8
Barden hadn’t replied to me, and I was growing frustrated. I sat in my car, debating whether or not I should drive over to the warehouse, until I decided to do so. I was getting impatient, not knowing whether he was keeping something from me, or whether there was something I needed to know about what had happened to Kate.
The drive over from the condo to the warehouse didn’t take long. I had made the drive now many times, and no longer had to even use my GPS in order to find my way there. Pulling my car up alongside the warehouse, I looked for signs of movement, signs of anyone within the warehouse to tell me others were there, but I didn’t come up with anything.
There was a sense of magic, and the cold burned along my arms and into my chest. That was new. Usually when I sensed magic, it only worked its way along my arms and into my legs, and rarely went into my chest, which left me wondering if I might be growing even more attuned it to it.
I headed over to the door, pausing to feel for the magic. I could sense it working its way through the runes worked upon the doorway. Pushing a hint of magic into them and triggering them, I got the door to open. I didn’t think Barden had blocked my entrance to the warehouse, but I didn’t know if I would be allowed to go any further.
The warehouse was generally empty. There was no one working at the banks of computers, and there was no sense of movement. The air was calm, and a few dust motes hung. Every so often, the electrical hum of a computer kicked in, the steady whirring sound that told me someone had been here, whether or not they were now. I made my way along the rows of computers, tempted to peek at the screens, but all of them were black.
I reached the back of the warehouse and tested the door. Of course it was locked, but the sense of magic flowing from it was easy for me to detect. I pushed, trying to trigger the various runes on it to see if I could unlock it. Knowing Barden, he might have changed it already, trying to keep me from being able to enter, though I wondered if he’d enough time in order to do so. It required me to push a considerable amount of magic into it. When I did, I still wasn’t able to open the door.
I pulled out one of my spell coins and used it. This was one of the triggering coins I’d made, and when I triggered it and focused it on the door, I found I was able to push even more power. In doing so, the door responded, the runes upon it flashing briefly before the door itself came open. There was a sense of resistance, but not nearly what I had expected. Had Barden not changed it since I had been here last? That surprised me. I would have expected Barden to take the time to add additional augmentations to the door in order to prevent me from getting in, but maybe he’d been too distracted by everything that had been taking place.
The other side of the door was quiet, just like rest the warehouse. It was unusual for Barden’s warehouse to have nobody in it, and I made my way carefully along the hallway to his office. When I reached it, I pushed on the runes there, triggering them, and like before, the door came open.
A fire glowed in the hearth, crackling with warmth. At first, I didn’t think anyone was here, but as I surveyed the room, I noticed a person lying on the sofa. They were sleeping. I approached quietly, hesitant to get too close, and didn’t want to awaken them, but it was Darvish. Why would Darvish be here but not Barden?
He stirred, rolling over and looking up at me. “Dr. Stone,” he said, through partially slitted eyes. “How long have I been asleep?”
“I don’t know. I just got here.”
“Where’s Barden?”
“I was going to ask you that. The entire warehouse is empty.”
“Empty?” Darvish sat up more suddenly, and he glanced toward the door. “How did you open it?”
“Didn’t Barden tell you about my talent?”
“We have been a little preoccupied with other discussions.”
“Kate.”
“Yes.”
“I want to be involved in whatever you decide.”
“That’s not going to be up to me,” Darvish said.
“It could be,” I said.
Darvish shifted in his chair, looking at me for a moment. Not for the first time, I noticed how haunted his eyes looked, and the way he stared at me, the darkness rimming his eyes. What had he been through? I knew it was something horrible. How much had he shared with Barden?
Probably everything, and given what I knew about Barden, and the way he viewed himself as needing to protect me, I doubted Barden would share with me what I wanted to know if he thought it was likely to end up with me in any danger.
“I’m not about to go against Barden in this,” he said.
“I’m not asking you to go against Barden. I’m asking you to let me provide whatever help I can for my friend.”
“We don’t even know she needs our help,” he said.
Shifting my feet, I shook my head at Darvish. “Have you seen anything from her suggesting she doesn’t need our help?”
“I haven’t seen anything suggesting she does,” he said.
I had a hard time believing that. He wouldn’t have spent as long with Barden as he had were there not any greater concern. And I knew Barden wouldn’t have disappeared the way he had if there was no reason to be concerned. Still, I didn’t know what I could do. The challenge was twofold. Not only did I not know where to begin, but if she was on the other side of the Veil, then there wouldn’t be any way for me to reach her to even offer any help. The other side was a mystery to me. Unless I had a way for someone to bring me to the other side, I wouldn’t be able to help her at all.
“You have a lot more faith in Kate than I would’ve expected.”
“I was around Kate for a while,” Darvish said. “We’ve encountered a few things, and in the process, I came to realize she is incredibly powerful.”
“I thought you knew that already.”
