by Matt Ryan
“Do you, Mark?” Jackie said as she stopped pacing.
“Yes, I do. But pardon me if I keep it to myself for now,” he said.
“I don’t care where it is. We just need to get the Mini’s, Leo, and heck, even Jin can come along.”
“I suppose.” Jin considered the offer. “It’s not like I have a family to return to anymore.”
Jackie stared at me and smiled. “You know, I still can’t believe you are back with us. But I’m so happy you missed these last four years.”
“Has it been that bad?” I asked.
“Not for everyone. But for us, it was a game of cat and mouse. At any second, we thought we’d disappear; to be sucked up by Cathy, and have our souls consumed.”
I took a deep breath. I couldn’t imagine my mother that way, but I knew the stone wanted more. Much more. It wanted to be at the next level, but it needed to feed on too much to ever bring it to where it needed to be.
“She looked different,” I said. “Even from when she was in the hospital. She looks . . .” I really didn’t want to say it. “Magical. There was this glow around her, and gravity didn’t seem to apply to her. Her hair moved around like she was in water.”
“Oh yeah, she can fly,” Jackie said. “I think she can teleport at will, without the use of stones, and she can read minds, from what I understand.”
“How can we beat her?” Mark asked.
“In the end, all we need is for Allie to get close enough to put the breaker stone right on the philosopher’s stone in her chest. Plus, we have the Lotus stone blocking many of her abilities.”
I nodded, not wanting to share with them my other idea about getting the stone out of her first.
“Hey, honey, why don’t you come back to bed,” Jin said patting the spot next to him.
“Oh please,” Jackie said, but smiled. It seemed like the first genuine smile since leaving Leo.
We both went back to our beds and I snuggled up against Mark.
“Don’t go around saying we slept together, Jin,” Jackie said as she slid into bed next to him.
“No, really, I can sleep on the floor if you want.”
“Having you sleep on the floor would be cruel and unusual punishment,” she said. “You can stay in the same bed with me.”
“Jackie?” I asked. “Have you seen anyone since Leo?”
“Yeah, there was one,” she said and rolled on her side, facing away from me.
While Jackie calmed down, I still had trouble doing the same for myself. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Cathy’s face. It wasn’t like the terrifying face I saw in my dream. This face was horrid because it held love and longing. As if she truly wanted me back. And I guess it made sense; I was her daughter. I wondered if she knew I was trying to stop her.
“Goodnight,” Jin said.
“You better not snore,” Jackie said.
“I don’t snore, but I do wet the bed so watch out.”
“If you so much as—”
“I’m kidding, jeesh.”
I’m floating along in a blackness, when I see a pinhole of light; much like a lone star in the night sky. I move forward and it grows in size, until it looks like a small picture. As I approach it, I see tall, golden grass flowing in the wind.
By the time I get to it, I realize it isn’t a picture, but a window into the world below. It doesn’t look like any place I’ve ever been.
The scene moves along as if I am flying maybe thirty feet in the sky, like a bird. Soon, it comes across a group of people sitting around a fire. A man is bringing wood to it, while another is cutting up some sort of meat on a wooden board.
I spot the satchels on all their hips, and the gloved hands give them away for alchemists. They are talking, but I can’t hear any of the words spoken. I can’t hear anything, for that matter. It’s almost like I’m in a vacuum.
I think about leaning my head into the window to see if I can make out the sounds, but something tells me it’s a bad idea.
A flash of light comes from near their encampment, and they jump up, reaching for their stones. Another flash hits the camp and they fly back, freezing in midair—like someone has pressed pause on the action below.
That’s when I see my mother walking toward them. She grabs a woman and pulls back her hood.
I gasp. “Sarah.” Mark’s mom.
Sarah stays in the air, frozen. At that point, I don’t care. Even though every instinct tells me to stay out, I have to hear what’s being said.
I duck down and push my head through the window. The sounds of the world come to life, but not as expected. It’s a dull hum; something I’ve heard once before when my mom was around.
Cathy rubs her hand over Sarah’s face and she comes to life, falling to the ground. Confused, Ms. Duval looks around, then scrambles to put distance between her and the queen.
“Sarah, please get up,” Cathy says.
“You’re here?”
“Sorry for dropping in, but I wanted to talk.”
“Why don’t you just take it directly from my mind?” Sarah says as she gets up. I see her checking her stone pouch.
“I have good news,” Cathy continues.
“What, did you manage to suck the souls of all the alchemists in this world and now we are the last ones?”
Cathy laughs. “Plenty of alchemists left for me. No, I found them. They were in Cairo.”
“Egypt?” Sarah looks around as she covers her mouth. “Where are they now? Please, I will do anything to get Mark back.”
“I don’t know, they used a portal stone and I couldn’t follow. I was hoping you could tell me where they went. You haven’t had any contact from Mark or the Mini’s?” Cathy asks.
Some of the wonder drops from her face. “No, I haven’t heard from him. How long have they been back?”
“I think a couple of days.”
Sarah gazes at the ground.
