Darkness Splintered (DA 6) (30 page)

He shook his head. “I have a feeling if I do, the elemental might wrest control from me again. I seem to do better when I have company.”

I hesitated, wondering if his being here was actually safe for Stane, then mentally slapped myself. Stane was probably in more danger from 
my
 actions than from any possibility that Tao would hurt him. So I simply said, “Do you need anything brought here from home?”

He shook his head. “Whatever I need, I’ll borrow from Stane. I just don’t —” he paused, and half shrugged. “Keep in contact.”

“I will.” I squeezed his arm gently, and tried to ignore the heat so evident in his flesh, even through the barrier of his clothes. The elemental was far from finished with this battle.

Fear washed through me yet again, but there was nothing I could do but ignore it. And hope that fate had a better plan for him than an eternity locked in nothing but fire. I turned to Azriel. “Let’s head to Adeline’s, and see if she can help us.”

He nodded, caught my hand, and a heartbeat later we were standing outside Adeline’s front gate. I raised an eyebrow. “Why not inside?”

“Because she would not appreciate such an unannounced intrusion, and given we wish her help, I thought this wiser.”

“Good thinking,” I said, and opened the wrought iron front gate.

“Someone in this team has to do it,” he replied evenly.

It took a moment for me to realize I’d just been insulted. By Azriel, of all people. My gaze shot to his, and I saw the amusement lurking underneath the serious expression. “I can’t believe you just said that!”

“Is not such a comment almost expected in this world?”

I grinned. “Yeah, but it’s not something I expected from 
you
.”

The amusement grew. “Alas, the more time I spend in flesh, the more human my tendencies become.”

“So I’ve got a lifetime of insults to look forward to?”

“Only if you do something that would warrant such a comment.”

“I’ve hardly done something now.”

“No.” His smile broke free. “But it seemed an opportune moment to practice.”

He touched a hand to my spine, gently ushering me forward. I snorted softly and headed along the tiled pathway that wove its way to Adeline’s front door. Her house was one of those beautiful old Victorians filled with character and age. Two graceful old elms dominated her front lawn, but underneath them lay a riot of colorful flowers that filled the air with perfume. It should have overwhelmed my olfactory senses, but it didn’t.

I made my way up the steps and walked to the front door. A little gold bell sat on the right edge of the door frame, its rope cord swaying gently in the breeze. I rang it a couple of times, and the joyous sound it made had me smiling.

Footsteps echoed inside; then the wooden door opened. Adeline Greenfield was a short woman with close-cut gray hair, weathered features, and round figure. She reminded me of the grandmotherly types so often seen on TV sitcoms, and it wasn’t until you looked into her bright blue eyes that you began to suspect she was anything other than that. Her eyes glowed with a power that was almost unworldly.

“Risa,” she said, opening the security door with a welcoming smile. “Perfect timing.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You were expecting me?”

“Of course.” She stepped aside and waved us in. “I’m glad your reaper chose to be polite, however. I do so detest visitors popping into my home unannounced.”

“Which suggests you get more than your fair share of visitors popping in unannounced.” I stepped past her.

“Just head for the sitting room, dear,” she said. “And yes, I do. Ghosts have no sense of privacy these days, I’m afraid. It’s the new generation. No manners.”

I smiled and walked down the hall, my footsteps echoing on the old wooden floorboards. The air inside Adeline’s house generally smelled of ginger and various spices, but underneath them this time ran the warm, rich smell of coffee. She really
had
 been expecting me, because Adeline didn’t drink it – she preferred tea to coffee. Her sitting room was cozy and dominated by a log fire. Embers glowed within the ashes and lent the room extra warmth. Two well-padded armchairs sat in front of the fireplace and, in between them, there was a small coffee table on which sat a teapot, a bone china cup and saucer, and the source of the coffee smell – a large mug of it, in fact.

“Please, sit,” Adeline said. When I did so, she handed me the mug, then glanced at Azriel. “Would you like anything, young man?”

“No, thank you,” Azriel said, amusement in his voice. I guess there were a few people who actually called him young 
man
.

“Right, then,” she said, sitting down on the chair opposite and pouring tea for herself. “What can I do for you?”

“I’m afraid we’re here to ask your brother, Michael —”

“Michael?” she cut in, with a light frown. “He’s been dead for forty-odd years now.”

“Yes, I know, but we came across his name in our search” – I hesitated, then remembered I’d told her at least some of the story the last time we’d been here – “for the keys to heaven and hell’s gates, and were just wondering —”

“I assure you,” Adeline interrupted again. “Michael would never be involved in such a theft. Alive 
or
 dead.”

