Storm Phase Series: Books 1-3

by Hayden, David Alastair

  He called to Lu Bei, but there was no response. He focused his full intent and called again. Sparks glinted within his amber kavaru, and for a moment he thought he heard the rustling of a page. But nothing happened. He would have to try the spell of lesser summoning.

  The spell was intended for conjuring minor spirits from the Shadowland or nature spirits from nearby. Though normally difficult, the spell should prove relatively easy because he knew Lu Bei’s name and had personally interacted with him. Also, Lu Bei would not be trying to resist the summoning as a lesser demon or nature spirit would.

  Turesobei cleared the ground of debris. He drew runes into the earth with a pointed stick, surrounding the book in complex symbols. He chanted for an hour and then spoke the command phrase.

  His kavaru flared to life. Matching amber energy glowed around the book. There was a puff of smoke, and Lu Bei appeared!

  But with a hole in his chest, a torn wing, and blue splotches all over his body. His face was contorted by pain. His voice was harsh, cracking.

  “Master, you must—”

  The fetch turned back into smoke.

  Turesobei repeated the command and Lu Bei reappeared.

  “The pain!” he cried. “Master, you must—”

  And he was gone again. With more force, Turesobei repeated the command a third time. “Lu Bei, I summon thee!”

  The fetch flickered back and was clearly stronger this time.

  Lu Bei spoke quickly. “Master, you must heed what I say. I know you won’t hear what I’m about to tell you, but maybe you will remember when it is time. It’s the best I can do.” He bowed his head low. “I have failed my mission, master. I am sorry.”

  “Lu Bei, it’s all right. I don’t—”

  “Shh! I must say this before I shift back.” Lu Bei took a deep ragged breath and went on. “The day we anticipated is not yet. Our calculations were off. Years will pass before…. But I see what must be more clearly now. You will reach a…then you must…. Chonda Lu….”

  Turesobei had begun to black out, missing long parts of what Lu Bei was telling him. He tried to focus on what was said, but as before, there were certain things Turesobei couldn’t hear when Lu Bei said them, no matter how much Turesobei tried.

  A few minutes passed while Turesobei only barely remained conscious. But then it was over. He was fully awake and could focus again. Lu Bei was touching his arm. Tears flowed from his large, black eyes. He was gritting his teeth and fangs.

  “Please, master, end the pain. It’s worse in this form, but even as a book it’s unbearable. Take up the sword. Do what must be done. But remember me always, and yourself when it is time.”

  Lu Bei began to shift, bowing as he did so, and turned into a cloud of smoke. Turesobei uttered the command again, with as much power as he could. There was a single flicker of Lu Bei, then smoke, and then the damaged diary lying still, nearly lifeless.

  Turesobei placed a hand on the cover of the book. After a few quiet moments, when it seemed not even the forest made any sound, he stood, tears rolling down his cheeks. He drew the white-steel sword. Sumada gleamed under the light of Avida, almost as brightly as it would in daylight.

  Turesobei hovered over the book, sword drawn back, ready to strike. One clean cut would destroy the book, sever the magic, and end Lu Bei’s suffering. He flexed his muscles. Moments passed, but he did nothing. His courage had failed.

  He lingered, trying hard to steel himself to do what he knew he must, for Lu Bei’s sake. He flexed his muscles again but then released them.

  “Is there something wrong?” said a voice behind him.

  Turesobei spun. “Condor! I didn’t hear you.”

  Condor was sitting on a boulder behind him. “My apologies. I spotted you as I kept watch from above and landed to see what you were doing. I hope I have not offended you.”

  “Not at all,” Turesobei said. Though he was actually offended that his privacy had been interrupted, he was also glad to have a diversion. “How long have you been here?”

  “Since before you summoned the little demon,” said Condor. “But I promise that your secrets will be safe with me.”

  Turesobei picked up the diary and held it firmly, wishing he could think of any way to recover Lu Bei.

  “You are not ready to end it,” said Condor.

  “But he’s suffering.”

