Chapter 44
The Recovery of the Heptakon
Connie had wanted to return to Earth immediately after their discussion in the ship’s galley, but Snow refused to cast the spell immediately. When Connie asked, the sorceress kept telling her, “The time isn’t right. We need to wait,” without explaining why. Two more days passed on the ship, and Connie was beginning to feel impatient. Then, late one afternoon, while Connie was studying her spell books on her bunk, Snow came to her unexpectedly.
“It is time,” she said. “I will cast the spell now.”
When Connie arrived back on Earth, MacGregor and Alyndia were sleeping soundly on the hotel room bed. Despite the days that passed on Cerinya, only fourteen or so hours had passed on Earth. Now the two lay sprawled and naked on a mattress bereft of sheets and pillows. Scattered about the room were trays of half-eaten hotel food, ordered by room service, and at least two empty bottles of wine. With the shades drawn, the room was almost entirely dark except for a sliver of early morning light and the feeble, yellow glow of a nightlight in the bathroom.
The whole scene surprised Connie. Despite her initial reluctance, I have to give Alyndia credit for making a go of it, she thought, pleased that Alyndia had made good on her word to do whatever it took to stay by the bracelet at all costs.
She scanned the room. The two halves of the bracelet sat inside the envelope on the dresser where Alyndia had left them. She sat on the bed beside her sleeping former self.
“Alyndia!” she said in an effort to rouse the sleeper. “Alyndia! Wake up!”
Alyndia stirred, then she looked up at the apparition who roused her. “Connie!”
Connie brought her finger to her lips. “Shhh! Get the bracelet and let’s go.”
“The bracelet is broken,” Alyndia whispered.
“Don’t worry about it. Let’s stick with our original plan.”
Alyndia quietly got up from the bed. She did not turn on the light but instead opened the bathroom door wider to get enough indirect light into the room so that she could see well enough to get dressed.
While Alyndia got dressed, Connie spoke to her. “You need to get down to the airport right away and take the next flight back to Newark.”
“But what about the bracelet?”
“Leave that part to me.”
After Alyndia had dressed, she took the duplicate bracelet out of her purse and exchanged it for the two halves inside the envelope. Next, she picked up her phone and proceeded to make a call.
“What are you doing?” Connie asked.
“I’m calling Gerald to let him know I’m all right and that I’m on my way.”
“No. There’s no time for that. You can do that from the airport. You need to leave now before he wakes up.”
Alyndia seemed flustered for a moment, then she picked up her suitcase. On her way out of the darkened room, she banged it against the leg of the chair by the door. Then she swung around and knocked the vase of flowers off the dresser. The glass vase shattered noisily when it struck the tiled entryway floor.
“Dammit!” Connie yelled.
MacGregor awoke immediately. He sat up. “Alyndia?”
“Hi, Will,” she said.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving. I’ve got to get back to Gerald. An emergency has come up.”
A hard look of suspicion washed over his face on hearing this. He lowered his eyes to the envelope on the bureau. Bare naked, he leaped off the bed. He was at the doorway where she stood in an instant. He quickly picked up the oversized envelope containing the bracelet. At that moment, Connie cast the celestial spell that she had spent hours memorizing in case she needed it.
He peered into the envelope while Alyndia stood next to him. She looked thoroughly terrified. At once, his expression softened. He then spilled the bracelet from the envelope onto the table. It clattered to the table in two pieces. The shiny metal from the artifact glistened brightly, even in the dim light of the hotel room. Alyndia stared wide-eyed at the bracelet. To Connie, she looked as though she were about to faint. MacGregor gave the two bracelet halves one last lingering look, nodded, and put down the envelope.
“I have to admit I was wrong about you. I thought when you came here, you had plans on swiping the bracelet from me.”
Alyndia swallowed hard, still not able to believe, for herself, the change in the replica. “Well, whether I did or not, I can’t use it now to bring Connie back. We’ll just have to come up with another solution.”
“Yeah,” he said, looking unabashedly sad. “I’m really sorry about that. I wish they hadn’t cut it in half, but I had no say in it.”
“I don’t blame you, Will.”
He smiled warmly at her, and then he embraced her with his nakedness.
“Hey, you were pretty good this afternoon. Maybe that bracelet is magical after all.”
“Thanks.”
Alyndia looked over at Connie’s shade by the bed. Connie looked away in disgust at her old partner.
“I have to go now,” she said to him.
“Aw, Alyndia. I could really get to like you.”
“No, no, no,” she said, extracting herself from his embrace.
“Hey,” he called out to her as she was about to slip into the brightly lit hall.
She turned back to him and noticed he had a misty-eyed look about him that made her think of the question, What ever went wrong with us? She waited for him to speak.
“Don’t you want me to accompany you to the airport?”
“No, there’s no time for that. It’s better that I go myself.”
“Well, all right. Suit yourself.”
“Lie down and get some sleep. I’ll call you when I get home.”
“You do that. Thanks for flying out here to be with me.”
