Alchemist (The Four Corners of Santerria)

  Alchemist

  By Terry Reid

  Published by Terry Reid at Smashwords

  Copyright Terry Reid 2013

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 1

  Rain

  Terry glanced at the piece of paper in her hand. She then peered up at the number above the doorway. It was definitely the correct address. It was a cold and foggy night so she hurried up the steps, not wishing to tarry.

  Raising her hand to the door she knocked and then stood back and waited. After a few moments she tried again. Nothing. She tried again, this time banging harder and louder. She stood and listened. Hearing no sign of movement from within she concluded that no one was home.

  Hurrying back down the flight of steps she got back into the car and drove home. It would have to wait for another night.

  Terry flicked through the stations, finally settling on one of the many twenty four hour news channels. A rumble of wind outside caught her attention for a moment as rain lashed down the window. Then her attention returned to the TV.

  There was some sort of political debate going on. Nothing interesting happens anymore, she thought. Eleven years ago there used to always be things on the news. Strange things granted, but it had been a more exciting time. And no-one had ever worked out the connection between them all.

  But she had been there and had been part of all of them. When she was fifteen, Terry Jones and her friends saved the world. But no one knew that and it was a story she had never told anyone. No-one would believe me or they would think I was mad, she mused.

  Terry considered at the time how frightening everything had been, the danger, the uncertainty of whether they would succeed or not. Now, looking back, she realised she missed it in a strange way.

  After it had all past, Terry had got on with her life, so had everyone else, except Faye. The water elemental had vanished into the sea one day; to reconnect with the natural world...that’s what she had said anyway. She was never seen again.

  In truth Terry did not know if Faye was still alive or not. Water elementals could merge their bodies into water completely, control them, and they could manipulate the rain and tides. But not forever, they had to come back sometime.

  But Faye had said that she wanted to reconnect to the world by melting her body into the sea forever...Terry still did not fully grasp the concept, even after nearly seven years.

  There was only so much liquid that water elementals could control when in that form. Controlling all the waters of the world in every corner of the sea...the idea seemed impossible. She’s probably dead, Terry concluded, not for the first time.

  Another loud gust of wind against the window bought her out of her reverie. She shifted in her chair to a more comfortable position only to realise her arm felt strange. Looking down she realised that it had transformed into its living metal state. But what surprised her was that a sharp six inch blade protruded from her wrist.

  I didn’t even feel it...

  Terry lifted her arm and examined it in the light of the TV. Through will alone, the blade grew in length. Something stirred deep within her, a lust to fight. The ancient, instinctive thoughts inside the deepest recesses of her mind...

  She suddenly realised that she felt famished. The blade shot back into her arm as the skin returned to the colour of flesh. Getting out of the chair, she went to the kitchen to find something to eat.

  ******

  Conner lifted the file that had been delivered to his desk that morning. Weighing it in his hands for a moment he flicked to the end to see how many pages there was. He sighed when he discovered that it was nearly eighty. Turning back to the first page he made himself comfortable and began to read the tedious quarterly accounting figures.

  “Sir.” Said a voice. He looked up. Standing at the door to his office was Tyler, one of the younger admin staff.

  “Come in.” He said, waving him in. He welcomed the distraction.

  “Sorry to interrupt sit but I was wondering if you had had a chance to think about what I suggested last week.”

  “Oh yes, sit down.” He said, indicating for him to take a seat.

  The younger man did as he was bid.

  “I think it’s a good idea, especially with the success we’ve been having in China.”

  “Are we really doing that well?” The young admin asked, poorly feigning surprise.

  Connor liked Tyler but he only wanted to get ahead. He wasn’t interested in anything else that he knew.

  “Absolutely, business is soaring in the Middle East.” Conner replied, playing along. He shifted in his chair, still uncomfortable. “But I think if we were going to expand our web portfolio, we should try to make use of the sites the companies in China already have.”

  Tyler seemed a little disappointed, but kept his decorum. “May I ask why you think that sir?”

  “Well Tyler, I just think it would be much simpler and cheaper to put a link on all their websites connecting to our home one rather than building a set of new ones. We have thirty four businesses over there now, don’t we?”