  “Yes, I know. But this diary, it is linked to you and your kavaru.”

  Turesobei nodded. “My ancestor, Chonda Lu, made Lu Bei, using this kavaru.”

  “Maybe you cannot dispatch him for a reason. Maybe your kavaru does not want this to happen.”

  “Maybe….”

  “Reflect on it. Decide what to do after we have dealt with the cultists. Once you’ve rescued your father, your emotions and thoughts will be clear. Maybe a solution will come to you. Maybe you will then have the resolve to go through with it. Taking the life of someone dear to you, even to end their suffering, is not an easy thing to do.”

  * * *

  It was early in the evening two days later when they reached the Storm Cult's citadel. Turesobei was anxious—about Lu Bei, about his father, about Iniru’s condition. She said she was okay but he wasn’t sure she was telling the truth. She had obviously recovered, but how much? Onudaka had said he was fine as well. Turesobei didn’t think the old medic would lie.

  The three of them hid in a thicket of shrubs at the tree line four hundred paces away and observed the citadel, while the Bogamaru Sengi scouted the surrounding area.

  The citadel sat on a hill cleared of vegetation except for a stand of pines at its summit. A high, wooden stockade with a single gate surrounded the pines. Four small platforms clung to the pine trunks, high above the citadel's interior. Lanterns, carried by masked assassins, danced among the tree limbs and within the citadel.

  “We must strike tonight,” Iniru whispered intensely.

  “Won’t be simple,” replied Onudaka.

  “No, it won’t,” Turesobei said. “But it’s not going to get any easier if we wait. And they could kill my dad at any time. We’ve got to go. We’ve got to get him out of there!”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Turesobei and his allies met in a secluded grove a league away from the Storm Cult's citadel. It was nearly midnight.

  “I don’t think the sorcerer is here,” Condor said. He was perched on a fallen tree while the other sengi roamed out of sight. “Our vengeance shall be unfulfilled.”

  “Are you sure?” Turesobei asked in surprise. “What about my father? If they took him away, then there's no need for us to have come here.”

  “I cannot say whether your father is here. My connection was only to the sorcerer, and though I have been trying since we arrived, I don’t sense his presence. I flew far around here, but couldn’t detect him. He must have left at least a day before we arrived.”

  “In that case, I must try to locate my father with magic.”

  He then went off by himself, and with considerable determination and focus, conducted the spell of locating that which is hidden. It was far easier to find the aura of someone he loved than to pinpoint a statue he'd never seen. But that didn’t make it easy, and the spell wouldn’t work from much further out than he was now.

  An hour later, he returned to his companions and announced with relief, “He's there, and he’s alive, though I don’t know what condition he might be in.”

  “Excellent,” Iniru said. “Now we need a plan of attack. Turesobei, is there any sort of magic that you can do to help us?”

  “I can give you and Onudaka darksight, but without preparation and working under pressure, mostly all I can manage are simple conjurations like fire-globes or limited manipulations of elements like fog and rain. I can cast spells to help me jump higher, run faster, be less noticeable. That sort of thing. Not much I can do to help all of us together. And anything else requires a lot of personal energy and will weaken me.”

  “We can't wait for something grand,�
� Iniru said with annoyance. “The longer your father is there, the more danger he’s in.” She turned to Condor. “Could you carry me while flying?”

  “Normally, we are only solid the moment we strike. To remain solid longer weakens us. But I can manage it for a little while without too much trouble. Why?”

  “I need you to drop me onto one of the platforms. We have to take out their spotters first. Even if they don't see us approaching, we can't let them rain arrows down on us once we attack. We're vulnerable and they might have white-steel to use against you.”

  “I doubt they would,” said Turesobei. “Not many white-steel arrowheads out there, even with diluted alloys. Very expensive and potentially wasteful.”

  “Yes, but you never know,” said Iniru. “Even just one or two of them could be devastating. But most of all, if we don't hit them by surprise, I'm afraid of what they might do to your father.”

  “All right then, what about the other platforms?”

