Crossroads (22 page)
I stood and drew Talonclaw from its sheath, facing north. Holding the dagger in front of me, point upward, I began to activate the circle.
“Spirits of the North, Powers of Earth, I call you to be present in my circle. Fertile soil, unyielding rock, brilliant sand, and precious crystal, send forth your power, make my circle strong and let it stand against all things that might come to do me harm. Hail and welcome.”
I lowered my mageblade to point at the northern candle, and a green flame sprang up from the wick, causing the rune in the triangle to shimmer with a faint greenish light. The scent of freshly turned soil and freshly cut grass seemed to fill the circle. I drew up the light with the power of my will and used it to draw a pentagram shimmering in the air on the edge of the circle.
Then I turned toward the east, where the morning light shone through the gaps covering the windows. The remains of some stained glass turned the light into a cascade of jewel-tones on the floor.
“Spirits of the East, Powers of Fire, I call you to be present in my circle. Light of knowledge, forge fire, heat of passion, spark of inspiration, send forth your power, make my circle blaze with light to fight back the darkness that may come to do me harm. Hail and welcome.”
A wave of warmth washed over my face and hands as I lowered my blade, and the eastern candle burned with reddish fire that I drew up to make a pentagram of red flames in the east before turning to the south.
“Spirits of the South, Powers of Air, I call you to be present in my circle. Gentle breeze, roaring gale, breath of life, wind of reason, send forth your power, make my circle resilient and blow away the mists that obscure the truth. Hail and welcome.” The southern candle flickered with a pure yellow flame that formed a pentacle in the southern quarter as a cooling breeze seemed to blow through the circle.
Lastly, I turned to the west. “Spirits of the West, Powers of Water, I call you to be present in my circle. Gray twilight, ocean depths, cauldron of transformation, send forth your power, make my circle flow and change to protect me from harm. Let me drink of your depths and find the knowledge I seek.” The western candle held a watery blue fire that I used to put the final pentagram in place as I heard a sound like the roaring of waves against a rocky shore.
I turned again to the north and held Talonclaw overhead, pointing up to the heavens. The remaining four candles ignited at the cross-quarters, all burning with a warm golden light that seemed to spread out all around me.
“Earth, Fire, Air, and Water.” I intoned, “bind this circle and keep me from all forces that may come to do me harm. Watch over me as I travel on my journey to find the truth. I create a place between the worlds, a space beyond space and a time beyond time, standing on the border of the Otherworld, where the deepest paths are open on Samhain. I will journey along those secret roads until I find what I seek. So be it.”
The pentacles of light flared and the circle was enclosed in a dome of opalescent light, mixing the colors of all the candles into one. I sheathed my mageblade and stretched out on the floor, placing my rolled-up jacket beneath my head as a pillow. I looked up into the light of the circle’s protection and began to slip into a trance. My spirit slipped the bonds of my body and I traveled into the depths of the astral plane.
On the threshold, the twilight border between the metaplanes and the outside world, lives the Dweller on the Threshold. The Dweller takes many forms, and always tries to dissuade travelers from entering the metaplanes. Some believe it is a manifestation of subconscious resistance, the ego or id speaking to you through images in a deep trance, a kind of subconscious defense mechanism. Others believe the Dweller is a powerful spirit, guardian of the gateway into the metaplanes, with its own mysterious reasons for testing those who try to enter the domains beyond. If you ask me, it’s nothing more than a serious pain in the ass.
As I passed through a long tunnel, I could see a dark figure ahead, silhouetted by a blood-red light coming from beyond.
“You come because you must.” said the figure of Dr. Gordon. He was surrounded by the reddish glow from the wide tunnel behind him. The light made it impossible to see what lay beyond. Gordon was on my mind, so it was no surprise that the Dweller took on his form.
“You won't keep your promise.” the image of Gordon said. “After all, what is a promise made in the heat of the moment? You won’t keep it. You’ll turn away, find some reason to go elsewhere, like you always do.”
