Page 116 of Brimstone

“Hey,Ihad no experience with magic. I felt something, I guess, but I just thought she was hot.” He winced in my direction, making a face. “Sorry.”

An angry rumble filled the cavern, but it didn’t come from me. Hayden looked like he was about to start pummeling Swift’s face with his fists.

“All right. Okay, everyone, let’s just forget I said that, shall we?”

Elroy huffed, continuing. “I took her as my apprentice so I could keep an eye on her. But when her mother died—” He dropped his head, swallowing, eyes on his dusty boots. “When her mother died, she and the boy had no one. The energy that followed her around was getting stronger, and I couldn’t haveher here all the time. It killed me to force her out on the street, but she was safer there. If one of the guardians had walked into the forge and felt how strange it was in there when she was around, they would have taken her away.

“I couldn’t risk having those papers here anymore. Not when they could damn her and the rest of us along with her, too. So yes, I tossed them into the fire. That’s when I stopped refining the quicksilver, too. Working that demon metal leads to madness and death. I saw what it did to my father. I didn’t see what it did to my grandfather, but my old man did, and from what he told me, it wasn’t pretty. I accepted my fate a long time ago. I didn’t mind protecting this secret when it was just me, even if it did kill me. But Saeris neededsomeone, and I wasn’t going to abandon her.”

What had been in those papers that they could have damned Saeris? I was beginning to suspect I knew the answer to that question, but I didn’t know how to approach it in my mind. I sat on the edge of the pool, working through it, trying to decide how I felt.

“What’s done is done,” Carrion said behind me. “At least this means we don’t need to go back to the palace now.”

I splayed my fingers wide, holding my hand palm-down an inch above the surface of the quicksilver. Gods, I hated it. But I loved it, too. I had to. It had given me Saeris. Without the quicksilver, we would have lived out our lives in separate realms, never having known each other. Sometimes, it was as though it connected us. The remaining quicksilver in my eye was far more active when she was around. When she wasn’t, it echoed her mood somehow. It was hard to explain. Even now, it was as if I could feel her, just inches away . . .

“What do you mean?” I asked, in response to Carrion’s statement.

“Hm?”

“Why wouldn’t we need to go back to the palace?”

Carrion laughed. “I think that’s fairly obvious, don’t you? When Saeris awakens the quicksilver, all the pools will awaken, not just the one in the palace.Thispool will awaken. We won’t have to try to sneak back into the palace, past the guardians. I, for one, am deeply grateful that we won’t need to fight our way back into the Hall of Mirrors. That was an absolute . . .”

There were many parts of the plan I had neglected to share with Carrion. He chattered away, the relief thick in his voice, unaware that he still wasn’t in possession of the whole picture. Itwouldhave been tricky to get all three of us back into the palace. I would have figured it out, though. Now, he and Hayden could travel through this pool back to Yvelia. I would use the pool at the palace.AfterI’d figured out if—andhow—Madra was sending the infected feeders from Zilvaren. After I had killed the immortal queen and balanced the scales of justice. I started to explain. “I can’t go with you. When you head through, tell—”

The poolexploded.

Quicksilver erupted, instantly liquid. It splattered up my arm, hitting me in the chest.

I leaped up, vaulting away, immediately drawing a replica of Nimerelle from the well of my magic.

“What thefuck!” Hayden fell on his ass in his haste to retreat. “What’s happening?”

“Nothing good,” Elroy gritted out. “Stand back. Don’t let it touch your skin.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

“Here. Catch.” I hadn’t given Hayden the ring Saeris had made for him. I hadn’t thought I’d needed to yet. I tossed it to him, and the boy caught it out of the air. “Put that on and donottake it off.

The quicksilver churned, bubbling in a way I hadn’t seen it behave before.

“Careful. Look,” Carrion said, gesturing to my chest. Quicksilver ran down my chest plate and dripped from my fingers. It was inert. Harmless, thanks to the relic that hung around my neck protecting me. But I couldn’t hear it. I couldalwayshear it. Even the fragment that remained within me was silent, as the quicksilver that had landed on me pooled and left me, venturing across the stone floor, heading back to the pool.

“Did I lose track of time? The pool wasn’t supposed to be open for another twelve hours at least. Right?” Carrion said.

“Right.”

“Then what’sthisabout?”

“I don’t know. But Saeris must have opened it. She’s the only Alchemist that we know of.”

“That we know of,”Carrion repeated, stressing each word. “What if there are others? What if—”

“Quiet a second. I’m thinking.” Carrion was right. There was a chance there was another Alchemist out there. Highly unlikely, but itwaspossible. More likely was the probability that Saeris had woken the quicksilver for a reason . . . and I could think of nogoodreason she would do that. It would be a last resort . . . which meant that there was a chance she was in danger.

The pool was still open.For now.It could close at any second.

“I’m going in.” There was no two ways about it. I was already striding back toward the pool.