ARC: The Seers (32 page)

“Thank you,” I nodded, still serious.

“You want to know where Clavish was nicked off to? He’s at Cuniff, one of Darragh’s many family estates.”

Cuniff. We had a name.

The sudden relief was so strong it surprised me, but I couldn’t let it throw off my focus. There was still more to learn. I crossed my arms and pushed on. “Why?”

“There is a book of notes that we have been trying to decipher for some time now.”

“Ciaran’s journal,” I said, “yes, I already know about that. What does that have to do with Jocelyn?”

For the first time since meeting him a slight grin pulled at his face. “He figured out how to read it.”

“What?” I tried to make sure my surprise came across as skepticism, but I’ll admit I was thrown, and I suddenly realized why Alex had hidden Bastian and himself from me as well as Molony. No way I wouldn’t have slipped and glanced at one of them had I been able to see them. “Why would you think that?”

“We came to learn that Clavish and the old man were interested in Shea, so we were told to keep an eye on them.”

“Fine, but that doesn’t answer my question. Why do you think Jocelyn can read the journal?”

“Darragh has…
ways
of learning these things.”

He may have thought that was an answer, but I wasn’t playing games. My eyes narrowed as I stepped forward. “I’m only going to ask you one more time.”

“The fháil,” he said, finally as his upper lip quivered angrily. “He had a fháil planted in Jocelyn’s room.”

I had no idea what that was, but I wasn’t about to let him know that so I moved on. “And the journal? Is Cuniff where he’s keeping that too?”

Molony shook his head. “He will not have the book at Cuniff, only a page of it to use for testing.”

“So where is the rest of it?”

“I don’t know. No one does – not even Darragh.”

“That makes no sense.”

“That is the only way it can remain completely protected. When he first came into possession of the journal and realized it could not be read, Darragh placed a call charm on it then sent it off with one of his lieutenants, instructing him to hide it – but not before Darragh removed one of its pages.”

“He could use the page to locate the book when he figured out how to read it,” I mused aloud.

Molony nodded. “And use it as a way to test different methods of deciphering the writing. It is likely that Darragh will have Clavish read the page before he attempts to locate the entire journal.”

“What about the lieutenant? He could always go back and get the journal for himself, couldn’t he? Or did Darragh have you remove the memory of where he hid it so now you are the only one who knows? Because if that’s the case, of course you know you’ll be telling me that too.”

“Much as I hate to disappoint,” he said, clearly enjoying it, “it’s a no to both. Darragh didn’t want anyone to know where it was, so my services were not required. And as for the lieutenant, when he returned and verified that he had indeed hidden the journal where no one would be able to find it, Darragh saw to it that he was silenced – permanently. Darragh is now the only one who has the means to locate Shea’s journal, so if finding it was one of your goals, I would highly suggest you reconsider.”

Normally this new development would have upset me, but as it was, the journal no longer mattered. All that mattered was getting Jocelyn and Steven back unharmed, and if that meant we had to give up on finding out what Ciaran had seen, then so be it.

“How do I find Cuniff?”

“You don’t. Or, that is to say, you can’t.”

“Would you care to elaborate?” I prompted when it didn’t seem like he would go on.

“It’s located roughly twenty miles north of here, but
where
it is doesn’t matter. Like all of Darragh’s properties, it has fortress charm over it. So I’m afraid you are out of luck.”

Before I could reply, a cast message from Alex appeared in my line of sight. “
If it has a fortress charm then he probably has a pass-stone. Ask him for it.
”

“OK, so then it looks like I’ll need your pass-stone,” I said smoothly, hoping he wouldn’t realize that I didn’t actually know what I was asking for.

He hesitated glancing away, practically announcing his coming lie. “I don’t have one.”

“Come on,” I rolled my eyes, “we both know that’s not true.”

He grit his teeth as his anger flared back up. “You told me that if I helped you, Darragh would not find out.”

“Yes, and I meant it.”

“Bollocks!” he spat. “You claim to want to keep your word, yet you plan to use my pass-stone to rescue Clavish?”

“I don’t understand why that’s a problem.”

“Each stone is unique. All Darragh has to do is see and he will know it’s mine”

“Then I will make sure he doesn’t see it.”

“And how do you plan to do that? Do you honestly believe that Darragh will not wonder how you were able to pass through his charm unnoticed? He will find it and I will be done for!”

