Claimed By Shadow
Page 49

Pritkin had come back to life and was striding across the room, looking outraged. "Herophile," I said quickly, the name from my vision coming automatically. I looked nervously at Tomas. "Is that okay?" Pritkin's hand, which had been reaching for me, stopped and dropped to his side.
"Where's the golem?" I asked Billy, keeping an eye on the mage. He had the look of an atheist who'd just had a visit from God: stunned, disbelieving and faintly ill.
"You don't want to know," Billy answered, staring fixedly at the portal, his throat working nervously.
"What do you mean?”
The king answered for him. It was hard to believe that, for a moment, I'd actually forgotten someone that large. "He was given to my steward as a gift. He very generously loaned him to me.”
“They turned him loose a couple of hours ago," Billy said. "They're going to give him another hour, then go after him. Something about training their hunting dogs.”
"What?" I was horrified. "But he could be killed!”
"Technically, he isn't alive," Billy pointed out, "so he can't die.”
"He may not have been alive before, but he is now!" I looked around for support but didn't find any. Marlowe had moved up beside Pritkin, looking worried. Billy was staring at the swirls of color inside the portal and biting his lip, and I doubted the golem's fate was uppermost in his mind. "We can't leave him!”
"Of course," the king murmured, a sound as loud as anyone else's bellow, "you could save him, if you like.”
I had a very bad feeling about this. "How would I do that?”
The king smiled, showing teeth the size of golf balls. "By making a trade.”
"Careful, Cass," Billy muttered. "He wants something from you, but he wouldn't tell us what.”
"Quiet, remnant!" The king thundered. "Keep your tongue behind your teeth, or someone may cut it out!" Then, as quick as a flash, his mood changed and he smiled angelically. " 'Tis only a book, lady, a trifling matter.”
"Their destination is next," the pixie warned.
Pritkin suddenly come back to life. "Where is Mac?”
I stared at him blankly, and then it hit. Oh, my God. No one had told him.
The pixie answered before I could begin to think of a reply. "The forest demanded a sacrifice before it would let us through. It went for the girl, but the mage offered himself instead.”
I transferred my stare to her. She must have seen Mac deliberately do something to draw attention to himself. He had understood—the forest wouldn't let me go, wouldn't stop attacking us, until it had a sacrifice.
So he gave it one.
Tomas squeezed my shoulder in silent sympathy, but I hardly felt it. There had been no blood on the ground when we left. The earth had absorbed it, had absorbed him. The wards I'd stuffed in my pocket suddenly felt like bricks.
Pritkin had looked confused at the pixie's offhand comment, but whatever he saw on my face was explanation enough. Comprehension flooded his eyes. "You planned this," he said in a strangely dead voice. "You tricked us into rescuing that... thing, so you could complete the ritual. The geis made any other candidate impossible.”
"I didn't plan anything," I said. I wanted to tell him how horribly sorry I was, to say something worthy of Mac, but my brain didn't seem to be working.
"About the book," the king rumbled.
I looked up at him, confused. "What book?”
His face contorted slightly and I realized that he was trying to look innocent. It didn't appear to be an expression he employed very often, judging by the result. "The Codex Merlini.”
"What?" The name meant nothing to me, but Pritkin jerked violently.
Marlowe looked intrigued. "But you can pick one up at any magical bookstore.”
The king made a sound like boulders rubbing together. I finally realized that he was laughing. "Not that one. The lost volume." He looked down at me and his eyes were hungry. "Bring me the second volume of the Codex, and you can have the creature. You have my word.”
"No!" Pritkin suddenly lunged for me, his face thunderous, but a second later he was skidding across the floor from the brutal shove Tomas gave him. He hit the wall but did an acrobatic flip back to his feet and started for us again. His eyes were ice-cold and promised pain for someone.
"Interrupt me again, mage, and I'll have your liver for dinner," the king warned. His voice left no doubt that he meant it. Pritkin skidded to a halt.
I glanced from Pritkin's furious face to Marlowe's interested one. "What am I missing?”
"The Codex is the ... the primer, if you like, the text on which all modern magic is based," Marlowe informed me. "Merlin composed it, partly from his own work, and partly from his research into the available magical texts of his day—many of which are now lost to us. He was afraid that knowledge would be lost if someone didn't catalog it for future generations. But legend says that we only have half his work, that there was originally a second volume." He glanced at the king. "Even if it still exists, what good would it do you? Human magic doesn't work here.”
