War of Kings and Monsters

by Christopher Keene

  The man was no longer with him. Instead, there stood a young man of about ten years.

  “Who are you?” Nathan asked.

  The older boy didn’t reply. He followed him wherever he went in the garden, not opening his mouth once. However, there was something about his gait that wasn’t threatening but careful. Nathan walked from the garden down the path to the lower courtyard. He still didn’t know exactly where he was supposed to go, but the boy followed him like a shadow all the while.

  The sound of his ragged cloak filled the air as he moved. He stopped and stared down at his bare feet until he heard the clatter of armor descending a staircase. He looked up. Standing in front of him was a group of large armored men. They looked to be soldiers, but in their broad plate armor, Nathan had never seen anyone so intimidating in all his life. He froze.

  “What’s this?” the man in front asked. “A homeless kid creeping into the castle is a punishable offense. What say you?”

  Another man at his side murmured, “And now he won’t move from our path, little delinquent.”

  Nathan couldn’t move. Fear held him like a vice. He was only five years old and the soldiers’ words landed as if on deaf ears. Suddenly, he was shoved by one of them. He fell to the stone path below him, skinning his elbow and making him cry out.

  “Get out of here, kid!”

  “Leave him be!”

  He looked up then, his eyes widening upon seeing that the boy who had been following him was between him and the soldiers. It was the soldiers’ turn to freeze. The boy didn’t look frightened at all.

  Why are they afraid of him?

  “B-but your grace!”

  “This is my father’s guest and my new friend. You shall treat him with respect!” the boy yelled.

  The soldiers knelt before him in a bow. “Please accept our apologies!”

  The prince shooed them off with a wave of his hand, and the soldiers scurried off as quickly as they could. The older boy turned to him, and Nathan watched as he reached a hand out to help him up. “Nathan, right? You and I are friends from now on, okay?”

  Nathan nodded at the prince, and he grinned wide. He took his hand, and the prince helped him up. “My name is Michael.”

  * * *

  Nathan awoke when the morning sun shone brightly through his clenched eyelids. For a moment, he wondered where he was; the memory of his first meeting with Michael was so accurate in his dream that he thought he was still in the castle. But he was in a cave. He’d gone from having his oldest friend and a stranger who he had trusted with his life by his side to having no one at all.

  Then Taiba climbed up his arm, reminding him that he wasn’t ever completely alone.

  The lizard glanced out the opening then back at Nathan, appearing to say: “Get up. It’s morning!”

  They tramped around the base of the forest hill. Nathan knew he would eventually arrive at the river bank where he could refill his waterskin. That he was now alone and basically lost in this place was absurd to him. The memory of what Michael had done, running from him and getting lost, made him grab his hair in frustration.

  “Argh, this is all Michael’s fault! I mean, what was he thinking?”

  Taiba appeared to nod along with his lamentations as he walked.

  He patted his friend resting on his shoulder and said, “It’s okay, Taiba. We’ll find them and then we can get out of this place,” more to console himself than Taiba.

  He balled his other hand into a fist, refusing to let despair drown him, and looked up at the sun that shone through the trees. The land leveled out onto a mud track, and he was glad he now had a path to follow.

  “At least it’s a good day for walking.” He shook his head. “I can’t even lie to myself, can I? I mean, Melkairen, I don’t even know the direction to Avatasc!” He put his arms out in an exaggerated plea. “Dragon’s breath, what am I supposed to do?”

  He suddenly heard screaming. A piece of dirt fell beside him, and before he knew what was happening, a girl fell from the trees above him and into his outstretched arms. He caught her, but the force sent him to his knees, the still-healing bruises on his ribs pulling under her weight. He opened his eyes to see the girl clutching him, her eyes wide with shock, as wide as Taiba’s.

  Speechless, Nathan looked up at the sky, wondering if more girls would come raining down from the heavens. The skies were clear so he returned his startled gaze to the girl he had caught. She had long strawberry blonde hair and a slim frame.

