Curse of Magic

by Michael Brightburn

  We did eventually come to a trail of sorts, though it was a small, single-person one, not the kind you’d ride a horse on—not even slowly unless you wanted to risk breaking its leg.

  When I looked back, I saw that the magic trail had faded out.

  We must have been farther behind her than I had thought for such a powerful residue to have already faded.

  It meant we had to keep moving. No rest until we got closer, else we risked losing her.

  This smaller foot trail eventually led to a road and then on to a small settlement.

  The area was completely unfamiliar to me. “Does anyone know where we are?”

  No one did.

  The settlement wasn’t a large one, only sparsely populated with houses and buildings.

  But there was a calvin platform, and those wouldn’t be just anywhere.

  Was this the Breaker’s destination? Not a city or kingdom, but a settlement?

  I stared at the giant creature waiting by the platform. The platform was built into a small hill so the structure itself wouldn’t have to be so tall.

  Calvins were large creatures with incredibly long spindly legs. They could almost float above the ground due to their light, gas-filled bodies. They were especially suited for travel over rough terrain.

  I’d never liked the creatures. They were too different from anything else. There were no other animals like them that I had ever seen.

  They resembled nothing so much as giant insects.

  All calvin platforms were run by the Travelers Guild—you’d think it would be the Beastmasters, but it wasn’t—and so no one except for perhaps the Guild leadership knew where their homeland was.

  No one knew much about them at all.

  They did not fit in with the rest of the natural world.

  They were natural though, not mechanical or summons.

  It didn’t happen often, but sometimes they got attacked or killed by people or creatures, and so they had been studied by those outside the Guild.

  There was once even a theft of one, The Mathenven Heist. That was an incredible tale, one every child learns, and one every child is more than happy to learn. One of the most exciting things you’re taught in school.

  Even though it was an old tale, plays still ran of it to this day.

  “This is where she went?” Trin asked.

  “Looks that way. The spell’s here for certain.”

  The land around the settlement was hilly, but the hills were small and gentle with many paths leading between them where a wagon or carriage could easily travel.

  We followed the trail of magic into the settlement.

  It wasn’t a very large one, though I saw a human guard chatting with a fesdian elf. The elf looked like he might be a farmer, what with his weather-worn dark skin and wagon full of hay, which he leaned casually on as his mule grazed nearby.

  The guard laughed at something he said.

  The elf looked our way and made a slight gesture with his head, and the guard turned to look at us.

  “Good day,” he said with a nod, giving my companions a quick study.

  I nodded back, and he returned to his conversation with the elf.

  We passed a tavern which quite a ruckus was coming from, though it was mostly laughter and boisterous voices.

  Vi’s ears suddenly pricked and her tail stood straight out.

  “Wha—” I began, then saw.

  Up ahead, a few buildings beyond the tavern, sitting on a stoop and knitting something, was either a nekjeyt or an untransformed ailuranthrope. I thought nekjeyt, given the amount of fur covering her mostly unclothed body.

  Vi growled at the woman.

  “Calm down,” I whispered.

  “I can’t,” she said, continuing to growl as we passed by.

  The nekjeyt didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned, and sat there watching us pass, her hands still working on her knitting.

  “You’re drawing attention,” I scolded once we passed.

  “I can’t help it,” she said, but her ears folded flat against her head. “She was downwind and I couldn’t smell her. I can’t control my reactions when I’m not prepared.”

  “Try.”

  But it turned out not to matter, as the trail continued on through the settlement and out into the higher hills.

  “Looks like she didn’t stop here,” I said. “Strange she chose to go through the settlement rather than around it.” But the trail didn’t double back on itself.

  It was also strange that the trail into the hills didn’t follow one of the already worn paths.

  “Can’t we walk on the roads?” Alva complained after we’d been walking a bit.

  “What are you complaining about little creature?” Vi snarled. “You’re riding on her shoulder. And enjoying yourself by the looks of it.”

  “All this height change is making me dizzy.”

  “You leap through trees to chase your prey, then fall upon them. How is this making you dizzy?” Vi actually sounded genuinely curious, with only a hint of agitation in her voice.

  “Because then I’m in control. Now I’m riding on someone else.”

  “You’re free to walk,” I told her.

  “I won’t be able to keep up with you.”

  “You seemed to do fine last night.”

  “Last night? That was this morning. What does that have to do with walking?”

  I looked at her, her face only partially visible through her veil, then realized what she was talking about. “No, not that. After I let you out of your cage. You ran around.”

  Trin now looked at the vampire, then at me. “She has a cage?”

  “She did. Not anymore.”

  “Why would you put a faerie in a cage?”

  I quirked an eyebrow. “Faerie?”

  Alva started giggling.

  Surprising me, Vi started laughing as well.

  Sienna had the decency not to laugh at Trin’s question, but did wear a slight smile.

  “What’s so funny?” Trin asked.

  “Why would you think Alva was a faerie?”

  She shrugged. “Look at her. In her fancy clothes. She’s small, delicate, and pretty. Exactly like a faerie.”