“It doesn’t matter what I plan to do,” I told him. “All that matters is that I promise you, no matter what happens, Darragh will not see your stone.”

He looked up with a sneer. “If you honestly believe that I would trust you, you are a fool.”

“That may well be, but as you stated so eloquently earlier, you don’t really have a choice.”

His hateful sting in his eyes lashed at me like a live wire, but I held my ground without so much as a flinch, waiting for him to cave. At first I was confident, but as the seconds ticked by, I started to worry that he’d reached his limit and that I’d have to actually make good on my threat to read his mind. Much as we needed his pass-stone – whatever it was – I didn’t know if I could bring myself to do it. Or, for that matter, if I’d be able to figure out how it was done should I try. What if I accidentally erased the very memory I was looking for? Then where would we be?

I was about to give him one last chance to tell me, when I saw his eyes slide over to the floor by the dresser. There were a few different things scattered there thanks to my earlier demonstration, but the one his gaze pointed to was a gold pocket watch that I’d taken from the dressing table and added into my little kinetic tornado. When I stooped down to grab it, I realized that it was quite a bit heavier than it ought to have been, and when I opened the cover I saw why. Inside where the clock face and working mechanisms should have been, there was a fat round rock about the size of a silver dollar and at least three times as thick, that had etching on the surface of it. I turned it out into my hand and looked to Molony for confirmation.

“There,” he said from between his teeth. “take it… and get out.”

CHAPTER 30

“Yes, that is a pass-stone all right,” Min confirmed, turning it in her hand. She and Anderson had left Lorcan for Adare shortly after receiving the call from Cormac, and were now sitting with the rest of us in Cormac’s room as we finalized our plan.

“And what does it do, exactly?” I asked.

“It is the only way to breach a fortress charm,” she said.

“Yeah, I don’t know what that is either.”

“A fortress charm is a variation on a protection charm that allows the Alchemist who casts it to have control over who enters their premises and how they are allowed to leave. It is cast on a building or some other confined space, and prevents anyone from seeing the charmed area, entering it, or using any transporting abilities while within it.”

“Transporting abilities?” I said.

“Any ability that can physically move a person: porting, kinetics, and so on.”

“But the pass-stone will get us around all that, right?” Bastian asked.

“Yes,” Min nodded, “so long as you have the stone, you will be able to port out. But take care, for if you were to lose it, you and everyone you want to port would have to be outside the fortressed area.”

“We won’t lose it,” I assured her, “we won’t be there long enough for that. Like I said, we get in, get Jocelyn and Steven, and get out.”

“Are you sure you can find this place with only Jocelyn’s ability to guide you? Anderson asked me.

“I’m sure. Besides, that’s not all we have, we also have a general direction. Molony said it was about twenty miles north, and with that and the Iris to help me, we’ll find it.” The glow of Jocelyn’s ability was brighter than any I’d ever come across, not to mention I was very familiar with it. I may not have been sure what would happen when we got there, but I could get us at least that far, I was sure.

“What about the fháil?” Cormac asked Min. “It’s bound to be tied to Darragh, could that help us at all?”

She shook her head. “Most are designed to transmit one time only, it is worthless now.”

“What is a fháil?” Chloe asked quietly from the corner, saving me from having to ask myself.

“It is another charmed artifact. The word ‘fháil’ literally means ‘get’ or ‘acquire,’ and that is what it does: acquires information. When casting the charm, you input what you want to learn into the spell, and then place the fháil in the area where what you want is most likely to be found. In this case, they knew Jocelyn was after Shea’s book, so Darragh probably set the fháil to alert him when Jocelyn found a way to read it. But it would only have alerted Darragh to the fact that Jocelyn had found the answer, not what the answer was, thus he would not have realized that the one he really wanted was you.”

“Aye, probably intends to force Jocelyn to tell him that bit,” Anderson growled under his breath.

“That must have been what McGary and Cleen were doing in Jocelyn’s room that day; planting the fháil,” Alex said, going over to sit by Chloe.

“It’s past 3.30,” Anderson said as he stood from him his chair. “Not long before sunup now, you three had better be off.”

There was a murmur of agreement, and a few minutes later, Min, Cormac, and Chloe left for Lorcan Hall, while Anderson stayed behind with Alex, Bastian, and I. At first light he would drive the three of us as close as he could to where Darragh was holding Jocelyn and Steven, and then leave for Lorcan himself. Alex, Bastian, and I would then find Jocelyn and Steven, I’d feed Bastian’s ability with mine allowing him to port all five of us back to Lorcan – where Min was taking his anchor now – and God willing, we could do it all without Darragh even knowing we’d been there.

