by Keri Salyers
“Eleanor…” I began, coming around the couch. “I didn’t want to get you involved.”
“Involved in what?” She asked, hugging the bag closer. Her already big eyes looked positively gigantic behind her glasses. “A-are you in trouble?”
“No. Well, yes. It’s a long story and I don’t have a lot of time to explain.” Apparently, that was I-need-this-problem-to-go-away-right-now in Harbinger-speak; I quickly called Devi on it before he moved more than a step toward my house sitter. Devi backed off, positioning himself by the island and leaning easily on the marble top. The cold seriousness was gone and replaced by a small smile that even reached his eyes—damn, he was good. I looked back at Eleanor, studying her profile while she stared at Devi. “Eleanor… this, uh… this is Devi.” I gestured. “And Ian—…um, Ian, yes.”
The mage’s eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses. “Are you addressing me?”
Oh, that’s right, Osiril’s Master Mage did not speak English. How fun.
“I-it’s nice to meet you,” Eleanor said softly, tucking a stray curl behind her ear then scrambling to catch the bag in her arms before it slipped. Deciding to (finally) just put the bag down, it was that moment when she saw the yawning black portal on the far wall. She let out a squeal and nearly jumped a foot. “Wh-what’s that? Oh my God!”
“Ah, what the hell, right? Look Eleanor, this isn’t going to be easy for you to believe but I am not exactly from around here. None of us are.” I gestured to the two men. “There are things going on right now that you wouldn’t understand but you’ll have to trust me, it’s very important.” The girl tore her eyes away from the swirling portal to meet mine. It was like she was staring at a stranger. In truth, she was.
“Th-that thing is moving.” She pointed at the portal. I could see the edge of hysteria brimming. “That man’s hand really was glowing, I wasn’t just seeing things and… and…” She looked at Devi. My assassin was still propped up comfortably with an amiable expression. Eleanor shook her head passionately, wanting to say he would have killed her but at the same time not wanting to put the thought out there. “Z, tell me the truth.”
“Okay,” I frowned. Getting a new house-sitter that I could trust was going to suck. “I am from a place called Lehiras. It is through that portal there. I… wasn’t always the person I am today. Living here changed me.” Oh I was so glad Ianarius—heh heh Ian—couldn’t understand me at the moment. “It’s made me realize how much this place means to me and now someone is threatening this world because I am here. I have been given no choice but to confront this person. Devi and Ian are here to help me.”
There. I put it out there. With a wave, I began to dissipate the portal. Its energies bounced about recklessly before evaporating, surely enough to garner a disapproving tongue-cluck from a certain Master Mage. Eleanor untucked her limbs from their place at her chest and dabbed under her eyes with a knuckle. She snuffled but didn’t look like she was about to bolt and call the police. “I-I’ll help too. If that’s okay.”
Several wasted minutes later, my shy house-sitter was adamantly invested in my cause. I had never thought someone so timid and diffident could make such a strong case. When it came down to it, Eleanor was right about one thing—I was going to need a ride and I had never bothered to buy a car. When Ian cast a temporary glamour on Devi’s clothing, her fear was gone and was replaced by an awed fascination. I half-expected her to ask if he could do any other “magic tricks”.
Ian’s eyes bulged behind his sunglasses as we stepped out the door of my condo, his hand reflexively gripped his collar closed around his throat. His presence at my side momentarily threatened to drown me with him; to his credit, he didn’t pass out. The mage paused at the top of the stairs, lips moving as he said something in Pelthocian that I couldn’t make out. A breeze picked up, causing the light morning rain to come under the overhang and spatter on our shoes.
The Harbinger was already down the stairs, unmindful of the drizzle. Devi’s eyes were everywhere at once; his hands touched everything within reach. He crushed a flower, pinched the unlit streetlamp hard enough to dent the metal, then gave a passerby a reason to walk a little faster. I was torn between reigning in his fun and making sure Ian wasn’t going to throw up on my doorstep.
“Is he okay?” Eleanor asked as we both stood on the stairs and watched Ian talk to himself. She couldn’t see it but I could—he was pulling in energy to form a shield around himself physically. I had doubts he could maintain that for long but hey I wasn’t about to tell Osiril’s hot shot what to do about his own nausea.
