by Ren Ryder
Arming these kids so they could protect themselves against the unseen dangers lurking in their midst? I didn’t want to rob them of choice, but I had already done that by playing god with what I thought their lives should be. After subjecting them to my presence, the least I could do was give them a chance to run for their lives from the misfortune I would undoubtedly bring down upon them.
I bit my lip. “What’s your price?”
“Kal, Pan is a known trickster, there’s no telling what might come of this…” Bell trailed off, her voice soft and low so only I could hear her.
“Pan’s right though. Whatever bad comes out of their association with me, they won’t see it coming as they are now. Pan can arm them with the tools they need to survive. Who am I to deny them that, when I’ve already denied them a normal life?”
Pan grinned, wide and inhuman. “How noble of you. Worry not, my price is a mere pittance, a breath of life from each that none shall miss. A mere splinter off what these humans would consider a long life.”
I was dealing with a god, one who’s desires and designs were beyond me. For some reason, he wanted to help me, but I knew ill will could manifest in many forms. In contrast, no matter how horrible Pan's motivations might be, I could take advantage of his offer to sow some good.
I decided to grab onto Pan’s branch, whether it be an olive branch or thorns, with both hands. “Do it.”
Twin midnight orbs sparkling with stars pierced me. Pan’s eyes were dark, cosmic pools bursting with the mysteries of the universe. “So, we have a deal?”
I nodded. “It’s a deal.”
Pan took a deep breath and played a tune on his reed pipes. Magic flowed through the melody as it flowed and filtered into the entranced teenagers. I didn’t dare blink as their bodies were wracked by seizures. Little wisps of life rose from each of their bodies, then floated over to Pan, who breathed them in like they were nothing but air.
“It is done,” Pan intoned.
“That’s it, you promise there’s nothing else?” I asked, watching the teenagers until the seizures stopped and their bodies began to still.
“Nothing else… unless,” Pan revealed his needle-sharp teeth, “for no extra cost, I can make them forget tonight.”
I staggered. “I thought they were in a trance.”
“You thought wrong. Though beguiled by my song, they are quite aware,” Pan seemed to enjoy revealing his trick.
“I don’t want their memories wiped,” I decided.
Pan stared at me the same way one might examine an intriguing curio. “Is that so? Even if they come to despise you?”
I sighed, thinking it was very possible the kids would come to hate me. “That kind of thing… I’m used to it. Better they know the dangers than remain blind.”
“You are a strange one,” Pan said.
I smirked. “Thank you.”
Pan gave me a shallow bow. “I wish you the best of luck in surviving the coming storm. I have business to attend to elsewhere, so I will be taking my leave.”
Intertwining trunks of holly, hawthorn, and ash grew out of the forest floor in seconds, twirling together to form a gateway that flickered and flashed with faerie fire. Without a backward glance, Pan stepped through the portal and disappeared. After his leaving, the gateway withered and crumbled to ash, leaving no trace of it.
I could breathe easier the moment Pan’s oppressive aura vanished from the glade.
“Yeah, get outta here, scram!” Bell shooed off the wayward god.
No longer pinned down by Pan’s magic, the teens started to move.
“What is that?” Chase asked, rubbing his eyes, staring at Bell.
“I’m not a what, I’m a who, thank you very much~” Bell introduced herself with a bow and a wave. “Name's Bell, don’t wear it out.”
Chase appraised me anew. “So… you’re not crazy?”
“I knew it! He’s the one that saved us from Ouroboros. See, I told you!” Vale said in a victorious tone.
Pax crossed his arms across his chest and stared daggers at me. “And he also let a god experiment on us without our consent. We could’ve died!”
Rae was jumping up and down in obvious excitement. “Whatever, we have magic now! Magic! Aren’t you seeing this?”
“We wouldn’t have anywhere to call home without him. We’d still be under Ouroboros’s boot, or worse,” Leif said, rubbing his arms.
