Stone and a Hard Place (18 page)

“I believe that’s what I said, yes.”

Stone sighed. “All right. Thank you, Stefan. I owe you a big one for this. I’m sure you’ll come up with some creative way to collect, but I’d ask that you wait until after next week. I think I’m going to have plenty to occupy my mind until then.”

“Of course. It was a pleasure, as always.” He made a little half-bow in his chair.

Stone had made it halfway across the room toward the door when he remembered something. “Oh—Stefan?”

“Yes?”

“One more thing. Sorry, but I’d forgotten about it in the middle of all the rest of this.” He turned and came back over. “I know you’re fairly familiar with the—er—darker side of the magical community. I’m wondering if perhaps you might be able to help me identify some of them.”

Kolinsky tilted his head. “Identify?”

“Long story. There were three of them. They were working together—all of them fairly young. Two men and a woman. I didn’t get a good look at them, but they seemed to know who I was.”

“Well, you
are
one of the more accomplished practitioners in the area.” Kolinsky said with an arch little smile. “Any particular reason you want to know about them?”

“They tried to kill me Saturday night. And they’re interested in the house. I have no idea how they might have found out about the demon, but I caught them outside with a circle, trying to contact it.”

“Interesting...” Kolinsky thought about it for a moment, then quirked an eyebrow at Stone. “This is, of course, a separate arrangement?”

“Of course.”

Kolinsky pondered. “I don’t know their names, but I think I’ve heard of them. If they’re the same ones you’re referring to, they arrived in the area a couple of years ago. I believe they’re based out of San Francisco, and they spend much of their time there, which is why I don’t have more to give you.” He looked disapproving. “They’re arrogant, hedonistic, lacking in discipline—nothing to speak of separately, but they have an unusual rapport that makes them dangerous when together. I believe they refer to themselves as The Trio, or The Three, or some ridiculous thing like that.”

“The Three.” Ah, youth and their pretentiousness. “Are you sure you don’t have names?”

“Sorry,” Kolinsky said. “The only other thing I can tell you is to be careful. As I said, separately they aren’t that formidable, but from what little I’ve heard, they have few qualms about causing injury to get what they want.”

Stone nodded. “I intend to. And if you
do
happen to find out anything else, please give me a call. Remember, if I’m dead I won’t be able to repay you for your help. Unless you’ve need of some slightly beat-up body parts for reagents.”

Kolinsky’s only reply was a sly smile.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Stone arrived home around two-thirty, still thinking over everything Kolinsky had told him. It all seemed absurd, but he couldn’t afford to treat it that way. Whatever was in Adelaide’s house, whether it be spirit, demon, or something else, it was dangerous. If nothing else, he’d have to see about temporarily reinforcing its prison in the short term. He wanted nothing more than to call Adelaide and tell her to cancel her charity ball, but that would be taking the easy way out. He still had time to do this.

First he had to find the thing, though. That was going to be the hard part.

He glanced at his answering machine: no flashing light. That meant that Ethan hadn’t called to tell him when he could come over. He didn’t expect to hear from Megan, as she was working, and her last class didn’t finish until six o’clock.

He wanted to go to Adelaide’s house and search through her attic, though at this point he didn’t think he’d find out anything that Kolinsky hadn’t already given him. He might even be able to spend some time poking around looking for the spirit (he refused to call it a demon—even things most people called demons were merely some kind of nasty spirit from another plane of existence). Before he could do that, though, he had to find out what was up with Ethan. He was a little annoyed that the boy hadn’t called him already, even if it was just to tell him he couldn’t make it for whatever reason. Picking up the phone, he punched in Ethan’s number and wondered if he’d get the machine again.

He didn’t: it was picked up on the second ring. “Hello?” The voice sounded a bit breathless.

“Ethan. Alastair Stone.”

Pause. “Hi, Dr. Stone.” Another pause. “Oh, man, I was supposed to call you. I’m sorry! I—was down visiting Mom, then I got in the middle of some stuff and lost track of the time.”

Stone had seen less evasiveness in antelope trying to avoid becoming lion chow. “Ethan, if you’d rather not come up for your lesson—”

“Oh, no, of course I want to. I can come right now if you want.”

“Why don’t you do that, then?” He went over the timetable mentally: it would take Ethan about half an hour to get to his house. If the lesson lasted an hour, he’d still have time to get down to Adelaide’s before it was too late. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

A little more than a half-hour later, Ethan’s little blue car pulled into the driveway. Stone watched him come up the walk with a slight frown. He looked different somehow, but Stone couldn’t quite put his finger on how. Something about the way he carried himself.

