Chi Wen raised the box to eye level and spoke directly to it. “To the treasure keeper.”
The box disappeared, leaving me with the taste of lemon … Blossom’s brownie magic.
The far seer turned and walked away. “Come. Come, dragon slayer.”
I stood unsteadily, then followed him out through the arch that led to the dragon residences.
∞
The far seer escorted me to an austere room that held a single bed, a paper-strewn desk, and a wooden stool. It was a room fit for a monk … or the eldest of the guardian dragons.
Though the desk was overly full, the room was tidy. The bed was made with a precision that spoke of ingrained ritual.
Every single inch of the walls was covered with Rochelle’s charcoal sketches. Every inch.
I stepped forward — completely involuntarily, because I wanted nothing to do with Rochelle’s visions. But they looked different somehow.
“Photocopies?” I asked.
“Ah, yes. Photocopies,” Chi Wen said. “That is the word. I had no need of originals, and the collectors would not have parted with them easily.”
“Blackwell,” I spat. I found a sudden anger — sparked by the thought of the sorcerer — burning deep within my fear.
Chi Wen tilted his head questioningly.
I lifted my hand and pointed to a sketch that clearly showed Blackwell with the edge of his castle in the background. He was touching the amulet he always wore around his neck. A power source. One of many, I assumed.
Chi Wen waved his hand dismissively. “The figure in black is of no immediate consequence. It is you I see, Jade Godfrey. In here …” — he tapped the side of his head — “… and here.” He swept his arm to include all the sketches.
Except for the solo image of Blackwell, which was attached to the wall at the lower left of the desk, every single one of the sketches included me … or some aspect of the last year and a half of my life.
I turned my back on the room, only to see sketches also attached above the door. I couldn’t bear to look at the far seer either, so I twined my fingers through the wedding rings of my necklace and stared at my hands instead.
“This has all come to pass,” I said.
“To study the past is to understand the future, dragon slayer,” Chi Wen said.
“You keep calling me that. Dragon slayer.” The words rushed out of my mouth without thought or edit. “And Pulou has me collecting … instruments … and you said … you said. The centipedes.”
Chi Wen reached for me and I knelt before him again. I wasn’t strong enough to stand in the face of the truth I was sure he was about to show me.
He laid his hand on my head. A gesture intended to be purely comforting. He didn’t show me a vision, nor did he offer me enlightenment.
“That … this …” — I flung my hands out to the sides as I lifted my bowed head to look up at the far seer — “… please. It’s too much.” All the tears I’d tried not to shed since Peru now fell freely across my cheeks. “Please. This can’t be my destiny. And yet …”
“And yet,” Chi Wen murmured.
“And yet, you call me dragon slayer.”
I was shaking now, terror and fear riding my adrenaline rush. The energy was forcing itself out through my limbs because I wasn’t strong enough to hold the emotions within any longer. Give me something to fight, and I’d find my courage — along with a heavy dose of sarcasm. Give me something to conquer, and I’d find my way in, over, or through. But this … the future I could feel unfurling before me — the future I’d almost embraced in the cavern, and then again in the alley when I tore the shadow leech apart …
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bear it.
“The path might be set, but how you choose to walk it is your decision, Jade Godfrey.” The far seer lifted his hand from my head. “I will see you soon.”
He turned and walked out of the small bedroom, leaving me surrounded by Rochelle’s prophetic sketches. Pictures pasted on every wall. Snapshots of the darkest moments I’d ever suffered.
I looked.
I couldn’t move or fight any longer. So I knelt there and I looked.
I studied each stroke, every smudge and line.
The tears dried on my face. My knees started to ache.
I didn’t know what I was looking for until I saw it. It wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t one specific image. It wasn’t a clue. It wasn’t enlightenment. It wasn’t good versus evil.
It was endurance.
I had endured.
I endured.
I will endure.
I got up and walked back through the nexus without seeing another soul. I crossed through the portal, back to the bakery. I climbed the stairs to my apartment, then climbed back into bed with Warner.
I would walk the path as I chose to walk it, with not another inch of it dictated by friend or foe.
For Michael
I’d cross through the darkest of shadows just to be by your side.
Acknowledgements
With thanks to:
My story & line editor
Scott Fitzgerald Gray
My proofreader
Pauline Nolet
My beta readers
Leiah Cooper, Terry Daigle, Liz Dutcher, Angela Flannery, Gael Fleming, Desi Hartzel, and Heather Lewis.
For their continual encouragement, feedback, & general advice
Suzie O’Connell - for sharing her pictures of San Francisco
Joanne Schwartz - fruit selection
Heather Faville - for letting Cicely borrow her gun
Heather Doidge-Sidhu - for double-checking (again)
The Retreat
For her Art
Elizabeth Mackey
Meghan Ciana Doidge is an award-winning writer based out of Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada. She has a penchant for bloody love stories, superheroes, and the supernatural. She also has a thing for chocolate, potatoes, and sock yarn.
Novels
After The Virus
Spirit Binder
Time Walker
Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1)
Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser 2)
Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (Dowser 3)
I See Me (Oracle 1)
Shadow, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic (Dowser 4)
Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser 5)
Novellas/Shorts
Love Lies Bleeding
The Graveyard Kiss
For recipes, giveaways, news, and glimpses of upcoming stories, please connect with Meghan on her:
NEW RELEASE MAILING LIST
Personal blog, www.madebymeghan.ca
Twitter, @mcdoidge
And/or Facebook, Meghan Ciana Doidge
Email, [email protected]
Please also consider leaving an honest review at your point of sale outlet.
Dowser Series — Book Six
EXPECTED FEBRUARY 2016
Oracle Series — Book Two
EXPECTED NOVEMBER 2015
Join the author’s NEW RELEASE MAILING LIST to be the first to know.
MAPS, ARTIFACTS, AND OTHER ARCANE MAGIC (DOWSER 5)
Copyright © 2015 Meghan Ciana Doidge
Published by Old Man in the CrossWalk Productions 2015
Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada
www.oldmaninthecrosswalk.com
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be produced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, objects, and incidents herein are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual things, events, locales, or persons living or dead is entirely coinci
dental.
Library and Archives Canada
Doidge, Meghan Ciana, 1973 —
Maps, Artifacts and Other Arcane Magic/Meghan Ciana Doidge — KINDLE EDITION
Cover design by Elizabeth Mackey
ISBN 978-1-927850-25-1
Maps, Artifacts, and Other Arcane Magic (Dowser Series Book 5) Page 24