“So we join hands and chant?”
“Join hands, yes. Chant, no. I just need you two to focus on the cuff link. I will channel our energy into drawing whatever the sapphire holds into the crystal so that you might see it.” She hesitated. “I cannot guarantee we will see anything, however. Lithomancy is generally used to ‘see’ the past, clarify the present, or predict the future. It is rarely used for what we are about to attempt.”
I nodded. She held out her hands, palms up. I placed one hand in hers, the other in Azriel’s. Her skin was warm against mine, and far softer than Azriel’s more calloused grip – naturally enough, given one was an earthbound witch and the other a gray-fields warrior. Adeline closed her eyes. After a few moments, energy began to rise, a heartbeat that seemed to fill the silence. As it grew stronger, the small crystal began to cloud over. It cleared again after a few moments, revealing a small, book-filled room. A study of some kind. The view shifted, and revealed the back of a woman. She was thickset, with almost manly shoulders and short colorless hair. It wasn’t white, wasn’t gray, wasn’t anything, really. It reminded me somewhat of an unwashed canvas, waiting for the arrival of paint.
A sorceress in her true form, perhaps? Azriel commented softly.
Perhaps.
The image shifted again. This time we got a side view of her; she had a large, almost regal-looking nose and thin lips framed by deep lines. Not someone who smiled very often. It wasn’t, however, Lauren. Or not as we knew her, anyway.
She rose and walked across the room. Our viewpoint followed her. She gathered several armloads of papers and returned, dropping them all in a suitcase and closing it. She left the room, but moments later returned, carrying another case.
She was packing up.
Which meant if we didn’t get there soon, we’d lose her. And yet there wasn’t enough information coming through the crystal to give an indication of where this was all happening.
The woman moved across the room again, her stout fingers brushing the edges of a framed painting. After a moment, the painting slid aside and revealed a wall safe. She opened this and took out four small items – three daggers and a broken bayonet.
Excitement surged through me, but it was tempered by panic. I had no doubt one of those things was the key to the second gate, and if she had it narrowed down to the four of them, then it wouldn’t take her very long to find the correct one.
Damn it, we were so close! All we needed was the where and the who…
We didn’t get it. The clouds closed over the image, then faded away. It was all I could do not to scream in frustration.
Adeline sighed and pulled her hands from ours. “I’m sorry, but that’s all I could get. As I said, this is not the usual way I use lithomancy.”
“Thanks for trying, Adeline. At least we know she’s out there.” To Azriel, I added, Could you transport us to that study?
No. There wasn’t enough information. All we saw were bookcases and a safe. It could be anywhere.
I slumped back in my chair and wearily rubbed my eyes. Damn it, why couldn’t things just go our way for a change? “How are we going to find the location of that place?”
“You could always try astrally.”
I frowned. “How could that help?”
“Well, for astral travel, you simply imagine where you want to be. It’s not the actual address that matters.”
I abruptly sat up. “Of course.” I could transport myself to that study, and from there, gather enough information for Azriel to take us there.
“It would be best, however,” Adeline continued, “if you did it here, where I can keep an eye on events and intervene if need be.”
Which Azriel could not, if something happened. It certainly made sense, but I still asked, “Why? I mean, it’s not like she could sense my astral presence, is it?”
“Many witches can, and you’ve already mentioned the possibility that this woman is a dark sorceress. And while you should be safe enough from any form of magical attack originating from this plane, if she is a dark sorceress, it would not be beyond her skill to mount an attack astrally.”
“Which I have no doubt she would do if she in any way suspected my presence.”
She’d certainly shown a propensity to cover her bases and attack so far. And while I might be doing little more than scooting out of that room to see where she was located, there was no way in hell I was going to risk getting attacked, astrally or otherwise. Been there, done that, and had no desire to do it again.
I added, “Are you available to try this right now?”
“I left the day free,” she said with a smile. “I expected you might be needing additional help.”
“I don’t know how I can ever thank you, Adeline.”
She waved the comment away and rose. “Stop these idiots, and that will be thanks enough.”
“That we can do.”
She nodded. “Let’s go, then. I suspect we don’t have much time, given she appeared to be packing up.”
I took off my shoes and padded after her. The room on the opposite side of the hall smelled faintly of lavender and chamomile, and my feet sank into a thick layer of mats and silk that covered the entire floor area.