“I did, but it was more about realizing the depths of her power, and the things she was able to do. Surprisingly, she is not limited in any way on this side of the Veil.”
“She’s not on this side of the Veil,” I said.
“She’s not.”
“Where did Barden go?” I turned and motioned toward the door, toward the rest of the warehouse. “As far as I can tell, there’s no one out there. Barden only does that when he’s trying to protect his people.” Looking at Darvish, I realized something. Barden had left him behind, too. It fit with the kind of thing Barden would do. He would view Darvish as needing his protection.
Turning back toward the door, I knew where I had to go. If Barden wasn’t here, I suspected where I could find him.
“Where are you going?” Darvish asked.
“I’m going to see if I can’t find out what Barden is up to.”
“Where do you think it might be?”
“If he’s not here, then he’s either at the mage council or he has crossed Veil.” And I hope he hadn’t crossed already.
As I reached the door, Darvish joined me. “Why would he be at the mage council?”
“If he thinks he’s going to be able to help Kate, then he’s going to go for the people he knows would be willing to work with him.”
“The Michaels.”
“Right. Veran and Cynthia helped us the last time when we were dealing with a threat.”
We reached the main part of the warehouse, and Darvish slowed, looking around. “He did leave.”
“I told you,” I said.
“Barden usually takes more time to plan.”
“But if what you said is true and Kate is in danger, he wouldn’t have had much time.”
I knew the kind of people Barden had access to, and knowing Kate had ties to the shifters along with the vampires and both sides of the mage councils, I suspected Barden would be able to bring serious heat, but I wasn’t sure if that was the right strategy. What had Barden learned about the other side of the Veil? We both had heard from Matt Gillespie about the different realms, but even Barden didn’t have as much knowledge as he needed.
When I reached
my car, Darvish climbed in the passenger side.
“What are you doing?”
“If Barden has crossed, I am going with you.”
“Going with me where?”
He twisted in his seat, looking at me. “If you’re going after Michaels, then I intend to be there.”
“I’m not so sure you’re her type.” He stared at me unblinking. “What happened to Aron?”
“She left him behind.”
“Why?”
“Because she needed to have someone she could reach on this side of the Veil.”
“That doesn’t fit with what I know of Kate” he said.
“I can’t tell you what to make of it, and I do know he’s been working with the mage council, but…” If he was working with the mage council, then he would be the next person Barden would approach. And from what I remembered Kate telling me, Aron was incredibly powerful.
“Do you think you can drive any faster?” Darvish asked.
“I’m not going to go crazy,” I said.
“You could at least go the speed limit,” Darvish said.
“Listen, I don’t need a backseat driver.”
“I’m not really in the backseat though,” Darvish said.
“Fine, I don’t need a side seat driver.” Even though I grumbled, I did step on the gas a little bit. He was right. I probably could be picking up the pace a little bit, and the faster I drove, the faster I would get to the mage council house, and once I was there, then I could see what they were going to do. I had a strong suspicion Veran and Cynthia were already gone.
When I pulled up on their street, the sense of magic surged along my arms. I slowed, tensing.
Darvish watched me. “You can feel it, can’t you?”
“I can feel what?”
“The use of magic,” he said.
“How did you know?”
“Mostly it’s your reaction. You hesitated. I’ve seen it with Kate, too. Not so much anymore, but when she was first learning to control her abilities, she was tensing up in the same way all the time.”
I glanced over to him. “She saved you, too.”
“She did. Many times now.”
“Do you have the ability to detect magic?”
“Why?”
“If it’s something she has the ability to do, I thought I gained it from the connection formed between us,” I told him.
“I’m not so sure it works like that.”
“Why not?”
“I haven’t gained any specific abilities from my connection to Kate. The only thing I gained was an awareness of where she is and what she’s doing. Nothing more.”
There went my theory. I had believed I’d begun to develop those connections because of the bond between Kate and myself, but if not, it meant the ability to detect magic came from me alone. That surprised me. How would I have suddenly acquired the ability to detect magic? At first it had come from the bracelet, but the more I worked with it, the less likely that appeared to be the case. “It’s a rare ability,” I said. “Why should I have it, then?”
“You got me,” he said.
“I thought you would know these things.”
“I was never the researcher. That was always Barden.”
“What were you?”
“I had a different purpose.”
“What was it?”
“I was the one he sent in when he needed someone to take care of issues.”
“What sort of issues?”
“The kind that involves my particular set of skills.” There was something dangerous about the way he said it.
Reaching the long driveway leading up to the mage council house, I pulled all the way up to the door, the sense of magic still radiating along my arms. It was a distinct and powerful sense, but it wasn’t painful. I could feel it rolling through me, and I wondered if there was anything more to it I could pick up on. The longer I sensed it, the less certain I was.
