He nodded. ‘Most likely from before you were born. I’m not entirely sure how the mechanism works. There is magic to it, but also an element of racial memory.’
‘And it stands to reason that that kind of memory would have to come from prior to conception.’ Ceri looked at him. ‘If that’s right, my bloodline stems from the time of Atlantis, not before.’
‘I’m quite sure it does, yes. It was not uncommon for them both to take human lovers in those times. Even I indulged on occasion.’
Ceri raised an eyebrow. ‘So there might be a few little Athros running about?’
His cheeks coloured, which always amused her, but she kept the grin off her face. ‘It’s not impossible that sorcerers of my line might emerge eventually,’ he conceded.
Nodding, Ceri turned her attention back to the ball of energy. She turned her right hand slightly and it reformed into the shape of a dragon almost instantly.
‘Your control is exceeding my expectations,’ Ed commented. ‘How long do you think you can hold it there?’
‘No idea. Quite a while, I think.’
‘Let’s find out, shall we?’
~~~
It was mid-afternoon when Ceri opened the door to find Nita standing on the step looking restless and a little excited. ‘I hope I’m not disturbing you,’ she said as Ceri favoured her with a smile. She had come dressed in “office chic.” Her black skirt was past the knee, but split over the right leg almost to the hip. Her blouse was sheer enough to be almost indecent, but she had a jacket over it.
‘Not really. I was just reading. Academic papers, nothing exciting. Want to come in?’
‘Please. I’ve got some news for you, about your staff, and… um…’
Ceri stepped back to let her in and said, ‘What?’ as she walked past.
‘I can’t get Saturday night out of my head,’ Nita added sheepishly.
‘Lily can have that effect.’ Ceri closed the doors and started across the hall.
‘Yeah, I bet, but… well, it wasn’t just her.’ She paused. ‘My grandmother used to tell me that some people, their power, is an aphrodisiac. I never believed her until… I, um, met you.’
‘Lily says the same thing. Power is hot. Supernaturals can tell. You’re an evoker, right?’
Nita paused in the doorway of the study. ‘How did you know?’
Ceri waved across to where Lily was lounging on the chaise. ‘Demons can sense magic, I have a very precise form of the Sight. You keep tight control on the taint you get from working spirits, but it’s there.’
‘That’s a… remarkable ability.’
Smiling, Ceri continued on to the fireplace to get her staff down. ‘It’s useful,’ she said. ‘I’ve never met an evoker before.’
‘I don’t practice much these days,’ Nita said, crossing the room. Lily smiled at her and shifted her legs off the lounger, patting the seat beside her. ‘Hi, Lily.’
‘Welcome back, Nita. Business or pleasure.’
Nita reached up and took the staff as Ceri offered it to her. ‘A little of both. This thing is…’ Her fingers traced over the enamel again. ‘It’s called Makelo’s Staff. If the legends are to be believed, it dates back to, oh, the Bronze Age. In Greece. Makelo was a Telchine. They were like this amazing group or race of sorcerers, or scientists, or something, who were eventually wiped out by the gods.’
Ceri sat down in the desk chair, crossing her legs, and nodded. ‘I’ve heard of them.’
‘Well, the known history of the staff goes back a fair way,’ Nita said, ‘though it gets fuzzy in places. It first appears in some auction notes from eighteen-twenty. It was being sold by an explorer who claimed to have found it on a dig in Algeria. There were some old documents with it suggesting it had been around since ancient times, but they were considered fictitious. Probably some mythical account.’
‘Did this explorer give an indication of exactly where it was found?’ Ceri asked.
Nita shook her head. ‘They could be really tight-lipped. If they thought there was more to be found they would keep it secret. We’re basically talking about treasure hunters and tomb robbers here.’ Ceri nodded. ‘Anyway, the staff passed through the hands of a couple of collectors. Antiquarians mostly. It started getting a bit of a reputation. One of the owners died mysteriously, another fell into huge financial difficulty which went away after he sold the staff, another had all his sons killed in the First World War, all five of them. The staff was sold off to a French collector and it stayed there until nineteen-thirty-seven.’