"Some does," the king replied evasively. He was trying to look as if the conversation barely interested him, but doing a lousy job. His enormous eyes were fairly dancing with excitement, and the cheeks over the curly beard were flushed. "Merlin divided his spells into two parts for security. The spells themselves were in volume one, the counterspells in volume two. Most of the counterspells have been discovered by trial and error through the years, except the odd lot, like that geis of yours. I want—”
My brain stuttered to a halt at the magic word. "Wait a minute. You're telling me the Codex contains a spell to remove the geis?”
"It is said to contain the counters to all Merlin's spells. He invented the dúthracht, so it should be in there." He regarded me shrewdly. "Does that add incentive, seer?”
I put on my poker face and hoped it was better than his. "Some. But I don't see how I can help you. If the book was lost—”
"Are you Pythia or not?" he bellowed, shaking the rafters. "Go back in time and find it, before it disappeared!”
I took in the eagerness written on his huge face and made a swift decision. "I could try," I agreed. "But the price you offer is too low. What else will you give?”
Pritkin let out an expletive and leapt for me. His face was beet red and he looked like he was about to burst a vein. Tomas took a step forward, but it was Marlowe, moving in a blur, who got a choke hold around his throat. I met the furious green gaze helplessly. I would talk to Pritkin later, try to explain everything, but now was not the time.
The king looked like he was thinking about adding Pritkin to the evening menu, but I interrupted. "We were bargaining, Your Majesty, and there isn't much time." I gestured at the portal, which was glowing a bright, true blue, with swirls of peacock, teal, navy and royal moving in lazy patterns over the surface.
"What do you want?" he asked swiftly.
After years of watching Tony wheel and deal, this was almost too easy. "I need to find a vampire," I told him. "His name is Antonio, although he may be using an alias. He's said to be somewhere in Faerie. In addition to the golem, I want Antonio's location and enough aid from you to retrieve him." And anyone with him, I silently added. "And sanctuary for Tomas, here at your court, for as long as he needs it.”
“The golem's life and the sanctuary are simple enough," the king said, "but the other..." He trailed off thoughtfully. "I know of the vampire of whom you speak," he finally admitted. "But reaching him will be difficult—and dangerous.”
"As will finding your book," I pointed out.
He hesitated, but the color at the edge of the spiral was starting to bleed to purple. He was out of time and I was the only one who could retrieve the book he wanted so badly. "Done. Bring me the book, and you will have your vampire.”
I nodded and started forward, only to collide with Billy, who was backing away. "I — I need to rethink this," he babbled. "I'll take the next bus.”
"What's wrong with you?" I demanded.
His face was white, and his hands were sketching agitated patterns in the air. "What if I lose my body when we return? I just got it back, Cass!”
"A little while ago, you were worried about what might. happen if you stayed!”
"And now I'm worried about what'll happen if I go." He looked genuinely terrified. "You don't understand what could be through there!”
"Billy! We don't have time for this! You already came through a portal on the way here.”
"Yeah, and look what it got me! Think it through, Cass!”
I had no idea what he was talking about, and wasn't given the chance to find out. "Get in the portal, remnant," the pixie said. "We don't need your kind here.”
"Stay out of this, dolly," Billy warned, swiping at her with his hat.
Suddenly, a blur shot in front of us, heading for the portal, and I barely had a chance to recognize Françoise before a bright light flashed and she was gone. The king let out an enraged bellow. "Bring her back!" he ordered.
The pixie unsheathed her tiny sword. I'd seen what that thing could do, but Billy hadn't and he didn't even bother to dodge. The side of the sword caught him in the stomach, lifting him off his feet and smacking him backwards. I had a chance to see his wide-eyed shock, and then he was gone. The pixie flew straight into the portal after him, their flashes coming so close together that they almost looked like one.
I turned to see that Pritkin had collapsed to his knees, Marlowe on his back. I was moving forward to intervene when he suddenly hit the vamp in the temple and simultaneously brought his other elbow back in a savage jab to the ribs. Marlowe let go and staggered backwards, straight into the vortex. Pritkin stayed down for a second, a hand to his injured throat, trying to get his breath back. From his gasping wheezes, it sounded like Marlowe's choke hold had been closer to a strangulation.