Book of Names (Casters of Syndrial 1)

by Rain Oxford

  “I’d be a crappy brother if I couldn’t heal.”

  “That’s exactly what I said to Luca when we were ten and I used to put peroxide on his scrapes. It was a lot less impressive.”

  “I’m sure it was pretty great to him. I never had anyone take care of me growing up. I got a gash on the field and I tore a piece of my shirt off to cover it so that I didn’t lose blood while I got back to work.”

  “Were you serious that no one ever gave you a name?”

  “Except for the name our mother gave me, no one bothered. I wasn’t even a dog to anyone until I got my title.”

  “That sucks. Luca is going to give you an electric blanket and a bowl of tomato soup when we get home. He loves cheering people up, so prepare yourself for that.”

  That seemed to confuse him. “That’s nice of him. I thought you took care of him.”

  “I protect him, keep a roof over his head, and make sure he eats. He makes sure I’m happy.”

  At that point, Painter waved his hand at the candles. “Kerar.”

  The light died, but the room wasn’t completely dark. Beneath the bed, something glowed blue. Painter motioned to the massive bed, which tilted onto its side. Strapped to the underside of the baseboard was a thick, black, leather-bound book. Painter and I just looked at each other for a moment, both thinking the same thing.

  “That was so easy it’s pathetic. How is that hidden from the gods?”

  “Maybe because they don’t think anyone is dumb enough to hide the most powerful book in the universe under their bed,” Painter suggested.

  I reached for it, only to feel an electrical pulse that was plenty strong enough to hurt, not quite enough to kick me on my ass. “It’s warded.”

  “Isis!” Painter shouted, causing me to flinch and cover my ears. “Sorry,” he said to me.

  Isis appeared with a flash of light, not even bothering to chide Painter for calling her again.

  “Can you break this ward?” I asked.

  She held up her hands and I felt energy fill the room. It was somewhat like swimming and feeling the water move across my skin, except it was room-temperature and it was magic instead of liquid.

  After a few minutes, the sensation faded. “It is done,” she said.

  I untied the leather straps and took the book. The unmarked cover was old and worn, and when I opened it, the pages were lightly discolored and stiff. Inside were neat rows of names. They were so perfectly straight that they could have been typed by a computer. They were also all written in the sacred script, so someone couldn’t use them without knowing it. Every page was filled with names, until it stopped halfway through the book. There were thousands of them.

  “This has more than the names of the priests and gods in it.”

  “That is correct,” Isis said simply.

  “How could you put so much power in Talot’s hands?”

  “I trusted her.

  “We’re in charge of it now, right?” I asked.

  “It is the Painter’s responsibility to protect it, but if he should fail, it falls to you. One of you two should have a child.” With that, she vanished.

  “Now to find Luca.”

  “Actually, we should talk first,” Painter said.

  “We can talk while we search for him. Pop up a portal and let’s get back to the High Kingdom. Luca has to be going out of his mind.”

  He sighed and did as I said.

  * * *

  I was relieved when we appeared in the statue room because we were finally going to save my brother. I went straight for the courtyard garden, while Painter trailed after me, telling me that he needed to talk to me in private. I insisted it could wait until Luca was out of the dungeon cell Reader had put him in.

  Keeper was in his usual place. “Do you know where Reader put my brother?”

  “For sure? No. If I had to guess, I would say in one of the rooms off the prophecy chamber.”

  I took off without thanking him and ran to the prophecy chamber. The priests’ gate didn’t even slow me down. I started with the first door to the left. “Ketmeek.” Inside was nothing but more books. I tried the second door, which opened to an empty room. “Start with those doors,” I said when Painter finally joined me.

  “You’re wasting your time. Luca isn’t here. I mean he is, but not in one of those rooms.”

  I turned to him. “What do you mean?” He was a picture of guilt. “What did you do? Do you know where he is?”

  “Yes, but that’s not---”

  “Did you hurt him?”

  “If you would let me speak, I’ll explain.”

  I shoved him against the wall. “I don’t care if you’re jealous or wanted to use him against me. If you hurt him, I will never forgive you!” I shoved him harder, to enforce my point, and heard a soft metal clink. Painter flinched as if someone had hit a drum next to his ear. I looked down and saw something shiny at his feet. I bent to grab it at the same time Painter tried to put his foot over it. I had the better angle and managed to snatch it up.

  It was the scarab amulet Luca’s mother had given him.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Yes, you do,” Painter said, resigned. “You just don’t want to.”

  “This is my brother’s.”

  “Yes, it is. My mother gave it to me.”

  “You’re trying to confuse me.”

  “I think you’ve sensed it since we met. You trust me, even though you don’t know why; you can’t help it. I am Luca.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Cows shit too, but they don’t brag about it.”

  “Saying things that Luca always says doesn’t make me believe you.”

  “Be that as it may, it’s true.”

  “Shut up! You’re lying! I know Luca and you’re not him! You just don’t want to admit that you took him from me!” He tried to grab my arm, but I smacked him away. “Don’t touch me! You’re lying! I’ve known Luca since he was four!”