  “Thirty seven.” Tyler was quick to correct him.

  “Thirty seven. Anyway, my point is we only currently have six web designers, all already tied up to other projects. Asking them to build thirty seven new websites would be a daunting task. We could either wait months until they finish their current projects or hire more people. But we’re expanding so quickly now we can’t afford to wait months to link all the sites together can we?”

  Tyler gave a slight nod.

  “Mr Gregory wants our name more prominent over there, so we need to get this done now. But on the other hand he is not keen to hire more people, so I’m afraid the only option we have is putting out logo on their sites and linking them.”

  “I understand that sir but some of these businesses do not have websites. What about them?”

  “I know. I think that makes it slightly easier for us. The ones that do not have sites we can just give a watered down version of our own too. I know some of them don’t have very good computers, but I’ve worked it out and it would be cheaper to get them new equipment, get them up to speed and if they need anything we could update the websites from here.”

  Tyler nodded again. “I see.” But Connor could see the disappointment in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry that I can’t approve the creation of a new series of websites just now Tyler. While business is good over there the market’s still a quite rocky over here.”

  “No, I understand completely.”

  “But like I said, I think it is a good idea to roll out new sites across
the entire company and maybe it is something we’ll look at again in twelve months or so.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  Tyler forced a smile as he stood to leave. “Well, thank you anyway sir.”

  “It’s alright Tyler. Have a good day.”

  “And you too sir.” Replied Tyler as he left.

  Conner glanced up at the clock on the wall, realising that it was not even quite half nine yet. Sighing, he returned to the report which still awaited his pleasure.

  That night the rains returned and with it the fog that had lingered the two evenings beforehand.

  Connor and his wife Jo sat with Terry in a quiet pub not far from Edinburgh’s city centre. Connor and Terry had not seen each other for over two weeks so Conner had took it upon him to phone and see if she wanted to meet up.

  “Do you want me to pay?” offered Conner, opening his wallet as Jo stood to go to the bar.

  “No, its ok, I have enough.” She insisted.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, it’s fine. I’ll be right back.” Jo smiled as she headed off.

  Conner gave Terry a defeated look and put his wallet away. “Tomorrow she’ll say that I never bought enough of the drinks.” He muttered.

  Terry grinned. “Even if you did she would not let you win.”

  Conner laughed. “So while we have two minutes before she returns and we have to talk about boring everyday stuff again let’s talk about real things.”

  Terry indulged herself. “Yeah, I keep getting this weird metallic tinge in my mouth.”

  “How long have you been getting it?”

  Terry gained a thoughtful look. “About six days. I don’t know what it is.”

  Conner did not seem concerned. “Well you are made of metal for the most part. Have you ever considered that you always have that taste in your mouth and that this is the first time you’ve actually noticed it?”

  Terry scoffed. “No. Do you constantly have a taste of glycerine in yours?”

  Conner downed the last drops of his beer. “No.”

  “See? Then don’t be stupid.”

  Conner frowned. “Didn’t you used to get that when you were younger?”

  “Yeah, sometimes. But I’ve not had it in years. And unless I’m going through puberty again I don’t know what’s causing it.”

  “Christ, I remember how bad that was.” Conner said, it all coming back to him.

  “Mine was worse.”

  Conner grinned. “You didn’t burn down two flats when you lost your temper.”

  “You didn’t skewer everything that moved within fifteen feet of you.”

  “I will give you that one.” He said, pointing a finger at her. He glanced across the pub to Jo, to check on her progress. She was beginning to make her way back. “Out of interest,” he said hurriedly, “are you still growing?”

  “I’ve never stopped. How’s the pyrotechnics?”

  “Fine.” He looked back at Jo, then quickly said, “Don’t forget, you used to get that taste sometimes when someone was using a portal between the worlds.”

  Further conversation was cut short when Jo returned to the table. She looked less than impressed as she sat the drinks down.

  “I don’t know why you wanted to come here, the drinks are so expensive.”

  “How much were they?” asked Conner, taking his beer.

