by D. N. Leo
“The North Side it is. I’ll let you know what I find.”
Mr. Tann nodded a goodbye and strode out of the office.
3
A lyna walked into a small natural medicine clinic that Pukak managed and used as his office on the North Side of the city. She knocked on the crooked office door, but there was no answer, so she pushed her way in.
Pukak was the leader of the clan, a powerful mage with ultra-sensitive ears that could hear faint sounds even a mile away, and his light energy could burn the entire block of compartments.
Well, that had been during his heyday. He was nearly retired now. Or if Alyna understood him right, he could retire if he found a rightful successor for the clan.
But he cared too much to let go.
Pukak startled and jerked up from his chair. “Don’t you know how to knock, Alyna?”
“I did, but you seemed to be too busy sniffing your piles of paper to hear me.”
He rubbed at his temples and leaned back in his chair. She noted the bags under his eyes. He looked ten years older than when she had seen him yesterday.
“Is everything okay…apart from the two dead bodies?”
He shook his head and sighed.
“I have friends in the investigation business uptown,” she said. “They can help.”
“What’s the point, Alyna? Ethesus wants to ruin us. If they don’t do it in one way, they’ll find another.”
“Pukak, we are the best in the business. There is nothing a bunch of scumbags on wheels like Ethesus could do to threaten us.”
“We are the best in the private security business, but not in natural medicine. Ethesus is the second best at everything in the outskirt territories.”
“I thought medicine was just a small business…”
Pukak shook his head. His eyes drooped, and with that, the skin on his face sagged even more. “It’s small because I failed. With today’s technology, people don’t appreciate natural medicine anymore.”
She approached the table. She wanted to do something to comfort him, but she always felt awkward when it came to showing compassion. She could help with a fight. She could physically protect him. But she didn’t know how to help when it came to his sentimental attachment to Amaraq.
“Have you given the successor role some more thought?” he asked.
“No, I’m sorry.” She shoved her hands in her pockets. “I’m not a mage.”
Pukak chuckled. “As if I didn’t know that! Thank you for the reminder. I’ve been taking care of you since you were sixteen. You’re my protege. Nobody says the successor has to be a mage. We elect by competition. And you are the best, Alyna.”
“I’m only good at combat, Pukak. As you said, the business is more complicated than that. I don’t think I’m fit for the role.”
He nodded. “If that’s the only reason.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re not an ordinary human. You know that, Alyna.”
“I don’t know that.”
“No human could have survived that car crash. Your parents died. When I pulled you out of the wreck, I swear to you I saw your light go out for a moment and then return.”
“You told me that, and I don’t have an explanation for you. Maybe it was a near death experience. But it still doesn’t make me anything different from how I was created.”
“You’re absolutely right. But I am an old mage. I have seen a lot of things you couldn’t imagine. And I can see the dark energy in you. Something returned with you during that experience.”
“Yes, Pukak, you’ve said that several times. But I don’t have any supernatural power. That much I know. The blow I took from the Ethesus thug the other week injured my right shoulder. I didn’t get away unscathed. And if I’m ever in another car crash, I’m pretty sure you won’t pull me out alive.”
“All right, all right, I won’t push you. Anything new about the dead body?”
She shook her head. “If the death toll rises, it will set the private security business on fire, Pukak. And it’s not just the business…we can’t let them kill our people. We have to stop Ethesus. We have the manpower.”
“We can’t go to war with them for no reason. We have no evidence they have killed our men.”
“I can—”
“No, Alyna. We can’t afford to lose you. I don’t approve of you going anywhere near Ethesus territories by yourself. If we fight them, we must be better prepared. They have the wheels, but we will have weapons.”
“It’s about damn time.”
“Excuse me?”
“I mean, it’s only fair if we get more guns. Fist fighting against a motorbike gang won’t do us any good.”
Pukak nodded. “I understand. We’re skilled fighters, but yes, weapons help. But they cost money.” He looked at her with eyes that told her she was about to hear something she didn’t want to. “I’ve sold Amaraq’s business.”
She didn’t know what to say, so she remained silent.
“Our spiritual practice will stay the same. We’ll still operate the same way. It’s just that the financial matters and business practices will be handled by the LeBlanc Group.”
