by Sarah Noffke
Rapidly, Liv fired the ball at the snake and immediately created another one. This time the fire connected, and as she suspected, it did nothing, simply dissipated like it had hit a bank of snow.
Well, that changes everything, Liv thought with sudden dread. The one weapon she had access to wasn’t going to slow the beast down. What she needed was light, but as far as she could tell, the area was bare bones. Brick walls and stone floors.
The snake lunged at Liv and she dove to the side, rolling and losing her fireball. Her first thought was for the chicken. Quickly creating another fireball, Liv was relieved to see the chicken was unharmed. Not only that, but she seemed to be putting the snake in a trance as she moved her head to one side and then the other, repeating the movement again and again.
Liv had no idea what was going on or how much longer the chicken could keep it up. That was when she noticed the torch on the far wall behind the chicken. It was quite a distance, and if Liv’s aim wasn’t perfect, the chicken was going to be roasted. Still, it was the best option Liv could find.
She hurled the fireball past the serpent. It soared over the chicken and crashed into the torch, igniting it and filling the cavernous area with light. The chicken’s squawk sounded more like a child screaming as it bounced into the air, away from the embers raining down from the torch. The trance was broken and the snake struck at the chicken, thankfully missing. The bird flapped its wings and avoided the next attack, too.
Liv swung Bellator around just as the snake rounded on her. Knowing that hesitating would cost her the battle, Liv brought her sword through the air in a clean, swift movement. The blade sliced through the anaconda just under the head in a deliberate movement, severing the giant head from its body. The head rolled as the rest of the snake went completely limp.
Letting out a massive breath, Liv ensured that the chicken was safe. Her relief was short-lived as a rattling sound emanated behind her.
“Since you killed my pet, it looks like I’ll have to kill yours.”
Chapter Twelve
Liv spun to face the voice, Bellator warming in her hands after the recent kill. She probably should have expected the mangled face that stared at her from a glowing archway. It was a magician. Her ability to pick up on the brands of magic she’d been honing told her that much. What it didn’t tell her was what had caused the long scars across the man’s face, or why he shook when he held up his hand to brush his long gray hair out of his face.
“I’m sorry for killing your pet, but it was trying to kill me,” Liv said, assessing her options. She could send a fireball at the madman, but something told her that might not work since it hadn’t on his snake. There was also a lot of space between her and him, and the chicken was unfortunately between them.
He shrugged. “It’s fine. We weren’t that close. Not like I was with his mother, but I killed her myself.”
“After she gave you those scars,” Liv guessed.
The magician took a step forward. “I’m going to guess since you’re a magician wielding fireball magic, that Subner sent you to get my weapons.”
“I believe he said they were his,” Liv told him, her eyes sliding to the side as she started forward to try to put herself between the magician and the chicken.
A long yawn escaped the man’s mouth. “Subner doesn’t understand how the law of possession works.”
“It’s supposed to be three-fourths of the law,” Liv corrected.
The magician’s face contorted oddly when he made to smile. “I see that you have a very nice sword. Only something giant-made, of the highest quality, could have killed De Soto so efficiently.”
“De Soto?” Liv asked. “That was the name of the over-sized snake? I was guessing he was a Wayne.”
“I think that adding your sword to my collection would be very nice,” the magician said, eyeing Bellator with a hungry expression.
“Thing is, I’m not looking to part with the sword at this time,” Liv stated. “I came to get weapons, not to give them.”
The magician’s laughter sounded like loose rocks sifting through a grate. “My power comes from merely possessing the Dequiem set. You’re foolish to think you can challenge me in my home.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Liv stated, unleashing a fireball and throwing it at the magician. It wasn’t even halfway toward him when he simply flipped his hand and the fireball fell to the ground, extinguishing at once. As she had thought, fire wasn’t going to work on this guy.
He laughed again. “Fire isn’t an enemy to me. I enjoy it, actually, unlike water. De Soto, now, he enjoyed water, which was why we hardly ever got along.”
Liv exchanged an uneasy glance with the chicken. If this magician thought it was weird that the chicken was pecking at the stone floor, he didn’t show it. Liv tried not to pay the bird much notice, but it was hard to miss that she was sketching a round pattern on the floor.
Liv wasn’t sure what she was doing, but she was going to buy them some time while she tried to figure it out.
“So these weapons give you power simply by possessing them?” she asked the man.
“Why, yes!” he boomed. “You’ve heard of the Great Cheverone?”
“I haven’t actually,” Liv said, taking a step backward, feeling the tug from Bellator. It wanted her to back up as Cheverone neared her. She wasn’t sure why, since it usually lusted for a battle.
The magician laughed as if Liv were joking. “I’m known all over the world for my incredible powers. That incident that happened in Budapest with the fences? That was me.”
“I missed that headline,” Liv related, taking another step back, now almost even with the wall.
“Of course you did. I put fences all around the countryside of Budapest.”
“Why?” Liv asked, watching as the chicken finished outlining the circle on the stone floor and came to stand beside her. She still didn’t know what the chicken had in mind or why Bellator had tugged her back to this spot, only releasing her when she was on the other side of the circle.
