Alchemist (The Four Corners of Santerria)

  Connor looked away, wincing as he watched from the side of the altar. The techniques employed by the Alchemists to torture their victims always proved to be severe from the start. They certainly never did anything in half measures.

  Terry caught Connor’s unease but said nothing. The man screamed again, his voice ringing off the high vaulted ceiling of the abandoned church; no-one could hear him, and no-one would ever come for him. That she knew. She also knew that this is where he would die. But she would not tell Connor that.

  They stood well clear of Lyle who was applying the art of all the weapons at his disposal. Clamping his fingers around the man’s neck he dragged the large man up above him, so that the tips of his toes just brushed against the flagstones.

  Lyle moved his face closer to his. Raising his free hand, a blade slid from his wrist, until the point of which pressed against the soft pale flesh of the man’s throat. “Tell me what I want to know and I’ll finish this quickly.” He whispered.

  He winced again, tears rolling down his cheeks as he began to cry. “I don’t know anything else...I swear.” He sobbed.

  “Fine.” Lyle said, his eyes flashing. He dropped the man to the floor with a thud. Stepping over him, the Alchemist placed a foot on the back of his right leg. His toes curled round it like a vice. There was a sickening crack and the man howled, thrashing.

  Connor turned away, cringing as the man screamed the church down. “Is this really necessary?” Connor asked Terry, without turning back.

  It was Lyle who answered. “He knows something.”

  Connor looked back over his shoulder to find the Alchemist staring at him coldly. He turned back round to face him. “I don’t think he knows anything.”

  Lyle looked at him doubtfully. “He knows.”

  “You’ve been at this for nearly an hour, he doesn’t know anything!”

  Lyle grabbed the man and heaved him above his head, pointing the blade upward at his throat again. “He does.” He insisted, his lip curling in the corner. “See this? I’ll kill you if you don’t tell me what I want to know!” he shouted up to the whimpering man, before turning his attention back to Connor. “He’s seen our kind before. If he hadn’t he would not have talked to me so calmly, he would have screamed when we first caught him. He knows who he works for and he knows what they’re up too.”

  “No it doesn’t!” Connor shouted. “Put him down!” He demanded, approaching the Alchemist.

  Lyle dropped him without care. “Fine, try it your way.”

  “You know, I think you need to calm down.” Connor said, squaring up to him.

  Lyle stared at him in open contempt. “Calm down?” He looked at Terry, in disbelief of what he was hearing. “My niece has been threatened twice this week. Considering whom she is, I’m not going to take such a thing lightly.”

  “I’m not saying you should but this guy clearly does not know anymore than what he’s told you. He would have said by now.” He looked at the whimpering wreck that lay sprawled across the flagstones. Connor crouched down beside him. “Are you okay?” he asked, quietly.

  Lyle rolled his eyes.

  The man whimpered quietly, his hands concealing his badly wounded face.

  “Do you know anything else?” Connor asked softly. “I’m only asking you because this will not stop until you tell us. And it’s clear to me that you’ve had enough.”

  The man continued to whimper, letting out a meek cry and nothing more.

  Lyle stood alongside Terry, resplendent in his dark brown armour.

  “I am sorry that this is taking so long.” Lyle said quietly. “But it will not be much longer before he breaks.”

  Terry drew a breath, hesitating. “Actually I agree with Connor, I don’t think he knows anything else. I think we should just put him out of his misery.”

  Lyle looked at her incredulously. “What makes you so sure?”

  “Well, look at him. If I had seen Alchemists before and knew how they behaved, I would spill everything I knew in the slim hope that they might spare my life.” She said glancing at the whimpering pitiful form that lay before them in a ball.

  “If you are so certain, I will gladly end his suffering for you.” He looked back to his niece, a fire raging in his blue eyes. “Or would you like the honour as he tried to kill you.”

  Terry shrugged. “There was no way he was going to kill me.”

  “He was sent to try though, that’s all that matters.”

  “You do it.”

  Lyle gave a slight nod and quietly headed back towards his captive.

  “Connor.” Terry called, getting the Pyrovite’s attention.

  He turned and looked at her questioningly. But when he saw Lyle approaching, with purpose in his stride, he knew what was coming. Without word or argument, Connor turned away and retreated to where Terry stood. He did not look back when Lyle did it but he still heard the slither of metal on flesh and the man slumping to the floor.

  Without word, he gave his friend a long look as he walked passed. Terry followed.

  As they entered one of the secret catacombs beneath the church Connor asked: “When will you lot stop?”

  “What?” Terry asked, trailing by a short distance.

