Devil's Gambit

by Nicholas Woode-Smith

  “You remember Oliver?” Andy asked, his too-white smile shining.

  I looked at the young man. He had an arrogant grin on his face. Very similar to the one he had at Miriam’s party.

  “I do.” I put out my hand. He shook it. His grip was strong. Stronger than he looked.

  “How’s the monster hunting going?” Oliver asked, a hint of mockery in his tone.

  “Very well. How’s the IT?”

  “IT?”

  It was sudden, and very subtle, but I caught Andy glaring at his friend. Oliver flinched, even more subtly, and continued.

  “Ah, IT! Yeah, it’s been going well.”

  “We’re aiming on a workable build by next year,” Andy added, straight-faced.

  What was that all about?

  “Workable build? What you developing?” I asked, only a bit curious. I looked over Andy’s shoulder. Colin smiled and inclined his drink at me. He was showing that he wasn’t offended. I felt a pang that I couldn’t explain.

  “Video games,” Oliver replied.

  Andy elbowed him in the ribs and replied himself. “Boring stuff. Accounting software.”

  “Oh,” I said in a barely cloaked tone of forced interest. “Accounting software can be very interesting.”

  “You should talk to Pranish, babe,” Trudie said. “He’s developing some sorta magic-code.”

  Pranish, from across the room, speaking to Cindy, looked our way at the sound of his name. I got the impression he wouldn’t want to talk to Andy about his project.

  My phone rang before anyone else could speak.

  “Ignore it. It’s your birthday!” Trudie said, less naggy and more excited.

  I smiled, faintly, but still retrieved my phone from my pocket. The caller ID read: Mandy Caleb. My aunt. My last surviving relative.

  I ignored Trudie and answered.

  “Happy birthday, Kat!”

  “Mandy!” I answered with unrestrained joy. I seldom ever heard from my aunt, living all the way in New Zealand. I may be a cold girl a lot of the time, but I really did love my last family member. “Thank you for calling! Isn’t it like 6am there?”

  “5am. But no matter. It isn’t every day that your niece turns twenty.”

  Twenty. Hadn’t really thought about that. Made me feel…old.

  I made my way through the party and to my room, where I shut the door for some privacy and quiet.

  “Mandy…how’ve things been?” I asked, almost sombrely. I needed the privacy for more than just the quiet. I really had missed my aunt.

  “It’s been…well, not going to lie. Have you been following the news?”

  “All we hear about here is uprisings in the Zulu empire and Councillor scandals. What’s happening?”

  “Negotiations broke down,” she said, simply, yet with a tone charged with anger and a strong hint of sadness.

  Mandy was a mediator for the New Zealand human government and the Sintari elves that had established their own nation on the once human-dominated islands. If negotiations had broken down, that meant she’d failed.

  “I’m sorry…” I said. I did not know what else to say.

  “Anyway,” she said in a slightly more energetic tone. “Let’s not discuss that anymore. It’s your birthday! What have you been doing?”

  I winced. Mandy didn’t know I was a monster hunter. A part of me didn’t want her to know.

  “You know…”

  “Hanging out with friends? I heard voices.”

  “Yeah,” I answered, relieved. “Trudie organised a surprise party.”

  “That girl is a good friend. Send her my best.” Her voice had a hint of finality in it.

  “You going?” I asked, my disappointment showing.

  “I’m sorry, Kat. I have to sort some stuff out. I hope you enjoy the rest of your birthday. Love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  She hung up.

  I leaned against the door, my cell phone still in my hand. I rubbed my nose and felt moisture pooling around my eyes.

  Don’t cry, Kat, I told myself. Don’t you dare cry.

  “She really does love you,” Treth said.

  I knew that. That wasn’t the problem.

  “I miss her, Treth.”

  And them.

  “Shots!” Trudie shouted, banging the door into me from behind. The door hit the side of my head. The injured side.

  “Ow!” I cried out.

  Concern flickered across Trudie’s face, but as it was obvious I was still alive and well, she showed me a bottle of clear liquid.

  “Shots!” she shouted again.