“Because it was funny,” Cheverone said, still laughing. “All the farmers came out, and there were lines of fences stretching every which way for miles.”
“So you boxed them in?” Liv asked.
He shook his head. “No, I left gaps in the fences in places. It was too difficult to make it seamless.”
“Again, why did you do that?” Liv asked, sort of entertained by this nut job.
“Because it made me legendary!”
“Ummm…I think it just made you a moron who wasted magical energy that could have been used for doing good.”
The crazy glint in his eyes deepened. “There is no good in the world. There are only displays of power. The Dequiem collection has been my source of strength for a long time, and neither you nor Subner can take it from me. I’m too powerful.” He lifted his hand, and with it, Liv rose off her feet.
“Damn it!” she growled, kicking. “Not one of these types of spells again. I hate being swept off my feet. It’s so degrading.”
“Now, because I’m a kind and thoughtful sorcerer,” Cheverone began, “I plan to feed you to my other pet first. Then your chicken. That way, you don’t have to watch it die.”
“Other pet?” Liv asked, trying to free herself from the hold he had on her but unable to make much progress.
“Naturally,” he said with a hiss as another anaconda’s head skulked into the archway at his back.
“Oh, you have two snakes,” Liv grumbled. “I guess two is just as much work as one. They keep themselves occupied, is that right?”
Cheverone cast his narrowed eyes on the snake. “She’s stalling, but I can’t really blame her.”
Liv’s eyes flicked to the chicken, which was pecking something else out in the dust on the floor.
“What do you mean, you’re not hungry?” Cheverone asked the snake, which Liv hadn’t heard say anything.
“I get that,” Cheverone continued. “That was why I originally had
De Soto go after them.” He motioned to the beheaded snake lying in the distance. “As you can see, that didn’t work out so well.”
The anaconda hissed angrily, rising higher.
“Don’t worry,” Cheverone said matter-of-factly to the snake. “I’ll get you another friend. Just kill them first.”
The snake apparently didn’t like Cheverone’s insensitive manner. It turned on him, rising even higher into the air.
Just then, Liv recognized what the clever chicken was sketching on the floor. It was a picture of the room they were standing in. However, she’d added a few details, and as Liv glanced around, she realized exactly what the chicken wanted her to do.
The magician held up his hand, freezing the snake. “Don’t forget who has the power here.”
His act of immobilizing the snake released Liv, who tumbled to the floor. Landing with a thud, Liv hurled a ball of magical energy at the center of the circle the chicken had drawn, which she now realized indicated that a support column was missing. The place where it had been was only a discolored spot on the floor in the middle of the circle.
Cheverone and the snake swung to face Liv as the ball of energy hit the floor under their feet, making it split in two. It opened like a massive cavern, and the structure around them shook. Liv plastered herself to the wall, worried that the floor under their feet would crumble into the water below them as it was doing to Cheverone and his snake.
It was the Cloaca Maxima; Rome’s sewer system, which ran under the city and was more like a river than the pipelines Liv was used to.
Liv was unsure if it was going to work as Cheverone scrambled for the archway where he’d entered. The bricks were dissolving under his feet, but he was moving fast. And then the anaconda reached out with its long tail and wrapped it around Cheverone’s body, squeezing him tight.
“What are you doing, you piece of shit?!” the magician roared, his face going red from the pressure. The snake had bound his arms to his side.
Liv actually wasn’t sure what the snake was going to do. Rescue his master? Fling him across the room at her? Or lash across the hole in the middle of the room, which had thankfully stopped growing wider. The pressure point the chicken had indicated was perfect. It opened a perfectly symmetrical hole. The brownish waters of the Cloaca Maxima churned under their feet, sending up an unpleasant smell.
The snake’s green eyes glowed in her direction. Liv prepared to use Bellator, although she was standing on a narrow ledge with little space to swing the sword. What she needed was to edge to the wider part of the floor, but the chicken was blocking her way, its eyes locked on the snake.
Liv was about to step over the bird when the anaconda’s head plunged into the waters of the Cloaca Maxima, diving with a strange grace. It slipped soundlessly through the large opening, taking Cheverone with it.
“No!” the magician yelled, his face contorted with fear and disbelief as he disappeared into the dark waters.
“Eat shit and die, asshole,” Liv said, letting out a sigh of relief.
Chapter Thirteen
“That was pretty smart planning you did,” Liv remarked to the chicken as they stepped through the portal into Roya Lane.
The chicken didn’t answer. Instead, she flapped her wings as she tried to avoid nearly getting trampled by the crowd.
“Oh, sorry,” Liv stated, bending over and picking up the bird. “I forgot that you need to be carried some of the time.”
Because they were in a congested area, Liv was surprised when Plato materialized beside her. She blinked at him, unsure she was actually seeing the lynx.
“What are you doing here?” she asked him.
“Telling you that you’re being followed again,” he said in a hushed voice.
Liv glanced around. “Adler is here?”
He nodded. “Yes, but he hasn’t caught sight of you yet. He’s been hiding in disguise over there, waiting to see you come through, and I guess hoping to follow you to Subner’s shop.”
“How did he know to look for me here?”
