by J. P. Rice
As I looked down at the winding arm of roots snaking around my shoe and ankle, another stroke with the flat of the sword blasted me on my left cheek. A searing pain bounced from my cheek to my jaw, which started tingling in a worrisome way. Carefully stroking down toward my foot with my sword, I cut the tree roots away, although they were bound tightly around my ankle.
I stepped to my left to avoid the shady areas and the warrior appeared again. With his sword drawn back, he uncorked a stroke across my midsection. I jumped back, shoving my ass backward to narrowly avoid the incoming pain. His follow through left him unprotected and I drove the point of my fire sword into his chest.
The sword sank into the wooden man, who gasped, then shrieked, then fell. Unfortunately, my sword had gotten stuck in his chest. As I wrestled to pry the sword loose, a flash of brown wood appeared and crushed me in the temple.
Shooting stars streaked through my vision and my eyes watered. Another blurry sword screaming toward my face appeared at the last moment, and I raised my arm defensively. The blade ran across my forearm, leaving a trail of fiery pain in its path.
Using two fingers, I traced over the pain and checked out the damage. Blood. How? How could a wooden sword cut through my blessed rune suit?
Instead of messing with my fire sword that was stuck in a fallen warrior, I formed another fireball in my palm. Backing away to keep some distance from the shadow samurai warriors, I quickly turned it into another curved blade sword. The trees continued to sway, branches hiding the sinking sun, and in turn, hiding the arborous army coming after us.
I felt a presence behind me and spun around. Oh shit. I was completely surrounded as the rain picked up, drops sizzling as they hit my fire blade. Felix had disappeared in the middle of a cluster of warriors. I could hear him screaming like a tennis player after taking a shot, but I’d lost sight of my partner.
Re-forming the sword into a long staff, I positioned my hand in the middle. With a quick wrist motion, I twirled the staff around my body, creating a natural shield. Just when I was feeling somewhat safe for a moment, the earth fissured again, and a trail of angry tree roots attacked my other leg, winding around my calf with blinding speed.
The roots were wrapping up to my knee. I swung the staff down and cut them loose, leaving another bracelet from my ankle to my knee. Being at such a high altitude, I was already running out of breath. I’d been in much more exhausting brawls before, but this one was emptying my tank faster than usual.
Fighting against my burning lungs, I whirled the staff around, taking out two more dryad warriors. I wondered how much longer I could keep this up. The warriors seemed to be endless and full of energy.
Felix screamed, “Fuck this. I’m putting a stop to this right now.”
My eyes followed my ears and my neck turned. I saw Felix shaping his sword into a fireball. He squeezed the ball in his palm and his hand started to glow. He raised his fiery fist above his head and dropped the hammer onto mother earth. A giant flash surrounded Felix’s body and set the ground of the forest ablaze.
The feral screams of the wooden men filled my ears as I scooted into a safe area that had been extinguished by the falling rain. Two men engulfed in flames ran toward me. I got up on my toes so that I could dodge left or right, but the two men collapsed five feet in front of me and flailed around on the ground for a few moments before finally going still.
I screamed, “Yeah. Ya’ll fucked up now. I gave you an option to get out of here. Motherfuckers.”
Looking around, I realized that Felix’s spell had ignited all the tree men, but none of the trees. Well done, my friend. The heavy downpour was helping control the flames, so the trees were safe for the moment. I kept my guard up, waiting for newly formed men to attack from the trunks of the evergreens.
After a minute of no new warriors coming out of the woodwork, I realized the attack was over. I turned to Felix. “How did you do that?”
Felix sat down with his vape pen already in hand. He lay back and took a giant hit, exhaling the cinnamony smoke into the rainy air. “Bro, I just worked with what we had.” He took a few more hits and explained, “I cut a piece off one of the warriors and I used that to cast the spell so that only the creatures with that specific makeup would be attacked by the flames. I tried to keep the bushes and trees safe.”