“Lie down and make yourself comfortable,” Adeline said. “Do you need guidance?”
“No, I’ve stepped onto the plane a few times since I was last here.”
“Then I shall simply monitor.” She sat cross-legged near the door, her hands folded neatly in her lap.
I glanced at Azriel, who stood guard near the closed door – more for reassurance than anything else – then released a long, slow breath and imagined the tension within flowing out with it. Then I followed the routine Adeline had taught me. Within minutes I was not only on the astral plane but in the place we’d seen in the crystal. The woman was still in the study, although all four items from the safe were now neatly bubble wrapped and packed in the second case. Part of me wanted to move closer to the items, just to see if I was able to pick up any sort of vibration that would tell me which one was the actual key, but I resisted the temptation. I had no idea whether this woman would sense my astral presence or, if the key did react, whether she’d be able to sense that.
The last thing I needed right now was to give her any more of a head start than she already had.
Instead, I imagined myself standing outside the building that housed this room, but just as I did, the woman abruptly straightened. I hoped like hell she hadn’t sensed me – that she’d just finished her packing – but I couldn’t be certain, because the astral plane whisked me outside. The study was housed in a two-story brown brick warehouse that had been converted to a living accommodation. Unlike ours, however, this one – if the buzzers near the entrance were anything to go by – had more than one apartment within its four walls. Which wasn’t a whole lot of help given we could hardly go knocking on every door to find the right one.
I tried again, this time imagining myself standing outside the front door of the apartment that housed that study and, with very little sense of movement, I was suddenly in front of a very upmarket wooden and glass door. HARRIET MONTERREY, APARTMENT 1B, the little sign under the buzzer read.
Which was all I needed.
I imagined myself back in my body, and scrambled to my feet the minute I was. The room spun abruptly around me, and if not for the fact that Azriel grabbed my arm to steady me, I would have fallen.
“Whoa,” I muttered. “Did that way too fast, obviously.”
“Obviously,” Adeline said, voice dry. “But were you successful?”
“Yes, and I’m sorry, but we have to run. Thanks for the help and the coffee.”
She smiled. “You’re welcome to both, but perhaps when this is all over, you can actually stay and chat.”
“When this is all over, consider it a date.” It was the least I could do, after all. I glanced at Azriel. “You know where we’re going?”
“I have picked the necessary information from your memories, yes.”
I smiled. At least mind sharing sometimes saved the necessity of words. “She’s on the move, and she may have sensed me.”
“Then we go in ready to fight. Draw your sword.”
I did so, then stepped into his embrace. A second later we were in the study we’d seen in the crystal.
The woman and the cases were gone.
She had, however, left something behind for us – demons.
There were half a dozen in all, insubstantial wisps that were all teeth and claws. The bigger brothers and sisters of the Ania, I suspected.
Two of them came straight at me. I backpedaled fast and raised Amaya, sweeping her from left to right. She hissed, her flames splattering across the floorboards as her sharp point tore through one of the approaching creatures. The demon moaned – a sound abruptly cut off as its remaining fragments were swept up in Amaya’s trailing fire and burned to a crisp.
The second creature swept around to my right, attempting to attack from behind. I spun, and was confronted by the sight of a fistful of wickedly barbed teeth coming straight at my face. I swore and dropped. The demon whooshed over my head, the breeze of its passing strong enough that my hair was tugged after it. I twisted around, saw the creature’s wispy form spreading like a sail as it tried to break and turn, and I thrust upward with Amaya, twisting her steel into the creature’s tail. It screamed, the sound one of fury, then swung and bit her blade. There was enough force in the attack that her steel vibrated, and I’m not sure who was more surprised – me or Amaya. Then she made a sound suspiciously like a chuckle and her flames flared, wrapping around the creature, capturing it tight as she slowly – almost lovingly – consumed it.
I shuddered – although you’d think I’d be used to my sword’s bloodthirsty bent by now – and looked past her. Azriel stabbed Valdis through the heart of a creature, literally exploding it, then swung around. His fierce expression became one of relief as his gaze met mine. Then he turned and ran, leaving me flatfooted with surprise. I swore and galloped after him, catching a brief glimpse of his disappearing butt as he dived through a doorway farther down the hall.