  “Ow, wow!” she cursed. “Wait, where did you come from?”

  Taiba cocked his head in confusion, looking like the girl had taken a thought from Taiba’s head and given it words.

  Nathan shook his head. “But I . . . but you . . . how?”

  She laughed, and her smile was beautiful, her strawberry blonde hair reminding him of someone he once knew, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on who.

  He let her down and rose to his feet, helping her up onto her own. “Um . . . are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” she replied uneasily, but then jumped to her feet and knocked herself on the head. “I’m fine.” She leaned in his direction, looking surprised but happy, then exclaimed, “You saved me!”

  Nathan scratched the back of his head and smiled. “Yeah, I guess I did, b-but where did you come from?”

  The girl looked up through the trees that she had fallen from and pointed. “There was a bridge way up there that I was about to cross with my companion on our way to Terratheist. The ground I was standing on slipped away and I fell. I must have fallen from pretty high up. I’m amazed we can’t even see it from down here!”

  “I see, hah! So you came from above.” He shook his head. “Yeah, I’ve lost my companions in this Melkairen-cursed forest as well.”

  “Do you know what direction they would be heading now?” the girl asked as Nathan turned and noticed that she had pretty amber eyes.

  “No,” he replied unsteadily. “I mean, yes, well, all I know is that I should head to the river and then, if I’m not mistaken, we can follow it back to the path to Avatasc.”

  He didn’t know this but didn’t want to look completely incompetent in front of her.

  “That’s great!” the girl cried, clasping her hands together.

  “What do you mean?”

  “We can go to the river together. That’s where I said I would meet up with my partner before we got separated!” the girl said excitedly, but then calmed herself. “If that’s okay with you?”

  Nathan shrugged. “Sure. I mean, I’ve been told it’s dangerous in this forest. The red moon brings out creatures you wouldn’t want to face alone.” He smiled, thinking that he wouldn’t be of any use even if the Melkai did come.

  “Right, let’s go!” the girl said, facing the direction Nathan had just come from.

  “No, no, I’m pretty sure the river is at the base of the valley,” he replied and gently turned her. “Besides, I just came from that way.”

  “Okay then, this way. Let’s go!” she called again and began walking down the path.

  Nathan let out a short, nervous laugh and ran to catch up with her. “By the way, my name is Nathan and this is Taiba.”

  “You have a lizard as a pet?” She stopped to stare at Taiba, brow rising as though just remembering something. “Oh, I forgot to tell you my name. I’m Kendra.”

  “Nice to meet you. It’ll, ah, be a lot better traveling through the woods with some company.” Nathan shook his head. “Ah, with you, I mean.”

  And even more so considering the company is not fighting amongst each other.

  Kendra gave an enthusiastic nod. “Agreed. When we meet up with my friend, we can all travel together.”

  Nathan looked down. “That would have been nice, but didn’t you say you were heading to Terratheist? As I said, me, my friend, and my protector are heading to Avatasc.”

  Kendra screwed up her nose. “Why would you want
to go there?”

  “We are on a mission to find something there.” Nathan frowned in thought, face going red. “Or someone . . . I’m sorry.”

  Kendra shook her head, curls whipping from side to side. “But surely we can still travel together if you want.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, from what my new friend told me, this path leads in a loop up the hill which cuts off and goes back in the direction me and my partner were heading.” She balled her hand into a fist in front of her. “I’m sure she’ll come and get me, then we can travel together until we get back to the cutoff. How about it?”

  Nathan smiled. “Sounds good, your partner, ah . . . ?”

  “Her name is Laine.” Kendra put her finger to her chin in thought. “Honestly, I don’t know that much about her. She has pretty green eyes, like you . . . I mean . . .” She shook her head and blushed. “Anyway, I was talking for most of the time we were traveling together. What I do know about her is that she’s a caller from Avatasc.”

  Nathan’s eyes narrowed for a moment. “Oh, a caller you say?”

