Curse of Magic

by Michael Brightburn

  Sienna furrowed her brow in concentration, her full lips pressed together, the tip of her tongue just poking out between them.

  Then she shook her head. “I think it’s a woman. And I think she’s kind of tall. But I’m not sure. The images I get are not what I’m used to. I think if I spent more time here I could learn their language, but it’s strange.”

  “Don’t worry about it. The spell’s what’s important.” I looked at Trin. “Right?”

  “Right. I don’t care about the Breaker. She’s just their employee. I care about finding who she works for.”

  We hadn’t gone much farther when Sienna let out a shriek and I turned to see Alva tumbling from the throne on her shoulder.

  Sienna fumbled for her and managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

  I instinctively looked to Vi. “What happened?”

  She put her clawed hands up. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t touch her.”

  “Then what’s wrong with her?”

  Sienna shook her head. “I don’t know. She just fell.” She looked down at the little vampire in her hands. “Alva? Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

  Alva moaned, clutching her stomach. “I feel weird.” Her leg was moving against Sienna’s forearm, the heel dragging up and down, not spasmodically, but rhythmically, slowly.

  “Damn,” Sienna said.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “The blood. The lizard. The trees are talking to me now, I still don’t really understand them, but they’re showing me the lizard again, showing me the blood. I think the lizards might’ve eaten something. The mushrooms I think. That’s why they’re so sleepy. And now it’s affecting her.”

  “Can you pull it out of her like you did me?”

  She balanced the vampire on one palm, and held the other above her. It began emitting golden light as Sienna closed her eyes and concentrated.

  Her forehead creased as she concentrated harder, then her eyes popped open and she let out several fast breaths, the golden glow fading away.

  “Did you get it?” I hadn’t seen anything come out.

  She shook her head. “I can’t find anything. It’s all jumbled up.”

  “Is she going to die from it? Do the trees tell you that?” Just because the lizards were okay didn’t mean a vampire would be.

  She scrunched up her face. “I… don’t think so. But…” She sighed and shook her head. “There’s something. I can’t tell what they’re saying.” She let out a frustrated grunt. “I don’t think it’s death, but something not good. Like, growing old. Or young? I don’t know.”

  “You’re the only one of us who can do anything. You’re the only one of us who really knows anything about this. What do you think we should do?”

  She bit her lip, her eyebrows drawing together in an expression of sadness and uncertainty. She shook her head, her pale hair swinging side to side. “I don’t know. I don’t think she’s in danger of dying. I think we should just let her rest, see if it works itself out. If she gets worse, then… oh, I don’t know.”

  “Hey, it’s okay.”

  “I’m so useless.”

  “You’re not. Don’t say that. That’s an order.”

  She gave me a weak smile.

  I nodded, then cursed when I saw that the trail was almost gone behind us.

  “We need to move. The trail is fading. It’s caught up to us now. I don’t like having this little of a buffer.

  “You got her?” I asked Sienna.

  The dryad clutched the vampire to her chest and nodded.

  “Right. Let’s move then.”

  We walked swiftly down along the stream, following the magical residue.

  I wondered if she was walking in the water to hide her tracks.

  Perhaps that was why she took a boat as well, to make sure she wasn’t followed.

  If so, she was going to great lengths to avoid having her destination discovered.

  34

  The day grew late as we followed, and I wasn’t sure how long we could keep up this pace for.

  Of all of us, I imagined Vi would be able to go the longest.

  Or perhaps, now that I thought about it, Sienna would be, drawing her power from the earth as she did.

  Surely a Breaker would have to take a break soon.

  None of the girls complained. I didn’t really expect them to.

  The only one I expected complaints from would be Alva, and she was out.

  Sienna said she wasn’t getting worse, but also that she wasn’t getting better.

  We’d gone far enough that the trees around us were more normal, and while Sienna could understand them, on the subject of those lizards and what was wrong with Alva, they had nothing to say.

  The stream, and the trail of magic in it, eventually led to a small city.

  Unlike the bright white stone of Silaris, the buildings here were gray, and there were no guards at the gate as we entered.

  “What is this place?” Trin asked.

  But neither I, nor Sienna or Vi, knew the answer.

  Inside the city there were more stone buildings, and the city itself was divided into halves by a waterway going through its center.

  Several short arched stone bridges of about fifty paces across spanned the water at different points. The buildings on that side were much like the ones on this side.

  Beyond and above these were houses and more buildings built up on the hillside, so that standing at the entrance you could see most of the structures the city comprised.

  The trail crossed a bridge to the other side, went past several shops, including what looked to be an apothecary, and into, according to the sign above the door, Lion’s Breath Inn.

  “Looks like she needs some rest after all. Thank the fathers. Maybe someone in that apothecary can help with Alva.”

  “I don’t like this place,” Sienna said wearily.

  “Why?” I asked, having learned to trust Sienna’s intuition.