Whoa. That was pretty fucking brilliant. Why hadn’t I thought of that? “We make a pretty good team. One of us always figures out a way to get out of a jam.”
Felix puffed away on his vape pen and I wondered how those things were better than cigarettes. He seemed rather addicted to whatever the hell went into those machines.
Felix asked, “You still have the Goblet, right?”
I darted over to the hole in the ground and couldn’t see my hoodie. Not good. I kneeled down and frantically flung dirt out of the hole with both hands. Swiping at the dirt, my fingers hooked on some black material. I exhaled in relief and pulled my hoodie out.
Unwrapping the cotton garment, I felt a weird power emanating from the Goblet.
Felix tucked his vape pen into his pocket and said, “So. It’s going to be dark real soon. Should we camp out up here and go back down tomorrow?”
He answered his own question before I had a chance to speak, “We could sleep here. I would be worried that these trees are going to create more warriors to come after us. Maybe if we took sleeping shifts, we could stay aware.”
“The thing is that we only have two people. If one falls asleep that only leaves one person to stay on watch. That’s a pretty small margin for error especially after an exhausting brawl like that. If we had four or five people and a few could stay on watch, I’d say, let’s do it. But maybe we should head out.”
He pulled his vape pen out and hit it again. “Give me a few more minutes to catch my breath,” said Felix as smoke poured out of his mouth and nose.
More than a few minutes later, we created natural flashlights with our hands and began the great descent. We had the Blood Goblet in our possession. In hindsight, I was obviously glad I’d accompanied Felix on this adventure. Not to toot my own horn, but he would have probably been fucked without me.
We now had the power to reverse any curse the sorcerers could set on Cyclone Woman. We just had to visit Fukutama so he could tell us how to use the Goblet against the Seven Sorcerers.
Chapter 10
I finally got to sit down on my couch to relax after the exhausting trip to capture the Blood Goblet. I kicked my feet up on the coffee table and sank back into the cushions. My phone started ringing. Police Sirens. It meant the call was coming from Gretchen Meyer, my associate on the Pittsburgh Police Department of the Occult. Maybe I shouldn’t answer it. She was probably going to yell at me for not getting back together with her daughter.
What the hell. I swiped accept and put the phone up to the side of my head. “Hello.”
“Merlino.” She sounded cranky as usual.
“This is he.”
I heard her riffling through papers in the background. “I have a situation I might need your help on. We arrested a man a little while ago. I’m not really sure how to say this so I’ll just come out with it. He has three eyes. The third one is in the middle of his forehead.”
Jackpot. “Where are you at?”
Gretchen answered, “I’m at the station in Squirrel Hill near the Jewish Community Center.”
“Keep him there.” I started gathering my wallet and keys. “I’m leaving now. Right now.”
I grabbed a roll of duct tape, ran out the door and jumped into the driver’s seat. The tires squealed as I made a one-eighty and jammed down the gas pedal.
Speeding across the Highland Park Bridge, I pumped the brakes. Getting pulled over for speeding would really slow things down. I zoomed across town and parked in front of the station. Hopping out of the car, I ran across the street and into the station.
Gretchen met me at the front desk and whisked me down a narrow hallway with rooms on either sid
e. “It’s right there on the right. Room AE.”
As I walked down the hall, I asked, “Did he have any ID on him? Or any possessions?”
“No. Just those robes he’s wearing and a top hat we took away from him. And all that weird body jewelry of bones and whatnot that he was wearing. We didn’t find any identification, and he refuses to tell us his name,” Gretchen explained.
I waited outside the room. “I know his name. If you hear me yell, bust on in. Otherwise, let me have some time with this guy.”
Gretchen nodded. I twisted the door knob slowly and kicked the door open to make a dramatic entrance into the interrogation room. I entered a plain gray room with a table in the middle. A cylindrical light fixture was hanging about five feet above the table.
Kobayashi sat in a chair on one side of the table and I took a seat across from him. Stripped of all his body jewelry, he looked smaller today.
