Third Earth, page 20
“I’m using four different polygraph programs besides that old antique,” Kymm replied. “The more input we record, the more accurate the results.”
She yanked a sticky pad off my left temple, wiped it with an alcohol pad, and waved her hand at it to dry it quicker. Once dry, she charged toward my head with another cotton ball.
Sadie intercepted her. “I’ll do that,” she volunteered, taking the cotton from Kymm. “Agnes has been through enough without being assaulted by a mad scientist.”
Kymm’s mouth opened in stunned self-realization, then half-smiled, proud of the accusation. Sadie gently wiped off my sweating temple and held my hand while Kymm reattached the lead.
“Thanks for being here, Sades.” Grateful for the moral support, I forced a smile for her.
“No problem.” She squeezed my hand. “I’m surprised Temnon isn’t here with you.”
“He dumped me.” The dark, confusing emptiness threatened to overcome me.
Horror lifted her impeccably shaped brows. “Babe, no.”
Unable to meet Sadie’s pitying frown, I bit the inside of my cheek and turned my head to allow Kymm to check the other leads.
Lord Chevlin clapped. “I’ve completed my preparations, Miss Kymm. Are you almost ready?”
Kymm typed furiously. “And three, two, one…” The tower of computers nearest me powered up, and the needles on the old-fashioned polygraph machine jumped to life. “Ignition!” she cheered, then she clicked on a digital recorder. “This is Kymm Zhou. February twenty-third, zero-nine-twenty-one hours. Test subject, Agnes Ann Cavanaugh, question series one. Ready to begin, Agnes?”
“Sure,” I muttered blankly.
“What is your name?”
“Agnes Ann Cavanaugh.”
The machines whirred away calmly.
“What is your title?”
“Arch Mage of Second Earth.”
The happy whirring continued.
“Will this planet be safe from earthquakes from here on out?”
“Barring interruption, yes.”
Several relieved vocalizations joined the machines. No one doubted me in the least. They didn’t understand the severity of the spell that had taken over my truth.
“Did you intentionally offend the black dragon?”
“Yes. I hated her.”
My answer came out dead calm, but the computers went nuts. Beeps and alarms blared, the screen flashed with readings, and the needles on the old-fashioned polygraph machine coated the paper with black streaks.
“How entirely odd.” Dame Maudine came over and pressed a forefinger to my nose. “You didn’t stutter at all.”
“Nope.”
“You really don’t like lying, do you, dearling? According to these machines, that hasn’t changed at all.”
Kymm twisted a knob on the polygraph. “Let’s try again. Lie on purpose this time.”
“How about a factual lie?” suggested Lord Chevlin. “Something that—”
“Two plus two equals pi,” I interrupted.
Again, the machines detected the lie, but not my gift.
“That darn lead,” Kymm muttered to herself. She ripped off the wire connected to my left temple and replaced the sticky pad with a new one. “Again, Agnes.”
“Two plus two equals green.”
Under the alarms, I heard Kymm clicking the mouse a few times. She pushed away from her desk and yanked off that same wire again. She pulled off the lead connected to my wrist and stuck it to my head.
“Once more,” she directed.
“Two plus two equals omega.”
“This is really weird,” Kymm stared at my head. “I’m getting no readings from this spot, no matter what lead I paste there. Come see.”
Everyone crowded around her huge monitors. Between the bodies I saw a human diagram like in a medical book. It had major nerves illustrated on the right side and muscle groups on the left. Little green lights on the figure shone where I had corresponding sticky pads stuck to my skin, but on my forehead, a red light blinked.
“Reboot and try again?” Colucci suggested.
“I don’t need to reboot.” Kymm’s passion rose, jabbing the figure’s forehead on her screen. “It’s a win for science. That’s the spot. That’s where the interference originates!”
21
Oh Look, A Curse
Simultaneously, they all turned and peered at my forehead. I reached up but felt only skin.
With one purposeful step, Lord Chevlin placed a hand on my forehead. “I feel no curse, no poison, and no enchantments. There is nothing there.”