“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Cathy says. “Our children don’t even want to be near us. In fact, they might even be plotting against us.”
“Mark would never.” Sarah shakes her head.
“Really? Hasn’t he already gone behind your back numerous times?”
“Those were for Allie. She has a power over people. Guess it runs in the family.”
“I guess it does,” Cathy says, then motions to the people still suspended in the air around the camp. “What are you doing out here?”
“What I’ve done for the last four years, trying to find Mark.”
“Well, now it appears your quest can have some real direction. I want you to find Mark, and the second you do, I want you to use this stone on yourself. It will tell me exactly where you are and I can arrive to claim Allie. I promise you can have Mark, no strings attached.” She hands Sarah the stone.
“He’ll never agree to be separated from Allie. He loves her.”
“Love is fleeting. Have you never found love beyond that brief time with Greg?”
Sarah grabs at the sides of her head. “Get out of my head.”
“So sad. Sorry for the intrusion, but I like to be thorough,” Cathy says. “Did you know I found a new lover?” She points at her chest. “It’s all I can do to supply it. God help us if we ever did run out of alchemists.” She looks at the people around her.
“Please, don’t.”
“What, are they close to you?”
“Yes, they have helped for a long time now. These are good people, searching for your daughter and my son.”
“Honorable,” Cathy says. “Choose two of them.”
“Choose?”
“Yes, and hurry, before I change my mind and take them all.”
Sarah falls to her knees. “Please, don’t do this. Cathy, I know you’re a good person in there. Why don’t you take some of Quinn’s people, or Quinn himself?”
“He continues to allude me, just as my daughter does.” Frustration mars my mother’s face. “Nope, it has to be two of them, and if you make me wait a moment longer,
I will take more.”
“Dan and Laura. They’ve been married for fifty years. If they have to go out, I’d say they’d want to go out together.”
Cathy shrugs and walks toward the couple frozen two feet off the ground.
I want to scream, but for some insane reason, I think she’ll be able to hear me. It hits me then. This isn’t a dream; this is real. Something or someone is showing me this, but I don’t know why.
Cathy approaches the elderly man and places a stone in each of his hands, then does the same to the lady by his side.
Sarah cries out, falling to the ground and punching at the dirt. “Don’t do this.”
“Too late, it’s already been done.” Cathy snaps her fingers and the sounds of the world rush back. The breeze blows in my face and I feet the warm air.
In an instant, two brilliant flashes of light burst around the camp. The three people who are spared yell, and one even gets a stone off at Cathy, but she absently blocks it with her arm.
My mother gathers the two soul stones laying in the dirt, and dodges a few more stones thrown at her by the remaining people.
“Stop.” She waves her hand and everyone falls to the ground, except Sarah. “Don’t worry. Just tell them to go back to sleep. They’ll wake up and think this was a dream.”
“Until they see who you killed.”
“Oh, yes.” She juggles the stones in her hand. “These guys. Be happy in the knowledge they are serving a greater good. They are helping more than you can ever know.”
“Go to hell,” Sarah says.
“If there is a hell, I will go there in time and rule it, much like the rest of the worlds. But first, I need Allie. Find them and use that stone.”
Cathy pulls down her shirt and exposes her chest. Between her breasts, sits the philosopher’s stone, imbedded into her breastbone. She brings the soul stones close and they’re absorbed in less than a second. Exhaling, she takes a long, deep breath. “You had strong friends.”
I gasp, and right as I did, my mom looks up at me. I yank back out of the window. Cathy flies off the ground and heads toward me. She has a chestnut brown stone with red streaks across it grasped in her hand. I hold my breath, trying not to move or make a sound.
Then her hand pierces through the window.
I scream, before I’m pulled backward, as if I am tethered to a truck. Cathy’s head peeks into the window.
“Evelyn, is that you? I will find you and kill you,” she screams. “You can’t hide from me forever, coward.”
Chapter Sixteen
We walked along the trail leading to the edge of the Grand Canyon. We were still in Arizona, on the edge of an Indian reservation. Jin said the area wasn’t well traveled, that he’d be surprised if we saw another person.
The monotonous desert trail soothed my mind. I’d told them about my dream, but inside, I knew it wasn’t a dream at all. Mark hadn’t said much since we started walking. I knew he’d been thinking about his mother since the first day we appeared from our stones, but I had never even asked him about it. I felt like a jerk, consumed with my own problems and no one else’s.
We had stocked up on junk food from the vending machine, and even bought a used backpack from the motel worker. Mark carried the goods, and we were making good time.
I spotted a slit in the landscape up ahead, as we neared the edge of the canyon. When we reached the edge of the cliff, I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time, and it absolutely took my breath away. Way below us, I spotted the river that’d gouged the landscape and created the wonder of the world before me.
“We’ve got to make it all the way down there?” Jackie asked.
“Yes, it’s near the bottom,” Jin said.
“Just think, we get to walk all the way back up after this,” Mark said.
Jackie swore. “Now I just hope I die down there.”
“Come on,” Jin said. “If you get too tired, you can ride on my back.”