I’d almost forgotten something as I stared at his ugly face. I pulled the duct tape out of my pocket and walked around the table. Kobayashi had his hands still cuffed behind him, but I needed to take care of one more issue.
I pulled on the tape and stretched out a nice long piece. Even with his hair covering his third eye, I didn’t want to take any chances. Starting with his forehead, I put the tape over his third eye and wrapped it around his head. I ripped off a few more pieces and made sure he couldn’t see out of that eye. I didn’t need him looking into my soul or bringing up something from my past.
I returned to the other side of the table and sat down. “You might know who I am, but I definitely know who you are. Kobayashi.”
He grinned and spoke in a Japanese accent, “Congratulations. If you free my hands, I could clap for you. But it will do you no good.”
I wanted to smack the smug look off his face. “I know you kidnapped Cyclone Woman. I know your game and I’m going to bring you down.”
He laughed. “You know nothing, little boy.”
I leaned back in my chair, and said, “Really. Tamamo no Mae, Yabe and Sakai. Do those names mean anything to you?”
He raised his third eyebrow that was half-covered in silver tape. “Many people know those names from all the stories. You still know nothing. I am only one. Eliminate me and three will carry out the order.”
I barked at him, “Who ordered you to do this?” I was trying to remain calm, but this guy made my blood boil.
He looked up at the ceiling, and said casually, “Crafty response. But not crafty enough. Keep guessing about that.”
I blew up, “Where the fuck are you hiding Cyclone Woman?”
He looked down at the table, ignoring me. I screamed, “Where the fuck is she?”
Kobayashi chuckled and burped. “You’ll have to excuse me. I had a little extra garlic powder in my Bloody Mary earlier. It just doesn’t agree with me the way it used to.”
I slammed my fist on the table and said, “Enough of the fun and games. You do realize we can keep you locked up as long as we want.”
Despite his hands being cuffed behind him, he cracked his knuckles, one by one, as he spoke, “I know enough of the legal system in America to know that I won’t be held very long for the crime I am suspected of.”
I threatened him, “Oh, but you will stay here until trial if we slap a kidnapping and attempted murder charge on your record.” I was talking out of my ass and hoped he didn’t know any better.
“You cannot pervert the system like that. It would be dishonorable.” He looked up at me with an evil grin. “I’m told that you aren’t permitted to act without honor.”
“Dishonorable. I like that word. See, I think that it’s dishonorable to kidnap a Native American spirit so that you can control the weather and use it for your own destructive purposes. It’s dishonorable to kill innocent people. That’s what I think.”
Kobayashi pushed his lips out and shrugged his shoulders. He tilted his head to the side and said, “Who is truly innocent in this world? Has not everyone committed a sin in their day?”
“The key is to stop it and never commit those sins again.”
He bobbed his head from side to side, weighing my words. “Perhaps our definitions of honor clash a bit.”
I argued, “There is only one definition. Wait. I’m not having this stupid argument with you.” I couldn’t let him get me off track. I needed to harness my anger. “Tell me where Cyclone Woman is or you aren’t going to see the outside of this place. And lots of accidents happen in here. Better be careful.” I hoped he wouldn’t call my bluff.
He sat up straight, stuck out his chest and raised his head in defiance. “I can leave here whenever I wish. It’s cute that you think you are a grown up. You should go back to your high school and leave this to the adults. You’re just going to get killed if you keep prying in our matters.”
I laughed. “I’ve been hearing that same exact phrase for years. In those years, a lot of people have died. A lot. Yet here I sit, living and breathing and not in handcuffs. And you know what, next year I’ll still be here. Will you? Just give me Cyclone Woman and I’ll get you out of here. You give me an address. We pick up Cyclone Woman. And you go home. Refuse and you will rot in here until you die. Your choice.”
“I love choices.” Kobayashi laughed and closed his eyes for a few moments. “But you forgot the most obvious one.” One at a time, he opened his eyes.
