by Mark Tufo
“Should have been?” Halifax retorted.
“What exactly have you done so far?” I asked her. “When we were fighting zombies, evil people, vampires, Lycan, demons…what were you doing? Magic tricks for your tribe? Amy, we have proven ourselves over and over again.”
“Enough!” Inuktuk shouted. “You have two days to get to Talboton and off Landian grounds. Have I made myself clear?!”
“Unfortunately, yes,” I told her.
Inuktuk turned and walked away, her head bowed slightly. As she left, the warriors melted back into the woods and we were left with a glaring Halifax.
“Soon,” she said ominously as she looked over all of us.
“What the hell was all that about?” I asked once she was gone.
“Safe to say something has them spooked, and they are being overly cautious.” Azile checked on the kids, who were still sound asleep.
“Do you recognize the shaman?” I went over to her.
“I do. She was just one of the older teenagers in the group, unremarkable regarding ability.”
“So something, or someone, has done a little tinkering under the hood?”
“This goes beyond tinkering. If she truly knew what she was doing, she could split this world in half.”
“I’m hoping we’re going with figuratively here.”
“We should get moving. Two days isn’t much time.”
Chapter 15
Eliza & Emily
Eliza held Emily’s hand as they looked out over the vast field. A sea of white and yellow flowers swayed in the slight breeze. Eliza tilted her face up to the sun.
“What a strange place this world has become,” Eliza said as she took in a deep breath.
“How so?” Emily asked.
“The age when Men ruled smelled far worse. The smoke, the noise, the pollution in the water: revolting. Yet, it was a wondrous time. So many had lost their way, so eager to give up. Feeding was easier, for Man was everywhere, in every little corner of the world. It seems now, with survival being so difficult, those still alive are the ones who know how to fight, survivalists. They are not so willing to bequeath their gift of life to us. No matter, my child, for we are warriors as well. Our kind has always taken what will not be given freely.”
“Where will we go?”
“We will go to where Man has gone. They are drawn to herd together, to gather with their kind, as if somehow they feel safety in numbers. You saw how well that worked out for your community, did you not?”
“I did.” Emily’s head sagged for a moment in remembrance.
“My, my! What do we have here?” Eliza said as she peered at the far end of the field. Two large shapes were pursuing an elk; she watched as they dragged it down and began to feast. She smiled as she started to walk toward them. The larger Lycan looked up at her approach. Blood coated his entire muzzle; his partner dispassionately chewed through the still-kicking elk.
“We are lost! Our entire village destroyed,” Eliza wailed, doing her best to sound distressed.
“Not your lucky day, then,” Mikota replied. “Were you also throttled about the head? Did you think asking two Lycan for directions was a good idea?”
“Huh?” Huron stood, a long piece of sinewy muscle crammed in his mouth. He dropped it when he saw what Mikota was looking at. “They are small, but they should complement the elk well.”
“Wait.” Mikota shot his arm out. “Something is not right.” He was sniffing the air. The prevailing breeze brought no scent his way. He began to circle.
“Would you rather I show you?” Eliza let her fangs elongate. Emily followed suit in response.
“Old Ones,” Huron spat as if the words disgusted him.
“Well, I am, at least. She’s fairly new in all aspects, especially to vampirism.” Eliza let out a demure laugh.
“What are you doing here?” Mikota asked.
“It has been many ages since I have seen a Lycan, especially in their true form. Your kind used to slink in the shadows like sewer rats.”
Huron roared in anger.
“I did not see many of your kind parading in the streets,” Mikota answered.
“Ah, a Lycan with wit. What is your name?”
“He is Mikota, leader of the Lycan clans,” Huron said proudly.
“Oh, a leader of Lycan! I am impressed. Never seemed like your kind was much into hierarchy, at least, not when I first roamed the world.”
“Much has changed.”
“Perhaps,” Eliza replied.
“Do we kill them?” Huron looked over to Mikota.
“Well, Mikota? Do you?” Eliza seemed bemused.
“I cannot suffer the thought of another Old One,” Mikota said, taking a step closer. Emily hissed.
“Another Old One?” Eliza inquired.
“Michael Talbot.” If Huron had spat his words previously, Mikota about vomited this name, as bitter to the tongue as stomach bile.
“You know of Michael Talbot?”
“Unfortunately. You?” Mikota asked.
“Yes, we…have a history of sorts.”
“More reason to kill her.” Huron looked like he was fighting an invisible leash to get at Eliza.
“I said we had a history; I did not say it was a pleasant one. We have been trying to kill each other from nearly the beginning. Though there were a few times early on where I may have mistakenly let him live awhile longer,” she said fondly. “Those times have long passed. I have a score to settle with him now.”
“You would see him dead?” Mikota asked.
“I do not believe there is another sight I would rather see. And your experience with him?”
“When the Lycan rose to claim their place, he, along with four others, stood in our way. Without his interference, we would have won. He is responsible for countless murders of my kind.”
“What is going on here?” Huron asked.
“It appears we may have something in common with this Old One,” Mikota replied.