“Devi!” I hollered at the Harbinger, already half way down the block. Ugh, it was like owning a dog or at least I suspected it was. “Ian, let’s go sometime today, please?” A line of irritation appeared in between his brows as he finished up his chant. I shooed Eleanor down the stairs and in Pelthocian, asked what that was he was saying.
“An old poem I had my apprentices learn to help center themselves amidst outside influences.” He looked out at the world from over the top of his sunglasses. The sun peeked out from behind a cloud and the light caught and shimmered on the sclera of his eyes, making them look unreal but was nothing comparative to the prism of colors making up his irises. Catching me staring, he pushed the glasses up and gestured after Eleanor. My, my, someone was truly touchy about his eye color.
“Ah, my car is in the garage,” Eleanor said, getting her keys from her colorful homemade knit purse. The ring had a small scuffed photo frame with a cat on it. Though I’d seen her keys before, the thought of making small talk over the picture had never surfaced; guess I really would make a terrible friend. She walked a little ahead of us, looking back almost as much as forward. “I live in Rutherford s-so wherever you need to go…”
“Thanks, Eleanor. Appreciate it,” I replied. Ian stalked at my side like a wraith, one hand jammed into a pocket; the other was keeping his jacket closed tight around his throat. The tall man was taking in everything and not just visually; things that caught his eye that he couldn’t touch, he was using his mage’s eye to learn about. Doing so kept his normally long-legged stride shortened and that suited me just fine.
Devi was, as the saying went, pleased as punch to be anywhere other than a dank lonely dungeon. He had probably learned all he could about Pelthocia so that he could integrate perfectly; this new world offered him another chance to hone his skills. He was already improving; people weren’t crossing the street to avoid him anymore. One older couple even smiled at him when he gave them a pleasant greeting—in English.
Eleanor’s blue car was about as unimpressive as they came. Ian predictably balked when we all started piling in and I rounded on him, growing tired of his slowing me down. “Get over it, mage. This couldn’t possibly be worse than being ringed in Sarkkrai steel.” When he looked at me blankly, I realized I just said what I said in English.
“What’s a ‘Sarkkrai’?” Eleanor asked, from the other side of the car.
“Sarkkrai are… are…” I waved my hand about as if I could summon the answer from the air—how did I go about explaining them? Lehiras’ bane, enemies of Pelthocia and Zarhsha alike, or proud warriors, my one-time allies?
“Cruel monsters,” Ian replied. Jaw set, he got the door open and sat down. He leaned his head back on the seat and closed his eyes. I really hoped he wasn’t going to puke.
“What’d he say?”
As we got in, I couldn’t decide whether to translate that or not. “They are not to be trifled with.”
Eleanor navigated out of the garage and out into the rain, which had started up once again. From the backseat, I heard the mage groan and curse. When the girl looked askance, I told her he got car sick really easy. Eyes going from road to rear view mirror, she drove us out of Kingston and toward Rutherford.
Where Kingston was expensive, well-kept and well-funded and it showed, Rutherford was its antithesis. Passing over the bridge of Cedar River in silence, I took in the sights I didn’t normall
y bother with. It was a rare day that I stepped foot in Kingston’s metropolis sister-city. The bridge gave way to multi-story buildings and cramped thoroughfares. The wind picked up and the rain fell harder, almost at an angle. Traffic evened out once we got off the main road. Maintaining a speed a few under the posted limit, Eleanor turned her head momentarily to me before going back to the road. “S-so, where to?”
“I am not sure. I was told that we would be lead… somewhere.” I stared out the side window, searching but for what I had no idea. Switching to Pelthocian, I said, “Perhaps it would make this easier if Osiril’s Number One Mage could provide a little bit of help, as he said he would.”
“Perhaps if I had known I would be ferried around inside an impure metal carriage, I could have prepared better.” The surly man cracked open his eyes with a groan but was quick to close them again when the car hit an unpatched pothole.
