“We’re looking for a commune of mages, right?” she asked, handing her flashlight to Julius.
“Right,” he said slowly, taking the light.
“Well, lots of mages means lots of concentrated magic, and if it’s magic we’re looking for, I think we could trythis.” She pulled her hand out of her bag with a flourish, holding up the golden, grapefruit-sized orb Julius had seen her examining in the car after his dust-up with Chelsie. Back then, it had glittered like a golden ornament. Now, it sparkled like the noon sun on a waterfall in the brilliant glare of the LED flashlight, throwing little golden dots all over the waterway’s dark stained walls.
“What is that?” Justin asked. “A golden disco ball?”
“It’s a Kosmolabe,” Marci said, her voice giddy with excitement. “An ancient tool used by mages, thefirstmages from back before magic faded, to detect and identify other dimensions.”
“Why would we need that?” Justin said with a snort. “We’re already in the right dimension.”
Marci must have been amazingly excited, because she didn’t even look annoyed. “Ah,” she said. “But Kosmolabes find those other dimensions by detecting their ambient magic. It’s been theorized for decades now that a properly trained mage, given enough power, could open a portal to another dimension. No one’s actually tried it yet, though, because there’s no way to know what would be waiting on the other side. The wall between our world and the other planes is simply too thick for us to see through. We could be opening a hole into the vacuum of space, or into a star, or into a completely new environment we can’t even imagine. That’s where the Kosmolabe comes in.”
She stuck the ball directly under the flashlight, making it shine painfully bright. “You see the pattern on the gold leaf under the glass? It acts as an amplifier, reacting to the natural vibrations of magic on a molecular level that’s supposedly a thousand times more sensitive than anything a human can feel. Sort of like a compass, only the needle points at magic instead of North. I’ve been dying to try it out!”
“Uh-huh,” Justin said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Still waiting to hear why I should care.”
“You shouldcarebecause we’re looking for a heavily warded community of shamans,” she said hotly, leaving the impliedyou moronthankfully unvoiced. “And if the theories are correct and the Kosmolabeislike a compass, then that sort of magical density should act like a magnet.”
“I see,” Julius said. “They’ll pull the needle right to them. That way, even if we have to go off course, we’ll always know which direction the mages are in.”
“Yes,thankyou,” Marci said, giving him a beaming smile. “At least someone here gets it.”
Justin rolled his eyes, but Julius moved in for a better look at the golden ball. This close, he could actually see the points in the tiny golden patterns twitching, exactly like little needles. “That’s amazing. I’ve never heard of a Kosmolabe.”
“They’re incredibly rare,” Marci said. “Even back when mages were thought to be common, not many places had the sophistication needed to make one, and once the magic dried up, the knowledge was lost all together.” Her face fell. “Most magical learning was, actually. The only reason we know dimensional connection is even possible is because Kosmolabes exist. We’re only beginning to rediscover just how much we lost during the magical drought, and we still don’t know why the magic went away in the first place. Thankfully, we have our ancestor’s tools to help us figure everything out again.” She smiled down at the golden ball in her arms. “This one’s a Persian Kosmolabe. They’re supposed to be the most accurate, and the most delicate. It’s a miracle this one survived so perfectly intact. It might just be the last fully functional Kosmolabe remaining in the whole world.”
“Uh huh,” Justin said. “So why do you have it?”
Marci jerked at the question, then she relaxed, shrugging with the sort of careless flippancy that was the hallmark of someone about to tell a whopping lie. “My dad gave it to me. Anyway, like Julius said, this Kosmolabe should be able to guide us right to our target. Once I figure out how to use it, of course.”
“You mean you haven’t tried it yet?”
Marci lifted her head high. “Well,obviouslyI haven’t had the chance to test its ability to find missing mage colonies, but there’s no reason it shouldn’t work.” She looked down, peering into the golden patterns like she was trying to read her future in a crystal ball. “Actually, I think I’ve got something already. Follow me.”
She got to her feet and set off down the walkway, her boots clacking on the metal grate. When Julius stood up to follow, though, Justin grabbed his shoulder.
“You sure about this?”
“No,” Julius said. “But coming down here was your brilliant idea, remember?”
“I’m not talking about the sewers. I’m talking about the part where your human just lied to us.”
Julius blinked. He hadn’t actually thought Justin would pick up on that. His brother didn’t usually do subtleties, but then, Marci was a pretty awful liar.
“She probably only lied because you asked her such a nosy question,” he said. “Anyway, it’s not my business where she got her Kosmolabe. All I care about is how Marci does her job for me, and so far, she’s been excellent. When it comes to magic, I trust her completely.”
His brother snorted. “You’re gonna get yourself killed thinking like that. Blind faith makes a terrible leader.”
“It’s not blind faith,” Julius said. “I trust Marci. She’s my…”
Justin went after his hesitation like a bull after a red flag. “Your what?”
“I trust her,” Julius said again.
Justin crossed his arms over his chest. “Why?”
Because she was his friend, and because she trusted him back. But Justin was too much of a dragon to understand that, so Julius said nothing, which of course, his brother took entirely the wrong way.
