His cousin Landry came in, sat beside him, and shredded a napkin into long thin strips. Landry’s eyes narrowed and his leg tapped a rhythm as it bounced up and down. Stefan wondered if it was possible for him to relax.
“We need to discuss the Signum situation. The tram attacks are increasing and they’re not going to calmly accept your decision about the moon.” Landry added another piece of napkin to the pile of paper.
Stefan’s shoulders slumped. He leaned toward his cousin. “Until we find the leak or their hideout, there isn’t anything I can do about it. As for the moon, you know as well as I do that Cadmus is unstable.”
“We’re working on it. I think the moon request is a decoy. There’s no way they have the ability to get there, much less settle it.” Landry balled up the shredded napkins and stuffed them in an empty glass.
Stefan leaned back in his chair and observed the city skyline as the breeze played with his brown hair.
“That’s why I need you at the SEF meeting. At my request, they’re preparing a report for you and Colonel Rankin on the viability of settling the moons. Hopefully, they’ll shed some light into the Signum’s choice of Cadmus, and it will give you an opportunity to see if the leak is with them.”
“With the SEF’s help we could maroon the Signum on Daedalus.”
“Not funny, Landry.”
“Hey, you want me to lighten up and then you can’t appreciate my attempt at humor?” Landry’s face brightened as the smile spread.
“I didn’t think you had any humor in you.”
“Well, I was sort of serious. Anyway, I’ll go with Rankin. What do you need me to do specifically?”
“Rankin is a great military leader, but he doesn’t read people well. I need you to use your gift to get a feel for the key players.”
“No problem.” Landry winked at Stefan, reached over and took his last piece of sausage.
“I hate to ask this while you’re eating my breakfast, but how is the search for the Signum base going?” Stefan lowered his eyes to avoid the flash of anger on Landry’s face.
Landry swallowed the bite in his mouth and tossed the half-eaten sausage back onto the plate. His eyes darkened and his lips pressed into a tight line.
“I haven’t had any luck. My gift is useless without someone to question,” Landry said.
Stefan pushed his plate away. “You know, Werner can’t hide forever.”
“No, he can’t. He’ll pay for my father’s death. If there’s a Signum agent at the SEF, he won’t get past me.”
After hours of reading on the tram, Talia put her computer away and stretched her legs. She had avoided looking out the windows or thinking about her destination; now within minutes of Joharadin she couldn’t resist.
Years had passed since her one and only visit to the capital. Her mother had planned a trip to see the palace, but they never made it past the station. Only eight years old, the sight of the city had turned Talia into a shaking heap of tears. Somehow her mother made out the word Scalies through the sobs and they got on the next tram home.
Talia never went back. Until now. She gripped the armrests on the seat and swallowed the lump in her throat.
She shifted her gaze to the windows. The protected lands had given way to housing communities. Within minutes, the scene changed to views of commercial and industrial sections on the outskirts of the city proper. The speed of the landscape passing by made Talia dizzy, and she focused on the inside of the tramcar.
The tram slowed and climbed a low hill. At the top of the small crest, Talia ventured another look toward the city growing up from the horizon. It approached fast, and as it came into focus, her hands shook.
The city of her nightmares loomed before her. Real. Solid. Full of people. People that would die. After twenty-eight years of dreams, Talia Zaryn approached her destiny by tram once more. Her hands tingled and her vision darkened. She reached for a hand to hold and came away empty.
Jaron closed the door to his small apartment and let the disguise known by the name Talon melt away. He relaxed his mind. It took more energy each time he sustained the shape shift.
Give me more control and I can help you, the demon whispered.
“Not until I can no longer hold the shape myself.” Jaron collapsed in the only chair in the room.
His true form, although humanoid like the Sendekians, was taller and thinner. The brown eyes of the disguise faded to smoky blue and the brown hair to golden blonde.
“Record journal date 203 after destruction: Today I infiltrated the Signum’s lair; it was pathetically easy. I have endeared myself to the Master,” he sneered with contempt at the title Werner had given himself, “by volunteering for some mission. I am to return in a few hours for further instructions. Once I have gained his trust I can finally have my revenge. End.”
Jaron closed his eyes savoring his satisfaction. Everything was going smoothly. After years of searching, he had found the planet Sendek only days after the Dragumon. They had already entered orbit around one of the moons and established contact with a group called the Signum. At first it infuriated him that the Dragumon had not struck this planet with the immediate wrath they had bestowed on his homeworld, but it didn’t take long to see the twisted game they were playing with these people.
There was no way he could successfully damage the great bloodwing ship the Dragumon called home. He had turned his attention to the Signum instead. The rest of the planet viewed them as a quarrelsome nuisance; a dissatisfied faction. Jaron believed they were much more than that. Everything he saw tonight had solidified his hunch. They knew of the existence of dragons even if they didn’t revere them as his world had. He had learned much during his indoctrination meeting. It was uncanny how similar the legends were on the two planets. Some of the dragon lords even had the same names.
Why are you so concerned with dragons? They left your planet, moved on without a word. But my kind stayed behind. Worship me, and I’ll give you all you desire.
