The Lost Book of the White

When she spoke again, Catarina sounded completely awake and alert. “I’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t let him do anything.” She hung up.

“She says don’t do anything,” Alec told him.

“Excellent news,” said Magnus. He put his robe back on and lay down on the bed. “That was already my plan.”

Alec grabbed the arrow from where it lay discarded on his nightstand and pulled the scrap of cloth from it.

He’d missed Ragnor with the arrow on purpose. Even in his panic, his rage that his home had been invaded and Max and Magnus threatened, he had recognized the green-skinned warlock as one of Magnus’s oldest friends. He couldn’t hurt him.

So he’d gone for a piece of his cloak instead. He closed his hand around it now.

“I’m going to try to Track Ragnor.”

Magnus’s eyes were half-closed. “Good idea. Great initiative.”

“What do you think they want with the Book of the White?” Alec said. He drew a quick Tracking rune on the back of his hand with his stele. He felt the bit of cloak seem to come alive inside his fist, the strange tickle in the back of his mind that said the rune was working to locate Ragnor Fell.

After a moment, Magnus, eyes still closed, said, “No idea. To practice dark magic in Sammael’s name, I assume. Any news?”

“Yes,” said Alec. “He’s to the west.”

“How far to the west?”

Alec frowned, concentrating. “Very far.”

Magnus opened his eyes. “Hang on.” He got up from the bed with an unexpected alacrity, considering how fatigued he’d looked a moment ago, and went into a desk drawer across the room. He waved a folded paper with excitement. “Here we have an excellent opportunity for warlock-Shadowhunter collaboration. You come here with your rune, and—” He unfolded what turned out to be a map of New York City across the surface of the bed and wiggled his fingers around over it. Then he grabbed Alec’s wrist and wiggled his fingers under that. Then he leaned over and kissed the back of Alec’s hand.

Alec smiled. “How does it feel to kiss an active rune?”

“There’s a little scent of heavenly fire, but otherwise it’s nice,” Magnus said. “Now what do you have, my noble tracker?”

Alec concentrated over the map. “Um, well, he’s to the west of this whole map.”

“Be right back.” Magnus left the room; in a few moments he returned and laid an unfolded map of the whole Northeast over the other map.

“West of all this,” Alec said apologetically.

Magnus came back with a map of the entire United States.

“West,” said Alec. He and Magnus exchanged a look. Magnus left again and this time came back struggling with a gigantic globe of the earth, easily two feet in diameter.

“Magnus,” said Alec. “That’s a bar.” He opened the globe at the hinge, revealing four crystal decanters inside.

“It’s still a globe,” Magnus said, closing it. Alec shrugged and began to move his fist slowly over the globe’s surface. When it came to rest, Magnus squinted to get a look. “Eastern China. Along the coast. Looks like… Shanghai.”

“Shanghai?” said Alec. “Why would Ragnor and Shinyun be in Shanghai?”

“No reason I can think of,” Magnus said. “Maybe that makes it a good hiding place.”

“What about Sammael?”

Magnus shook his head. “The last time Sammael walked the earth, Shanghai was a small fishing village. There’s no connection between them that I know of.” His dressing gown gaped open as he leaned over the globe, and Alec stared again at the place where Magnus’s skin had split open, a grotesque wound, but with no blood, only that eerie light. Magnus caught him looking and primly gathered the collar at his throat. “It’s fine.”

Alec threw up his hands. “Aren’t you concerned at all?” he said. “You have a stab wound. The stab wound is leaking weird magic. That’s serious business. You’re like Jace sometimes. It doesn’t make you weaker to accept help, you know.” He softened. “I’m just worried about you, Magnus.”

“Well, I haven’t become the thrall of Sammael, if that’s what you’re worried about,” said Magnus. He stretched his arms and legs. “I feel fine. I just need some high-quality sleep. We’ll let Catarina confirm that everything’s okay, and then tomorrow morning we’ll go to Shanghai, track down Ragnor and Shinyun, and get the Book back. Easy.”

“We will not,” said Alec.

“Well, someone has to,” Magnus said reasonably.

“We’re not going just the two of us. We need backup.”

“But—”

“No,” said Alec, and Magnus stopped, though he remained smiling. “What happens if I need runes? What happens if Shinyun and Ragnor are too powerful with the Book for us to take on by ourselves? And hey—are we taking Max with us? Because I don’t think we are.”

