CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: A PRINCE OF SPIRITS
Gabe
John was resting, and Gabe was anxious. Cody crouched by the old man’s side while Roberta got water and Lina sat in Agnes’s chair, fiddling repeatedly with a fidget spinner between her hands. Merlin rested on John’s legs, warming him as the old man’s hand lay on the dog’s neck. Occasionally, Merlin whimpered.
“I think he’s stable enough,” Cody said. “I’m not sure how I know these things, but whatever’s got him sick, it’s at least done hurting him for the moment. Sort of.” He looked up at Gabe. “But it’s bad. I don’t know how I know that, maybe it’s a… what was it you said I was again? A Mender? Must be a Mender thing.”
All that was going through Gabe’s mind just then was how badly he needed answers. There were two ways he could find the truth, one of them was likely closed off to him by the obstinance of his caregiver, and the other was… deeply dangerous.
It also might be his only choice. Deciding internally, he said “watch over John, okay? I need to go check something. Make sure the pell isn’t still smoking.”
“I’ll go with you,” Cody offered.
“You’re needed here,” Gabe said, and saw the slight flash of pain on his brother’s face. “I’ll be back in just a few minutes. Promise.”
“Gabe?” Lina said quietly.
He stopped in the doorway. “Yeah?”
“She could be back at any time,” the girl said. “Probably really soon. Be quick okay?”
“I will.”
He slipped out the back door, walking slowly through the forest. He was tired. They’d slept in shifts, and he doubted he’d gotten more than four hours total. The air was cold and crisp, the ground damp and littered with fallen leaves. There was probably going to be a frost, if it got as cold tonight as it felt right now. Gabe made his way past the pell, no longer smoking, and through the paths of the woods until he came at last to the circle etched in the ground, where it had all begun.
The moss was dead, as were the trees at the clearing’s edge. Gabe slowly turned in a circle, taking in the sight of what his powers had done. Conduit. It meant more than anyone was saying. Schwan. He wasn’t sure which word frightened him more. He remembered that he’d had to bleed on the circle to activate it for… whatever it was it did. Maybe it would allow him to learn something. He took several deep breaths. This was really, really stupid.
He held out his hand and pulled a pocketknife his uncle had given him on his ninth birthday. It was pearl-handled, the blade sharp. Wincing preemptively, he pressed the point to the tip of his left middle finger until it beaded with red. Then he knelt by the edge of the circle of stones and pressed the blood to the earth.
“I don’t know if you can hear me,” he addressed the silence. Agnes’s words, something about talking to the stones, echoed in his head. “But Agnes apparently believes these stones can talk, and if you can, I’d like some answers.”
The earth glowed. Purple light flooded outwards from the place where Gabe’s finger touched the ground, flowing through the creases of the circle until the whole thing was lit like an elaborate mandala. Smoke swirled upwards, and then, to Gabe’s shock and horror, a large, egg-shaped rock was suddenly there, in the center. A mouth split its face, revealing rows of teeth made of quartz. It was silent for a moment, then in a voice like twin boulders grinding together, it said “this is the third time you humans have pestered me. What do you want, oh Prince?”
Prince?
“I… I have no idea who you are, or what you are,” Gabe said, “but I know that Agnes has talked to you. I know you know things, and I need answers.”
The stone was quiet for so long that Gabe wasn’t sure if he was going to hear anything in response. Then it said, “What do you wish to know, oh Prince?”
“Why do you keep calling me that?”
“It is what you are, whether you like it or not. I am not the one to ask. I simply recognize what I see. If you want true answers, you’re best off going to the Museum of Glass. There you will learn everything else.”
“But—”
“Now do not bother me again!”
The stone vanished, leaving Gabe standing alone in the clearing again. He stood in silence, unsure of what to say or do. Then the ground rumbled, and his head started to hurt. It was a tingle at first, not as bad as in the past, but he sensed the sharpness before it arrived, and he put his hand on the stone nearest him.
The dark room was suddenly before him, the circle of candles, and the man behind.
“I was wondering,” the man said in a quiet voice, “when you would reach out to me again.”