“And what would that be?” I asked, already sick of his shit.
“I leave here,” he stated simply. He leaned his head closer to the table. “I go back to Cyclone Woman and send a tornado straight through the city. Or perhaps another choice. I find out where you live and send a twister to take out you and anyone you care about. The first will be that little bastard goblin we’ve seen you with.”
I jumped up from the table and my hands formed naturally into fists. “Don’t you dare threaten my son. I’ll fucking kill you right here if you utter another word about him.”
His lips curled up even more and a gleam streaked through his dark eyes. “Ahhh. I seem to have struck a nerve. How about I give you some options? You let me go right now and you stop following us. You will give us the Blood Goblet too. Yes. Since you’ve stuck your nose into this matter, I’ve had people following you. You are severely overplaying your hand.”
Shit. He had some very good points, but the deck being stacked against me had never stopped me before. “Those don’t sound like options to me.” I paced along the table.
Kobayashi swung his arms up over his head and put his cuffed hands on the table. The double-jointed son of a bitch deepened his voice and said, “No. They are demands. If you wish to live, you will follow them.”
I stopped pacing and focused on Kobayashi. “Oh, so now you’re giving advice. How generous of you.”
He looked away and blew on his clawed fingernails. “My mind tires of this circular conversation. Round and round we go. Do you have any other questions that will make you feel like a big tough guy?”
He was making my blood boil again. I sat back down and tried to relax. Being on edge about Burn had made it a lot easier for me to get fired up. I thought about using physical force against the detained sorcerer, but it went against everything I’d been taught.
If I sank to the level of the dregs of the magical world, what would that make me? No better than them, right? Then why was my right fist clenched so hard that it was about to turn into a diamond? And why was my mind screaming to smash this motherfucker in the face?
“I’m tiring of this too. Have fun rotting away.” I stood up and shoved my seat back in one motion. Moving to the side, I lowered my head and pushed the seat snugly under the table.
When I looked up, a fog of smoke surrounded Kobayashi and metal clanging against metal filled my ears. I raced around the other side of the table and stabbed my hand at the area where Kobayashi was sitting. Nothing. With a wild hand motion, I waved the haze away. The thick plumes of smoke smelled minty and started to dissipate as I continued my fanning moti
on.
As the smoke cleared, I stared at an empty chair and a pair of handcuffs sitting on the interrogation table. Where was he? I searched the corners and ceiling of the room. How the fuck had he just disappeared?
Just to the right of the chair, I noticed something. A strange opaque wave of light colors. A fucking portal. How had he performed that act? That was a serious magic act that I’d never known about.
Should I jump into the portal and chase him? I vacillated on what to do. I didn’t want to let him get away, but the portal could lead anywhere. It could be a trap. Hell, I was dealing with a black magic sorcerer. It probably was a trap. Fuck.
I decided not to take the wild ride to the other side. I’d wondered why Kobayashi had been so reckless. It made perfect sense now. He’d never given his real name and he had a get out of jail free card. It was as if he’d never even been detained.
Frustrated, I grabbed the cuffs and duct tape and opened the door.
Gretchen was standing sentinel right outside the room and asked, “So what did you find out?”
“About that.” I handed her the handcuffs. Gretchen accepted them with a perplexed look on her face. I held my hands up in front of my chest. “Just let me explain what happened.”
Chapter 11
Hiking along a beaten dirt path at the public forest named Trillium Trail, I checked my pocket to make sure I still had the magic whistle to summon one of the Gods. Blodeuwedd had given it to me to use when I needed help. She had organized all the winged creatures in Pittsburgh into an intelligence source. Quite crafty.
I’d never summoned her and didn’t know what to expect, but I needed her to find out some information on the Seven Sorcerers. I kept walking deep into the woods and heard some grunting sounds to my left. Jerking my neck to the left, I noticed a small bush moving. It seemed like it could be an attack.