War of Kings and Monsters

by Christopher Keene

  Michael smirked. “It must only be used when needed then, but it was your little friend’s bite that saved the day, not me. It couldn’t help but be overpowered when the poison was in its system.”

  Nathan turned to the small lizard and smiled, putting a finger out to stroke its smooth scales. The little creature nudged into him, but for some reason, he was still trembling.

  Michael wasn’t there to see the Melkai being bitten.

  “How are you so sure it was poison?” he asked.

  Michael shrugged. “Trust me, I just know.”

  Nathan nodded. He was just happy they had gotten out of the situation alive, despite how bruised his sides felt from nearly being squeezed to death. While striding down the hillside, the Talis Lake stretched out below them before the Kydian Woods.

  “I can only guess how many more are in the forest,” he murmured. “Maybe we should go around.”

  “No,” Michael cut in. “I have chosen our path, and now I know how to beat them, so we have nothing to worry about.”

  Nathan’s mouth opened, but he stopped himself, knowing there was nothing he could say to persuade him. Yet after barely surviving their first battle, he couldn’t fathom why Michael was so unperturbed with the possibility of encountering another second-circle Melkai. Was it due to their difference in vocation, perhaps?

  Undoubtedly, the castle’s Master of Arms had beaten into Michael the need to be strong enough to slay Melkai without the need of magic. Master Morrow, on the other hand, had constantly pressed Nathan every lesson with the need to both respect and fear Melkai, particularly those of the third circle. Despite how rare they were, considering their size, there was a higher chance of running into one unaware among the tall trees.

  “They are impossible to control,” Morrow had warned him during one such lesson. “Whenever a caller has tried to make a pact with one, a catastrophe follows in its wake.” Morrow’s voice in Nathan’s memory was so clear that he felt like he was reliving the lesson all over again. “Now, you have probably heard fairy tales of someone succeeding, or the legend of a first-circle Melkai transforming into a third-circle. They’re all nonsense! You see, Nathan, they are self-aware and have intelligence on par with our own.”

  Nathan had been sitting on the edge of his seat at the front of the class while Taiba played with the feather end of his quill.

  Morrow held up a book on the subject for Nathan to read more. “It’s of the utmost importance that you never call forth one of these Melkai. If you do, it could mean the end of your life and the lives of everyone you know. If you remember nothing else of what I say, I implore you, remember that.”

  Morrow’s lesson had worked. Not only did he remember it, but the fear of the more powerful Melkai stayed with him to this day.

  They soon arrived at Talis Lake. Nathan halted in surprise, noticing a figure lying in the mud at the edge of it. It was a man in tattered clothing, and like when he had seen the first soldier, a panic rose up within Nathan.

  “Another soldier?” After what they had been through, Nathan’s body moved instinctively from his renewed panic, believing the man had been attacked by a Melkai as well. It might have been the one they ran into earlier; it might have been another that was hidden somewhere in the woods. He took off running toward the waterlogged figure.

  “No, wait!” Michael called, but Nathan was already at the body.

  He glanced around quickly, feeling maybe this was bait for a trap. Nothing appeared, so he leaned forward to check the body.

  The man was on his front, half in and half out of the lake, a sheathed sword clutched in his hand. Nathan stood over him and noticed that, unlike the last man they came across, this one had no armor and was in a lot better shape. In fact . . . he was still breathing.

  “He’s still alive . . . Michael, he’s still alive!”

  Michael came upon the scene slowly, trudging toward him with a deep frown on his face.

  “Michael, help me pull him out!” Nathan pleaded, but the prince merely stood there.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he replied coldly.

  Nathan continued to try and heave out the body. “What are you talking about?”

  Michael was breathing heavily as he looked down at the man, his eyes wide with some indescribable emotion. “Let him be.”

  “No!” Nathan had finally dragged him free of the water, seeing now that there was a bloody wound on his left shoulder. “Look, he’s bleeding. We have to help him!”

