Chapter 43
A Series of Visitations
The first thing Connie noticed about the room was that everything was in black and white and somewhat out of focus. The room appeared as if it were straight out of an old movie. She was in the professor’s den. Just down the hall was the living room, where she had interrogated Professor Layton the day she left Earth. Heavy gray curtains were tied open, allowing rays of sunlight to beam through a large, latticed window. Connie stood behind Alyndia. Alyndia stood in front of an easel. She dabbed paint on a canvas, stooping over to catch the minute detail in what she was doing. Tomaso Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor wafted through the air from the boombox sitting atop the pool table. Alyndia hummed softly along with the classic pensive melody while her brush caressed the canvas.
Connie stepped toward Alyndia. To her dismay, Alyndia had put on some weight. Furthermore, her hair was now long and caramel-colored, showing its original color. Alyndia wore it tied with a black ribbon at the nape of her neck. She wore a light-colored robe, much like those she used to wear on Cerinya.
Connie watched Alyndia paint for a bit. The ex-elemental sorceress was completing a painting of a cityscape. Connie instantly recognized the cityscape as Roggentine, complete with a lovely sunrise in the distance, as viewed from the window of Alyndia’s apartment. Connie nodded to herself. The painting was intricate in detail as it was accurate, though it seemed otherworldly and out-of-place in the drearily decorated den.
Alyndia stepped back for a moment, the brush in one hand, a palette in the other. Connie watched her eyes. Alyndia seemed to be surveying the sky in the painting. She dabbed her brush in some of the paint, then she mixed it with some of another. She was about to apply the paint when a peculiar expression came over her face. Slowly, pensively, she lowered the brush and looked around the room. She gazed directly at Connie. She thought that Alyndia saw her, but her eyes just looked right through her. Still, she suspected that Alyndia felt her presence. She waited for Alyndia to go back to painting, but she never did. She put down the palette and the brush and walked over to the window. She gazed outside for a bit, then she turned around to study the room again as if she had misplaced something.
“Are you looking for someone?” Connie asked.
“Who are you?” Alyndia said as her eyes darted around the room. “I hear you, but I cannot see you.”
“Don’t you recognize your own voice?”
“Is that you, Connie?” Alyndia asked. “You’ve come back!”
“Yes. I have come back.” Connie walked in front of the painting. And surveyed its details. “Your painting. It’s very lovely. I didn’t know I could paint so well.”
Alyndia smiled. “My work is very much sought after. People love my paintings. I have a contract to illustrate books. What do you think of that? You are becoming famous for my paintings.”
“Wonderful,” Connie responded unenthusiastically. She gazed at Alyndia’s slightly swollen hips. “I see you’ve been eating well.”
Alyndia stopped smiling. She placed her hands on her hips and ran them up and down as if trying to smooth them. “I just never seem to find time to exercise.” She looked around the room. “I cannot see you. Where are you?”
“I’m standing in front of your painting.”
On hearing this, Alyndia gazed hard at Connie. Still, she could not see her. Then Alyndia turned around and untied the curtains. They swung closed. The room was instantly darker from the absence of sunlight. Alyndia blinked a few times while her eyes adjusted to the drastic reduction of light. Now her eyes homed in on Connie. “I see you now. You are very faint. Almost just an outline.”
“I don’t know how long I can stay here, so I will get to the point. We need you to retrieve the Heptakon bracelet and transport it back to us on Cerinya.”
Alyndia shook her head. “We don’t have it.”
“I know you don’t. The CIA has it. Based on why they confiscated it, I’ll lay odds that it’s at a certain crime lab in Virginia.”
Alyndia let out a small laugh. “I can’t get it for you. You’re no longer with the CIA. I have no access to anything that you had before. But I think you’re already aware of that.”
“It’s not a problem. I’ve been thinking it over. I have some ideas. It may take some deceit, but it can be done.”
Alyndia gave Connie an incredulous look and then slowly shook her head. “I don’t want to deceive anyone. It’s not my way of doing things.”
“I don’t know how you can say that, Alyndia. Your whole life there is a deception.”
“Connie, you have no idea what I’ve been through since I came here to your world. I’ve been in enough trouble.”
“It can’t be any worse than what I’m going through right now.”
“Well, I’ve worked very hard to get to this level of stability that I have now. I will not change all of this so that you can have this bracelet.”
“What is this talk about stability? The people in your world could die if you don’t help me return the bracelet.”
Connie explained the situation with the quest and the purpose of the bracelet. Connie paced the room as she spoke. Alyndia listened intently, nodding every so often. When Connie finished, the two women stared at each other in an uneasy silence.
“Furthermore, this is my life you are leading,” Connie added. “And when this quest is over, we are going to trade places back to the way we were. You will become what I am now, and I will become you.”
Alyndia then looked away from her on hearing these words. She dabbed her eyes with the loose sleeve of her robe. Connie watched Alyndia do this. It touched her in a peculiar way to see her former self cry.
“Why does it have to be this way?” Alyndia said.
“It’s not my rule,” Connie said softly. “Some spiritual law is broken. I don’t know what it all means or who made that decision, but I’m in a position to question it.”
“But we already tried to untangle our spirits once, remember? It didn’t work.”
“Yes. But Calicus will want to try it again once we get back to Roggentine. And I will allow him.”
“How did you come to know Calicus anyway? I myself never knew him personally.”
“I can’t say I know him very well, but he is the teacher of my mentor. You might have heard of her. Her name is Elenglea Vanexay, although she now goes by the name ‘Snow.’”
Alyndia gasped. “Elenglea Vanexay is your mentor? Why would you have anything to do with her? She’s such an awful person.”
Connie was momentarily taken aback by Alyndia’s reaction. “Well, I can’t say I entirely disagree with your opinion of her. She can be difficult at times. I take you don’t like her.”
“That is correct. I despise her, even.”
“I’ve learned a lot from her.”
“Not by good example, I’m sure.”
“Frankly, Alyndia, I don’t care what you think of her. But she’s got real ability, and she used a hell of a lot of her energy to make this meeting between us possible. Now, you need to get that bracelet and send it to us.”
“Where is this bracelet again?” Alyndia asked, sounding discomfited.
“I’m not sure. It could be CIA headquarters in Virginia.”
“I’ll have to fly to Virginia?”
“Maybe not. It also could be in Newark.”
“How am I going to find it?”
“You’re not. My partner William MacGregor will find it for you. You need to contact him.”
“Oh, he’ll be happy to hear from me, I’m sure.”
“Why do you say that?” Connie asked, perplexed to hear this.
“He came to see me once. He still has the hots for your body, even though he knows I’m Alyndia.”
“That surprises me, considering all the weight you’ve put on. He must be desperate.”
Alyndia shrugged. “So, you want me to just call him and ask him for the bracelet; he’ll bring it, and that’s it?”
“Don’t be daft, Alyndia. That bracelet is evidence of a possible crime. They’re not going to just give it to him, but I know he can get. We just need to make him want to get it for you.”
“I don’t know if I can pull this off.”
At once, there came a male voice. “Hey, babe. Who are you talking to?”
Both women turned and looked at the doorway. The professor stood there carrying a TV tray with a plate of food on it.
“And why is it so dark in here?” he asked. “I thought you were painting?”
Alyndia looked to Connie. “Should I tell him?” she asked.
Connie nodded in response.
“I’m speaking to our friend, Connie Bain. She’s come to visit me from Cerinya.”
The professor’s jaw dropped on hearing this. He stood at the doorway holding the tray, appearing undecided on what he should do.
“It’s all right, professor, come in.” Connie said to him.
The professor did not respond.
“She said you can come into the room,” Alyndia said.
“She said that?” the professor asked.
At that moment, Connie realized that only Alyndia could see and hear her.
The professor set the tray down on a small table next to the easel. Even in black and white, Alyndia’s breakfast of bacon and eggs on the tray looked good to Connie, though she could not remember what they tasted like. After the professor put down the tray, he scanned the room for her.
“Where is she?” he asked.
“She is standing a few paces—I mean—about five feet in front of you.”