Great. We found the spot, but not the problem.
“Wait,” Sadie spoke up, “where did I see that little mirror?” She scrambled around me to a table and scooped up a tiny mirror with a long, angled handle used for computer repairs. “You can still see magic, right?” she asked, shoving the mirror into my hand. “Do you see anything?”
I held the small, round surface up to the reddish patch of irritated skin where the sticky pad had been ripped off and replaced repeatedly. No glittering magic sparkled, only a dull speck of grime stuck to the pad’s residue. I rubbed my finger across it to clean it off, but it didn’t budge. I licked my finger and tried again, but the stubborn bit of whatever it was stayed glued to my raw forehead.
“Do you see that dirt?” I asked Sadie, pointing my fingernail at the tiny speck.
She grabbed my cheeks and turned my head in every direction. Everyone else leaned in as well.
“No,” she said. “Is it magic?”
That was a good question. I squinted at the mirror, obsessing over the grime. It didn’t look like magic at all. I touched it but didn’t feel the grainy texture I expected. Turning my head to catch the light, the speck lengthened a fraction, like a shadow. It didn’t sparkle, or radiate power like regular wizard magic, but it had to be some form of magic if Sadie couldn’t see it.
“It might be magic, but it’s tiny. I’m going to go inside my head for a few minutes. I’m not dead or unconscious, so no one panic and try CPR.”
“Got it.” Sadie gave me a firm nod.
I closed my eyes and slipped deep inside myself. My magic ocean’s brilliant white glow dimmed to a dull gray.
You’ve suffered quite a bit recently, I said in thought to my magic.
We have suffered.
I think you’re suppressed by a spell. Do you feel its influence?
The truth is hidden.
It is. Let’s reveal it. We remember the spell used on Suelta, the queen of the sirens? That spell strips away false realities. Let’s see if it works on curses.
My magic hummed with excitement, and deep beneath its surface, a ball of power glowed. I poured my own energy into it and helped it expand into a substantial spell.
Ready? I asked. My magic brimmed with anticipation. I opened my eyes and shouted aloud, “Now!”
A magical shockwave blasted from my chest.
“Ow, you shocked me!” cried Sadie, yanking her hand from my head.
Everyone leaned back as a gust of energy buffeted their faces and blew their hair. Kymm’s glasses flew askance and Colucci’s old jacket flapped behind him.
Behind them all, Lord Chevlin’s delicate instruments whirred to life. A clockwork machine whined with a high pitch and a wisp of smoke rose from the gears. At its top, a wheel spun until it took off like helicopter blades and smashed into the light fixture above. Bits of glass tinkled on the equipment and Kymm’s computers blared in alarm. A burst of sparks blew a surge protector in the corner followed by three more. Kymm squealed and grabbed a fire extinguisher.
“Holy vitas above!” Maudine wheezed. “No wonder I can’t fix your neuropathy. Not with power like that working inside you.” Eyeing the wheel dangling from the broken fixture, she asked, “Chevlin? What was the reading?”
Lord Chevlin waved away the smoke and fiddled with a few knobs. “She blasted off the chart in less than a second.”
Oops. I didn’t mean to break all that expensive equipment. “Sorry.”
“Never mind, sunshine,” Mom said. “Did you fix your magic?”
“Two plus two equals fffahvvve.” I stuttered intelligibly. “I did it!” My legs kicked with excitement. “My truth is healed!”
Everyone cheered, and I giggled with a happiness I never expected to feel again. The empty darkness vanished. It was like I’d shaken off death and found life again. I no longer believed for one instant that any of this was my fault. And I knew I loved Temnon with all my heart, even after what he’d said to me.
“I’m happy for you, kid,” Colucci grunted. “But how did this happen in the first place? Someone must have cursed you or whatever.”
“Indeed.” Lord Chevlin scanned me again. “Your readings are better this time. I see now there was a spell on you, but it was expertly concealed. Someone wanted you hindered, but not enough to alert others to your plight. Who placed the spell?”
“I have no idea.”
