Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The doorbell rang, and my phone vibrated. I whipped my cell out, walking into the dining room.
Ori:
How come the door is double-locked
The front door wasn’t bolted, but my ward was in place, which meant it was reset. No one could reset my wards but me…
I swung open the door, and Ori burst in. “What happened?” she asked.
“Hang on to the questions. Get upstairs to my bedroom—fast.” I couldn’t risk another portal attack until we’d recovered from the last one. Besides, I had a lot of questions of my own. Some of which, I was hoping my brilliant bestie could find answers to.
Ranth came in through the back door and shut it. My jaw dropped as he set the ward he shouldn’t have been able to see.
“Hurry,” I said. He looked over at me, bushy black eyebrows furrowed. “My bedroom is the safest spot,” I said. Taking the stairs two at a time, I launched into the bedroom. Ori was already sitting on the bed with her laptop out and stroking Antimony with her free hand.
“Heads up,” I said. “Bedroom wards choke signals. You’ll lose Wi-Fi in thirty seconds. Whatever you need, download it quickly. I’m blocking the signals as soon as…”
Ranth walked in.
“Now,” I said, dropping the wards into place.
Ori huffed. “That was too soon, but I can make do. I downloaded a bunch of stuff earlier…”
“Hold that thought,” I said, turning to Ranth. “How did you reset my ward?”
“Like this,” he replied, walking over to the door and running his hands along the chaparral, holly, mustard, and salt-filled rod I’d crafted from hollow borosilicate glass tubing.
The herbs inside had to be visible to make the spell work on the plane, and the material had to be natural.
It was custom cut to fit the width of the door.
The mixture rolled inside as if he were affecting it, which I guess he was. He set the bar into place, and the ward melded the door into the wall.
“That’s not possible…” I breathed. Other-planar manipulation couldn’t be done on this plane. I knew because I’d tried. He—
He crossed his arms. “Years of training, and you can do it too. It’s merely understanding what spells actually do from the magic side of it. Magic is a science, after all.”
“Magic isn’t a science. They’re completely opposite. Science doesn’t accept magic as possible,” I snapped, partially because he wasn’t actually explaining what he’d done, and because he was questioning my understanding of magic.
“Yes.”
I glared at him, bristling with snappy comebacks that would only escalate. Ori interrupted the stand-off. “Are you saying your group of wizards has discovered a higher science, which modern scientists still call magic?”
“Exactly.” Ranth pointed at Ori as if to cement that somehow Ori had more intelligence than I did. He ran his hand through the air dramatically.
“Whatever. Why don’t you show me how you do it?” I asked, nodding at the door. I could learn stuff from Ranth, and that was worth way more than a bruise to my ego.
He hovered his hands over the rod and then smoothly moved them to the left. The salt rolled, and the door appeared.
“No, I mean actually show me how you’re doing it.
My wards are tied to the towers at the corners.
The salt line is built into the walls, so the bar merely closes the protection line already in place.
But you didn’t know that, and it’s my spellcraft.
You shouldn’t be able to use it or actually see it at all. ”
“That is completely wrong. The barrier you set up could be used by anyone who knows how to make a ward. It’s not complicated.”
“But demons can’t cross it, and normal people can’t see it.” I folded my arms, attempting to throw off the feeling that this was a personal attack.
“Demons can’t come through it because it’s a protection line. You could draw a line on the floor, and it would have the same effect. I can see it because I’m more like you, than her.” He nodded at Ori.
“Then how did the Essifers come into the house from the garden?”
“Because you can’t control enough of the open space with your ward. You don’t have the house lines defined in the correct way. The bedroom works because it’s small and easily contained. That’s why the bathing room is your safest spot. The limited space makes it securable.”
“Then a portal could technically open up in here?” I scanned the walls, considering how I could strengthen the spells.
“It could, but it probably won’t. Demons don’t like wandering into salted spaces because they can become trapped. Even the Essifers specifically hunting us.”
“And you know this because?”
“The Ahknim have specialists on wards and salt lines. We’ve experimented for hundreds of years. It’s knowledge which comes from experience and study—not a best guess.” His lips spread into a grin.
“I’ll attempt not to take that as an insult.” I held my ground, but I was annoyed as foxgloves.
