Undone Deeds

by Del Franco, Mark

“I was hoping proximity to the faith stone would have some effect. It didn’t,” Gillen said.

  “What about the darkness? Last time I went near him, it made him worse,” I said.

  Gillen shifted stones around on the tray next to the bed. Essence dimmed on some, grew brighter on others. “The faith stone is dampening the effect. I didn’t see any change at all this time.”

  “Did you know the faith stone was in the Guildhouse?” I asked.

  He frowned. “Why would I? Do I look like a mason?”

  Briallen looked up at me. “I don’t think he told anyone about it. If he didn’t mention it to me, I doubt he told Nigel or Maeve.”

  I pursed my lips. “That sounds plausible. I’m sure Eagan had no personal agenda he didn’t wish to share.”

  Briallen glared at the sarcasm in my voice. “Yes, I’m sure one Guildmaster would have told another Guildmaster, unlike, say, a reckless student who oversteps himself.”

  “I’m not a student,” I said.

  “And I’m not listening to this,” Gillen said. “If you two need to argue about something, do it somewhere else.”

  Briallen and I stared at each other. The silence was broken by a knock on the door, and Tibbet entered. “He’s almost here,” she said.

  22

  Tibbet and I waited in the dark outside the greenhouse. The grounds lights had been dimmed or extinguished to reduce visibility in case anyone was watching. At the edge of the lawn, shadows darker than their surroundings moved with a glint of light reflecting off chrome helmets. Out of sight, brownie guards roamed the perimeter of the property. Two of them maintained their normal watch in front of the house and another two on the rear patio. Danann security agents patrolled the air, pale traces of essence marking their passage like subtle shooting stars.

  “Things seemed a little tense upstairs. Everything all right?” Tibbet asked.

  “Yeah. Well, no. Briallen and I are having a disagreement about information-sharing,” I said.

  She sighed and leaned against me. “Sometimes all the knowledge in the World can’t change a thing.”

  I slipped my hand in hers. “This is going to work, Tibs. I can feel it.”

  She shifted on her feet. “They’re here.”

  A buzzing sound tickled my ear, the whirr of fairy wings moving at speed. With a gust of wind, two Danann agents appeared above us, holding Shay between them, and lowered him to the ground.

  Shay wore black jeans, a long black leather coat, a thick black woolen hat with a rolled brim, and silver goggles. The strap of a messenger bag crossed his chest. With gloved hands, he lifted the goggles and settled them on his forehead. “That…. was…. awesome.”

  “I take it there was no trouble?” I asked.

  We walked across the lawn toward the house. “They wouldn’t take me over the Hancock Tower, though. That would have been cool.”

  Mildly confused, Tibbet glanced at me over Shay’s head. “Secrecy was the point of the trip. There is security all over that area of the city.”

  Shay eyeballed me. “She sounds like loads of fun.”

  I gave Tibbet an affectionate smile. “I can vouch for her, Shay.”

  We entered the house through the side entrance by the library. Shay could not hide his awe, his head swiveling from one side to the other as he took in the expensive furnishings and artwork. “I think you can fit my studio in that fireplace.”

  “Old money buys a lot, doesn’t it?” I said, as we climbed the back stairs.

  Shay stopped short when we entered the bedroom and he saw the frail body on the bed. He patted the messenger bag. “Except health.”

  Gillen waited at the bedside, his face intent as he monitored the wards. “It’s about time. We haven’t got all night.”

  Briallen held her hand out. “You must be Shay.”

  Shooting me looks of amazement, he took her hand. “Pleased to meet you, Lady Briallen.”

  I had traveled among the rich and powerful for so long, I didn’t think about it anymore. It was easy to forget that other people held them in awe. Once you got to know them, though, you realized they were no different than anyone else, luckier than most, their negative character traits exaggerated as much as their positive. Money let them be that way. It didn’t make them nicer people. It just made them rich. People like Eorla and Briallen were exceptions, but I knew that even they used their privileges to get what they wanted in ways the average person never could.

