Call of Kuyr

by J C Gilbert

  Lilly was in her 'my decision has been made,' phase and she seemed to be vaguely pretending that Trist did not exist. Trist was now making various huffing and puffing noises of disappointment. I wondered what it was like to be inside his brain and think that all this was OK.

  "You can't walk off by yourself," said Trist. "It's dangerous."

  "We will be fine," said Lilly.

  "At least take the torch," he suggested. It was hanging on a pillar and still burning brightly.

  Lilly slipped an enormously baggy sweater over her bikini. "Was it stolen?" she asked.

  "Well, I mean, a little," said Trist.

  "See ya, space cowboy," said Lilly.

  Lilly walked slightly faster than usual, her strides long, and her mind somewhere else. "Can you believe him?" I asked as we walked.

  Lilly didn't answer. People were most angry when they were disappointed. It was a long way back to the Snake and Stables, and we really didn't know the way. I thought about just going back to The Library now, but we couldn't afford to miss another whole night here. And what would the Librarian say if instead of saving a world from annihilation we were swimming in the hot pools? Not a good look.

  The sounds of conflict had died away. It seems even warring street gangs need to get a good night sleep. I was OK with this. I didn't exactly want to run into any trouble while still in my dripping swim shorts.

  This part of the city was full of pitfalls for the unwary. More than once we came across a caved in canal or hole to nowhere which I might have walked straight into if it weren't for the high moon.

  "It's just that-" started Lilly, but she was interrupted by a shrill cry in the otherwise silent night. The sound cut right to the core of me, like a chill.

  "What was that?" I spat.

  There was another scream. Up ahead, some ten feet or so in the air was a shadow. In the crisp moonlight, I could make out the silhouette of two monstrous wings, beating silently. The creature was holding on to something in its hands, someone. It was writhing.

  "Come on!" I said to Lilly, running towards the creature. We had to get a better look or this night would be wasted. Hank thudded on my lungs and clawed at my diaphragm, but to no avail.

  We dodged the rubble and holes in the ground as we ran towards the terror. Every so often, I looked up to see where it was. It seemed to be getting higher and higher. Were we going to miss it? I could hear a voice pleading with the shadow.

  A sound from Lilly made me stop in my tracks. It was immediately followed by a scream and then a terrible crunch as the creature dropped whoever it was that he was carrying. We were close enough to see the body crash into the shadowy streets ahead of us.

  "No!" I yelled.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Lilly pulled me to the side of the street. The winged creature swooped down toward its prey, "crunch, crunch, crunch," it said in a sickly husky voice. "All its bits are crunch."

  It was not far from us now. We were close enough to see that it was crouched down next to the lifeless body.

  My heart was beating fast, and my chest rising and falling. Lilly was doing her best to silence her gasps but was struggling. All else was silent. I wondered that he couldn't hear the thud, thud, thud, in my chest. I wondered how I hadn't woken the whole city.

  I wanted to get a better look for the Librarian's sake, for the sake of everyone who lived in this reality, but I wasn't sure that Lilly and I would survive such a survey. I slowly moved to withdraw the book from my bag, ready to extract us if we needed to go.

  My hand was on my bag now. I unlatched the latch. Carefully I started lifting up the flap. Lilly drew in a sharp breath. The creature had stopped moving. It was looking right at us with two devilish red eyes. It smiled an impossibly wide smile, revealing jagged rows of white teeth, made ghostly in the moonlight. The rest of its face was still hidden by the night. It was like some horrible Cheshire Cat.

  "We have an audience," said the creature, "how interesting."

  It seemed to stand to its full height of about seven feet. Its limbs were unnaturally long, and its hands enormous.

  I was frozen in terror. Lilly grabbed my arm. "Run," she said.

  We darted out into the street. The creature didn't seem to change its pace but laughed at us. Just then, there was movement and flame. From nowhere emerged Trist, torch in hand. "Get out of here!" he said, "I'll lead it off."

  "Trist, no!" shouted Lilly.