  “I wish I could tell you something to make you understand.”

  “Tell me the truth!”

  “I am Luca. When I put this amulet on, I change into the Luca you know. Everything about that personality was designed to be the perfect brother for you. My appearance and personality become that of Luca when I put the amulet on.”

  “Keeper checked you for magic and said you had none.”

  “When I’m Luca, I don’t have any magic. I have to take it off to get my magic back. I needed something so strong that nothing of my real self would show through under any circumstance.”

  “That portal…”

  “I didn’t go to the bathroom. I hid and changed the location of it because you didn’t want to go the normal way home.”

  “When you were killing the priests and Luca was in the basement…”

  He sighed. “You weren’t supposed to come back early. The second I vanished in the statue room, I appeared outside the common room. I had plenty of time to get inside and settle down with a book before you got there. You never asked how long I had been in there.”

  “When Luca saw you in the study?”

  “I lied. I figured out Satka wasn’t going to pass his trials and took pity on him. I set the fire to make it look convincing.”

  “Then everything you told me about your childhood was a lie? You grew up with me all along?”

  “No. Unfortunately, that’s not how it happened. What I told you was the truth. What you remember was a lie.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “I have been checking in on you throughout your life, protecting you. Time is easy to manipulate with portals. It’s only been the last year and a half that I’ve actually been living with you. Everything up until then has been false memories. I’ve rewritten everything from when you were a child to have me in it.”

  “And our friends and family?”

  “We don’t have any friends and family. That’s why it was so easy. I only had to manipulate your memories and from then
on, everyone you’ve talked to didn’t know you before me.”

  “What about Grandmother?”

  “When was the last time you talked to her?”

  “But… Luca’s mother…”

  “She wasn’t real. I just had to make it convincing. Unfortunately, it was pretty real for me, too. When I’m Luca, I have the same memories and weaknesses, like being afraid of the dark. It’s really annoying.”

  “You’re saying that I was alone when our parents died?”

  “They were your foster parents. I wanted to be with you then, but I had more training to complete before I was ready. I brought you here because you were ready to learn who you were and who I am.”

  “And you thought that lying to me was the way to gain my trust?”

  “I am your brother. Don’t you understand what it means to be a twin? I will never abandon you, never let anyone hurt you, never betray you.”

  “You lied to me.”

  “No. I made you see that we were brothers and I was a good brother to you. I was truer to you than those people who pretended to be your family. What I gave you was real. If they hadn’t taken you from me, we would have grown up together. I gave you what was taken from me; I gave you a childhood with your brother. I will kill anyone for you. I am who I am because this is what you need. Everything I am is for you.”

  “You cheated me out of what could have been. By creating Luca, you didn’t give me a chance to be who you needed me to be.”

  “All I wanted was my brother.”

  “You want to kill the gods and rule the Land of the Gods.”

  “I want us to rule it. Without the gods, there is nothing standing in our way.”

  “I don’t want to rule anything. No one is standing in my way.”

  “That’s because you don’t see it. I can show you, though. Since I was born, people and gods have been pushing me around, threatening me, and using me. Power freed me. You’ve always had me to protect you, so you’ve never had that feeling of helplessness. Now I can show you what actual freedom is like.”

  I didn’t immediately agree or disagree. Hope grew in his eyes. He truly thought he would be helping me to make me more powerful. I couldn’t reason with him. “Give me Luca back.”

  “I am Luca.”

  “You’re not. I want my brother back as he was. Put the amulet on and bring him back to me.”

  “You want me to give up all my power for you?”

  “Yes. We’ll hide the book where our mother hid it, so that we’re the only ones who can access it. We can both go home. We’ll celebrate a world saved and tomorrow, we’ll go see that movie we’ve been waiting a year for.”

  His eyes clouded with confliction. “What if we get attacked?”

  “Then you can take off the amulet. I want to be as we were. Don’t you want that? Forget about magic and power and stupid priests. Just be my brother. I won’t reject you.”

  He smiled sadly. “I know. You’re the only one I can trust. But you don’t know what it’s like to have the power we have, especially together.”

  “We don’t need it. Magic has never done me any good. It has only hurt the people I care about.”

  “Lack of control over it hurt people, not the magic itself. You naturally protected yourself against people after they hurt you, but you didn’t know how to stop people from betraying you. You didn’t know that I was the only one you could trust. That’s understandable; you didn’t know me.”

  “I don’t understand. Who would have hurt me?”

  “Everyone! Everyone except me only wants to use you, especially those fake parents of yours.”

  “A few minutes ago, you said they took me away from you. You mean the people who adopted me? How did they keep you away?”

  “They pretended to be your family. If they hadn’t lied to you, you would have come looking for me and we could have been together for years.”

  “What about your training?”

  “We could have done that together.”

  He was starting to sound a little crazy again and that didn’t help the sinking feeling in my stomach. “Are you saying that you tried to recruit me when I was younger?”