  Shay lifted the strap from his chest and placed the bag on the floor. Ripping open the Velcro, he retrieved the stone ward. In the subdued light, the bloodstone bowl shimmered, its green surface rich with the red spots that gave the stone its name. Without any release in the past weeks, a substantial charge had built up on it.

  “Put it on the nightstand, boy,” Gillen said.

  For once, Shay seemed nervous. He played tough down in the Weird, but in a mansion surrounded by powerful fey—truly powerful—he was out of his element. He did as asked, then stared down at Eagan. “He looks terrible.”

  Gillen scowled, then lifted his eyebrows. “Thanks, kid. Now get out of the way.”

  Shay stepped back as Gillen leaned over the bowl. He pulled his reading glasses farther down his nose, tilting his head up and down. His hand lit with essence as he caressed the air above the ward. “Does it require direct contact?”

  “I’ve seen it…. used it…. with both touch and proximity,” I said.

  “Chants? Commands?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “It’s ambient.”

  Stone wards worked like electrical components—inductors, capacitors, resistors, and the like. Most wards require some catalyst to work—an interaction with an essence field, a spell, or something as simple as sound. A few worked by what druids called ambience, becoming activated by its surroundings or something in its surroundings. The stone bowl worked with whatever essence was at hand, making it ambient.

  Whoever created it had been a master of stonework. Not only did the bowl store essence, it reproduced it in exponential amounts. It shouldn’t have been possible. Even with essence, energy was a closed system. It didn’t burst into existence out of nothing. The stone had to be tapping into an essence reserve somewhere on a level I didn’t understand, maybe even an aspect of the Wheel of the World. Before Convergence, the Ways opened onto many realms. I didn’t think anyone ever knew how many and what lay there.

  Gillen touched the edge of the bowl. Essence light flared, a spark of gold from his hand that swirled into the stone. He grunted and withdrew his hand. “Never seen the like. How do you use it if you can’t move it?” he asked.

  “I touched it, and the essence flowed into me. With Meryl, it seemed to jump into her on its own,” I said.

  Annoyed, Briallen crossed her arms. “Why didn’t you tell us that the bowl caused the mysterious essence burst you said revived her?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I didn’t feel like explaining the properties of a mysterious essence instrument to you,” I said.

  I couldn’t help the dig. I accepted that Briallen treated me like her student long after I had left her charge. I couldn’t help wanting to remind her I didn’t answer to her anymore and that sometimes she overstepped as much as I did. She didn’t tell me about the sword. I didn’t tell her about the bowl. It was quid pro quo even if I didn’t intend it to be. My words had the effect I intended. Upset, Briallen straightened her back but didn’t say anything.

  Gillen glanced at Shay. “What do you feel when you touch it?”

  “It feels kinda odd, warm and soft instead of hard and cold,” he said.

  “No burns or shocks, young lady?” Gillen asked.

  “No. I’m a guy, by the way,” Shay said.

  Gillen grunted. He cleared his throat and pushed at the bowl. It didn’t move. Since the bowl could be moved only by a virgin, that told me more about Gillen than I needed to know.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked him.

  He tilted his head up an
d down, still examining the bowl. “I’m gassy. I shouldn’t have had the broccoli with dinner. Come here and stick your hand in it.”

  Despite being made a fool of on other occasions when he told me to do things, I always did as Gillen asked. A prickling sensation ran up my arm, and the stone in my head beat a warm pulse. A veil lifted inside me, connections leaped together and burst with energy. My hand flared with essence, power shooting down into the bowl, and I felt that I could do anything with a simple thought. I had not felt that sensation for over three years. I stumbled back with a gasp and stared at Gillen.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “My abilities. It felt like my abilities came back,” I said. The sensation faded as quickly as it had risen, the stone in my head and the darkness resuming the tired dance that blocked my abilities.

  Gillen tapped the edge of the stone. “Handy little gizmo. Are you ready, Briallen?” She joined him by the bed and placed her hand on the bowl. “Begin,” Gillen said.