I couldn’t help but smile at his misery. Oh how I would have loved to have known of this weakness a dozen years ago. Glancing over at Devi, I saw he affected the slouched posture of human youth when forced to ride in the back seat. The Harbinger even had the I-am-so-bored glaze to his eyes.
Twenty minutes later I was about to throw up my hands and scream. Patience was not a virtue I possessed. Where were these supposed clues? Invyrchal said he would guide us—guide us to what? How many one-way streets there were in Rutherford? Ian kicked the back of my seat none-too-gently when my anger leaked out. “Damn it, Invyrchal, stop screwing with us!” I growled.
Seductive laughter echoed through my mind, causing my spine to stiffen at the intrusion. I met Ian’s eyes. There was a “knock” on both of our barriers and, as one, our heads turned to the right. Thanks to the rain, there were not many people wandering the sidewalks. One person drew our eyes like a magnet. He wore dark-colored clothing and his dark hair was plastered to his head, but he seemed otherwise unaffected by the weather. Large was an understatement; he had the look of a professional bodybuilder or perhaps linebacker. But it wasn’t the man’s size that gave us a red flag, it was the fact that he was blatantly watching us as we were him. Whoever this was, he was sent for us. This was our clue. When he was sure we had seen him, he turned and made off down the nearby alleyway.
“Eleanor, pull over! Hurry!” The moment the car came to a stop, I jumped out with Ian a second behind me. Devi crawled through and exited on our side, shutting the door behind him.
“I smell violence,” the Harbinger remarked with a tilt of his head, in perfect Sarkkrai.
“Let’s follow before he gets too far,” Ian chimed in, pulling his jacket closer around him to keep out the rain. The water spattered on his hair, darkening the color and streamed down his angular face. Not that I was paying any attention to that.
“The pair of you need to either learn English or compromi—”
“I do not speak Sarkkrai! Filthy language,” the mage growled, gaining a very pleased expression from Devi at the reaction.
“Down, boys,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “Our clue is getting away.”
“I paid the parking meter! Let’s go!” Eleanor said, stumbling over her own feet and clutching her knit purse to her chest. “Uh… i-is everything okay?”
Did I have time to explain to her why it was better if she waited in the car? Ian answered that question by cursing in Pelthocian and moving swiftly down the alleyway in the direction our lead went. “Stay close to us.”
The alleyway was not how I pictured I would be spending my day—it was dark, dirty and, I was sure that if it weren’t for the rain, stinky. A service entrance for delivery trucks, the alley wasn’t exactly well-maintained; we were dodging puddles and refuse every few steps. Other than us and a mangy old cat, there was nothing. Where’d our lead get off to? Just great.
Sometimes it’s good to know an assassin. Really, sometime think about it. When a “normal” person doesn’t see anything around them, they don’t always then look up. Devi did. We followed his gaze to see the man above us on the fire escape looking down on us with an amused expression. He was quick. And much quieter than a man his size should have been—we should have heard him clambering up the loose-swinging metal ladder from down the alley. When he was sure we had seen him, he continued his way up.
“Are you kidding me?” I said indignantly. I was not about to climb up a bunch of rickety rusted ladders. Apparently no one else thought the same as I. Devi was up on them faster than a monkey, perching on the barrier bars then leaping up and using his upper body strength to get to the next floor. Ian smirked at me, obviously over his displeasure at being forced into an ‘impure metal carriage’. The mage cast an air spell, levitating himself and in heartbeat had caught up with Devi. “Well… shit.”
“Did did did he just fly?” Eleanor exclaimed, hand on her mouth.
“He is a mage, Eleanor.” Now then, how was I going to one-up that smug bastard? Couldn’t just copy the same spell. Damn Pelthocian. Oh wait, that’s right. With practiced ease, I grew my wings and in a single down beat took off after the mage. I didn’t look back at Eleanor; I figured a smart girl would high-tail it back to her car after she saw two people take off in flight.
In two powerful strokes, I rocketed to the top of the building and alighted on the low concrete wall. Ian and Devi joined me. Our lead wasn’t attempting to escape or lead us anywhere else but he was suddenly not of interest anymore. Why would you be interested in a human -no matter the size—when standing before you dressed in full battle-kit was a Sarkkrai destroyer?
