Page 115 of Brimstone

Anything!

You would die?

Yes!

You would kill?

Yes!

You would give up that which is most dear to you?

I opened my mouth . . . and nothing came out. I tried to form the word, but I couldn’t. “No. I can’t,” I said. “I won’t sacrificehim.”

The tomb stilled. The quicksilver fell silent, and a fresh wave of alarm rushed over me. It was over, then. This was a test, and I had failed. I could feel the quicksilver’s claws invading my mind, sinking deep, sharp and cruel.

Good, the speaker purred.

Good. Wait,good? Had it really just said that? “I don’t . . . understand . . .”

Every Alchemist must have something they are afraid to lose.

The cold coating my bones with ice began to retreat. Slowly, the pain piercing my mind faded, the tomb coming back into focus. I was crying. When I brushed my tears away, my fingers came away coated in silver.

This pathway is clear, the speaker declared.Receive this gift all in fear and trembling. In the end, it will beyourend.

I flew backward, out of the pool.

My back hit the wall with a bone-crunching crack . . .

. . . and everything went black.

27

WHAT’S DONE IS DONE

KINGFISHER

“WE’RE METALWORKERS. WHOelse was going to do it?”

I prowled around the quicksilver pool, not fully understanding what I was seeing. It didn’t make sense. “This is the largest quicksilver pool I’ve ever seen. This amount of quicksilver in one place isunheardof.”

This information didn’t seem to impress Elroy. “Really? Huh. We’ve been adding to it for years. Every time a piece of metal laced with quicksilver came across the threshold of our forge, we refined it. Pulled it out of the weapon or piece of jewelry and set it aside. Until recently, this was all just individual pieces of metal. Separate. But when Saeris was taken, the metal turned to liquid. That’s when it fused together and became this.” He gestured to the massive body of quicksilver. “I knew Saeris had something to do with it. The girl never could resist touching weapons that didn’t belong to her. I figured she’d pulled the sword, and—”

“Youknewabout the sword?”

“Well, naturally.” He seemed baffled by the question. “Solace. The sword that kept the doorways closed. The Faesword. I’ve never seen it in person, of course. But there were drawings, when I was a boy.”

“Where are they, these drawings? I need to see them.”

“Gone,” Elroy said. “Burned up in a fire when I was about fifteen. My father was fond of an afternoon whiskey or five. It was the only thing that helped with the voices. He fell asleep one afternoon and the hearth raged out of control. Gutted the ground floor of the forge. The smoke nearly killed him.”

“So there’s nothing? No documents? No . . . nobooks?”

The glassmaker shook his head. “Nothing. What few papers did remain after the fire, I burned myself five years ago.”

“What?Why?” The question was poised on my lips, but it exploded out of Carrion’s mouth. “What possible reason could have driven you to dothat?”

“I did it forSaeris,” Elroy said, his tone hard and cold. “Her power was greater than she knew, and she was terrible at hiding it. The air in the forge would prickle the moment she walked in the door. Even when she was a child, the fucking tools would rattle on the walls when she walked by.” He scowled at Carrion. “You were blind not to have noticed it.”