She responded with a weak smile, the best she could afford him for the circumstances of their meeting. Before she shut the door, she noticed the flowers scattered on the floor by the doorway. MacGregor’s stood perilously close to the glass shards from the vase.
“By the way, I’m sorry about the vase and the flowers,” Alyndia said.
He glanced down at them. “Don’t worry. Room service will clean it up.”
She shut the door behind her and headed quickly down the red carpeted hall toward the elevator. Connie walked beside her. She pressed the button and waited for what seemed like an eternity for the elevator to arrive. Neither of them spoke while they waited. The elevator arrived empty. Alyndia got inside and pressed the button for the lobby. She mashed the button several times before the door finally closed and the elevator lazily began its descent. To Alyndia, everything seemed to be happening much more slowly that morning than usual.
“What happened back there?” Alyndia asked Connie as the elevator descended.
“I cast a spell.”
“From the Wild?”
“Yes. It was Snow’s idea. She thought it might work.”
“I’m glad it did. I thought I was had when he opened up the envelope. And then I saw the bracelet in two pieces.” She started looking through her purse. “I suppose I should call Gerald now.”
“No,” Connie said. “Call him later. You need to leave the hotel as quickly as possible.”
“Why?”
“Because the replica bracelet was not changed.”
“It wasn’t?”
“No. It was only an illusion. That seems to be the only kind of spell we can cast into this world.”
“Still, it was very impressive, Connie. You had me fooled.”
“In any case, you need to get the hell out of here, because that illusion won’t last for long. And once Will realizes he’s been tricked, he’ll be coming for you. You can count on it.”
“Thanks for telling me,” Alyndia snipped.
“Did you say the professor was ready with his transporter?”
“He said it would be almost ready by the time I got back.”
“Good, then we will be awaiting with the right spells to receive it.”
The elevator doors opened. Alyndia made a beeline for the front lobby. She noticed two young men in tuxedos staring at her from behind the concierge desk. An Hispanic woman dressed in a dainty black and white dress gave her a lingering glance as she vacuumed the crimson lobby carpet. Alyndia wondered why everyone was staring at her.
Connie continued speaking as she moved alongside Alyndia. “The only matter I’m concerned about is the daylight. Right now, due to the rotational differences of the planets, there is a narrow overlap where the sun shines both on where we are on Cerinya and where you are in Richmond. The professor’s transporter and our spell won’t work unless we both can see the sun.”
Alyndia stepped out of the lobby and beneath the covered driveway. As serendipity would have it, parked at the curb was a deep green taxicab. Presently the cab was disgorging its occupants, a middle-aged man and woman who arrived via the red-eye special from Omaha.
“You can take that cab,” Connie said.
Alyndia waited close by while she watched the cab driver unload the couple’s numerous bags from the trunk of the car. Connie kept glancing back to the elevator doors in the lobby, in case MacGregor came bursting through with revenge on his mind. Feeling anxious about it all, she tried floating up to his room to see what he was up to. She found that as she moved over thirty or so feet away from Alyndia, the surrounding scenery began to darken and smear. At fifty feet, she found herself in the random snows of the Wild. Connie moved back to Alyndia. The colorless, earthly image of the hotel driveway regained its clarity and brightness. Alyndia was definitely her contact with Earth.
Connie let out a sigh of relief when they were finally in the cab and safely on their way to the airport. The driver of the cab, a Persian man wearing a navy blue turban, made small talk with Alyndia. Once they got to the airport, Alyndia signed up for the first flight back to Newark. The flight did not leave until 8:10 am. This gave Alyndia a lot of time to kill at the gate. She settled into the one in a row of leatherette chairs facing a large window. She sat there for a long while, staring at the airfield outside, watching the planes arrive and depart, all of it lit by the bright morning sun.
“So how did it go?” Connie asked her.
“He seemed to enjoy himself.”
Connie smiled. “And how was it for you?”
“That’s a rude question to ask.”
“In case you don’t realize it, I felt some of it too—all the way back on Cerinya. From this, I tend to think you enjoyed your little tryst together.”
Alyndia sighed as she stared at the flight line outside the window as the day grew brighter. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, although I do feel like I’ve betrayed Gerald. In a way, I also feel like I betrayed myself.”
“It served you right, Alyndia.”
“How could you say that? While cheapening me, you cheapened yourself in the process. We both lost.”
“We got the bracelet, didn’t we?”
Alyndia sighed. “So, we did. Is that all that matters to you?”
“In any case, Alyndia, after all the humiliation that has happened to me since I arrived in Cerinya, I’ll call us even. Okay?”
“Just don’t ever tell Gerald what I did with your partner.”
“You don’t think he suspects what happened?”
“He might. Just don’t tell him the details.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t. We’re even now. It’s just between us.”
“Thank you.”
Then, to Connie’s surprise, Alyndia began to weep. The few who loitered around at the late hour in the lobby looked over at the woman sitting by herself by the window. Connie immediately felt awful. Alyndia radiated sadness into the ether, and Connie’s spirit was acting like an antenna. Connie put her hand on Alyndia’s shoulder in an effort to calm her. Her hand passed through her former body without the slightest fairy breeze on her hand.
