by Anton Strout
The human looked into my eyes and gave me a smile before lightly slapping his hand onto my cheek. “Never mind,” he said.
My inner voice willed me to bite the hand from his wrist, but the more dominant one did not allow me to harm him, no doubt because he was the one who had forced me into this servitude.
The alchemist dropped his hand away and turned to Kejetan.
“Let’s just say I have a heavy investment in my reputation out there,” he said. “And I’d hate to see you or Rocky here damage my work before I can iron out all the kinks in it.”
“I do not understand,” Kejetan said. “But be quick in rectifying that. My patience grows thin.”
“I’ve told you before that this isn’t an exact science,” the human said. “While I’m tweaking the alchemy here, I need you two to keep him in one piece.”
“For someone so worried about his reputation,” Devon said, “one would think you’d be a little quicker on the results.”
“Don’t like them?” the human asked, a bit of sting having come into his voice. “Try to hire someone else who can give you better.”
Devon gave a throaty grumble, and the human turned to face him.
“I know you think that somehow you might beat him into submission,” he said, “but that’s not really how these things work. Were you in some kind of fight club?”
“Just working out some of my issues,” Devon said. “Thought this might help bring him around to revealing the secrets my dear sister is keeping from us. It is clear your way isn’t doing the trick.”
Kejetan walked over to the human. “We already know that Stanis does not possess the knowledge I want,” he said. “That is why I made you set him to his other tasks.” He grabbed the man by his shoulder and pulled him closer. The human looked like all he wanted was to squirm away like a serpent. “He has not yet provided that which I seek. Do you think I am somehow pleased by this? I assure you I am not.”
“Easy, boss, easy,” the human said. “Baby steps. You wanted him in your service, he’s in your service. Yes, he hasn’t recovered the secrets you wanted yet, but I think I know why.”
Kejetan did not move away from him. “I do pray you tell.”
“I don’t think the secrets of the Spellmasons are somewhere else,” the human said. “I think they’re still within this golem here.”
Kejetan shook his head. “He has already confessed to not having them.”
“That’s part of the security that keeps the information locked away in him safe,” the human said. “I mean, if you were going to hide something that valuable, what’s the first thing you’d tell the gargoyle to say?”
Kejetan thought it over, but after too long a silence, Alexandra’s brother spoke up.
“I’d teach it to say it didn’t have the information,” Devon offered.
“Exactly!” the human said. “Who’s a smart but brutal chunk of rock?”
Devon moved to the alchemist, but Kejetan waved him away.
“So now I need to get in there and break down those defenses,” the human said. “That’s why I came tonight. Alchemy’s tricky. These things take time to figure out.”
I knew of no such system in place over me, having spent all these months doing what was called by the humans bluffing about any sort of secret arcane knowledge. Why did this man now come to them with this tale . . . ? Could he, too, be bluffing?
I watched and waited to see how my captors reacted.
Kejetan let the man go, crossing to me and grabbing my face, lifting me. “Is what he says true?” he asked, as the dead dark sockets of his eyes met my own. “Remember, you are bound to answer me with truth.”
“I hold no secret knowledge,” I said, freely speaking what both voices within me knew was true.
“See?” the human asked. “You need to let me work. I’ll get it out of him.”
I considered the man’s words as I knew my father must also be doing.
What choice did he have, really? I was already in servitude to him, and if we were to take the alchemist at his word, he was still the best hope Kejetan had.
“Very well,” Kejetan said, pulling Devon away from me. “See to it. I grow weary of this.”
The human looked satisfied.
“Pardon my asking,” he said. “But what’s the point?”
“The point?” Kejetan asked.
“To all this,” he said. “This endless hunt for this missing arcane knowledge. I mean, you seem to have a lot of bold ambitions. What do you want? Please don’t tell me to rule the world, because if it is, a lot has changed since you were in power.”
“Of this I am aware,” my father said, choosing to engage the man instead of reacting with the anger I knew him capable of. “But your world does have leaders, yes? Why not my kind?”
The human laughed. “No offense, but your sense of perspective may be out of proportion with reality. I don’t think the world is ready to be led by your kind. Not only are most not aware of you, but they can barely pick leaders among their own kind. At the risk of your swatting me across the cargo hold here, humanity isn’t simply going to bow down and kneel before Zodd.”
“Zodd . . . ?”
“Another famous despot of a ruler,” the human said with a sigh.
“But some will look for leaders when the world changes,” Kejetan said. “Alexander Belarus locked away some of the greatest secrets, and once those have been brought to light, others will look for a voice to guide them. And that voice shall be mine.”
“Right,” the human said, the word coming off his lips long and slow. It did not sound sincere to my ear, nor apparently to Kejetan, who stepped back in front of him, anger in his own voice.
“If you are unable to live up to the duties my people are paying you for, perhaps we should discuss that,” my father said.
The human did not speak for a short time. “I’m up to the job,” he said, the smile returning to his face. “I just wanted you to get a better idea of the whole picture there. Always like to see where the profit margin on the future is heading.”