“They would have to be close to lay such a subtle enchantment.” Maudine paced back and forth by the ruined equipment. “Were you able to discern its purpose or nature?”
“No,” I admitted. “I barely saw it. More of a shadow than magic.”
“Then we can’t trace the spell back through its type.”
Crud. I wished I’d conducted a few experiments of my own before I demolished it. Knowing the magic type would narrow down the wizard.
“No way of tracing it, then?” Mom said regretfully.
“Nobody said that.” Kymm dropped the fire extinguisher with a clatter and returned to her keyboard.
“I didn’t fry your hardware, did I?” I asked.
“Maybe a few towers, but the surge protectors took the brunt of the energy.” Her monitor lit up as she typed, much to my relief. “Give me your watch.”
“My watch?” I parroted. “I left it in the Apex.”
I wished for the Apex as Kymm snatched open the closet. She returned with the watch and the acid-damaged band fell apart in her hand as she connected it to her computer.
“Whew. The chip is intact.” She found a new band while a downloading bar on the computer screen inched along. “Maybe the camera caught your evil wizard.”
“I’m still not sure I like this picture thing,” I said.
“My system is hack-proof. Your truth, on the other hand, is one well-worded question from giving away everything.”
“I’ve thought it all along,” Sadie chimed in, “every girl has her secrets. Agnes, you need to learn how to—”
“Lie?”
“No,” she insisted, “not lie—outwit bad guys. You’ve been questioned once; you will be again. Your life might depend on it someday.”
“Street smarts.” Colucci yanked on his lapels. “My area of expertise.” He planted a beat-up shoe on the foot of my chair and leaned on his knee. “There’s an art to interrogation, missy, and that applies to both sides of the table. Criminals evade questions by asking questions. It’s a distraction technique, to mislead the interrogator. It won’t fool Kymm, or the FBI, but it’ll help you out in a pinch. Give it a try.”
“Okay.”
“So, Miss Cavanaugh, have you ever been to another planet?”
“Have you had your head checked recently?” My sentence flowed naturally.
“Nice snark, Ags,” complimented Sadie.
“Interesting.” Kymm grabbed her recorder and clicked the button, “Subject is capable of evading incriminating questions by becoming the aggressor.”
I didn’t want to be an aggressor, but it might be necessary at times. Especially when innocent lives were at stake. Colucci asked a few more questions, and I relaxed. I fooled the polygraph programs for a solid two minutes, much to my delight.
“Splendid, Agnes,” Dame Maudine remarked. “However, as arch mage, you frequently deal with world leaders. I’m quite sure most dignitaries will be offended by your sarcastic talents, rather than impressed.”
Lord Chevlin added, “Reason or psychology will get the same result as sarcasm.”
“And three, two, one…ignition!” Kymm called.
Thousands of pictures blinked onto her screens. Figuring Kymm was finished testing, I started peeling off the remaining sticky pads while the others checked the pictures. Huge chunks of them were only big, black squares.
“We’ll delete all the frames when your watch was covered by your armor,” Kymm said, clicking away. “Tons of frames are the underside of tables and stuff, but there are some usable images. This one is nice.”
Kymm rotated the frame, and I recognized Earth 22 and High King Po Lan, his chamber with the inlaid metal blazed in digital glory on the monitor. My tiny watch cam captured Adrina, Lumi, Temnon, and even that weird little servant.
A hundred shots later, the heavenly grandeur of the Fulcrum played frame by frame. Kymm and Colucci gawked at the screens. It didn’t matter which way my watch pointed, stars and galaxies lay in every direction.
“I can’t believe this is real,” breathed Kymm. “The watch doesn’t even have a telescopic lens.”
Then we landed in Odric’s throne room, joined the Odonatas, and met Dominath on the colonnade.
“Zounds,” remarked Colucci, “what a beast. You were on a planet filled with those?”
“I need better parameters,” Kymm announced. “Lord Chevlin? How close would the caster have to be?”
“I’d say it could only be laid by a touch.”
Kymm typed, developing an algorithm on the fly. “And when did it first happen?”