Alyndia covered her face. “I love that man,” she said, sobbing. “I love him more than life itself. The love we have between us is more than the love you ever had. You’re just this hollow shell. You led such a sad, empty life. Even now, you’re probably so far gone you don’t understand what I’m talking about.” She looked into Connie’s eyes. “You think we’ve been having this love fest. But it hasn’t been that way at all. Our relationship was never able to unfold as it should have when we got together. He won’t even make love to me. Did you know that? He’s so terrified that I’ll turn into you while we’re making love that he’s lost all his desire for me. He’s so afraid of you waking up next to him that we now sleep in separate rooms. I sleep alone now, just as I did when I lived in Cerinya.”
“Tell Gerald not to worry and that I understand everything. Tell him that if I take possession while he’s making love to you, I’ll understand and be kind.”
“And not only that, the fact that I will be leaving here soon forever has put a lot of tension between us. He wanted to marry me, but I told him I couldn’t because I have to leave.”
“That—I can’t help you with. You very well know it’s not my decision.”
“And now today I feel so cheapened—like I’ve been a prostitute. I would never have done such a thing like I did yesterday when I lived back in Cerinya. Never. No, I wasn’t perfect, but I at least tried to lead a moral life.”
Alyndia wept softly, covering her face with her hands. On watching her, a wave of pity swept over Connie, which added to the emotional energies of anger and sadness that radiated from Alyndia. She felt these same emotions in her bosom.
“I do understand what you’re saying, Alyndia. Really, I do.” The smiling image of her high school sweetheart, Byron, flashed into her mind. “I’ve just forgotten. I apologize,” she said contritely.
On hearing those words, some of the psychic pain and anger receded from the ether, but the melancholy lingered. Alyndia turned to the shade that sat in the empty seat next to her.
“Go away now, Connie. Just leave me alone. Tell your mentor Snow that you’ll have your damned bracelet by the end of today.”
Connie wanted to say something more to Alyndia, but no words seemed adequate for the emotion she felt. At that moment, a thin man in his thirties wearing a trendy t-shirt and Crocs, walked up to Alyndia. He looked long overdue for a good night of sleep. Connie suspected he was a stranded business traveler.
“Excuse me, miss. You look upset. Is there something I can do for you?”
Alyndia looked up at the man through her tears. Connie thought he looked sincere. Alyndia looked away.
“No, I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?” the man asked.
Alyndia nodded, looking unconvinced.
“Would you like a cup of coffee?”
She looked up at him, puzzled by his sudden offer.
“He seems all right,” came Connie’s voice. “He’s just being nice. You’re making a scene out here, and he wants to help you.”
“A cup of coffee?” she repeated. “Yes, I would, in fact. Could you bring one to me? That is, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”
Not at all. The man smiled. “Sure, I was just going to get one myself. I’ve been trying to sleep on these damn uncomfortable chairs, but it’s no use. I’ll be right back.”
He went over to a nearby kiosk to get the coffee. Alyndia pulled a handkerchief from her push and started wiping her eyes and checking her appearance so that she would look acceptable when he returned.
Connie then noticed Alyndia’s boarding pass on her lap, which she had absently pulled from her purse in removing her makeup kit. The name on it was “Alyndia Bain.” This surprised Connie.
“Your name on the boarding pass is ‘Alyndia.’.
“Yes, that’s me.”
“How did you manage that?”
“You didn’t know? I legally changed your name.”
“You did?”
“Yes. A few months ago. You are now Alyndia Bain.”
Alyndia reached into her purse, pulled out her pocketbook, and showed Connie her driver’s license. There, also with her face, she saw her name: Alyndia Bain, just as on the boarding pass.
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about your life here. But you will learn it all in due time when you return.”
Connie did not know how to react to that. She was going to say something to Alyndia, but at once she was distracted by a strange tinge that emanated from the Wild into her spirit. It was a kind of vague, unsubstantiated anxiety. Connie recognized this feeling as the approach of one of the malevolent spirits Snow had warned her about. She waited a few moments longer as she scanned the airport terminal. Nothing else but the way she felt seemed out of the ordinary, at least visually. A plane was backing away from the departing gate. The airline staff was checking in passengers at the desk by the gate. But something didn’t feel right. Now a palpable feeling of dread washed over her. The spirit was drawing closer.
“Something approaches me here in the Wild, Alyndia. I have to return right away.”
“Okay. Bye,” she said curtly, putting away the drivers’ license.
“I’ll see you back at the lab at the prescribed time.”
* * *
The sails flapped in the gentle wind that pushed the ship ever closer to its destination. The sea swished loudly around the bow of the ship as it cut through the water. As she sauntered across the deck, Connie detected a wind nod in the breeze. She let it go. Today, even the novelty of using magic had lost its enchantment for her. Connie remained topside on the deck while the others ate their lunch below in the galley. The bright green sky that normally cheered her only made her feel all the sadder. She had spent most of the morning ruminating over her conversation with Alyndia.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
All the others were below deck, where it was warmer. Tristana remained topside for the shift to tend the rudder. She corrected the ship’s course by shifting the large handle from side to side. This kept the ship headed steadily north. Connie sat down next to Tristana. The conjuration gazed at her coolly.
