The Magician

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

O h, stop that! Perenelle bashed the spider Elder on the top of the head

with the flat side of the spear in her hand. The ancient symbol of power

blazed white-hot and the spider darted back into the cell, the top of its

skull sizzling, gray smoke curling upward.

That hurt! Areop-Enap snapped, more irritated than wounded. You re always

hurting me. You nearly killed me the last time I saw you.

And let me remind you that the last time we met, your followers attempted to

sacrifice me to activate an extinct volcano. Naturally, I was a little

upset.

You brought down an entire mountain on top of me, Areop-Enap said in a

peculiar lisp caused by its overlong fangs. You could have killed me.

It was only a small mountain, Perenelle reminded the creature. She thought

Areop-Enap was female but couldn't be entirely sure. you've survived worse.

All of Areop-Enap s eyes were on the spear in Perenelle s hand. Can you at

least tell me where I am?

On Alcatraz. Or rather, below Alcatraz, an island in the San Francisco Bay

on the West Coast of the Americas.

The New World? Areop-Enap asked.

Yes, the New World, Perenelle said, smiling. The reclusive spider Elder

often hibernated for centuries and missed huge chunks of human history.

What are you doing here? Areop-Enap asked.

I am a prisoner like you. She stepped back. If I lower the spear, are you

going to do something stupid?

Like what?

Like jump at me.

All the hairs on Areop-Enap s legs rose and fell in unison. Truce? the

spider Elder suggested.

Perenelle nodded. Truce, she agreed. It seems we have a common enemy.

Areop-Enap moved to the door of the cell. Do you know how I got here?

I was rather hoping you would be able to tell me that, Perenelle said.

Keeping several wary eyes on the glowing spear, the spider took a tentative

step out into the corridor. The last place I remember was Igup Island. It s

part of Polynesia, it added.

Micronesia, Perenelle said. The name changed more than one hundred and

fifty years ago. Just how long have you been asleep, Old Spider? she asked,

calling the creature by its common name.

I m not sure when did we last meet and have our little misunderstanding? In

humani years, Sorceress, it added.

When Nicholas and I were on Pohnpei investigating the ruins of Nan Madol,

Perenelle said immediately. She had an almost perfect memory. That was about

two hundred years ago, she added.

I probably took a nap sometime about then, Areop-Enap said, stepping out

into the corridor. Behind it, the cell came alive with millions of spiders.

I remember waking from a very nice nap, it said slowly. I saw the Magician

Dee but he was not alone. There was someone else something else with him.

Instructing him.

Who? Perenelle asked urgently. Try and remember, Old Spider, this is

important.

Areop-Enap closed each of its eyes as it tried to recall what had happened.

Something is preventing me, it said, all its eyes opening simultaneously.

Something powerful. Whoever was with him was protected by an extraordinarily

powerful magical shield. Areop-Enap looked up and down the corridor. That

way? it asked.

This way. Perenelle pointed with the spear. Even though Areop-Enap had

called a truce, Perenelle was not prepared to stand unarmed before one of the

most powerful of the Elders. I wonder why he wanted you prisoner. A sudden

thought struck her and she stopped so quickly that Areop-Enap brushed against

her, almost sending her face-first onto the muddy floor. If you had to make

a choice, Old Spider, if you had to choose between returning the Elders to

this world or leaving it in the hands of the humani, who would you choose?

Sorceress, Areop-Enap said, mouth gaping to reveal its terrifying teeth in

what might have been a smile, I was one of the Elders who voted that we

should leave the earth to the ape-kin. I recognized that our time on this

planet was over; and in our arrogance we had almost destroyed it. It was time

to step back and leave it to the humani.

So you would not be in favor of the return of the Elders?

No.

And if there was a fight, who would you stand with the Elders or the

humani?

Sorceress, Areop-Enap said very seriously, I ve stood with the humani

before. Along with my kin, Hekate and the Witch of Endor, I helped bring

civilization to this planet. Despite my appearance, my loyalties are with the

humani.

And that s why Dee had to capture you now. He couldn't afford to have

someone as powerful as you fight alongside humankind.

Then the confrontation must be very close indeed, Areop-Enap said. But

there s nothing Dee and the Dark Elders can do until they secure the Book

of Areop-Enap s voice trailed away. They ve got the Book?

Most of it, Perenelle confirmed miserably. And you should know the rest of

it. You are familiar with the prophecy of the twins?

Of course. That old fool, Abraham, was always twittering on about the twins

and scribbling down his indecipherable prophecies in the Codex. I never

believed a word of them myself. And in all the years I knew him, he never got

a single thing right.

Nicholas found the twins.

Ah. Areop-Enap was silent for a moment, then shrugged what shoulders it

had, eyes blinking in unison. So Abraham was right about something; well,

that s a first.

While Perenelle slogged through ankle-deep mud, recounting what she had

discovered in the cells above, she noticed that despite its enormous size,

the spider Elder glided over the top of the muck. Behind them, the walls and

ceilings pulsed with millions of spiders as they followed the Elder. I

wonder why Dee didn't kill you.

He couldn't, Areop-Enap said matter-of-factly. My death would send ripples

through myriad Shadowrealms. Unlike Hekate, I have friends, and too many of

them would come to investigate. Dee would not want that. Areop-Enap stopped

when it came to the first of the spears Perenelle had pushed down. A huge leg

turned it over, and the spider examined the faint traces of the hieroglyph

painted on the spearhead. I m curious, it lisped. These Words of Power.

They were ancient when the Elders ruled the earth. And I thought we had

destroyed both them and all record of them. How did the English Magician

rediscover them?

I was wondering the same thing, Perenelle said. She turned the spear in her

hand to look at the single square hieroglyph. Maybe he copied the spell from

somewhere.

No, Areop-Enap said. The individual words are powerful, it is true, but

Dee set them up in the particular pattern that kept me trapped in the cell.

Every time I tried to escape, it was as if I ran into a solid wall. I ve seen

that pattern before, but it was in the days before the Fall of Danu Talis. In

fact, now that I think of it, the last time I saw that pattern was before we

had even created the island continent and dragged it up from the ocean floor.

Someone instructed Dee; someone knew how to create these magical Wards,

someone who d seen them.

No one knows who Dee s Elder is, whom he serves, Perenelle said

thoughtfully. Nicholas spent decades vainly trying to discover who,

ultimately, controls the Magician.

Someone old, Areop-Enap said. As old as me, or even older. One of the

Great Elders, perhaps. All of the spider Elder s eyes blinked. But it

cannot be; none of them survived the Fall of Danu Talis.

You did.

I m not one of the Great Elders, Areop-Enap said simply.

They reached the end of the tunnel and de Ayala winked into existence

directly before them. He had been a ghost for centuries and had seen wonders

and monsters, but he had never seen anything like Areop-Enap, and the sight

of the enormous creature shocked him speechless.

Juan, Perenelle said gently. Talk to me.

The Crow Goddess is here, he said finally. She is almost directly above

us, perched on top of the water tower like a huge vulture. She s waiting for

you to climb out. She had an argument with the sphinx, the ghost added. The

sphinx said that the Elders had given you to her; the Morrigan claimed that

Dee said you were hers.

So nice to be in demand, Perenelle said, looking up the length of the shaft

into the darkness. She glanced sidelong at Areop-Enap. I wonder if she knows

you re here.

Unlikely, Old Spider said. Dee would have no reason for telling her, and

with so many magical and mythical creatures on the island, she ll not be able

to pick out my aura.

Perenelle s lips twisted in a quick smile that lit up her face. Shall we

surprise her?