mundanes in danger.”

  Jason let his breath out. Another consideration he hadn’t thought about. Despite his initial misgivings, consulting Blum had been a good idea. “Good point. Thanks, man. I’ll get back to you when I’ve got more info.”

  “Yeah. I’ll be honest—I’m not sure this is gonna work, and it might blow up in your face. But I also think it’s not a half-bad idea, if you can figure out how to get it off the ground.”

  20

  Stone decided that if he had any intention of investigating what was going on in Oakland, he’d have to make the time to do it.

  Between University meetings, preparing for his courses, and tracking down materials he’d need for his portal, he didn’t have a lot of time left for running off on what was almost certainly a fool’s errand. True, the portal could wait, but the other stuff couldn’t—the closer it got to the start of the quarter, the more calls and emails he’d been getting from Laura the admin aide, Cultural Anthropology department head Beatrice Martinez, and Mackenzie Hubbard, his fellow Occult Studies professor, and they all wanted something. Stone couldn’t very well resent their requests: after all, they had no idea he was trying to track down a magical crime wave in his spare time. Once again, he caught himself wishing he could let himself be out in the open with his magical activities. It would make some things a lot easier—but as always, he dismissed the thought because it would make even more things a lot harder.

  Neither Verity, Jason, nor Blum had come back to him with any more information about Daisy. He’d been holding off on his plan, hoping one of them might unearth something so he’d have someone to track down. He’d checked with Blum and so far no other strange or unexplained crimes had occurred, which meant either the gang was still keeping their heads down until the Arena business had blown over, or they were getting better about hiding their tracks. Either way, it didn’t make Stone’s task any easier.

  The other reason Stone hadn’t been in a hurry to go to Oakland was that he had no idea what he was looking for. He didn’t know any members of the magical community in that area, so hitting up contacts for information was useless. He couldn’t even look at someone and tell whether they were a mage, at least not unless they either wore something magical or had cast spells recently. So essentially, the trip was almost certain to be a waste of time, and he didn’t have the time to spend. Oakland spread out over a big area, and he couldn’t exactly cruise around all night with magical sight up, looking for a
nything out of the ordinary.

  He exited the freeway and cruised up San Pablo Avenue, then turned off and drove a circuit around some of the nearby side streets. He went where his instincts took him since he had no idea where he was going, and hoped he didn’t get lost beyond his phone’s navigation system’s ability to get him back to the freeway. As he drove, he noticed several people, both alone and in groups, slouching near street corners, watching him go by. He didn’t belong here, that was obvious.

  He drove for half an hour or so, making turns on whim. The scenery changed from rundown homes to weed-choked vacant lots, warehouses, and light industrial buildings, many of which looked either abandoned or not open at this time of night.

  “This is pointless,” he muttered. “I’m not going to find anything. I might as well head home.”

  He was about to do just that, but the street he was on was long, straight, and sparsely populated with other cars, so he shifted to magical sight. He’d been doing it periodically throughout his drive when he thought it was safe, but so far all he’d seen was the occasional aura of someone on the sidewalks.

  The clear shaft of a ley line ran by on his left, fading into the horizon.

  Stone blinked.

  A ley line, here? That was odd. He didn’t have them all memorized, of course, not even in this area, but he was fairly sure there wasn’t one near where he was at the moment.

  He pulled off the road and focused his concentration, studying the glowing beam. It wasn’t one of the main, powerful lines in the area—more of an offshoot, but even so it stood out brightly against the darkened landscape. Most mages didn’t bother looking at ley lines unless they needed to for something they were working on—it took a slightly different type of magical sight to see them, which was probably a good thing. Otherwise, it would be nearly impossible to use the sight effectively to spot subtle things like hidden magic or auras.

  But this line shouldn’t be here. The more Stone thought about it, the more he was sure of it. As he continued to watch it, it seemed almost to…jitter, like it was shifting in and out of true. That was weird too. Ley lines were the baseline structure of magical energy in the world. They were as immutable and immovable as telecommunication lines—more so, in fact, because it would be almost impossible to disrupt a ley line.

  He pulled out his phone and punched Verity’s number, hoping she hadn’t gone out somewhere with Kyla.

  “Hey, Doc.” She answered on the second ring and sounded distracted, but he couldn’t hear anything in the background indicating she was out at a club or something.

  “Ah. I hope I’ve caught you at home.”

  “Sort of. I’m at Hezzie’s, working on a new alchemical thing. What’s up?”

  “I wonder if you might do me a quick favor. I’m away from my books and I need a reference.”

  “Uh—sure. What is it?”

  “I’m in Oakland, and I need the location of a ley line.”

  “A ley line? Why?”

  “Just…curiosity. Could you get your map?”

  “Yeah, sure. Hold on a minute.”

  He heard muffled voices, then the sound of a door closing and a moment later another opening. “Hang on,” she said. “I have to dig the book out. I haven’t unpacked all my boxes yet, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve done anything with ley lines.”

  While Stone waited, he entertained himself by watching the ley line while also keeping an eye on the traffic rolling by. The area where he’d stopped wasn’t a good one, especially after dark. Idly, he settled a disregarding spell over the BMW to make it blend in better with the other cars parked nearby.