“I had an interesting conversation with my second half, Tristana, and I’ve been thinking: you and me, we are a lot alike. We are just a void inside. An empty set.”
Tristana replied to Connie’s statement with a puzzled expression. She brushed her hair away from her face. To Theo’s delight, Tristana’s hair was growing long down her back again since the day Connie had cut it back at the abandoned village. Connie was under strict orders never to cut it again.
“I lived quite the life when I lived on Earth. I’ve done many things and gone many places. I’ve climbed the highest mountains of the planet and spelunked the deepest caves. But you know, I don’t really feel that there’s a place for me in that world anymore. I think I lost that place when my father died.”
Tristana cocked her head as she gazed into Connie’s face. She seemed to be thinking over her words.
“I think I’m going to miss this place when it is all over,” she said. “Do you miss your home?”
Tristana looked away and stared off into the distance as though she were no longer listening.
“I suppose you do,” Connie answered for her. “Then what’s wrong with me?”
After some time, Connie returned to her bunk in the crew quarters of the ship. Her mind was laden with thoughts of Alyndia. She felt the need to talk with her again, to tell her what was on her mind.
As she lay in the bunk, she tried to estimate the amount of time that had passed on Earth since she left. Alyndia was most likely on board the plane. They may even have left the gate now. It was impossible to tell, though, because of the time slippage between Earth and Cerinya. What might pass as a few minutes in one world might pass as a few hours in the other, and then the reverse would occur. She suspected it was a kind of oscillation, as there were also momentary, transitional periods when time passed in sync in both worlds. This meant that there were more favorable times to visit Earth than others. Go to Earth at the wrong time, and she might remain in a trance here for hours, only to experience the passage of a few minutes there. The oscillation did not seem regular, so there was likely an oscillation within an oscillation or multiple oscillations, like waves within a swell within a tide.
Snow was likely aware of the oscillations, and that’s why she had to wait for the right time to cast the spell. When Snow kept telling her, “The time isn’t right,” she probably meant it literally. Although the sorceress was clever, she did not seem to possess the knowledge required to figure out the optimal times mathematically, so she probably used a spell. But like a good master, she did not reveal her deeper knowledge too quickly. That kind of secretiveness perturbed Connie. If Snow wouldn’t tell her the spell, she would ask Calicus about it the next time she saw him, or learn how to work it out mathematically, as Professor Layton had done on the whiteboard in his lab.
Connie adjusted her pillow, closed her eyes, and began to meditate on Alyndia, attempting to use the residual magic from Snow’s previous spells to return. But the power of the spell had diminished to the point that she could not. Feeling weary anyway, she rolled over in her bunk and allowed sleep to overcome her.
In her dream, she found herself in a cold place, walking across a vast, icy lake wearing nothing but shorts and a thin, cotton blouse, as though she were on a tropical vacation. The cold was intense, and it penetrated into her bones.
Connie was jarred awake by someone walking loudly up the stairs to the deck. At once, upon awakening, she realized that the air in the cabin had gone bitterly cold, and in her sleep, she had actually been shivering beneath the single, thin blanket that covered her.
The dramatic change of temperature alarmed her. “Rahl? Snow? Anyone?” she called out. The cabin was empty, and she heard no response—only the creaking timbers of the ship as it rocked gently. She jumped to the floor and climbed up stairs to the deck, where she found the others had gathered. As she approached the topside opening, she immediately noticed that the outdoor temperature had fallen precipitously. On deck, she found the sails drawn up, and the entire party gathered at the bow. Their reason for gathering was obvious. Stretched along the horizon was a white, mountainous line of land. It was the continent of Atranaea.
Connie stepped up behind the party. Snow noticed her first.
“I didn’t want to awaken you,” she said.
“There it is. Atranaea. Land of the Atranox,” Rahl stated. “It is magnificent.”
“It doesn’t look very hospitable,” Connie said, beginning to shiver in the cold. To her, for all the glaciers evident, the continent looked like a mountainous version of Antarctica. Rough, stony islands jut from the water. These dotted the coastline. Connie realized it would take a certain amount of skill to navigate through them without a major accident. Fortunately, the blustery winds that had pushed the ship northward died down to a mild breeze. This would make it easier.
Rahl returned to the bow of the ship to look over some maps he had laid out there. Connie and Snow followed him. Though Connie felt cold in the frigid air, she wanted to view Rahl’s course of action. Rahl checked his compass against the map.
“We are closely on course. We should drop anchor in this bay.” Rahl looked to Connie. “Does Alyndia have the bracelet?”
Connie nodded. “Yes, but she won’t be home until after our sunset.”
Snow broke in. “The soonest we will be able to cast the spell will be tomorrow afternoon, which is when I estimate her sunrise will be. But I should add that casting the spells will take a great deal of my power,” Snow said. “It may be prudent for us to wait another day before we leave the ship. However, I would like to leave the ship when I cast the spell.”