“You are not making any sense. We are hoping to drag the humans into a war, not against us, but rather with us. Is that not the case?”
“What if we could get them to fight on our behalf and afterwards finish what Xavier and Lunos began?”
Huron was thinking about what Mikota’s words implied. “Have you been stricken with parvo? That must be the case; your brain has cooked. What other explanation is there? We have lost so many so quickly; we just vowed never to go to war again. You made me vow that! Yet here you conspire to engage these enemies again!”
“I have had a change of heart. They rebuked us, Huron. They care not for our fate. You saw those people; they did not believe us about this new enemy, and even if they had, they would leave us to be crushed beneath them.”
“And what about this one?” he spat, pointing to Eliza. “You believe she has our interests at heart? Her conscience has gone the same way as her soul. She will use us as she sees fit and then when she is done with us, she will cut our throats in our sleep.”
Eliza was watching the exchange, fascinated that they would play it out directly in front of her.
“Look at us!” Mikota roared, slamming a fist against his chest. “We are Lycan! We are better than humans–we are better than Old Ones!”
“I am not saying we are not better, brother. I am saying that they are no friends of ours and they know how to kill us. Our kind cannot afford another war. If the humans will not fight with us, then I say we leave our home; abandon it to the invaders. We will travel far from here, begin anew.”
“And what? Hide in caves, forever hoping that no one discovers where we slink?”
“There is no shame in survival,” Huron replied.
“We were five individuals from ruling the world!”
“We are our own kings now, ruled over by no one. Is that not enough?” Huron asked.
“You and those like you are the problem, Huron. You are short-sighted. Your flaw is an inability to see the grand picture.”
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br /> “What are you talking about, Mikota? Not so long ago we saw eye to eye on this matter.”
“That was before I saw the hatred in the hearts and minds of the humans. Nothing would please them more than to see us all dead.”
“It is fortuitous I came across you, Mikota, during this difficult time in your history.” Eliza relished the thought of pouring more fuel onto the flames.
“You will keep your mouth closed!” Huron spun on Eliza.
“Shall I kill the big bad wolf, mama?” Emily asked.
“They care less about us than the humans!” Huron was pointing at Eliza and Emily.
“It is true we are not friends, but we seek similar ends. Do we not?” Eliza asked.
“Not friends? You make it sound as if we are strangers passing over each other’s path,” Huron barked. “We have been blood enemies since our earliest days of existence.”
“Be that as it may, we now find ourselves in a position where we could help each other; an alliance of convenience, perhaps.”
“Mikota, you can’t possibly be thinking about this. We are still recovering from Xavier’s lunacy! Something only compounded by his maniacal brother! You made me see the errors in my thoughts and now you have spun around as if fleas have infested your hindquarters!”
“Think how easy it would be to regain your glory atop the world–the humans would quake at your feet!”
“She’s right. They no longer fear us at all. We met in their halls and they kicked us out like curs!” Mikota was angry.
“I do not know what plague Xavier spread amongst our kind, but I will not be a part of it!” Huron said. “I will speak of this with the clans regarding this event; they will see the error of your treacherous thoughts.”
Mikota turned and attacked Huron with a savagery usually reserved for the most hated of enemies. The first swipe ruined half of the Lycan’s face, ripping his left eye clean from its socket. Claw marks dug deeply, forming channels for the blood to flow through. His snout was cut all the way to the cartilage; his nose sheered in half. The pain was immense, but he fought back knowing that not to do so would cost him his life.
Huron took a wild swing that missed badly. Mikota leaned in and tore a large chunk of muscle from the other’s arm. Huron howled in pain and rage as he struck Mikota with the full force of his uninjured arm. Mikota was dazed but would not so easily let go of his prize; he shook his head back and forth, ripping more of the living material free from his friend. Huron kept pummeling away at Mikota, but he was losing strength and consciousness quickly, his punches getting less and less effectual. By the time Mikota savagely pulled a fair portion of Huron’s arm free, the other had fallen to his knees.
“Why?” Huron pleaded.
Mikota only stared at him with unbridled fury, his chest heaving from the exertion of the kill and possibly the guilt of it as well.
Eliza was thinking just how incredibly easy this had been. That the Lycan had not attacked her immediately was all the opening she had needed to push them along the intended path. She smiled inwardly; an added benefit of her time in the underworld was the exponential growth she realized in the ability to compel others to do her bidding.
“What a grand time this is going to be,” she said aloud. Huron had by this time fallen over, though his accusing eyes still glittered with the spark of life. They would not glow much longer; Emily could not contain her hunger after so much blood had spilled before her. She fell to her knees and plunged her teeth into the much larger creature’s neck. He cried out but was too weak to do anything except accept his fate. Eliza joined her a moment later.
Mikota turned away in terror, disgust, and shame.
“He would have hindered you in your rise to glory,” Eliza said as she stood and licked the blood from her mouth.
“I must get my people ready,” Mikota said as he left.
“Mama, will he know what you did?” Emily asked as they watched the beast running along the horizon.
