by Matt Ryan
“They have a portal room here.” Jackie pointed to the small room at the end of the spoke.
“That would be the safest spot,” Niles said, peering at the map.
“How big is that room?” Mom asked.
“About ten by ten feet,” I said.
“You think you can recall that place well enough to use a portal stone?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“A portal stone requires the user to have near perfect knowledge and concentration on the location for it to work properly. You let your mind slide a tad and we could end up in the ocean.”
“Bottom of the ocean,” Niles added, and Mom nodded.
I stared at the four lines on the paper. Yeah, I knew the room, but did I really know it? Could I risk everyone’s lives?
“What about how that place jumps?” Jackie asked. “Do we even know where it is right now?”
Mom looked to Niles.
“We have a way of knowing where they are,” he said. “We sent a man in with a tracker, and right now they’re still in L.A.”
“The dad?” I said and thought of the man who had to watch his sun turn into a stone. A man frozen forever with a suspended animation stone I made.
“Yes, and we aim to get him out with the rest,” Nile said.
“The second they hear us coming, they’re going to jump,” Jackie warned.
“Then we’d better make sure they don’t hear us,” Niles said.
“How many students are in there?” Mom asked.
“A hundred students and ten teachers,” Jackie said. “Unless they haven’t replaced us yet.”
“Ten full-grown alchemists?” Niles said. “Jesus, Cathy, we’re going to need some help. Deegan alone is enough.”
“And Verity,” I said.
Niles and Mom shared looks again and I srunched up my brow trying to figure out what they were hiding. Something about Verity; I was sure of it.
“What’s up with Verity? You know her?” I asked.
Mom walked to the door and opened it. “Can you all leave me and Allie alone? I think we have some things to talk about.”
Mark gave me the eye and I nodded an okay. Normally I would want Mark at my side at all times, but this was my mother and I desperately wanted to talk to her. Maybe ask her some questions I might not want others to hear the answers to.
Once they were gone, my mother sat at the table across from me. She fidgeted with her hands and for the first time seemed nervous. I knew what she was feeling, and I felt the same thing. The initial shock and joy of seeing each other was over and now the old feelings and maybe even resentments were creeping back in.
“Would you like something to drink?”
“Yes, please.”
She went to a cupboard and opened it. Empty. She went to the next and found some bottles of water. Reaching across the table, she set one down in front of me.
“Thank you.” I opened the bottle. A bit of dust coated my hand as I twisted the cap off. After taking a long swig, I placed the half-empty bottle back down on the table and picked at the label.
“Mark is cute.” My mom’s voice cut through the silence.
I buried my face in another drink.
She laughed. “I’m a bit rusty at this. Allie—”
“It’s okay. I’m just still shocked you’re alive.”
She smiled. “Have I said how beautiful you look?”
“Yes.” I sipped the water again.
Silence.
“So…Jackie said you’re a natural at making stones?”
“Yes. I’ve been able to make anything put in front of me, really.”
“Amazing. But of course my daughter would be a special.”
“They called me that at the Dark Academy.”
She laughed. “They called me the same thing at Alchemist Academy. I bet you were one popular girl there.”
“Once Verity got hold of me, she was salivating. She tried to get me to make her stones and mostly I faked it. But Verity knew. She turned to hurting Mark to get me to make a stone.” Some of my muscles were relaxing and the edge of being with my once-dead mother was slipping away. I finished off the water and set my empty bottle back on the table.
“I’d like to see you make a stone,” she said.
Showing my mom what I could do sounded great. She could see what I’d learned in the short time I’d been an alchemist. I bet she could teach me to make all kinds of amazing stones.
She got up from the table and went back to the cabinets. I noticed she didn’t have trouble finding the bottom cabinet containing an alchemy mixing bowl and spoon. She brought two containers to the table, then pulled a small blue vial from her pocket and set everything down near me.
“What kind of stone are we making?”
“This is a fun stone. I’ll show you what it does after you’ve made it.”
“Okay.” I stared at the two containers and then opened one. Diamond dust. “Salt?” I asked.
“No, it’s diamond dust.”
I breathed out in relief. She wasn’t lying to me. “This dust creates stones of the mind.”
“Yes, but it’s what you mix it with that makes it interesting.” She pointed at the second container.
A silver powder. “What is it?”
“Magic dust,” she said with a smile. “You make the stone and I’ll show you what it does. I think you’re really going to enjoy seeing this particular stone used.”
“Okay.” I took a few breaths and tried to calm myself. I would have trouble summoning any anger with my mother watching. The feeling of her watching what I could do lifted me up too high. I closed my eyes and thought about burying her when I was a child. And about my dad and what he’d done to conceal my mother from me. I felt the good leaving my body and the hate entering. I followed with thinking about the Dark Academy and Verity killing all those kids in the globe, lying to them, telling them they were going home. Ira….
I opened my eyes, ready to mix.
After the magic dust, I poured in the diamond dust and then the solvent. I tried to not notice my mom getting closer to me with the addition of each ingredient. I lost myself and let all my feelings flow into the mix until a stone clunked around in the metal bowl.