“Why?” Rahl asked.
“I will have never cast such a combination of powerful spells before. If one perverts, an explosion might result from all the power I’m putting into it. Not only will I be killed, but there will be enough power to send this ship and all on board to the bottom of the bay.”
Connie could scarcely believe Snow was saying this, and she looked at the sorceress, amazed.
“What is this I hear? Do I sense that you actually doubt your own ability?”
Snow gazed at Connie levelly. “No, Connie. But within the realm of all things, if something should happen to me, then it will be up to you to take my place.”
“Are you serious?” Connie said. “I cannot replace you. I still get sleepy just casting a Dweomer spell.”
Snow glanced over at Theo, who stood at the bow of the ship, presently pointing out something to Tristana in the distance. “Come now, Connie. You wouldn’t want the enchantment needs of this party to fall on the shoulders of that bony spirit mage, would you?”
“That will never happen, because you will always be with us,” Rahl said.
Snow frowned when he said that. She sat up, walked over to the railing of the ship, and pensively gazed over the side. “I had a dream last night,” she began. “Be it an omen, or perhaps only apprehension, but I do not believe I shall live to see the Atranox.”
“Why so?” Rahl asked.
“I dreamed that I blew a spell. The spell perverted, and it exploded in my face.”
Snow’s proclamation stunned Connie. “Was it one of the spells you will need to retrieve the bracelet from Professor Layton’s machine?”
“I don’t know what spell it was. It could have been. I’m not sure.”
“I have never seen you blow a spell,” Connie said to reassure her. “Maybe you dreamed it was me who blew a spell. I am much more likely to blow one.”
Snow shook her head. “No. In the dream, I was casting the spell. I am certain of that.”
“A dream is only that—a dream.” Rahl dismissed. “I often have dreams of misfortune. I believe they are the result of my own fears and the fears I have yet to face.”
Snow paused before responding. “Yes, Rahl. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps it was only a dream.” Snow turned around to face Connie and Rahl. “But you both should know that no matter what happens, you will not need me to cast the spell on the Atranox. All you need is the bracelet, the talisman, and the Stellarad Marax. Anyone who holds the three can successfully cast the spell.”
Connie and Rahl looked to each other. Connie saw that Rahl mirrored her feelings: Snow’s lack of confidence in her ability was quite out of character for her.
“We shall talk about this later, Snow,” Rahl said, rolling up the map he carried.
“Indeed, we shall,” Snow responded.
Later, Rahl ordered the sails unfurled. Rahl leaned over the bow to study for submerged rocks as they moved slowly through the green. Occasionally, he shouted urgent course changes back to Maltokken at the stern, who manned the rudder. Connie helped the others trim the sails to keep the ship moving slowly and steadily through the water. With Rahl’s careful guidance, they steered the small craft safely through the bergs, submerged rocks, and rocky islands that stood between them and the coastline. They dropped anchor a few hundred paces on an ice-covered rocky cliff.
By now, it was getting dark. Connie estimated that Alyndia should have made it home. She wondered how she fared on her trip. She asked Snow to cast the spell on her so that she could check up on Alyndia. Snow declined to cast the spell, citing she needed to save her power for the transport spells she was due to cast tomorrow afternoon.
The main course of the evening meal was provided with compliments from Maltokken, who had managed to catch three green-bellied shewels that afternoon. This was a moderate-sized, green fish that put up a nasty fight once hooked. Connie had never eaten a fish of this sort before. To her, it looked like a cross between tuna and swordfish. It had a mouth full of barracuda-like teeth and dual sets of filmy, broad fins that resembled those of a dragonfly. Connie watched Maltokken shuck and cook the fish on the stone hearth. While it fried on the hearth, it smelled sweet, almost fruity. Maltokken told Connie this would be a treat since the fish was a rarity in the more temperate waters off the coast of Cerinavia. Connie salivated in anticipation of the meal. Once on the table, however, the flavor of the meat tasted bland and possessed a strong, onion-like aftertaste. After two mouthfuls, Connie decided she didn’t like the flavor of the shewel. Tristana shared Connie’s dislike of the delicacy. Both of them ended up eating biscuits left over from breakfast.
Dinner’s conversation was dominated by talk of the fierce thrakes that roamed the continent in search of arctic jule and semiaquatic, seal-like molk. Rahl told the party stories his father had told him of small exploratory parties on Atranaea being attacked and eaten by packs of thrakes. Rahl suggested that though the thrakes were a threat on their own, if Chaos had taken hold of Atranaea, then they would be all the more dangerous. Rahl told Maltokken in no uncertain terms that he would be greatly needed to defend the party once they headed inland. Maltokken assured Rahl and the party that he would not let them down.
The party turned in early that night. While the others snoozed soundly in their bunks, Connie tossed and turned. Something else in Alyndia’s manner today bothered her. She wondered what this might be. Also, Snow’s gloomy premonition concerned Connie. Snow was not often wrong about matters dealing with magic. Connie hoped Snow was wrong this time.