  Briallen’s body shield swirled around her, and the bowl reacted with a spark of clear white essence in the depression. With measured bursts, Briallen fired essence at the stone. It absorbed each infusion, glowing whiter and brighter. Static arcs jumped from one edge to the other, from inside the bowl to Briallen’s hand. She closed her eyes in concentration, pulling more essence into her and directing it out again.

  Gillen took Eagan’s hand with a gentleness that belied his usual nature, stretched the Guildmaster’s arm toward the bowl. As the skeletal hand neared the ward, essence sparked between them, and Eagan’s fingers twitched. Gillen lowered the hand onto the stone.

  White fog swirled around the hand. Dark spots formed on the skin, and the essence gathered over them, tiny funnels of light pouring into the spots. Briallen maintained her stream, adding more essence from her fingers with each pulse.

  A bolt of essence shot into the air, froze, then bent back over the bed. It splintered and plunged into Eagan’s body. Pain lanced through my head, like a fist hitting my brain. Eagan convulsed, his brittle wings unfurling with a sharp snap as he rolled onto his back. He arched when another surge hit, his mouth straining open in pain. Beside him, Briallen stood transfixed, her hand locked onto the bowl.

  More pressure built inside my head. I moved back, the essence pounding against my brain, the yearning of the darkness inescapable. It shifted inside my mind, the familiar burning sensation of its unquenchable thirst. The faith stone burned, too, cold and heat oscillating between it and the darkness, fighting for dominance. I closed my eyes against the infinite loop of pain.

  Essence coursed into Eagan, splintering and splintering again. Burning white lines fed into the pinholes of darkness that speckled his body signature. The essence overwhelmed the darkness, stitching together his body essence with flashes of light.

  With a last burst, the essence from the stone bowl faded. Spots danced in front of my eyes. I fell back against the door. Briallen swayed as Gillen helped her to the armchair. She slumped on the seat, worn and exhausted, her own body signature a smoldering ember of its normal brilliance.

  Tibbet came to my side and lifted my head by the chin. “Are you okay?”

  I took her hand and stood. “Yeah. Stunned a little.”

  Eagan lay on his back, his wings spread across the sheets. They rippled with the air currents, essence dancing among the veining. The flesh on his face had filled out. He didn’t look well, but he didn’t look dead anymore. I scanned him with my sensing ability. “He’s regenerating on his own,” I said.

  Gillen touched the wards on the nightstand. “I’m not sensing any of the darkness.”

  “Me either,” I said.

  Gillen turned with a pensive look. “I don’t know how that thing works, but if he’s cured, there’s hope for you yet.”

  Excitement surged through me. To be free of the darkness was unfathomable, to be whole again, to be cured. “Gillen, can we….”

  He held up his hand. “One step at a time, Grey. Eagan didn’t have nearly the amount of darkness in him as you do, and it’s drained Briallen to her core.”

  “I’m fine,” she said.

  “Spent is what you are,” he said. “You need to sleep. We all do. Tibbet, please call the car. I’m taking Briallen home. I’ll be back by daylight.”

  23

  Rest, Gillen had suggested. As if the idea that Manus ap Eagan might be healed or that I might have a chance at getting rid of the darkness were rest-inducing. I tossed and turned in a bedroom on the second floor, the deep silence in the house not helping me to relax. The Tangle was full of noise that became a soothing backdrop to fall asleep to. Eagan’s house was out in the suburbs and removed enough from the main road that a police siren was a faint echo.

  Intruders.

  I was out of bed with my daggers in hand before Tibbet’s sending faded from my mind. In silence, I moved behind the door, keeping out of the moonlight. I didn’t have the ability to respond to Tibbet and didn’t know where the intruders were. I crept along the wall, keeping my eye on the door as I approached the window. Nothing moved on the lawn outside. At the foot of the front steps, a brownie guard lay on the ground, unmoving.

  Third floor clear. Meet me in the back stairwell.

  Without hesitation, I entered the corridor. Toward the main staircase, a dim light flickered from the grand hall. It was too far off and opposite Tibbet’s direction. Tibbet knew her territory, and if she told me to jump off a bridge, I would. I went the other way, slipping into the next door to retrieve Shay.