  "Go!"

  "I can see into your brain, you know," I heard the creature say as we darted off into the night. "Why so boring?" it shouted.

  ***

  I turned back briefly to see that we were not being followed. By now, I had pulled out The Book of Martin and was ready to go home.

  "We can't just leave him!" said Lilly.

  "We really, really can," I replied and started to read. Lilly looked for a moment like she might go back towards the creature as I read. I grabbed for her arm before I was pulled in, and together we fell.

  I lay back on the maroon tiles of The Library. My clothes were soaked, my legs were chaffed, and my head was spinning. The animal part of myself just wanted to be back in the hot pools, watching the moon reach its zenith and then descend into the ink blackness of the world.

  Lilly was on her feet. "What are you even doing, Alex! That thing is going to murder him."

  "What did you want me to do? Get murdered as well?"

  "The Library, Alex. We could have brought him back here!"

  The thought had honestly not occurred to me, but I wasn't going to let Lilly know that. "How do you suppose I would be able to convince him to hold still long enough to be taken through if we are being chased by, well, by whatever that thing was?" It was a pretty good explanation, as far as things go.

  Lilly seemed to concede. "I just hope he is OK."

  "Yeah, me too," I said, getting to my feet. I need to change out of these, and then we need to find the Librarian.

  We took a brief trip back to my house and changed into warmer clothes and then met the Librarian back in the lounge by the fireplace. She was looking graver than ever.

  "His name is Kuyr," she said, " and he is a wicked being."

  "Yeah, we kind of got that vibe," said Lilly.

  "This is not the first time he has terrorized a world either."

  "He can cross worlds?" I asked.

  "It is possible, but a very rare gift. Seems to be becoming more and more common now, which is a worry."

  "How do we even stop that?" asked Lilly. "If by some miracle we are able to stop him doing whatever it is he is doing, then won't he just disappear into another book?"

  "Maybe," said the Librarian, "but I don't think so. From what I have gathered, Kuyr was defeated by a powerful alliance more than a thousand years ago. This world, you see, has always had a bit of chaos, and Kuyr was able to kindle that. Fortunately for his victims, his meddling awakened powers of their own. The myths seem to detail a progression towards the end times and a prophecy about the end of the world, but it never happened. They were able to defeat this Kuyr and bound him to an object."

  "An object? That's vague," said Lilly.

  "I'm sorry I can't be more specific than that. They refer to it as The Kewp, and I'm afraid that I have no idea what that means."

  "OK, so we find this object. What then?"

  "Bring it back here, and I put it with the others in the Lower Vault."

  "And that won't bring him through into The Library?"

  "I hope not," said the Librarian.

  "Hope not?" asked Lilly.

  "Well, it shouldn't do. I don't know. Things don't seem to be playing by the rules anymore. I'm doing my best."

  "The creature we saw?"

  "Fits the description near enough. Black wings, talon-like hands, wide white grin. He seems pretty distinct."

  "He is not the first person we have seen with wings like that. There was one of the Raven gang that had black wings."

  "Kuyr is probably somewhere among
them," said the Librarian. "After all, The Book of Martin is supposed to be about one of the Rams, I think, so it would make sense that Kuyr is one of the Ravens."

  "I was wondering about him," I said, "so he is a Ram then? That's useful."

  "I'm going to be level with you, Librarian," said Lilly, "we are going to need more than that. This thing was horrible. Pretty much the only thing we can do when it turns up is gasp and run away. And we couldn't even do that without Trist's help."

  "Who is Trist?" asked the Librarian.

  "Just a guy," I said, cutting Lilly off. "And she is right. What am I supposed to do without the flame magic? You say that this world will tear apart of there is too much magic? Well, it seems to me that if we don't use some magic, then it's going to be torn apart anyway."

  The Librarian shook her head, "I hear what you are saying, Keeper, but it is really not a good idea. I know it is tempting, especially when you see the locals brandishing flaming axes and lightning guns, but that is all the more reason to keep your power to yourself. You have a gift, Alex, it's true, but it is a gift that could destroy worlds if used carelessly."