“How do you do, Connie? I hope you are well,” he said awkwardly into the air, just to the left of Connie.
“He says he hopes you are well,” Alyndia repeated to Connie for him.
“I can hear him,” Connie said.
“Oh. I didn’t know that.”
“What did she say?” the professor asked her.
“Connie says she hears you.”
The professor gave her an uncertain smile. “How are you enjoying your stay in Cerinya?”
“Tell him the chlorine is great,” Connie said to Alyndia. “Tell him he ought to try inhaling it sometime.”
Alyndia shot Connie a look of consternation.
“What did she say?” the professor asked.
Alyndia spoke without removing her eyes from Connie. “She says she likes it in Cerinya.”
The professor nodded.
“That’s not what I said, Alyndia.”
Alyndia continued. “Connie was telling me she wants me to retrieve the bracelet from the CIA.”
“What?” the professor asked, bemused. “The CIA has it. Good luck getting it back from them.”
“She also wants you to transport it back to Cerinya. They need it for their quest. I’ll tell you about that later.”
Professor Layton massaged his forearm. “Connie, you have no idea how much trouble Alyndia and I went through with your friends at the CIA. What you are asking is quite unreasonable.”
“Tell him what we plan to do,” Connie said.
Alyndia did speak. She only stared off into space.
“Tell him!” Connie shouted.
Alyndia winced when she did this.
“She has a plan for getting the bracelet back,” she relayed to Professor Layton. “She wants me to contact Will to get it for her.”
The professor shook his head. “He’s not just going to give you that bracelet. I hope Connie knows that.”
Connie felt vexation rise in her breast toward Alyndia and the professor. Clearly, they did not see the urgency of the situation.
“I’m sorry to disrupt your lovely suburban life together, but there are people’s lives at stake here, including mine. We’ve lost several of our numbers on this quest. This includes your Uncle Jalban.”
“What about Uncle Jalban?”
“He got killed a few days ago. I’ll spare you the details, but I will say it wasn’t pretty.”
“I want to know what happened to him.”
“If you have to know, he got pierced through the back by some scorpion-like creature that buries itself in the sand. He died an agonizing, horrible death.”
These words came out with an unintentional yet unmistakable tone of malice. They had their intended effect. Tear streamed down Alyndia’s cheeks.
“Poor Uncle Jalban!” Alyndia cried. On seeing this, the professor went over and cradled her in his arms. He stroked her back gently to soothe her. “It’s all right,” he said. “It’s all right.”
Connie stepped back a pace, watching the two of them. How strange it was to watch herself being embraced by this man whom she’d spent a year investigating for conspiring to aid a terrorist. The absence of color made it all look like a blue movie from the forties.
Connie spoke again after the professor had soothed Alyndia somewhat.
“Alyndia. You have to get that bracelet for us. I can’t get it without you. Please. Without your help, everything in Cerinya you have ever known or loved will pass away. You’ll be left here painting pictures of a dead world.”
“I still don’t know if I would succeed. I’m not like you. I have never been.”
“I think we’ve long ago established that, but we have to at least try. Can you at least try?”
Alyndia nodded, wiping her eyes.
“All right. So you say that Will came to see you? That’s good. It means we have an ‘in.’ Now this is what we’re going to do…”
* * *
Connie gazed contemplatively across the desert while she ate her breakfast. She still felt groggy from the night’s travel to Earth. The meditative state was similar to sleep as far as her body was concerned, but not exactly. She felt the difference. This morning, she also had a slight headache.
“So do you think she’ll do it?” Rahl asked.
“I’ve committed her to do so,” Connie replied. “And the professor seems willing to go along with it. I gave him a source for the supplies he needs to build the chamber. He’ll be able to do it now without attracting undue attention. Alyndia will also have a replica made of the bracelet based on a drawing she will make. It may not be made of iridium like the original, but I expect it will be convincing enough.”
“Very well. We will start for the sea today,” Rahl announced.
“So, we won’t have to dig around the sand for that bracelet?” Maltokken asked.
“That’s right,” Snow answered for him. “We will leave here and rely upon Connie to bring back the bracelet from her world.”
“That’s a load from my mind,” he said with relief.
“How long will it take to reach the coast?” Theo asked the swordbearer.
“Three days, maybe more,” he replied. “From there, we will cross the Oscacian Sea, then we will travel inland across the ice until we reach the Atranox.”
“And not a league too soon,” Maltokken said. “I can’t wait to get back to Roggentine.”
“None of us can,” Rahl said. “It’s been a year. I just hope there is something left to return to.”
They packed up their equipment and started across the desert again. Before they did, Connie cast Lightness spells on each party member to decrease their vibrations as they walked and Blanch spells to mute their scents. After that, they did not encounter any more of the scorpion creatures.
Connie felt exhausted from the night’s experience and kept lagging behind. The party had to pause several times to allow Connie to catch up. When they broke for lunch, she bypassed eating and instead took a nap. That evening, when they had set camp for the night in a rocky area away from the sand, Connie and Snow moved a short distance from the camp for another night of travels to Earth.
* * *
As per Connie’s instructions, Alyndia purchased a new telephone, and with it, she drove to a small town just outside of Newark with Connie’s shade sitting in the passenger seat. Once Connie felt certain she wasn’t being followed, they pulled into the parking lot of a Jack-in-the-Box and shut off the engine. She then listened in while Alyndia initiated a call to MacGregor’s number with the new phone. His phone began ringing.
Alyndia cupped the mouthpiece. “I’m not sure I can do this.”
“Just repeat what I say.”
“Hello?” came Will MacGregor’s voice.
“Hi, Will. This is Alyndia.”
“Alyndia?” Will asked.
“Yes.”
“You’re using a different number.”
“Yes, my phone was stolen the other day. This is my new number. I hope it’s not a problem.”
“No. Not at all. How are you, Alyndia?”
Connie could tell by the sound of his voice that he was already suspicious, probably because of the new number. Alyndia also seemed to sense this. She took a deep breath before she spoke again.
“I’m fine. I was just thinking about you today. How are you?”
“I’m doing great. How’s Gerald?”
Alyndia cupped the mouthpiece again. “What should I say?” she asked Connie.
“He probably already knows the answer. Just tell him the truth.”
“I’m still with him. But things still aren’t working out like I thought they would.”
“They aren’t?” Will asked. He sounded mildly amused. “Where are you now?”
“I’m just out shopping.”
“I see. So, what’s up?”
“Well, I was thinking about your offer a few weeks ago at the cafe. You remember? When you wanted to spend time with me.”
“Yeah?” There was that amused tone again.
“Does your offer still hold?”
“Well, I’m out of town right now.”
“I understand.”
“Kind of busy, too.”
“I see.”
“What made you change your mind?”
“It has to do with Connie. I’ve been in contact with her. She’s found a way to communicate with me from Cerinya.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes. In fact, she’s right here.”
“That’s interesting. Can you put her on?”
“No. Only I can hear her. She’s basically a ghost.”
“A ghost? That sounds a little nutty to me, to be honest.”
“She can hear you though the phone, though. One moment, Will.” Alyndia muted the phone. “What should I say next?”
“Make him test you.”
“How?”
“Be creative.”
Alyndia unmuted the phone.
“Remember you and Gerald came up with those questions to test who I was? You can ask me questions that only Connie would know the answer to. She’ll tell me the answer.”
“All right. What was the name of that fancy restaurant in Maine where you found a pearl in your oyster? Remember? You almost broke your tooth when you bit down on it.”
Alyndia looked over at Connie.
“That didn’t happen to me; it happened to a fellow agent named Charlotte. Besides, he knows I don’t like oysters.”
Alyndia spoke. “She says that didn’t happen to her. It happened to Charlotte. Besides, she says she doesn’t like oysters.”
There was silence on the line for a few moments. “Yeah,” he said. “You’re right.”
Connie whispered to Alyndia. “Ask how Larry is doing. Ask him if Larry ever finished the boat.”
“She wants to know: how is Larry? Did he ever finish the boat?”
“Oh, Larry?” MacGregor sounded surprised. “Yeah, he finished it. He took a three-month leave of absence so he could sail it to the South Pacific.”