Ceri got a sudden sinking feeling and Nita’s next statement did not make it go away. ‘Then it got stolen. Rumour has it that the Thule Society got their hands on it, but no one definitely knows. The next time it’s heard of is after the Shattering when it comes up for auction at Sotheby’s. According to the records a Nazi general had smuggled it out of Hitler’s collection along with various looted paintings. The general had tried to buy his way into Britain with it, possibly had. Either way, there was no way of tracing where it had come from, but it was identified from the older records. It was picked up by several wizards who thought it might be an artefact of some sort. The last of those was… Carter Fleming.’
‘That’s who gave it to me,’ Ceri said.
‘Helluva present,’ Nita said. ‘He paid half a million for it ten years ago.’
Ceri blinked at her. ‘He didn’t mention that.’
‘It’s not exactly the kind of thing you do with a present,’ Lily pointed out. ‘Like leaving the price label on.’
‘True,’ Ceri conceded. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any record of mystic powers, or why the Thules might have wanted it?’
Nita shook her head. ‘Nothing real. The original documents it was found with were almost gone. There are no copies left, just a few notes from people who examined them. Those suggested the name and there’s some reference to a “key to power.” That’s why wizards have been so keen to own it. You haven’t noticed anything?’
Ceri shrugged. She was not going to tell Nita what it actually did. ‘It glows sometimes,’ she said.
‘That’s new,’ Nita replied. ‘I haven’t found anyone claiming it was ever active in any way before now.’ She held out the staff and Ceri stood up to take it from her. ‘What are you guys doing tonight?’
‘Working,’ Lily said. ‘Ceri’s at the Dragon Friday and Saturday, I do Wednesday and Thursday too.’
Nita smiled. ‘Maybe I’ll come down tonight then.’
Lily glanced at Ceri and then reached out to slip Nita’s jacket from her shoulders. ‘Why wait? I could do with a snack.’
Soho, February 11th
Nita’s giggle was infectious. She had had several glasses of wine and was a little pink around the cheeks and throat, and very giggly. ‘No big, hard werewolf tonight?’ she asked as they made their way toward the tube station.
‘Not tonight,’ Ceri said. ‘We save that for when we can get up really late.’ Nita pouted.
‘I’m quite sure we can make up for it,’ Lily said. ‘The dungeon’s well stocked.’
‘You’ve got a… dungeon?’
‘You’ll look gorgeous stretched out on the cross,’ Lily said.
‘I’ve never…’ She giggled, nervously this time. ‘It sounds wild.’
‘First time for everything,’ Ceri said.
They rushed a little to catch a train which was arriving at the platform as they walked down the stairs and fell, giggling, onto a bank of four seats. The cabin was empty apart from the three women and Lily moved as soon as the train pulled away. Turning in her seat, she pulled Nita into a kiss, her tongue probing between the other woman’s lips while her hands slid under the loose tank top Nita was wearing. Ceri crossed her legs and watched as her lover worked the CIA agent into more and more of an aroused state.
Lily broke the kiss as the train pulled into Charing Cross. ‘Someone could see us,’ Nita breathed, her voice excited. Lily glanced at Ceri who had been watching the pla
tform; there was no one there and Ceri gave a slight shake of the head. Lily’s hands slid under Nita’s top, pulling it upward and she wrapped her lips around the dark areola of one nipple. Nita let out a low groan.
‘Anyone could,’ Ceri said. ‘That’s the point of it. I’ve had her eat me down here before. Shall we get her to do that to you?’
‘Oh God!’ Nita moaned, looking like she would come from having her nipple sucked.
‘I think that’s a yes, love.’ Ceri glanced up as they started into Embankment. ‘But not right now.’ Two men were standing on the platform.
Lily lifted her head, but did not pull Nita’s top back down. The sound of the doors opening and male voices speaking brought Nita upright with a gasp. She struggled to pull her top down, her cheeks glowing red. Ceri grinned at her as the two men walked down the carriage past them. Maybe they would get off at Waterloo and then Lily could continue. After that there was the long stretch under the Thames and Lily could…
The soft thud was barely audible, but the stinging pain Ceri felt in her thigh was far more noticeable. She looked down and saw a dart sticking out of her leg. Lily and Nita let out yelps and Ceri looked up. There was a dart in Lily’s leg, and one in Nita’s stomach. Except that they were blurry and… Drug… The men… Ceri turned, trying to gather enough energy to fight back. She felt herself falling as she lost balance and fell off her seat.