  “Doc?”

  He fumbled the phone back into position. “Yes? Did you find your map?”

  “Yeah. Tell me what you’re looking for.”

  He described his location, realizing that Verity’s map wouldn’t include streets or other easily identifiable landmarks. He did his best to explain it in a way that would make sense to her.

  “Hmm…” she said after a moment.

  “Hmm what?”

  “You say it’s running north-south?”

  “Roughly. More northeast, though.”

  “That’s strange. The only one I see in that area isn’t really near you, but it runs almost straight north-south. It’s a really minor one. By my reading it should be west of you, but it’s hard to tell for sure since I don’t have a street map of Oakland to compare it to.”

  Stone continued to study the ley line. It was still doing that odd jittery thing, and it was definitely pointing northeast, not true north.

  “Doc?”

  He jolted back to focus. “Er…yes?”

  “Is something wrong? I recognize that tone of voice. You found something, didn’t you?”

  “I’m…not sure yet. I might have. I need to check it out more carefully, though.”

  “Is something wrong with the ley line?”

  “Like I said, I can’t say just yet. Probably not. Our methods of checking are hardly scientific. I’ll let you know if I discover anything. Thanks, Verity. Go back to your alchemy.”

  “You want me to come over there?”

  “No, no, of course not.”

  She paused. “Be careful, okay? If you need backup, please call me.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  He put the phone back in his pocket and considered his next move. Despite what he’d told Verity, he was sure something was unusual about the ley line in front of him. Even if he’d somehow gotten the direction wrong—which was possible, but not likely—they didn’t oscillate like that. It was subtle; if he hadn’t been studying it so specifically, he probably wouldn’t have noticed it, and he doubted any other mages taking casual glances would have either. But something was there, and he wanted to know what it was.

  How the hell was he going to do that, though? The ley line disappeared into a cluster of buildings. He could drive in that general direction and hope to keep it in view, but the sort of magical sight necessary to see ley lines required a bit more concentration than the normal type. Even normal magical sight was hard to keep going while driving, unless you wanted to plow into the back end of a parked car.

  Fortunately, though, he didn’t need to drive. He got out of the car, carefully locked it, and added more power to the disregarding spell. The last thing he wanted was to come back and find the BMW gone, stripped, or missing all four of its wheels, but this had to be done.

  He looked around to make sure nobody was watching, then settled another disregarding spell over himself and lifted off the ground, soaring high above the multi-story warehouses. The chilly wind up here whipped his coat around and made his eyes water; he’d need to get on with this fast before the cold made him lose his concentration. Quickly he called up magical sight again and made the slight adjustment necessary to spot the ley lines crisscrossing the earth.

  The cold notwithstanding, what he saw almost made him lose control of the spell on its own. “Bloody hell…” he whispered. “That can’t be right.”

  But it was right. It was there in front of him, plain as day.

  Without thinking, he rose a little higher so he could get a better view, but he didn’t need one.

  The ley line—the one that according to Verity’s map was supposed to be running in a north-south direction—actually was doing that…up to a point. But then, somewhere south of where Stone was now, it began to—

  He didn’t even have a word for what was happening here. The bottom line was, the ley line was changing direction, making a subtle drift to the east. By the time it reached Stone’s current location, it was pointing decidedly northeast, well off the path it should have followed.

  “What the hell…?” he muttered, focusing so hard on the ley line now that he barely noticed the energy he was expending to remain aloft and concealed. “Why are you doing that?”

  This was a big deal. Ley lines didn’t drift. They were forces of nature. For a ley line, even a minor one like this, to be
pulled off its normal course was as impossible as it would be for a mountain to shift a mile to the left, or a whole forest’s worth of trees to uproot and reposition themselves.

  Without conscious attention, he adjusted the levitation spell to move him in the direction the ley line was drifting. He had to see what was doing this—what had caused a phenomenon that shouldn’t be allowed to occur.

  Were there any other ley lines in the area? If so, were they affected too? So far he hadn’t seen evidence of any, and Verity hadn’t mentioned any, so perhaps this minor one was the only one in the area. That would make it easier to follow, but it still didn’t explain what had occurred here.

  As he floated along, following the glowing beam, he noticed it was still jittering and shifting. Its light, which should have been bright and solid, flickered like a faltering lightbulb. It didn’t look in danger of winking out—Stone couldn’t even comprehend the kind of force necessary to erase a ley line, nor did he want to contemplate the sort of havoc that might play with any other lines in the area, or magic in general—but it definitely didn’t look well. It almost appeared that the ley line was resisting whatever force was trying to change its direction.

  He continued to follow it, dropping lower until he was only a few feet above the highest roof flying by beneath him. He was still doing fine keeping the spell up, but he didn’t want to take chances if he encountered any other shocks. He had no idea what he might see, or what he might expect to see, but best to be ready for it.

  When he did see it, less than a mile from where he’d left the car, there was nothing subtle about it. The shuddering, faded ley line continued in the easterly direction until it reached a large, probably abandoned warehouse surrounded by a razor-wire fence and a vast expanse of empty space…and then it changed direction and continued pointing north once again, much more directly this time, as it should have all along. The shaft that exited the warehouse area glowed bright again, and all sign of the jittering was gone.