“He came to save us tonight, didn’t he? That has to be worth something.” Jade tried to but in, but her voice was so soft that the words barely registered on the rest of the group.
After making sure everyone was okay, I rounded up the bleary-eyed teenagers and started herding them back towards their home. They peppered me with questions and accusations in equal measure, and I tried to answer them to the best of my ability.
It wasn’t long before the teens devolved into an argument amongst themselves about the merit of my existence. Since I wanted them to come to their own conclusions, I didn’t speak up for myself. Bell, however, stepped in to defend me at every opportunity, no doubt delighted to have a new captive audience.
The first rays of dawn were peeking over the horizon by the time we arrived back at Rex’s house, and the argument was getting heated. Everyone seemed to have an opinion, and no one seemed able to come to an agreement on how they should treat me.
“This is as far as I go,” I told them.
Ava looked up at me, her innocent eyes full of concern for my wellbeing. “You’re not coming in?”
I winced but shook my head in the negative. “The clock’s ticking, I have to find the lab Ouroboros is using to make their monsters.”
“We can help!” Rae said, her fists raised up to her chest.
I shook my head again. “No, I don’t think so. I don’t want to put you in any more danger than I already have. If I’d been thinking how it might affect you all, I wouldn’t have come here in the first place. I was being selfish. You’re not equipped to fight monsters, so if you’re in danger, I want you to run. Your lives are more important than my battle.”
“It’s our battle too you know,” Rain muttered.
I chose to ignore that.
I waved the kids off. “Go on, enjoy your lives and your classes at the Royal Academy. Your childhood should be spent free from adult worries.”
“There he goes, treating us like little kids… I hate that,” Chase said.
Brooking no argument, I made sure the teenagers went inside the house before I tackled the problem of Ouroboros. I didn’t want any of them to follow me, so I snuck through the predawn light to return to the scene of my recent arson. Staring at the huge swath of charred earth where I’d fought Graf and his hunters, I found myself at a complete loss of where to start my search. If only I had some way to track down their lab.
Chapter Twelve
Sitting on the same boulder I’d waited to be ambushed at, I breathed in the smell of burnt wood and charred earth. All that was left to mark my battle with the Ouroboros hunters were ashes and splintered bones. While the area had yet to be cordoned off and turned into a crime scene, it was only a matter of time before somebody stumbled across human remains and this place was swarming with the imperial guard.
I sighed. “Sometimes I wonder if life is anything more than a series of painful regrets.”
Bell smacked me on the arm. “That’s enough whining from you mister. What are we even doing here? I’m pretty sure any clues we might’ve found have already gone up in flames.”
I furtively rubbed the inside of my left forearm, feeling with my fingers for the rune inscribed there. “Actually… now that I think about it, we have three leads on Ouroboros’s lab.”
Bell went from annoyed to excited in half a second. “Three? Really? Ooh, tell me, I wanna know what they are!” Bell said, tugging on my shirt’s collar.
“I’ll tell you, but first you have to promise not to be mad.”
Bell was still giddy now, but I doubted that would
last. “Mad? Why would I be? This is great news!”
I cleared my throat. “Well… you know how those runes from the scroll at the Grand Library kinda gotta seared into my brain?”
Bell started to get suspicious. “Okay, so what?”
“Uhm, I sorta used a pair of runes to turn three of the winged hounds into familiars?” I stretched out my left inner forearm face-up for Bell to see.
“You did WHAT?!” Bell screamed.
I swallowed and spoke fast to try and defend my point. “You should’ve seen them— they looked so pitiful and harmless, but I couldn’t just let them roam free, I had to do something. You don’t have to worry though, it’s totally different than the bond we have, this one is fetch-familiar deal, not a contract between equals like it is with us.”
“You don’t get to tell me when to worry! “You made a fetch! Three of them!” Bell was fuming. “What else are you hiding from me?”
I looked away and scratched the back of my neck. “Nothing I can think of off the top of my head.”