“I’m guessing he looked up your portal magic after the first time I gave him the slip for you.”
Liv shook her head. “That man is up to something this time.”
“I agree,” Plato said, mostly in a whisper. There was so much going on that no one was paying them any attention. Besides, more curious than the fact that Liv was talking to a cat was, she was holding a chicken.
“I’m not sure I’ll be able to sneak by him,” Liv said, studying the lane. “I have to walk right by the area where he is, and it appears the crowd thins out there.”
“Which is why he picked it, I’m sure,” Plato stated. “But don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Just give me one minute, and then you can continue to Subner’s.”
“What are you going to do?” Liv asked curiously.
He lifted an eyebrow and gave her an incredulous glare.
“Okay, fine, you don’t have to let the cat out of the bag,” she said with a laugh.
Plato rolled his eyes. “I’m going to keep helping you even though those jokes are costing me lives.”
“Because they are so funny?” Liv asked.
“Yes, that’s it.”
“Well, thanks for helping me give Adler the slip again,” Liv said. “And for putting up with my bad jokes.”
“Liv, if I was going to abandon you because of bad jokes, I would have been gone a long time ago.”
She grimaced at him and lifted the chicken. “Rosella happens to like my jokes.”
The bird squawked twice.
“Yes, she absolutely loves them,” Plato agreed dryly.
“Hey, I bet you know what her name is, don’t you?”
“Yes, and you’re not even remotely close.”
“Camila? Eva? Isabella?”
Plato shook his head.
“Well, don’t tell me and spoil the fun,” Liv said.
“You know I wasn’t going to,” Plato remarked.
“No, that would be too easy. Instead, I’m going to start calling her Chicken-Lady.”
Plato’s eyes studied the chicken before returning to Liv. “She doesn’t like that.”
“How do you know?” Liv asked. “She didn’t make a peep.”
Plato rolled his eyes again.
“Okay, sorry, that actually was a bad joke,” Liv admitted.
“They are all bad jokes,” Plato stated. “And I just know. Since you don’t know her name—”
“And you and Papa Creola won’t tell me,” Liv cut in.
“And you can’t figure it out on your own,” Plato went on, “she’d prefer for you to call her ‘the Scientist.’”
“What?” Liv exclaimed. “Even in the magical world, I’ll look like a loon if I refer to a chicken as a scientist.”
Plato shook his head at the chicken. “No, I don’t know how to make her stop. It’s like this weird savant thing she does.”
“Yes, my special power is making puns,” Liv said, scowling at the animals. “And how do you know what she wants to be called?”
When Plato didn’t answer, Liv threw up her free hand. “Fine, fine. Don’t tell me. I’ll just carry around the chicken and call her ‘Scientist.’ Maybe I can carry you around in my other arm and call you ‘Teacher’ or ‘Guru.’ I think then I’ll get some attention.”
“You know I don’t like to be carried,” Plato said simply.
“And you have to go and run interference for me.” Liv pointed to where Adler was.
“Yes, and it might take me a little longer than I thought if it works at all. The crowd dynamic has shifted since we’ve been talking.”
“Hey, I need you to stay paws-itive,” Liv said, slapping her knee as she chuckled.
Plato blinked impassively at her.
“Okay, when will I know it’s safe to continue down Roya Lane?” Liv asked.
“You’ll know,” he said simply and disappeared into the crowd.
Liv shook her head at the chicken
. “Isn’t he cute?”
The bird didn’t apparently have a response to this. At least not one that Liv could understand since she didn’t have telepathy or whatever it was that let Plato know things.
She was considering her options for gaining such a skill when a ruckus down the lane stole her attention. A woman’s voice echoed down the path as the crowd swept forward.
“Get away from me!” the woman yelled as a loud growl sounded from somewhere near her.
“Help her!” someone yelled.
“Here, we’ll surround them,” someone else called as the crowd turned into a wall around where Adler had been stationed, apparently disguised as a woman.
Liv ducked and sprinted past, heading for Subner’s shop before the distraction was over.
Chapter Fourteen
The entire way down Roya Lane, Liv kept checking over her shoulder. Thankfully she didn’t notice Adler or an old lady, only a ton of commotion at the far end. Who knew what Plato had done to buy her the time, and he obviously wasn’t going to tell her.
The Fantastical Armory’s doors were open when Liv entered, carrying the chicken and the bag of swords.
Subner glanced up from his book, a pair of reading spectacles on his face. “There you are. It took you long enough.”
“That’s a strange way of saying ‘thank you,’” Liv said, unshouldering the bag full of swords.
“You left here a day ago,” he grumbled.
“To go and find weapons when you had zero ideas where they might be or who took them?” Liv argued.
“How do you know you were successful?”
“Does the name Cheverone ring any bells?”
Subner scowled. “He didn’t! That old so-and-so. I bet he didn’t even use any of the swords.”
“No, he said he wanted the Dequiem set for their power reserves.”
Subner nodded like this made perfect sense. “Such a coward. He stole an arsenal even though he doesn’t know how to swing a sword. I hope you made him pay.”
Liv gave the chicken a sideways look. “Let’s just say he’s feeling pretty shitty right about now.”