Alchemist's Kiss

by AR DeClerck

  “You can do this, Icarus.” Cora smiled gently at him and held out her hand. “Take off your glove and take my hand.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I did not expect immediate capitulation. Icarus was not the type of man to do as another person said without some thinking on the matter. He stood, frozen, his hand halfway to mine for more than a minute.

  “Cora, is this really the way?”

  I glanced at Archie with a smile. Such a loyal concern in his dark eyes. His metal hand was clenched, along with his jaw. “Have you ever known something was true, with no doubts?”

  “I have.”

  “I know this is the way. The aether told me before, there are few of us left with the ability to communicate with it. To channel it as Icarus does. It will not hurt us.”

  “With that much aether running through your body...” he trailed off, his lips tight. “...look at what happened when all of us were joined in the circle. Imagine the power in every vein. Every pore.”

  I turned back to Icarus. “Do you think the aether will harm us?”

  “I've seen it do terrible things. When I touched something living with the rune...”

  I tried to hold my frustrations inside. Archie and Icarus were protective of me, and that would never change. I looked to the captain for support. “Captain, we must speak to the aether. Would you have us go to Victor with no answers?”

  “I wouldn't see you harmed in the process.”

  I wanted so badly to be angry with them, but I could not. I understood their fear, and their worry that Icarus' rune would hurt me. What I could not explain was the insistent pressure in my chest that burned and bubbled with the certainty that this was the way to learn the information we needed.

  “I must be open to the aether in a way I have never been before.” I tried logic in my argument. “The Hand created the connection in the past, but now it works for your father. I need you, Icarus. I need you to be the bridge.”

  The smell of smoke drifted to us, and on the ground I saw Bastion and Lucia turn to look at the evidence of Victor's plan as it rose over the treetops.

  “We don't have time for arguments, Icarus. You know I'm right.”

  “Icarus---” Archie's words were stopped by a sharp shake of Icarus' head.

  “I'll do it.”

  I smiled, triumphant.

  “I'll...touch you...with the rune.”

  The words hurt him, I could tell, but I smiled at him. “Come.” I held out my hand.

  It was painfully slow to watch Icarus remove the glove. One finger at a time, a deliberate extrication of his digits as breathed long, deep breaths. When his hand was free he handed the glove to Archie.

  “Most likely I will have trouble controlling the flow. If it appears I cannot stop, put the glove back on. Carefully.”

  Already blue light was pooling between Icarus's clenched fingers. It streamed and flowed around his hand, a whirlwind of energy. The pressure around us grew, the aether swarming. In my mind I pictured the brightly glowing particles as they had looked when Rivensbrow had illuminated them with his machine. The Captain rubbed his chest with his hand.

  “Is this normal?”

  “I'm afraid so.” Archie folded his arms over his chest and glared hard at Icarus and I. “If anything happens to the two of you, I swear I will come to Hell simply to pound you flat again.”

  I moved to the big man, the best friend I had ever known, save Icarus. I stood on my tiptoe to kiss his whiskered cheek. “I do love you, Archimedes.”

  “And I you, Cora Mae.” He grinned at me, pride and fear together in his eyes. “As I might have loved a sister. A troublesome sister.”

  His teasing made me laugh as I turned back to Icarus. His eyes were wide, his face pale. Lines of strain pulled out from his mouth, creasing his cheeks and narrowing his eyes.

  “Enough dawdling, Icarus.” I used my best imitation of Miss Jane, my schoolmarm in Virginia. “We've work to do.”

  I stepped closer. I didn't move fast, but my stride was deliberate. When I faced Icarus again I breathed deep, drawing in the sweet fragrance of foxglove and wood smoke. I reached for him, taking his chin in my palm.

  “Cora.” His voice was hoarse, his arms shaking with the strength it took to control the aether teeming around the rune. He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing.

  I smoothed my hand over his cheek, sliding it gently into his hair. His curls wrapped around my fingertips and I pulled his lips to mine. When we were less than a whisper apart I spoke.

  “You are the doorway, and I am the voice. Let them come.”