“Um,” I pondered. “I first noticed it leaving Earth 22. Temnon asked me a question, and when I answered, I didn’t feel the truth or a lie. That sometimes happens, when the truth doesn’t apply or hasn’t been decided yet, but this time was different, and it worried me. It grew steadily worse over time. But Third Earth is where it really shut me down. Except in the core. My gift worked just fine in the core.”
“Got it,” Kymm typed like the wind. “I’ll refine this algorithm to pinpoint a specific frame. Hopefully, we’ll luck out.”
“Oh look,” said Dame Maudine. “That picture of Nemantia moves.”
A minimized box in the corner of the screen played over the still shots from my watch. I recognized my Apex. Chiri stood on the glass, playing with the fish, and Nemantia, hands clasped, anxiously stared at my mage door. I hopped off the chair, went to the closet where my crest still hung, and wished for my Apex.
As I opened the door, Nemantia grabbed my hand and dragged me into the Apex. “I’m so sorry, Agnes. Please forgive me. This is all my fault because I didn’t trust my own magic.”
“What are you talking about?”
Her explanation tumbled out like a river released from a dam. “I’ve been afraid of it since Vi Lorina, at least the parts that don’t deal with healing. Summoning Iloress terrified me, and I thought I had control, but she still lied, so maybe I’m too weak.” She paused to press her hands against her temples. “Oh, Agnes, someone has been calling me, for months. Someone from the afterlife. I was too scared to answer the call, but I finally did. I know I’m not making much sense.” She turned to the others. “My apologies, but Agnes must come with me immediately. To the spirit world.”
22
I Die . . . Kind Of
The spirit world? I’d been wanting to go there for ages, but why now with everything going on?
“Will it help Grimmal and Lumi?” I asked Nemantia.
“I sincerely hope so, but we must hurry.”
“No. No, hold on.” Mom clambered around the chair and pushed Lord Chevlin aside. “Why the spirit world? That’s where dead people go.”
“I have power over the connection between life and death,” Nemantia said. “I can visit the spirit world mentally, but for Agnes to go there…” She squeezed her own hand so tight her fingertips turned white. “I have to separate her spirit from her body.”
“Separate? That sounds a lot like actually dying.”
Mom would know. She died during an earthquake, and Nemantia magically caught her spirit while Lord Chevlin healed her body.
“Agnes won’t be dead,” Nemantia assured her. “Her body will be in an unconscious state. I have a room in the palace specially designed to keep clients’ mortal bodies safe while visiting the other side.”
Mom remained unconvinced and pressed the princess for more. “You’re telling me there is no risk? No danger at all?”
Nemantia studied the ground. “Well, there is a slight risk. She must stay close to me in the spirit world, or she might get lost.”
“Lost? Lost how?”
“I’m a very good necromancer,” Nemantia said with only a slight tremble in her voice. “I’ve summoned lost spirits before, but if Agnes is scared or disoriented and doesn’t hear me, she might wander between worlds, neither in the spirit realm nor the mortal one. Lost.”
Mom shifted her weight to one foot and crossed her arms. “I don’t know about this.”
“The spirit world is pretty.” Chiri’s magic gleamed as she sent bits of solid light flitting among the fish. “It’s like dreaming. Nemantia let me visit Sempira when she died. I wanted to live there with my sister, but she said I have to work hard and learn to be happy here first.”
Chiri’s sweet description softened Mom a shade, and I took full advantage of it.
“Mom. Lumi saved me from being digested alive. I can’t let her be sent to the Nia Nega Abyss. I can’t.”
With reluctance, Mom huffed a long breath. “Okay, sunshine, you can go.” Then she asked Nemantia, “Can you take her from here? I don’t like her leaving. Not until we know who placed that spell on her.”
“You found the spell?” Nemantia turned to me eagerly. “Is your magic whole again?”
“Yes. Kymm found it.”
“How wonderful! Did Lord Chevlin dissolve it?”
“Nope. I blew it to smithereens.”
“That and half my laboratory,” Kymm added from the D.C. side of the door.