“Very good.” Mom moved in close and plucked the milky, shiny stone from the bowl. It looked like liquid metal and my mom held it the same way Verity had held the stone I’d made for her—with open wonder.
“So, what’s it for?”
She cleared her throat. “We’ve been trying to make it for a long time. You are something special. Let me show you what it does.”
My mom placed the stone in a pouch and walked toward the door. “You coming?”
I jumped up and rushed after her. The outside air brushed over my arms and I shivered, the air misting as I breathed out.
Mark turned to face me, his gaze going from me to my mom. “She made you make a stone, didn’t she?” His head was shaking as if he already knew the answer.
“We’re going to use it right now,” I said with more defensiveness than I’d expected. Looking after my mom, I saw she was already walking down the street with Niles at her side.
Jackie left the wall she was leaning against and caught up to me as I walked by. “What’d you make?” she asked.
Mark flanked me on the other side.
“I’m not sure. Some kind of memory stone.”
“Like the one you wouldn’t make for me?”
“Umm, yeah, I guess.” I couldn’t look at her. Now that I knew more about her past, I wished I had complied with her wishes.
We followed Niles and my mother past many of the houses along the narrow street. As we passed each house, I began to see the pattern of how every fifth house was much longer, some reaching back into the forest. The windows had thick layers of dust, the roofs were covered in large swathes of leaves, and the stucco walls were cracked and stained from too many wet days. On several houses, moss was growing on the walls and plants
had begun to infiltrate the wood siding.
“Where is everyone? I thought the Intrepid would be living a bit fancier than this,” Jackie said.
Mom laughed but didn’t turn around. “This isn’t for the Intrepid. It’s for the vile. We keep them here until we think they aren’t going to be any trouble in the world.”
I sucked in a deep breath. There were fifty buildings here, which could house hundreds of people, and not a soul would know. Even planes flying above might mistake this tiny town for a clearing in the forest. The roofs’ foliage and the weedy streets would provide the camouflage to fool most people.
Mom reached for the door handle and placed a stone on it. “And this is where we keep the wicked ones.” The door opened and she walked inside.
The place looked much like the room I had woken in, with an old bed and a makeshift kitchen in the corner. She walked to one of the cabinets and pulled out a stone. It wasn’t the one I had made; this one was blue with black streaks. My mom placed it on the back wall of the kitchen, right below a picture of a beach with one palm tree sagging into the water.
The stone dissolved and the wall creaked open, splitting right through the middle of the picture and all the way to the floor.
“Come on,” Mom said.
Niles held tight to his gun and I searched my pockets for a stone that wasn’t there. Mark moved close to me. The muscles in his arms flexed as we walked through the magical door. The cells beyond it were much the same as the other ones, with thick rebar floors, wire mesh on the walls and the metal funnel underneath.
The initial shock didn’t last as long the second time around, and I felt lesser for it. Getting used to this, even in the smallest way, made me feel less human. I glanced at my mom, who was walking with authority down the center of the hallway.
A man wearing nothing but his soiled underwear was leaning against the wire mesh barrier. His grimy fingers reached out for me and I felt I owed it to him to look at his face. But he looked vacant, as if the tenants had left the lights on even though they’d gone on vacation. A line of drool fell from the corner of his mouth and slid onto the metal below.
Most of the other cages were empty. A couple of the empty ones had dark streaks down the metal funnel but no bodies.
My mom stopped at one with a woman in the fetal position in the corner of the room. She didn’t look like the others; she looked cleaner, and the funnel below her didn’t have a single mark. Mom tapped the metal cage with her hand. It rattled, sending vibrations all the way to the floor and through my feet.
The woman, who had bright blonde hair, rose up, showing us her face.
“Verity?” I searched for answers as I stared at my mom.
“She got a bit ambitious on the search for you. We snagged her just outside of L.A.”
Jackie laughed and fist-pumped the air. Mark took slow, long breaths.
“How long have you had her?” I asked.
“Two days, and she hasn’t spoken one word, even with our stones. She seems to be resistant.” Mom tapped on the cage again.
Verity locked in on me and for a second her eyes widened, but then her expression turned to a sneer. She stood, continuing her glare. Even with her in the cage and me on the outside, safe, I felt the same way as when I’d seen her for the first time. Her narrowed eyes and sharp nose, all pointed at me. Even her pulled-back hair tightened her hairline into a V pointing at me.
“What did you do to them?” Jackie asked. “To Carly and Bridget?”
Mom shook her head. “She won’t speak—”
“I had them killed the second you left in that elevator. You think I would let someone live who tried to escape?” Verity said.
“She’s lying,” Mom said, and shook her head.
Jackie paced and yelled at Verity, “Don’t you mean retire?”
Verity laughed. “You think you have it all figured out, but you don’t know anything. And these people with you? They don’t know a damned thing either.”
Mom pulled the stone I had made out of her pocket and held it high. “You see this?”
Verity didn’t move. She appeared transfixed by the stone in Mom’s hand.
“Good. Then you know what it does.”
