Chapter 19
Benedict’s fidgeting was slight but telling, his gaze in the middle distance and his arms over his chest as he stoically stood dead center of the hospital elevator.
I wasn’t much better, fingering Pluck’s new moldavite amulet until I realized what I was doing and stopped.
As promised, Herm had come shortly after four to pick us up.
The Spinner was insufferably pleased with himself, not only successfully taking the garden security offline but arranging to meet with Dana so as to get her out of Cameron’s hospital room.
I, though, was worried that the subterfuge would backfire on him. Pluck and I hadn’t been charged with anything, but we’d been told to stay clear of the marshal. If we were caught, Dana might have the ammunition to put me in custody.
And yet here we were.
Pluck huffed, and I dangled my fingers between his ears, enjoying the chill cramping my hand.
There was a faint glitter of dross in the corners and where the walls met the floor, missed from the last sweep.
Too tiny to catch? I mused as I swung my stick into play, running the silver-shod end along the seams to collect the dross dander into a small dust bunny.
Maybe it was overkill, but I didn’t like messing with elevators.
Silent, Benedict moved so I could reach behind him.
“I’m surprised you brought your stick,” he said, and I shifted the dross-cored staff a hundred and eighty degrees until I could eye the admittedly small, glittering drop of latent energy. The microparticles were probably remnants of larger dross issues.
“Yep.”
“It makes you easily recognizable,” Benedict grumbled.
“Probably.” We would likely have to go back into hiding after this stunt, whether it worked or not. “But if Thoth shows, it will keep him at arm’s length. You saw how scared he is of dross.” Not that I blamed him. That stuff hurt.
My fingers dangling in Pluck’s effervescence grew even more cold. You should try tuning that.
I eyed the glow on the tip of the stick, dueling feelings of anticipation and dread making an ugly slurry in me. “Seriously?” I said aloud, and the elevator chimed.
Benedict pushed past me when the silver doors opened. “Wait here,” he said, gaze on the nurses’ desk halfway down the hall. “Give me a few minutes to plow the road.”
“Ah, sure.” I glanced over the elevator lobby, the walls covered with informational placards and watercolor pictures of poppies. There was a bench, and I sat, waiting for him to distract the nurse so I could slip past. From down the hall, Benedict’s cheerful hail rang out.
It’s one nurse, Pluck fizzed. How hard can it be to evade one nurse?
“Depends on the nurse.” I eyed the dross trap doing double duty as a trash can. Sighing, I angled the tip of the stick toward it to get rid of the dross dust, and Pluck’s thoughts quickened with a sudden urgency.
Don’t…he thought, and I jerked the stick away, a haze of dross pulling from the trap until the attraction faded and it fell back under the tripod. Tune it, he encouraged.
I slowly set the butt of the staff on the floor. It put the haze of dust almost at eye level. Now? I asked nervously, and a wash of reassurance flooded me.
Put your thoughts into your lodestone…
I knew what to do, and I glanced to where Benedict was chatting up the nurse.
It clearly wasn’t going well. I had time.
Slipping into a meditative state was easy, and I centered my awareness on the unassuming muddy-green stone in my hand and exhaled.
Its latticework shimmered at the edge of my mind’s eye, a faint green glow of dark matter lighting it.
In comparison, the dross dust was on fire, and I gingerly pulled it free, fingers burning. It puddled in my hand as I set the stick aside, and I hardly breathed, feeling it scorch my palm, threatening to break on me.
Gently now, encourage it to break, letting it funnel through your mind and into the stone, Pluck suggested. It’s not enough to hurt you.
Sure, that was what he said, but what I wanted to do was throw the stuff into the trap and be done with it. Instead, I rolled the glowing sphere in my palm until it began to prickle in protest, little darts of agony jolting through my hand.
Watch now. It’s breaking. Catch it. Direct the released dark matter into the stone, Pluck encouraged, and with that, the dross dust completely fell apart.
Heat flashed through me as it tried to randomly change the universe.
I pulled it into me instead, feeling it sear my thoughts until it found the lodestone.
With a sudden plink of sensation, the energy wave flashed through the entirety of the moldavite and elevated the lattice to a new energy level.
The heat in my palm vanished. My hand was empty and the lodestone perched in my fingers glittered a darker green.
Pluck? I thought, but his pride and excitement were already spilling through me. Clearly I’d done it—done it right this time.