  Would it be a smart idea if I say that I’m a caller also? We are from enemy countries, after all.

  “Yeah, you don’t have a problem with that, do you?” she asked.

  Nathan shook his head. “No, I don’t mind. May I ask where you are from? You don’t take me as someone from Avatasc.”

  “No, I’m from Kydia,” Kendra replied with what sounded like a smidgen of pride in her voice.

  Nathan sighed. A mixed party would be easier to deal with, and as long as he didn’t tell the truth about what he was or where he was from, they should get along easily enough. The two of them moved through the wilderness toward the river. While they talked, Nathan attempted to bend the truth when answering her questions so he wouldn’t give away too much about his quest. It was easy to do, especially with how much Kendra talked.

  “So, anyway,” she said, concluding the story of how she wound up falling into his arms. “One thing you know, I’m being kicked out of an inn for stealing Callahan’s money, the next I’m falling from a bridge and landing on you.”

  Nathan grinned. The afternoon had turned to evening by the time she had finished the whole tale. The girl loved to talk, but that was okay. He liked to listen.

  “Well, that sounds like an exciting story.”

  “How did you end up breaking away from your friends?” she asked.

  Now that she had told him her whole story, she seemed to think it was only common courtesy to ask for his. He had hoped she would just keep talking.

  Nathan thought back, trying to find the vaguest way possible of telling her. “There was some danger . . . and my companion told me to flee. I, ah, just didn’t think to look where I was going.”

  “A danger?” she asked, face filled with curiosity.

  “Yeah . . .” Nathan looked down, trying to come up with something. If they were going to be traveling together, it would be easier if she knew the truth. And he wasn’t sure he could bear lying to her for much longer. “Well . . . okay. Here’s what happened.”

  However, he didn’t have time to say anything before he heard her scream in delight.

  “The river!”

  Kendra ran out of an opening in the trees toward it. Nathan rushed through the brush after her and halted, gazing about in wonder. It was evening, and the bright stars were out in the night sky. The lights in the sky reflected on the clear flowing water as Kendra stopped to take it in also. She looked beautiful standing there in the moonlight.

  “Pretty,” she said and turned to him.

  He nodded in agreement, still staring at her. Taiba suddenly started shaking in his hood and Nathan frowned back at his interruption. Then, as though feeling what his companion felt, fear rose within him and his eyes returned to the river. Behind Kendra, something shifted under the surface of the water.

  “Kendra, get away from the water!”

  Quickly, he looked up at the sky. Now that they were no longer under the trees, he finally had a chance to look up without the trees blocking his vision. The moon was bright pink, a crescent of it glowing bloodred.

  Taiba appeared from out of his hood, his small body trembling. The water moved. Kendra screamed as something black arose.

  Two sharp horns connected to a slimy black surface that shone in the night. As it emerged onto the bank, it gave off the appearance of some kind of underwater bull. Its first half looked bovine and slick with water, where the second half had the long, finned, tail of a giant serpent, which was still sloshing about in the water. The creature was massive, and despite having no legs, moved swiftly on land.

  He wished he had brought his speciation book for he wanted to see if this Melkai was recorded in it. He had never seen a water-based Melkai before, let alone one that could fight both in the water and on land.

  Can this one speak, too?

  Nathan knew there was no way he could defeat such a thing with just him and Taiba, even with his Melkai’s poison. In order to survive, he was going to have to call something more powerful. After all his training with Morrow, he was sure he could pull off a pact with a second-circle Melkai, but he had been afraid to open a seam to the Melkairen ever since he had called forth Taiba.

  “You have to focus,” Morrow’s old voice said in his memory. “Feel the Melkairen and then pull it apart with your mind, just enough for a Melkai’s spirit form to get out. After that, you have to create a pact with that Melkai, the only way you can do that is—”

  “Nathan, what are you doing? Get out of the way!” Kendra called, breaking his line of thought.