“What?” I said.
“You always leave. When things become too difficult, you find yourself an out and you’re gone.”
“That’s not true!” The Dweller always tries to rattle your cage, tries to create self-doubt to keep travelers from going any further. In this particular case, it was doing a pretty good job.
“Of course it is.” the doctor’s image continued. He was considerably more calm and rational than when I saw him last, more like the old Dr. Gordon I knew from the Institute. “I gave you an opportunity to escape the attack of that fire elemental and you took it. You already had what you needed from me. Tell the old man whatever he wants to hear, eh? It doesn’t really matter whether or not you mean it.”
“I tried to
help
you...” I started to say.
“You just can’t think of anyone other than yourself.” said the image of Ryan Mercury, the leader of Assets, Inc. “You have to grab all the glory. You can’t follow the plan because you don’t happen to agree with it.”
“I did what I had to do. There wasn’t any time to go according to the plan.” I said.
“So you take it on yourself to make life or death decisions for everyone else? Do you think that makes you worthy of being a part of our team? Are you the kind of person we can trust with our lives?”
“Dammit, Ryan.” I said. “I nearly died for you and the team, to get the Dragon Heart into place!”
“Maybe you should have died.” Ryan said, his words like cold razors. “Maybe it should have been you instead of all the other people who died. Maybe you should have died and Lucero should have been the one to get her life back. Do you really think you’re worthy of a second chance at life?”
“And what have you done with it?” asked Jane-in-the-Box, a virtual vixen clad in tight red leather. “When things get tough and you decide you can’t handle it, what do you do? You run away again. You don’t turn to your friends for help, to people who care about you. You just leave.”
“I don’t want anyone else involved.” I said. “This is my problem. It doesn’t involve anyone else.”
“Don’t want anyone else involved?” Trouble asked me. “Who do you think I am? I came to you because this whole mess I’m in is your fault. I’m involved up to my neck, and you treat this like it’s your own personal vendetta, like nobody else matters. I reached out to you, and you won’t even tell me the truth. You’d rather let me think there’s something wrong with me.”
“I am going to tell you, just not right now. It’s not the right time.” I said weakly.
“Oh, really? When were you planning on getting to the truth? Waiting to see if I walk away from this run? If you’re lucky, maybe one of us will get killed and save you the trouble of talking to another person at all.”
“It’s not like that...” I started to say.
“No?” Boom said, his deep voice echoing strangely. “Isn’t it? How long did we run together, Talon? A few years? After I came back to Boston and took over the nightclub, did you try and get in touch with me? Did our friendship mean anything to you?”
“Of course it did, but I was involved in so many runs after Dunkelzahn’s assassination, then Assets took me on and . . . there was never any time.”
“But when you needed something from me, there was plenty of time, eh?”
“It’s not like that!” I protested. “I’ve been away from Boston for too long. I didn’t know the shadows here! I couldn’t operate on unfamiliar ground without help.”
“I thought this didn’t involve anyone else.” Boom said. “I thought it was personal.”
“It is.” I said.
“Maybe it’s personal for more people than just you.”
“I just don’t want anyone else to get hurt.” I said. “Why? Because you’re afraid of how it will hurt you?”
said a familiar voice. The deep green eyes and freckled features were just as I remembered them. Damn the Dweller to hell.
“Jase?” I said in a small voice.
“That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? So no one else is at risk, so you can do what needs to be done alone. Is that it?”
“But you couldn’t have come this far without help.”
“Yes.”
“So, doesn’t your friends risking themselves for you make this personal for them, too?” Jase’s image said. “Don’t you care about them?”
“Of course I do but. . .”
“But not too much.” he said.
“I don’t want anyone to get hurt.” I said weakly.
“Like I did?” Jase said. “Like
you
did? Life is risk, Talon. Everyone gets hurt sooner or late. Everyone dies.”