Once inside, Ethan was again quick to apologize. “I want you to know I’m really sorry for the last few days. It’s been crazy with Mom, and—hey, what happened to you?”

Stone raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Your chin’s all bruised, and you’re walking funny. What happened?”

He waved it off. “Nothing to worry about. I’m fine. Now, then. Come with me. I’d like to talk with you before we go downstairs and you show me how well you’ve been working on that levitation spell.”

Ethan seemed reluctant, but he followed along to the sitting room and sat down on the overstuffed couch where Stone indicated. Stone himself sat in his usual chair. He leaned forward and silently studied the boy for several seconds.

Ethan was clearly trying not to squirm under his scrutiny. “Uh—what is it?” he finally asked.

“I don’t know.” Stone replied slowly. “Something’s changed about you, and I can’t decide what it is.”

“Changed?”

He nodded. “You seem—different.” His gaze sharpened. “Ethan, are you sure you’re being completely honest with me? I get the feeling that you might be holding something back.”

Ethan met his gaze. “Different? I don’t know what you mean, Dr. Stone. Different like how?”

“I don’t know. I can’t quite identify it. But I’m usually fairly good at reading these kinds of things, and I can’t shake the feeling that you’re hiding something from me.” Absurdly, he was taken back to the conversation with Megan just last night. Now he was on the other side. His sympathy for what his girlfriend was experiencing went up a notch. “What have you been doing with all this time you’ve been at home?”

“Spending time at the hospital visiting Mom, like I told you. And practicing the levitation spell. I guess maybe I did go a little further than you told me to, but I got tired of lifting coins.”

“Oh?”

Ethan nodded. “Yeah. I can do books now. Just one at a time and just small ones, but I’m getting pretty good at it.”

“Excellent. You’ll have to show me. But that’s for later. Listen, Ethan. I told you when I first agreed to take you on that you were going to have to make it worth my while. That you’d have to agree to follow my orders as far as magical training went, and work as hard as you could. You remember that, don’t you?”

“Sure. And I have been.” Just the tiniest hint of something defiant touched his tone.

“Have you?” Stone’s expression was neutral.

“Sure I have!” His voice rose a little. “Look, Dr. Stone, I’m sorry if I’m not the perfect apprentice. I don’t even know what that is. But I’ve been pretty stressed out lately with Mom being so sick. I’m trying to do the best I can, but—”

Stone held up his hand, still expressionless. “Ethan, stop. I’m not saying that you’re not doing a good job, given the circumstances you have to deal with. It’s just that—I feel as if you’ve been avoiding me these past few days, and I want to know why. I don’t think it’s entirely because of your mother. Am I wrong?”

Ethan didn’t answer for a long time. “No,” he finally said. “You aren’t wrong.”

“Why, then?”

“I don’t
know,
” he said. “Everything’s crazy. I want to learn magic, but there’s so much going on that I have to do at home, and—”

“And?”

He looked down at his lap. “And nothing. I’ve just been having trouble concentrating.”

Stone sighed. “All right, Ethan. All right. We’ll play it your way for now. If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to. I want you to know this, though: I’m happy to teach you magic. I like teaching. I like helping the next generation of new mages learn. But I won’t stand for being lied to or deceived. I’m not one of those hidebound old fossils who insists on absolute obedience. These are new times, and things have changed from the way they were when I was an apprentice. But one thing hasn’t changed: I expect you to work, and I expect you to take this seriously. As long as whatever extracurricular activities you’ve got going on that you aren’t telling me about don’t interfere with your studies, then fine. Do what you want. I don’t care. But if they do—”

“They won’t,” Ethan said, sounding defensive again. He looked up from his lap. “Let’s go downstairs, Dr. Stone. Let me show you what I’ve been doing. Then you can decide for yourself whether I’ve been following your lesson plan.”

Reluctantly, Stone motioned him up and led him down to the basement. He settled himself in a chair, tilted it back on two legs, and nodded at the boy. “All right—show me.”

Ethan watched him for a moment, then reached in his backpack and pulled out the book he’d been practicing on. He set it down on the table, focused his concentration, and the book rose up from the table and began a slow, meandering circle around the room. It bobbled a couple of times and slowed down halfway through, but for the most part it maintained a smooth path.

Stone watched it go, saying nothing until Ethan, puffing, dropped it gently back down on the table. Then he nodded. “Very well done, Ethan. Very well done indeed. I hadn’t expected you to get that far yet.”

Ethan grinned, and for a moment whatever oddness Stone had been trying to identify in him disappeared, replaced by honest pride. “Thanks. It’s one of the things I’ve been frustrated about, not having anything new to practice. I got tired of doing coins, so I started on bigger things. I hope that’s okay.”