“And to Easter Island,” Connie added.
“And to Easter Island?” Alyndia repeated.
“Yeah,” MacGregor said. “He said he was going to take it to Easter Island to check out those head statues.”
“He always wanted to see them,” Alyndia extrapolated.
“So why are you calling me Alyndia? Do you really want to meet?”
“Yes.”
“You said Connie’s there with you. What does she think of you and me hanging out together?”
“She said she’d prefer I be with you than whoring around with Gerald.” Alyndia grimaced as she said this.
MacGregor laughed. “That sounds something Connie would say.”
“In any case, Will, what you and I do together is between you and me.”
“And what if Gerald finds out?”
“I’d prefer to leave him out of this discussion.”
The line was silent for a moment.
“Are you still in Newark?”
“Yes.”
There was another pause. “Why do you want to meet?” he asked with suspicion in his voice.
“I already told you why.”
“Can you send me some pictures?”
“That scoundrel!” Connie shouted. “Tell him ‘no.’”
“Maybe after we meet,” Alyndia replied. “First, I want to make sure you were serious when you made me that offer the other day.”
He sighed. “You know, Alyndia, I get this really strong feeling you want something from me, something more than just a meeting. So, let’s just cut to the chase. What is it you want?”
Connie nodded once to Alyndia when he said this.
“If you have to know, it’s about the bracelet.”
“You mean, the one Connie put on?”
“Yes. She says she wants to come back but can only do it if I put it on again.”
“I don’t have it. If she’s there with you, she should know that.”
“She says you can get it.”
The line went silent again.
Connie whispered to Alyndia. “He’s thinking now.”
“Look, Alyndia. I don’t know if I can get the bracelet for you, but if you want to meet, we can do that.”
“I do want to meet you, and we will. But in the end, this is more about Connie than me. If you bring the bracelet, we will swap places. I’ll go back to Cerinya where I belong, and she’ll be back here with you—forever. You want that, don’t you?”
“Yeah,”
“Okay. Where is the bracelet now?”
“They took it to a crime lab for analysis.”
“You need to get it.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“You should at least try. I want to go home, Will. Connie wants to come back. If you won’t get that bracelet, there will be no meeting.”
Connie gave Alyndia a thumbs-up.
“Suppose I got the bracelet. What would you do with it?”
“I just need to put it on, and she will return. After that, you can take it back to wherever you got it from.”
“All right. Let me see what I can do.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll give you a call back in a few days.”
“Okay.”
“Wait, Alyndia,” Connie said abruptly. “Don’t hang up.”
“Hold on a moment, Will.” Alyndia cupped her hand over the mouthpiece. “What is it? He’s already said he might get it.”
“Tell him Scooby-Doo.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just tell him!”
“But what does it mean? What am I saying?”
“It’s a code. Just say it!”
Alyndia scowled at Connie. She uncovered the mouthpiece. “Oh, Will—there’s one more thing. Connie wants me to tell you, ‘Scooby-Doo.’”
“What? Scooby-Doo?”
Alyndia stared at Connie while MacGregor went silent for a moment. Suddenly, MacGregor broke into a fit of laughter.
“Okay. Tell Connie I said, ‘Okay, Scooby-Doo.’”
He ended the call. Ayndia put her hand to her chest and let out a sigh of relief.
“How was that?” she asked Connie.
“Good job,” Connie said.
“Do you really think he’ll get the bracelet for us?”
“I say there’s a high probability. Just give him some time.” Connie scrutinized Alyndia’s appearance. “Now we need to work on you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been putting on weight and ruining my body with junk food. It’s time you start working off those pounds. And we need to do something about your hair. That won’t do.”
* * *
The party traveled northward. The further they traveled, the dryer the air became. The land was flat and hard, like an endless, dry lake. Occasionally they would chance upon mysterious, broad, shallow channels forty paces across cut into the hard soil. All the channels were cut into the land from a perfectly straight west-to-east angle. But though the channels were obviously created by intelligent beings, their exact purpose was unknown. Rahl suggested that possibly, thousands of years ago, this was arable land, and the channels once carried seawater to the crops. Aside from channels, there was no sign of civilization, just the flat, featureless steppe with only an occasional scrub brush or anemic-looking bush to break the monotony.
During the afternoons, the winds sometimes kicked up, effectively shutting down their travel. The only benefits to these winds were the occasional Air nodes that Connie would find in the breeze. From these blustery days, Connie collected a significant quantity of Air nodes from the wind.
For all their travels, all that could be seen was the flat earth and sky and an occasional channel. On the sixth day away from the ancient city, Connie performed a water divination. The water table was five stories down. In an act of desperation, she consumed a majority of her crystal nodes to excavate a well to this water. From this, the party was able to refill their skins until they reached the water. The food supply was also running low. Now she resorted to casting wood-node Nourish spells on the remaining rations so that they could eat less and yet still have proper nutrition.
Lately, Connie thought Tristana had been looking a bit peaky. It also appeared she was losing weight. After she observed another meal in which Tristana didn’t eat any of her ration of enchanted spiced jule, she asked Theo as to what her problem was.
“She’s been giving me her rations,” Theo told her as he chewed laboriously on a tough piece of jule.
“But she isn’t looking well.”
“Don’t you think I know this?”
“Well, you need to do something for her.”
“She takes one bite for every six I take. What can I do? She doesn’t always listen to me.”
“Can’t you do anything for her? Perhaps cast a spirit spell or two on her?”
“Do you jest? Cast a spirit spell on Tristana?”
“I eat what she doesn’t. I can’t let it go to waste, even if it does taste exceptionally rancid.”
“It keeps you going,” Maltokken broke in. “And if you don’t like it, you can give me yours. You can give me Tristana’s too. You all short me anyway.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Hush, Maltokken!” Snow barked at him. “We don’t short you. You are merely a glutton.”
Connie got up and moved over to the other side of Theo, where Tristana dutifully sat at his side.
“How are you, Tristana? We haven’t talked much lately.”
Tristana, who seemed to have been brooding, sat up and gazed at Connie attentively.
“Why aren’t you eating? A girl needs to eat regular meals to stay strong and healthy.”
Connie studied Tristana’s lips. Tristana was no longer dehydrated like she was a few days before when she last checked. Tristana had started drinking water again on her own. But why? Connie thought back on the events that may have caused Tristana to start drinking again. She recalled that Tristana started drinking only after the water became plentiful again.
Connie looked over at Theo chewing on the jule. She then realized what Tristana was doing. She was trying to preserve Theo’s life at the expense of her own. Since the rations were scarce, she was seeing to it that Theo would remain nourished at all costs, even if it meant she would go without. Connie returned her gaze to Theo. He bit off another piece of the jule that Tristana left for him. It occurred to Connie what needed to be done. She rose to her feet and dusted off her robe.
“Theo, let’s have a talk,” she said to the spirit mage.
“About what?”
“Come over here where we can talk in private, and I will tell you.”
Theo shot Connie a pained look. He got to his feet, dusted himself off, and followed Connie a dozen or so paces from the rest of the party where they were out of earshot of everyone, particularly Tristana.
“Do you care for Tristana?” Connie asked him.
“Yes.”
“Do you care that she lives?”
“Of course I do. Why are you asking me this foolish question? Do you believe I do not?”
“Tristana does not eat because of you.”
“What have I done that she would do this?”
Connie explained her take on what Tristana was doing. Theo listened. Halfway through her explanation, he seemed to get the message. He stopped chewing the jule. When Connie finished, he said nothing. He only stared ruefully at the piece he still held in his hands, a piece rationed out by Rahl for Tristana. He looked back at Tristana, who continually watched them from beneath the canopy. Connie thought she saw remorse in his expression, a rare emotion for him.
* * *
Connie’s shade sat in the back seat of the station wagon while the professor drove Alyndia to the airport, where she would take a flight to Richmond, Virginia to meet with MacGregor. Alyndia’s was due to leave in less than an hour, and they were running late.
“Tell him to step on it,” Connie said to Alyndia, momentarily pausing in her description of what was happening on Cerinya.