Getting out of the car, I headed toward the door, and Darvish followed slowly. Power built from him, too, as if he were ready for the possibility of an attack at any moment. I suppose that given he was a Dark Council mage, coming to a place like this would be difficult. Barden had far more experience doing so, and was far more comfortable coming here, but even he had a certain reservation in coming to the mage council home.
When I knocked, Darvish glanced over at me. “What happens when they don’t answer?”
“Then I go in,” I said.
“It doesn’t work that way,” he said.
“Why not?”
“Because they will have protections placed upon the door which will prevent you from setting foot on the other side of it.”
“It’s been my experience with my magic that those protections don’t matter a great deal.”
Darvish watched me, and then he grinned at me. “I have to say I find your attitude refreshing.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because most people are afraid of the mage council.”
“I wasn’t raised around magic, so I don’t have an affiliation with either side.”
“Still.”
“Barden has been the one who’s bringing me into the magical world. Because of Barden, I know how to use my magic.”
“He’s always been a teacher,” he said.
“I find that interesting,” I said, waiting outside. I knocked again, not sure if the first one had been heard. When I’d come the last time, there’d been a response at the door right away, which suggested either there wasn’t anyone here, or they knew we were here and about to open the door. “Considering the danger to himself in teaching, the fact that he was always willing to do so surprises me.”
“Barden recognizes the value in working with others to enhance the strength of the Dark Council,” Darvish said.
“And by that you mean…”
“By that I mean he knows if we don’t continue to replenish our numbers, we will eventually fade away.”
“That wouldn’t really happen, would it?”
“There was a time when the Dark Council had been hunted nearly to extinction. The mage council made every effort to do everything they could to remove Dark Council mages. You can imagine what it was like for those of us who were learning our magic at that time.”
I had heard Barden talking about it before and knew there was a lot of torment among the Dark Council mages. It was something which still angered him, though he rarely spoke of it. I knew it drove him. “What was it like for Barden?” This wasn’t the best time to be having this conversation, but the next step for me was to force open the door, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that yet. If I did, then I’d be risking the anger of the mage council, and though I wasn’t sure if they would do anything to me, I certainly knew I didn’t want to anger them too quickly.
“You mean his family?”
“I mean in general. He told me he has gone through a lot,” I said.
“Barden has gone through plenty, and unfortunately, most of it has been a hardship for him. He doesn’t like to talk about it, especially as he lost his entire family when he was a younger man.”
“I won’t tell him you said that.”
Darvish smiled at me. “There’s no shame in calling Barden older. He’s lived a full life. And though he might be slowing down, he is still incredibly well respected by those who know him.”
I turned my attention away from Darvish, focusing on the door. There were markings along the door like there were on the inside. And though I didn’t know how to trigger it, having not seen it open before, I wondered if that mattered. If I sent enough of a trigger through the door, could I open it anyway?
Drawing upon that power wouldn’t be difficult. As I focused, I could feel the energy of the door. I pushed power out from me and into it. The spells upon the door resisted me. It was not subtle, and the more I tried to push, the more power I had to force outward, the harder it was for me to do. Could I overwhelm it the same way as I had at Barden’s place?
“Are you sure you can do this?” Barden whispered.
“Quiet,” I said, focusing on the door.
The more I pushed, the more energy I drew upon, the more I wasn’t sure I could do it. I still had another spell coin in my pocket, although I didn’t know if I would need it for something else. Fishing the coin out my pocket, I squeezed it, sending a hint of power through it. When I did, I forced it into the door. The resistance was there, but this time, I overwhelmed it, blasting through. And the door opened.
Darvish glanced over at me. “You weren’t even using a lot of magic.”
“Wait, I wasn’t?”
He shook his head. “I was holding onto a spell to try to get a sense of what power you have, and, well, it wasn’t so much magic.”
“It felt like a lot of magic,” I said.
“It probably was to you, but in the grand scheme of things, it really wasn’t.”
“You really know how to make me feel special.”
“I don’t think you should feel anything but special. I wouldn’t have been able to open the door with as much power as you used.”
“You’re a strong mage, so I suspect you would have been able to do it just fine.”
“There’s a difference between strength and focus. In the case of what you’re able to do, you have focus. That was how you were able to open the door when I couldn’t have possibly. Now I get what Barden was saying about you.”
“What was he saying about me?”
“He was remarking upon your ability. He’d never seen anything quite like it. We’ve had plenty of hedge mages who’ve developed specific talents, and most of those talents are useful, but there’s been nothing like this.”
“I guess I should thank him,” I said. I looked through the open door, scanning to see if any of the mage council mages would be coming. I saw no one. I focused on whether or not I could feel the sense of magic. I still didn’t detect that.
“What are you hesitating for?” Darvish asked.
“I don’t know if I should go in.”
He started laughing. “You’ve already opened the door, so you might as well step inside.”
Lost Cause Page 8