‘Ceri!’ Lily’s voiced sounded weak and very far away. And then there was nothing.
Part Three: The Pit
The world felt different. Lying there with her eyes closed because she was not sure she wanted to know what she would see when she opened them, Ceri could not figure out what the difference was, but she knew it was there. The last time she had woken up after some form of violence she had been naked and hogtied in manacles which stopped her working magic. Well, she was not naked, she could feel some form of garment, and she was not tied up at all, but it felt somehow like the manacles had felt. Not quite the same though. She opened her eyes.
The room was grey. The walls and ceiling were seamless concrete, marred only by two lights in solid looking metal baskets mounted overhead. She lifted her head and immediately saw the bright, orange jumpsuit she was dressed in, followed by the window in the far wall. It looked like wired glass, the kind used to block thaumic energy, though behind it was a metal shutter. There was a table with four chairs, which looked like it was made of pressed steel and bolted to the floor. There were cameras in metal cages mounted in the corners of the room as well.
Sitting up, she swung her legs off the bed and found herself looking at the other two occupants of the room. Lily was not going to appreciate the orange jumpsuit any more than Ceri did, but the surprising thing was that Nita was lying on the third bed, against the opposite wall.
Lily opened her eyes as soon as Ceri touched her shoulder. ‘What happened? Where are we?’
‘I’m sure you’re guess is as good as mine, but we aren’t alone.’ Ceri nodded toward Nita. ‘I’d imagine someone’s on the other end of those cameras too.’
‘This place feels weird.’
‘I’d noticed that…’
Lily’s eyes widened. ‘Turn your Sight on.’
At first Ceri could not figure out why Lily had asked her to do it. She looked around seeing Lily’s medians and the energy core settled between them. There was also the vaporous field Lily emitted allowing her to sense desires. Nita was alive, her medians still glowed and the faint corruption web was still there. The rest of the room was… ‘Holy shit!’ Ceri snapped. Even when no one was working magic in a room, and there were no enchantments about, there was always some sort of magical field evident. Ceri barely noticed it usually, it was a background swirl, a shimmer of thaumitons arcing through free space. When it was not there, though, it was noticeable.
‘No magic,’ Lily said. ‘I can sense you and Nita, but nothing else. Nothing at all.’
‘A null magic zone,’ Ceri said. ‘I’ve heard they can exist, but I don’t think there’s one anywhere in Britain.’
‘Kind of makes sense. They couldn’t extradite you one way…’
Saying it just made the sinking feeling in Ceri’s stomach worse. ‘But why you, and why her?’
As if on cue Nita let out a groan and rolled onto her side. Her dark eyes opened and she frowned. ‘Why are you wearing prison jumpsuits?’
Lily plucked at the rough cotton garment. ‘That’s what this is?’ She pulled the zip down to below the level of her breasts, but still looked unimpressed.
‘You look gorgeous, love,’ Ceri said, smirking despite the situation.
‘Well, you keep telling me I’d look great in a potato sack. This is pretty close.’
‘Seriously,’ Nita said, ‘where are we?’
‘No idea,’ Ceri replied. ‘It’s a cell of some sort, and a null magic zone.’
‘A what?’
Ceri sat down on Lily’s bed. ‘I’ve only ever read about them in theory papers. The latest theory is that it’s an area of space-time where the Super-magic field has… well, had a hole blown in it. There’s no natural decay of Null Thaumitons, so no natural magic field, at all. Since there’s no thaumic energy around, practitioners can’t work magic. Shape shifters, werewolves and the like, would be unable to change for the same reason. They’d be stuck in whatever shape they entered the area in. The larger fae and dragons will sicken and die here.’
‘Demons?’ Nita asked, looking at Lily.
‘Demons, undead, they catalyse T-Null decay within their bodies. Besides,’ Ceri patted Lily’s shoulder, ‘she’s only half-demon. Half-fae could survive here too, though they probably wouldn’t feel too good. Fae concentrate thaumitons in the environment rather than creating them and they can’t exist outside a natural magic field.’