  Alva took a moment between her mirth to nod at Trin and get out a giggly “Thank you,” at this.

  “What else would she be?” Trin looked between us. “She is a faerie, right?”

  “No, not exactly,” I answered.

  “Then what is she?”

  “She’s a vampire,” Vi said, then burst out laughing hysterically.

  Trin looked at all of us, then at Alva, then at me again. “You let me fall asleep with a vampire around!”

  “I assure you she won’t hurt you…” I said, but then trailed off as I realized I actually couldn’t provide that assurance.

  Sure, she hadn’t hurt us, but I’d also woken up to her laying with me.

  So perhaps her infatuation made it so she wouldn’t hurt me.

  The same could not be said however for our new Whisperer friend.

  I wasn’t worried about Vi, she could take care of herself against one vampire.

  Sienna… well, it didn’t seem anyone would hurt Sienna.

  But Trin… No, I couldn’t promise her that Alva wouldn’t hurt her.

  “I won’t drink your blood,” Alva said, still giggling, but calming down. “It’s only when we’re in packs that the bloodlust gets really bad. Or when there’s blood. I love blood. Blood is really good. You have any blood?”

  “Not that I can spare,” Trin said, taking a step back.

  “Sorry. I get a little excited when I start thinking about blood. It’s red and gooey and crystalline and sweet and delicious and— Oh gods I’m starving.”

  “Are you going to be okay?” I asked, now actually worried.

  She nodded. “Let’s just stop talking about blood—sweet delicious red blood—and I’ll be fine.”

  “Good idea.”

  Trin moved as far away f
rom Sienna—and in turn Alva—as she could, placing me between herself and the two of them.

  Well, I couldn’t blame her.

  We followed the trail of magic residue as it led up further into the hills, and when I looked back the way we’d come, I was surprised to see we’d gained so much elevation. I could just see the settlement in the valley of hills, which I was now looking down upon.

  What might have been the fesdian elf and his mule moved around the outskirts of the settlement toward a field.

  As we continued our gentle climb, the area grew more rocky, and I noticed we were now walking on a small, worn, dirt trail.

  I’d been so fixated on the trail of magic, that I hadn’t noticed the actual one.

  I glanced back again, trying to see where the two had merged, but couldn’t spot it.

  I was about to ask Vi if she could tell, when suddenly someone screamed.

  Before I had time to react a blur of motion made me look up and something crashed down in front of our group.

  “Raping gods!” Trin shouted in alarm.

  Alva shrieked and toppled from her throne.

  Only Vi and Sienna kept their composure.

  Vi sniffed the air. “Blood.”

  I looked at her. “That’s a… person?”

  33

  We stood around the figure.

  He was obviously dead.

  His limbs splayed at unnatural angles and blood leaked out of his ears.

  There was also a remarkably straight slash across his face, but I didn’t see how that could be from the fall.

  He was wearing a strange vest that looked almost like metal, but not quite. It bore an insignia of a winged creature, but beyond that I couldn’t say what it was supposed to be.

  I looked up to the sky, then at the two hills the man had fallen between.

  They were not tall enough to kill a man jumping off of them. I could see their tops even just standing here.

  Besides that, they were gradually sloped, and their low summits were a good hundred or two paces from where we stood.

  So there was nowhere obvious he could have fallen from.

  Well, other than the sky.

  “What are we going to do with him?” Vi asked.

  “He has blood. Blood is good.” Alva fidgeted in her throne excitedly.

  Vi growled. “He’s mine if we’re eating him.”

  “No, I get the blood first. You destroy—”

  “No one’s eating him,” I interrupted. “Just calm down. Let’s see who he is.”

  I glanced at Alva to make sure the little vampire hadn’t lost her mind and gone into a bloodlust, then knelt and searched the corpse.

  He wore a sheath on his belt which held a small sword.

  There was a symbol on its hilt, just below the blade in a circular bit of metal, like a large coin. It was similar in style to the one on his vest, but I couldn’t even guess at what this one might be.

  Also on his person was a sack of crowns. Ten, in fact. The same amount as the divine was to pay for my neglected delivery.

  In a padded case were two potion vials, which I was not about to drink or otherwise test out. They were both full, and in the case with them was a small scroll that easily fit in my palm.

  It was written in the old language.

  I’d learned to read it as a child, but not well. Only scholars who devoted their lives to it were able to learn it even marginally well, and even then, I wouldn’t place any bets on their translations.

  I wasn’t sure if the scroll was instructions for the vials, or a spell itself. It said something about the air, which might explain why this man had fallen from the sky, but that was about all I could read. It was scribed in an incredibly small hand, which didn’t help.

  There was nothing else on him identifying who he might be or where he came from.

  “Do you think he was a wizard?” Trin asked.

  I shook my head. “No, I think not. I find it hard to believe that a wizard would get himself killed by falling from the sky.”

  “Maybe he didn’t,” Trin said, motioning to the slash on his face. “Maybe he was killed.”

  “Whatever he was, he’s dead now, and there’s no way for us to know who he is or how he died. We’ll leave him here. I’m sure someone will find him.”

