Stone Dragon (The Painter Mage Book 5) Read online

  The bottom half of him looked mostly normal, and he seemed to wear something like ragged blue jeans making him look a bit like the Hulk. Large boots covered his feet. A faded green duffle rested on the ground behind him.

  “Well, shit,” I said to myself.

  My first thought was that this was some sort of demon, but those needed to be summoned, and as far as I knew, it would take more power than what Devan had sensed to draw a demon forth. In my time on the other side of the Threshold, there were those with the strength to summon demons. It never ended well for anyone. The horns and the height were unique, though, and nothing like any other magical creature I’d come across.

  The creature looked over as if finally seeing me. The tapping of his staff stopped. Eyes that were mostly black focused on me, and I felt a surge of power wash out from it. Without thinking too much, I raised the charm and triggered the circle, quickly infusing power into the green ink that spit out from it. Figures Devan would choose green for something like that even though she knows I work better with red. Or black. I was best attuned to using black ink, the color of death and despair. Most of the time, I tried not to think about what that said about me.

  The creature’s energy struck the circle and bounced back. When using circles of protection like this, it didn’t completely protect me, especially not when the other guy was pushing significant power. And whatever this thing was, it definitely slung some serious power. It struck the barrier I erected around Devan and me, leaving it tolling something like a bell. It took a force of will to ignore the sudden pain searing through me, nearly dropping me to my knees as I pushed out with my magical wall in a way that left me feeling beaten. One of these days I was determined to find another pattern to use, one that didn’t leave me feeling discombobulated after I was attacked.

  Devan suddenly glowed brightly, the power she was pulling making her skin a soft yellow. Most of the time I found it attractive and today was no different, only it allowed me to clearly see the creature now standing in front of me. It faced my circle and stood with the staff pointing into the ground, a hard snarl peeled across its face.

  It snapped the staff into the ground. Thud.

  Power echoed off the protective circle again. It made the circle shimmer, sending streamers of green tinted light up from the floor where the circle was placed.

  Huh. That was new.

  Devan grabbed one of her figurines and started whispering to it. The figurine stretched and elongated, growing into the troll figure that had helped us defeat Nik. It started forward toward the edge of the circle.

  “No!” I shouted. As soon as the troll broke the boundary of the circle, our protection would fail.

  Devan shot me a hard glance. “You think I don’t know that?”

  The troll stopped right at the edge of the circle and faced the creature. The creature on the other side eyed the troll figure, which now stood nearly as tall as the creature on the other side of the circle. It started to raise its staff when the snake fox came slithering out of the shadows and latched onto the staff and started to pull.

  The creature lifted the staff, straining against the snake fox thing. Devan’s skin glowed brighter, telling me that whatever happened, she was influencing it.

  Then the creature grunted and tore the staff away from the snake fox. Faster than I could blink, it slammed the staff down onto Devan’s figurine. There was smoke and a high pitched scream, and the snake fox simply disappeared.

  Devan sagged and stumbled as if she might fall. I reached for her, but I wasn’t in time. She fell across the circle, breaking the protections and leaving us exposed.

  The troll moved forward, positioning itself in front of the creature, but I’d seen what it had done to Devan’s other figurine. I doubted that it would be able to stop the creature very easily.

  The staff rose again. We weren’t ready or protected.

  I did the only thing I could think of to generate serious power. My hands quickly made the pattern that Nik had taught me, spiraling in something like a rotating pentagram. The power built quickly, and I aimed it at the creature.

  When it struck, it hit the creature in the chest. He fell back, the staff spinning from his hand, and landed on the ground in a heap.

  As he did, a low, dark laugh erupted from him.

  “Oh, shit,” I said.

  Devan grabbed me and pushed me behind her. I didn’t object. There was safety behind someone like Devan, letting one of the Te’alan protect me, especially as she pulled another one of her figurines out of her pocket and whispered to it. As it elongated and stretched to its full size, I saw that it was another of the trolls. Unlike the other, this one carried a long club with thick, sharp spikes protruding from the end of it. It advanced upon the creature and stood shoulder to shoulder with the other troll, staring at it.

  “Good,” the creature spoke, slowly standing up. His voice was a thick, guttural sound and grated on me the same way that his magic had. It looked past the trolls, as if completely unconcerned about their presence, and stared at me as it reached for the staff lying just out of its reach. “I seek the one who claims this city.”

  I glanced at Devan, uncertain how to proceed. The creature stretched, and as it did, it seemed to loom even taller, as if it somehow grew while we were watching. Now it managed to reach a head higher than Devan’s trolls. I cocked my head, studying the thing, uncertain whether I’d be able to repeat the magi magic that I’d just managed, but thankful that Nik had shown it to me. Had he not, I suspected we’d all be lying on the floor, maybe crushed like the snake fox figure.

  Devan shook her head slightly, and pushed her dark hair behind her ear, tucking it away from her face. She reached a hand into her pocket, and I knew she went for another figurine. Even if she grabbed one, something told me we didn’t have enough power to keep this guy in check.