  With painful slowness I reached out with my right hand for his left. The blue light swirling around his hand had substance. Weight. It resisted my palm, feeling as a bubble in the bath might feel. I pushed harder, reaching for Icarus through the haze around his hand. When our skin touched lights danced behind my eyes, obscuring the world around me. I gasped, the sound reverberating through my head, echoing into infinity. I blinked, tracing the lines of the brand with my fingertips.

  “Palm to palm.” Icarus' voice was faint, but he was right. I stretched out my fingers and laid my palm to his.

  ***

  “This must be what the world was like before the light.” Icarus thought.

  Icarus blinked, but it did not erase the inky blackness that surrounded him. He could feel the insistent rush of the aether as it poured through the doorway he had opened between worlds. A plug of panic spiked through his chest, his heart beating harder and faster beneath his ribs.

  “Cora!” His words had no weight. They bounced back to him and the heavy fear pulsed. “Cora!”

  What had he done? Bile, foul and hot, crawled from his stomach to his throat. His breath came faster, sawing in and out of his lungs. “Cora!”

  “Calm down.”

  He shook, his knees without the strength to hold him up but he was still standing. She was here. “Where were you?”

  “Next to you.”

  Her voice was full of exasperated superiority, and he reveled in the sound.

  “I haven’t moved a muscle.”

  “I cannot see.”

  “Neither can I.”

  Fingers wrapped around his, squeezing. He breathed in, slowing his heart and letting his panic subside. “What happened?”

  She was closer now, and he could smell roses and powders. There was a tickle of her hair across his cheek.

  “We have been moved. We are no longer on the ship.” Her tone went speculative, her fingers squeezing his again. “This must be the world of the aether.”

  “It looked like Longmoore when we were here last.”

  “That wasn’t the aether’s world, it was a memory they plucked from your head.”

  Icarus knew the pressure of the aether was growing stronger between their palms. He tried to see what lay around them, but the cloud of black still shrouded them.

  YOU HAVE COME.

  Icarus stiffened. The words came to his mind, not from his ears, but seemingly from inside his own skull. They reverberated within him. From Cora’s startled gasp it was the same for her.

  “We need your help.” Cora’s voice was quiet in comparison to the sounds of the aether.

  WE ARE DESIGNED TO ASSIST.

  “My father has The Hand and several other dark wizards in his service. How can we save his captives and defeat him?”

  WE ARE DESIGNED TO ASSIST.

  “Tell us how to defeat Victor.” Cora moved beside him as she spoke, her movements causing her arm to brush against his where their hands were joined.

  WE MAY ACT WITHIN THE CONFINES OF THE LIMITS WE HAVE PLACED. TO ACT OUTSIDE THE PARAMETERS WILL RESULT IN TERMINATION.

  The aether spoke with stilted precision, enunciating each word carefully. Icarus was not sure it could understand what they wanted, or even if it cared. It was a presence that was wholly inhuman, and though they painted it with human traits in their minds, it was likely the aether had no understanding of morals or justice
. “What are the parameters?” he asked.

  TO CAUSE TERMINATION OF EXISTENCE IS FORBIDDEN; WE MAY NOT DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY CAUSE THE TERMINATION OF EXISTENCE. WE CANNOT ALTER THE FLOW OF TIME. WE CANNOT ASSIST BEYOND THE LIMITS OF CURRENT UNDERSTANDING.

  “You cannot kill, either directly or indirectly you cannot change the past. I do not understand the last rule.” Icarus went over the words in his head, but couldn’t fathom their meaning.

  “You are not allowed to give us ideas or advancements in science or magic; we have to come to them on our own?” Cora guessed from beside him. Icarus could not help but grin at her wit. While he fumbled for understanding she grasped it immediately.

  TIME IS FLUID HERE. WE SEE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. WE MAY NOT ALTER YOUR PRESENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE UNIVERSE, IN TURN ALTERING YOUR FUTURE.