  “The sun is still up.”

  “Pfft…barely. Come through. It’s your party.”

  She turned, and I rubbed my eyes one last time.

  “Enjoy yourself,” Treth said. There was a hidden message in the statement. Enjoy yourself because you can.

  I followed my friend back into my tiny living room. Trudie had lined up shot glasses (someone else’s, not mine) and started filling them with vodka.

  I sidled up next to Colin.

  “Happy birthday,” he whispered.

  I smiled.

  “So, I don’t have any cake,” Trudie said. “But we all know Kat would rather have noodles than cake.”

  Pranish snorted, loudly.

  “But what I do have is a lot of honey vodka…”

  “Honey vodka?!” a little voice squeaked, as Duer flew down from his bird-house, glowing an exuberant gold indicative of a truly excited pixie.

  Colin jumped, just a little. So, did Trudie and Pranish (even though he knew Duer). The others looked at the pixie with intrigue.

  “A pixie?” Miriam asked rhetorically. “You keep strange roommates, Drummond.”

  Duer floated right down to the countertop, alongside an empty shot glass.

  Trudie stared at the creature with a blank expression, and Duer stared back with a cocky one.

  The staring match continued. And then I burst out laughing.

  Trudie looked at me, and then joined in. Duer didn’t look amused.

  “Come on, Trudie,” I said. “Give the guy a drink.”

  She poured and Duer glowed the strongest gold I’d ever seen him glow.

  Trudie played bartender and poured us all shots. I took two with her, another with Brett, and another with Colin. Miriam looked amused but stuck to her red wine. She really did look like a vampire sometimes. Brett even had shots with Duer, with a little help from Guy. I was a bit worried at first. I knew Duer could handle his liquor despite his frame, but I was worried about Brett’s view of him. He’d been a member of the Extermination Corps after all. As much as I liked him, he was trained to kill creatures like Duer. But despite my fears, they both devoured their honey vodka in one gulp and spoke animatedly to each other afterwards.

  “Brett left the Corps for a reason,” Cindy said quietly from my side. She’d noticed I’d been eyeing him from across the room, a beer in my hand.

  “I know,” I said, but frowned, as I still wasn’t sure.

  Cindy was drinking some of Miriam’s red wine. She turned towards me.

  “He’s a good man,” Cindy added, almost mournfully. I got the impression that she was remembering someone. Not Brett, in particular, but someone else. “He has his scars. We all do. But he survived what caused them.”

  She turned away. “Others can’t say the same.”

  Pranish sidled up to me as Cindy walked over to talk to Duer.

  “What was that about?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” I lied. Definitely was something. “Anyway, how are you doing?”

  “Fine,” he said, and even added a faint smile.

  “A man never cries in public,” Treth said. “Doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to.”

  Treth was right. Pranish had seen things that his much more reasonable heart couldn’t handle. As the demon on Table Mountain had said, I was already broken. Saving Trudie hadn’t cost me any more of my shattered soul. For Pranish, ho
wever, it had cost him his innocence.

  I moved closer to Pranish.

  “It’s okay to talk,” I said, hush-hush. I hoped I sounded sincere. I wasn’t used to this.

  Pranish backed away. “I’m fine, Kat. Really. More than fine. My project is coming along well.”

  “Trudie said so. Magic code?”

  “Not exactly.” His tone started to become more enthused. “You know how spells are essentially the primal words of the realms, and when uttered or transcribed they can carry power?”

  “Sure.”

  I understood the basics, I promise!

  Pranish nodded, satisfied with my answer. “Well, what I’m doing is putting those words onto a computer.”

  “Hasn’t that been done before?”

  “In textbooks? Yeah. But virtual spell-words have never retained their power. What I’m doing is different. I’m inserting the spells into the code of programs themselves.”

  My blank stare prompted him to gesture wildly.

  “I’m making magic software, Kat!”

  “Pranish,” I said. “I’m not going to pretend to understand all of it, but I don’t need to pretend that I’m impressed.”

  He chuckled. “Well, that’s a start.”