“You better watch your offers because I will take you up on that shit,” Jackie said.
Jin led us on a narrow trail hugging the canyon wall. My muscles tensed each time the path narrowed. I tried to not look down, but it seemed like it was all I could do.
Mark stayed near me at all times, and it felt better knowing he’d be there in case I slipped, but I hated having him so close to the edge.
It took a couple of hours before we finally got to the bottom. I thought it would start cooling off when we got closer to the water, but as the day went on, it only seemed to get hotter.
“Why couldn’t we have portaled directly to the place?” Jackie whined, wiping the sweat from her forehead.
“Just think, you would have missed all this.” Jin spread his arms out, gesturing to the magnificent landscape.
“I haven’t seen this big of a slit since I walked in on—”
“Jackie, no,” I said, covering my ears.
“Carly taking a shower.” She laughed.
“Really?”
“I had to finish it.”
“Wow,” Jin said. “Come on, we just need to follow the river’s edge for a while, and then finish it off with another hike. You’re going to love it, Jackie.”
“Hate it already.”
“So, how do we use these stones to create the breaker stone?” Mark asked.
“Once we have the three stones, it’s a pretty simple task of making a binding stone and binding them together.”
“And that’s it?” Mark asked.
“Yeah, pretty much. But it will take a person like Allie to make such a thing.”
“What about the stone Quinn took?” I asked.
Jin laughed. “Yeah, that was the binding stone. We can make another one though.”
“Why didn’t we?”
“To be honest. I never thought we’d make it this far.” Jin stopped and looked up the canyon wall. “It’s up there.” He pointed up.
“Wait. Why did we come down all this way, only to go back up?” Jackie complained. “I’m not a flippin’ billy goat, Jin.”
“There’s a path hidden over here. I remember my dad pulling me up and over this rock,” Jin said with tears in his eyes. “I told him I hated him on that day. I didn’t understand why he was making me walk to this place. I didn’t care about alchemy or anything that had to do with him when I was a boy. I wanted to be a game designer, not some alchemist making stones for a living.”
“When did you change your mind?” Jackie said.
“Who said I have?” Jin pointed ahead. “Here it is.” He squeezed behind a rock and moved up a narrow path between the two massive rocks.
I followed behind him, trying to keep my footing on the round rocks below my feet. Once past the rock, the path opened a bit, but I had to get on my hands and knees in order to crawl up the near vertical incline.
Mark stuck close behind me. When my foot would slip, he’d grab my heel, giving me something to push off.
“Thanks, babe.” What would I do without him?
I was near the top when Jin extended his hand and pulled me up the rest of the way. On the plateau, I turned to help Jin lift Mark up, then Jackie.
“That better be freaking it,” Jackie pulled at the hair stuck to her beet-red face.
“We’re here.” He pointed at a rock wall. We stood on a rock about ten feet wide and about five feet deep.
“Let me guess, a stone-locked door?”
“You guessed it in one,” Jin said.
“Good thing we made a few in Cairo.” Jackie moved to the stone. Placing her stone on the slab of a rock, it absorbed into it.
The door vibrated and Jackie took a couple of steps back before looking at how close she was to the edge. Then the door slid open to the side.
“How did your dad find this?” Mark asked.
“His dad showed him,” Jin said. “I hope to live long enough to take my child to these places around the world. There are only so many people who know about these ancient alchemist locations.”
“Luck has nothing to do with it. This is destiny. Since I was born, everything that happened in my life brought me to right here, right now, to save the world.”
“Save the world?” I asked.
“Worlds,” Jackie said.
“What you saw in your dream was a warning. If we don’t stop your mother, then she will destroy this planet.”
“And all the rest,” Jackie added. “Jin’s right, this is world-saving kind of shit. Don’t try and downplay your role, Allie. You’re the bomb, and you know it.”
“I agree,” Mark said and pointed to the blackness behind the door. “Now, why don’t we get in there and get this over with before Jackie dies from heat exhaustion?”
I stepped close to the opening and something move inside—a man.
Chapter Seventeen
“You see that?” I asked.
“I didn’t see anything,” Jackie said.
My eyes adjusted to the darkness, then Jackie and Jin brought out their phones to shine them on the first chamber.
The smooth sandstone reminded me of the place where I’d made the philosopher’s stone, with arches reaching the ceiling in every direction. The floor had a large alchemist circle carved into it. Another one I wasn’t familiar with.
A flash of light startled me. I quickly realized it was Jackie, taking more pictures. I gave her a look.
“Don’t even start with me. This could be some lost recipe,” Jackie said.
Jin walked to the next doorway, and I followed behind him. The adjacent room had a few steps leading down into the massive room. The carved columns held large arches, reaching up as high as the weak phone lights would illuminate.
“Watch this,” Jin said.
He went to the base of the column next to the doorway and turned a crank ninety degrees. Something clicked in the wall and a glow stone lit up in the wall. Then the next stone lit up and the one next to it. The soft, white glow, started a chain reaction up the arch, until it hit the ceiling and branched off to the other seven arches, running down to the other columns.