“W e could just fly to San Francisco,” Virginia Dare said quietly. “I quite like flying. Especially if it’s first-class, and particularly if you are paying.”
“I hate flying,” Dee muttered. “Besides, there are two problems with that: booking a ticket will leave a trail that anyone can follow, and the first flight is not until tomorrow morning. Then it’s an eleven-hour flight to the West Coast. We’d lose too much time, and it would allow the Elders to organize a welcoming committee for me when I land.”
“What about a private jet? You’re rich enough to do that.”
“Yes, I’m rich enough, but the paperwork would take hours and leave a huge trail also. No, this is a much better idea.”
“When you say better, does that mean dangerous?” Virginia asked softly.
“That has never bothered you before.”
“I am immortal, not invulnerable. I can be killed… and so can you,” she reminded him. “As I get older, I appreciate my long life. I have no desire to end it.”
The couple, looking like any other pair of tourists, were standing beneath the shade of a tree admiring the brightly lit facade of the Tower of London, the pale cream stone turned the color of butter in the warm lights. A recent shower had swept across the city and created puddles that reflected the lights. Even at this late hour there were still plenty of sightseers enjoying the cool air, admiring the London landmark on the Thames River. Occasionally cameras flashed.
“All my life seems to have been spent in and around the Tower,” Dee said wistfully. “I visited Walter Raleigh here just before his execution,” he added. “And when I was a boy my father took me to see the lions here, when it housed the Royal Menagerie.”
“Very touching,” Dare muttered. “Do you want to tell me now why we’re here?”
Dee nodded, a tiny jerk of his head. “There is an entrance to a Shadowrealm inside.”
“The Traitor’s Gate Shadowrealm.” Dare nodded. “I’ve heard of it.” She shuddered, her shoulders rolling beneath her coat. “Rumor has it that it is an evil place.”
Dee ignored her. “Together, I believe we’re powerful enough to activate and enter it. Once we’re in the Shadowrealm, we can hop from realm to realm and then drop out in America.” He grinned with genuine good humor.
“Once you activate the gate, you will have betrayed our position,” Virginia said.
“True. But once we’re in the Shadowrealm, no one will know where we’re going.”
Virginia Dare shook her head, her long hair flowing down her back. “Can I point out one or two very minor flaws in this plan?”
“Such as?”
“Let us assume we can overpower the guards in the Tower…”
“Easily done. You can spell them to sleep with your music.”
“And then let us assume we can leap into the Traitor’s Gate Shadowrealm.”
“We can do that,” Dee said confidently.
“Do we know whose Shadowrealm it is?”
The doctor shook his head. “No one knows. Some minor Elder, perhaps-but you know that many of the Shadowrealms that border the earth are empty.”
“I also know that the Dark Elders have been calling their brethren who live in the outer Shadowrealms to draw closer as Litha approaches. Something might have taken up residence there.”
Dee opened his mouth to comment, but Virginia pressed on.
“But let us assume that we find it empty. We then have to move through it to cross into one or two or three more Shadowrealms before we end up in a realm that touches the Americas.”
“Yes.”
“And it could be anywhere in the Americas from Alaska to Florida?”
“Yes. At worst we’ll be a couple of hours away from San Francisco.”
“So tell me why we are going back to San Francisco? I thought that city was about to be overrun by your Elder’s nightmare army?”
“The Book of Abraham the Mage is in San Francisco. I need it.”
“You finally got it!” Virginia sounded genuinely delighted. “Took you long enough,” she added sarcastically. Then she stopped as a sudden thought struck her. “The Book is still in your possession-have you not surrendered it to your Elders?”
“No. I’ve decided to keep it.”
“Keep it!” Virginia’s raised voice made some of the late-night tourists turn to look. She lowered her voice to a hoarse whisper. “What for?”
Dee grinned. “I am going to use it to take control of this earth myself.”
Virginia blinked in surprise, and then she suddenly laughed delightedly. “Doctor, you are mad… which must make me even madder, for associating with you. Do you think your Elders will allow you to take over this, their favorite Shadowrealm?”
“I’m not going to give them any choice,” Dee said simply. “I gave them a lifetime-several lifetimes-of service. And yet, because of a few petty failures, they are prepared to sentence me to an eternity of suffering. They declared me utlaga. Now my loyalty is to myself-and to you too,” he added hastily, catching a glimpse of the expression on his companion’s face. “I am going to wrest control of this planet from the Elders, kill all the immortal humans, Elders and Next Generation who still live here. I will then seal the entrances to the Shadowrealms and cut this world off from all the others. I will make this planet mine. Ours, if you are with me. We can rule together.”
Virginia Dare took a step away from Dee and slowly and deliberately looked him up and down.
“What are you looking at?” he demanded.
“A fool,” she snapped. “How do you hope to achieve all this?”
“Yesterday I saw an Archon.”
Virginia blinked in surprise. “I’ve never seen one. I thought they were myth.”
“I saw Cernunnos, the Horned God. I stood as close to it as I am standing to you. And then later, it came to me: it sent a thoughtform, a being created, controlled and held together entirely by the power of its imagination. Its power was incredible… and yet Cernunnos is one of the minor Archons.”
Virginia started to shake her head. “And what has this got to do with you taking control of this Shadowrealm?”
“I have the four Swords of Power. I intend to raise Coatlicue, the greatest of all the Archons. She will serve me.”
Virginia Dare drew in her breath in a quick gasp. “John, this is insanity,” she said urgently. “And even if you could raise the Archon, why should she serve you? What have you got to trade that would even remotely interest her?”
“Coatlicue despises and loathes the Elders. Millennia ago, they sentenced her to an eternity of suffering-I would imagine she will want her revenge.”
“Revenge drives us all,” Virginia murmured. “But I still don’t see how…”
The doctor’s smile was terrifying. “I know the entrance to Xibalba here on earth. If she serves me, I will give her that location.”
“And once she is in Xibalba…,” Virginia whispered.
Dee nodded. “She will have access to the countless Shadowrealms. She can ravage her way through them, feasting off everything she finds.”
The woman’s laughter was shaky. “I have always admired your ruthless streak, John, but this is breathtaking. Even you, as powerful as you are, will not be able to raise an Archon. Especially the Mother of All the Gods. As soon as she steps into this world, she’ll feed off the first things she sees.”
Dee shrugged. “It is true I am going to need something extraordinary, something powerful, to draw her and then distract her while I bind her in spells.” He touched the swords under his coat. The answer flowed through his fingers and the air was suddenly filled with the sharp citrus scent of orange. His smile turned savage. “I will offer her a pure golden aura.”