  Jaw clenching, Michael ran forward and hauled the wounded man onto his shoulders, carrying him onto the grass and laying him down. He looked up at the sky and cringed. The sun was setting and they had only just made it to the border of the forest.

  “Take the gauze from your rucksack and bind his wound!” Michael shouted and walked briskly to the forest.

  “Where are you going?” Nathan asked.

  “Night’s approaching. I’m getting some deadwood to make a fire,” he called back and ran into the forest.

  Nathan unhooked his pack and pulled out the bandages that had been packed for him. With a bit of difficulty, he turned the man onto his front and used his cloak to dry his skin before pulling up his arm and rolling the gauze around his shoulder. Taiba peered around, searching for something—something he could smell but couldn’t see. When he was done, he pushed the man onto his back. The man gasped and cleared his throat, causing Nathan to jump.

  “Th-thank you,” the man whispered before passing out again.

  Nathan smiled and looked at the stranger’s face. The man looked to be around the same age as Michael, was tall, and had auburn hair. Other than how they had found him, which Nathan had to admit was a little odd, there seemed to be nothing abnormal about him.

  Michael returned with some firewood. In a matter of minutes, the sun had sunk into the horizon, and a fire was blazing through the darkness. The two of them sat on one side of the fire with the stranger lying on the other side, the sheathed longsword they found with him still clutched at his side. Taiba slept in Nathan’s lap, warming himself in the firelight.

  Michael ground his teeth. “We shouldn’t have done that. We don’t have the time to take care of him.”

  “We had to help him,” Nathan replied.

  “I wanted to be in the forest by nightfall. With the fire, anything could spot us out here!”

  Nathan balled his hands in frustration. He was just doing what he thought was right. “What happened to the brave warrior that could take down second-circle Melkai?”

  Michael looked away in anger. “Well, about that . . .”

  There was silence for a moment before an unfamiliar voice said, “If not him, I reckon I could.”

  They all jumped at the stranger’s gravelly tone and turned toward him, Nathan in shock, the prince in anger, and Taiba trying to relocate the comfortable position he had been sleeping in before being disturbed. Looking over the flames at the man they had just saved, Nathan pondered how he ended up in the lake in the first place.

  “You have some explaining to do,” Michael said, his voice accusing.

  The man coughed out a laugh. “Yes, I suppose I do.”

  “Why were you in the lake?” Nathan asked, pitching his voice to sound sympathetic.

  “I fell from the sky after a battle with two powerful Melkai. They wounded me,” he said, hinting at his shoulder.

  Nathan and Michael looked at each other in confusion.

  Nathan turned back and asked, “What’s your name?”

  The man smiled warmly. “You can call me Aisic. Your own?”

  “I’m Nathan, and this is Michael, Prince of Terratheist.”

  “Prince?” Aisic sounded amused. “I’m sorry, but I’m a little hazy on who reigns over Terratheist now? What are your family names?”

  Michael grimaced and returned, “Nathan and Michael are the only names you need for now. We will not ask for yours and you will not ask for
ours.”

  Aisic shrugged, wincing from his wounded shoulder. “So be it.”

  Nathan frowned at Michael, trying to figure out why he was being so terse with the man. However, he was also a little thankful that he didn’t have to answer his question. He had never known his family name.

  “Now, Aisic,” Michael replied harshly. “We don’t deal with strangers. So, as far as we’re concerned, as soon as it’s dawn, we part ways, got it?”

  Aisic shook his head. “No.”

  Michael’s face contorted, scowling like the stranger had slighted him. “What do you mean no?”

  “My life belongs to this young man now.” He stared at Nathan. “He will decide what will happen to me. But right now, I can only offer my service as a protector.” Aisic looked to Michael, his eyes daring him to challenge this statement. “I am now just the dead, a ghost who belongs to him. It’s as simple as that.”

  Nathan looked down, not knowing how to reply to Aisic’s declaration.

  Michael ground his teeth and lay down. “It’s time to sleep. We’ll discuss this in the morning.”