  “Do the plants tell you anything?” Trin asked Sienna, looking around at the rocky, sparsely vegetated area.

  “There aren’t many around here. And none are trees, those are easiest to understand. But I don’t get the sense that any of the others have been trod on or near within the past few moments.”

  “Strange,” Vi growled.

  “Yes,” I agreed. “A mystery. One we don’t have time to solve. Come on.”

  “What about my blood?” Alva protested.

  “No. I’m not letting you drink human blood.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it…” I didn’t actually know why, it just seemed… ill-advised.

  “Because then you’ll want more human blood,” Vi supplied.

  “I will not! I’m not an animal like you.”

  Vi growled. “I’ll show you an animal.”

  “We’ll get you food. Both of you. But not right now.”

  “When?” Alva asked.

  “As soon as we can.”

  “Fine. But I need some blood soon.”

  “How often do you need blood?”

  “How often do you need food?”

  “Wonderful.”

  I put the scroll back into the padded case of vials, and case into my satchel, then undid the scabbard from the man’s waist and strapped it to my own, on the belt Elanos made for me.

  I thought about taking the vest as well, but it would take more time, and I couldn’t see what use it would be.

  I checked the trail of magic residue behind us and was alarmed to note that I could see where it faded out.

  We still had a buffer, but we needed to hurry.

  Hopefully no more oddly-attired men fell from the sky.

  We moved on, leaving the corpse behind, and our mild ascent turned into an equally mild descent.

  The trail of magic eventually led down to a small stream, about shin-deep, with large, fat lizards sunning themselves on its bank.

  The trail turned and followed the water, meaning the Breaker had waded down it rather than walking along the bank.

  The nearby foliage was dense and filled with many plants I had never seen in my own kingdom. The colors were strange, purples and blues and whites. Off shades of green and intricately shaped white leaves like snowflakes.

  Large colorful mushrooms lined the banks of the stream. Some were so large that they cast the lizards beside them into shadow. Not the best place to sun yourself, but generally lizards weren’t all that smart.

  It all combined to give the place an alien, magical feel. Not in the actual sense of magic, but magical in the sense that poets sometimes used it.

  Mostly poets who couldn’t do magic.

  We walked along the bank instead of in the water, stepping over lazy lizards and around giant mushrooms.

  Alva complained several more times about growing hungry despite sitting on Sienna’s shoulder and not exerting herself whatsoever.

  Finally I got so tired of it that I snatched up a particularly large lizard sunning itself on the bank and held it out for her to take.

  She wrinkled her nose. “Reptile blood? It’s so… lukewarm.”

  “It’s been sunning itself. All day by the feel. It’ll be nice and hot.”

  The lizard squirmed in my grip, though not particularly violently. It seemed half-asleep.

  I gestured toward her with it. “Go on. Bite into it.”

  She opened her mouth and hesitantly leaned forward, pressing her fangs prissily into the scaled skin, scrunching her face up as she did.

  “Go on,” I prodded again. “Bite down.”

  She bit, and red blood filled her mouth.

  She looked torn between h
unger and revulsion as she eagerly drank, but also tried to pull away.

  Finally after several large swallows she did pull away.

  “That’s all? There’s still plenty left.”

  “Just put him back. I didn’t take enough to kill him.”

  “Since when are vampires sentimental?” Vi growled.

  “Since their blood tastes like vomit.” She made a disgusted face but licked her lips and chin clean of blood.

  What an odd compulsion.

  Shaking my head, I set the lizard back down.

  It slithered lazily away, trailing little drips of blood, though the wounds from her fangs were small, and didn’t bleed much.

  This fat lizard settled next to a smaller one, then splayed out, baking in the sun again.

  I wondered how these things survived if they were that lazy all the time.

  Maybe they bred really fast. Or they had no predators around here.

  If their blood actually tasted like vomit, that was possible.

  “Won’t your bite infect it?” I asked. Though I wasn’t sure how much stupider a lizard could be made.

  “No.”

  “Uh… can you control it?”

  “Of course I can control it!” she said, offended. “I’m not an animal like—”

  “Okay,” I interrupted, before she and Vi went at it again. “So you’re good then?”

  “I guess,” she grumbled.

  I looked at Vi. “What about you?”

  “I’ll wait for something more appetizing.”

  I nodded, and we moved on.

  The magic trail kept to the stream, which eventually wound into a forest.

  The trees here were large and spaced very far apart, their canopies wide but sparse, with leaves of purple and green and blue, though none white like before.

  “Ever seen foliage like this?” I asked.

  “It is strange,” Sienna said. “I can barely understand their language.”

  “Whose? The trees?”

  “Yes. They’re saying something about the lizards, but I can’t understand what.”

  “Huh,” I said, looking around. The number of lizards had decreased once we’d entered into the forest, but a few still lay on the stream’s bank, despite the weaker sunlight that filtered through the sparse canopy above us. “Can they tell you if it’s the Breaker who came this way? Or someone else she handed the spell off to.”