  “I will take one,” Condor said. “Panther and Black Bear can take out the other two, though they'll have to penetrate the interior of the citadel and climb up unnoticed to do so.”

  Onudaka began to stretch his limbs. His joints creaked like rusty cogs. “Shouldn’t be too hard tonight.”

  There were no moons out and a thick fog had already begun to roll down from the mountains.

  “How will Panther and Black Bear get inside?” Iniru asked. “The walls seem too high and sheer for them to climb.”

  Condor called out and Black Bear leapt into the grove, flying well over twelve feet into the air. He went far higher and farther than any normal, wingless animal could go.

  “Wow!” Turesobei exclaimed. “Why didn't you do that against us?”

  “That would not have been honorable,” Black Bear growled. “Against an honorable foe we fight only as would the forms that we are in.”

  “But these are not honorable opponents we face tonight,” Condor said in a chilling voice. “These men will pay for having misused the Bogamaru. We will use our every capability to exact our revenge. We cannot kill the sorcerer, but we can ruin his cult and his base.”

  “What about Onudaka and me?” asked Turesobei.

  “You can rush in after the wolves attack and secure your father,” Iniru said. “You'll need to go right on in to make sure they don't kill him as soon as they're under attack.”

  “That's a lot of ground to cover,” Onudaka commented.

  “You two can ride on the backs of Grizzly and Brother Grizzly,” said Condor. “They're fat and slow as far as spirit-bears go, but they'll get you there.”

  “They were fat and slow as humans, too,” said Black Bear with a hoarse laugh.

  Condor seemed to smile, if any expression a giant, translucent bird of prey had could be called a smile. For a rare moment, Condor's past humanity had shown through.

  “You'll have to be careful not to attack my father,” Turesobei said.

  “He will smell like you and his presence will remind us of yours,” Condor said. “There is no risk of us harming him. You have my word.”

  * * *

  They waited until two hours past midnight. The sentries on duty had served three hours of what Iniru believed was a four-hour shift. After a deep breath she knelt and Condor grasped the back of her bodysuit with his talons. Turesobei could barely see the sengi, even with the spell of darksight, which he had cast on himself, Iniru, and Onudaka.

  “Remember,” she said, “someone will have to count out the time. I can't risk waking them all up by signaling you.”

  Turesobei stepped up to her and put a hand on her arm. “Be careful.”

  Her eyes glinted with amusement. “I've trained my whole life for this. If I can't do it without getting killed, then I've wasted the last fifteen years.”

  “Well…um….”

  She smirked and drew her grey silk scarf across her lower face. “Perhaps I should tell you to be careful.”

  “Thanks,” he responded meekly.

  “Let's go,” she said.

  Condor beat his great wings and took off. Iniru seemed to be flying through the air as she dangled from his talons. It was a strange sight. Turesobei sighed with worry. Both for her and himself. He'd never imagined he'd be doing anything like this. The expedition had proven exceedingly dangerous and far more of a learning experience than Grandfather Kahenan had anticipated.

  “How are you holding up, lad?”

  “I'll be all right, Onudaka.”

  The big zaboko patted him on the back. “Call me Daka, lad.”

  “You can call me Sobei if you like.”

  “Be brave, then, young Sobei. We'll make it through and get your father out. I can't see us failing. Iniru's help alone is worth a thousand jade per week.”

  “A thousand!”

  “Probably more. Plus we've got powerful spirit allies and a wizard.”

  “I'm not much of a wizard. I feel useless.”

  Onudaka chuckled. “More useful than me, lad, more than me. Without your skills, we’d all be dead now and the sengi would still be bound.”

  The grizzlies rumbled forward. “Get ready,” Brother Grizzly muttered.

  Turesobei followed Onudaka's lead and climbed onto the back of Brother Grizzly.

  “Keep that sword away from me,” he growled.

  Turesobei had strapped the scabbarded white-steel sword onto his back, anticipating this. “It's as far away as I can get it. Can you feel it?”

  “Like a sunburn.”