“Sades?” I invited her into my Apex. “Want to watch?”
She yanked a sticky pad off my left temple, wiped it with an alcohol pad, and waved her hand at it to dry it quicker. Once dry, she charged toward my head with another cotton ball.
Sadie intercepted her. “I’ll do that,” she volunteered, taking the cotton from Kymm. “Agnes has been through enough without being assaulted by a mad scientist.”
Kymm’s mouth opened in stunned self-realization, then half-smiled, proud of the accusation. Sadie gently wiped off my sweating temple and held my hand while Kymm reattached the lead.
“Thanks for being here, Sades.” Grateful for the moral support, I forced a smile for her.
“No problem.” She squeezed my hand. “I’m surprised Temnon isn’t here with you.”
“He dumped me.” The dark, confusing emptiness threatened to overcome me.
Horror lifted her impeccably shaped brows. “Babe, no.”
Unable to meet Sadie’s pitying frown, I bit the inside of my cheek and turned my head to allow Kymm to check the other leads.
Lord Chevlin clapped. “I’ve completed my preparations, Miss Kymm. Are you almost ready?”
Kymm typed furiously. “And three, two, one…” The tower of computers nearest me powered up, and the needles on the old-fashioned polygraph machine jumped to life. “Ignition!” she cheered, then she clicked on a digital recorder. “This is Kymm Zhou. February twenty-third, zero-nine-twenty-one hours. Test subject, Agnes Ann Cavanaugh, question series one. Ready to begin, Agnes?”
“Sure,” I muttered blankly.
“What is your name?”
“Agnes Ann Cavanaugh.”
The machines whirred away calmly.
“What is your title?”
“Arch Mage of Second Earth.”
The happy whirring continued.
“Will this planet be safe from earthquakes from here on out?”
“Barring interruption, yes.”
Several relieved vocalizations joined the machines. No one doubted me in the least. They didn’t understand the severity of the spell that had taken over my truth.
“Did you intentionally offend the black dragon?”
“Yes. I hated her.”
My answer came out dead calm, but the computers went nuts. Beeps and alarms blared, the screen flashed with readings, and the needles on the old-fashioned polygraph machine coated the paper with black streaks.
“How entirely odd.” Dame Maudine came over and pressed a forefinger to my nose. “You didn’t stutter at all.”
“Nope.”
“You really don’t like lying, do you, dearling? According to these machines, that hasn’t changed at all.”
Kymm twisted a knob on the polygraph. “Let’s try again. Lie on purpose this time.”
“How about a factual lie?” suggested Lord Chevlin. “Something that—”
“Two plus two equals pi,” I interrupted.
Again, the machines detected the lie, but not my gift.
“That darn lead,” Kymm muttered to herself. She ripped off the wire connected to my left temple and replaced the sticky pad with a new one. “Again, Agnes.”
“Two plus two equals green.”
Under the alarms, I heard Kymm clicking the mouse a few times. She pushed away from her desk and yanked off that same wire again. She pulled off the lead connected to my wrist and stuck it to my head.
“Once more,” she directed.
“Two plus two equals omega.”
“This is really weird,” Kymm stared at my head. “I’m getting no readings from this spot, no matter what lead I paste there. Come see.”
Everyone crowded around her huge monitors. Between the bodies I saw a human diagram like in a medical book. It had major nerves illustrated on the right side and muscle groups on the left. Little green lights on the figure shone where I had corresponding sticky pads stuck to my skin, but on my forehead, a red light blinked.
“Reboot and try again?” Colucci suggested.
“I don’t need to reboot.” Kymm’s passion rose, jabbing the figure’s forehead on her screen. “It’s a win for science. That’s the spot. That’s where the interference originates!”
21
Oh Look, A Curse
Simultaneously, they all turned and peered at my forehead. I reached up but felt only skin.
With one purposeful step, Lord Chevlin placed a hand on my forehead. “I feel no curse, no poison, and no enchantments. There is nothing there.”
Great. We found the spot, but not the problem.
