“Don’t like them?” the human asked, a bit of sting having come into his voice. “Try to hire someone else who can give you better.”
Devon gave a throaty grumble, and the human turned to face him.
“I know you think that somehow you might beat him into submission,” he said, “but that’s not really how these things work. Were you in some kind of fight club?”
“Just working out some of my issues,” Devon said. “Thought this might help bring him around to revealing the secrets my dear sister is keeping from us. It is clear your way isn’t doing the trick.”
Kejetan walked over to the human. “We already know that Stanis does not possess the knowledge I want,” he said. “That is why I made you set him to his other tasks.” He grabbed the man by his shoulder and pulled him closer. The human looked like all he wanted was to squirm away like a serpent. “He has not yet provided that which I seek. Do you think I am somehow pleased by this? I assure you I am not.”
“Easy, boss, easy,” the human said. “Baby steps. You wanted him in your service, he’s in your service. Yes, he hasn’t recovered the secrets you wanted yet, but I think I know why.”
Kejetan did not move away from him. “I do pray you tell.”
“I don’t think the secrets of the Spellmasons are somewhere else,” the human said. “I think they’re still within this golem here.”
Kejetan shook his head. “He has already confessed to not having them.”
“That’s part of the security that keeps the information locked away in him safe,” the human said. “I mean, if you were going to hide something that valuable, what’s the first thing you’d tell the gargoyle to say?”
Kejetan thought it over, but after too long a silence, Alexandra’s brother spoke up.
“I’d teach it to say it didn’t have the information,” Devon offered.
“Exactly!” the human said. “Who’s a smart but brutal chunk of rock?”
Devon moved to the alchemist, but Kejetan waved him away.
“So now I need to get in there and break down those defenses,” the human said. “That’s why I came tonight. Alchemy’s tricky. These things take time to figure out.”
I knew of no such system in place over me, having spent all these months doing what was called by the humans bluffing about any sort of secret arcane knowledge. Why did this man now come to them with this tale . . . ? Could he, too, be bluffing?
I watched and waited to see how my captors reacted.
Kejetan let the man go, crossing to me and grabbing my face, lifting me. “Is what he says true?” he asked, as the dead dark sockets of his eyes met my own. “Remember, you are bound to answer me with truth.”
“I hold no secret knowledge,” I said, freely speaking what both voices within me knew was true.
“See?” the human asked. “You need to let me work. I’ll get it out of him.”
I considered the man’s words as I knew my father must also be doing.
What choice did he have, really? I was already in servitude to him, and if we were to take the alchemist at his word, he was still the best hope Kejetan had.
“Very well,” Kejetan said, pulling Devon away from me. “See to it. I grow weary of this.”
The human looked satisfied.
“Pardon my asking,” he said. “But what’s the point?”
“The point?” Kejetan asked.
“To all this,” he said. “This endless hunt for this missing arcane knowledge. I mean, you seem to have a lot of bold ambitions. What do you want? Please don’t tell me to rule the world, because if it is, a lot has changed since you were in power.”
“Of this I am aware,” my father said, choosing to engage the man instead of reacting with the anger I knew him capable of. “But your world does have leaders, yes? Why not my kind?”
The human laughed. “No offense, but your sense of perspective may be out of proportion with reality. I don’t think the world is ready to be led by your kind. Not only are most not aware of you, but they can barely pick leaders among their own kind. At the risk of your swatting me across the cargo hold here, humanity isn’t simply going to bow down and kneel before Zodd.”
“Zodd . . . ?”
“Another famous despot of a ruler,” the human said with a sigh.
“But some will look for leaders when the world changes,” Kejetan said. “Alexander Belarus locked away some of the greatest secrets, and once those have been brought to light, others will look for a voice to guide them. And that voice shall be mine.”
“Right,” the human said, the word coming off his lips long and slow. It did not sound sincere to my ear, nor apparently to Kejetan, who stepped back in front of him, anger in his own voice.
“If you are unable to live up to the duties my people are paying you for, perhaps we should discuss that,” my father said.
The human did not speak for a short time. “I’m up to the job,” he said, the smile returning to his face. “I just wanted you to get a better idea of the whole picture there. Always like to see where the profit margin on the future is heading.”
Devon laughed. “You should be more concerned about living through the day, pal,” he said.
The human glanced at Alexandra’s brother before stepping away to his table against the wall that held his mixtures and examining them.
“I kind of need him out of here,” he said, pointing his thumb back over his shoulder to Devon. “Preferably, you, too.”
“I do not take orders on my own ship,” Kejetan said.
“Suit yourself,” he said, removing the coat he wore. “This might get messy, though. I can’t promise you won’t get a little twisted up by what I’m about to throw down on Stanis here. Hard to keep some of this stone-affecting arcana one-directional. You want to hang in here, that’s fine by me, but it’s only fair warning you that you might accidentally get a little alchemical backlash on you.”
Kejetan waved Devon out of the cargo hold, and Alexander’s brother lumbered off without another word.
“I need results,” Kejetan said.
“I understand,” the human said without looking up from his work.
If there was one thing my father hated, it was being ignored, but he dared not disturb the alchemist. Holding his tongue, he turned and stormed off after Devon and out of the cargo hold, leaving the two of us alone.
I watched the man work in silence for several minutes. Without the sound of my father or Devon picking away at me, I enjoyed the reprieve from all the noise until the man turned from the table with a large vial in his hand and crossed the cargo hold to where I hung. He took my face in the cool of his hand, standing on his toes to meet my eyes.
“Listen, Stan,” he said, searching my face as he raised the vial over the top of my head. “I know the real you is not fully at the wheel right now, but I know you’re still in there.”
He tilted his wrist, and the mixture poured from the vial onto me, cool and wet, as an electric charge slammed into my mind.
“This should help bring you out, if only for a little while.”
The dominant presence that had ruled over me for days faded into the background, its panic at being suppressed quieting more and more every second that passed. My true self rose to the surface of my thoughts with only the edge of my mind still clouded. “What are you doing to me?”
“Just needed to talk to the old you for a few minutes,” he said, lowering his voice and looking around to make sure the hold was still clear of others. “I don’t think we’ve ever been properly introduced. My name’s Caleb. Caleb Kennedy. Met a few friends of yours the other day. Nerdy guy, girl with a pointy-stick thing, and a hottie with a big stone book.”