“She wants you to hurry, babe,” Alyndia said to the professor in turn. “So what happened after that?” she asked, addressing Connie.
“Well, Theo stopped eating,” she replied. “He told Tristana that if she didn’t eat, he would not eat either. This made it so that her holding onto the rations would not do either of them any good.”
“Did she start eating again?”
“Yes, but not right away.”
“But you could have cast more Nourish spells on her,” Alyndia said. “Did you try that?”
“Yes. But, you know, those spells did not work well on her. There is something about her negative energy field. It kind of sucks away the node power I cast on her. I have to cast a spell on her two or three times before I feel it work.”
“What did she say?” the professor asked Alyndia.
While Alyndia relayed her words to him, Connie stared out the window at the urban landscape. For the expanse of wasteland they had experienced, it felt odd yet comforting to see the land of billboards and highways again. It amazed her to believe this world existed in an atmosphere of oxygen and water, the very substances that were now poisonous to her in large amounts.
Connie spoke to the professor. “Professor Layton, I have a question for you. What do you know of the Cerinyan biological system?”
Alyndia translated Connie’s words for the professor.
“You breathe chlorine,” he replied. “But you already know that part, I’m sure. You exhale the air minus the chlorine. Your sweat is something like carbon tetrachloride, as is a major part of your urine.”
“Carbon tetrachloride? Bleach?” Alyndia relayed to the professor for Connie.
“Yes. Your urine, Connie, could be used as laundry bleach in our world. Your blood is so acidic that a few drops would set magnesium on fire. Your hair, fingernails, and teeth are silicon compounds like the sand of the seashore. You are a work of art in your world, just as we are in ours, but of course, biologically incompatible with us Earthlings.”
Alyndia reached over and put her hand affectionately on the professor’s thigh. “That is why I had to come be with you,” she said, her voice almost a whisper.
Connie suddenly felt flush. She had no idea why.
“What about our plants? How do they fit into the Cerinyan biological system?”
“I haven’t worked out the details yet, but from what samples Alyndia brought me, I have been able to determine that the plant life on Cerinya breaks down carbon tetrachloride and hydrochloric acid to release hydrogen and chlorine back into the Cerinyan atmosphere,” the professor answered. “It is a carbon cycle of sorts, but it is much more complicated than what we have here on Earth.”
Alyndia shook her head and rolled her eyes. “I have no idea what you two are talking about.”
“Now I have a question for you, Connie,” Professor Layton said as he took the off-ramp from the freeway to the airport departing flights terminal. “What makes the spells work? Have you figured that out?”
“No, I haven’t,” Connie replied. “But I assure you they do. The spells they have can do some amazing things.”
“I’ve already told him that,” Alyndia said without relaying Connie’s last words.
“As a matter of fact, I’m a better spellcaster than Alyndia here.”
“What did she say?” the professor asked.
“She said she doesn’t know how the spells work, and she wishes she could cast spells as well as I did.”
Professor Layton looked to Alyndia and smiled, obviously impressed at his beloved.
“Liar,” Connie said as Alyndia grinned to herself, self-satisfied.
The professor pulled into the terminal.
“We’re on Delta Flight 5520 to Richmond,” Connie said, momentarily forgetting the professor could not hear her.
“I’m really hungry,” Alyndia said.
“You’re always hungry,” Connie chided.
“Do you suppose we could go to MacDonald’s before the flight?” she asked Professor Layton. “I saw one in the terminal.”
“Don’t you dare!”
The professor glanced at his watch. “No. We don’t have time, Sweets. You’ll have to wait until you land.”
Alyndia pouted on hearing this.
“Do you have the replica?” Connie asked Alyndia.
“Yes. It’s in my purse.”
“Let me see it again. I want to make sure.”
Alyndia dug through her purse and then held up a shiny replica of the enchanted Heptakon bracelet so that Connie could see it. During the past week, as per Connie’s instructions, they had commissioned a local jeweler to create the seven-sided bracelet from one of Alyndia’s paintings. Now as Connie gazed at the fairy loop swinging from Alyndia’s fingers, she felt queasy for reasons she could not fathom.
Alyndia checked Connie’s reaction in the back seat. “There. Are you satisfied?”
“It looks good.”
“It’s not made of iridium, though. They couldn’t do it, and I couldn’t afford it. It’s still pretty heavy, though.”
Connie nodded. Alyndia stuffed the bracelet back into her purse.
After the bags were checked in, Professor Layton began walking with Alyndia toward security.
“Wait,” Connie said.
“What is it?” Alyndia asked.
“You should say your goodbyes here.”
“Why can’t he come with me to security?” As Alyndia spoke into the empty air beside her, other passengers in the terminal gave her strange looks as they passed.
“We might be watched.”
“By whom?”
“The CIA.”
“Why should they care?”
“Don’t underestimate the CIA, Alyndia. Trust me on this.”
“But why?”
“Your boyfriend here is poison. You don’t want to be seen with him. Say your goodbyes now. And hurry up. We have a plane to catch. If we miss it, Will is going to wonder what happened.”
Alyndia frowned.
“What is she saying?” Professor Layton asked her.
“She said you cannot come with me to security. We have to say goodbye now,” she said in a wistful tone.
Professor Layton looked flustered for an instant, then he sighed in resignation. He put down her bag. The two quickly fell into each other’s arms. Connie immediately felt the flush feeling again—the physical sensation of adrenaline without the emotion. She looked away self-consciously.
The two stayed locked in an embrace for what seemed forever to Connie. The feeling of physical arousal continued unabated for as long as they stayed close.
“Let’s not get too mushy here, Alyndia,” Connie said finally, scarcely able to bear the feeling.
The two parted. Alyndia picked up her bag. She whispered something in his ear that brought a smile to his face, then she turned and headed toward the terminal. Fortunately, the line at the baggage check-in was short, and she was able to quickly check in the small bag she carried.
“Do you think he will meet me at the terminal as she said he would?” Alyndia asked as she stepped on to the escalator.
“Yes. That is what we arranged. He will be there.”
“And how about you? Will you be there?”
“I don’t know. It is almost morning on Cerinya. I have a day of traveling to do. I can’t hold up the party.”
“What should I do when I see him?”
“Go along with him,” Connie smiled. “He says he has the bracelet. Once you see it, you’ll know what to do. Have a good flight.”
* * *
Near the end of the day, the endless desert gave way to the ocean. The party stood atop a sandy hill overlooking the shoreline that stretched infinitely into the distance in either direction. Gentle waves of clear hydrochloric acid, the substance of life on Cerinya, rushed and receded against the smooth, sandy shore. The expanse of water was a lovely, emerald green that reflected the clear sky above. The horizon itself was hazy and indistinct, with a green cloud that buffered the horizon of a pea-green sky and white caps on the sparkling emerald sea.
“I so love the sea,” Snow said, gawking at the scene with the rest of the party. The celestial sorceress kicked off her shoes and ran to the water up to her ankles. Once her feet breached the water, she stopped running and did not go any further.
“How is it, Snow?” Rahl yelled to her.
“It’s cooooold!” she yelled back, her voice a playful wail. “But it feels so good on my aching feet!”
Connie had never before imagined a sea of hydrochloric acid. It was incredible enough to see rivers and lakes of the stuff, but to actually see an ocean of pure acid was mind-boggling. A fine, green haze of chlorine hugged the rippling water. She knew that she’d die miserably in seconds if she were to suddenly find herself here in her earthly body. She realized that for all its unearthly beauty, this world could never have human habitation on Earth. She wondered if this sort of biological separation of Cerinya and Earth were actually part of the Master Plan of the Universe—provided such a thing even existed.
“Unbelievable,” Connie said, awestruck, to Rahl.
Rahl looked at Connie. “You’ve never seen the ocean before. Have you?”
Connie shook her head. “No, not a Cerinyan ocean. I never thought I might, either.”
Rahl rejoined Connie in gazing at the panorama of sea and sky before he spoke again, “Does this look like those great oceans on Earth you speak about?”