  “I can’t feel anything. It’s all stone. Like there’s nothing alive here.”

  “No. That’s just…” But I trailed off as I looked around the city. There was no one here, no people walking the streets, no vendors hawking their wares. Not even any guards.

  The day had grown late, but it was not yet night. There should have been people out.

  Where were we?

  The city didn’t look derelict, and other than being empty, didn’t at all look abandoned.

  Everything seemed well-maintained.

  “We need to move. We shouldn’t stand here out in the open. The trail goes into that inn.”

  I looked around. Two buildings down from where we stood was a pub. There were no words on the sign, just a picture of a mug of ale.

  I gestured at it. “Over there, come on.”

  But it was empty.

  It sounded like there was faint music playing from somewhere inside, and I could hear voices, but I wasn’t sure from where they came.

  Vi’s ears twitched erratically, her tail pointing straight down between her legs.

  “You hear something?”

  She nodded, a quiet growl beginning in her throat.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Something’s not right.” She lifted her head up and sniffed the air, her face seeming to elongate. Not a lot, not like the full transformation she had been in when she fought the ghoul—the grogen—but enough to be noticeable.

  “Do you sense anything?” I asked Sienna.

  She looked crestfallen as she shook her head. “I can’t feel anything. I feel deadened and numb.”

  “All right, you all stay here. I’m going to check and see if there are any other exits to the inn besides the front door. Stay here. Don’t move no matter what.”

  I left them and crossed over the nearest bridge to the other side of the city, then went around the side of the inn.

  Many of the buildings here were connected, but the inn and the apothecary had a small alley between them, just
wide enough to squeeze through.

  Around back I found a solid stone face, no exits.

  The inn was more than one floor, and up higher on the building there were windows, though I couldn’t see into them from down here.

  Not much of a view, as all that was behind it were more buildings.

  Up a slope and through an alley between two other buildings was another road, one wide enough for a carriage.

  The buildings faced that street and presented their backs to me. The one nearest-aligned with the inn had a wooden door set in its back which was currently shut.

  The faint sounds I’d heard in the pub were even quieter here, but I could still hear something, as though from far away.

  I saw nothing however, and walked the perimeter of the inn, making sure there was no other way to escape.

  There wasn’t. The only way out would be through one of the windows, and there was no trail of magic back here.

  Back around the front I confirmed that the trail only led into the inn, and not out as well.

  Either the Breaker, the spell, or both, were still inside.

  I crossed the bridge back to the pub.

  All four women waited inside for me, Trin and Sienna sitting at a table, Vi pacing, Alva’s unconscious body resting on the table in front of Sienna.

  The voices were louder than they had seemed at first, as was the music. Or was it that I was more attuned to it now?

  “She’s still there,” I told the group. “Or whoever has the spell is still there. There’s no door around back, so if she leaves through the front we’d be able to see her from here, but there are windows which she could climb out of, and that we wouldn’t see. Not from here.”

  “How long are we going to wait?” Trin asked.

  I looked at Alva. “How is she?”

  “The same,” Sienna replied. “I think. It’s hard for me to tell anything though. I feel so numb here. With the stone, everything is cold and lifeless.”

  “That’s stone for you. Strong, but not exactly warm and comforting. All right, well, there’s that apothecary. We might as well head over there. We’re going to need a better vantage anyway to see if she leaves through the windows.”

  She’d taken many precautions so far to avoid being tracked, that would be just one more.

  As we crossed the bridge I got an odd sensation.

  But it was there and gone in a flash.

  I shook my head, dismissing the thought as lack of sleep, and we headed to the apothecary.

  35

  The apothecary was likewise empty of people, though full of bottles and vials and potions.

  “Do you know how to use any of this?” I asked Sienna.

  She went to one of the shelves, trailed her finger over the bottles there. “This is all dried and dead. I can only get brief flashes, not enough to know which to use on Alva.”

  Her voice was slow, lethargic, and I wondered if our journey was finally catching up with her. She said she couldn’t feel anything here, couldn’t draw power, but we hadn’t been in the city long enough for it to be that, had we?

  Still, it might be best to find a place where she could be in contact with the soil, rather than stone.

  I sighed. “Well, if you think you can try anything to help her you should do it. But don’t risk it if you’re not sure.”

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

  “All right. Let’s go outside and see if we can find a place to watch both the entrance and the windows. I think we can do it from the roof of either here or the next building over.”

  But I couldn’t see both the front and back at the same time from either of these roofs.

  “What about there?” Trin suggested, pointing at the road above us. “It looks like the road curves a bit. Should give a good angle.”

  “Good idea.”

  We walked up the embankment between buildings, then, after checking inside the most promising-looking one to make sure it was empty, I climbed up onto its roof. It had an almost-perfect view of the back and front of the inn.

  Almost, because the view of the front of the inn was obscured slightly. I could see the door, but not much past it, so if the Breaker left the inn and turned right instead of left, I wouldn’t be able to see where she went.