Outstanding! he praised, and the image of the glowing latticework in my mind vanished as his thoughts eclipsed everything. I was not a shadow, but this would make my life a lot less painful. Especially if I could train myself to do this without thinking, as Pluck did.
“It’s going to take a lot more practice before I’m as good as you,” I said, and he made a wolfy huff, his ear flicking to send a splat of dark matter hissing against the wall as he stared down the hall.
Ah, I think they called for security, Pluck fizzed, and my elation faltered. He was right. Two bulky orderlies were flanking Benedict, large enough they made even his wide shoulders and height seem small.
Ever the elitist, he began to protest, and a smile found me.
I didn’t think this was what he had had in mind, but it would still work.
Standing, I went to the trap and used my stick to knock it apart.
The trap’s shorter sticks rolled and bumped about the floor, freeing the previously collected dross.
What are you doing? Huffing, Pluck jumped up onto the bench as I danced back, avoiding the mini flow even as I wrangled all three trap sticks free of it.
“There’s only one person without a hospital ID who can go anywhere without question,” I said as I shook a stick until the clinging dross let go. “And I know all the passwords.” My fingers burned, the pain ignored as I shook the other two until they lost their dross as well.
They will recognize you, Pluck warned, and I gathered the three sticks in a tight bundle.
Better than a clipboard…“That’s the point.”
No disguise was a thin disguise. I’d be relying on props and attitude, and I had plenty of both. “Amulet?” I prompted, and Pluck shook himself, dark matter flying.
Only until you get past the desk.
“Then let’s go.” The moldavite around my neck grew cold when Pluck ghosted into it, and I tucked the stone behind my shirt, not liking the growing knot of people. Benedict was going to get himself kicked out.
Chin high, I sauntered to the supply room next to the nurses’ desk. Benedict’s argument faltered when he spotted me, and I shrugged.
The mage took a breath, channeling his inner entitled tenured professor. “I have every right to make sure that the marshal’s needs are being met!” he exclaimed. “I know she’s on this floor. I demand to know what room!”
We already knew what room thanks to Lev. Head down, I opened the supply room door, waiting as the lights flickered on. The hospital-grade bottles were right where they should be, and my heart gave a little thump when the nurse looked up from her argument with Benedict.
“Thank you,” she mouthed, distracted but relieved when I came out with an empty bottle. She didn’t care what I was cleaning up, just that someone had come from the sweepers’ guild to take care of it.
It had been a while since I’d felt that gratitude. It almost hurt—the realization of what I’d lost when I’d gained Pluck. Things were tense on campus, but my sweeper friends would always be appreciated. Me? Not so much anymore.
I’m sorry for the way things are, Pluck fizzed, and I shifted the bottle under my arm.
“Don’t you dare apologize,” I muttered. “I’d rather be a misunderstood weaver than an underappreciated sweeper any day. If I wasn’t here cleaning up their mess, I’d get the stink eye.”
And with that, I boldly walked past Benedict and the two orderlies and headed down the hall.
“This is not over,” Benedict said loudly. “I’ll be sitting right there until Dana comes back, and then I expect an apology. I am not a criminal.”
“Mathis, will you escort the professor off the grounds?” the nurse said, but her voice was already going faint as Pluck and I continued down the hall.
Sticks and a bottle get you anywhere, I thought, and Pluck bubbled, a faint haze of nothing taking shape at my heel when we turned a corner.
Nervous, I dabbled my fingers in his chill presence.
Anxiety kept my pace fast, and I didn’t put the jar down.
I had to get Cameron free. I thought I was the only one who could do it. Or am I overinflating my own value…
You are not, Pluck fizzed, but doubt clung to me, and my pulse quickened when I spotted Lev sitting in a chair next to a door. Seeing me, he stood, his stance furtive.
“I heard yelling. Where’s Benedict?” he said as Pluck and I closed the gap, and a feeling of kinship flowed from me to Pluck, surprising the shadow.
“Arguing with the orderlies,” I said, and Lev gave Pluck a nod. “Probably getting kicked out as we speak.”
“Not the plan, but whatever works.” He glanced down the empty hall, then ushered me to the door. “She still hasn’t woken up.”
Guilt laced his voice. He was blaming himself. I understood why, but it hadn’t been his fault. My relief that we’d gotten past the nurses’ desk vanished when we entered the room. It was bright with the low sun, and Pluck hazed to nothing, disappearing under the bed.