Faerie Storm, page 17
part #8 of Harbinger P.I. Series
“So Dad took it.”
She nodded. “And the nine witches who remained in the Coven performed a spell that would hide the Codex in a place it could never be found but could still be used when the time was right.”
I knew what she was going to say next but I kept my mouth shut and waited.
“They wrote the contents of the Codex magically onto your bones.”
“Yeah, I had an X-ray and discovered it.”
“You’ve been tapping into its power,” she said. “You cast a nullifying spell to take away the magic in the manacles. When the entire spell—which is called the Melandra Configuration—is cast, it is a million times more powerful than what just happened. The Configuration is known as the Spell to End All Spells. It nullifies all magic and seals the Earthly realm from all others.”
“And it’s written on my bones.”
“A time will come when you’ll need it, Alec. When that time arrives, you’ll know what to do.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will.” She gestured to the door. “Now, we need to go.”
I wasn’t going to argue with that. I followed her out into the hallway. Even though the manacles had been removed, she seemed to be in a lot of pain. When she saw my father, she collapsed into his arms.
He held her up and said, “We have to get her back to the Coven quickly.”
“Back to the Coven?” I said, helping him guide her to the steps.
“Her work here is done,” he said. “The enchantment that keeps her alive while she’s away from the Coven’s realm is fading. It only lasts as long as she’s performing the task she came here to do and that’s over now.”
“But her life isn’t,” I insisted. “It can’t be.”
“Maybe if we get her back to her own realm, there’s a chance she’ll live,” he said. Then he added, “Although there’s no life or death in that realm so maybe live isn’t the right word.”
With Leon taking point in case we ran into any surviving Cabal members, we ascended the steps and left the castle. As we exited through the gate, I didn’t look back. Excalibur was in the courtyard somewhere, lying among the bodies of those it had slain.
As far as I was concerned, it could stay there. I never wanted to see it again.
When we got to the bottom of the hill, Merlin was conspicuous by his absence. I wished I could dismiss him as easily as the sword and hope I never saw him again but he was in Sheriff Cantrell’s body and I was sure I was going to have to persuade him to leave.
“Gather around, everyone,” my father said. “We’re going to go to a place called Harbinger Academy and then we’re going to get you all home.” He looked at the two young girls as he said this.
“I don’t have a home to go to,” Cathy said.
Christina, who looked like her heart was about to break when she heard those words, knelt down next to Cathy and said, “Don’t worry, we’ll sort something out.”
My father produced an egg-like item from his pocket. “We will indeed. But first, we need to get to the academy.” He turned to my mom and me with a grave look on his face. “From there, we can get to the witches’ realm.”
He placed the egg on the ground and a portal opened that showed a number of large buildings clustered around a grassy area with a fountain.
Holding my mother tightly, feeling her strength fade away with each passing, I quickly stepped through.
27
“This is Harbinger Academy,” my dad said as we went through the main door of the largest building. “We’re going to train people. Much like the Society’s Shadow Academy but better, of course.”
“Dad, we don’t need an explanation,” I said. “Just get us to the witches.”
“Yes, of course,” he said. “Felicity, why don’t you take the others to the kitchen and find them something to eat? I’m sure everyone must be hungry after their ordeal.”
“I don’t know where the kitchen is,” she said.
“Just through that door and follow the corridor. You’ll find it.”
Felicity, Leon, Christina, and the girls disappeared through the door my father had indicated while he and I went to an elevator.
“Will this take us to the witches?” I asked, remembering the elevator in the Society HQ that had taken us to the Coven’s realm.
“No, we have to go through my office,” he said. “Don’t worry, we’ll be there in no time.” He looked at my mother with a concerned look and gently stroked her hair.
“She told you about the Melandra Codex, I take it?”
“She did,” I said.
“I knew the Society would eventually link me with its disappearance,” he said. “I had to hide it somewhere where I knew it would be safe.”
I looked at him with a hard expression. “On my bones?”
“Yes, on your bones. The spell contained in the Codex is very powerful. I had to leave it with someone I could trust; someone I knew would do the right thing when the time came. There’s no one I trust more than you, son.”
The elevator stopped and the door opened.
“Quickly,” he said, leading me to a door that bore his name on a plaque.
We entered the room and he pulled aside one of the bookcases on the wall to reveal a green-lit passageway. He led me along the passageway to a set of stone steps that spiraled down to unseen depths.
“Shall I help you carry her down there?” he asked.
“No, I’ve got her. Just show me the way.”
We descended as quickly as we could until we came to a room with an archway that was hung with a curtain of what looked like tiny bones. My dad pushed through it and I followed. I could feel my mother still breathing but her body had become limp in my arms.
The cavern of the witches was the same as I remembered. Huge and imposing with a raised rocky platform in the center. On that platform, nine cloaked figures huddled in a circle around a pool of black liquid.