  Shay’s bedroom was black as pitch. I closed my eyes to focus with my sensing ability. Faint purple wisps showed where Shay had crossed the room to the dresser, the open windows, and the bed. A thicker buildup on the bed indicated he had been asleep. I checked on the opposite side and under the bed, but the floor was empty. He wasn’t in the room.

  At the open window, essence splayed along the floor and over the sill. Two flights below, Shay’s hat sat on the lawn. I peered into the darkness, trying to figure which way he had run.

  “Dammit, Shay, you could have killed yourself,” I said under my breath. I quick-stepped back to the door and listened for sound in the hall.

  “I’m here, Connor,” Shay whispered.

  I spun on my heel, daggers wide and low. Shay, fully dressed, stood by the windows. “Where the hell did you come from?”

  He crossed the room on silent feet, avoiding light from outside. “Behind the curtain.”

  “I thought you’d jumped,” I said.

  In the dim light, his faint body essence illuminated his face. “The fey always assume that because humans can’t manipulate essence, we can’t use it. It’s an old trick in the Weird to hide in your own shadow. You looked where I made you look.”

  “Well, it worked. Nice move,” I said.

  He grinned. “Thank you.”

  “Why did you hide?”

  “I heard essence-fire. It was faint, but when you live around it and have no defense against it, you kinda get sensitive hearing. What’s going on? The guards are gone.”

  “Security breach. We have to meet Tibbet. Stay behind me and do exactly as I say,” I said.

  I opened the door. The light from the grand hall seemed brighter, and I heard muffled voices. We slipped out and hustled in the opposite direction to the back stairwell. Someone moved on the landing below us, then Tibbet’s essence tickled at my senses. We descended to the first floor.

  Tibbet didn’t look at us when we turned the corner. She leaned against the wall, trying to see something out the window. She had a headset on. Her face was not something you want to see in a brownie. Her cheekbones and eye ridges had become more prominent. The hand that rested on the windowsill had elongated fingers tipped with nascent claws. She was not far from going boggie.

  “What’s the status?” I asked.

  She held up a hand as the headset whispered. “Aerial support is gone. Front gate and lawn perimeter down.”

  “Wh
at about Eagan?” I asked.

  “His bedroom is sealed. Not even Maeve can get in there. The front of the house is breached. Let’s move.” She led us back up the second-floor corridor. A brownie in a house uniform waited outside Eagan’s bedroom. She wasn’t regular security, but her calm manner despite the boggart signs of long claws and teeth told me that Tibbet hired multiskilled cleaning staff. At the far end, a brownie in full boggart mode guarded access from the staircase.

  Inside Eagan’s bedroom, Tibbet hurried to the window. “We’ve been co-opted, but the silent alarms triggered.”

  “What the hell is going on?”

  She did look at me then. “I don’t know. Sendings are being jammed. They’re either after that stone ward or you. Those are the two main variables here.”

  “Gee, thanks,” said Shay.

  Tibbet glanced at him. “Since you’re the only one who can carry the ward, I wouldn’t be too disappointed.”

  “Pack the bowl, Shay. We’re getting out of here,” I said.

  Tibbet moved to the opposite window. “That might not be possible. The Danann security agents have vanished. They were on a regular rotation through the Guildhouse. The house guards are our staff. Except for the two outside, they’re either nonresponsive or dead. It will be at least fifteen minutes before major backup support responds to the failed system. Get Shay to the greenhouse. I can cover you from here.”

  Shay adjusted the straps on his messenger bag. “Are you kidding? That place looks like I can kick it over.”

  “Glass and iron. It’ll screw up whatever’s coming down,” Tibbet said.

  “We’re not leaving you alone,” I said.

  Shadows accentuated the changes in her face. She was not the concerned brownie anymore but the cold boggart. “This is major opposition, Connor. We need to separate the potential targets. I can hold the house for a while. There’s a bunker under the greenhouse. The door is under the rug.”

  “You have a greenhouse with a bunker?” Shay said.

  Tibbet smiled. “And a tunnel and a few booby traps. There’s a car at the end of it.”