At sunrise, Rahl rowed Connie and Snow to shore in the small landing craft that came with the ship. The rest of the party stayed on board the ship. They watched Rahl, Snow, and Connie from the deck. As they moved away from the ship, Connie realized how small and fragile the ship looked. But though she didn’t look like much, the plucky ship Ischileleia had held together well over the rough seas they encountered in crossing the Oscasian Sea. She whispered ‘thank you’ to Fandia for her serendipitous, wise choice.
Once on the shore, the three scanned the immediate area for thrakes and other unsavory creatures. After the area was deemed safe, Snow set up the material components of the spell to receive the bracelet. First, with her staff, she scraped in the ice the pattern of a triangle within a circle. She cut the circle and triangle with a great deal of care and precision according to some parameters dictated in her spell book. She checked and rechecked the measurements several times. The dimension of the outer circle turned out to be about two paces across. After the circle had been cut to specifications, she sprinkled a black powder from a pouch into the grooves cut into the ice. This highlighted the magic circle that Snow created. She laid out a small triangle of red velvet cloth precisely at the center of the inner triangle. Next, she took a few steps back and waved her hand over the circle. When she did, three black candles soundlessly appeared on the ice, one candle at each point of the triangle where it touched the outer circle. Finally, the sorceress waved her hand one more time. All three candles simultaneously lit with a bright, blue flame. The flames from the candles did not flutter with the gentle breeze. Snow put her hands on her hips as she surveyed her work.
“This is called a Circle of Conjuration.”
“Amazing work,” Rahl said to Snow, leaning on his sword. “When I watch you work, it makes me think I chose the wrong profession.”
Snow smiled winsomely at Rahl. “The world needs you as a swordbearer. But maybe I can teach you a few tricks if you’d like.”
She winked at Rahl. He laughed.
Snow looked to Connie. “Is it time yet?”
Connie looked to the clear green sky. “It is almost sunrise in this place you call Newark. I should go now to make sure everything is in place.”
“Very well, then.”
Connie walked up to Snow. Snow whispered an incantation. She touched Connie gently on the shoulder. Connie felt Snow’s magic flow into her. A few seconds of vertigo washed over her. It was now a familiar feeling, and she knew she was now able to enter the wild freely.
Snow plopped down on a blanket next to the magic circle she had drawn. “By the way, you’ll find a Box on Tongues projection waiting for you in the ether,” she said. “Take it with you.”
“Why do I need it this time?”
“I can’t tell you how I know, but I know you will.”
“I’ll take it, then.”
“Get ready now.”
The sorceress flipped her spell book to a page. She held the page with her finger as she looked up at Connie and Rahl. “Do your meditation a safe distance from here, at least one hundred paces away. You go too, Rahl. Watch over Connie while she meditates. I will begin the spells now.”
Rahl and Connie went to a hill far away enough to where they would be safe in case something happened with Snow’s spell, but close enough that they could keep an eye on her. Connie sat down on a blanket she had brought with her. Rahl sat across from her with his sword suspended across his lap. Connie took a deep breath. She hoped everything was all right with Alyndia. She closed her eyes.
“Are you going to watch over me, Rahl?” she asked, sensing his presence nearby.
“I always watch over you,” he replied.
“It feels good to know you’re always here. My spirit can travel the far reaches of the Wild, yet I have no fear because I know you protect me.”
“Yes. And I will always do that.”
Connie felt her senses expanding into the Wild. “I feel myself drifting into the ether, Rahl. Aren’t you going to wish me a safe trip?”
She heard Rahl stir from the ground. Seconds later, before a bland-looking monochrome Earth appeared before her eyes, she felt the warmth of Rahl’s lips pressed lightly against hers.
“Good luck.”
* * *
Connie found herself in Professor Layton’s laboratory. Machinery hummed around them. Alyndia looked like she hadn’t slept at all on her flight.
“Oh Connie!” Alyndia pined when Connie’s shade appeared.
The professor, who had been nodding off at his lab table, suddenly perked up. He looked around the room in vain for Connie’s apparition.
“What’s the problem now?” Connie asked.
“It’s Will! He called from the airport! He’s on his way here!”
“He is? That doesn’t surprise me. I expect he took the very next flight once he discovered what we did.”
“Connie, he threatened me over the phone. He said I betrayed him and that he was on his way over to get the bracelet. He said that if I didn’t give it back, he’d kill both of us!”
“That sounds like my partner,” Connie quipped.
Alyndia scowled at Connie. “You don’t seem very concerned.”
“Well, I am, but first put the bracelet in the chamber. We are ready for it. We will worry about Will when he gets here.”
“It is there, but we cannot send it.”
“Why not? I thought you told me the machine was ready.”
“We need sunlight.”
Connie glanced at a clock on the wall in the lab. “It’s almost 8:30 in the morning. It’s past sunrise. You should have plenty of sunlight.”
Alyndia turned to Professor Layton. “Connie wants to know why the machine won’t work.”