“I didn’t mean to imply that he was. It’s just that we think someone might have assumed his identity. In which case, we need to know more about Michael in order to track down the fraud.”

She studied me for a moment, then rose and walked over to the mantelpiece. She picked up a small, framed photograph and offered it to me. “That’s Michael. It was taken just before he died.”

The man in the photograph was silver haired, with blue eyes and round, kind features and a build not dissimilar to Adeline’s – although he was far thinner than she now was. “How old was he here?”

“Nearly thirty. Gray hair runs in the family, I’m afraid.”

“And do you have any contact with his friends? Was he close to anyone in particular, or did he make a new acquaintance just before he died?”

“Not that I’m aware of. Why?”

I ignored her question, asking instead, “And how did he die?”

“Accident. He was heavily into the motor cross scene, and slid off during a race and hit several trees. Unfortunately, one of the smaller ones speared him. He never recovered.”

So, an accident rather than murder,
 Azriel commented. 
Perhaps in this case, the shifter merely appropriated the name of someone with few relatives.

Sounds like it
. Still, it couldn’t hurt to be sure. “And he was buried appropriately?”

Her frown grew. “Of course. I ensured he could not be raised, if that is your next question. And it isn’t as if a zombie would be much use to anyone anyway. They are very obviously dead.”

But they could still be damn dangerous if raised by the wrong person.

“True, but that wasn’t the point of the question. You see, Michael is not the only person whose identity our shifter has stolen, but up until your brother, he’s murdered all those whose lives he’s stepped into. I just wanted to make sure Michael wasn’t another of his victims.”

“Ah,” she said softly. “Then no, he isn’t. It was very much an accident – there were plenty of witnesses to the event.”

At least that was something. I handed the photograph back. “If someone 
is
 using his identity, is there any way you could trace them?”

“Magically, you mean?”

When I nodded, she grimaced. “I’m afraid not. I’d have to have something of theirs to even attempt a reading.”

I dug into my purse and retrieved the cuff link. “We found this, although we have no real idea if it belongs to our fake Michael Greenwood or someone else.”

She plucked it from my fingertips and studied it for several minutes. “I think it might be possible to trace whoever owned this item. It is not, however, something I wish to do without some form of protection.”

“Why?”

Her gaze rose to mine. “Because whoever owned this cuff link has a particularly nasty resonance.”

“We think the owner might be a dark sorceress.”

“That would certainly explain the resonance.” She paused, her expression curious. “How is the sorceress connected to whoever might be using Michael’s identity?”

“We suspect our sorceress is a face shifter who is able to not only make a full body shift, but can become male or female, too.”

“Which is an extremely rare occurrence.”

“I know.”

She glanced down at the cuff link, then rose abruptly. “Come along then.”

She bustled out of the room and didn’t look back. I hastily placed my coffee mug back on the table, the movement so sudden liquid splashed over the rim, scalding my fingers and spilling across the table. I grabbed a napkin, dropped it over the mess, then ran after Adeline. She led us into a room farther down the hall – one opposite the room in which she’d taught me to astral travel. Energy caressed my skin as I went through the doorway, a warning that wards were very active here. The décor was simple – a small round table, a half dozen thickly cushioned chairs, and warmly colored tapestries on the wall. Candles burned in the four corners of the room, their aroma filling the air with lavender and sage. They were also the only source of light. This, I suspected, was the place she did most of her business and, in very many ways, it reminded me of the room Mom had used when she had clients wanting to talk to relatives who’d moved on.

“Please, sit.” Adeline waved a hand to one of the chairs, then sat down opposite. “I’ll attempt lithomancy, which is a form of divination using stones. I think there is enough of a resonance within the sapphire to at least give me some idea as to who might have owned it. Whether I can pull current location information from it might well depend on how long they have owned it. I will need your help, however.”

I nodded. “Just tell us what to do.”

“Reaper, please sit between myself and your charge.”

Azriel obeyed without comment. She placed the cuff link on a small velvet cushion sitting in the middle of the table, then sprinkled it with sage, which I knew from Ilianna was used for cleansing or purifying. Adeline slid her chair back slightly, opened a drawer, and produced a small crystal ball. This one, unlike most, had a small indent in its base, and it was this section she placed over the cuff link.

“Now,” she said, her voice brisk and businesslike. “This will work along similar lines as a séance, only instead of spirits we will be seeking to connect to the essence of whoever owns this piece. As I said, what we see in the crystal will very much depend on how long the stone has been in the possession of its owner.”

“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.”