“Finally. Can we get a move on now, please? It’s rude to keep people waiting. Quit your worrying, Furball. I’ve lived longer than you, and I’ve gotten out of more hairy situations. One little mage is no match for me. I was saving little mages like this one”—he pointed his thumb at me—“when you were still a twinkle in your momma’s eye.”
We all laughed at Millhook’s antics, but it couldn’t erase the tension. Once we got to the lobby, we went our separate ways. As I watched Nicole and Alex disappear down the street, I hoped it wouldn’t be the last time I saw them.
Chapter 24
The table in the back corner of the café gave me a clear view of the door and ensured that no one could come up behind me. Millhook sat to my left, invisible.
The waitress seemed to take forever to get my coffee. My eyes scanned the room, making sure Sibelius wasn’t lying in wait. All around me were humans oblivious to the magical creatures sitting in the corner. The hope was that Sibelius wouldn’t do any magic in front of all these humans. I blocked out the low hum of chatter around me and focused my sight on the door, so much so that when the waitress set down my coffee, I jumped in my seat.
“I understand why Furball is worried about you now. Hate to break it to you, but this Sibelius is capable of a lot more than the waitress.”
“Oh hush, Millhook. I don’t want him to surprise us.”
“I got the—what d’you call it, rendezvous point?—firmly in my mind. First hint of trouble, you grab me, and I’ll get us out of here.”
Just moments after the waitress delivered my coffee, Sibelius walked through the door and headed right toward me. His actions left me with the distinct feeling that he had gotten here before us and had been observing from outside.
Sibelius exuded a nervous energy as if he was more excited about this meeting than I was. As he strode to our table, it was not with the confidence I’d expected from the mage who had commanded such love and respect from my family. Nothing about his looks indicated he was a heartbreaker. While he wasn’t fat, he had an oval face lacking any definition. Long, thinning hair hung in waves to his shoulders. Instead of a powerful mage, he appeared to be a college professor.
As he sat across from us, a wide smile split his face. “Kat, I presume. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person. Thank you for obliging me with this meeting.”
“I figure we both have questions we want answered. My family speaks highly of you.”
A wistful smile appeared on Sibelius’s face. “Ah yes, your aunties are quite the bunch. I honestly don’t know who was more tore up when Meglana and I didn’t work out: me or them.”
According to the sad, faraway look in his eyes, he knew the answer was him.
“Why did the two of you break up?” I wanted to get him talking, and the question had been bugging me since meeting my family.
“That has a long and complicated answer. The short version is that our work got in the way. We made a great team in the beginning. Together we discovered the secret to making talismans. I couldn’t have done it without her, but she also couldn’t have done it without me. Eventually the work wore on us and our relationship suffered. Toward the end, we lost touch. Her life was in danger. I wanted to help her, to keep her safe and work together, but that wasn’t her way. I’ve never stopped thinking of her, though, and of the greatness we could’ve achieved together, the greatness we did achieve.”
A genuine longing appeared in his eyes as he gazed past me into memories. He absentmindedly fiddled with an emerald earring that I assumed was his talisman. The moment passed, and he focused back on me.
“It was Meglana’s greatest wish that you continue her work, just like she continued her mother’s. The Council wants only to destroy it. They are so interested in maintaining peace that they’re beholden to the sorcerers. They’re no longer interested in protecting and helping the mages. To find proof of that, one only need look at how little they did to capture your grandparents’ killer.”
“Is it true what they’re saying? Was my mother part of the Directorate?” I caught the surprise in his eyes as I mentioned the Directorate.
“If there’s one thing you need to know about Meglana, it’s that her only allegiance was to knowledge. At times, the Directorate served that allegiance better.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Meglana was in pursuit of knowledge, no matter the costs or outcome. The Council didn’t like that because the sorcerers are threatened by mages learning more about magic. The more we know, the more powerful we become, and the more threatening we are. The Council wants peace even at the expense of our own growth. The Directorate is not restrained by such beliefs. Your mother didn’t have any ideological leanings toward the Directorate, but she believed they were right in wanting mages to expand our knowledge of magic. They encouraged her inquisitive pursuit.”
That seemed to be the most flattering thing anyone had said about my mother. Sibelius painted her as more of an agnostic scientist than a villain. Then again, he may be a villain. There was a body outside my mother’s house attesting to that.
Sibelius continued, “She would have wanted us to work together. As soon as I heard of her death, I knew I needed to seek you out.”
This was where the conversation got tricky. I needed to keep him talking without revealing too much information myself or creating a dangerous situation. “I think my mother intended me to find them on my own. Everything she left has been specifically for me.”
“So she was successful in creating more? I thought there was only the one.” Sibelius eyed the amber stone around my neck. It took all my self-control to not lift my hand to it to reassure myself of its presence. I wanted to kick myself for revealing so much.
Sibelius didn’t move to ask me a question, so I pressed onward. “What do you know about my father? All I know is that he was a sorcerer. Everyone seemed reluctant to talk about him.”