Fear crept onto Verity’s face. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen it in her, but this was a deeper fear, one that made her eyes twitch from me to my mom. She regained some of her composure. “Cathy, your daughter was most helpful in the Academy, making some very key stones for us.” She laughed.
“Shut up,” I said.
“Just think, how close was your stone to killing your own mother?” She laughed and kicked at the floor, sending shockwaves across it.
“What is she talking about?” Mom asked, rubbing her necklace. I saw in her eyes a pleading.
“I only made stones for you because you were going to kill Mark!” I screamed at Verity, gripping the edge of her cage.
“Really? Because that blue stone was only going to change his skin tone for maybe an hour. It was never going to kill him.”
“Shut up.” I wanted to leave. I didn’t want to see her stupid, smug face smiling back at me.
“And from the look on your face, Cathy, you had no idea she’d made that cinder stone. Tell me, how many Intrepid were killed by your daughter’s hand that day?” She had the widest grin and I wanted to smack it off her face.
She had threatened to kill Mark, and that was the only reason I had made the stone. If I could go back, I’d change it all. I’d have hid my ability from the beginning.
“Is this true, Allie?” Mom’s mouth hung open and her eyes were set on me. She clasped the necklace in her fist and waited for the answer I didn’t want to give.
“Yes.”
Her chin quivered and she turned away. Niles stood back and held his gun, not pointed at me but in a direction from which it wouldn’t be hard to hit me if he needed to.
“I’m so sorry, Mom. You have to believe me. I didn’t even know what alchemy was until they picked me up. She made me make those stones. I didn’t even know what they were for.”
My mom held up her hand for me to stop. “It doesn’t matter.”
I stared at the side of her head, hoping she’d give me a glance or any sign of forgiveness.
Mark’s hand touched my shoulder and he pulled me in closer. “Hey,” he said, getting my mom’s attention. “Allie didn’t kill those people. She did.” He pointed at Verity. “Allie has more courage than all of us combined. She’s the one who stood up and said ‘no more’ to that Academy, and she’s the one who got us out.” He paused. “She also saved my life, more than once. Don’t you dare put any blame on her for what that woman did.”
My mom looked at the floor and the stone in her hand. “I don’t. You killed them.” She paused and glared at Verity. “Bring your hand over here and take this stone. If you don’t comply, we’ll use some dastardly stones and then force the stone on you.” Her delivery was stoic and without emotion.
“Please. I could have never made that stone without a special like her. She’s the only reason they’re dead,” Verity put her hands on her hips and found a way to look as if we were the ones in a cage. “And, furthermore, once my brother finds out where I am, he’s going to kill you all.”
“Niles,” Mom said.
“Yup.” He stepped closer to the door and pulled it open.
Verity jumped to the side, but her foot got stuck on the metal bars and she fell forward.
Nile raised his gun and fired. The barrel moved and shot out a stone. At least I figured it was a stone. It shot so fast, I couldn’t see it. When it missed Verity, she reached into her pocket and produced a brown stone.
My heart leapt and I screamed, but Niles was a step ahead.
He fired three shots in rapid succession, two of them striking her. One of the stones broke open and a white cloud puffed around her. The other struck her neck. I wasn’t sure which one did the damage, but she fell onto the rebar on the floor. The brown stone fell
from her hand and clanked down the metal funnel.
“Just drag her to the room.” Mom glanced at the other prisoner near the door.
Niles hung his gun on his belt and pulled Verity by her hands. Her feet dragged over the rebar and made a rhythmic clunking sound. The other prisoners watched her body being dragged down the hall.
I stayed a ways back, walking next to Mark and trying to process all that had happened. Niles waited for each of us to enter the next room before closing the door. The door clicked inside the wall, locking it and forming back into the picture of the palm tree.
“Put her on the chair,” Mom said, and pointed to a burgundy-colored recliner. It might have been some guy’s favorite chair in some other life. It didn’t feel real watching Niles dump Verity’s body onto the dusty chair. I felt as if I was floating and watching this through the eyes of another person.
“If she wakes, we’re going to have a handful,” Jackie said. “We should tie her up or something.”
“She won’t be giving us any trouble,” Mom said, walking close to Verity and holding out the stone I had made. My mom lightly touched the stone to the back of Verity’s bare hand and stood back.
Verity’s eyes shot open, but she didn’t make any other movements and her eyes looked different. Normally she’d be assessing the situation with her keen eyes. Now, they looked dull and she didn’t look away, staring blankly at the wall across the room. What kind of stone had I created?
“Verity, can you hear me?” my mom asked. She licked her lips and paced near the chair.
“Yes,” Verity said.
My mom turned to me. “That stone you made makes her like this for a short time. I don’t know how the woman did it, but she was able to withstand every persuasive stone we threw at her.” She turned back to Verity. “Where is the book, A Practical Guide to Herbal Stones?”
Verity’s face trembled and then went back to its blank look. “Room five, third cabinet over from the right, second shelf up.”
“Very good. And did you read this book?”
“Yes.”
“Can you recall the details about Shulman’s metal?”
“Not exactly, but it’s a stone that might be able to be added to another stone to bind the two together.”