“It’s fine. You did a good job.” Stone leaned forward, the chair coming down with a
clunk.
“And I think that kind of performance does deserve a reward, so I’m going to give you something new to focus on.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.” Stone glanced at his watch. This was going to take longer than an hour, but Ethan had earned it. “I think it’s time for your first lesson in circle-casting.”

Ethan brightened. “Cool.”

“I’m just going to show you a very simple one today, and then I’ll give you a couple of books to take home and read. Do you have a place at your apartment large enough to draw a circle four feet or so in diameter and safe to burn candles?”

“I—guess in the kitchen, I could. At least while Mom isn’t home. After that I’m not sure.”

“Well, once your mum is home, you can do them here for the time being, until we find you a better location.” Stone prowled around the room as he talked, pulling boxes off shelves and amassing a small pile of things on one of the worktables. “Do you know anything about circles? I don’t think there was much in the books I’ve given you so far, was there?”

“Not a lot,” he said. “A little in the intro text. You make them with candles and chalk and sand and stuff, right?”

“Sometimes. Except for very specific exceptions, what you use to make them isn’t as important as the power and intent you infuse into them. In essence, a circle is simply a barrier to keep things in—or out—while you’re working magic. They’re a way to concentrate your energy and channel it in specific ways, but your own willpower and control are still the most important parts of the process.” He picked up some of the items and moved to the large, open area in the room. “Come over here and watch what I do.”

Ethan did as he was told, dragging his chair over.

Stone didn’t take a lot of time building the circle, since it didn’t need to contain or keep out anything harmful. He drew the circle itself with sand, then sketched in a pattern in the middle with colored chalk and anchored its edges with candles. “This is Circle 101,” he said. “It’s the equivalent of using child’s building blocks to build a house. But shift over and watch with your magical senses while I power it.” He waited until he thought Ethan had complied, then stepped into the circle and completed the circuit. Dim lines of power flared between its end points, illuminating the pattern. “See?”

“Cool,” Ethan said, leaning forward in his chair.

“Now come over here and step inside with me. Be careful not to smudge the chalk lines or disturb the sand. That’s the first thing you need to learn about circles, especially when you’re depending on them—don’t do
anything
to tamper with their structural integrity. At best you’ll get a bugger of a headache. At worst, something might eat you, or suck you into another dimension somewhere. That’s never convenient.”

Carefully, Ethan got up and stepped into the circle, watching where he put his feet. It wasn’t a very big circle, and the position put him uncomfortably close to Stone. “Uh...”

“Yes, I don’t like it any more than you do,” Stone said. “Let’s make this quick. Just watch what I do, and see if you can get enough from it to duplicate it yourself.” He stepped back, putting as much distance as he could between himself and Ethan, and Ethan did the same. Stone closed his eyes and began murmuring under his breath.

His eyes were closed, but Stone’s magical senses were well aware of what was going on. He continued to murmur, gathering energy to him and shaping it into a pattern. He was planning to show Ethan a simple sending spell, one of the easier rituals to re-create.

Suddenly, though, he felt a shift in the pattern. Refocusing his senses, he almost took a physical step back in shock when he saw what was happening.

Ethan had picked up part of the pattern and was holding it in place, feeding more power into it.

How the
hell
was he doing that?

Stone cracked open an eye to look at the boy with normal sight. Ethan was standing there, his own eyes closed, his face looking like he was putting out some effort, but not an unusual amount. He held the pattern steady without even seeming to realize he was doing it. He was even supplying some of his own power to it.

Without letting on that he’d seen anything, Stone continued with the ritual as if Ethan wasn’t participating. He completed the pattern, held it for a few seconds, and then let it go. “All right,” he said,” stepping out of the circle. “Did you get that?”

“I—think so,” Ethan said. “I saw what you did. I’m not sure I can do it myself, though.”

“Give it a try. That’s all I expect right now. Once you get the basics down, there are all kinds of things you can do with a ritual like that. Let me get that book for you, and then I’ll let you go for today. I’ll also give you some basic ritual materials, though as I said, it’s not really important that you use anything specific for one this simple. What I want you to do for homework is read the book, attempt to recreate the circle, and use it to send a communication to me stating that you’ve done it. The book will give you the details on how to do that. And I want to see you back here on Wednesday afternoon. Call me if you can’t make it, but unless your mum is having trouble or you’re ill yourself, I expect you here. All right?”

Ethan nodded. “I’ll be here. Thanks, Dr. Stone.” He gathered up his backpack and put the book he’d been levitating back inside.