“Gods, Jase, I miss you so much.” The image began to fade from sight until there was nothing except the opening into the metaplanes, glowing dull red, like blood.
“Go on, Tal.” Jase’s voice said from all around me. “Go and finish what you started.”
I stepped into the blood red light and it surrounded me. I was drifting alone in a sea of blood. The light was hot around me and I couldn’t see anything but red. Time seemed to slip away and I was floating, drifting. I felt a gentle tug pulling me upward and flowed along with it. It was like swimming through light, which grew brighter and brighter.
My head broke the surface and I found myself swimming in some kind of sea. The waters were red like blood, and warm. I stepped onto shore and came onto a beach of golden sand, looking up at the wonder before me.
The narrow strip of beach hugged the walls of a vast city, towering high above. The walls were cut from black volcanic stone, polished smooth as glass, soaring overhead. The towers of the city stretched taller than the high walls, made of gleaming copper, brass, and gold, all shining in the heat of a brilliant yellow sun. The sky was a deep pink, strewn with clouds in shades of pink, purple, and gold, like a sunset, even though the sun was high in the sky.
I looked down at myself and discovered I was completely dry. I wore a caftan-like robe of white, trimmed in gold thread. Talonclaw remained sheathed at my waist, but I carried no other ornaments or gear with me. I wore supple leather sandals that crunched slightly against the sand of the beach. Looking at my reflection in the mirrorlike black wall in front of me, I saw my own familiar features looking back.
A tall gate stood nearby, each of the gleaming doors covered with a complex relief of a phoenix rising from the flames, with the image of the city behind it. People in clothes that looked like something out of an
Arabian Nights
trideo-production for the Ancient Wisdom channel went in and out of the gates, under the watchful eyes of guards who looked like massive trolls with ruddy skin carrying huge scimitars. Some of the people were recognizable as human or metahuman, while others were of no race I’d ever seen before. Some led or rode strange animals that looked like domesticated dinosaurs, while most were on foot. I strode toward the gates and joined the throng of people going inside.
Just as I reached the wall, two burly guards stood in my path, looking down on me. The dagger at my waist suddenly felt very small, compared to the giant curved swords they carried.
“Ho, traveler.” the right one said. “Who are you and why do you seek to enter the City of Brass and Gold?”
“Speak truly.” said the left one, “or we will cleave your head from your shoulders and send you from this place.”
“I am called Talon.” I said, “and I am here on a quest. I am looking for something.”
“There are many things in the City.” the right one Said again. “Some are best left alone. Are you certain about what you seek?”
“Are you willing to pay the cost of the truth?” the left one said.
I nodded. “Yes. The truth is what I seek.”
The two guards took a step backward and parted, allowing me room to pass. “Then enter, truth-seeker.” said the one on the right.
“And may you find what you need.” said the other. “Whether you seek it, or it seeks you.”
I walked past the two guards and through the gate. Beyond it was a giant bazaar, booths and brightly colored tents forming a maze of narrow passages choked with people. The air was filled with the smell of exotic spices, tobacco, animals, and the scents of food. Merchants shouted the virtues of their wares over the noise of the crowd.
“Sir!” called a dark-skinned elven woman from a nearby tent. “Your heart’s desire, sir, for only a few coins!” She gestured toward the shadowy interior of the tent with a bright smile.
“Thank you, no.” I said, as politely as possible. There was a great deal of magical lore warning against accepting any gifts or bargains in the Otherworlds. They spoke of travelers taking offers of food or hospitality and never being allowed to leave. In the Awakened world, legends had a disturbing way of turning out true, so I declined politely and continued on.
I made my way through the crowd, ignoring other offers from the merchants along the way, politely refusing when pressed and looking around for some idea where to go once I got beyond the bounds of the marketplace. I looked up at the gleaming spires of the city and saw one standing taller than all the others. It was a great tower of gleaming gold, copper, and brass, topped with an onion dome that shone in the sunlight like a beacon.