‘So I can’t work spells,’ Nita said.
Ceri nodded. ‘Enchantments usually stop working. It’s possible to cast spells, theoretically, but you can’t generate the power.’ She lifted her right leg and pulled up her trouser cuff. ‘Nice of them to leave us the chains,’ she said as the silver ankle chain was revealed. Reaching down, she undid the clasp and got a gasp from Lily. She closed it again.
‘What does that mean?’ Nita asked.
‘They’re fae magic,’ Lily said. ‘We both have one and we shouldn’t be able to take them off while we’re still in love.’
‘Probably why they left them,’ Ceri said. ‘The enchantments would detect as benign, they would be difficult to remove outside of here and not worth doing after we got here.’
‘Huh,’ Nita said. ‘Great. Have you tried the doors yet?’
There were two of them in the side walls near the window. Ceri looked between them. The one on the left looked like it was solid silver-iron; massive overkill in a null zone, but she had not built the place. The other door looked like any old office door, cheap and painted black. ‘No,’ she said as she stood and headed for the wooden door, ‘we just woke up.’
The door opened easily revealing another room, small and concrete with a single light on the ceiling. One corner was an open shower, a large rose mounted in the ceiling, two taps in the wall, and a drain in the floor. There was also a toilet made of stainless steel, and a similar sink. ‘Bathroom,’ Ceri said, ‘and we don’t even get to take a crap without being watched. There are cameras in here too.’
‘I guess sex is out then.’ Nita commented, trying to sound humorous and failing.
‘Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve done it in front of cameras,’ Lily replied. ‘Professionally in my case.’
Ceri closed the door and grunted a laugh. ‘I’m only semi-professional. There’s no way out of here and no way to work out why we’re here, or even where we are until that shield opens up and they talk to us.’
‘You’ve got no idea?’ Nita asked, sounding incredulous.
‘Ideas, yes,’ Ceri said. ‘Your fellow Americans wanted to extradite me on some rather dubious suggestion that I tri
ed to assassinate your president. That doesn’t explain why you and Lily are here.’
‘It’s a pretty substantial building,’ Lily said. ‘Someone went to a lot of trouble and resource to build it. It looks governmental. I’m betting it’s the Americans.’
‘Well you and Lily are close. What am I doing here?’
Ceri shrugged. ‘You were there when we were grabbed?’
‘Great,’ Nita said.
Ceri glanced at Lily. It did not take much to guess why Nita was there; she was the “girl on the inside.” Ceri’s gaze turned back to the window. They were not going to find out what was really going on until that shield opened. Letting them sit and stew seemed like excellent tactics at this point; it was going to be a long wait.
~~~
It was not the shield which opened. With the resounding clang of large, lever bolts being drawn back, the iron door opened and two men in full combat gear bolted in. They were holding sub-machine guns and these were immediately aimed at the three women. Their uniforms had no insignia on them and they said nothing.
Behind them, a third man wheeled a trolley in through the door and began putting out plates of food and bottles of water on the table. He, likewise, was wearing unmarked clothes and said nothing, but Nita was apparently feeling remonstrative.
‘What the Hell is going on?!’ She bolted to her feet and was immediately covered by one of the guards. ‘Who are you people? Let me out…’
Lily grabbed her arm and yanked her back onto the bed. ‘Do you want to get shot?’
‘They wouldn’t…’
‘You think? Cos I think they’re looking for an excuse.’
Ceri waited for the men to back out, and the door to slam shut and lock, before she got up and headed for the table. The food seemed American; some form of shortbread-like biscuits and a fairly thick stew. She picked up one of the bottles and unscrewed the cap. ‘It’s probably better to get it while it’s hot,’ she suggested.
‘Do you think we should?’ Nita asked nervously. ‘What if it’s drugged or poisoned?’
‘If they wanted to poison us, they’d just shoot us,’ Ceri said. ‘I think they’d just get several of those guards to hold us down while they stuck needles in us for drugs. Given that I’ve tried starving in a dungeon before, I’m going to risk it.’
Thaumatology 07 - Eagle's Shadow Page 11