“The LeBlancs? The super uptown, living-in-the-cloud-with-the-gods LeBlancs?”
Pukak chuckled. “They’re not that elusive. In fact, one of the LeBlancs handled the business purchase himself—he didn’t even send his minions. He’s coming here to do a site visitation.”
“You’re kidding!”
“No, I’m not. The contract is still in the cooling-off period, so we’d better behave, Alyna. We need the money for the business. And I promise you, Amaraq’s spirit will stay the same. Nothing’s going to change that. The LeBlancs aren’t interested in our spiritual practice anyway. They vetted us carefully. I’ve done my homework, too.”
“I’m sure you know what you’re doing.”
“I can’t do it without you. Now I need you to host the visit for me.”
“Host? Me? What do you mean?”
“Well, we have dirty laundry to hide, don’t we? I’m not asking you to lie. All I’m asking is that you get them to see the negative aspects of the business in perspective.”
“Got it.”
They heard a knock on the door.
“And here he is,” Pukak muttered and stood up. “The door is open.”
Alyna turned around, and in front of her was a face that left her speechless.
She had seen him before.
For a week, she had seen his face repeatedly in her dreams, dreams that woke her up in the middle of the night. Longish dark hair, strikingly haunting gray eyes, and a beautiful God-given face that didn’t bear any mark of a hard life.
He straightened his posture after bending over to get through the low doorway. “Hello,” he said.
She swiveled to his right side, reached her hand up, and stopped his head an inch before it hit the broken low-hanging ceiling lamp.
As she moved, the photos of the dead bodies she had just taken slid out of the folder in her hand and landed on the dirty floor in front of him.
He glanced at the photos and looked at her, smiling, “Thank you. Caedmon LeBlanc.” He reached his hand out to shake hers.
She shook his hand quickly and bent down to pick up the photos. Pukak wanted to walk around the table for a handshake, but there was no room, so he reached over and across it.
Caedmon advanced to the table to shake his hand. Pukak’s elbow hit the pile of papers on his table, scattering them all over the floor. Photos, unpaid bills, an eviction notice from the building owner, complaint letters about water leakage from citizens living around a clinic in midtown drifted all over the room.
Alayna scrambled on all fours to pick up as many pieces of paper as possible.
Caedmon crouched. “Let me help,” he said.
Pukak pushed his way to the front. “Oh no, no, it’s okay. I’ll handle this. Alyna,” he said. “Please take Mr. LeBlanc to visit the clinic in midtown. The
one that’s open today.”
That means the one that doesn’t have water leakage, she thought and winked at Pukak.
Caedmon stood up.
“Go, both of you. You’re crowding my office.” Pukak was all but pushing Caedmon and Alayna out of his office.
“All right,” Caedmon said and turned to the door. Then he sneezed because of the dust, lost his balance, and hit his head on the low doorway on his way out.
“Are you okay?” Alayna asked.
He rubbed his head and grinned.
What a smile! she thought.
“My father always told me I have a hard head.”
“You might, but still…competing with a doorframe isn’t a good idea.”
“Totally agree.”
Before she could react, he slid his arm around her waist and guided her out. She felt like a true lady.
“Now, is someone killing your men? Those dead men in the photos were Amaraq fighters, right?”
4
T he beginning of time.
HE PICKED up a shard of ice that shone a deep blood red. It wasn’t just ice. It was frozen dragon blood.
He glanced behind him and saw that Thunder Child was still sleeping soundly next to a large rock. It had taken them days to get here, and she was tired. He should give her a better name than Thunder Child, but he had no idea what to call her. He didn’t even have a name for himself.
People called him Keymaster because he made keys. Not just any keys. His keys unlocked the sources of energy and power, unlocked the doors between worlds. He considered himself an artist in the key-making business, and thus, he didn’t come cheap. If creatures in the multiverse needed his keys and couldn’t afford them, they’d kill to get them. And to that extent, he knew he had indirectly created some chaos and casualties in the multiverse.
But it was just business. He got paid to make keys. That was all he did. He couldn’t control what people did with the products they had paid for.
He couldn’t even remember how many keys he had created. A few hundred maybe. Some were more difficult to make than others. But this one might be the most difficult one—the Scorpio key.