Jaron shoved the demon into its mental box deep in his mind. Two hundred years of its incessant nagging to worship him instead of the dragonkin had grown old.
“I’ll never worship your kind, even if I am forced to depend on your help.”
He slowly exhaled, trying to expel some of the coldness inside, but it was pointless. The demon retaliated by removing all the barriers Jaron had set up around his emotions. The ache in his heart became more intense and his desire to see his wife one more time became unbearable.
He opened his eyes and turned to the table on his left. A small glass cube sat beside a square hole. He slid it over the slot and let it fall in.
“Retrieve journal date 43652.”
A small screen appeared in the table beside him and showed an image of a beautiful woman holding a small child. It was the same image he had carried with him into the demon’s cave more than a hundred years earlier. Blonde hair dancing in the breeze, blue eyes. Their son’s small fist grasped for the strand blowing over his head.
Their cottage nestled in the background almost hidden by the trees, flowers, and herbs. The sky was pale blue with a few wispy clouds hanging around the mountains in the background.
“Play.” Jaron braced himself as the painful memories flashed before him.
“Say goodbye to daddy. Come on, say goodbye.” Dailya smiled and waved the little boy’s hands for him. “I know he can say it. Maybe he’ll show you when you get back.” She put the boy down on the ground and he waddled toward the shade of the house. “Now put that away and give me a proper goodbye.”
The screen went dark as the recording ended. Jaron savored the memory of that goodbye—her warmth and the feel of her lips. He never should have left her alone. He should have turned down the diplomatic mission, and then he could have died with her.
“Do you wish to continue to the next entry?” a metallic voice questioned.
Jaron’s chest tightened as he recalled his return home. The space around Orek had been strangely empty. There had been
no demands for him to identify himself before entering the atmosphere, but he didn’t grasp the meaning until he saw it with his own eyes. Everything had been destroyed. There were no homes, buildings, nothing. It was all gone.
He had flown straight home, past the charred remains of cities and farm villages, to one wall and a pile of rubble. There had been no sign of Dailya or his son, only scorch marks. He had entered the space where his front room had been and struggled to keep breathing. A glimmer had caught his eye, and he pulled a small recorder from beneath the debris. He had pushed play and watched his wife’s last words.
“Continue.”
Dailya was huddled in a storage closet holding their son close to her and the recorder in front of her with one hand. His son was crying and Dailya tried to quiet him.
“Baby, shh. Please or they’ll find us.” She turned to look at the recorder and continued whispering. “I know that if you find this you will have many questions, and I’m sorry I have no answers to give you. All I know is that an alien race called the Dragumon attacked the day after you left. They sent one message that said they had returned to claim Sendek as their own. Our wizards have fought alongside the military, but they have been wiped out.”
The recorder shook as Dailya looked around. An explosion sounded in the background. Dailya paled, and his son wailed. His lovely wife dropped the recorder and tried to shield their child with her body as the walls around her were blasted away.
Jaron watched the two people he loved most in the world melt before his eyes.
“Stop.” Jaron slid from the chair and let the pain wash over him. He let it feed the demon within him. If he wanted to make the Dragumon pay for his wife’s death, he would need its help. To keep him focused as much as to keep him alive.
The sharp pain that made him breathless slowly ebbed to a dull ache, and the demon grew stronger.
Chapter 4
Keeta’s soft tongue licked at Talia’s hand. She opened her eyes and pulled him close. “What are you doing out of your pocket my friend? You have to stay hidden.”
The small animal trilled, licked her chin, and darted back down her body to the bag. He disappeared inside, but popped his head out to trill at her one more time. When she smiled, he settled in and got quiet.
“Miss, are you all right?” A tram attendant appeared at her side. He jumped when he saw her eyes, but remained professional. “We’ll pull into the station in five minutes.”
“Thank you.” Talia sat up straighter and tried to look better than she felt. Pull it together.
The attendant collected her empty glass before retreating down the aisle. He glanced back once, but Talia was grateful he hadn’t made a big deal about her eyes. Or said anything about Keeta.
Five minutes until she stood in Joharadin She gripped the side of her chair. Cahal will meet me at the station.
He had expressed concern that she might get lost in the large metropolis without his help. Most people did get lost on their first visit to Joharadin.
City planners had not labeled the streets or buildings, claiming that signs were an eyesore. Each building was constructed from the same gray stone and steel beams, with the only difference being the height and width of the buildings. Everything looked the same, making it easy to walk in circles and never know it.
Thinking about his lecture on the topic made Talia want to laugh. She could find her way around the city with her eyes closed she knew it so well. She could walk to each location of her death in the nightmares.
She placed the sunglasses back on and took a shaky step into the indoor tram station. The air tasted stale and sweaty; Cahal waited on the platform. Talia steeled herself for their first face to face meeting.
“Miss Zaryn, there you are.” Cahal reached out and took her free hand in his.
In his mid-sixties, with graying hair and laugh lines, he looked even more fatherly up close than in the video calls. His hands were as warm as his brown eyes.
