As she ran, she let the yellow crystal hover just above the palm of her hand, and a moment later she was back at the first elevators shaft. There were no stairs. She leaned out through the still open doors, grabbed the maintenance ladder, and swung back into the shaft.
The crystal led her down two levels. There was a door, but it was not readily visible. She had to search, then close her mind and visualize it, before it shimmered into view. She wondered for just a moment why the car was all the way at the top. If she’d wondered another second, it would have been too long. She leaned out, blew the powder into the crack of the door and gripped the ladder. There was a grinding roar, and without thought she swung out and whipped herself through the air. As she moved, she screamed the opening charm and prayed it would work quickly enough. She launched herself at the doorway. Even as she slid through the opening, barely clearing the sides of the half-open door, hit the floor and rolled, the elevator ground to a halt. The inner door opened with a snick.
Amethyst glanced back, shuddered, and then turned to scan the hall. There was no one in sight, but she no longer needed the crystal to guide her. There was only one large, ornate doorway. A glow slipped out around the cracks. She stood still and closed her eyes. The shimmering vibration of the timeline crystals shivered through her pores. They were approaching resonance — the point when the radiance Ezzel had drawn from the depths of each would blend with that from the other until they formed a portal between them. At the final point of the ritual, he would step out between them, pass through that radiance, and the effects of the formula would become final and irreversible. In that small nexus of power, the past, present and future would be one single moment, and beyond that, the effects of the passage of minutes, hours, days and centuries would have no further affect. That was the theory.
She didn’t want to see it tested. She cleared her mind, drew in what energy she could from the air, from the amulets and crystals she wore, and even from the vibration of the timeline stones themselves. They were her crystals, after all, and they had been hers for many years. She’d spent time with them, studied them; a part of her was imprinted in their depths, and in the frequency of their vibration. Ezzel might have cleansed them before putting them to use, but somehow she didn’t believe he’d done it. He knew a lot, and he had talent, but no one knew everything, and crystals were her specialty, not his. These were very powerful, very delicate artifacts, and he’d have to travel a long way to find another pair their equal. If he cleansed them improperly, he could disturb the balance, and the repercussions wouldn’t quiet for months. If he was smart, he’d left them alone and taken his chances. She hoped it would be enough.
She crossed the hall and tried the knob on the door. To her surprise, it wasn’t locked. She turned it, peered through the crack, and gasped. The circle was immense, and it was active. The smoky cloud that obscured it was thick and dense. She couldn’t’ make out what was happening on the other side, and though she knew she was equally obscured, it did little to calm her nerves. This was powerful magic, and once the circle was in place, it was beyond foolish to try and cross it, or break it. The purpose of the circles of protection was to protect those inside the circle from what they summoned, and to protect those outside the circle from the energies contained within. Any sudden, unexpected break could destroy whoever stood inside the circle, or whoever stood outside. If it were powerful enough magic, it could be worse.
She took in the room at a glance. It was nothing like she’d expected. She’d known Ezzel for months, but as her apprentice, a quiet, soft-spoken man who was eager to do whatever she asked, and who might as well have been part of the wall when she wasn’t working with him. This room, this explosion of wealth and power and ostentatious — nonsense — didn’t equate with the man she’d thought she knew.
She approached the circle carefully. There were was nothing to see from where she stood, but she caught the scent of the incense he’d used to set the wards, and she felt the crystals, warm and shimmering, beneath that curtain. He hadn’t placed them inside the inner circle. They had to be mounted side by side in the center of the concentric rings to form the portal.
That was good. Amethyst wouldn’t break the circle. She knew the danger, and she wasn’t going to send the building and herself crashing into the pits of hell if she could help it. It was possible, though, that if she concentrated she could disrupt the vibrations in the crystal enough to prevent the formation of the portal. If she managed it, Ezzel would be trapped inside his own circle. It might not last, but it would buy them some time. It might be all that she could do.
She stalked around the outside of the circle. The more she thought about the theft of the crystals, and the quiet, handsome man who’d fooled her so completely and then taken advantage of her with such cold, unfeeling arrogance, the angrier she became. She pressed the palms of her hand as close as she dared to the whirling mist. She felt forces alive and powerful, just beyond her touch. Their aura shivered along the outer edge of the circle. She felt their awareness as well. Ezzel would have no concentration to spare for her, but the spirits he’d summoned were under no such constraints, and they wanted out. As long as they sensed that she might work to break the circle, they would only watch her. She knew that didn’t give her much time.
On the far right of the circle she felt the direct presence of the crystals, and she stopped. She stood very still, willed her mind to seek the twin vibrations, and sought to match them. She felt the spirits within the cloud drawing near, hovering and watching. They knew she could break the circle by attacking the crystals. What they didn’t yet know was her purpose, and she knew she’d have to act very quickly to succeed.
The vibrations rippled through her, and she willed one of the smaller crystals she wore around her throat to match that shivering warmth. She drew it in slowly and tried to keep the intrusion as inconspicuous as possible. She would have one moment to strike, and she waited for it as long as she dared.
With a lash of will she shifted the vibration of her smaller crystal, fighting to keep it bound to the larger, stronger timeline crystals. The spirits in the circle snatched her intentions from her thoughts and pounced with shrieks of anger and rage. Something dark rose behind her, but she didn’t see it in time. She concentrated and forced her will into the aura of the combined crystals. The darkness folded over and bent double, and then struck like a snake. It wrapped around her and dragged her from her feet, driving the breath from her lungs in a savage wrench.
She screamed and clawed at the writhing shadow, but the link with the crystals was broken, and now she fought for her life. The thing that held her was dark, and the stench it released engulfed the room, blotting out even the hint of incense. She fought to breathe, but it squeezed inexorably, driving the air from her struggling lungs.
Within the circle, Ezzel sensed a shift in the rhythms of the circle. He could not react, but he was aware. If he let his concentration waver for even a moment, he would be destroyed. Still, the disturbance itched at the back of his mind. It was the crystals. Their vibration had shifted very slightly. If they shifted more, he might not be able to bring them back into alignment — he might never escape the circle with his life.
Then, as suddenly as the disturbance had intruded, it was gone. He saw nothing but the table before him, the elements of the ritual, and the inviolate white smoky ring surrounding him. As he worked, he smiled.
NINETEEN
Donovan reached the glass outer-wall of the elevator quickly. He leaned around the corner and caught the terrified stares of Vein and his companions, but he didn’t have time to worry about their state of mind. The sunrise was only moments away, and if he didn’t get them out and under cover soon, fright would be the least of their troubles.
He examined the intricate silver mesh worked into the glass, which was thick, maybe three inches and very solid. Donovan had to lean out from the wall to see this, and the wind buffeted him each time he did, threatening to blow him from his perch. The Thunderbird spirit lightened him, but every blessing has its curse. Each motion threatened to send him flying away in the grip of some errant breeze, and it was difficult to move because in his lightened state, every twitch caused a seemingly disproportionate reaction.
He’d come prepared for a lot of things, and though blasting through an outer wall wasn’t something he’d anticipated, he didn’t hesitate. He had several smaller pouches tucked deep in his pockets, and after only a few moments searching he pulled out a small, blue leather bag. It was filled with a white paste. He took this, being very careful not to touch the paste itself with his fingers, and spread it in a large, two foot circle by squeezing it out the top of the bag. He would have made it larger, but there wasn’t much paste in the bag, and his reach was severely
