The Mage in Black

Page 12

Rhea patted my shoulder. “Just relax now and let the visions come.”
I barely heard her. My thoughts scattered and rolled like mercury. Leaves swirled above me like neon streamers. At first, they undulated hypnotically. Gained speed and switched direction. Shooting toward me like arrow-tipped ribbons.
Orange and purple became blue and red. The ribbons braided together in a double helix. My DNA lit up the night.
The braid rises above me. Up, up, up.
Split apart, flying. Blue jay and cardinal soar together. Honeyed song. No words, but I understand. Laughter.
They sing upon the branch. My song. The song of my sister. Movement, morphing. Serpent appears, slithering toward the pair. Must warn them. Move. Fly! The snake opens its maw and waits. Blue and red fly into the dark cave.
Ruby eyes sparkle against black scales. Frozen. Mouth opens. A flash of bloody iron fangs. The skeleton clock is ticking. Ticking. Ticking.
Wind whips up like the serpent’s tail. Scales scald my skin. Forked tongue licks away tears. No. NO. NO!
Iron fangs flashing, piercing, sucking. Blood first, then body. Sliding down forever.
Solid gives way to void. Water dripping. Cold, clammy fear. Black everywhere. Shadow upon shadow. Souls whisper from beyond, “We will obey.”
The midnight dogs emerge from the gloomy crossroads. Eyes of fire beckon, command me to follow.
Into the cavern. Deeper. Blood drips from stalactites into the pool. Dark whispers. Darker laughter. A black swan glides across the mirrored surface. Faces reflected. Ones I knew. Ones I loved. Ones I killed.
She rises from the water. Dry white robes flutter in an unfelt breeze. She is lit from the inside. Untouchable. Ethereal.
Fall to my knees. Forgive me.
Sobbing now. So sorry. Kissing her hem.
Butterfly lips on my skin. Gone, she’s gone. Again.
The skeleton clock is ticking, ticking, ticking. Time to go.
A male appears. His face is hidden in shadows. Unknown yet known. Dead yet alive. He takes my hand. Together, we fly.
I am the breeze on my face. I am the serpent’s tail. I am the end and the beginning.
I am the night.
I am the night.
I am the night.
9
The room was silent when I finished talking. I was relieved Damara had taken Giguhl for a tour of the grounds to give us some privacy. It was bad enough telling Maisie and Rhea about my freaky visions. What was worse, the stoic expressions on their faces when I finished told me I wouldn’t like their interpretation.
Maisie cleared her throat. “You’re certain that’s everything?”
I nodded. “I think so. Why?”
Maisie and Rhea shared a look. “The symbols you recounted confirm a vision Maisie had several months ago.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” I was leaning toward bad, since the darkness of the vision still clung to me like a shadow. The females were silent, as if weighing how much to tell me. “Will someone please just tell me what they mean?”
Rhea smiled serenely. “Sabina, what do you know about the Praescarium Lilitu?”
“The book of prophecies?” I crossed my arms. “Adam told me in California you guys believe some of the prophecies Lilith outlined in the book are coming true, whatever that means.”
“He’s right, they are coming true,” Maisie said. “And your vision quest confirms it.”
“Wait.” I waved an arm. “How do you know? Adam told me the Caste of Nod is rumored to have the only copy of the Praescarium Lilitu.”
The Caste of Nod was supposedly a mysterious cabal of dark races. From what I could tell, no one really knew what exactly they did besides protect the book. However, their name had been invoked for centuries to scare kids—the dark-race version of the Boogey Man.
“It’s true we don’t have access to the sacred text, but over the centuries, parts of the prophecies have been leaked. Maisie’s visions over the last several months corroborate what we’ve been told about them.”
“So what does all this have to do with me?” All this talk of secret sects and prophecies made my skin feel too tight.
“The images you shared just now confirm you’re a Chthonic mage.”
Rhea looked at me like she’d just made some huge revelation, but I had no freakin’ clue what a Chthonic mage was. “And?”
“A Chthonic is a type of mage who manipulates dark energy to manifest magic,” Maisie whispered helpfully.
“Dark energy? You mean like black magic?”
“The concepts of white and black magic are constructs of superstitious mortals,” Rhea said. “In truth, there is no absolute good or absolute evil. Chthonics tap into ancient, primordial energy of the earth. We’re talking the heavy stuff here: death, fertility, the underworld, the dark feminine.”