“Wait,” Sadie spoke up, “where did I see that little mirror?” She scrambled around me to a table and scooped up a tiny mirror with a long, angled handle used for computer repairs. “You can still see magic, right?” she asked, shoving the mirror into my hand. “Do you see anything?”
I held the small, round surface up to the reddish patch of irritated skin where the sticky pad had been ripped off and replaced repeatedly. No glittering magic sparkled, only a dull speck of grime stuck to the pad’s residue. I rubbed my finger across it to clean it off, but it didn’t budge. I licked my finger and tried again, but the stubborn bit of whatever it was stayed glued to my raw forehead.
“Do you see that dirt?” I asked Sadie, pointing my fingernail at the tiny speck.
She grabbed my cheeks and turned my head in every direction. Everyone else leaned in as well.
“No,” she said. “Is it magic?”
That was a good question. I squinted at the mirror, obsessing over the grime. It didn’t look like magic at all. I touched it but didn’t feel the grainy texture I expected. Turning my head to catch the light, the speck lengthened a fraction, like a shadow. It didn’t sparkle, or radiate power like regular wizard magic, but it had to be some form of magic if Sadie couldn’t see it.
“It might be magic, but it’s tiny. I’m going to go inside my head for a few minutes. I’m not dead or unconscious, so no one panic and try CPR.”
“Got it.” Sadie gave me a firm nod.
I closed my eyes and slipped deep inside myself. My magic ocean’s brilliant white glow dimmed to a dull gray.
You’ve suffered quite a bit recently, I said in thought to my magic.
We have suffered.
I think you’re suppressed by a spell. Do you feel its influence?
The truth is hidden.
It is. Let’s reveal it. We remember the spell used on Suelta, the queen of the sirens? That spell strips away false realities. Let’s see if it works on curses.
My magic hummed with excitement, and deep beneath its surface, a ball of power glowed. I poured my own energy into it and helped it expand into a substantial spell.
Ready? I asked. My magic brimmed with anticipation. I opened my eyes and shouted aloud, “Now!”
A magical shockwave blasted from my chest.
“Ow, you shocked me!” cried Sadie, yanking her hand from my head.
Everyone leaned back as a gust of energy buffeted their faces and blew their hair. Kymm’s glasses flew askance and Colucci’s old jacket flapped behind him.
Behind them all, Lord Chevlin’s delicate instruments whirred to life. A clockwork machine whined with a high pitch and a wisp of smoke rose from the gears. At its top, a wheel spun until it took off like helicopter blades and smashed into the light fixture above. Bits of glass tinkled on the equipment and Kymm’s computers blared in alarm. A burst of sparks blew a surge protector in the corner followed by three more. Kymm squealed and grabbed a fire extinguisher.
“Holy vitas above!” Maudine wheezed. “No wonder I can’t fix your neuropathy. Not with power like that working inside you.” Eyeing the wheel dangling from the broken fixture, she asked, “Chevlin? What was the reading?”
Lord Chevlin waved away the smoke and fiddled with a few knobs. “She blasted off the chart in less than a second.”
Oops. I didn’t mean to break all that expensive equipment. “Sorry.”
“Never mind, sunshine,” Mom said. “Did you fix your magic?”
“Two plus two equals fffahvvve.” I stuttered intelligibly. “I did it!” My legs kicked with excitement. “My truth is healed!”
Everyone cheered, and I giggled with a happiness I never expected to feel again. The empty darkness vanished. It was like I’d shaken off death and found life again. I no longer believed for one instant that any of this was my fault. And I knew I loved Temnon with all my heart, even after what he’d said to me.
“I’m happy for you, kid,” Colucci grunted. “But how did this happen in the first place? Someone must have cursed you or whatever.”
“Indeed.” Lord Chevlin scanned me again. “Your readings are better this time. I see now there was a spell on you, but it was expertly concealed. Someone wanted you hindered, but not enough to alert others to your plight. Who placed the spell?”
“I have no idea.”
“They would have to be close to lay such a subtle enchantment.” Maudine paced back and forth by the ruined equipment. “Were you able to discern its purpose or nature?”