“I didn’t,” Gabe answered. “I have no idea who you are, or what you want. But you don’t feel like a friend.”
The man’s eyes, barely visible from behind his curtain of lanky hair, watched him. “Oh, but I am,” he said. “I might be the only friend you have, and I heard every word the Spirit said. Gabriel, I can give you every answer you seek. Every single one.”
Gabe sensed the transaction implicit in the words. “And in return?”
“You must follow a series of very simple instructions to the letter. There is a place you must go to, and a man you must obey. I promise, it will be worth your while.”
Conditions. Gabe felt the same anger he felt at Agnes, at Michael, even at John, rising again. You’re as responsible for my brother’s coma as I am.
And there was a menace underneath the words, implicit and cagey. The candles burned brighter, and the man winced. “Gabriel,” he said, “I don’t mean to be terse, but this is time-sensitive. You need to choose, and you need to choose now.”
“You started this,” Gabe said. “You were the one who started whispering in my head. You drew me out here. None of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t.”
The Candle Man watched him, then said “you would’ve done the same, in my position. I need your help.”
A sudden pressure was building in Gabe’s ears. He could feel his hand on the rock, even as the room was all he could see.
“And if I won’t?”
The Candle Man’s face abruptly contorted into a frown. Hungry. “It gets worse. Not just for you, but for everyone you love. There is no other way forward.” The lilt of menace grew stronger. “There is more than one way for me to get what I want, and you would rather be my friend, I promise.”
“No,” Gabe said.
The Candle Man’s eyes narrowed. “What?”
“No,” Gabe said. “I’m not doing anything for you. I don’t know who you are, or what you want, but I’m not doing shit for you. All you’ve done is hurt me and my friends. I heard you promising to yourself that you’d get vengeance on someone, everyone, when I fell into the circle. What was it you said again? How we would all ‘pay and pay and pay?’ Fuck that, and fuck you.”
He tried to pull away, focused on the rock. The vision didn’t shift, but the Candle Man abruptly moved. His hand stretched out. The candles burned brighter, and the man behind them snarled in obvious pain, but he pointed his finger at Gabe’s head, and suddenly Gabe’s skull felt like it was splitting apart. “Stupid, arrogant child,” the man said. “If you won’t listen, you will be made to—”
Gabe screamed. Gripped his head. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder pulling him back. Cody’s voice. “Gabe. GABE!”
The vision ended. Gabe staggered back from the circle. Cody caught him. He turned around, his eyes wild.
“What the hell is this place?” Cody asked, his brown eyes worried. His hands holding Gabe by the shoulders. Steadying them.
“It’s… it’s where everything happened with Aaron. I… I heard Agnes say that there was some sort of spirit here that she could talk to. I tried to do it, to activate the circle like I accidentally did when I bled on it before. I don’t… Christ, my head hurts like hell.”
He didn’t tell the full truth. He should have, but he didn’t.
Cody pressed a palm to Gabe’s temple. The pain eased. Gabe sagged back against the rock. Cody stood in front of him. After a second, he smiled awkwardly. “Jesus. Be more careful yeah?”
Gabe let out a nervous laugh. His head was clearing. “The spirit said,” Gabe finally answered, “that I’d find all my answers at the Museum of Glass. I don’t know how we do this, but I think I’ve gotta go there.”
“Agnes’s car is pulling into the driveway,” Cody said quietly. “I came to find you, so you didn’t get in trouble.”
Gabe straightened. Shit. Okay. Well, there was one thing to do, then. “Alright,” he said. “I’m gonna give her one more chance to tell us everything.” His hands shook. “My uncle’s missing, spirits and magic are real, and she’s not telling us shit.”
He looked at Cody. “We give her one more chance, and if she refuses, we make for the museum at the next opportunity. Cool?”
Cody watched his eyes, then nodded firmly. “Yeah. It’s long past time.”
The two made their way back to the house. Gabe’s headaches were receding, and his whole body felt like it was going to shake apart, but he had a direction. He had a plan.
And that was all that mattered.