Sure. No problem…

We were on the bumpy road toward Cuniff by 5 o’clock that morning, and I’d officially been awake for over 21 hours. I should have been exhausted but I wasn’t. I also wasn’t wired, or jittery, or hysterical – I just… was. Maybe it was the gravity of the situation setting in, or maybe the five to ten minute catnaps I’d had with Alex while we waited to leave that morning had actually done something for me, but in either instance I doubted it. The far more likely reason was that deep down I was forcing myself to rally my strength and keep my thoughts on the job we had to do, because if I didn’t, my mind would wander. It would start thumbing through all the things that could have already happened to Jocelyn, and what might be happening even that moment while we were on our way to get him. Had he been given a way to help control his ability now that he was without his ring, or had he been made to suffer all this time with nothing? I was the one they needed to read Ciaran’s notes, but I knew – we all knew – that he would never give me up. The only question was what were they putting him through because of it.

I rubbed my hand over the lump in my jeans pocket that was Jocelyn’s Sciath ring and let out an involuntarily shudder causing Alex to tighten the arm he had around me. I leaned deeper into his side as he kissed my temple reassuringly. “Everything is going to be fine,” he whispered, his lips just above my ear.

I nodded and leaned my head against his chest, thinking that it might be smart to try to squeeze a catnap in before we get there, and praying that no nightmares would decide to creep in along with it.

“Looks like this is the end of the road,” Anderson said a moment later.

So much for a nap.

I sat up and looked out to find that Anderson was right, it was the end of the road – literally. Much further and we would dead-end into a large farmhouse not a quarter mile off.

“Was this the right way?” Bastian asked, looking back from the front seat.

I reached into my jacket pocket for the Iris and once again found Jocelyn’s ability glowing out in front of us. This time however, it was very strong, which told me it wasn’t far off, and its direction was no longer just generally northward, but distinctively to the northeast.

“Yes, we’re close.” I pointed toward the glow of Jocelyn’s ability. “It’s that way, through the trees. We’re not far.”

Anderson pulled the car up to the tree line I’d pointed to and let us out. “Now listen here,” he said, stepping out himself but leaving the car running, “you three be careful. There’s no telling what you may run into, but at the very least there’ll be defense charms and drones to deal with, so stay sharp and above all, stay together.”

He continued to speak, but I zoned out the moment I heard the word “drone,” feeling my insides recoil. Drones: innocent people whose minds and memories had been totally and irrevocably erased, leaving them empty shells capable of nothing more than taking direct orders. I could remember with stomach churning clarity the look on the face of the drone who had aided Taron in abducting me not long ago. It was a hollow, lifeless expression I’d never forget and, though I’d never admit it, one that had a habit of turning up in my darker dreams.

“And,” I heard Anderson continue as I forced myself to listen, “if anything goes wrong, and I mean anything at all, you port back to Lorcan with or without Jocelyn and Steven, do you understand? We can always come up with another plan, but we don’t need to add any of you to the list of people needing saved. Got it?”

“We’ll be fine,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t realize that I hadn’t exactly agreed.

He nodded, stepping over and giving me a hug, then offering each of the boys a handshake. “All right then,” he said with a sigh, “be safe, and good luck.”

As he drove away we ducked into the cover of the trees and began situating ourselves for the walk, Bastian relacing one of his boots, me braiding my ponytail into a long plait, and Alex… refastening his belt? It took me a minute to figure out why, but when I did, my jaw almost dropped.

“Whoa,” I said, eyeing what was quite clearly a knife hanging from his belt. It was impressive to say the least. It was in a pouch that he had strapped to his belt and I could see that the blade itself was folded down into the handle like a Swiss army knife, but it was much larger and far fiercer than anything your average boy scout would carry. “Where in the world did you get that?”

“Mr Anderson brought it for me,” he told me as he pulled it from its case and flipped it open.

“Do you even know how to use it?”

“Sure I do,” he said with a wry grin as he began listing its features from handle to tip. “Holding part… sharp part… pointy part.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ha, ha.”

“Mr Anderson has given me lessons in the past,” he smiled, putting his new weapon away. “I’m by no means an expert, but I do OK.”

“Anderson knows knives?”