Sibelius’s eyebrows shot upward. “Oh, you don’t know where he is? That’s interesting.”
I couldn’t tell if he answered that way because he knew where my father was or if he was as clueless as I was. “Maybe my father will know something that can help us. Can you tell me where he is? Or how to get in touch with him? Who were his family?”
“No, he can’t help us. We need to find the other talismans. It’s incredibly important. If we can get them, not only will I be able to improve the process, but their power will open entire new realms to us. Kat, your mother meant for you to be great.” He reached across the table and grabbed my hand. I pulled back, not knowing what kind of magic he might be able to perform if he had physical contact with me. The last thing I needed was for him to somehow teleport me away. Even though that should be impossible for a mage, I didn’t want to take any chances.
I tried to backpedal. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. My mother didn’t leave me anything about any others. You know more about it than I do.”
“No, Meglana wouldn’t want them to get into the wrong hands, but she would’ve never ended her work there. Nothing would’ve hurt her more than to know that all of her study went to waste. This is generations in the making. You know it’s true. You’ve spoken to your aunts. They’ve told you what we meant to each other. They told you about your grandmother. Don’t let your mother’s death have been in vain.”
I took a sip of my coffee and placed the cup between us. “I didn’t even know her. I wasn’t raised as a mage.”
“Maybe not, but you are a mage. And that’s a powerful talisman you wear. Your mother made more like it. We have to find them. Do you know the destruction the wrong person could wreak with those? We’re talking about power unlike anything the Council has ever seen. You need to come with me. We’ll go to Elustria and do this together.”
“No. We can talk more another time, but I don’t have anything else to say to you right now.” I pushed my chair back, preparing to leave.
“At least let me examine your talisman.
It’s more perfect than I would’ve thought. I knew the process would work, that’s why I had to let your mother go, no matter how brokenhearted it left me. That stone is the reason I let her go. Just let me touch it.” He reached out his hand, and a feverish obsession consumed his eyes.
“No!” I closed my hand around the amber to protect it from him.
“Give it to me,” he snarled.
I took hold of Millhook’s leg. In an instant the café vanished. We landed on our butts in the middle of a busy street on the other side of Vienna. A horn honked, and wheels squealed beneath straining breaks.
Chapter 25
My heart pounded in my chest. Human instinct took over, and I couldn’t reach for my magic fast enough. Every part of my brain said to run, but my body wasn’t capable of rising fast enough to get away. I closed my eyes and braced for impact.
It never came. After a few seconds, I opened my eyes to see Millhook next to me on a crowded sidewalk.
“You don’t think I’d let you get hit by one of those things do you?”
My entire body shook from the adrenaline. There was no way to play it cool or be witty. “Thanks, Millhook.”
“Of course, that’s what I’m here for. A regular taxi service. Now come on, let’s meet up with the others.” He had taken us directly in front of the hotel we had agreed to meet at. Inside the lobby, Alex paced while Nicole tried to talk to him. It looked like she was trying to convince him to settle down. Alex raised his hand to rebuff her concerns, and that’s when he saw me.
He covered the floor faster than I thought possible, and my nerves finally relaxed. I was back with my friends, safe.
“What happened?” Alex peered at me with a fierce intensity as if he’d be able to discern the truth from my eyes.
“Nothing. Let’s go to the room and talk.”
Alex merely shifted his gaze to Millhook, demanding a more satisfactory answer.
“He got a little grabby, that’s all. Figured better safe than sorry. Isn’t that a human saying? Anyway, I got her out of there with plenty of time.”
If Millhook didn’t feel the need to mention the incident with the car, then neither did I.
“Come on,” Nicole said. “We need to get to the room. It’s more private up there.”
Alex nodded, and Nicole took my arm as we preceded the other two up the stairs to the third-floor room.
As soon as the door shut behind us, Alex got started in on his questioning again. “So what do you mean he got grabby? What happened?”
“He’s obsessed with finding the other talismans my mother made.” I conveniently left out that I had let that bit of information slip, but I already felt horrible about it, and I didn’t need Alex’s condemnation.
“Obsessed?” Millhook said. “He looked more possessed to me. His eyes went mad, and he tried to grab her necklace. I was worried he’d start trying to use force to get it from her, so I ported us out.”
“That’s it,” Alex said as he grabbed my satchel from where it sat on the bed. “This is a bad idea. We need to go back to Elustria and to the Council.”
“No, we’re staying here.” I hadn’t changed my mind.
“If he found you at the last hotel, he can find you here.”
“I don’t think he used magic to track us there,” I said. “I think he saw us when we spotted him in the cab. He won’t follow us here.”
We both looked to Millhook, who knew more about these matters than we did, for clarification.
“He won’t be able to figure out where we ported to. He’ll have to find us another way. I agree with Kat on this one, but I don’t care whether we stay or leave.”
I wondered if Millhook’s ass chafed from straddling the fence so much.
“Kat,” Nicole said, “you know I want you to stay here as long as possible because I’ve missed you, but if it’s not safe, you should go back to Elustria. You can come back later when it’s safer.”