  But that was fine, as I would see her step outside before she was out of sight. And besides, this looked to be the best I’d be able to do.

  I told the others to wait down on the ground and get some rest, then lay at the edge of the roof, watching the inn.

  The town was eerily quiet, with just the faintest hint of noise from the water that ran through the center.

  It was still day, but was growing rapidly darker, and I felt I could actually see the shadows of the buildings move as the sun fell toward the horizon.

  It was strange how empty this place was. I wondered what had happened to everyone.

  Whatever it had been, it couldn’t have been that long ago, as the city was in good repair.

  I found my gaze often returning to the bridge we’d crossed, feeling there was something to it, but every time I looked, the feeling dissipated.

  As peculiar as this place was, it felt good to be off my feet for a while.

  As I lay there, the trail of magic gradually faded away, until all traces that the Breaker had entered the inn were gone.

  I watched until the sun was nearly set, then got up and moved in a crouch to the other edge of the roof to peer down to where my companions rested.

  Sienna was passed out, Alva resting on her stomach.

  Vi was alert, as was Trin, though she was slouched and resting against the building, unlike Vi, who sat straight, ears twitching.

  “Get some rest,” I whispered down to them, though mostly to Trin. “One of you is going to take a shift pretty soon.”

  I realized Vi would be the best choice. She had better eyes than I did, and better hearing.

  “You expect me to sleep?” Vi asked incredulously. “Out here? When we’re in danger? When those voices keep getting louder and louder, and yet they’re not growing any closer? It’s like they’re already here, but we can’t see or smell them.”

  “They’re already here? What do you mean?”

  She stood up, her tail swishing back and forth. “I don’t know. I just know they’re here.”

  “There’s no one here.”

  “Exactly. That’s the problem.” She was speaking so quietly that I could barely hear her. I imagined to her highly sensitive ears, and in the quiet of this town, it sounded much louder.

  I glanced at the inn, saw no trail coming from the windows, no new trail at the door.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I said I don’t know. It’s just— It’s like we’re not alone.”

  I held out my hands to the area. “There’s no one here. No one except the Breaker inside the inn. Maybe that’s why she came here. It’s an abandoned city.” A recently abandoned one.

  She snarled at me. “Do you not hear? Are you deaf as well as dumb?”

  I chuckled despite myself.

  “This is not funny.”

  I put up my hand. “No. I know. I’m sorry. I hear, but the voices are far away.”

  She growled louder at me, this time bared her teeth. “They’re not far away. They are here, as I’ve been telling you.”

  Sienna stirred, blinked lazily, and looked around. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” I told her. “Go back to sleep.”

  “It’s not nothing,” Vi said.

  “All right, well what do you want me to do about it?”

  “I want you to… I don’t know. I guess there’s nothing we can do. But something is wrong with this place.”

  “It isn’t as though we came here by choice. We can’t leave until she does.

  “So let’s just sit tight, and see what happens.”

  “What a brilliant plan.”

  “Do you have a better one?”

  She bared her
teeth at me.

  It was becoming less and less intimidating, and more and more a turn-on.

  She chuffed, then looked away.

  “All right then. I’m going to watch for a little while longer, then I’m going to call one of you up so I can get some rest. We need to be vigilant and keep an eye on her. If we miss her, and we don’t catch that we’ve missed her for too long, we’ll lose the trail.”

  I moved back to where I’d been watching from and lay flat on the roof, watching the inn.

  I studied the city again, but still saw no signs of anyone.

  A completely empty city. It was strange. But there wasn’t much else we could do other than wait.

  I just hoped Alva would be okay. And Sienna.

  So I lay there, though not in the enjoyable sense, watching and waiting for the Breaker to leave.

  I lay there watching as the sun set fully from the sky and its absence returned the world to its natural state of darkness.

  I watched until I couldn’t stay awake any longer. Until I was worried that I would doze off and miss the Breaker leaving.

  Then I got up, and moved quietly to the other edge.

  And found Vi looking up at me, her ears pricked.

  “Good hearing.”

  “Of course.”

  “I’m getting tired.”

  “I’ll come up there.”

  Trin was asleep now, in addition to Sienna and Alva. “How tired are you?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure? We can’t risk losing her if you fall asleep.”

  She bared her teeth at me. “I won’t fall asleep.”

  I nodded. “Get up here then.” She could see best in the dark as well.

  She got to her feet and jumped instead of climbed up onto the roof.

  “Gods be,” I said. “Impressive jump.”

  She looked at the inn where the Breaker was staying. “Get some sleep.”

  I got up to climb down. “I’ll be down there.”

  “Don’t want to risk rolling off the roof?”

  “That, and I want to stay near Sienna, Alva, and Trin. I don’t want to leave them alone down there.”

  “You’ll be sleeping. Won’t be able to protect them.” She smiled. It was shocking seeing her do so. “But don’t worry, I will.”