As we approached the platform, my father spoke to the dark figures. “I’ve brought Sabina back to you. Her work on the Earthly plane is done.”
“Then it is time for her life force to fade,” said a female voice that rose from the pool.
“Her work is brought to its conclusion,” said another.
“Like all mortals, she must die.”
“Really?” I said, anger sparking inside me. “She sacrifices herself to do your work and you just toss her away when you’re finished with her?”
“As you say, she sacrificed herself. She knew the price and she accepted it willingly.”
“Well I don’t accept it,” I said. I’d had enough of being used as a pawn in someone else’s game, of being controlled like a puppet by Merlin, Excalibur, and now the witches. Enough was enough. I was determined to make the next move of my own free will.
“If you don’t take her back, I won’t cast the Melandra Configuration,” I said. “I mean, that’s what you want, right? For me to cast this ultra-powerful spell when the time comes? I won’t do it. I’ll never cast it, no matter the circumstances.”
A hush descended over the cavern. My father fixed me with an icy glare and lowered his voice to an angry whisper. “Alec, don’t threaten the witches. I’ve never heard of anything so foolish.”
“You don’t want mom to die, do you?” I shot back.
That made him turn his face away from me and become quiet.
“You will cast the Configuration,” said a voice from the pool. “It is prophesied.”
“Yeah, well prophecies are made to be broken.”
The silence was deafening.
I waited. For some reason, they’d seen fit to give me their most valuable tool without my consent and now I was damned well going to use it for my own benefit.
“There is a way Sabina can rejoin our number,” one of the witches finally said.
I stepped closer to the platform, my mother clutched in my arms. “Then do it.”
“She may rejoin the Coven,” said another voice.
“But,” said another, “there will be a price.”
28
“Price,” I repeated. “What sort of price?”
“She will remember nothing of her time on the Earthly realm,” said a voice from the pool.
“She will not remember ever leaving here.”
“The entire journey will be wiped from her mind.”
“So she’ll forget me and my father,” I said, pointing at my dad.
“She won’t remember anything of the relationships she formed in your realm,” said one the witches. The way they all spoke from the pool, each conveying the same sentiments in different ways, made them seem more like a collective than individuals. Would my mother become absorbed into the collective and lose every part of her personality that made her unique?
“There has to be another way,” I said.
“There is no other way.”
My mother stirred in my arms. “I’ll do it, Alec. They’re right, there’s no other way. If I don’t rejoin the Coven, I’ll die. At least if I become a member again I’ll be helping you, even if I don’t remember that you’re my son.”
She looked over at my dad. “Thomas, I may forget everything that happened between us but please know that I don’t regret a single moment.”
The tears were in his eyes again as he nodded.
“Alec,” she said, stroking my cheek, “I know you’ll do what’s right. I’m so proud of you.” She smiled and kissed my cheek softly. “Now, I have to go before it’s too late.” I released my grip on her and she made her way to the platform while my father and I watched.
As she climbed the steps, two of the witches got to their feet and stood on either side of her while one of the dark figures on the far side of the pool also got up and waited.
My mother stepped into the pool and descended slowly into the black depths, as if walking down a set of steps. She kept going until the dark liquid swirled around her and she was completely submerged.
I heard my father weeping by my side. Then he gently whispered, “Goodbye, Sabina.”
After a couple of seconds, she emerged from the pool, stepping up out of it, naked, toward the witch on the other side. A black robe was produced from somewhere and placed around her shoulders, the cowl arranged over her head.
The four standing witches took their places around the pool and sat, forming a circle of ten. They gazed into the pool and were it not for the fact that there were now ten instead of nine, the scene would be exactly as it had been when we’d entered the cavern.
A voice rose from the pool. “Leave us.”
Turning away, my father and I faced the curtain of bone. He staggered slightly as if the strength had drained from his legs and I caught him, letting him lean on me as we made our way back to the curtain.
“I love her, Alec,” he said. “I never thought it would end like this.”
I guided him through the curtain and held him tightly while he wept.
“She may have forgotten us,” I told him, “But we won’t forget her.”
29
An hour later, I stood on the roof of the academy building, leaning against the parapet and staring out across the endless sea of trees that stretched to the horizon. Everyone else was in the kitchen, eating and talking about their recent experiences. Talking things through was therapeutic but I needed time to reflect on what had happened at the Cabal castle before I spoke with anyone about it.
But that reflection could come later; right now, I just wanted to empty my mind and appreciate the beauty this realm had to offer. I could see why my father had chosen to build the academy here, even if the details of why he’d chosen to build an educational institution in the first place seemed a little sketchy.
When I asked him about it, he merely said that Harbinger Academy was a replacement for the Society’s Shadow Academy but there seemed to be more to it than that.
I didn’t press him on the matter. What he chose to do with his time was his business. Just as he’d said that he trusted me. I guessed that went both ways. Whatever he was doing here, it would be something that helped people, of that I was certain.