“Connie,” he said into the air, just to the left of her shade. “We need sunlight to send the bracelet to your world. Without perfect, bright sunlight, the chance of success is doubtful.”
“So what is the problem?”
“It is overcast today.”
“What?!” Connie replied, startled. She examined the machinery. A solar collector set up in the backyard directed sunlight through a series of mirrors down to a circular dish surrounded with wires and giant electromagnetic coils. The two halves of the bracelet sat on the dish. There was a great deal of other equipment connected to the mirrors and the dish. For all her training, how all the machinery was able to transport the bracelet from the lab to Cerinya was a mystery to her.
Connie moved over to the aperture to get a better view of the solar collector in the yard. Indeed, it was an overcast day, but it was more patchy clouds than a blanket of gray clouds as she’d imagined.
“How long ago did my partner call you?”
“About a half hour ago,” Alyndia answered.
“How much sunlight do we need for the device to work?”
Alyndia relayed the question to Professor Layton. “Last time it took about a minute to send the bracelet,” he replied to Connie. “So at least a minute. Come here, Connie.”
Connie walked over to where the professor stood. He pointed to a meter on a control console full of switches and knobs. “Do you see this meter?”
She saw an analog meter with hand-drawn numbers on its face, with a scale of 1 to 12. The needle wavered between five and seven as the clouds transiently obscured the sun.
He continued, “When this meter reaches at least eight on a scale of one to ten, we have enough sunlight to send the bracelet. Any less than that, the chances are poor.”
“So, you need a rating of at least eight for at least a minute to send the bracelet.”
Alyndia translated Connie’s words for the professor.
“Yes, you are correct,” the professor said.
At that, Connie passed through the wall. She gazed up at the sky. The sun was coming out of the patchy clouds. Its light struck the solar collector. The collector reflected it brilliantly. At that moment, Connie saw MacGregor’s car come pull into the driveway of the house. She saw him get out. Connie floated back into the lab. “You have a visitor,” Connie said to Alyndia. “Send the bracelet.”
“MacGregor is here. She wants us to send the bracelet now,” Alyndia said quickly to the professor.
“We have a rating of seven,” the professor said, not taking his eyes off the meter.
Connie heard pounding on the door of the lab. “I don’t think we have time to wait for a sunny day. Do it now!” she ordered.
“Please, honey. Now!”
The pounding came louder. “Gerald! Alyndia! Open up this door! I know you’re in there.”
The professor shook his head. “Put on your goggles,” he told Alyndia.
She did as she was told. He did the same. He flipped a switch on the control panel. The humming from the machinery in the lab intensified. Then a globe of soft, hazy light appeared around the dish where the bracelet sat.
Connie moved behind the professor. The sunlight intensity needle fluttered between seven and a half and eight. She heard MacGregor kick in the door to the lab.
The professor flipped another switch. There came a flash of brilliant white light. At that moment, Connie saw brilliant colors of the rainbow arc flood into the lab through the sunlight. Like a great vine, the rainbow light wrapped itself around the focused white light of the sun until they merged into a single multicolored beam. This new light cut into the white, hazy plasma that surrounded the two halves of the bracelet. Then, in a profusion of sparks, the halves dematerialized within the light. Connie felt herself bathed in the energy of his strange rainbow of pure magical light that radiated freely across the ether. It invigorated her mind like a powerful rush of caffeine. Now the color spread to her vision, where she saw the lab in living color instead of black and white.
Will MacGregor appeared doorway, shielding his eyes from the intensely bright light.
“Don’t move!” Alyndia shouted at him. All at once, Connie noticed that Alyndia held a revolver in her hand. She had it trained on MacGregor.
“What are you doing here?” MacGregor shouted at Alyndia through the noise.
“Sending the bracelet back to Cerinya.”
On hearing that, he glared at Alyndia with a skeptical expression that betrayed his belief that she had gone insane.
Connie gazed down at the intensity meter on the console over and beyond the professor’s shoulder. The needle wavered between a reading of seven and eight. To her subtle surprise, the bracelet still existed on the dish, though she was now able to see through it as if it were a color hologram of a bracelet as opposed to the real thing. She glanced up at the clock on the wall. Over a minute had passed since the professor flipped the second switch to start the transport of the bracelet. Still, the bracelet remained. Connie bit into her ethereal knuckle.
“By power the gods!” Connie shouted into the Wild, willing her mental energy into it.
Then, as if in response to her plea, the sunlight intensity meter suddenly bounced up to nine as the sun burst through the clouds. At once, in a final silvery flash, the bracelet vanished from the chamber. Connie saw the rainbow of light that carried the bracelet fade away across the Wild. The professor flipped a few switches on his console. The lab went quiet. Professor Layton and Alyndia slipped off their glasses to address their visitor.
MacGregor spoke first: “You people are nuts.”
“No, William,” Alyndia said, pointing the revolver at this chest. “You are nuts for breaking into a house where the occupant has a loaded gun.”
“Hey, watch it with that!” MacGregor said. Then he wrinkled his nose. “Hey, I smell chlorine in here.”