“No,” I admitted. “I barely saw it. More of a shadow than magic.”
“Then we can’t trace the spell back through its type.”
Crud. I wished I’d conducted a few experiments of my own before I demolished it. Knowing the magic type would narrow down the wizard.
“No way of tracing it, then?” Mom said regretfully.
“Nobody said that.” Kymm dropped the fire extinguisher with a clatter and returned to her keyboard.
“I didn’t fry your hardware, did I?” I asked.
“Maybe a few towers, but the surge protectors took the brunt of the energy.” Her monitor lit up as she typed, much to my relief. “Give me your watch.”
“My watch?” I parroted. “I left it in the Apex.”
I wished for the Apex as Kymm snatched open the closet. She returned with the watch and the acid-damaged band fell apart in her hand as she connected it to her computer.
“Whew. The chip is intact.” She found a new band while a downloading bar on the computer screen inched along. “Maybe the camera caught your evil wizard.”
“I’m still not sure I like this picture thing,” I said.
“My system is hack-proof. Your truth, on the other hand, is one well-worded question from giving away everything.”
“I’ve thought it all along,” Sadie chimed in, “every girl has her secrets. Agnes, you need to learn how to—”
“Lie?”
“No,” she insisted, “not lie—outwit bad guys. You’ve been questioned once; you will be again. Your life might depend on it someday.”
“Street smarts.” Colucci yanked on his lapels. “My area of expertise.” He planted a beat-up shoe on the foot of my chair and leaned on his knee. “There’s an art to interrogation, missy, and that applies to both sides of the table. Criminals evade questions by asking questions. It’s a distraction technique, to mislead the interrogator. It won’t fool Kymm, or the FBI, but it’ll help you out in a pinch. Give it a try.”
“Okay.”
“So, Miss Cavanaugh, have you ever been to another planet?”
“Have you had your head checked recently?” My sentence flowed naturally.
“Nice snark, Ags,” complimented Sadie.
“Interesting.” Kymm grabbed her recorder and clicked the button, “Subject is capable of evading incriminating questions by becoming the aggressor.”
I didn’t want to be an aggressor, but it might be necessary at times. Especially when innocent lives were at stake. Colucci asked a few more questions, and I relaxed. I fooled the polygraph programs for a solid two minutes, much to my delight.
“Splendid, Agnes,” Dame Maudine remarked. “However, as arch mage, you frequently deal with world leaders. I’m quite sure most dignitaries will be offended by your sarcastic talents, rather than impressed.”
Lord Chevlin added, “Reason or psychology will get the same result as sarcasm.”
“And three, two, one…ignition!” Kymm called.
Thousands of pictures blinked onto her screens. Figuring Kymm was finished testing, I started peeling off the remaining sticky pads while the others checked the pictures. Huge chunks of them were only big, black squares.
“We’ll delete all the frames when your watch was covered by your armor,” Kymm said, clicking away. “Tons of frames are the underside of tables and stuff, but there are some usable images. This one is nice.”
Kymm rotated the frame, and I recognized Earth 22 and High King Po Lan, his chamber with the inlaid metal blazed in digital glory on the monitor. My tiny watch cam captured Adrina, Lumi, Temnon, and even that weird little servant.
A hundred shots later, the heavenly grandeur of the Fulcrum played frame by frame. Kymm and Colucci gawked at the screens. It didn’t matter which way my watch pointed, stars and galaxies lay in every direction.
“I can’t believe this is real,” breathed Kymm. “The watch doesn’t even have a telescopic lens.”
Then we landed in Odric’s throne room, joined the Odonatas, and met Dominath on the colonnade.
“Zounds,” remarked Colucci, “what a beast. You were on a planet filled with those?”
“I need better parameters,” Kymm announced. “Lord Chevlin? How close would the caster have to be?”
“I’d say it could only be laid by a touch.”
Kymm typed, developing an algorithm on the fly. “And when did it first happen?”