  Nathan opened his eyes to see that the massive monster was now standing right in front of him. He jumped to the side as the Melkai’s head came down, meaning to skewer him on one of its horns. As he leapt back, the horn instead stabbed into the earth. This allowed him just enough time to flee before it pulled itself free again.

  Nathan ran toward Kendra and grabbed her by the hand, pulling her along the riverbank as fast as he could.

  “What is . . . that thing?” she asked, breathing heavily as they ran.

  Nathan tugged at her hand to keep up with him. “Melkai, second circle!”

  “Whatever it is,” Kendra called as she looked back over her shoulder, “it’s catching up!”

  Nathan turned back to see that it was on their tail. He pushed Kendra to one side and jumped to the other, falling to the sharp pebbles of the bank as the bull slid between them before skidding to a stop. Wincing from the impact of the fall, Nathan pushed himself up onto his feet.

  He had to summon something now or they were both dead.

  The Melkai slid about to face them, readying itself to charge again. Nathan staggered on the hard stones and placed his hand out in front of him, trying to feel the barrier to the Melkairen with his fingers. “Come on!” he pleaded, searching the air for a seam.

  The bull Melkai charged at him. Then he felt it, what he had been looking for, a seam in the barrier. It felt like the air had become pages in a book. All he had to do was pull them apart.

  “There!” he yelled, but then froze as the Melkai bowed its head. “Now I just have to . . .”

  Nathan gasped. A sudden shame rose up in him as he realized his last thought was going to be that, after all of his lessons, he had forgotten the one crucial part of making a pact item: the item itself.

  I don’t have anything to create a pact item with!

  Just as the Melkai was about to hit him, there was a deafening shriek. A giant shadow with huge black wings fell from the sky, its giant talons stabbing into the monster’s wet back. The bull Melkai collapsed to the stones under the creature’s weight, dead in seconds.

  Nathan swallowed the lump in his throat, once again unable to move. The bat Melkai had killed the bull Melkai so quickly, despite its size and the speed that it had been charging. The giant bat’s long talons must have pierced an organ; it was the on
ly way it could have won so quickly. Of course, it was the talons that made him freeze up, imagining them slicing through his own body.

  The bull breathed out its last breath. The bat raised its massive head, baring its fangs. Nathan’s eyes widened in panic at the giant winged monster looming before him. If he couldn’t defeat the first Melkai, he had no idea how he was supposed to fend off this thing.

  Kendra then called, “Laine!” and ran over to the monster.

  Nathan put his hand out to stop her, but then another girl skidded down the bank behind the giant bat. Recognition of the girl’s name from Kendra’s story came over him, and he just about collapsed in his relief. The girl was her friend, the caller from Avatasc, and the bat was her Melkai.

  Chapter 10: Another Caller

  “Looks like we made it just in time,” a husky voice said beside him.

  Nathan turned with a start to see a familiar face. “Aisic!”

  “How’s it going?” Aisic asked, smiling down at him.

  Nathan looked him up and down. He was using a branch as a crutch and had a scabbing cut on his neck.

  Then he noticed someone was missing. “Hey, where’s Michael?”

  Aisic’s smile faded, and he didn’t reply. Instead, he turned back, and Nathan followed his gaze to see Kendra with the shorter girl. The bat morphed into a dark cloak, which settled around the girl’s shoulders.

  “That was perfect timing, Laine!” Kendra called.

  “You’re lucky I sent out Terachiro to search the surrounding area,” the girl murmured, shoving her arms through the cloak’s sleeves. “There’s a good chance you two would have died if I hadn’t.”

  Seeing this girl, someone who looked his age if not younger, transform a second-circle Melkai into a pact item made him feel ashamed that he hadn’t yet made a pact with one. He frowned down in frustration.

  He’d thought that summoning his first Melkai at such a young age had proved his talent, but in less than a minute, this girl had revealed him for the novice he was.

  Her face was filled with an emotion that he couldn’t quite read, confused and wary, but also like she recognized him from somewhere.