  There were many things Icarus knew about magic, and his understanding of the world was broader than most, but the aether’s revelations left him feeling small. Insignificant in the face of beings that lived outside of time. To them, he and his cause must seem irrelevant. “People will die if we do not intervene.” He tried to explain. “Can you help us?”

  WE CAN ASSIST WITHIN THE SET LIMITS.

  So they aether could help them, but only while working inside their rules. He closed his eyes, thinking hard of a spell or alchemy ritual that might direct the aether as he needed, without breaking any of the rules. It became clear to him why the aether seemed to choose how to work. Heavy lifting, building, and even warping was within their limits.

  “How do dark wizards make the aether do terrible things with blood magic, then?” Cora’s voice pulled Icarus from his thoughts. “And we kill demons, so do we not break the first rule?”

  BLOOD MAGIC CAN ALLOW US TO WORK OUTSIDE OUR PARAMETERS FOR A SHORT TIME. IF THE RULES ARE BROKEN, TERMINATION OF EXISTENCE IS REQUIRED.

  “You die.” Icarus felt Cora’s hand tighten reflexively in sympathy for the aether.

  The aether did not reply, but Icarus knew that it must be true. Blood magic forced the aether to break their rules, and in doing so they were killed as punishment. He swallowed hard at the disgust that swamped him.

  DEMONS ARE NOT TERMINATED. WE RETURN THEM TO THEIR PLANE, AND SO WE ACT WITHIN THE RESTRAINT OF OUR RULES.

  Icarus knew that what he was learning now would spark many a fireside ponderance on a dark winter’s night, but now was not the time to ruminate over it. He gathered his wits and tried to focus on the task at hand. “So, if I can design a spell that doesn’t break any of the rules, you could help me?”

  WE ARE DESIGNED TO ASSIST.

  He took that as a yes. He began to have hope for the first time that he might be able to devise a spell to get all his father’s captives out alive. “Thank you.”

  YOU ARE THE DOORWAY. SHE IS THE VOICE. THERE ARE FEW WHO MAY INTERACT WITH US NOW. WE ARE DESIGNED TO ASSIST.

  “Can Icarus and I come back?” Cora asked. “When this is all over?”

  WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND, “ICARUS”.

  “The doorway. His name is Icarus.”

  AH, YES. YOU HAVE DESIGNATIONS FOR INDIVDUAL UNITS. THE DOORWAY AND THE VOICE MAY RETURN.

  “Icarus. And Cora.”

  Icarus could hear the levity in Cora’s voice as she tried to get the aether to call them by name. He tugged her hand and she quieted.

  “Thank you.” he said again. He untangled his fingers from Cora’s and wondered how long they’d been gone. Had his father already begun killing his hostages?

  WE WILL RETURN YOU IN THE MOMENT THAT YOU LEFT.

  Icarus breathed deep, hope swirling in his gut again. No one, not even his father, knew the things he’d learned about the aether. Now he knew how to ask it for help, he knew how to direct it to his purpose within their limits. His stomach lurched as he pulled his palm back from Cora’s and closed the doorway between his world and the aether.

  When he opened his eyes he wondered if breaking the connection had really returned him to his reality. He blinked, realizing what he had mistaken for a shadow was really Archimedes blocking out the sun with his bulk.

  “I was in the midst of finding a portal to Hell.” The big man frowned down at Icarus with worried eyes.

  “Cora?” Icarus asked, struggling to sit up. His head swam, and the burn of the rune on his palm was sharp. He glanced at his hand to see that it was safely covered in his glove.

  “She is fine.” Archimedes backed away to let Icarus see Levisque tending to Cora across the deck. “The separation of your hands had you both flying backwards as if pushed.”

  “How long?” Icarus let Archimeds take his hand and pull him to his feet.

  Archimedes’ frown grew. “How long?”

  “How long were we gone?”

  “You never left. The moment your hands touched you both flew backwards. By the time I got to you, you were already opening your eyes.”

  Icarus caught Cora’s eyes as the captain helped her stand. She was pale, but a smile blossomed on her lips and she shook off Levisque’s hand to walk into his arms.

  “Can we do it?” she whispered into his ear. He held her tight, burying his nose in her hair. “Is there a spell?”