Connie did not answer at first. An icy breeze blew against her back. She was enjoying the feeling. She pulled away the hair that fluttered against her cheek. “Both oceans are beautiful, Rahl, but they are beautiful in different ways.”
The others followed Connie and Rahl down to the water. Connie did as Snow did and let the cold ocean water sweep soothingly around her tired feet. Snow was right: the water was bone-chilling cold. Most likely, she thought, they were in the Arctic regions, and this water flowed from the icy polar caps of the planet. Mixed into the sand were pieces of primordial-looking sea plants. On closer inspection of the shore, Connie saw numerous half-buried slate-colored seashells. She plucked one from the sand and rinsed it off in the water that swished at her ankles. This particular mollusk was flying-saucer-shaped, about five inches across, with an incredible five-sectioned camera aperture-like valve on one side. The shell had a polished, smooth texture. Its surface was splashed with a splotchy green and yellow pattern, superimposed on a gray, tiger-striped background. From the feel and weight of the shell, it appeared more silicate-based than calcium-based. Of course, calcium compounds could not exist in this world due to the highly acidic content of the environment. Professor Layton was right; silica seemed to be the answer.
Snow walked up to Connie. “We need the ship now.”
“The what?” she asked, bemused by Snow’s request.
Connie then remembered the ship in the bottle Snow possessed. Too weary to look for it herself in the Threshibian bag, she simply untied it from her belt and handed it to Snow. The sorceress rummaged through the bag until she found her tiny magical chest. Then, with a simple whisper, the chest popped open, and the ship-in-a-bottle fell into her hand.
Maltokken watched the whole thing. “We’re going to sail on that?”
“Yes, you fool. Now back off!” Snow brought the ship over to Rahl. “Would you like the honors?”
Rahl, anticipating his duty, had already shed his breastplate, sword, and most of the metal he carried on his body.
“He needs to take the ship into the water,” Snow said to Connie.
Connie cast a three-node power of Warmth on Rahl to compensate for the cold of the water. Once the spell had taken effect, he took the glass cylinder from Snow and bravely waded into the icy surf while holding the cylinder above the surface of the water. Once he had waded up to his armpits, he flung the cylinder away from the shore as far as he could. It splashed a good distance away, where it then bobbed, tiny and insignificant, on a gentle, rolling swells of waves heading toward the sandy beach. Rahl quickly waded his way back to the party aided by the waves that pushed him along.
“Good throw, Rahl,” Snow said. “Looks like he’s in deep water.” She turned to the party. “Are all of you ready?”
The sorceress waved her hands above her head while performing a long and complex incantation. The glass cylinder surrounding the ship broke soundlessly in the distance. Then suddenly, gradually, the ship began to swell. At first, it looked to Connie like a sunken ship that was rising from the bottom, but then it quickly became evident that this was the same ship inside the cylinder. Connie realized, in alarm, that the ship was growing sideways in the water. She feared it would fill with water and sink. Snow made a simple, circular gesture with her finger. The ship righted itself in direct response. After a minute, the growth of the ship slowed; it stopped altogether. Now the tiny ship appeared a full eight or so paces across and thirty paces bow to stern. It sat passively on the waves that rippled below. Connie noticed its anchor was down. On the port side was a rope ladder that dipped from the deck into the water below. On the bow was the name: Ischileleia.
“How were we going to get to it?” Maltokken said. “That water is cold and deep.”
From her robe, Snow produced a wand. This was the wand Connie called her “fairy” wand because of the star fixed into the end. Connie let out a laugh when she saw it, just as she always did.
“What is it?” the sorceress asked Connie on hearing her laugh.
“It’s nothing.”
Snow looked at the wand in her hand and then back at Connie.
“I do not see the humor in this wand. In fact, it is a very useful instrument for directing spells.”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t.
Snow sighed. “Connie, Connie. What am I going to do with you?”
On saying that, she waved the wand in a broad arc over the party, and Connie felt the flux of magic around her, as directed by the fairy wand.
“Let us go now. We have only a few moments.”
Snow walked into the waves. Her feet remained on the surface of the water as though it were a solid floor, albeit a moving, solid floor. She walked on top of it, struggling and bouncing on top of the waves until she reached the swells. The party stood and stared at her with awe. Once she had passed the waves, she turned around and waited for the party.
“What are you all waiting for?” she shouted to them, gesturing for them to follow. “Come along!”
The party ran onto the shifting water. When Connie did, she fell ignobly on her bottom in short order. Looking at the others, it gave her satisfaction that they were having an equally tough time walking on the shifting surface. She thought walking on the turbulent water was like walking on a carpet being pulled abruptly in every direction over a bumpy floor. Unable to keep her balance as Snow did, Connie resorted to skittering on all fours across the water. Finally, she reached the smooth area before the crest of the waves, where she could just manage to balance on her feet. From there, she walked over the water to where Snow was already climbing up the rope ladder. This larger version of the ship looked much more rickety now than when it was in the bottle. Nonetheless, it amazed her that she had actually held the entire ship in the palm of her hand.
Snow helped Connie onto the deck. Theo and Tristana followed close behind. Rahl was still at the shoreline, helping Maltokken walk over the waves.
“What do you think of this?” Snow said as she patted her hand against the solid wood main mast.
Most startlingly, the deck of the ship was covered with dead, brown rat-like creatures. Connie picked up one of the creatures. It had no mass. It felt freeze-dried. “What are these?”
“Nogs. The scourge of civilization. They are everywhere spreading disease. Putting the ship into extra-dimensional space killed everything on board.”
“You mean, this ship was in extra-dimensional space? Like inside the Threshibian bag?”
“That is correct.”
“I thought you used a Shrink spell. That’s №115 in your book, as I recall.”
“We did not use a №115, nor did we use №346. We used №412, №413, №569, and a reversal of №770. Those spells took a lot of energy to cast. Calicus had to help with the last one.”
“I wouldn’t have thought to combine those spells,” Connie said. “Why didn’t you just cast №115?”
“If we’d shrank the ship with that spell, it still would still have been so heavy we could not have carried it.”
“Then you could have cast a Lightness spell on it, or maybe №140.”
“No, it doesn’t work like that. The ship is made of many parts. You would have had to cast Lightness on every individual part of it, even the ropes. You would have been at it all day. And then the ship would have been very fragile in its shrunken state. The slightest bump of your finger would have broken its mast.”
“Now, I see.”
“Actually, the image you saw of this ship in the bottle was only the shrunken avatar of the ship. The mass of the ship itself sat in extra-dimensional space. When we broke the vial, we only allowed the ship to swell forth out of the extra-dimensional space. Therefore, though the ship appeared to expand into its present size, it was only slipping out of the space we created for it.”
Connie nodded. “I understand now. How did you figure out how to do that?”
“Being a great sorceress is not about casting spells; it’s also about combining spells in creative ways. Every spell has limitations, and sometimes you need to work around them. Sometimes you even need to cast the reversal of a spell to get the effect you want.”
“But I would never have thought to cast a reversal of №770. That’s ingenious.”
“Well, to be perfectly honest, I didn’t come up with it myself. Actually, I got the combination of spells out of an old spell ‘cookbook’ that I picked up a few years ago. It’s a great book with some great enchantments in it. I’d share it with you, but I left it back in Roggentine.” She paused. “Why do you look so glum?”
“I’ll bet that casting those spells was so easy for you, even the reversal of №770.”
Snow raised an eyebrow. “Do I detect a note of envy in you?”
“Maybe a little,” she said, looking away.
“Why are you comparing yourself to me? I’m a great sorceress, maybe the best in Cerinya. And you barely know what you’re doing. How long have you been at this, anyway?”
“You take every opportunity to rub it in, don’t you?”
“Complicated magic is easy when you know what you’re doing.” She pressed a finger to Connie’s chest. “And that’s why I’m teaching you. Someday, you’re going to do the same as me. You’re going to make me proud. I just know it.”
By now, the rest of the party had climbed aboard the ship. “Let’s have a look below.”
Connie gave the freeze-dried nog one more look, then she tossed it over the rail. The desiccated creature was so light it hardly made a splash.