  Connor frowned as if it needed to be said. “The whole process of torturing people, you lot seem to get some sick kick out of it.”

  “If there’s something you want to say then just say it.” She replied coolly, her voice echoing off the dark stone tunnel that closed in around them.

  “Okay then, it’s wrong. Things like that,” he exclaimed, turning around and pointing back down the tunnel. Turning back around he carried on walking at a quick pace, desperate to get out of the place. “It should not be going on in this day and age.”

  “We have been through this before and you never seem to get it. Just because it is not your people’s way does not mean that it is wrong. We’ve been doing that sort of thing for millions of years. It is how we are, it can’t be helped.”

  Connor wheeled around to face her. He folded his arms. “You once said to me about how much you hated torturing prisoners. Kind of a contradiction, you saying that then, isn’t it?”

  She stormed passed him. “I said I had mixed feeling about it, nothing more and that is probably because of the blow to the head I got nine years ago, if that hadn’t of happened I probably would never give it a second thought.”

  Connor hurried after her. “You can’t always use that as an excuse!”

  Terry stopped to confront him. She shrugged in defeat. “What do you want Connor? What do you want me to say? You knew what was going to happen before we even came here, yet you said nothing and came anyway.”

  Connor glowered but said nothing. He knew she had a point. “I’m sorry...I just...I don’t think he should have been allowed to suffer for so long.” He shook his head. “He didn’t know anything else.”

  Terry nodded in agreement. “I know. You’re right I shouldn’t have allowed it to go on for that long.”

  Connor looked around the dark tunnel, the light of the torch bathing the one side of his face in orange light, the shadow masking the other.

  “He reminds me of your dad a lot when Lyle is like that.” He admitted.

  Terry turned away. “Please don’t talk about my father.”

  “Sorry...I didn’t mean to upset you.” He apologised, hurrying after her. “You must miss him.”

  “I do.” She sighed, her heart aching.

  For a long time they walked in silence, the sound of their footfalls the only noise in the dark, lonely tunnel.

  “It’s just a shame you know.” Connor finally spoke up.

  “What is?”

  “That we’re still no closer to finding out who is trying to kill you than when we caught that guy.”

  “I don’t think they were trying to kill me. I think they were a warning. Who would be stupid enough to send two humans to kill an Alchemist?” Terry put to him. The narrowness of the tunnel forced them
to walk single file, Connor allowing her to go first.

  “I don’t know.” He replied when they emerged at the other end. “But it is more likely to be someone from Santerria than from here.”

  “I know...” Terry said thoughtfully. “Maybe that’s who was trying to open those portals. Maybe they managed to get through somewhere else.”

  Connor did not reply. The thought unsettled him greatly.

  ******

  Terry stepped through the front door, slamming it behind her. Dropping her keys into the holder on the table by the door she took a step forward then stopped. She looked down, the tip of her shoe resting in a small puddle of water. Her eyes lifted, following the trail of watery splodges that graced the wooden flooring before vanishing into the living room.

  Casually, she took her jacket off and hung it on a peg. Then taking out her mobile phone she headed upstairs, while pretending to check her messages. At the top of the stairs she found a trail of water leading into the bathroom.

  Following it in she found a bath half filled with water.

  Quietly sitting her mobile on the edge of the sink, she sighed. She walked toward the bath and crouched down beside it. Terry stared at the half filled tub for a long moment. When there was no sign of movement, she plunged a metal gauntleted hand into it.

  The still waters exploded as a man reared up, seemingly from nowhere, screaming and juddering from electrocution.

  Terry killed the electricity and grabbed the skinny, naked man by the throat and squeezed. “Who are you?” she demanded.

  “Wait! Wait!” he choked, fumbling uselessly at her metal fingers. “I’m looking for Faye! I was told you could help!”

  Terry dropped him back into the bath, sending water everywhere. “What do you mean?”

  “Faye came here! I was sent to find her!”

  She regarded him suspiciously. “What do you mean, here? In this house?”

  He stared at her wide eyed. “No...no...not here.” He shook his head furiously. “But she came to Earth.”

  “That’s doesn’t make any sense. She was here the last time I saw her.”

  “Yes! Yes! But she grew weary of the ocean and she found a portal home! And now she has run off, back here!” He shouted quickly. Seeing how unimpressed she was, he retreated as far back as the bath would allow and threw his hands up. “Please don’t kill me!”

  “Who are you?”

  “Darius.”

  “And who said that I could help you and how to find me?” she asked, holding up her armoured hand. Blue sparks danced over it.