  There was a part of me that wished Jakes would sense what was happening and show up, but I’d come to learn that Jakes was more concerned about the doorways scattered around the edge of town than in the actual magical creatures that might come through them. He’d abandoned us most of the time when it had anything to do with the Trelking, the only time he’d been willing to help had been when it had seemed like Devan’s father was going to leave the doorway open.

  We’d have to do this ourselves. Luckily, Devan and I were pretty accustomed to that.

  “What do you say? You give him the old troll pounding, and I’ll hit him with a few charms?” I asked.

  Devan snorted. “You think that’s going to work on this thing?”

  I shook my head. “Not really, but do you have any better ideas?”

  She stared at the creature, tilting her head as if listening to it. Then she smiled. “Yeah. Talk to it.”

  “You want me to take it out to dinner first? I guess you wouldn’t have to be jealous; this thing can’t compete with you—”

  She cut me off with an elbow to the ribs.

  “Fine,” I said and stepped forward toward the creature. Thin shafts of light managed to reach through the windows overhead, but they shifted and moved, as if the branches outside waved in the wind, making the light across the warehouse dance. “I’m about as close as you’re going to find to the protector of the city,” I said.

  I made a show of planting my hands on my hips, angling the charm between the fingers of my left hand. With my right, I touched the tip of my finger to the charm seated on the buckle of my belt. That had been a gift from Devan, and using it would likely destroy the belt in the process, but it would be worth it if it got us to safety if things went a little sideways.

  “You are not what I expected,” the creature said.

  It lifted its staff, and I tensed, readying to trigger the charm, but it slung it over its shoulder, sliding it into some sort of holster I couldn’t clearly see. Then the creature stepped forward, pushing between the two trolls with enough strength to send them spinning. I heard Devan grunt and saw the fringe of her glowing as she resi
sted the efforts of the creature.

  It stopped in front of me, leaning forward and catching my eyes. There was a weight there, and a sense of stars twisting behind its eyes. Definitely not a demon. I’d met the eyes of a demon. There might be the same sense of weight, but there was a mixture of hatred and darkness, the stuff those creatures fed upon. This almost left me with a sense of calm. It unnerved me and made me more uncomfortable than had it stared at me with hatred.

  “Yeah? Well, you’re not exactly what I expected either.”

  Its mouth curled in a slight smile. “Excellent. Now, are you ready to begin?”

  I blinked, feeling a growing sense of uncertainty. “What do you mean?”

  “You were expecting me, yes? That was the bargain.”

  I took a step back and away from the creature. “I think you have the wrong guy,” I started. “What bargain are you expecting?”

  The creature’s smile faded, and it reached for its staff. I noted that the horns on its head started to pulse slightly. It leaned its head toward me as if intending to pierce me with its horns.

  I raised my hands in front of me to keep it from attacking. “Whoa, there big guy. Let’s try to get to some sort of understanding before we break out the boom sticks again. You don’t want me to knock you on your ass again, now do you?” I wasn’t sure whether I could actually manage to knock him back, but I’d try.

  “The Protariat advised that you would serve. Is this not the case?”

  I hesitated before answering, not certain what the right response should be. I had agreed to protect Conlin, much like my father had apparently once protected the city. If I didn’t, then I suspected that the Trelking or the Druist Mage would make their play to push past the Threshold and… then I wasn’t certain. Jakes made it sound like balance had to be maintained, but he didn’t seem able to explain what kind of balance or why it was necessary.

  There was a part of me that wanted to turn and look back at Devan, but I resisted the urge. Keeping the red hulk in sight seemed the better play. Had I committed myself to more than I realized?

  “I’m what you’ve got,” I answered. It seemed neutral enough so that I didn’t have to commit one way or another. “Who are you?”

  “I am the Wasdig,” he said.

  Was that a title or the creature’s name? I didn’t feel comfortable asking and let it drop. From the way it looked at me, horns tilted down and glowing, it seemed to think that I should know what it was.

  “All of this?” I asked, pointing to the staff and the warehouse around us. “What was this?”

  The Wasdig leaned back. “This was the summons to the Protariat.”

  My heart sunk a little more. “And now that I’ve answered the summons?”

  “You will follow the bargain and allow me to escort you to the Zdrn.”

  Now I did glance back at Devan. “I’m not going anywhere without knowing what you plan. And besides, I’m the protector of the city. I can’t just up and leave.” I didn’t think that was true either. The city had done fine before I showed up, but I needed a way to at least delay the creatures, and let me figure out what it was that it wanted.

  The Wasdig reached for its staff and tapped it on the ground. “I will grant you three days to prepare.”

  “Prepare? Prepare for what?” I asked.

  “The summons.”

  “And if I don’t go?”

  The Wasdig narrowed its dark eyes. “The agreement is binding. You will come. If you do not, everything you know will be destroyed.”

  With that, the Wasdig slammed the staff into the ground. There was a flash of light, then it disappeared.

