Crimes of Magic: The Witch's Artifact

  Chapter 15

  My brain froze. This was incomprehensible. Rachel was dead. I knelt there with tears dripping from my face onto her chest. The bleeding had slowed; there was no heartbeat to force blood out. Why Rachel? Why couldn’t it have been me? She had her whole life in front of her. She was so smart and strong and beautiful. This couldn’t be happening.

  My sobs cleared my brain a little and I thought to check Vlad and Gregor. They too were dead. I was temporarily all alone, trapped here in Russia with Rachel dead. I wished we had never come to this place. Why had I encouraged Rachel to take this case? If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t have left half my handkerchief here, and they would have had no way to find us. We escaped from this place once. We were safe, and my bright idea led them back to us and Rachel was dead. For the rest of my life I would regret my stupidity. If only I could take it back. If only I could do it over again.

  Wait, maybe I could do it over again. Isn’t this exactly what the Bender of Destiny is good for? I ran back up the stairs and poked my head into the hallway. Nobody was there. I walked as quietly and quickly as I could back to the library. Nobody was there either. I walked over to the side table, opened the box, and there was the Bender of Destiny. Now if I could just remember what Seth had told me about its usage.

  I took a few deep breaths. My head was clearer now. I had a purpose, a mission. I could make things right. I picked up the Wand and knelt on the carpet by the chair in which I had been sitting. Using the ceramic knife that Rachel had slipped into my bathrobe pocket, I made a small cut in my right index finger.

  Seth had said to drop blood on the “present end” of the Sigil of Aerten. Since the Wand could change the future, the arrow in the Sigil must point to the future. The back end of the arrow would be the “present end.”

  I dropped blood onto the back end of the arrow and placed the Wand on the carpet, point down. My blood ran down the Sigil past the point of the arrow. Now I had to trace a unicursal hexagram with my bloody finger.

  I was so glad that Beth had showed me how to draw a unicursal hexagram by connecting six of the symbols on the Wand. These must be the six Symbols of Creation. I had to connect these six symbols in the correct order.

  After Beth had drawn the unicursal hexagram, I had done a little research on the symbol. Connecting the points in one direction was for “invoking.” Connecting them in the other direction was for “banishing.” Surely this called for “invoking.” Seth had said to connect them in the order that they were originally coded into the universe. There was no way I could know that order for sure. I didn’t even know what the six symbols stood for. I had to believe that, over the centuries, drawing the hexagram in the order for “invoking” must have been copying the order of creation. I had to give it a try.

  Using my bloody fingertip, I traced a unicursal hexagram over the six symbols. Now all I had to do was place my thumb over the Symbol of Destiny. I didn’t know what the Symbol of Destiny was, but I had to assume that it was etched into the Wand in a convenient place to allow the tilting and rotating that was required to carry out the spell. There was one symbol that stood alone near the top of the Wand as I held it vertically, point down. I placed my right thumb over this symbol.

  Immediately, I saw a scene appear in the air before me. It was a miniature version of the actual room that was around me. Then the scene began changing as if I were watching a video tape being played in reverse. The scene stopped with Rachel and me being led into the library.

  Following Seth’s instructions, I tilted the Wand back slightly and the scene proceeded forward in time. I tried rotating the Wand along its axis, and the scene changed. The movie that was now playing was not the same as what had actually happened. I tilted the Wand back more and the movie progressed into the future. It was like watching a movie that had been filmed with a camera strapped to my forehead.

  I tilted the Wand back farther, and the movie played faster. In this movie, Seth did not tell us about the Wand. Before he left the library, he sent us with Vlad and Gregor to the dungeon. Soon, we were walking down the stairs to the dungeon. Rachel stumbled, I jumped on Gregor, Rachel shot Vlad and Gregor shot Rachel.

  Damn it! Even though I had changed the events in the library, the paths of destiny had still converged in the same place. Rachel was still dead.

  I tilted the Wand back up and the movie ran in fast reverse until we were walking into the library again. This time, I rotated the Wand more as I tilted it back. Events changed, but the movie still ended with Rachel dead.

  I repeated this rewinding and choosing different paths. Soon I began to get proficient at it, like playing a video game. I ran through dozens of different scenarios until finally, I found one in which Rachel lived. I could spend more time searching for an even better outcome, but I might never be able to get back to this one. This one would have to do. I tilted the Wand all the way down to the floor and removed my hand.

  Instantly, Rachel and I were being escorted into the library just as before. I was living everything, just as I had lived it before, but I still had my memory of what had happened the first time. I was in a play in which I was an actor who had rehearsed this scene before. Rachel and I asked the same questions as before, and Seth told us about the Wand. Seth left the library, and Vlad and Gregor escorted us to the basement.

  Just as before, the four of us went to the basement stairs and started down in single file, led by Gregor, then me, then Rachel with the armed Vlad bringing up the rear. As I was about halfway down, I heard Rachel stumble. I stopped and looked back only to see that Rachel had grabbed Vlad’s gun hand and was pulling him over her shoulder in what looked like a judo throw. As Vlad went over the stair rail, Rachel wrested the gun from his hand.

  I took this as my cue, and I jumped forward on top of Gregor and the two of us fell down the stairs with me on top. Gregor was unmoving and seemingly unconscious as I managed to stand. Vlad was on his feet with his shortsword drawn headed for me. Rachel fired once and Vlad fell to the floor.

  “Are you all right Professor?”

  “Yes, thank you. Gregor made an excellent cushion.”

  I walked over to examine Vlad, and something moved in the corner of my eye. Gregor was kneeling and pointing a pistol up the stairs toward Rachel. A single shot rang out, and Gregor fell backward onto the floor.

  “Professor, check those two for a pulse and see if they’re dead.”

  I did as Rachel directed. “They’re both dead,” I said.

  “I’ve never killed anyone before, and now I’ve killed two people in one day.”

  “They needed killing, Rachel.”

  “I know this is going to sink in soon, so let’s get out of here while the getting is good. See if the cage is unlocked.”

  I checked the cage, and sure enough the door was open.

  “Is the circle still on the floor in there?” Rachel asked.

  “Yes, it’s still here.”

  “Let’s drag Gregor into the circle and get out of here,” Rachel proclaimed.”

  I wanted to go back to the library and get the Wand, but that hadn’t been in the movie I saw, and I didn’t want to tempt fate.

  With Gregor in the circle, I emptied my pockets and selected the objects I would need for the Spell of Translocation, and put the rest back in my pockets.

  “Where do we want to go?” I asked. “We’ll need a homing beacon to get anywhere.”

  “We need to get Gregor’s body to Moonstone. Check your bathrobe pocket,” Rachel said.

  I reached into the pocket and found the piece of the cabinet leg from Moonstone’s meeting room.

  “It was in your coat pocket, in your bedroom, and I brought it with me and slipped it into your bathrobe pocket,” Rachel said.

  “OK,” I said. “Moonstone it is.”

  I placed the piece on the wooden pivot point in the center of the circle. “Ready?” I asked. br />
  “Just a second,” Rachel said. She wiped the gun clean using my bathrobe and threw the gun out of the cage door. “Hit it!” she said, and I completed the spell.

  Shimmer, flash, shimmer, and we were in Moonstone’s meeting room.

  “Pick up all your magic stuff, Professor. We’ve got to stage a murder scene.”