Down in the hold of the ship, they found a dozen or so unopened crates, three giant kegs, and several large, sealed urns. One by one, they took a quick inventory. Evidently, this was a light merchant cargo ship. Within one crate, they found twenty fancy blankets fresh from the weavers. Inside another, they found dates. Another contained plain, but serviceable house robes. A particularly heavy but smaller crate contained a metal ore of some kind. Three more crates held desiccated but edible fruit. Three of the jugs held lamp oil. Another held gooey brown roofing tar. One barrel was empty, but best of all, one of the barrels contained green wine. At least it was marked that way.
“Fandia did not do too badly,” Snow said after the inventory had been taken.
Everyone seemed pleased with the find except Maltokken.
“You mean we’ve been traveling across the desert, sleeping on stinky blankets, eating rotten jule, and going thirsty all the time when we’ve been carrying this stuff with us all along?”
“Yes,” Snow said. “The magic that stowed this ship was created with one of Calicus’ artifacts. I had only the magic to release this ship from extra-dimensional storage. Besides, I had no idea the ship carried all of this. Perhaps Fandia had not known either when she spotted it moored on the docks.”
Maltokken looked at her blankly.
Theo elaborated on the situation for Maltokken: “If we had released the ship out in the desert, we could have had these supplies, but then we would have had no way of transporting the ship to the water once we released it from storage.”
Later, while they were moving the few remaining crates from the hold, Tristana gasped. The suddenness of her gasp drew everyone’s attention, and they went over to where she was. There, lying behind the crate she was moving, they found the desiccated body of a man. To Connie, he looked like an Egyptian mummy that had been locked away in his tomb for thousands of years. The man’s teeth were bared as if locked in a perpetual snarl against death.
“He must have been a stowaway,” Snow said as she nudged the body with her foot. “Obviously, he didn’t know to leave the ship after Fandia bought it. He probably never knew what happened.”
Theo clasped the shriveled wrist of the dead man. He closed his eyes and whispered an incantation. He stood this way for a moment. Then, looking quietly surprised, he placed his hand on the dead man’s neck as if he were feeling for a pulse. Connie smiled to herself. Of course, there could be no pulse. Theo then got to his feet and let out a chuckle as he brushed off his hands.
“What is it?” Connie asked.
Theo chuckled again. “According to my spell, this man died only moments ago.”
“Your spirit spell is obviously wrong,” Snow said in a haughty tone.
“You do not believe me? Feel the body. It is still warm.”
The party inspected the rest of the ship and found several more surprises. In the crew quarters, which slept six, coincidentally, they found more blankets and a few more half-consumed bottles of green wine. Everything was left exactly as it had been when the spell had been cast on the craft one morning almost a year ago. Even the unmade bunks looked like the sailors had just crawled out of bed to do the morning details. Inside the scullery of the ship, they found an ample store of food, including flour, spices, and dried vegetables. Unfortunately, no one was much of a cook, and so they decided they would take turns at the hearth contained therein. The consensus was that Jalban would be missed, at the very least, for his splendid cooking and the hundreds of ways he had found to prepare jule.
A short while later, they went atop the deck and prepared the ship to sail for the northern continent of Atrenaea. With the sails fixed, they were prepared when the afternoon winds came to whisk them across the sea toward their final destination.
* * *
The non-stop flight out of Newark departed on time. As the tickets were purchased on such short notice, Alyndia was not able to get the window seat she desired. Still, even with her aisle seat, she enjoyed the flight, and even the meal of spiced chicken was too her liking, and the little boy sitting next to her was pleasant company. Together, they drew pictures with the colored markers his parents had brought along for the trip. A little more than half way through the flight, she fell asleep, awakening when the ‘Fasten Seat Belts’ light came on and the announcement came, spoken by a pleasant-but-nonetheless business-like female voice: “We are beginning our descent into Richmond International Airport. Please turn off all portable electronic devices and place your trays in their upright, locked position.”
Alyndia leaned her head back against the seat as the airliner began its final approach, straining to see what could through the Plexiglas window three seats over from herself. They were low enough that the illusion of remaining motionlessly suspended above the ground had disappeared to be replaced by a large residential neighborhood that speedily slipped by beneath them. The neighborhood ended abruptly, and they were over water again. Recalling her previous flights, she knew the runway was coming up next.
As she always did when she flew, Alyndia took a moment to consider the technology that carried her through the sky. She thought most of the passengers would never know any of the small wonders of this aircraft that carried them. They could not care less about each nut, bolt, and rivet that held the plane together. All they cared about was that they may fly with a reasonable amount of comfort and then walk off to their destination—the business meeting, the arms of a loved one, or to luxuriate in a long-awaited vacation. She loved the world of machines and technology, and she willingly fell into their embrace.
Soon, the brief body of water beneath the plane ended. The runway came up suddenly beneath them. After a momentary bounce, the wheels contacted the ground and rolled with a loud rumble. The engines powerfully roared in reverse-thrust mode to slow the plane. Sweet technology, she whispered to herself. She checked her watch. It was 2:38.
“Welcome to Richmond International Airport…” the voice on the PA began again.
As the plane taxied toward the gate, Alyndia scanned the cabin for any sign of Connie. Not seeing her, Alyndia became worried. Now she wondered if she could handle this.
MacGregor was waiting for her just outside the secured areas of the gates.
“Alyndia!” he said when he saw her.
He embraced her in a protracted hug. She said nothing while in his arms. Instead, she scanned the crowd of people in the terminal for Connie’s shade.
Will pulled back to have another look at her. “Your hair is now red—and it’s short the way Connie used to wear it. Wow! You’re looking like your old self again.”
“I wanted Connie to feel welcome when she returned to her body.”
Although she’d managed to smile for him, inwardly, she was frowning. She regretted deeply that Connie had made her bob her hair and dye it in the subdued red it used to be. She enjoyed having long hair, and she thought Connie’s natural chestnut color suited her better than the washed-out red she was now wearing.
“By the way, you do have the bracelet, don’t you?”
“Of course. That was our deal.”
Alyndia breathed a sigh of relief. MacGregor took her bag, and they walked toward the baggage claim area. As they walked down the seemingly endless passage through the terminal, Alyndia kept her eye out for any sign of Connie.
“You never told me why we are meeting here in Richmond,” she said.
“I had some business here at the main office. Since Connie’s longer with us, I can’t tell you more than that.”
They made small talk while they waited for her suitcase to come off the conveyor belt and onto the carousel. Alyndia watched the bags circulate. Machines fascinated her. She wondered which spells she could cast that would cause an equivalent effect to what the machines were doing. While they waited, she felt MacGregor gazing at her like a thrake. This made her feel uncomfortable. She wondered why MacGregor seemed eager to have this meeting after their first conversation. Whatever she said to him in their brief conversations on the phone in the last few weeks, nothing, she thought, would lead him to look at her the way he was.
After they retrieved their bags, they got into MacGregor’s rental car in the parking garage. Inside the car, she smelled his aftershave for the first time. The cologne he wore was heavier than Gerald’s, and it was unpleasant in her nostrils. She wished direly that Gerald was with her in this strange city and not this vestige of Connie’s former, abject life.
“You hungry?” MacGregor asked her as they made their way out of the airport with the rest of the midweek traffic.
Alyndia shook her head. She was not hungry in the least. In fact, if she was becoming so nervous, she feared she would vomit the poor airline cuisine she ate on the flight over. Several hours had passed since she had last seen Connie. She was becoming worried. Occasionally, Alyndia would look into the back seat of the car in hopes that Connie would be sitting there. MacGregor noticed Alyndia glancing back occasionally.
“We’re not being tailed,” MacGregor said, noticing her behavior. “No one knows I’m meeting you here. Not the agency. No one.”
“I guess I could have relied upon you for that.”
“Of course,” he said. “Standard protocol.” Then he smiled broadly. “Oh yeah, I have something for you; a surprise.”
“You do?” Alyndia asked.
“Yeah.” He slipped a black CD into the dash of the car. He pressed a button. A few seconds later. The snarling guitar intro to AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” blasted from the speakers. Alyndia cringed on hearing this.