She didn’t know it, but the sooner this was all over, the sooner Millhook would tamper with her memory so that none of this ever happened for her. She wanted what was best for me, and there was no way for her to know that as soon as I returned to Elustria, it would mark the end of our friendship. Maybe there was a way out of it, a way to keep her memory intact and keep this friendship alive. The only way I could see that happening was if I proved myself to the Council.
“My mother might’ve hid something else here for me. Why would she get a safe in Vienna? It’s good for privacy, but there might be more to it. Maybe she hid a talisman here as well. If so, it seems a lot safer for us to find it than for Sibelius.”
“You’re due to report to the Council tomorrow,” Alex reminded me.
“Exactly. If I go back now, to them I’ll be the girl who killed a guard and then fled. I have to have something definitive to give them, not just the ramblings of my mother.”
“The Council is not going to believe you killed the guard, especially if you go back willingly,” Alex said.
“My experience with the Council leads me to believe they don’t assume the best of anyone. All I’m asking for is one more night. If I don’t discover anything, we’ll report back to the Council and go from there.”
I wasn’t completely stupid. Missing the deadline with the Council would only dig my grave deeper, but I couldn’t give up on this so quickly. This might be my last chance to find out what my mother thought was worth giving her life for.
“Fine, but we’ll leave in time for you to meet the Council’s deadline.” The concession from Alex was quite a sacrifice on his part judging from the concern in his eyes and his grudging tone.
“I promise. I’m not stupid enough to cross them that much.”
“What can we do to help?” Nicole asked.
I took the satchel from Alex’s hand and spread everything out on the bed. “Can you read any of this? I’m guessing only mages can.”
“Yeah, it’s nothing but gibberish to me, sorry,” Nicole said.
“Don’t worry about it. I can still use your help. Just talking it through, we might make sense of it.”
“I can also help in other ways, like providing food. I’ll go grab us some now.”
I smiled my thanks to Nicole as she left the room. “All right, let’s get to work.”
I picked up the first sheet of paper and started reading aloud.
Chapter 26
“Millhook, do you have any idea what the source could be?” All throughout my mother’s notes she kept referencing “the source.” The source was drained of its magic. She drained magic from the source and placed it in the talisman.
“I have no idea. Mages have always needed something with magic in it, like wands. The trees the wands come from get their magic from Elustria itself. I don’t know where else someone would get magic from.”
“What about you, Alex?”
“Shifters know less about magic than the fae do. We shift, we shift back, and we can heal, not much to it. Mages are the only ones who concern themselves with this stuff.”
“Sibelius said he had helped my mother figure out how to make talismans. He probably knows what the source is.” As stupid as it was to want to see him again, I wished for another encounter so I could get more answers to my questions.
The notes also said some containers worked better than others for the magic. Apparently Sibelius had suggested amber, and according to the notes, that seemed to be the preferred substance. Perhaps that was the only contribution he had made to the project. Ancient stones worked best, but amber was particularly receptive to the magic. Diamond proved difficult to get the magic into, but worked well once it was achieved.
“It says here that efforts to preserve the source were universally unsuccessful. So I guess she was trying to take the magic from the source while also leaving the source intact? If that didn’t work, then magic must be a finite thing.”
“You’re getting into a lot of technical theory here. I mean, I can see it both ways. Elustria’s n
ever run out of magic, and it’s been around for millennia. But then it also seems that if you take the magic out of something, it would no longer have magic in it.” At least Millhook was trying to be helpful. Alex stuck to his contention that shifters didn’t know much about magic.
“Maybe she figured out a way to capture and bottle the magic that’s in Elustria,” Nicole said around a mouthful of croissant. She’d brought back a ton of food, but I’d barely touched any of it. I could eat later. “I mean, it makes sense if that’s the case that she assumed when she took the magic from the air or whatever that there would still be more there. But maybe that wasn’t the case. Maybe she’s talking about a river or something.”
“There was a stream running through her office back in Elustria. Perhaps she figured out how to extract the magic from it and put it into a talisman. Or maybe the magic came from the little fish that are swimming around in there. That’s a good thought, Nicole.” I wanted to make sure to show my appreciation for her contribution. She already felt badly that she couldn’t help more.
I picked up the paper again and continued reading. “It goes on to say that she worked on a potion to preserve the source so it would be more sustainable and therefore more likely for the Council to adopt it, but it didn’t work. There was only one method that proved successful.”
“What was it?” Nicole asked.
“It doesn’t say.” I flipped the page in my hand but there was nothing on the back. And there were no other notes connected to that one. “I’m beginning to think she really didn’t want anyone to know what she was doing.”
“This is a lot more than we had before, though. The Council will be happy with what you’ve found out,” Alex said. This was his way of nudging me toward deciding to go back to Elustria early. “We’ve been through everything, and it’s just a bunch of riddles. If you take this to the Council, they may be able to help you with it.”
Magic Unknown (The Elustria Chronicles: Magic Born Book 2) Page 14