I heard movement on the roof behind me and turned to see Felicity walking toward me with a bottle of beer in each hand.
She handed one to me and said, “I thought you might like one of these. It’s been a long day.”
“It has,” I said, raising the bottle to my lips.
“Wait,” she said. “I propose a toast.”
“All right. What should we drink to?”
“How about everything ending as it should?”
I thought about that. “Is that what you think happened here? That everything has ended as it should?”
“Apart from your mother,” she said. “I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s okay. Although I’m a little worried about how my father’s taking it.”
“He’s resilient,” she said. “He’ll be all right.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I hope so. And he’ll have you to watch out for him now that he’s your new boss.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he’s okay.”
“So,” I said. “This academy. Do you think you’ll be happy here?”
“I will. I think Harbinger Academy is going to do a lot of good and I want to be a part of that.”
“Everyone in Dearmont misses you,” I told her. Then I said what I’d actually meant to say. “I miss you.”
“And I miss you,” she said. “But there’s no way I can come back now. The Society sees me as a way to get to your father. Things can’t go back to how they were before.”
“I know that,” I said. I knew it but I didn’t like it. I wanted Felicity back in Dearmont. I wanted to be close to her every day.
A silence descended between us. Felicity broke it by saying, “Cathy is going to stay here.”
“At the academy?”
“She has nowhere else to go and we can help her learn how to use her powers. And when the other students arrive, there’ll be lots of other people around, which will be good for her.”
“What about Lydia?”
“She’s going home but she promised to visit whenever she can. Cathy is glad about that. She’s still feeling guilty about what happened.”
“I’m sure she’ll come to terms with it,” I said.
“Yes,” she said. “I’m sure she will. So now we can drink to everything ending as it should.” She raised her bottle.
I clinked it with my own and we both drank.
“Speaking of visiting,” Felicity said, “Maybe you’ll visit the academy every now and then?” She looked at me with hope in her dark eyes.
I didn’t need to be asked twice. “Of course.”
“Good,” she said, smiling.
I opened my arms and Felicity moved forward, her own arms snaking around my back. We hugged tightly and I closed my eyes, breathing in her familiar scent and relishing the sensation of holding her so close.
The door that led to the stairs opened and Leon waved at us. “Hey, guys, everyone is wondering where you are. It’s time to get Lydia home.”
“It is,” I said, still holding Felicity. “She must be desperate to see her mom again.”
We broke our hug and went down to the first floor, where everyone was gathered by the front door. My father was watching over everyone like a mother hen. Lydia and Cathy were hugging and promising to see each other again soon.
My dad handed me one of the ornate eggs. “This will take you back to your cabin by the lake. Leon and I worked out the exact coordinates and I’ve put them into the device.”
“Thanks,” I said.
He threw his arms around me and hugged me tightly. “Take care of yourself, Alec.”
“I will,” I told him. “You too. And good luck with this place.”
He smiled and nodded, wiping a tear from his cheek.
I went outside and stood on the graveled forecourt. Leon and Lydia joined me.
I looked over at Christina, who was standing in the doorway with the others.
“You coming?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I’m going to stay here for awhile. Your dad is doing some good things with this place and I’d like to help. It beats being spied on in New York.”
“I get that,” I said. I placed the egg on the ground and the air above it opened, showing the Pine Retreat cabin and Moosehead lake. With a wave to everyone standing in the doorway of Harbinger Academy, Leon, Lydia, and I stepped through the portal.
30
As the three of us set foot on the dirt road outside the Pine Retreat cabin, the shimmering portal closed behind us. The day was cold despite the sun being high in the sky. Since we’d been in Faerie, where time moved differently to everywhere else, I wasn’t sure exactly what day it was.
Lydia shivered.
“I’ll get a jacket for you from the cabin,” I said.
She shook her head. “I’m not cold, I’m excited. I’m home. I didn’t think I was going to make it. I thought I’d never see my mom again.”
“Okay, let’s get you back to her right now,” Leon said. “Have you thought about what story you’re going to tell her?”
She nodded. “I think I’ll tell her I got lost in the woods.”
He nodded. “She might go for that.”
“I used to be a Girl Scout so she knows I could survive on my own in the woods if I had to.” She looked from Leon to me. “I can’t tell her the truth because she has very strong beliefs. If I told her about Faerie and magic and stuff, she might think I’m lying but she also might think I was taken by the Devil or something. It’s just what she believes.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I met her. She isn’t too keen on P.I.s.”
Lydia shook her head. “No, she isn’t. She thinks you’re all in league with dark forces.”
I winced at the suggestion.
“Maybe I should take Lydia home,” Leon offered. “Otherwise, her mom might think you had something to do with her disappearance. She doesn’t know who I am. I’ll just say I was driving by and saw Lydia by the side of the road.”