  3

  After searching around the warehouse for any sign of the Wasdig, Devan and I made our way back through the warehouse, neither of us saying anything until we were clear of the door. Devan had allowed her trolls to return to tiny figurine size and had slipped them back into her pocket. I stopped outside of the plant and let the door close behind me. At least the power that had been pulsing from the Wasdig finally eased, no longer scraping against my senses.

  “Did you recognize that thing?” I asked Devan.

  I stared at the glass door leading into the warehouse, still expecting the Wasdig to follow us out. I didn’t know how it had gotten inside the old plant or into the city in the first place. Any crossing should have triggered Jakes. And the lock had been in place on the warehouse. As far as I could tell, nothing seemed broken. Had the creature appeared in place? That didn’t seem likely, but what did I know about it?

  “I’ve not seen anything like that before,” Devan said.

  That didn’t make me feel any better. Devan and I had spent the better part of ten years battling some of the nastiest things on the other side of the Threshold, at least as nasty as the Trelking figured I could handle, and some worse than that. In that time, I thought I would have seen or at least heard about pretty much anything that might exist on that side. But for Devan not to know about the Wasdig, and Devan had more years to her than she appeared, that made me wonder if the Wasdig wasn’t a creature from that side.

  “You think it’s from our side?”

  “Which our, Ollie? From my side of the Threshold? I don’t think that’s likely. From this side? What have we seen that makes you believe there are creatures like that on this side of the Threshold?”

  “Only you. Jakes. Nik, when he was still anything but a statue.”

  Devan shook her head with each name. “Only the painters are from this side. The rest crossed over. Even Jakes. Shifters aren’t from this side—you’re the one who told me that.”

  I didn’t like it, but it was true. And it didn’t help me to know what the Wasdig might be.

  We reached Big Red and got in. It started with a soft rumble, and I dropped it into gear. As we made our way through town, I glanced over at Devan. I saw her fidgeting with one of her figurines, this one looking something like a lion, but with deeper set eyes.

  “What are those things?” I asked. It was a question that had been bugging me, but there hadn’t been a good time to ask. Either we were in the middle of trying to stay alive, or we were in the middle of something a little more fun.

  Devan twisted the figurine. Sunlight caught off the surface of the silvery metal she’d sculpted it out of, making it appear to have harder lines than I would have expected. Without light flashing off its surface, it could have been smooth metal, but it seemed angular. She whispered something to this one and then set it on the dash.

  “Just something I’ve been playing with,” she said.

  I grunted. “Seems like they’re a little more than that. You managed to slow Nik with one. And then your brother—”

  She shot me a look that said she still wasn’t too interested in talking about her brother, not with what he’d done.

  “Fine. But you never made anything like that when we were on the other side.”

  Devan shrugged. “It wouldn’t work there,” she answered softly. “When we crossed, I felt myself change. Don’t ask me what it means, because I can’t explain it. On this side of the Threshold, my magic is different.”

  “Yeah, it’s sexier,” I said. She never used to glow before. But it was more than that. She lost the prescience she shared with her father among other abilities. At the same time, she’d apparently acquired new skills.

  She smiled and slid closer to me on the seat. “If that’s what it took to get you to stop being such an idiot, then it was worth it.”

  “Not the fact that you don’t have to marry the Druist Mage?”

  Her face clouded for a moment. “You think I won’t?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My father. You heard what he said about the Druist. If he’s seen that I marry him and that you will attempt to kill him, don’t you think those are interconnected?”

  She turned away, clearly not wanting to talk about what her father had seen. The Trelking’s prescience was almost always right, though I’d come to believe
his visions were right more because he used his force of will to shape what he wanted to happen.

  “So your magic,” I said. “We’ve never talked about how it changed. Why didn’t you use those things against the hunters?”

  Devan sniffed and closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the seat of the truck. “You know how it is when you see one of the arcane patterns?” she started. “The way it was when you first came across the Threshold to us and tried to use them? You were slow, but even then, you had potential. Everyone could see it, not only my father. Even Nik, though he may never want to admit to that. You took time, studying first with the F’lian,” she went on, using the name of the first pattern masters I had worked with when I’d crossed the Threshold, “and then my father.”

  The F’lian were all women, and all more skilled with pattern creation than any painter I’d ever worked with in Arcanus, at least when it came to making the arcane patterns. There was no creativity though, only the ability to make patterns with a certain precision, but when you’re learning, that’s what you need. They could not infuse patterns with power—they claimed that the domain of the painters only—but they were skilled pattern makers. Strict, too. When I made mistakes, I was punished and forced to repeat the pattern until I could make it without mistakes one thousand times. Only when I had progressed through everything they could teach was I allowed to move on to the next instructor.

  “How does this have to do with you and these figurines?”

  “It has everything to do with it, Ollie,” she said. “When I crossed the Threshold, everything changed for me. Suddenly I had a different kind of power. You might not have noticed it, but it’s taken me a while to get a handle on what that means for me.”

  “I’ve noticed you have an interest in tinkering with the truck and working on these tiny charms,” I said, setting the one I still had in my hand on the dash.