“Um,” I pondered. “I first noticed it leaving Earth 22. Temnon asked me a question, and when I answered, I didn’t feel the truth or a lie. That sometimes happens, when the truth doesn’t apply or hasn’t been decided yet, but this time was different, and it worried me. It grew steadily worse over time. But Third Earth is where it really shut me down. Except in the core. My gift worked just fine in the core.”
“Got it,” Kymm typed like the wind. “I’ll refine this algorithm to pinpoint a specific frame. Hopefully, we’ll luck out.”
“Oh look,” said Dame Maudine. “That picture of Nemantia moves.”
A minimized box in the corner of the screen played over the still shots from my watch. I recognized my Apex. Chiri stood on the glass, playing with the fish, and Nemantia, hands clasped, anxiously stared at my mage door. I hopped off the chair, went to the closet where my crest still hung, and wished for my Apex.
As I opened the door, Nemantia grabbed my hand and dragged me into the Apex. “I’m so sorry, Agnes. Please forgive me. This is all my fault because I didn’t trust my own magic.”
“What are you talking about?”
Her explanation tumbled out like a river released from a dam. “I’ve been afraid of it since Vi Lorina, at least the parts that don’t deal with healing. Summoning Iloress terrified me, and I thought I had control, but she still lied, so maybe I’m too weak.” She paused to press her hands against her temples. “Oh, Agnes, someone has been calling me, for months. Someone from the afterlife. I was too scared to answer the call, but I finally did. I know I’m not making much sense.” She turned to the others. “My apologies, but Agnes must come with me immediately. To the spirit world.”
22
I Die . . . Kind Of
The spirit world? I’d been wanting to go there for ages, but why now with everything going on?
“Will it help Grimmal and Lumi?” I asked Nemantia.
“I sincerely hope so, but we must hurry.”
“No. No, hold on.” Mom clambered around the chair and pushed Lord Chevlin aside. “Why the spirit world? That’s where dead people go.”
“I have power over the connection between life and death,” Nemantia said. “I can visit the spirit world mentally, but for Agnes to go there…” She squeezed her own hand so tight her fingertips turned white. “I have to separate her spirit from her body.”
“Separate? That sounds a lot like actually dying.”
Mom would know. She died during an earthquake, and Nemantia magically caught her spirit while Lord Chevlin healed her body.
“Agnes won’t be dead,” Nemantia assured her. “Her body will be in an unconscious state. I have a room in the palace specially designed to keep clients’ mortal bodies safe while visiting the other side.”
Mom remained unconvinced and pressed the princess for more. “You’re telling me there is no risk? No danger at all?”
Nemantia studied the ground. “Well, there is a slight risk. She must stay close to me in the spirit world, or she might get lost.”
“Lost? Lost how?”
“I’m a very good necromancer,” Nemantia said with only a slight tremble in her voice. “I’ve summoned lost spirits before, but if Agnes is scared or disoriented and doesn’t hear me, she might wander between worlds, neither in the spirit realm nor the mortal one. Lost.”
Mom shifted her weight to one foot and crossed her arms. “I don’t know about this.”
“The spirit world is pretty.” Chiri’s magic gleamed as she sent bits of solid light flitting among the fish. “It’s like dreaming. Nemantia let me visit Sempira when she died. I wanted to live there with my sister, but she said I have to work hard and learn to be happy here first.”
Chiri’s sweet description softened Mom a shade, and I took full advantage of it.
“Mom. Lumi saved me from being digested alive. I can’t let her be sent to the Nia Nega Abyss. I can’t.”
With reluctance, Mom huffed a long breath. “Okay, sunshine, you can go.” Then she asked Nemantia, “Can you take her from here? I don’t like her leaving. Not until we know who placed that spell on her.”
“You found the spell?” Nemantia turned to me eagerly. “Is your magic whole again?”
“Yes. Kymm found it.”
“How wonderful! Did Lord Chevlin dissolve it?”
“Nope. I blew it to smithereens.”
“That and half my laboratory,” Kymm added from the D.C. side of the door.
“Sades?” I invited her into my Apex. “Want to watch?”