Devon laughed. “You should be more concerned about living through the day, pal,” he said.
The human glanced at Alexandra’s brother before stepping away to his table against the wall that held his mixtures and examining them.
“I kind of need him out of here,” he said, pointing his thumb back over his shoulder to Devon. “Preferably, you, too.”
“I do not take orders on my own ship,” Kejetan said.
“Suit yourself,” he said, removing the coat he wore. “This might get messy, though. I can’t promise you won’t get a little twisted up by what I’m about to throw down on Stanis here. Hard to keep some of this stone-affecting arcana one-directional. You want to hang in here, that’s fine by me, but it’s only fair warning you that you might accidentally get a little alchemical backlash on you.”
Kejetan waved Devon out of the cargo hold, and Alexander’s brother lumbered off without another word.
“I need results,” Kejetan said.
“I understand,” the human said without looking up from his work.
If there was one thing my father hated, it was being ignored, but he dared not disturb the alchemist. Holding his tongue, he turned and stormed off after Devon and out of the cargo hold, leaving the two of us alone.
I watched the man work in silence for several minutes. Without the sound of my father or Devon picking away at me, I enjoyed the reprieve from all the noise until the man turned from the table with a large vial in his hand and crossed the cargo hold to where I hung. He took my face in the cool of his hand, standing on his toes to meet my eyes.
“Listen, Stan,” he said, searching my face as he raised the vial over the top of my head. “I know the real you is not fully at the wheel right now, but I know you’re still in there.”
He tilted his wrist, and the mixture poured from the vial onto me, cool and wet, as an electric charge slammed into my mind.
“Thi
s should help bring you out, if only for a little while.”
The dominant presence that had ruled over me for days faded into the background, its panic at being suppressed quieting more and more every second that passed. My true self rose to the surface of my thoughts with only the edge of my mind still clouded. “What are you doing to me?”
“Just needed to talk to the old you for a few minutes,” he said, lowering his voice and looking around to make sure the hold was still clear of others. “I don’t think we’ve ever been properly introduced. My name’s Caleb. Caleb Kennedy. Met a few friends of yours the other day. Nerdy guy, girl with a pointy-stick thing, and a hottie with a big stone book.”
I could not help but smile, pained though it was to think of them, but it faded as quick as it came.
“How did you come to meet them?” I asked, worried.
“Can’t really get into the finer details right now,” he said. “Just wanted you to know that everything I’ve done to you had been business. Nothing personal. I’m sorry to have put you through all this.”
“Release me, then,” I said, daring to allow myself a moment of hope.
The man stepped back from me, hesitant.
“I can’t do that,” he said.
With my own self at the front of my thoughts, anger filled me, and I roared, spreading my wings wide, but the chains through them held fast, and the human moved just out of my reach.
“Sorry,” he continued. “But I’m in a bit of a tight spot here. If I do something like that, Kejetan would have me killed.”
“I will take care of the man I once called father,” I said.
Caleb shook his head at me. “No,” he said. “You won’t.” He pulled back his sleeve and checked what I knew the humans called a watch. “Already, the concoction I gave you should be fading.”
The other presence within picked away at me, rising once more. “Then hurry and let me loose to face him,” I shouted. “I will destroy Kejetan for the situation he has brought on us all.”
Caleb smiled at me. “You might be able to take him on; I have no doubt of that,” he said. “But I don’t think you would escape this ship facing off against the whole of his fellow stone men or his human servants. And—this is the most important part to me—I don’t want to die or incur Kejetan’s wrath in the process.”
“You live your life as a coward,” I said, feeling my true voice beginning to slip back behind the wall of the dominant one.
“That’s not the first time I’ve been called that,” he said, grim. “I prefer the term self-preservationist.”
The struggle on my face must have been evident as the human looked on with concern. My wings relaxed on the chains, my body betraying me in service to the other presence rising in me.
“Why draw me out?” my inner voice cried out. “Why talk to me only to leave me here in Kejetan’s servitude?”
“I pulled the real you forward, so I could tell you that I’m sorry.”
“I will find a way to overcome this presence,” I said, struggling against its domination. “While I must obey it, my true self has always remained, bowing to it only when it is forced to do so, but I’ve been fighting it, tricking it. And if I can trick it, I can beat it.”
“There it is!” Caleb said, a dark smile taking over his face. “Exactly what I thought might be going on.”
“What do you mean?”
“You see, I know that when your master has me assign tasks to you, I need to be very specific. I’ve been very lax about that to this point, running up the meter for the sake of my wallet, but things seem to be getting a bit crazy in my life as of late. And if I want to stay safe and living, I need to give Kejetan what he desires, what he really wants: results. I’m really in a bind here.”
“No,” I said, fearing whatever this human had to say next, fearing what specific task he meant to set upon me. “I beg of you . . . speak with care of what you will ask of me.”
“Oh, I’ll be careful,” he said with a smile. “In fact, I’ll name the exact time and place you can pry Alexander Belarus’s master tome from the cold, dead hands of your biggest fan, Alexandra.”