  "Then what do we do?" I asked, frustrated.

  "Find the object and bring it back here. Maybe this Trist fellow can help."

  "If he is still alive," said Lilly with a pointed glance.

  "Can't you come through with us? We could probably do with some gorilla backup."

  "I'm afraid not, child," said the Librarian. "My place is here."

  "That reminds me," I said, "where is Darcy? We could probably use his help."

  Lilly suppressed a laugh.

  "He has been helpful," I asserted.

  "You didn't let him back through?" asked the Librarian, puzzled.

  "He must be still in the Upper Vault," I said.

  "He must be hungry," said Lilly.

  "It is true. There is not a lot to eat in The Library. He shouldn't be eating around the books anyway. Library Rule. But no, he is not in the Upper Vault. I have been there all day."

  "So he has wandered off. He will come back when he is hungry, or someone else starts feeding him," said Lilly.

  "I don't like it," I said.

  "I'm sure he will be fine, child."

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  "Why is that boy looking at me?" I asked. It was lunchtime the following day, and we had resumed our usual places sitting around the table, scrolling on Instagram. I had not updated anything on the profile since my drawing of the faun. I did have something to upload, but it was a picture of Elaine as I saw her on the shore and I didn't want to freak Lilly out.

  "Who?" asked Lilly.

  "That one there," I said, trying to avoid letting them know that I was talking about them.

  "Daniel?"

  "I think so. How do you tell them apart, anyway?"

  "No, that's Carl. Lol, I guess I can't. Hey, I got to ask you something."

  "Shoot."

  "Do you think Trist is a Slytherin?"

  "What?"

  "I mean he is cool and all, but I don't think I could, you know, be with a Slytherin."

  "Is that because you are a Gryffindor?"

  "You are kidding, right? With a mind like mine? I'm Ravenclaw, through and through."

  "I'm not so keen on Ravenclaws these days," I said, a memory of that hideous grin flashing before my mind's eye.

  "It is true that knowledge can lead some of us down a questionable path," said Lilly, gravely.

  That afternoon when I got home, I found that Mom was already there. This always made me nervous, not for any particular reason, I just like to have my alone time in the house. It grounds me.

  "I have had to take a half day," said Mom when I was in.

  "Why is that?"

  "There is just so much to do," said Mom, "and I can get it done here better."

  "That's good," I said.

  "I'm just so busy," said Mom.

  "So you keep saying."

  "You were home late last night," said Mom. Sometimes people are just sporting for an argument.

  "I was at Lilly's," I said. I wanted to roll my eyes. She only ever picked on me when she was already frustrated with something else.

  "It's a school night, Alex, and you haven't been well."

  "I got your envelopes stuffed, didn't I?"

  "Hmm," said Mom. I moved to go upstairs but was not fast enough. "Some of the letters needed to be reprinted," she said.

  "Oh," I said, casually.

  "Water damage. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

  "No," I said, frowning, and concentrating on my breath.

  "Just how did you get them done so fast, Alex? I can't figure it out. I had to redo thirty-something of them, and it took me all afternoon."

  I shrugged and retreated upstairs. I could feel her gaze on me as I left. Why did she have to make life harder than it already was? Now I had to sneak Lilly in here or sneak myself out. Mom would want to 'have a word' if we hung out now. Part of me thought that it would be a lot easier if Mom knew about The Library and about my job as the Keeper, but in truth, I knew that it would be way worse. She would just 'worry' and 'only make suggestions' and find other ways of being in control. I really think that she has no idea just how oppressive she can sometimes be, but her not knowing what she was like didn't make her any easier to live with.

  We planned to find Martin and see if we could find out more about the Rams. If Kuyr was a Raven, then it was possible that Martin was the one who would defeat him this time around. It was his story, after all.

  When Lilly and I landed in Kanboor, we immediately noticed that everything was a little more tense. Even in the market which seemed to be a force of nature, people were more withdrawn and watchful.