  “Not yet. But I will create one.” He kept his arm around her and looked at Archimedes and Levisque. He ignored the shared look of confusion between them and rubbed Cora’s shoulder. “We may have a way to rescue my father’s prisoners without casualties. It will require you to work a bit of complicated magic.”

  “We can do it.” Archimedes let his eyes stray to the distant figure of Lucia in her dark blue gown on the ground. He focused on Icarus again. “What about you?”

  “I will deal with my father while you three,” Icarus tried to ignore the stiffening of Cora’s shoulders, “rescue Desmond House.”

  Icarus did not need to look at Cora to see the tightening of her lips or the blush of anger that spread over her cheeks. “You want us to split up?”

  Icarus felt the itch of something important at the back of his mind, but he ignored it to focus on Cora. He turned, looking at her directly so that she could not misinterpret his words. “This is not about what I want. It is about what we must do. What has to be done. Archimedes is not strong enough to do this without you.”

  “What about you?” She raised her chin but her lip quivered. A small sign of her distress, but enough to make him feel wretched. “I don’t want to leave you alone.”

  “My father is my burden. If I do not go alone he will try to use you to hurt me. If I am distracted by my concern for you I may make a mistake and we will all pay for it.”

  He knew his logic got through to her as her eyes darkened. She pinched her lips together and the chin went up another notch. He wanted to smile. His Cora was full of fire and sass. Her courage was a sight to behold. Despite her fear and worry for him, she knew he was right. He turned back to Archimedes and Levisque. “Come. We have preparations to make.” Icarus waved to Levisque. “Your wizard, can you show me his stores?”

  “What about Machiavelli?” Cora asked. “Would he give you another feather?”

  “He needs his strength to recover. We will have to do this the hard way.”

  “Do you know any other way, Grand Adept?” Levisque fidgeted with his skullcap but his joking words were belied by his worried frown.

  “Unfortunately I do not.” Icarus reached for Cora’s hand but she moved to stand with Archimedes, leaving him frowning. He tried to catch her eye but she looked away and he sighed.

  “This way.” Levisque said.

  Icarus did not miss the twitch of the captain’s lips as he strode toward the stairs that led below-deck. Though he needed his focus on the spell he was about to write, he could not get his mind off Cora’s sudden inability to meet his gaze. She swept past him and he grabbed her arm, keeping her close as Archimedes followed the captain, leaving them alone on the deck.

  “Do not be angry with me.”

  She refused to meet his eyes. “I am not angry.
”

  “Lying does not become you.” He tugged her chin until her eyes met his.

  “I am not angry.” She pulled her chin away and met his eyes of her own volition. “You are correct, Archie cannot do the spell on his own.”

  “Cora.” He pressed his lips to hers on the whisper, ignoring the stubborn way her lips remained taunt beneath his. When she didn’t relent to his teasing he laid his lips against hers again. He felt her soften and he deepened the kiss, easing his tongue between her lips to slide against hers. The tension bled out of her and she pressed against him, her hands clenching his coat. She kissed him back, matching every stroke of his tongue with her own, until he had her tight against the bulkhead with his body aching to be inside hers. He didn’t pull away until he couldn’t breathe anymore. “Don’t be angry with me.” he begged again.

  “I’m not angry.” She pressed against him, putting her head in the hollow between his neck and his shoulder. “Your logic is sound. My head tells me this is the right thing. My heart does not agree.”

  “I love you.” His whispered words made her shudder and he held tighter against the wall. “I would do anything for you. I would leave now and run away with you, if you asked.”

  She pulled back, shaking her head. “You wouldn’t.”

  “I would. You have only to ask.”

  “I did not fall in love with a scoundrel, Icarus Kane.” Her stern warning made him smile. “As much as it scares me, and as much as I hate it, this is what we have to do. You could no more let those innocent people die than I could.”

  “If only I was a farmer. A blacksmith. Anything but this.”

  “This is who I love. The wizard. The warden. The man. We would not be the same without our magic or the danger it brings.”