“In time my influence will wear off, but by then he will have convinced himself the idea had been his all along; otherwise, the remorse of his actions would consume him.”
Chapter 16
Mike Journal Entry 7
It was difficult for me to summon the courage to go to Talboton. For right or wrong, I harbored massive amounts of guilt for Bailey’s death. Though that was something the residents did not share. I was greeted with open arms, hugs, smiles, and food. Felt more like an allied force liberating France than the pariah I felt like. Kalandar switched back to his disheveled, gnarled old man routine, and Linnick promised she would find a deep corner of my pocket to stay hidden in. It was nice to be around people that did not wish me dead, to not have to constantly spin around to make sure I wasn’t being attacked from a blind side. I mean figuratively, of course, but still. To finally leave the woods of Landian country had taken a great weight off of all our shoulders. The hostility they felt, the actual ability they had to inflict harm on us considering we weren’t your average band of travelers, well, that was scary. There was a definite transfer of power going on in this region, and for what agendas or reasons we didn’t know; they weren’t clear as of yet.
“So what do we do while we wait for the assembly to convene? We could go find a room.”
“For what purpose?” Azile asked.
“I think you know.”
“Are you serious? You’re serious right now. I don’t even know what to say. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m feeding one baby, you’re holding the other. You have a travel companion in your pocket and our companion demon is currently walking around Talboton like a decrepit peddler. We potentially have at least one gate to the underworld wide open, polions are amassing on our doorstep…”
“I get it, I get it.” I interrupted her. “Due to current conditions, it will have to be a quickie. That’s alright.”
“I have a baby on my breast, right now!”
“Duh,” I said. “Pretty sure I noticed.” I was leering.
“You’re adorable.” She reached out and stroked the side of my face, before she wrinkled her nose and grimaced as she pinched my cheek, hard.
“Ow, woman!” I pulled back. “Did you just friend-zone me? You can’t friend-zone the father of your babies! Probably a little late for that.”
“Too bad.” She was smiling. “Let me do a little something for you that might help ease your discomfort.” She looked down at my crotch.
“You’re going to do that, here?”
“What? No! My god, Talbot! If I’d known the sheer number of problems you were going to bring with you into this relationship I would have gone and got my psychiatric degree rather than study the ancient arts of magic.”
“There’s no fun in being normal.”
“Then being around you must be a riot.”
“Starting to dig a little deep, woman. Words hurt.”
“Here, this will make it up to you.” She mumbled a few words under her breath; I felt a slight tug under my eyes as if I had not got enough sleep the previous night.
I was looking at her. “I felt something. What did you do?” I asked with curiosity.
“Not going to see it by peering at me. Start looking at the people that pass–I mean really concentrate on their facial features.”
A young boy walked by; he was carrying a loaf of bread on top of a small wooden cage that had a rabbit in it. The boy walked a little faster when he realized I was looking at him, as if he’d stolen my rabbit.
“This is weird, Azile. What am I looking for?”
“Keep at it; it will come.”
“Yeah…either that or the town is going to get a restraining order against me. Gonna get a shitty nickname like Peter the Perv or Chester the Molester…” I hesitated and blinked my eyes quickly before shaking my head. “Wait…what am I seeing?” I stood slowly. Now it appeared that I could not unsee what had a moment before seemed so challenging to just see. It was strange; unsettling yet comforting all at the sam
e time. Different aspects of each face that passed by became highlighted. A nose on one, cheekbones on another, a chin on a few, they glowed with this faint translucence, standing out just a bit more than the surrounding features. I wanted to touch those parts, though I would imagine people wouldn’t be all that comfortable with me caressing their faces.
Azile was smiling. “What do you think?”
“Is this….” I had to stop as my throat had choked up. A single tear ran from my eye. “Is this what I think it is?”
“In every way imaginable,” she replied.
“That’s BT’s nose.” A man strode past and I didn’t even care that he was looking at me, completely confused by my blatant staring. “And…and there! My sister’s lips.” A girl no older than seven skipped on by. I was stumbling through the people as they walked, like a drunken Frankenstein, my hands nearly outstretched. “BT’s and my sister’s cheeks; they’re here, Azile; they’re all around me.” I could barely manage to get the words out, my throat threatening to close shut.
“Perhaps you knew Bailey the best, but your family, both born into and made, are all around you, Michael.”
“Thank you, Azile…this is…besides our children, the greatest gift you could ever bestow upon me.” I had to continually wipe tears from my face, as they were interfering with my ability to look at everyone.
“Greatest gift?” she asked.
Thankfully, the spell began to fade; I didn’t know how much more I could take. When I collected my wits, not hard to do when you’re so lacking, I turned to Azile. She was standing with Alianna on her hip. “That was my greatest gift?” She flourished her hand from her face down to her legs.
“You just spurned my advances and now you flaunt all that at me?”
“Of course. A woman always wants it all.”
“That’s a truthful statement,” Linnick piped in.
“You weren’t even looking at her,” I said to my pocket.
“Didn’t need to be,” came her sleepy reply.
“Mr. Talbot, Miss…erm, Red Witch?” the envoy said haltingly.