Words of Power (Alice Gray Book 3)

60

York Minster, one of the country's oldest and most impressive buildings, was covered with gargoyles.

Some dated back hundreds of years, others had been commissioned and installed in recent years as part of the Minster's almost constant cleaning and refurbishment. But despite their diversity, some things remained the same.

They were all monstrous creatures, humanoid shapes, twisted and deformed. And they were all made out of stone.

The tiny glowing symbols that I had carved at equidistant intervals around the Minster sparkled brightly, little eyes winking as they released their potent mix of magic into the atmosphere.

Above me the geometric beams in the Minster's ceiling started to shine with ancient energy, reflecting the intricate paving stones on the floor below. All around me were patterns and sequences that had been built into this building.

I didn't know what this magic was intended for, but that didn't matter. It had been triggered by my charms and it would work for my benefit.

If, that is, I could pull my body back together and get back into the fight.

There was energy everywhere. The enchanted bricks bled it into the air as the patterns built into the Minster's structure pulsed and glowed. It flowed from my charms in gold, blue and crimson as they reacted to the White Paternoster that I was still chanting from a mouth that didn't exist in normal reality anymore.

Focusing on the pattern that was all my own, I traced the web-like structure in my mind's eye. Maybe if I could picture it, the particles would do my bidding.

And, as silver joined every other element of magical energy that was swirling where I waited at the highest point of the Minster's ceiling, a sensation of heaviness started to pull me down.

I spiralled around the massive silver Tree of Knowledge, gaining momentum at every twist and every turn. Organs, bone, muscle, veins, head, torso and limbs, all knitted together as the mortal world pulled me back with its gravity. Each link of energy fusing my flesh back together burnt with an ever-increasing intensity.

When feeling returned to my face, my mouth stretched into a wide scream, my body acknowledging the pain, before my brain registered it in the human terms that were only just making sense again.

My back arched in the intensity of the agony, arms and legs twisting out as though they were trying to escape the horror of what was happening to me. But when I tried to curl inwards to protect my raw insides, great beams of light shot out of me, keeping me suspended, stretching my new muscles and skin out to the limits of their span.

It should have been frightening, terrifying even. And it would have been, had I not experienced something like this before.

My silver energy had stimulated all the excess magic in the charms; hell, in the very building itself, and then sucked it all in to reform my body. But that wasn't the point.

I'd wanted my magic to do something, and so it had. Just like when the angels had dropped me from a great height, and provoked my life-force into seeking out my life's connections. Now the silver energy careened out of me again.

But that wasn't what those hot streams of energy were doing this time. The magic wasn't looking for my connections, but the agents built into the structure of the building itself.

Light beams of pure silver shot straight through the Minster's magnificent stained glass windows, shattering the beautiful coloured panes. Tiny fragments of coloured rain joined the droplets of angel blood that fell around us.

Finally, I reached the floor not far from where Thomas fought the rabid wolves away from our makeshift fort. The beams of silver energy shot out from my body, out through the huge windows of the Minster, seeking what I knew would help us.

Thomas's eyes widened as he saw my body clatter to the floor, before glancing behind as though not able to believe that I wasn't there anymore. My entire incorporeal experience had played out in a fraction of a second, and he hadn't even been aware that I'd gone.

It took the wolves only slightly longer to notice that I was on the other side of Thomas, the side of danger, but it didn't matter, because the streams of light that had destroyed those beautiful windows had found what they were looking for, and round each empty frame, gurning faces peered.

I had my own army now.

The Minster's gargoyles were on their way in.

But can Alice control the Gargoyles?