  “Really?” The wizard’s apprentice in him took over for a moment. “Is it stronger now that I'm sitting on you or was it worse when you stood next to me.”

  “I don't really want to talk about it.”

  Turesobei sighed with disappointment. “Sorry.”

  The bear apparently noticed his dashed curiosity and said grudgingly, “It's better now that you're blocking it.”

  “Thanks. Knowing that may come in handy in the future.”

  “Just be sure you use it against some Zhura demons and not any more of us.”

  Turesobei bowed his head with regret and grew silent. Onudaka said a few words of greeting to Grizzly and massaged him along the scruff of his neck as a gesture of friendship. Whether they could feel it or not, the gesture seemed appreciated, judging from the peaceful, rumbling growl Grizzly emitted. Turesobei copied the action and achieved the same result.

  The wolf-sengi gathered along the tree line, pacing and baring their teeth in anticipation of the battle to come. Turesobei squinted at the citadel but couldn't see much of anything. Fog had descended down to the battlements of the stockade. That would cover them from sight most of the way once Iniru, Condor, Panther, and Black Bear took out the archers and sentries on the platforms.

  “Brother Grizzly,” said Turesobei, “what do you do in your spare time?”

  “We guard a colony of special condors. And we meditate.”

  “That's all?”

  “Well, when we must, we howl the rage that made us what we are. We try to hold that in, though. We try to still ourselves into silence. The more we do that, the closer we come to the human existence that made us.”

  “But wouldn't that mean death?”

  “Stillness is a peaceful oblivion. A ceasing of the sounds of anguish that created us.”

  “Have any of you achieved this stillness?”

  “Aye. Brother Hawk and Thirty-two Wolf have gone on into the silence of death. Their energies are returned to the cycle of life.”

  “Have you come close?”

  “I will be one of the last, I'm sure.”

  Constrictor, who served as their lookout, hissed, “The count is up. It's time to move forward.”

  “Hold tight,” Brother Grizzly warned Turesobei.

  The wolves marched out onto the barren hill, heading toward the citadel. Slinking close to the ground, they spread out into a staggered line. They moved at a steady pace, not too slow but not so fast as to be more noticeable eithe
r. To Turesobei with his frayed nerves, it felt as if it took them an hour to reach the walls rather than a minute.

  Despite his darksight spell, he lost sight of their barely luminescent forms until he saw them leap over the walls. The screams of dying men followed. The grizzlies surged forward and bounded up the hill. They had gone last so Turesobei and Onudaka wouldn't be spotted floating in the air.

  Turesobei would never forget this ride. Brother Grizzly's gait was quite unlike the lumber of a denekon. He could feel every ripple of the bear's cold muscles.

  Screams of despair overpowered the sounds of men fighting. Most had probably realized they couldn't stop the beasts that attacked them. Some would have demon-warding talismans. One or two might even have a peach-wood dagger. The properties of peach-wood caused spirits twice as much pain as a normal steel weapon but no permanent damage. The talismans, those few that worked and weren't fakes, would make it harder for the sengi to focus on those wearing them, but not impossible. The warding talisman on Turesobei's armor hadn't significantly distracted them.

  The bears neared the stockade. “The gate doesn't look strong to me,” Grizzly called out. “Through it or over?”

  “I'm not sure I can make the jump!” bellowed Brother Grizzly.

  “Through it then. You two will want to hold on tight or jump off.”

  “We'll drop off,” Turesobei muttered quickly.

  “Then go now!”

  Turesobei slid off Brother Grizzly's back and plopped onto the ground. Onudaka joined him. The two bears crashed through the gate. Without pausing they rampaged through the citadel, joining the chaos already under way.

  “Do you know where your father is, lad?”

  “When I cast the spell I sensed that he was somewhere near the center.”

  Onudaka took the staff from his back. “Then let's get moving.”

  They ran into the citadel. Turesobei paused, horrified by the mangled corpses strewn across the grounds. At least two dozen cultists lay scattered about. Some wore no armor and had obviously just woken up and charged out when the alarm was signaled.