“He served with the SAS for over six years.”

“SAS?”

“British army’s Special Forces. He became quite proficient actually.”

“Are we ready?” Bastian asked, stepping up beside us.

After a nod from Alex I gave one of my own. “Let’s go,” I said, and turned to lead the way.

As we walked through the wooded area I kept my hands in my pockets, one holding the Iris and the other gripping Molony’s pass-stone. I could tell that we were coming close to the area where Jocelyn was being held, but I still couldn’t see anything but trees and the occasional patch of brush, so I wanted to make sure I was ready.

“How many others can you feel in the area with Jocelyn?” Bastian asked me as we walked. “Can you tell what we’re up against?”

Luckily we were near enough now that I could tell that the area Jocleyn was in was relatively isolated, making the other Holders near him easier to pick out. “There are a few,” I said, concentrating on the batch of abilities hovering around Jocelyn’s, “more than I would have thought – maybe thirty?”

“
Thirty
?” Alex repeated. “Like, three-zero?”

“What sort of abilities?” Bastian asked.

“Looks like a mix of just about everything, but it’s hard to tell this far off.”

“Fantastic…”

“Yeah,” I nodded, “that’s the bad news, but the good news is that most of them are concentrated in one area and it isn’t the same area that Jocelyn is in, so we might be able to totally avoid them if we’re careful.”

We continued to walk for another several minutes until we came to a stream, across from which was a break in the trees. I looked out through the break and saw a large clearing, at the center of which was a large manor house. The house was very large, maybe half the size of Adare, though not nearly as updated or well kept. The gray stone walls were crumbing in areas, and the stone and wrought iron fence that surrounded the house was dotted with gaping holes, some large enough to drive a car through.

“Hide us,” I whispered quickly to Alex and grabbed the sleeve of Bastian’s coat just as he was about to cross the stream.

“I have been,” Alex said keeping his voice down. “Why, what’s wrong?”

I gestured out toward the clearing. “We’re here.”

“Cuniff? Where?” the boys asked over one another.

I pulled the pass-stone out of my pocket and held it out so that they could each put a finger on it.

“That’s incredible,” Alex breathed, as the manor appeared before his eyes.

Bastian began to shift on his feet anxiously. “OK, now what? Where do we go?”

“Jocelyn is up there somewhere,” I told them, pointing to the upper right hand area of the building, “and most of the other abilities I can feel are down there,” I gestured to the lower left wing. “If Alex can keep us hidden, I say we go up to Jocelyn since he is the one we can pinpoint exactly, and maybe we’ll find Steven along the way. If not, once we give Jocelyn his ring back, he will be able to find Steven’s mind and tell us where to go. As soon as we have them both, we get the hell out.”

“Sounds good,” Alex said.

“OK,” I said with a deep breath, “the front door there is the only one I see, so we’ll head that way, and since there doesn’t seem to be a way to tell where the fortress charm actually starts, until we get inside, we’re all going to have to keep hold of the pass-stone.”

“Got it,” Bastian said. “Let’s do it.”

I looked to Alex who gave me a nod, and off we went. It was difficult to move at first considering we all had to keep a hold of the tiny pass-stone, but once we were clear of the stream and tree line we were able to find a walking formation that worked and began to make our way quickly over the short dead grass of the clearing.

It wasn’t until we were only a few dozen steps from the entrance that we noticed the two men standing guard at the door. We all paused while and Bastian and Alex took a closer look, but I didn’t need one. Even from this far off I could see their flat dead eyes and I knew they were drones.

“How are we going to get past them?” Bastian asked, his tone the barest of whispers.

“They won’t see us,” I said.

“No, but they will hear the door open,” he countered.

“Drones are only able to follow one order at a time,” Alex said.

“Yes, and these ones are clearly to guard the door,” Bastian added.

“Yes,” Alex agreed, “but not from everyone. Just follow my lead and stay as quiet as you can.”

Unable to question him, we continued to walk toward the door, passing through a gap in the twisted rust wrought iron fence and onto the small front lawn area of the house. As soon as we were through the fence, Alex stopped and tentatively took his hand from the pass-stone, glancing around. After a moment he smiled and nodded, letting us know we had safely made it through the fortress charm and could let go of the stone. I was about to return it to my pocket when Alex held out his hand as though he wanted it. I gave it to him with a squint of confusion, but he smiled, his eyes saying, “trust me.”