“You shouldn’t. It’s only knowledge you didn’t have because you apparently didn’t have a capable teacher.
For example, circles are not as powerful as triangles.
Salt lines have particular shapes for different rituals.
Circles are more effective in some instances, but triangles or pyramid shapes are better for focus spells. ”
I glared again, wavering between awe and annoyance at the condescending delivery. What he said made sense. I’d have to experiment more.
“And what did you do downstairs to Mrs. Finnegan?”
“Do?” Ranth and Ori said together.
I crossed my arms. “You shook hands with her, and there were golden sparkles.”
“Oh, a simple distraction charm.” Ranth’s smug look rankled me. He’d be showing me how to do that too, later.
“My turn to tell you two stuff?” Ori asked, not missing my annoyance.
Ranth turned his attention to Ori, seemingly unaware he’d ticked me off.
“Sure, what’d you find?” I tamped down my frustration and unsnapped a pouch. I handed out squares of chocolate while we focused on Ori.
Ranth settled on the bed next to Ori and Ant, and Ant didn’t even blink.
I stroked her. “Wait, why isn’t Ant freaked out now?”
Ranth glanced at Ant, locking on to my strokes. “Perhaps she’s gotten used to my scent?”
“Or maybe it’s because she’s seeing you differently,” I replied, nodding at the tattoo on his arm.
Ranth traced the tattoo with his fingers. “It is possible. Bastet’s creatures are complicated.”
“Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess? The one who protects the home?” Ori asked.
“Yes, the lioness,” Ranth replied.
“Well Egypt is on the menu,” Ori flipped her screen around to show us a map of Egypt.
“There isn’t much information on the Ahknim, but this order existed in the place he said it did.
Thebais. I emailed you the research paper on esoteric orders I dug up, but I have it downloaded.
There isn’t much, just an aside reference that the order took in young children who proved worthy of potential and raised them without the interference of their parents.
When they came of age, they would ascend to the inner circle and would choose to be advisors to rulers or stay in the village and continue the training, then pass on knowledge to the next generations.
I looked up the reference, but it’s the same information taken from a period text. It might be a dead-end.”
Ranth crouched down to peer at the map. “We were always learning and always searching for the next level of knowledge.”
“There’s a bit more on the Serpent of that period. It was sort of an angel, but some considered it a demon.”
“Demon?” I asked, my throat going dry. Ranth had said Harold had a pact with a demon. Had Ranth done that too?
“That’s what the text said. It’s been translated though, so I expect it’s more of a standard Christian mythos of fallen angel demon rather than the aether creatures you can see.”
Ranth stood up and crossed his arms. “I don’t know what you are referring to, but the Serpent is neither good nor evil. It is not fallen, nor raised above others. It is outside human judgment. It has nothing to do with Essifers, or Derellers, or any of the Shayian.”
“Shayian? Can you spell that?” Ori asked. Ranth spelled it out for her as she typed. “Nothing in my downloaded references. Where does the term come from?” She chewed on a tip of fingernail painted with a soot sprite.
“I don’t know. It’s what we call the other-planar interlopers, the ones who prey on souls with smoke and fire.”
“Without Wi-Fi, I’m without books, which doesn’t make for a happy girl,” Ori replied with a grimace. “Moving on. Those photos you sent were really cool. Did you get to see more of that grimoire?”
“There were only twenty-seven, and it’s not a grimoire. At least, I don’t think it is. The text was poetry, not incantations, and they don’t make any sense. Yet, Harold used it to cast a complex spell. Any idea how he did that?”
Ranth shook his head.
I played with my moon pendant, revisiting the memory of the room.
“Then all we know is the spell that Harold cast from the book was strong enough to split the curse on the bracelet. It has to be a spell that a powerful wizard could use creatively.” I left off the last part because I hadn’t decided what to think about Harold.
A week ago, I would have said that Harold was impossible, but now I’d met Ranth.
Harold could be more powerful—or more skilled—than Ranth or I.
“Right, you two are the experts, so that will have to wait for later too,” Ori replied with a puff of frustration. She closed her laptop.
I turned to Ranth. “Now that the curse is split, you can return to your place in the Garden, right?”
“It will not be a simple task, but it must be done and soon. If the Serpent is released, life as you know it would end.”