  “Nearly ten pound, just for those three drinks.” She replied angrily, indicating them with a curt nod as she put her purse away into her bag.

  “That is quite dear.” Terry agreed. “Do you want some money?”

  “No, no, it’s alright.” Jo refused, as her husband slid the glass of wine toward her. “But I don’t think we should buy another round.”

  “We could always go somewhere else after this.” Suggested Conner. He took a long draw of his beer.

  “If you want to, I’m not really bothered. I think we should maybe go home in half an hour or so, I’ve working again in the morning.” She said, fumbling through her bag.

  “Yeah, okay then.”

  While Jo continued to fumble, Conner rolled his eyes. Terry smirked, but hid her grin behind her glass.

  ******

  Terry woke up at the sound of knocking at her door. She glanced across to the clock on the draws by her bedside. It was just after two in the morning.

  Getting up she quickly dressed and headed to the door, her right hand transforming into a metal gauntlet as she cautiously opened the door. She relaxed when she saw who it was.

  “Jesus, Conner.” Her arm returned to normal as she opened the door to him. “What are you doing here?”

  Conner made sure he had shut the door properly before he replied. “Sorry, I just didn’t think we got much of a proper chance to talk at the pub.”

  “We were there for two hours.”

  “No, I mean talking about proper stuff. I didn’t think Jo would be coming until the last minute. We’ve not had a chance to catch up properly on things for a few months now.”

  She looked him up and down. She recognised those clothes. “Did you fly here?” she asked.

  Conner grinned. “Yeah, it stopped raining for a bit.” He said, unintentionally straightening the thick black collar on his flame retardant jacket. “The fog provided good cover, no one saw me.”

  “Accept the Ministry of Defence.”

  Conner laughed as he walked through to the lounge. “Yeah, it wouldn’t be the first time. Anyway, I’m sorry it is so late but it feels like we never get the chance to talk anymore, not when Jo’s around anyway. She fell asleep so I snuck out.”

  “You were the one who decided to get married.” Terry teased him as she wandered into the kitchen. “Can I get you anything?”

  Conner realised his throat was dry. “A glass of water would be great, thanks.”

  “Ok.” Terry took two glasses to the sink and turned on the tap. That always seemed odd to her. He was a fire elemental, yet he had to drink water just like everyone else. Holding the second glass under the tap, she turned it on again.

  But half filled, the fluid from the tap suddenly turned murky. Shutting it off, she held it up to the light to get a better look. “Ugh.”

  “What?” asked Conner, coming into the kitchen. She showed him the glass. “Did that come out of your tap?”

  “Yeah, there must be something stuck in the pipe.”

  Conner took the glass and had a sniff. “It isn’t sewage or anything. I think it’s just mud.”

  “Well I’m not drinking it. Do you want a glass of orange juice instead?” Terry offered, taking out a carton of from the fridge instead.

  “Yeah, please.” He took another sniff of the murky fluid. “I think I know why you might have had that metallic taste in your mouth over the last few days.”

  “Why?”

  “Because this smells like metal a bit.” He said, sitting the glass down.

  She shook her head. “I had a glass earlier and I couldn’t taste anything.” She handed him his orange juice. “I’ll call the water board about it tomorrow.”

  Conner took a sip. “When was the last time you fed?”

  “I had fish for dinner.” She said, leaning against the kitchen counter.

  Conner swallowed another mouthful of juice and pointed an accusing finger at her. “You know what I mean. You really have to gorge yourself in your fully evolved form sometimes. You know how much Lyle goes on if you don’t.”

  Terry looked annoyed by the mention. “If you must know I ate four cows at the weekend.”

  “Four? Really?” he said, unimpressed. “You should have had more than that.”

  “Farmers tend to start noticing if anymore than a few go missing.”

  “I know it isn’t easy, but it’s not for any of us.”

  Terry folded her arms. “Oh I’m sorry, are you comparing your life to mine? Yours is hardly difficult to keep secret.”

  “You can transform any time you want. I can’t even do it in th
e comfort of my own home.” He said, sitting his empty glass down on the kitchen table.

  “You were the one who chose to get married.”