“Mhmm, sure.” I could feel Bell staring a hole in the back of my head. “Go on, summon the pups. I want to decide how much to make you pay for this.”
I sucked in a breath between my teeth. “Okay, you asked for it.”
Drawing a bit of mana off my source, I funneled power down my mana channels into the rune on my left forearm. When the rune’s glow pulsed like a second heartbeat, I set my intentions and called to the winged hounds bonded to me.
Come.
“Did you do it? I’m waiting,” Bell landed atop my head and started banging her heels against my forehead.
“I think so,” I said.
“You think?”
“That’s what I said,” I muttered.
Bell drummed her heels harder and faster against my skull. “Ooh, I’m so mad! I can’t believe you did this.”
Wherever the hounds had laid down to rest, I’d awoken them from their slumber with my call. I felt a resounding howl flow through from the other end of the connection. I could sense all three chimeras pick up speed and begin closing in on our location.
All three chimeras dropped down from the sky and landed amongst us in a flash of fur and tooth. The winged hounds curled their wings up against their bodies and sat down. Bell looked askance at them, her eyes narrowing.
Bell tapped her clawed fingers on her chin. “Hmm, I wanted to hate them, but they’re kinda cute. Can I name them?”
I wasn’t about to refuse if giving Bell naming rights might get me out of hot water with her. “Sure, go right ahead.”
“Ooh, this one’s Coal.” Bell flew right up to the black-furred hound, the only male, tugging on one of its teeth. “Das a good doggy,” Bell scratched the black-furred hound behind the ears.
“Ash!” Bell patted the gray-furred hound, a female, on the head.
Bell pointed out another girl hound with a spiky red coat. “Blaise!”
I bit my lip. “You’re naming them after fire? Well, it makes a twisted sort of sense, I guess.”
My sylph familiar winged over to my side and tugged on my ear. “Are you making fun of my names?” Bell asked in a deadly whisper.
“No, I think they’re great names!” I said with excessive cheer.
Bell nodded. “Hmmph— that’s more like it. Now how are these three beasties supposed to help?”
“I was thinking they might be able to lead us to the lab,” I said, hopping off the boulder and crouching down to get at eye level with the winged hounds. “Can you lead us to the place you were made? Can you?” I asked.
All three chimeras paced in a circle, raised their snouts and barked. “Woof!”
“Good doggies!” Bell praised.
I raised my eyebrows. “I’ll take that as a yes. Okay, lead the way.”
The winged hounds loped off aways, then stopped and turned with an expectant look in their eyes. Coal barked and shook himself, sending strands of black fur flying. Blaise and Ash paced back and forth in our direction, whimpering and pointing their noses in the direction they wanted us to follow.
Bell and I shared a look.
“Let’s go,” I said.
“Yeah~”
Bell and I chased after the chimeras as they took us on a winding path through the Royal Quarter. It was still early enough that few people were on the streets, but we drew more than a few spectators on our run. Imperial guardsmen tried to stop the hounds from advancing only to stare in shocked amazement as they leapt into the air and flew over their heads.
Our early morning stroll was anything but stealthy.
I flashed my enforcer’s liaison badge at the flabbergasted men on my way past. “Sorry, coming through!”
Bell took to the skies with them, flying alongside the chimeras as they crossed into the Upper Quarter. I drew mana off my source and donned my mana skin so I could keep pace with their flight. Prepping myself, I rushed at the thirty-foot high ramparts, gauging when to take the leap, then jumped for all I was worth.
Arms windmilling and wind ripping at my cloak, I made eye contact mid-leap with a wide-eyed guardsman patrolling the walkway. I hit the ground running on the other side of the wall, picking up speed as I went. I wanted to get as much distance as I could from any kind of pursuit.
A Watch patrol of four men with swords and pistols got in my way, spreading out in formation to stop me. “You there, halt!”