“Chthonic powers are very rare,” Maisie added, “and the fact you have them is a big deal. Lilith and Hekate are both Chthonic goddesses, and your powers are heavily connected to their energy.”
The two females looked at me expectantly, their eyes glowing with excitement I didn’t feel. “That’s funny. I don’t feel Chthonic.”
Maisie frowned, clearly not amused. “That’s where Rhea comes in. She’s going to train you to harness all that energy. And once you do, you’ll be a formidable mage.”
I sighed. “Look, I get that you guys think this is a big deal, but I have trouble buying it. If I’m so powerful, why haven’t I ever been able to do magic?”
Maisie blinked. “We’ve discussed this. You have done magic. The mere fact you can not only summon a demon, but keep one as your minion, is proof.”
I rubbed my chest absently. “Okay I’ll give you that, but how does all this tie in to the Lilith prophecy?”
Maisie held a hand toward the door. “I need to show you something.”
Smudges of dread appeared in my stomach. Some part of me understood the import of all this, but my mind had switched into skeptic mode out of self-defense.
She led me through the house and upstairs to a round room set in a tower. Rhea followed silently and stopped just inside the doorway. The indigo ceiling had been painted with stars to look like the night sky. On the floor, a circle of blood marked this room as a place of magic. And in the center, a large table sat like an altar. Except instead of being an actual altar, the surface was covered in tubes of oil paint, rags, and canvases. The scent of turpentine hung heavily, but I found it a nice reprieve from the constant onslaught of sandalwood I’d been exposed to since I’d arrived in New York.
“What is this room?”
“I call it the Star Chamber. I use it as my studio when I’m here. Being so close to the ley line tends to make my visions come more often than when I’m in the city.”
She walked across the room, to where a sheet covered an easel. “This painting is the one I did after I had the vision of you a few months ago.” She lifted the sheet slowly, revealing swirls of color inch by inch. Finally, the entire painting was revealed and I caught my breath.
The central figure, a female with black and red hair streaming behind her, soared with her face upturned toward some light source—maybe a moon—just off the edge of the canvas. In her right hand she held a golden lotus and in her left, something that looked like an egg. Her body glowed against a dark background of swirling blacks, blues, and purple. Far below, a flower garden spread out like scattered jewels. The entire thing had a dark, dreamy quality. But beyond that, I felt this odd sense of déjà vu, as if I’d seen this image before.
“Pretty,” I murmured, moving closer. Now I could see faces in the churning colors of the night sky. “What does it mean?”
Maisie nodded. “The vision came to me right after the mages started disappearing. It was a dark time, and I’d been praying to Hekate for guidance. I’d promised our grandmother I wouldn’t look for you until after she passed. She’d been the one to enter into the agreement with the Dominae after we were born to keep our existences a secret from each other, so it made sense. She passed a year ago, and then mages started disappearing and the council came to me, hoping I could help them locate those missing.” She motioned to the painting. “When this came to me, I knew it was time to find you, and that somehow you’d be instrumental in helping us find those who went missing. So I asked Adam to go to California.”
I looked at the female in the painting again. Even though her face was obscured, I had to admit the hair was a dead giveaway for her identity. Or was it? “But how did you know this was me? After all, it could just as easily be you.”
Maisie shook her head. “Look closely. She has the eight-pointed star on her right shoulder.”
I squinted and leaned in. Sure enough, a tiny star lay exactly where mine was in real life. “Wait, I met the faery who was the midwife at our birth. She said you have the same birthmark.”
“I do.” Maisie turned her left shoulder and pulled down the fabric of her shirt. “But mine is on the opposite side.”
“That’s weird.” Seeing my birthmark on Maisie’s shoulder made me feel disoriented. For so many years I’d hid the mark, since my grandmother believed it was a reminder of my shameful beginnings. And here was a person who shared the same mark but felt no shame whatsoever about it.
“Do you think it means something that our marks are mirror images?” I asked.
Maisie smiled. “Sabina, I’m an oracle. I believe everything involving symbols is significant. But I have no idea what it means. I’m sure it will reveal itself in time, though. But even if the birthmark wasn’t a clue, there are others. For example, the fact it’s clearly night could speak to the fact you live like a vampire, active only at night. Plus, I don’t just read the symbols. I also have to trust my visceral instincts, and in this case, I know it’s you because it feels like you.”
Clearly, I was out of my depth with all this talk of symbols and prophecies and feelings, but I nodded anyway. “So you said this told you to look for me to help find the mages, but there’s obviously more to it, right?”