  “Kat-th,” Trudie slurred, putting her arm around Pranish, who visibly blushed and tensed at the contact.

  “Isn’t that one drink too much?” I asked, indicating two shot glasses in her hand. She passed me one.

  “One more shot, Kat-thy.” She paused to laugh at the word. “And then to the…”

  “Gravekeeper,” Pranish offered.

  “Yes! There.”

  I downed the shot, while Pranish stole Trudie’s and downed hers, and then we all left. I couldn’t remember locking my door behind me, yet I could swear I was still at least a bit sober.

  ***

  “Wear it-th!” Trudie shout-slurred.

  “Can someone please stop her drinking?” Oliver asked. “She’s making a scene.”

  His grin belied his sentiments. I really wished that someone like Miriam had tagged along to the Gravekeeper instead of him. Unfortunately, she felt a bit too old to engage in such raucous revelry. She wished me luck, reminded me about an assignment due after the break, and then departed. Duer, also, stayed home. Despite his insistent desire to drink more and more honey vodka, he soon passed out. Cindy assured me that he was okay. Pixies got drunk, but it wasn’t really dangerous for them.

  “Could chug petrol and sleep it off.” She chuckled.

  I left Duer in his birdhouse, out of Alex’s reach. May not even have needed to. Alex was pretty tired after all the fuss and was left dozing on my bed.

  The rest of the party arrived at the Gravekeeper. Oliver and a recently sobered Cindy were designated drivers. It was a wonder what healing magic could accomplish! Upon arrival, I was greeted by Conrad, grinning his pearly white grin, and holding up a coat made of scaled hide.

  “It’s very…orange,” Colin commented.

  “Wear it-th!” Trudie shouted again, leaning up against Andy. The vodka had already hit her hard.

  I examined it more closely, not knowing what to think.

  It was, as Colin had so astutely pointed out, very orange. Orange, and scaled. I didn’t remember the salamander’s hide looking like this when I killed it, but it had been on fire at the time.

  “Happy birthday,” Conrad said. “I know it isn’t a huge fashion item, but it sure is a statement.”

  “The Spell-Axe carried it off,” Cindy said, appearing next to me. She had dropped us off to find a place to park Brett’s car. Her words held a venom with enough undertone to write a prequel.

  “Cindy,” Conrad said. His smile almost wavered. “Good to see you. And you’re right. The Spell-Axe, slash Flame Viking, slash Skin Walker, did know how to make it look good.”

  He looked at me. “And I’m sure you’ll be able to as well. Come on, try it on.”

  I conceded and accepted the orange coat. It was faintly warm to the touch. An effect of it being salamander hide? Fortunately, it felt dry. I imagined that it would feel slimy.

  “The scales should be harder than your usual armour,” Conrad said.

  “Which means better prey for her to catch for you?” Cindy said.

  “Better prey for her to catch in general,” Brett added. He eyed me up and down. “Nice coat, Katty.”

  I didn’t know what I looked like with it on, but I felt silly. Orange was not anyone’s colour. But everyone was starting to settle in, and Conrad looked very pleased with himself. And if it was better than my current armour, who was I to complain?

  I smiled, genuinely. “Thanks, Conrad.”

  “While we’re on the topic of gifts,” Brett said. “Here’s something from me.”

  He passed me a brown A4 envelope, with the words:

  “Happy Birthday, Katty! Love, Brett.”

  I snorted at the words, but later came to think about them much more intently. I opened the envelope with my seax and read the contents.

  “There’s a lot of jargon here…”

  Colin sidled in next to me and took a look.

  “It’s from the Ministry of Police. The paperwork needed to…”

  He squinted, taking a closer look. The text was very small, and I prided myself on my good eye-sight.

  “To register for a firearm license.”

  He looked at Brett, impressed. “These are almost as hard to get as clearance to scale Table Mountain.”

  Brett shrugged. “I included a motivational letter and a commendation from an upstanding licensed agency hunter.”

  “Which hunter?” I asked, stunned by the gift. I’d been needing a gun license for ages. I’d just never had the time, money or connections to get one.