“President Cahal, you didn’t have to meet me yourself.” Talia tried to pull her hand free, but Cahal held it tight. She feared he would notice how cold and shaky hers were.
“My dear, it’s my pleasure.” He released her hand and grabbed the bag. “Now, why don’t you take those glasses off until we get outside? There’s no need to hide, you know.”
“I’m not hiding, I just . . .” Sighing, she reached up and removed the glasses.
Cahal watched her face and didn’t react in the way she expected.
“There now, that wasn’t so hard was it? Double recessive of a rare gene. Fascinating. There won’t be any intolerance at the office. You can be sure of that.” Cahal waved toward the doors and the busy street.
The skyscrapers cast shadows that danced with the sporadic bursts of sunslight. Talia glanced up at the puzzle of blue sky, light, shadows, and aeroflyers in constant motion. The air smelled of warm asphalt, reminding her of the burning city in her dreams.
Cahal offered his arm, and in her weakness, Talia held on tighter than she thought she should.
“The city isn’t all that bad. You’ll be surprised how fast you get used to it. Everything is fairly close since we built up instead of out.” Cahal continued talking as an aeroflyer lowered in front of them. “Land preservation and all that.”
“Do we need to fly?”
“I’ve heard you would rather walk miles across cities than ride in the air transit. Why is that?”
Talia didn’t like flying in general, but to fly in Joharadin was a double threat. “It’s silly really.”
“Is this about your brother?” Cahal squeezed her hand.
“Yes.”
“My dear, I can promise you our aeroflyers are safe. We’ve not had any crash in as long as I can remember. The University and SEF offices are at least twelve miles from here. I don’t think my old legs could handle the walk.”
Talia nodded and stepped inside, taking a seat. Her breathing grew shallow, and she gripped the edge of the seat until her knuckles went white.
They flew through the city as Cahal pointed out areas of interest. Talia didn’t want to look but couldn’t turn away. Cahal ticked off the name of each business they passed. There was no need to comment, which was fortunate since she spent the whole ride trying not to throw up.
When they flew over the SEF research center, Talia noticed a small garden with lawn chairs on the roof of one of the buildings.
The tram descended in front of it—an apartment complex. The structure stood lower than the surrounding ones, leaving the garden exposed to view.
No chance of drinking the sunsrise from there.
“Here you go.” Cahal carried her bag into the building and into the elevator.
He pushed the floor for the forty-second floor. “Settle in and tomorrow I’ll give you a tour of our offices.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
Talia tried to smile but it turned into more of a grimace. Cahal handed her the key and headed back down the hall. She stepped into the apartment, sagged against the closed door, and looked around the room.
The apartment was nicer than the last few she had occupied. Small, with one room that functioned as a living and dining area and a short hallway that led to the bedroom with a bathroom. Standard SEF layout, except that someone had taken the time to decorate.
Instead of stark white walls and bland furniture, the walls were a rich chocolate adorned with black and white photographs of trees. Decorative pillows with a circular pattern in bright greens and yellows contrasted with the neutral couch and chair. The burst of color from the vase of flowers on the coffee table drew Talia in.
She sank her nose deep into the buds and inhaled the sweet honey scent of them. They reminded her of her mother.
Keeta popped his head out of the bag and took in the new surroundings.
“Good job staying hidden, boy. Here, go explore.” Talia set the bag on the floor beside the couch. He jumped out.
“Now, first things first.” Talia reached into
the bag and pulled out a slim rectangular piece of plastic. She set it beside the cabinet in the kitchen and pressed a button in one corner. While the sheet of plastic reformed itself into a box, she stepped up to the metabolizer and ordered up a pound of mint tea leaves. She poured them into the box, knowing Keeta would soon find the familiar scent.
Once that was finished, she pulled the picture of her family out of the bag and placed it by the flowers. Talia fingered the wood frame around the picture then slumped onto the couch.
At least they won’t suffer when the Scalies come. No, the Dragumon. I must remember that name.
She rested her head on one of the cushions, propped her feet on the armrest and waited for the nausea to pass. Moving to this city, at this age, wearing this face?
God, what have I done?
She didn’t know she was the woman until her teens. By then she began to recognize the features as her own. The expressions of fear.
The worst part was realizing she would die alone. Years had passed, but the memory of her parents’ death, followed a few years later by her brother’s, still hurt.
An unseen air current brought the scent of the flowers to her. They smelled like her mother’s favorite perfume.
She wouldn’t want Talia to give up hope.
Talia got up from the couch, splashed water on her face, and changed her clothes. It was time to get to work.
Chapter 5
Talia walked to the SEF offices. Less than a block, it was the longest trip of her life, burned into her mind with stunning clarity. Light from above flickered and moved as the aeroflyers flew over her head.
She caught a glimpse of blue sky between the traffic. Heat radiated off the concrete, punctuated by bursts of air as aeroflyers landed or took off. Every noise startled her. She stared at the passersby in fear of recognizing someone from her dreams.
She entered the doors of the SEF with a sigh of relief. This was one place she had never died.
The Magic Wakes Page 3