‘Huh?’ I said.

‘Listen again,’ said Caleb, and then he repeated the lines from the journal article, after which he summarized what he thought it meant. ‘What this professor has interpreted is that this is a two-step process, involving first tackling the white, or making the base metal into silver, before you can tackle the red, or making the silver into gold.’

‘’Kay,’ I said. ‘But where does the stone come in?’

‘Sorry, that was just the first bit. Here’s Theophrastus’s actual translation:

The white, augmented thrice within a fire,

In three days’ time is altogether changed

To lasting yellow and this yellow then

Will give its hue to every whitened form.

This power to tinge and shape produces gold

And thus a wondrous marvel is revealed.’

‘And the marvel is…’ Ryu said.

‘The stone,’ replied Caleb. ‘Here’s the next bit:

Though not a stone, it yet is made a stone

From metal, having three hypostases,

For which the stone is prized and widely known;

Yet all the ignorant search everywhere

As though the prize were not close by at hand.

Deprived of honor yet the stone is found

To have within a sacred mystery,

A treasure hidden and yet free to all.’

I sat back on the sofa, rubbing a hand over my eyes.

‘I’m hearing nothing that makes any sense, Caleb,’ I said, feeling bone-weary. ‘I’m hearing stuff that sounds like it might have something to do with everything, and yet I don’t understand any of it. Help.’

The satyr smiled knowingly. I could imagine him standing in front of a blackboard in a university, except for the whole naked-with-goat-haunches thing.

‘I’ve been poring over this, cross-referencing it to other things, looking at other translations and other alchemical poems that seem to fit this same model. And I think I’ve got it. You ready?’

I leaned forward, my turn for impatience as I made a perfunctory gesture with my hands to hurry up the satyr.

‘You’ve gotta get your hands on the White’s old bones. Then we have to perform a three-day ritual, the details of which I’m working out from the next part of the poem, with the help of this journal article. It’s like the guy wrote it with us in mind.’

Before I could say that idea was ridiculous, I thought about everything I’d seen when in thrall to the universe. If a human poet could become its puppet, scribbling away at a crazy metaphorical dragon-to-gold scheme, why couldn’t a scholar, working diligently to translate and make sense out of the poem?

I had a moment’s pang for all those vessels of the universe, toiling at what must have seemed to others like mad whims.

Caleb continued. ‘What I do know so far is that the ritual we’ll do involves the sea, and fire. At the end of all this stuff, the bones are going to yield a stone. Then we have to get ahold of the White itself and use the stone on him. The stone will transmute the White’s essence, and I’m thinking it’s going to take it into itself.’

‘Wait,’ I interrupted. ‘Whose essence? The White’s? Or Anyan’s?’

‘It has to be the White’s. This is about the dragon, not about Anyan.’

I had more questions, but Caleb kept talking.

‘It’s that stone that we use to tackle the dragons,’ the satyr said. ‘Through that stone, we destroy first him, then her. But first we have to figure out how to extract the stone from the White’s bones. So while I work out the details of the ritual, you need to get the bones.’

I opened my mouth to ask my questions but Ryu got there first.

‘And how are we supposed to separate the two dragons? We can’t have the Red flying about while we try to murder her mate.’

Caleb shrugged. ‘You’ve got to figure that part out while I translate and cross-reference the rest of this poem.’

‘Oh, we do, do we?’ Ryu asked, clearly irritated with Caleb’s high-handedness.

‘Wait,’ I said, before Caleb started apologizing. ‘I have a question.’

Both Caleb and Ryu turned to me.

‘What happens to Anyan in all of this? Does he survive?’

Caleb chewed on his bottom lip – not a good sign. When he finally spoke, he used his ‘confident healer’ voice. I imagined it was the voice he used to tell patients that they were probably dying, but still in good hands.

My lungs were suddenly too small, and I felt a sweat break out over my body.

‘To be honest, I don’t know, Jane. I really don’t. From what I’ve translated so far, the poem is only about killing the White, not saving a host.’