~*~*~*~
CHAPTER 7
The rain wasn’t slacking off. With Devi at my side in a deceptively unaggressive stance and Ian practically shining in energy, I felt… flirty. Invyrchal sends a single destroyer to test us? Me? Who was he kidding? Was he trying to irritate me? Flicking out my wings, causing droplets to fly, I let them dissipate into nothingness.
The Sarkkrai stood an impressive head taller than average, easily one of the tallest I’d laid eyes on. Set through-and-through with corded muscle, his shoulder width alone was twice my own. His chest was bare, save for the leather straps holding the shoulder guards in place. The destroyer’s head was capped in a helm that only showed the bottom half of his face, eyes not visible through the narrow slit. He blew out, sending water droplets flying. Gripped in his right hand was a nasty looking blade; a lengthy chain ran from hilt to his left.
“A single Sarkkrai? What is Invyrchal playing at?” Ian asked, tucking his glasses into his pocket.
“I have no idea. So, let’s ask him.” I switched to the Sarkkrai tongue and shouted across the rooftop. “Why are you here, destroyer?”
The Sarkkrai did not reply in words: instead he beckoned with his weapon. Apparently, if we wanted answers, we’d need to go through him. Fine by me.
While the boys circled left and right, I went down the center. The destroyer went into a defensive posture, visible muscles bunching with raw power. He twirled his sword over the back of his hand in a smooth motion, cutting the raindrops. Lightning flashed and as if he had been waiting for a signal, the destroyer was on the move. Faster than should have been possible for someone his size, he darted forward. Devi’s natural quickness couldn’t avoid the giant hand that suddenly reached out and wrapped around his head. In the time it took for the sword to drop to the ground, Devi found his balance and went with the momentum. A sharp snap of his palm released the destroyer’s grip and he rolled backward of the way of a heavy boot before the Sarkkrai could effectively brain him on the concrete.
Unfazed at all, the destroyer threw out his other hand, sending the steel chain arching through the air towards Ian. Predictably, the mage flinched back when the chain hit the barrier he had erected. It smashed into the seemingly empty air but instead of letting it fall, the Sarkkrai yanked it back, whipping it around his body to send Devi scurrying back. A grin split the destroyers face; he was enjoying this.
And he was also avoiding me in his attacks. The slight did not go over my
head and would not go unquestioned.
Grabbing up his blade, he feinted an attack at Devi and when he pivoted the blades trail suddenly lit in a pure blue flame that did not falter under the dousing rain. I jumped back on instinct. I knew the flame wall wouldn’t be hot but it would melt whatever it touched. Blue flame, but how…?
Devi’s eyes bled to black but his features did not change. He bared savagely pointed teeth. The moment the flames died out, he leapt at the Sarkkrai. Years of pent-up aggression turned the Harbinger into a kicking, punching, slashing blur. The sword went flying from a kick. The Sarkkrai blocked a good portion of the attacks but not all; he took the others as if to prove he could.
Feeling a draw of energy, I tore my eyes away in time to witness a quick tempo of attacks thrown from Ian’s amethyst, glowing hands. The attacks were not anything my eyes could make out; it was like he was shooting air. But the spells were as powerful as Devi’s fists—more so—and rocked the destroyer back, stumbling with expelled breath. He caught himself before he fell, blood pouring from his mouth. Growling, he went for the mage but Devi cut him off with a wicked backhand that nearly took off the Sarkkrai’s helm. Kneeing him hard in the stomach, then landing an elbow to the face, Devi agilely swept back when the destroyer tried to grab hold of him. Ian took the opportunity to launch more of his unblockable attacks.
The Sarkkrai dodged one but was hit squarely in the chest by the second, then the third. No one should have been able to stay on his feet after such an onslaught. Letting loose a rage-fueled roar, he charged like a bull but was cut short when Devi went low, snatching up the dropped chain, pulled the sword to him and let fly. Deep crimson sprayed as the weapon bit deep into the exposed chest and arm of the Sarkkrai, almost amputating the limb at the shoulder if it were not for the steel guard. The destroyer went down. The rain continued to pour.