The imperial guard was one thing, but no way was I going to bend to the authority of the crooked Watch. I crashed through their defensive line, bowling over two of The Watch before they could get their hands on their weapons. The grizzled, sallow faces of the two Watch patrolmen that remained standing stretched into dark grimaces.
“Shoot him!”
I cast a look over my shoulder. The flustered Watchmen scrambled to unholster their pistols and take aim at my back. Taking evasive maneuvers, I leapt into the air at the nearest rooftops. Shattering clay rooftop tiles with my landing, I kept running at high speeds, leaping from rooftop to rooftop while barely breaking a sweat.
Shots fired, but the slugs whizzed by far wide of me, not even getting close. I couldn’t help it, I laughed. Flying in the face of authority was thrilling, I had to admit.
I tracked the progress of the winged hounds through the skies, correcting my course a few degrees to the left. We were heading straight towards the Middle Quarter. I had to jump down and follow along at street level until we reached the commercial sector. To the astonishment of the growing crowds, I launched myself straight up the side of a four-story building to land on its rooftop without a hitch.
After following along on the rooftops for about fifteen minutes, the chimeras began circling overtop an indoor marketplace. It was a sprawling single-story structure with freestanding covered stalls built in the open central area and room for more established shops along the edges. Considering the marketplace itself was falling into disrepair, the shops I could see into were gutted, and there was zero foot traffic going in or out, I had to assume the whole place was abandoned.
Bell zoomed down from the sky above to alight on my shoulder. “Maybe I should trade you in for one of these doggies,” Bell teased. “At least they can fly~”
I snorted. “Go right ahead. I bet they’re better listeners, too.”
Hopping down from the three-story building overlooking the marketplace, I landed in the central ring of the market by a fountain spouting grimy water. Looking around, the place didn’t feel like the lair of an evil overlord working to flood New London with monsters. It didn’t have the characteristic flourishes of an Ouroboros base, either. Plus, it was unguarded.
I pulled aside a ruined tan tarp to peek inside the nearest stall, discovering broken boxes and trash. Moving along the outside ring, I examined each of the fountain-facing stalls in turn to find more of the same. While rummaging through yet another trashed stall, I kicked up a pile of dust. Coughing and sneezing, I waved my hands around.
Bell pinched her nose. “This
place is disgusting. I’ll never understand why humans insist on cutting down forests to build trash-heaps like this.”
I rubbed my fingers together. “Money. Money is always the answer.”
“Doesn’t look like there’s any of that here,” Bell said. “Maybe these doggies need to get their noses checked, because it doesn’t look like there’s anything here at all.”
I was feeling similarly uncertain. “We can’t say that for sure, not yet.”
Blaise, Ash, and Coal swooped down and landed beside me, sniffing the air. They spread out to snuffle around the stalls, pawing at the ground. Blaise stuck out her tail and barked at an inconspicuous stall hidden amongst the rest of the junk.
I walked over to look at it. Constructed of cheap plywood and covered in painted cardboard, the stall looked even more ramshackle and rundown than the rest. Then I leaned into the cut-out doorway and saw the footprints.
“Good girl!” I patted Blaise on the back and gave her some scratches.
All the boot tracks pointed to one thing: people were using this stall as a thoroughfare. Crouching, I squinted and examined the tracks. I didn’t consider myself an expert woodsman, but I knew some of those prints couldn’t have been made by humans. I brushed away a smudged print to find deep furrows made in the stone pavement underneath: claw marks.
I stood back up and nodded to myself. “I think we’ve got something here.”
Bell made a face. “Are you sure it’s not just more dust?”
“Let’s find out.”
I braced my arms against the flimsy stall and pushed. The entire stall tipped over, then exploded in a cloud of debris. Dust and grime caked the whole area, covering us in a layer of dirt. I turned to find Bell in my face, her whole body turned an ashen gray color. Blaise was similarly affected, her bright colors turned dour.
Bell spluttered and tried to wipe herself clean. “Warn a girl first!”