Caleb was clearly able to read the expression on my face.

‘You know we’ll do our best, Jane. We all want him back, too.’

I nodded, but I knew the truth. Despite the fact they didn’t want it to be so, everyone else understood that killing the Red and the White had to take precedence over saving Anyan.

At least everyone did but me.

Chapter Ten

‘You gonna be okay?’ Ryu asked, his voice laced with concern.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure about that one. We were standing in the last place I’d ever wanted to see again – the high cliff in Whitby where the ruins of the abbey had once stood. Now those ruins were really ruined, and half of the cliff had tumbled into the sea. The small cottages that had sat next to the abbey were burned-out husks.

And the soil here was soaked with the blood of the Original, Blondie, who’d died in Magog’s arms just about where I was standing. It was also the last place I’d seen Anyan, as Anyan, before his body had been hijacked by the White.

Ryu came and stood next to me, putting an arm carefully around my shoulders. It wasn’t an entirely unwelcome gesture, not least as it kept me from absconding to swim my cares away in the ocean behind me.

I’d swum immediately upon getting to Whitby, but right now just about the only thing I could think to comfort me would be the sea.

Or Anyan, I thought. Stripped of his dragonhood.

The creature shifted in my mind, a comforting gesture reminding me that it was there, and equally sad to see the place its child had died.

‘I’ll be okay,’ I said, finding the strength to make that optimism a reality. Then I looked up at Ryu to give him a grateful smile, one that he returned with a peck on the forehead. It was an entirely friendly gesture, which made me happy we’d come so far. But I disengaged to take a few steps forward, scanning the ground for the disturbance I knew I’d find somewhere near the burned patch that had housed the pyre upon which we’d burned the bodies.

‘There,’ I said, pointing. ‘It’s gotta be right over there.’

Daniel nodded, sending forth a few members of his team, armed with shovels. Knowing we’d want backup and help, we’d flown to the UK from Hong Kong on the dime of the British government, landing at an airbase somewhere in Yorkshire. The drive to Whitby had only taken an hour, and so far we’d had smooth sailing in this trip to recover the White’s bones.

But I knew we’d be discovered soon enough. For not even Daniel’s careful plans, and his trying to use only human, governmental resources, would keep the Great Island’s Alfar from discovering I was back on their turf. Not least because I already knew there had to be spies throughout the human government. Undoubtedly one layer of spies the humans knew about, so they had something to keep an eye on, and another layer of real spies. In fact, knowing the Alfar of the Great Island, there were a few layers of spies in between, just to keep everyone guessing.

I took a deep breath as I turned my back on the men digging, enjoying the scent of the ocean and the heavy tingle of power that came rushing through me with each inhale.

Before long, I sensed another tingle, at the farthest range of the sensors I’d let drift outward from me. I sighed, dragging my power back into a heavy shield, motioning to Ryu to join me.

‘We have company,’ I said, just as a quartet of black SUVs swept into view, their engines loud despite the sea calling behind us. Daniel motioned for his people to keep digging, even as he motioned for the men on guard to fan out behind him. Ryu and I joined Daniel, forming a greeting party to say hello to our guests.

‘Luke. Griffin. Minions,’ I said amicably as the Alfar second and his leader slowly got out of the vehicle after a couple of goblins dressed in flunky suits had done a quick sweep with their sharp eyes and powers, and then opened the door for their masters.

I didn’t seem to deserve a greeting, letting me know I was once again in trouble with The Powers That Be.

‘What are you doing exactly?’ Griffin said, ignoring both Ryu and me to get up in Daniel’s face. Despite being Alfar, Griffin’s emotions were palpable – and they mostly consisted of anger.

‘We’re retrieving the White’s bones,’ the human said, remarkably calm considering that, as a puny mortal, the being in front of him could crush Daniel like a bug.

‘We can see that. But why?’

‘Because we are. That’s all you need to know.’