MacGregor grinned at her. He grin faded to a frown when she saw her reaction. “What’s wrong? You still don’t like AC/DC?”
“No, I’m afraid not,” Alyndia said, managing a smile.
“Connie loved it,” he said. At that, he turned it up until it blasted noisily through the cheap rental car speakers. With her nervousness ratcheting up a few notches, Alyndia swallowed hard to keep down the airline food.
They listened to Connie’s favorite album all the way to the Hilton hotel located in downtown Richmond. They left the car with the valet and went directly up to the room MacGregor had reserved for the occasion. Once they were inside the room, he placed the DO NOT DISTURB sign outside the door and locked the dead bolt on the inside. Right away she saw a large bouquet of wildflowers in a glass vase on the bureau by the door. The bouquet was quite pretty. “Wow,” Alyndia said, sincerely impressed, as she took in the sight of flowers.
“Orchids. Your favorite,” MacGregor said as Alyndia inhaled their scent.
Alyndia noticed a small, white envelope attached to a clear, plastic rod stuck into the bouquet. She plucked the envelope from the bouquet. The message was written in Spanish. Te estrano mucho. “I missed you very much,” she translated.
“What do you think?” he asked with a boyish smile.
“I like them a lot,” Alyndia said, admiring the arrangement one more time. She walked over to the window. It was a sparkling, clear afternoon. From their room on the fourteenth floor, she has a spectacular view of the city. The James River, which snaked through the city, was visible from their window.
While she stood gazing out the window, she felt MacGregor’s hands wrap around her waist and his hips press against her back. She immediately tensed up when he did this. Feeling uncomfortable with whatever he had in mind, she slipped out of his grasp. To get out of his immediate reach, she sauntered into the bathroom, where she poured herself some water with the plastic cup wrapped in plastic she found there.
By the time she’d done this, she’d had a few moments to recompose her thoughts. She reentered the main room. He leaned against the dresser with his arms folded across his chest. Alyndia thought he looked rather apish, even with his simple tie business jacket.
“Where’s the bracelet?” she asked.
“You want it already? I thought we were going to spend some time together before Connie came back.”
“I just want to see it. May I?”
“Sure.”
He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a folded, oversized, manila envelope with some numbers scrawled in pencil onto it. He held up the envelope to her for a moment, then he tossed it into her hands. When he did so, it made a jangling sound—and that didn’t sound right.
She felt the heavy bracelet in her hands inside the envelope. It did not feel circular. Something is wrong, she thought. Quickly, she tore open the envelope. To her utter horror and shock, she found the bracelet had been sawed in half.
“Oh, my God,” she said, holding up the two halves, one in each trembling hand. She stared up at MacGregor. “Why did you do this?”
“What are you talking about? You don’t think I did that myself, do you?”
“Then, who did?”
“The crime lab. Who else?”
“Why?” she asked breathlessly.
“I guess they were curious about it after what happened to Connie.”
Alyndia stared at the two halves. She brought them together. Though the bracelet was all there, it was clearly useless in its current form. But more importantly, whether or not it retained its special magical enchantment was doubtful. She felt like crying. Alyndia knew Connie would be angry.
“Bastards!” Alyndia shouted, momentarily forgetting the fear and apprehension she felt a few minutes before.
“What’s wrong?”
“What wrong?” She held up both halves of the bracelet. “You look at this and ask me what’s wrong?”
MacGregor held up his hands. “Hey, don’t take it out on me. I have no control over what they do at the lab.”
“But look what they did to it!” she said plaintively.
“Look, Connie. You wanted the bracelet; I brought it. You should be thankful for that. You have no idea the trouble I went through to get it for you. Lucky for you, I have connections in the department where it was stored. Without their help, I could never have gotten it.”
Now Alyndia fought off the strongest urge cry as she stared at the bracelet, one half in each hand. “I can’t believe this—they ruined an ancient artifact!”
“I never guaranteed the condition of the bracelet—just the bracelet itself,” MacGregor said unaffectedly.
Alyndia sat down on the bed and began staring morosely down at the hotel rug. While she did so, MacGregor removed his sport jacket and tie. Then he untied his shoes. Alyndia noticed him do this.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“It’s time to fulfill your part of the bargain,” he replied as he started unbuttoning his shirt.
“What bargain? I don’t recall us making any bargain.”
“Do you think I flew all the way out to this city to get that bracelet just out of the goodness of my heart?”
“So what is the deal?” she asked, already suspecting he knew.
MacGregor grinned. “Scooby-Doo.”
“Scooby-Doo? It’s a cartoon. What does that have to do with the bracelet?”
“It’s about Connie’s and mine’s first night in Atlanta when she got back from Bogota.”
“So?” Alyndia asked, although she had no idea what MacGregor was talking about.
“We hadn’t seen each other for seven months. It’s about what we did all day in the hotel room while the Scooby-Doo marathon played on TV.”
Alyndia now knew what he was talking about. She also knew she didn’t want to do it with him.
“It was her idea to tell you Scooby-Doo. I had no idea why she wanted me to say it.”
“Oh, yeah? Well, just so you know, before you said it, I’d already decided I wasn’t going to meet with you. But when you did, I knew for sure it really was Connie talking through you.”
MacGregor removed his shirt to reveal his broad, hairy chest. He tossed the shirt over the back of a padded chair by the window. It slipped off and fell to the floor behind the chair. He didn’t bother to pick it up.
“How am I supposed to put on this bracelet if it’s sawed in half like this?”
“Can’t you just tape it together temporarily?”
“No!”
“Hey! You don’t have to get touchy. You should be glad I got it.”
“I still can’t believe it. Connie is going to flip.”
She put the pieces of bracelet back into the envelope while MacGregor unbuckled his belt. She sat on the bed gazing at the door, wondering if she could get through it quickly enough to outrun him. Just after he removed his belt, he paused to contemplate her appearance.
“Didn’t you bring anything to wear for the occasion?” he asked her.
“Just my regular clothes,” she said.
He clucked his tongue, then opened his suitcase. “I took some liberties,” he said as he rifled through it, “and I brought along a few things for our entertainment.” MacGregor found what he was looking for. “Also this.” He held up a skimpy black gown for her. “Connie would remember,” he said jovially.
“Is that hers?”
“Yeah. Put it on.” He tossed the skimpy garment to her. She caught it. The material felt slippery in her hands. She stared at it as if it were a mass of primordial goo from the Wild.
“Go ahead and put it on. What are you waiting for? Or do you want to go buff?
Alyndia clenched her teeth; he was making her angry. It made her even angrier that she had listened to Connie, who had gotten her into this mess, all because she’d been afraid to face a few measly scorpions. She sat up from the bed and walked into the bathroom. She slammed the door and locked it behind her.
Now Alyndia glared at her reflection, illuminated by the harsh fluorescent bar of light above the mirror. She realized, in disgust, that for the hair, the clothes, even the way she applied her make-up, she looked just like Connie had before she first occupied her body. This whole thing was a cosmic mess. Her will was so weak that she was even allowing Connie to run her life from another world. She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth tightly together as she tightly clenched the gown in her tense fist. She decided she would not sleep with him in the other room. This was her life now, and Connie wasn’t going to control it any longer, even if the entire planet of Cerinya depended on it.
Alyndia opened her eyes. She spun around and was about to exit the bathroom when she saw Connie standing there.
“I’m back,” she said.
“Yes, and you can go back to where you came from.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
Alyndia cut loose on Connie on hearing that. “What’s wrong, you ask? The question should be what is right! Here I am in this strange city, far away from the man I love. Outside that door is a man I dislike, who at this moment is waiting for me to put this on so he can savage me. And, on top of that, the bracelet is ruined.”
Connie had discounted everything Alyndia said until that last statement. “What do you mean that the bracelet is ruined?”
“Your idiotic agency cut the bracelet in half and sawed it cleanly in two. It’s worthless now.”
Connie put her hands to her head, “Shit! I expected they might do something like that.”
There came a knock on the door. “Connie? Who are you talking to in there?”