“I sort of hoped Catarina could watch him,” Magnus said. “For the brief time we’ll be gone.”

“Magnus,” said Alec. “I know you want to solve every problem yourself. I know you hate looking vulnerable—”

“I have help,” Magnus said. “I have you.”

“I will do everything in my power,” said Alec, “and there are lots of things we can do as just us.”

“Some of my favorite things,” Magnus put in, waggling his eyebrows.

“But this could be serious. If we go, we go with backup. I won’t go otherwise.”

Magnus opened his mouth to object, but at that moment, mercifully, the doorbell buzzed, announcing Catarina’s arrival. Alec opened the door for her, and she strode straight past him without a word. She was wearing blue scrubs almost the same color as her skin, and her white hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail. As Alec followed her back toward the bedroom, she said, “How long ago did it happen?”

“Not long,” said Alec. “Twenty minutes, maybe. He says he’s fine.”

“He always says he’s fine,” said Catarina. She went into the bedroom and barked, “Take that hideous silk thing off, Magnus, let’s see this injury.” She paused. “Also, why is your bed covered in maps?”

“It’s a perfectly nice robe,” said Magnus. “And we were planning a post-stabbing vacation.”

“We were attacked by Shinyun Jung, the warlock we met in Europe a few years ago,” Alec said. “We were Tracking—anyway, we found out where she is. Looks like Shanghai.”

Catarina nodded; it was clear to Alec this meant nothing to her. He wondered if Magnus was going to mention Ragnor. It was, he thought, definitely up to Magnus whether to share that news. He looked at Magnus, who said only, “She did it with something she called a Svefnthorn.”

“Never heard of it,” Catarina said. “But isn’t this whole apartment full of books about magic?”

Alec said, a little defensively, “I didn’t want to start looking through books before I knew whether Magnus was okay.”

“I’m great,” said Magnus, as Catarina prodded at his temples and then peered closely into one of his eyes.

Alec watched nervously as Catarina examined Magnus. After a few minutes, she sighed. “My official diagnosis is that this wound is definitely not good, and I don’t know how to make it go away. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem to be directly harming you at the moment.”

“So what you’re saying,” said Magnus, “is that in your professional opinion, there’s no reason for us not to go directly to Shanghai to find Shinyun and get this cleared up.”

“I am not saying that,” said Catarina. “Alec can do some research in your library and the Institute’s library, and I will look at my own sources in the morning and see what I can find. You should definitely not go haring off to Shanghai with a glowing magical hole in your chest.”

Magnus put up a bit more of a fuss, but in the end, as Alec had known he would, he deferred to Catarina’s wisdom. Once Magnus had promised to take her assessment of the situation seriously, she sighed, ruffled his hair, and headed out.

Alec walked Catarina to the door, where she gave him a long look. “Magnus Bane,” she said, “is like a cat.”

Alec raised his eyebrows.

“He’ll never let you know how much pain he’s in. He’ll put on a brave face, even to his own detriment.” She put her hand on Alec’s shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here to take care of him now. I worry about him a little less these days.”

“If you think I can make Magnus do what I say,” Alec said with a smile, “you have been sadly misinformed. He’ll listen to me, but he does what he likes. I guess that’s another way he’s like a cat.”

Catarina nodded and said, deadpan, “Also, he has cat eyes.”

Alec gave her a quick hug. “Good night, Catarina.”

Back in the bedroom, Alec found Magnus with his robe back on, digging around under the bed. “What are you doing?” Alec cried.

“Obviously,” said Magnus, eyes gleaming, “we are haring off to Shanghai to find Shinyun and Ragnor.”

“No, we are not,” said Alec. “You promised Catarina you’d take this injury seriously.”

“I am,” said Magnus. “I’m feeling very seriously that getting hold of Shinyun and Ragnor is the best way to start healing up.”

“Maybe,” said Alec. “But right now, we are getting the four hours of sleep we can get before Max wakes up.”

Magnus looked mutinous, but then sighed and sat back down on the edge of the bed. “Hell. We didn’t ask Catarina if she would watch Max while we’re gone.”

“Another reason to wait for morning. We can figure out the plan for Max and gather at least a little information before we go.” Alec waited a moment and then said, carefully, “We could be gone for days, you know.”