Brimstone and Lily (Legacy Stone Adventures) by Terry Kroenung Page A
Authors: Terry Kroenung
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how I so trusted a talking mouse and a shape-shifting sword and their story about evil Bullies coming to take me away.
The great battle scene began. Blades, shields, and spears slashed the gaslit air, their sweet noise even louder than usual because of my Jasper-enhanced ears. I dearly wanted to stay for it, but Ernie kept tugging at my overall cuff to keep me moving toward the fire exit. We slunk past a couple of stagehands who were admiring the Shakespearean carnage and then eased out the door, being careful not to let it slam. Drawing the sword, I started to look for enemies. After all of our careful slinking I nearly undid us by almost stepping on Ernie. That made me jerk my leg back. Unbalanced, I hopped on one foot, Jasper clutched in one hand, feeling for the wall to steady myself. Instead I fell full-length through the half-closed door.
And stopped in mid-air.
Well, this sure seems magickal. I’m floatin’ like a Hindustani fakir.
I looked down. A huge shiny hand, standing on a single iron foot, held me like a baby. Balanced horizontal, as if flying. The stage door bumped against my shoulder, trying to close. No one in the theatre had noticed me yet, so I eased back down off of Jasper’s new form and gently shut the door. He melted like quicksilver back into his sword self. After letting out the breath I’d been holding, I turned away from Ford’s Theatre into the alley.
My vision turned so sharp that it almost seemed like day. Just a slight bluish haze and shimmer gave away the magick. The medieval fight on the other side of the wall sounded near as loud as it had when we had stood in the wings. A light breeze itched my skin like tiny lizards clawed their way across it. Unlucky for me, my sense of smell now grew many times better than before, too. I stood in the wrong city at the wrong time of year for that to be any fun. It occurred to me that wandering the streets of Washington carrying a sword was bound to attract attention. Jasper sensed my question before I could think of it.
“Here, let’s make us less conspicuous,” he said in a whisper, which struck me as funny since nobody could hear him but me. The sword shrunk down. I thought for a second it would vanish all the way, but it stopped when the blade folded into the hilt. Now I held a simple tin cup. But it felt warm, with a pulse.
Shaking my head, I said in a hush, “Don’t think I’ll ever be able to get used to that.”
“Wait’ll you hit puberty,” Ernie snickered, next to my ear. He’d climbed up me while Jasper had been shifting. “That’s somethin’ that really takes some gettin’ used to.”
“What’s puberty?” Jasper asked.
“Search me,” I said, almost shrugging the mouse off of me. “I thought you knew everything.”
“I’m only twelve, too, you know. My Master just gave me the knowledge he thought I’d need to help you. The rest I have to find out on my own.”
“Can you tell the future, then?”
“I think no one can. Not with certainty. Some great mages can see several possible futures and guess which is most likely. The Grand Mage sure seemed to foresee this night, though. At least so far.”
“Except for the part about her bein’ a whiny pain in the backside,” grumbled Ernie.
I protested with feigned outrage. “Hey! I’m standin’ right here.”
“Right, lovey. You’re standin’ instead of walkin’. We need to get to the river. Let’s go.”
“Okay. Hang on.”
The alley would take us onto 10th Street. From there we could move west to the Potomac, much like me and Eddie had done that afternoon. This time I didn’t plan on cutting through St. Bart’s. In fact, I expected to take a twelve-block detour. If these Bullies were as scary as they seemed then we sure didn’t want to add Horace and his loonies to our troubles. That’d be more than this girl can handle. To tell the truth, between falling into the chamber, getting zapped with magick, and trying to understand all of the
The great battle scene began. Blades, shields, and spears slashed the gaslit air, their sweet noise even louder than usual because of my Jasper-enhanced ears. I dearly wanted to stay for it, but Ernie kept tugging at my overall cuff to keep me moving toward the fire exit. We slunk past a couple of stagehands who were admiring the Shakespearean carnage and then eased out the door, being careful not to let it slam. Drawing the sword, I started to look for enemies. After all of our careful slinking I nearly undid us by almost stepping on Ernie. That made me jerk my leg back. Unbalanced, I hopped on one foot, Jasper clutched in one hand, feeling for the wall to steady myself. Instead I fell full-length through the half-closed door.
And stopped in mid-air.
Well, this sure seems magickal. I’m floatin’ like a Hindustani fakir.
I looked down. A huge shiny hand, standing on a single iron foot, held me like a baby. Balanced horizontal, as if flying. The stage door bumped against my shoulder, trying to close. No one in the theatre had noticed me yet, so I eased back down off of Jasper’s new form and gently shut the door. He melted like quicksilver back into his sword self. After letting out the breath I’d been holding, I turned away from Ford’s Theatre into the alley.
My vision turned so sharp that it almost seemed like day. Just a slight bluish haze and shimmer gave away the magick. The medieval fight on the other side of the wall sounded near as loud as it had when we had stood in the wings. A light breeze itched my skin like tiny lizards clawed their way across it. Unlucky for me, my sense of smell now grew many times better than before, too. I stood in the wrong city at the wrong time of year for that to be any fun. It occurred to me that wandering the streets of Washington carrying a sword was bound to attract attention. Jasper sensed my question before I could think of it.
“Here, let’s make us less conspicuous,” he said in a whisper, which struck me as funny since nobody could hear him but me. The sword shrunk down. I thought for a second it would vanish all the way, but it stopped when the blade folded into the hilt. Now I held a simple tin cup. But it felt warm, with a pulse.
Shaking my head, I said in a hush, “Don’t think I’ll ever be able to get used to that.”
“Wait’ll you hit puberty,” Ernie snickered, next to my ear. He’d climbed up me while Jasper had been shifting. “That’s somethin’ that really takes some gettin’ used to.”
“What’s puberty?” Jasper asked.
“Search me,” I said, almost shrugging the mouse off of me. “I thought you knew everything.”
“I’m only twelve, too, you know. My Master just gave me the knowledge he thought I’d need to help you. The rest I have to find out on my own.”
“Can you tell the future, then?”
“I think no one can. Not with certainty. Some great mages can see several possible futures and guess which is most likely. The Grand Mage sure seemed to foresee this night, though. At least so far.”
“Except for the part about her bein’ a whiny pain in the backside,” grumbled Ernie.
I protested with feigned outrage. “Hey! I’m standin’ right here.”
“Right, lovey. You’re standin’ instead of walkin’. We need to get to the river. Let’s go.”
“Okay. Hang on.”
The alley would take us onto 10th Street. From there we could move west to the Potomac, much like me and Eddie had done that afternoon. This time I didn’t plan on cutting through St. Bart’s. In fact, I expected to take a twelve-block detour. If these Bullies were as scary as they seemed then we sure didn’t want to add Horace and his loonies to our troubles. That’d be more than this girl can handle. To tell the truth, between falling into the chamber, getting zapped with magick, and trying to understand all of the
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