“No one,” Alyndia replied. “I’m talking to myself.”
“All right. Hey, I’m ready for you now.”
“Just sit tight, Will. I’ll be out in a minute.”
Alyndia turned on the shower so that he would have some difficulty hearing their conversation.
“This is tragic,” Connie said. “That ancient city is a long way back. We’re at sea now and can’t go back, even if we wanted.”
“What are we going to do?” Alyndia asked Connie in a hushed tone.
“I don’t know. But for starters, I should return right away to tell Snow about the bracelet.”
“What about me?”
“I hope to be back soon with a solution.”
“But your partner is out there waiting for me. He gave me this to wear.”
Alyndia held up the flimsy nightgown so that Connie could see it. She raised an eyebrow.
“That used to be mine.”
“He wants me to put it on for him.”
“So? Put it on. Just go with the flow and have a good time.”
Connie closed her eyes and began focusing herself on Alyndia’s body in order to return to Cerinya. She had nearly faded from Alyndia’s view when the ex-sorceress shouted her name.
“Connie! Don’t go!”
Connie fluttered back into view. “What is it, Alyndia?”
“I don’t want to go through with this.”
“You don’t? But this is what you came here for.”
“I didn’t know this is what you had in mind.”
“You have no choice now. You told him you would.”
“What if I just walk out of here?”
“Don’t do it. If you do, we’ll never see that bracelet again.”
“He said he went through a lot of trouble to get it.”
Connie let out a short, ironic laugh. “Yes, I’m sure he did. Probably he was sleeping with that little hussy, Ginger, at the Evidence Lab. That’s how he got it. Oh, I’ll bet that was so much trouble for him. He doesn’t fool me, Alyndia.”
“Then what should I do?”
“I told you—just keep him distracted until we figure out what to do next. Can’t you do that?”
“Yes.” Alyndia said with a trace of sadness in her voice.
“I’ll be back later. Hopefully soon. Keep that bracelet in sight. Don’t let him take it back. Bye for now.”
“Wait. Can you do me a favor?”
She sighed. “What is it?”
“Can you stay with me a bit when I go out there? I don’t trust him. I want to make sure it will be all right.”
“He’s not going to harm you.”
“Please!”
Connie thought this over for a moment, then she sighed. “Okay, I’ll wait for a bit. But I cannot hang around. I have to get back to Cerinya as soon as possible.”
Alyndia quickly changed into the skimpy, black nightgown MacGregor had brought her. Then she turned off the shower, unlocked the door, and opened it. He sat on the bed looking at her. She walked over to him. Connie followed closely behind. Both women saw him staring at her body beneath the see-through. Though Alyndia obviously trembled with nervousness, she forced herself to smile at him.
Connie spoke into Alyndia’s ear. “He’s staring at how fat you are, Alyndia.”
Alyndia did not react to Connie’s statement. Instead, she walked over to MacGregor, stopping directly in front of him.
He stood up in front of her and held her close to him. His hands moved all over her body. “You were having quite a conversation with yourself in there,” he said.
Weakly, Alyndia put her arms around him. When she did so, she brought his hands to her waist and hips. “Hmm…I feel you’ve put on a little weight,” he said, squeezing them.
“Yes, I have,” Alyndia said, feeling self-conscious.
“This is good,” he said to her, wearing a lusty expression. “You know, I never really liked it when you worked out all the time. Your body was as hard as a rock. This new look of yours is nicer. It’s much more—feminine. ”
“You bastard!” Connie screamed into the ether. “You’re both losers.”
“Shut up!” Alyndia yelled back at Connie, feeling perversely pleased that MacGregor found her attractive despite the weight she’d put on.
“What?” MacGregor said, looking perplexed.
“I was talking to Connie. She’s here.”
He smiled broadly on hearing that. “Oh? Does she want to watch?”
“No. In fact, she’s leaving right now. Good-bye, Connie.”
“So help me, Alyndia—” her voice came from behind.
“Begone!” Alyndia shouted.
She quickly spun around to find that Connie had vanished.
“Good riddance,” she said under her breath. She then turned back to MacGregor. “She’s gone now. It’s just you and me.” She put her hands on his muscular shoulders and squeezed. “Now, what were you saying?”
* * *
Connie, Snow, and Theo sat around a battered table in the galley of the ship while they discussed the matter of the bracelet. Tristana snoozed quietly, while Maltokken snored loudly in his bunk in the next section. Rahl tended the rudder on deck. The oil lantern hanging from a hook above the table swayed to and fro with the gentle rocking of the ship. Connie’s body felt flushed, almost feverish. It was the physical feeling of sexual arousal without the emotional engagement. The unwelcome sensation swelled and ebbed in slowly undulating waves. She crossed and recrossed her legs five times beneath the table in the last minute in an effort to make the feeling go away. She looked at the others across the table, hoping they were not witnessing what she was trying to conceal. She crossed her legs again.
“I can scarcely believe they sawed the Heptakon in half,” Theo said bitterly. “That artifact had existed thousands of years, and they just had to destroy it.”
“I suggest we retrieve it anyway,” Snow said.
He laughed. “What good would it do us now?”
“We can rejoin the ends. It might restore the enchantment.”
“That’s a long shot.”
“Let’s think positive, Theo.”
“I say it’s not worth it.”
“I say it is. My main concern is whether retrieving it will put Alyndia at risk.”
“How is that?”
“Alyndia’s replica of the bracelet is whole, but the artifact we intend to bring back is cut in two.”
“So?”
“Think about it, Theodan. Connie’s partner obviously knows the bracelet has been cut in two. How do you think he’s going to react when he finds it back in one piece again? He’s going to know it’s been swapped out, and he’ll know who did it.”
“Why do we care about what happens to Alyndia anyway?”
“You are the spirit mage, and you ask me that?”
“Indulge me,” Theo said.
“Fine. I will. You already know that Alyndia and Connie are still spiritually linked. If one should die, it is possible that the other will follow. The death at one end of the entanglement will draw away the life energy at the other end.”
“Then we should quickly retrieve the Heptakon, then sever the cord in case something happens to Alyndia,” Theo said. “The cord is probably fragile by now. I can sever it with one spell.”
Snow shook her head. “No, if we were to do that, we would be out of contact with Alyndia forever. Furthermore, if that happened, Connie could never return to Earth.”
Theo crossed his bony arms at his chest. “So be it, then. But I won’t be the one to tell Rahl that we must turn back to the mainland.”
Connie passively listened to the mages banter over her future. She wanted to interject her comments more so than she had, but the intense flush feeling would not cease. She shook off the feeling long enough to speak coherently.
“If only I could use my elemental spells, I could break that replica bracelet in two.”
“I already told you. Your elemental spells do not work in the Wild,” Snow dismissed. “Those spells are based strictly in the material world.”
“But some celestial spells work in the Wild.”
“That is true.”
“Maybe then—” Connie uncrossed then recrossed her legs again. “Maybe then we can find a celestial spell that works that would serve our purpose.”
Snow bit her lip as she stared up at the lamp swinging above the table. “I can’t think of what sort of spell we could cast that would be useful to us,” she said.
The sorceress cast a quick spell on herself to read Connie’s aura. She did a double take when she caught a glimpse of it. At once, Connie realized that Snow knew what she was feeling at that moment.
“Our greatest limitation is how much celestial spell power you have acquired. Is it enough?” She thought for a moment longer. Suddenly, her eyes lit up with a childlike felicity. “I have a low-power spell you can use,” she said. “At the very least, it may buy Alyndia enough time to get the bracelet back to the professor, so he can send it to us.”
“Let’s be realistic, Snow,” Theo said with a cynical tone. “At her level, do you really think she is capable of casting a celestial spell into her world?”
Connie thought this was a very good question on Theo’s part. On top of that, casting the simplest, low-power celestial spells still made her incredibly weary. She did not want this weariness to come over her while she was in the Wild.
Snow smiled at her apprentice. “I think that Connie can muster up enough celestial power for a simple, low-power spell. I only hope that Alyndia has enough time to get away before her partner finds that he has been duped.”