  “It was an Alchemist! One of your people! Please! Please!”

  “I don’t hear a name...”

  “I didn’t ask...”

  Terry threw her hand towards the water.

  Darius screamed; a piercing sound that made Terry wince. “Please! Please! Don’t! She has gone insane! She wants to flood the planet! Your friend said that you were the only one strong enough to stop her!”

  Terry clenched her fist, killing the spark. “What do you mean?”

  “That’s why she went home. She said the oceans on this world where poisoned with rubbish and sewage by the humans. She came back to get us to come back to Earth with her, so we could wipe them all out.”

  Terry snickered, lowering her arm. “Do you know how stupid that sounds?”

  “You have to believe me, please.” He pleaded.

  She gave him a long look, which made him winch. If he could have crawled up the walls he would have done, she knew. “How do you know her?”

  “We were mates for a time, then she abandoned me.”

  She looked the scrawny figure up and down. “To be honest I can see why.” Standing, she folded her arms. “Why should I care that you want her back.”

  “It isn’t about that. I told you, she wants to flood the world. She kept rambling on about how mankind is destroying the oceans or something.”

  She pointed a finger at him. “You know, it’s bloody funny you show up now after all these years when weird shit starts happen.”

  He stared at her blankly. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Get out of the bath and do as you’re told or else I’ll stab you in such a way that you won’t come back.”

  The shivering, skinny man could do nothing but give a meek nod.

  ******

  Darius stumbled as Terry gave him a hard shove into the centre of the living room.

  Lyle took a sip from his glass of wine as he approached, his eyes checking the scrawny, scraggly man who stood in his presence. “Is this the man you told me about on the phone?” he inquired.

  “Yeah, he claims to know Faye. Apparently she’s back from the dead.”

  Lyle raised an eyebrow as he stared at the ranging youth who stood before him to his niece. “How do you know that she was ever dead? Just because we have not seen her in several years does not mean that she is dead.”

  “Remember she said that she was going to diffuse herself completely into the ocean? I know water elementals can control a lot of water but that much diffusion would kill them.”

  “I thought so too but not after what I saw her do.” Darius mumbled.

  Lyle cast a stern gaze at the youth. “How do you know Faye?”

  “We were mates...”

  “She left you?”

  “No, I left her...” he shook her head, tears filling his eyes. “The things she started saying were unreal. She started to lose all sense of reason.”

  “What did she say to you?” Lyle asked.

  The young man drew a deep breath to steady his frayed nerves. “Lots of things. She started saying that the humans did not deserve to live, that they were destroying the oceans with trawlers, rubbish, everything. She then started refusing returning to human form...”

  “When did she last take human form?” Lyle interjected.

  “I don’t know.”

  “And why do you want us to help you find her?”

  “Because I’m scared of what she would do to me if I went after her alone. I heard she,” he looked at Terry, “was her friend. She would listen to her.”

  “And why should I believe any of this?” asked Lyle.

  “Why? Why wouldn’t you? I mean you no harm I’m not up to anything.” He rambled, desperation evident in his quivering voice.

  “He has a point he’s not done anything wrong.” Terry agreed, looking at her uncle.

  Lyle studied the curious man for a minute then asked, “What is your name?”

  “Dar...Darius.” he replied, with a weak smile.

  Chapter 6

  To Catch a Water Elemental

  Water lapped gently against the boat as it rocked gently on placid waters. Terry and Connor sat at the one end, Darius at the other. The oars lay abandoned. They had been sitting in the centre of the loch for well over an hour.

  “So...why exactly can’t you get in?” Connor asked, repeating the same question he had asked earlier. He scratched a finger against the edge of the boat, picking at the grain.

  Darius closed his eyes for a long moment. He looked tired. “I already told you.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t get it.” Connor said. The Pyrovite had been suspicious of the young man since he had first met him the day before.

  It was Terry who answered. “He’s scared that if he goes into the water that she’ll kill him because she’s meant to be really super strong now or something now.” She made no attempt to hide the fact that she did not believe him. Her words dripped contempt.

  “Shh.” He hissed, looking about warily. “She can hear you.” He said, dropping his voice.

  This drew a frown from the sceptical Alchemist. “What makes you so sure that she is even here? This is the fourth loch we’ve been out on. Why shouldn’t this one be empty like the last ones?”

  Darius leaned closer, his eyes darting about all directions. “She’s definitely here...I can feel her presence.”

  But his counterparts remained doubtful, despi
te his insistence.

  Connor squinted at him. “Wouldn’t she have turned up by now if she was here?”