Stone in hand, he stepped off ahead of us motioning for us to follow behind as he approached the guard drones at the door. That was when I noticed the man walking quickly our way from the wooded area we’d just come from. He was walking directly toward the door as though he’d been here several times before, and as he grew closer I realized that there was something very familiar about his hair… and his clothes…

Molony?

What the hell was he doing here? Had he come to turn us in? To tell Darragh what we’d done in the hopes of saving his own skin? I was about to suggest we make a run for it when suddenly Alex began to walk straight at him not appearing to be concerned at all. Closer and closer they came until it was obvious they were going to collide, blowing our cover and likely getting us all killed. My heart pounding, I opened my mouth to shout out, but Bastian was able to throw a hand over my mouth and silence me just in time to see Alex step into the image of Molony as he approached the door, disappearing completely.

My throat relaxed as I realized that Molony wasn’t there with us at all – it had been a cast. Alex knew we’d only get in the door if the drones saw someone they recognized, but he couldn’t risk just allowing an image of Molony to just appear out of thin air, so he’d cast an image of him arriving as he normally would before disguising himself. Smart.

Making a mental note to give Alex hell later for scaring me like that, Bastian and I jogged quietly up behind him as he approached the drones, stopping briefly as though to get their approval. I tried not to shudder as their cold eyes slowly came down, looking through him for the count of two seconds then lifted back up, once again fixing themselves out over the clearing. With a cool confidence I’m sure he didn’t feel, the still disguised Alex walked past the drones and up to the large weathered door and pulled it open allowing it to stay cracked just enough behind him for Bastian and I to slip through before it closed with a deep thud.

As soon as we were sure the coast was clear inside, Alex returned to normal, hiding himself with Bastian and I once again, and the three of us ducked behind one of the large pillars that lined the entryway. We took a minute to catch our breath and lower our collective heart rates, while I looked around the large foyer and noted with some amusement that overall, it was not unlike the entrance of Adare. There were high ceilings, pillars, a large fireplace, and decorative carvings and hanging on the walls. The only real difference was that Adare was pristine and well cared for, while this place looked like it hadn’t seen a dusting rag or mop in decades. The stone walls and floors had moss growing from their cracks, cobwebs hung from nearly every rail and beam, and the dust not only clung to every surface, but hung in the musty air like fog. If we could all manage to get in and out of here without one of us blowing our cover with a cough or a sneeze, it would be a miracle.

Once we were collected and ready, we made our way to the back of the foyer where there was a large staircase that ended up about half a floor then split, leading to both the east and west wings. Knowing that Jocelyn was in the upper eastern wing, I pointed up to the right side staircase and we began to climb, carefully testing each step we mounted to make sure that none of the withered planks would creek or rattle under our weight.

Once we reached the top of the stairs, things became more difficult. There were several hallways to choose from, and now that the glow of Jocelyn’s ability was so near, it was becoming difficult to isolate. I could still tell that he was on this level and that he was down toward the end of the building, but now that there were multiple ways to get to the general area we needed to be, it was impossible to know which one was best.

I pointed to the different hallways then motioned to Alex and Bastian. “
Don’t go, just look,
” I mouthed silently, adding several hand gestures to make it clear.

We each took a hall, glancing down it to see if there was anything of note, but each one seemed to be exactly like the others; long, dark and empty. That is until Bastian went to look down the last hall that ran along the back wall of the building and motioned for Alex and I to join him. When we got there, we found that this hallway was like the other three except that it was not empty. There was a man who looked to be another drone just leaving one of the rooms about a third of the way down the hall. It may not have been much, but at least it was something.

We waited – my eyes deliberately downturned so as not to have to see his face – for the drone to pass us before we hurried down the hall to the door he’d exited. I could tell that this was not the room that Jocelyn was being held in, but as it was the first room we’d encountered with a person in it, and was at least worth a look. Maybe, if we were lucky, it would be where they were holding Steven and we would be one step closer to getting out of here.

Being the first one to arrive at the door, I took hold of the knob and began to turn it as slowly and quietly as I could, wary that there may be someone else inside who didn’t want company. Actually, I was fully expecting it to be locked; however, the further the knob went the easier it became to turn, never once hitting a lock or even so much as a squeaky spring before opening completely. Pushing the door just enough to peek in, I found that indeed there was someone else in the room, and when I realized who it was I had to push a hand to my mouth to keep from laughing with relief.