  "I get the feeling that everyone is expecting something to go down," said Lilly. "It's like the whole town has just had an argument, and everyone are refusing to apologize."

  "I got that vibe too," I said.

  "Now, Alex, I know I do go on sometimes, but -"

  "Yes, we will see if we can find Trist."

  "How did you know?"

  "The surprise is real, Lilly," I said with a smile. "We might as well start by checking the inn."

  But when we arrived there was no Trist in sight. As we stood in the doorway looking for him, we were bumped out of the way by the most enormous man I had ever seen. He was clad in rough armor and sported a massive battle ax. Under one arm he was holding a horned helmet.

  "Sorry," I said after he had passed.

  "Useless," he said, sitting down at the bar. He ordered a drink.

  "Rude," said Lilly, loud enough to be heard.

  "Rude, am I?" asked the man, standing up. I don't think Lilly expected him to.

  "Darion, please," said the barkeep. He looked worried.

  "I just want to know why this creature thinks it has the right to call me rude," said Darion, "I wasn't the one gawking in the doorway. A man needs his drink, especially today."

  "Ordinarily, I wouldn't mind- " started the barkeep.

  "What a shit," said Lilly.

  "OK, we need to go," I said, heart pounding.

  The man closed his fists tightly and locked eyes with Lilly. Lilly stared him down. The man grunted and turned back to his beer. "Probably won't make it through the night anyway," said Darion.

  I pulled Lilly out of the inn and into the street before she got us killed. "Can you believe that guy?" asked Lilly.

  "Yeah, I mean some enormous armed warriors just have the nerve, don't they Lilly."

  "I still think he is rude."

  "No one disagrees, Lilly."

  "What do you think he meant by survive the night?" she asked.

  "He is probably expecting a war," said Trist. He was leaning against a carved pillar and was wearing an amused smile.

  "You made it!" said Lilly, running toward him. For a moment, it looked like she might kiss him on the cheek, but I think she lost her nerve.

  "'Course," said Trist
. "You know it's probably not a good idea to antagonize that old battle beast."

  "Antagonise?" said Lilly, eyebrows raised.

  "You know what I mean."

  "Who is he anyway?"

  "Someone who was until recently pretty much in charge of this place. You were looking at the most recent patriarch of the Rams."

  "Seems like a grumpy old fart," said Lilly, "excuse the French. That is unless you are French. In which case - just don't worry about it."

  "What?" asked Trist.

  "What?" replied Lilly.

  "Well, he is an old grump. People say he was stuck in his ways and didn't really understand Munrath, their god. That's why he was replaced, with his son of all people."

  "Martin?" I asked on a hunch.

  "Yeah," said Trist. He looked at me suspiciously. I shrugged. "Anyway, people are expecting retaliation tonight for what has happened."

  "Is that Mary?" I asked. Across the way was a figure in a red cloak sitting on the edge of the canal.

  "I don't know, maybe," said Lilly, apparently annoyed that I was drawing attention away from her human.

  I walked towards her. As I drew near, I could hear that she was sobbing. Her whole frame shook. Her basket of apples was to one side, forgotten.

  "Hey, what's the matter?" I said, crouching down next to her.

  She looked up at me under her hood with warn eyes. It was like she couldn't tell who I was. The sight stung right to my heart.

  "What's going on?"

  She visibly tried to pull herself together, "my dad," is all she managed to say before a new round of sobs. I wrapped an arm around her, and she leaned into me, allowing her tears to flow. Trist and Lilly arrived behind me and watched the scene.

  I don't know how long she cried, but when she stopped, she stopped suddenly and pulled away.

  "He is dead," she said simply. "My dad was murdered."

  "Elthred," said Trist.

  The girl nodded.

  "Mary, I'm so sorry," said Lilly.

  "Why, did you do it?" spat Mary.

  "No, I - "

  "They are saying that it was the Rams. They found his body mauled and floating in the canals."