  “Me.”

  “Upstanding?” I grinned.

  “I’m as surprised as you are. Anyway, that is most of the hard work done. You just need to find time to go to a station, do your competency test and then sign a few more forms.”

  “And until then,” Trudie butted in. “You can use this.”

  She was still swaying but had gained a semblance of lucidity. She handed me a rectangular package, covered in Christmas wrapping paper.

  “I saw that you have only been carrying one sword these days,” she said as I started unwrapping the present. “And, as you have a spare hand…”

  The package revealed itself to be a wooden case. I opened it to show a black lacquered sheathe with a tightly woven hilt. A symbol of the Titan’s fist dominated the artwork of the square hand-guard.

  “A wakizashi!” I cried out, so excited I was about to burst. “How, by the Vortex, did you afford this?”

  “Impolite to talk cost at a party,” Trudie shushed me. “I got it from a magic shop. Pranish said it was enchanted for hardening or something. Didn’t know what that meant, but he said it was cool.”

  It was cool. A hardening enchantment helped keep the blade sharp, strong and tempered. In the past, I hadn’t wanted to buy Japanese blades because they struggle to keep an edge but, with a hardening enchantment, that was no longer a problem.

  I wrapped my arms around my friend, blade sheathed, of course. Trudie staggered, but then returned the hug.

  “Thank you,” I said, simply. My gratitude was for more than just the sword. By giving it to me, Trudie had truly accepted my way of life. She had decided to support me down my path. That meant more than anything else.

  “Hey, don’t I get a hug,” Brett moaned, with a joking grin.

  I shoved him but then gave him a hug as well.

  “So,” Conrad said. “Let’s get this party started. First round on me!”

  ***

  The first round turned to a second round, and then Trudie brought out the shots again. I was speaking to someone…Cindy, I think, but then Trudie jumped at me, chanting:

  “Shots! Shots! Shots!”

  I did one, and then continued what I was saying.

  “So…he…”
<
br />   “Who?”

  “The demon.”

  “Right.”

  “He seemed sad that we beat him, but that he couldn’t accept his loss.”

  “Demons are an odd lot,” the person who I’m sure was Cindy replied. “They have weird values.”

  Conrad walked past, talking animatedly to Oliver. Cindy paused and followed Conrad with her stare, sneering. I waited for her to stop staring.

  “What’s up with that?” I asked.

  “With what?”

  “Conrad seems to like you. Why don’t you like him?”

  “Conrad likes everyone. That’s kinda the problem.”

  “Lilian?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Can’t blame him for that,” I tried to argue, despite an increasing haze. “He’s desperate for cash. Can’t vet everyone properly.”

  “He makes and made plenty off his hunters.”

  “Why does he live out of his Golf then?”

  Cindy shrugged. “Bad credit. I don’t know. It’s just…Conrad was my introduction to this city. I made all my friends through him. He introduced me to this world.”

  “He mentored you?”

  Cindy nodded.

  “Then why the hate?”

  “Cause he was a bad mentor.”

  “I wouldn’t say that.”

  Cindy snorted.

  “Well, he produced you, didn’t he?”

  “Flattery won’t get you anywhere on this topic.”

  “Hah. Fair enough. Well, as long as you don’t decide to shift his organs around.”

  “I’m a healer!” Cindy exclaimed, almost offended.

  “And healing can turn to meddling very quickly.”

  Before Cindy could retort, Trudie arrived again, calling for more shots.

  ***

  “You doing okay?” I asked Colin, who was sitting off to the side, a beer in his hand.

  “I am,” he said. “A bit soberer than most. Your friend, Trudie, has mercifully skipped me on her shot rounds.”

  “Want me to call her over?” I asked, slurring just a bit. I wasn’t that drunk. Promise!

  “No, no. It’s fine.” He smiled, faintly. “Enjoying your birthday?”

  “Yeah,” I said. And then more quietly. “Thanks for coming.”

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

  “I don’t know, um. Well, shit…”

  I felt Treth’s embarrassment.