  Nathan nodded and lay down also as Taiba scrambled into his hood. However, with so much to think about now, sleep didn’t come so easily. What Aisic had said to him kept coming up in his mind, and he whispered aloud, “Did he just say . . . he fought off two Melkai?”

  * * *

  The argument rekindled the next morning, the sun already up in the clear azure sky.

  “But I want him to come with us!” Nathan pleaded. “The more the merrier, and besides, he says he can fight off Melkai!”

  “No, he’s not coming,” Michael replied, roughly packing up his gear. “Call it my warrior’s instinct or whatever you want, but I don’t trust him.”

  Nathan looked at the stranger who stood next to the lake. He was wearing one of Michael’s borrowed shirts and a pair of his extra pants as Aisic’s tattered clothing had barely been enough to cover him. The sword found with him was now slung over his shoulder, appearing unaffected by his wound.

  Aisic wanted to come with them as a protector. Nathan could understand the feeling of wanting to repay a debt as he did for the king by going on this journey. Taiba must have liked him too, for he had finally stopped trembling.

  “This is my journey. I hold the key and I decide who comes with us!”

  Grinding his teeth, Michael grabbed the collar of Nathan’s shirt, his huge arms lifting him up off the ground in anger like the Melkai had done the day before.

  Nathan stared back at him, his eyes determined, unafraid by the threat, despite Michael’s size. “If you don’t like it, you can leave now,” he stated clearly.

  Michael’s eyes closed, and he forced a smile. He put him down and patted him on the shoulder. Then he walked over to Aisic. Nathan was uncertain, but he swore he saw the man’s hand drift down from the hilt of his sword, as though he’d been ready to draw it if Michael became too violent with him.

  He frowned at Michael. His friend was usually friendly and open to everyone from the king to the lowest servant boy. Nathan had never seen him instantly dislike someone like this before. He was being ridiculous. Sure, Michael was determined to protect him, to prove himself on this adventure—but Aisic wasn’t a threat. Nathan stayed close, ready to break up a fight that might start up between them at any second.

  After sharing a few heated words Nathan couldn’t make out, Michael shook his head and walked off. Nathan picked up his pack and followed after. There was nothing left to do but move forward in their quest. Aisic grinned and winked at Nathan as the two of them walked side by side. As they circumvented the edge of the lake toward the Kydian Wood, Nathan took it upon himself to let Aisic in on the goal of their journey.

  “We are on a mission to Avatasc to find someone who has a certain object. This object, when joined with one we already have, has the power to reseal the weakening barrier to the Melkairen. But we must do this before the moon turns completely red because that’s when the barrier will be broken completely and Melkai will walk freely into our world.”

  Nathan was puzzled to see there wasn’t any expression of surprise or even amused skepticism on the man’s face, although he did appear to be deep in thought.

  “The second-circle Melkai will be able to break free of the barrier before it gives up completely, and you can be sure that they will be trying to stop us from resealing it when they do.”

  “And that’s where I come in, I assume,” Aisic replied.

  Nathan smiled, despite Michael striding ahead of them. “Well, if you can fight off the Melkai as you say you can, then yeah, I guess so.”

  “Then we have nothing to worry about,” Aisic said, his gravelly voice confident.

  “Why are you fighting Melkai?” Nathan asked.

  “I’ve been searching for one, one that I mean to kill with my own hands. Unfortunately, the one I ran into wasn’t the one I was looking for. I . . .” He paused and shook his head. “No, never mind.”

  Nathan’s brow furrowed as he stopped talking, longing to know more about him. If Aisic had fought a Melkai, two Melkai, did that make him some kind of Melkai-slayer? Was that his job or was he looking for a particular Melkai to get revenge, maybe one that killed his family or destroyed his village? He had so many questions.

  Unlike what Michael had explained to him, he felt drawn to the man. Perhaps he was naive, but just like Michael claimed he was doing, Nathan was trusting his instincts. “What kind of Melkai is it? What does it look like?”