My inner voice was nearly shut down now, but at Caleb’s words my rising anger forced it back to the surface. “If you harm her, I will find you and take your life,” I said. “You have my word on that, human.”
“I’m not going to kill her,” he said, turning to pull several more vials from his coat. “I’ll leave that up to the professionals. I’ll leave that up to you. Kejetan’s order.”
My mouth opened to roar, but nothing came out. Once more, I was no longer the force in control of my actions. My true voice fell silent. The only hint of my anguish now lay in the screaming voice that dwelled deep in the center of me, crushed as it was, like a bug under the heel of a boot, by the dominant voice.
“As . . . you . . . wish,” I said against my will, and waited to learn the time and place where I would kill Alexandra.
Fifteen
Alexandra
“You want to tell me why you have me counting all the time?” I asked Caleb, sitting across the table from me.
Caleb leaned back in his chair, looking around the bar he had brought me to, Eccentric Circles. I hadn’t ever been there before, but it seemed popular enough that the place was crowded and loud. “Are you doing it now?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, stopping to think about it, looking around the room.
“Focus,” Caleb said. “Why aren’t you sure?”
I sighed. “You told me to do it at the back of my mind,” I said. “So it’s not like I’m consciously thinking about it. I kind of have to—I don’t know—mentally switch gears.”
Caleb’s eyes stayed locked with mine, unwilling to let up. “So . . . are you doing it or not?”
I reached out to that part of my mind, surprised to find I was counting, and nodded.
“Good,” he said.
“That still doesn’t tell me why I’m doing it,” I said, my annoyance coming through in my words.
“Look around,” he said, turning away from me to take in our surroundings. “Tell me what you see.”
The bar was crowded with people at every booth and table, and it was standing room only by the bar itself. “I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “People. Lots and lots of people . . . ?”
It was Caleb’s turn to sigh. He leaned forward, knocking over his glass in the process. His drink spilled out across the table, but rather than soaking into the wood, the contents transformed into a wash of blue flame that danced high across the surface for several seconds before dying out. The table below remained unharmed.
I glanced around the room, but other than a few people who gave us a cursory glance, no one seemed all that interested in what had just happened.
“What the hell?” I said, surprised by the lack of reaction.
Caleb leaned in closer, and I noticed the vial in his hand as he discreetly slipped it back into his coat. “Are you still counting now?”
I switched my thoughts back over, finding the back of my mind a blank this time. “Shit,” I said.
“I thought as much,” he said. “I brought you here because you have to get used to distractions, Alexandra. All these people, spilling my drink, the flames on the table . . . You need to keep focused no matter what is going on around you.”
“How is the counting supposed to help?” I said. “Why is it so damned important?”
“Let’s start simple,” he said. “I’m having you do it because that’s how you’re going to be able to fly with those wings you’re building. The better a rhythm you can keep—without distraction—the easier it’s going to be keeping yourself airborne. But the best reason you need to lock that rhythm off in the back of your mind is because the front of it is going to be occupied.”
“With what?”
“Capturing your gargoyle,” he said.
My heart caught in my throat. “Oh,” I said, stunned.
“You’re going
to have your hands full,” he said. “The last thing I want you worrying about is staying in the air. You need to learn how to split your mind. I think that’s what’s been keeping you from moving further forward with your arcane endeavors.”
I cocked my head. “How do you know this?”
“That’s the other reason I brought you here,” he said. “When you look around this room, you just see a crowd of people.”
I looked around, really only seeing a bar filled with customers and nothing more. “Well, what do you see?”
Caleb raised his hand in a subtle manner and began pointing around the room at various tables. “Witch, witch, druid, warlock—”
“How can you tell?”
“It’s all in the details,” he said. “To be fair, I’ve worked with or for a bunch of them before. But the details are what you need to start focusing on. Look at the first woman I pointed at. That medallion around her neck is a Wiccan symbol. The man across from her has a Green Man tattoo on his forearm, so I’m going with druid for him. That guy who just walked by you, the one in the knee-length leather coat—it caught on one of the chairs, and he had some kind of shiny, retractable bat hanging from his belt inside it. Probably silver.”
I followed the movement of the man Caleb had just mentioned. “He looks familiar,” I said. “I think he used to come in the Lovecraft Café all the time when I was still working there.”
“Eccentric Circles attracts a certain type of crowd,” Caleb said.
“Eccentrics,” I said with a smile. “You sure this isn’t a date?”
“Paranormals,” he corrected. “Focus. It would serve you to learn your own kind.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, unable to take my eyes off the crowd all around us. “It’s a lot to take in. The counting, finding a whole bar filled with our kind of people. It’s distracting.”
“Perhaps too distracting,” he said, standing. He gestured toward the front of the bar. “Come on.”
I stood, still marveling at the crowd. “Where are we going?”
“Back to your place,” he said.
“Cheeky!”
“Still not a date,” he said. “Trust me. I just need somewhere where we can concentrate. And maybe try a little practical magic.”