Page 11 of The Mage's Rake
No such luck, however. As usual, I found my feet drawing me to a lower level, where Alan’s laboratory lay. In order to cut across to the far eastern tower, I opened one of the great hall side doors to slip into an empty portico. The graceful columns disappeared into shadows. I moved out of them into the pale moonlight, looking up at the starry winter sky overhead, lightly shrouded in the thin rags of clouds. A full moon hung low in the sky.
I paused and listened. For a second, I was surrounded by silence. I hate silence, but then my ears began to pick up the sounds of a Sumarene winter night—the faint creaking of the oak tree and the rustle of evergreen shrubbery in the garden, the occasional flap of flags, a door slamming shut in thedistance, and the faint creaking of a shutter that had worked itself loose. Huddling in my great coat, I closed my eyes and let the moonlight seep into me. Unlike most of my Sunna kin, I didn’t mind moonlight and shadows. I inhaled the icy cold night breeze, now tinged with smoke and the faint scent of a roast.
I’ll check in on our resident mage, I thought, as I cut across the garden and entered through a door opening into the portico on the other side.Then perhaps call it a night. He sent out a bunch of messages the other day with inquiries based on what he discovered about the potion, perhaps—
My thoughts were instantly jarred by a knifing pain in my chest. It was as though someone had sunk an ice-cold dagger in my heart. Clawing at my thick coat and clothes underneath, I staggered. I struggled to breathe. My feet came to a stop as I swayed back and forth.
Another stabbing pain, this time tearing into me with such vicious pain, I couldn’t help but give a choked cry. I fell to my knees and then slammed into the gray flagstones beneath me. In the distance, I could see a shadow dart out, a soldier leaving his post to join me. Getting help, I hoped. I felt like I was dying, and I didn’t want to die. Gods. For so long, I had felt the weight of my lonely existence. I had come to peace with it, to some extent. Now, it would seem, against all odds, that I would die alone in a hallway.
Margriet…I thought disjointedly, as a third stab brought black spots to my vision. I struggled to maintain consciousness. All I could see was my hand lying before me on the gray stone. Fingers twitching with pain.Margriet… Perhaps I shall see you sooner than I expected. Slain by… Slain by whom?I would never know, but perhaps Alan would find out.
Alan.At the thought of my reluctant companion, I felt another stab, this time metaphorical. A stab of regret. I had never gotten to know him beyond that one night. That one memory thathaunted me. Now I would never know. Even now, as darkness encroached, threatening to claim me, I clung to the last thing I wanted to see. The slight curve of Alan’s smile. His violet eyes glimmering up at me behind spectacles. The silvery waterfall of his hair, like moonlight caught in the flesh.Alan.
Alan.
“I’m right here, Hugh.”
A familiar voice drew me up out of the darkness. My eyelashes slowly fluttered as I blearily looked around. If this was the afterlife, it was far from what I was expecting. It seemed to be warm with only a touch of chill air. A crackling fire. The dry scent of herbs and dusty tomes. As my blurred visions sharpened, I was greeted with a shadowed figure and a flash of light-reflecting glass bending over me. Beyond, a cheerful fire on a hearth. A room filled with shelves crammed full of—Oh. Alan’s laboratory.
“Well, he looks to be coming round, Alan.”
Aileen. Medic Aileen was also here. I groaned softly as I came to more fully. I was now firmly in my body and feeling every bit of it with painful detail. My head mainly. I could have done without that. It pounded as though I had been beaten by a thousand hammers.
“Drink this,” Aileen said softly.
I sipped at a bitter concoction.
“My Elixir of Painless Repose,” Alan said as I grimaced. “Not the best tasting, but it should put you to rights. Well, at least the headache part.”
“What happened?” I grunted.
“We were hoping you’d tell us.” Aileen patted my shoulder. “Let’s get you up and take a look. No sign of contusions. Or bruising.”
“Not a regular attack.”
“It was a stabbing pain,” I finally managed to say. “Like I had been knifed in the heart, but I was alone.”
My hand rose to rub my chest. “It still feels cold there, deep down.”
“Allow me.”
At Alan’s words, Aileen stepped back and busied herself with her bag. She disappeared beyond the door. The room fell into a calm silence as Alan began to gently tug on my jacket. He pushed the dark wool back and began to work on my shirt ties. I wanted to joke. I wanted to say something about round two, but I had a feeling that it would only annoy him.
Instead, I allowed him to pull my white cotton shirt apart. My eyes fluttered closed as I focused on the soft touch of his fingers as they ghosted over my skin. When I looked back up at him, I focused on his face which now leaned closer than usual. I could see the fine-spun white threads of his hair, the glint of violet behind his thick spectacles. Violet eyes that seemed to glimmer with mysterious energy. They were glowing. My gaze dropped to his lips which were gently pursed and now slightly opened. His tongue swept across his bottom lip, and then he began to murmur a drone in an ancient tongue.
“Ennor naa sílme en kirimma…”
As he spoke, a warm white glow emerged from between his fingers. It floated between us. I watched entranced as Alan’s power swirled around us. To those watching, Alan’s power might have been magical. I found the young tom even more entrancing. My hand rose to his shoulder. Alan kept his gaze focused on his fingers as the white glow hung between us. His chanting ended and the light faded.
Alan eased back, and then, as if aware of my hand on him for the first time, he hesitated. My gaze met his evenly. His violet gaze flickered away from me and then back as his lips thinned.
“What is it?” I finally asked.
“There is a disturbance.” The way his voice sounded, my heartbeat began to race. “The aether that flows within you… There is a blockage. A—disturbance.”
His right hand now lay upon my heart, his fingers spreading across my chest. At the same time, his left rose to cover my hand. Alan sighed.
“Hugh—“