“What do you think you’re doing, numbskull?” Connie said.
At once, MacGregor looked around the lab, startled. “Who was that? Did you hear that?”
“What was it?” Alyndia said.
“I heard somebody speaking a foreign language.”
“That’s your Connie.”
“Hey!”
“There it is again.”
He can hear me! Alyndia thought. She quickly opened the Box of Tongues. A flood of rainbow light emanated out of the top.
“Hi there, Will. It’s been a while since we’ve talked.”
“Who are you?”
“Alyndia told you who I am.”
“Connie?”
“That’s me. I think you should call the police on him, Alyndia. Let them arrest him for breaking and entering. His boss will love that. I’ll give you the phone number to call. His name is D.E. Watson—”
“Who are you?” MacGregor asked.
At that moment, Connie realized she was not seeing the room in color. Perhaps it was a strange side effect from the magic used to transport the bracelet. She became aware that now three of them in the room were looking directly at her.
They all can see me! she thought.
“Can you see me?” she asked the professor.
The professor nodded. “You look like Alyndia used to, except for the hair.”
“Connie?” MacGregor spoke. “You mean, that, is Connie?”
“Who else would I be, you twit?” Connie walked across the basement until she was face-to-face with her old partner. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
He took a step back. “I—I can see through you.” MacGregor said. He reached out to her. His hand passed through her body. He glanced over at Alyndia and the professor. “You’re doing this with mirrors, right?”
Both of them shook their heads.
“There are no tricks here,” the professor said.
“That’s what I used to look like on Cerinya,” Alyndia added.
He looked back at Connie. His face was awash in terror, and he was beginning to sweat.
Connie stared into his eyes. “I see you’ve come to her to give these two a hard time. That won’t happen.”
“Alyndia stole the bracelet. She replaced it with a fake one.”
“No, Will. I took your bracelet. They sent it back to this world where I reside. You see, we have this little problem on Cerinya with a thing called Chaos, and the bracelet you had is supposed to help us chase it away forever.”
“But I have to give it back.”
“Who loaned it to you? Your girlfriend Ginger at the crime lab? The one you’ve been screwing behind my back for the last three years? And tell me, Will. Does she know why you wanted the bracelet?”
Connie’s words startled MacGregor. Connie looked back at Alyndia. She seemed to tense upon hearing her allude to her tryst with her partner. She returned her attention to MacGregor.
“Yes, I know all about it, Will.” Connie continued. “You don’t hide anything from me. You never have.”
“What am I going to do, then? I have to give it back.”
“Take the replica Alyndia left you, have it sawed in half like the original one was, and then give it back. They’ll never know the difference. To them, it’s just a bracelet anyway.”
“Alyndia said she was going to use the bracelet to bring you back. Is it true? Will you use it to do that?”
“I’ll come back someday, but not by means of that bracelet. As I said, we need it for another purpose. Do what I recommended you do, and you’ll be fine.”
Connie saw the color draining from MacGregor’s face. Then she realized that her perception of color was leaving her again. The lab and the three standing in it were beginning to look like the frame of an old movie again.
“You’re starting to fade,” the professor said.
“I’m aware of that, professor,” Connie said to him without a sideways glance.
“Now, Will. You know the truth about this. You’ve seen it yourself. Leave these two people alone. They’ve done no real harm to you. If I hear you are still pestering them, I will have to come back to haunt you.”
Connie very well knew she couldn’t do this, but she thought it sounded convincing.
“I’ll have to report to the agency what went on here today.”
“Go ahead and do that, Will. See if they believe you. See if they believe you any more than we did when we first interrogated the professor.”
MacGregor raised his hand to his head and pressed it against his forehead. At that moment, Connie realized the color had completely faded away from her field of vision. She suspected that MacGregor and the professor could no longer see or hear her. She closed the Box of Tongues and spoke directly to Alyndia, who still held the gun on MacGregor.
“I don’t believe you will have any more trouble with him.”
“I’d better not have more trouble with him,” Alyndia said, not taking her eyes off MacGregor, “or you’ll be minus one ex-partner.”
* * *
When Connie awoke on Cerinya, Rahl was no longer sitting in front of her. Quickly, she got to her feet. She gazed down where Snow had set up the Circle of Conjuration. Snow was busy explaining something to Rahl just outside the circle. Rahl nodded his head in understanding as she spoke. Connie sprinted down the hill.
“…Some kind of strange resistance. Luckily, the spell held.” Snow finished explaining to Rahl as Connie arrived. She noticed that Snow looked weary and pale.
“So what happened?” Connie asked the two of them. “Did it work?”
Without a word, Snow handed Connie the swatch of black velvet cloth that she had laid out at the center of the Circle of Conjuration. Connie felt something heavy within the cloth. Slowly, she unfolded the cloth. With the contents of the cloth revealed, she looked up at Snow and Rahl with her broadest smile of excitement.
There, glinting resplendently in the light of the Cerinyan sun, were the two halves of the Heptakon bracelet.