  “I don’t know, but I will when I find it.”

  Nathan frowned in confusion, wondering if it was a Melkai that could change its form. He didn’t know Melkai like that existed, but he had underestimated Melkai before by assuming they couldn’t speak.

  Going at a brisk pace, they quickly reached the edge of the trees that made up the Kydian Wood. They moved between the tall trunks, their branches shading them from the sun. For a while, they traveled in silence, but this was soon broken as Michael slowed down for seemingly no reason and began glaring at Aisic.

  “Doesn’t look like it’s going to be raining warriors today, does it?” Michael asked.

  Aisic calmly faced him. “Why are you so suspicious of me?”

  “You tell me!” Michael shouted. “A stranger we find wounded on the edge of the lake suddenly wants to join us for no reason other than he was given a little help to get on his feet again; why do you think I’m suspicious?”

  Because your time surrounded by monsters has made you overly paranoid of strangers?

  “Alright, that’s enough!” Nathan shouted. “There’s no reason to get so angry. We helped him and he wants to return the favor. It’s that simple.”

  Michael grabbed Nathan by the arm and pulled him aside roughly.

  “Michael, what’s gotten into you?”

  “Nothing,” Michael hissed and peered around. “I just don’t trust him.”

  “Why?”

  “I can’t explain it. Something about him just makes my blood boil.” He balled his hands into fists. “The way he speaks to you. It just makes me wanted to . . .” He ground his teeth rather than finish his sentence.

  Nathan shook his head, baffled by him. “I don’t feel anything like that.”

  “Yeah, well, you don’t have as much experience out here as I do. You’re too trusting.”

  Nathan caught his eyes. “Michael, you know we can’t face the Melkai in this forest without him. I don’t care if you’re too proud to admit it, but we need him.”

  Michael raised his hands in exasperation and stormed off. He walked at such a brisk pace that the two of them couldn’t keep up. Nathan fell back to walk with Aisic.

  “I don’t get it. Why is he so angry?” Nathan asked himself.

  Aisic quickened his pace also, but as Nathan looked up through an opening in the trees, he halted mid-stride, mouth agape. The moon sat in the clear sky, its waning horizon shining bloodred. />
  The promised time was beginning.

  Chapter 5: The Kydian

  Laine had been certain that she would cross paths with another Melkai before she arrived in Kydia, but the barrier wasn’t weakening as fast as she had assumed it would. She arrived at the village during lunchtime, the sun almost pinpoint in the middle of the sky. The village was not what she expected.

  History talked of the vibrant forest life that surrounded the tall wooden buildings of Kydia, but all the greenery on the borders of the village had been stripped from the branches. She came out of the trees onto the damp mud of the carriage track and looked at the morbid village. The houses were small and stubby, built on the burned ruins of their predecessors. The people were mostly old and dying, and a soot sky hung overhead, reminding her of the grimness of her homeland.

  She scrunched her nose at the vile smell of death that filled the air. Carts of the dead were rutted in the roads, and crows were flying in and eating their fill. She watched as a man who owned one such cart exited a house with his masked partner, carrying a dead woman between them before dumping her on top of the others. The crows broke into flight as the two heaved the cart out of the mud and rolled it down the road to the next house.

  Looks like this place has been hit by an illness.

  She walked at a steady pace down the carriage track, which appeared to be the only road in Kydia. Arriving at one of the larger buildings, she heard a ruckus arising inside. At first, she ignored it. However, as soon as she saw a sign proclaiming the building to be an inn, the door opened and two large men carrying a young woman exited, throwing the woman to the mud.

  “You better have Callahan’s money next time you show up ‘ere or you’ll live to regret it!” one of the men bellowed as he slammed the door shut.

  The girl rubbed the shoulder she had landed on. “I owe him nothing!”

  The girl rose to a sitting position in a pout. She looked up at Laine through the curls of her strawberry blonde hair, seeming to realize only then that Laine had been standing right beside her.

  Laine sighed and extended a hand. “Are you okay?”