  “As soon as my wife betrayed me, I found you. I explained to those people who you were and who I was, and they told me to leave. They said you had a good life and I was insane to try to take you away from it. It wasn’t their choice! So I got them out of the way and when I was done with my training---”

  “Wait,” I said, my voice shaking. “Did you kill my parents?”

  “They weren’t your parents! They tried to keep us apart!”

  “You killed my parents…” I understood the prophecy at that point. I was good, he was evil. That might not have been the truth, but it was what was predicted.

  Painter clearly understood the change in his plan. “Give me the book.”

  “No. I can’t stop you from killing people, but I’m not going to give you the most powerful weapon on Syndrial.”

  “That book is mine.”

  “It needs to be protected from you, so I’m going to destroy it.”

  “You can’t!”

  “You killed my parents.”

  “I did what I had to!”

  “You didn’t have to kill the people who loved me and took care of me. What about everyone else who was hurt that I loved? Was that you as well?”

  “Yes,” he answered easily. “I knew they would betray you and I saved you from it.”

  “Rose?”

  “She was going to hurt you just like Autrey hurt me.”

  Tightness formed in my chest, making it hard to breathe. “You don’t even realize how much damage you’ve done to me, do you? I’ll never forgive you.”

  “You have to. You’re my brother. You can’t reject me.”

  “You’ve taken everything from me. You’ve manipulated me out of jealousy.”

  He made a grab for the book and I punched him in the face. His shout of pain actually hurt me. I thought I was Luca’s protector. At that moment, I didn’t know what I was. I wasn’t human, I wasn’t Luca’s brother, I wasn’t mortal, and I wasn’t at fault for hurting my loved ones. I felt like I had lost Luca. I wanted nothing more in that moment than for Painter to admit it had all been a lie.

  “I’ve done everything for you!” Painter shouted, more shocked than angry. “How could you hit your brother?”

  “You’re not my brother.”

  Before I could say anything else, he flicked his hand and a force of energy crashed into me like an invisible car had hit me. An instant later, his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open with shock. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do that! I know you’re still adjusting and I have to give you time.”

  I sat up and wiped blood from my nose. My head spun. “I don’t need time. You killed my parents. You’re not my brother.”

  “Don’t say that!” he yelled, rage glowing in his eyes, which turned blue. His disguise was cracking. “Give me the book and I’ll let you adapt in peace. I know you’ll realize that I’m right and you’ll join me. I just have to be patient.”

  “You’re not listening. You’re not getting the book or me, ever again.”

  “You can’t betray me!”

  “You’re the one who betrayed me.”

  He flicked his hand again and I had enough sense to put my hand up to stop me from crashing head-first into the wall. I crashed face-first instead.

  Before I could decide whether to puke blood or vomit, he was on top of me, choking me.

  I didn’t have the powers he had without my book, and I couldn’t get enough air to utter a spell. Ironically, it was the Painter who had taught me that I could cast without words. I focused my mind as well as I could. My twin brother’s hands around my throat were particularly difficult to ignore, but I was mostly going on instinct.

  Something smashed into the back of Painters head and he fell off me, moaning. I sat up. Despite the fact that the room was spinning, I was conscious enough to s
ee the Book of Names lying on the floor. I had dropped it and he had been too angry to notice.

  I made a dive for it. As my hand touched the leather binding, he penned me again. While we may have been physically equal, he had more than ten years on me in magical training. I focused on his leather jacket. “Kitmas,” I said.

  “Kerar,” Painter responded instantly.

  “Tremsa.”

  “Tekriyar.”

  My casting was reflected onto me and my robe turned to ice. It wasn’t an impressive display of magic, but higher spells required more mental clarity than I had at that moment. Before I could say another word, Painter rolled me over onto my back and pressed my own dagger against my throat.

  “I taught you all the magic you know, remember?”

  “Are you going to kill me?” I asked, trying not to swallow too hard. “After killing everyone important to me?”

  “I am the only one important to you!” he shrieked, pressing the dagger harder until I felt warm blood trickling down the side of my neck. It didn’t hurt as much as I had expected and it wasn’t cutting off my air supply. His eyes widened when he saw the blood before he squeezed them shut. It hurt him to see himself hurting me, but he wasn’t willing to give up his power.

  “You’ll kill me so that I can’t betray you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then do it. You took everyone from me, so you should be alone, too.” If he didn’t, then I had to come to terms with everything I remembered being a lie.

  “It doesn’t have to end like this,” he said, his voice trembling. His hands were shaking, too, which didn’t help matters.

  “It’s going to end one way or another, and I’m not joining you.”

  The struggle in him was painful to watch. Part of him was screaming for him to kill me, while the other part couldn’t. He was shaking so hard, filled with so much anger and anguish, that I thought he would break completely.

  He pulled his arm back and slammed the dagger into the dirt beside my head, then fell off to the right of me, shouting something in another language. Neither of us reached for the Book of Names, but I pulled out my book and started writing.

  Painter didn’t try to see what I was writing. He knew I was going to stop him from hurting people. We both knew he couldn’t kill me, yet he didn’t know that I couldn’t kill him.