He chipped into the large piece of ice to break it into several shards that he could transport easily. The freezing conditions weren’t ideal. He needed to get the ice back to his studio so that he could work.
He went back to the child and tucked the cloak around her to keep her warm. He brushed aside the hair on her forehead. She was beautiful. She was a child born of angels, after all, and he wouldn’t expect less when it came to her beauty. She must be eight now, or maybe seven. He’d lost track of time.
He had picked her up as an infant, sitting next to the dead body of her mother, clapping her little hands and flapping her tiny wings. Before he knew it, she had given him instructions on how to make some of the more difficult keys and had become a significant part of his life. And just now, she had showed him the way to the rock of dragon blood.
He kept telling her she could go to the Daimon Gate or go back to the angels. But she preferred to stay with him.
She winced in her sleep, and he knew what was coming. He picked her up in his arms and clutched her tight. “Come on, don’t do that to yourself, child.”
Her shoulders twisted, and her body shook. Tears rolled down her face. He held her tighter. Otherwise, she would clap her hands together, and the thunder would come. He had seen that before. Her thunder could devastate a mountain.
Her nightmares came often, and it pained him as much as it tormented her. She never talked about it. But he knew she had seen what killed her parents, and it haunted her dreams. The older she grew, the more frequently the nightmares came. But if she wouldn’t talk about it, there was nothing he could do for her.
Her body shook for a while then eased off. He lay her down and wiped the sweat from her beautiful young face.
“One day you will tell me what killed your parents, Thunder Child,” he said.
Her eyes fluttered and then opened. She smiled at him. “Did you find the blood rock?”
“Yes, right over there.”
She sat up and looked in the direction he pointed. A smile brightened her angelic face. She rushed toward the rock and traced her little fingers along the rough edges of the ice shards.
She remembered nothing about the dream she’d just had or how much she had shaken in his arms. She had no conscious recollection of her parents’ violent death. Yet in dreams, it came back to haunt her. Perhaps she remembered but didn’t let on. There had been so many times he’d wanted to ask her. But he had no clue when she would be old enough to handle such a conversation, so he always let the thought go.
She turned around and smiled at him. “Bloodstone.” She grinned again and raised her hands.
“No, no, don’t clap. You know you have a clapping disorder, don’t you?”
She giggled and then put her hands down.
He exhaled in relief and flopped down, leaning against the rock she had just slept next to. That was his eternal nightmare. He didn’t know when one of her thunder strikes would explode him right out of his immortal life.
She shrugged then picked up his hunting knife and used it to chip away at the rock. A thin stream of red liquid leaked out.
“LOOK, Keymaster.” She pointed.
He approached. “Holy cow. The rock is bleeding. It’s dragon’s blood,” he said.
“No, Keymaster, not dragon’s blood. It’s scorpion.”
“Scorpions don’t have blood.”
“It’s King Scorpion’s blood. He used to be a man.”
He staggered back. “Are you sure? Is he in there?”
“No, it was just his heart and his head.”
“How do you know that?”
“It comes to me in my dreams, Keymaster.”
“Oh, those dreams. All right. As long as a giant scorpion isn’t going to crawl out of that stone to bite me, I’m fine. I hate insects. I only need the rocks to make the key. I have no need for a bleeding heart. Let me chip away some more rocks, and then we’ll leave for home.”
“For the Scorpio key, you’ll need some blood from the heart, too.”
“How do you—” He stopped himself. “All right, knowledge from the dreams, right? But how long will it take me to chip away that giant rock to the heart of the Scorpion?”
“I’ll do it for you. One strike.” She smiled graciously.
“You’ll just use any excuse to clap that thunder out of your little hands. Okay, don’t pout. I’ll let you do it. But let me find shelter first.” He scurried away to a nearby cave and crawled inside as deep as he could. “All right, I’m safe,” he called.
He heard her giggle, and then an explosion of thunder that almost punctured his eardrums echoed through the air. Everything went quiet.
He stepped outside and saw a massive hole in the ground. Thunder Child stood next to a neatly cut giant piece of bloodstone. She smiled at him.
“Where are the heart and the head?” he asked.
She pointed at the piece of icy red rock. “In there. It’s all done for you, Keymaster.”
5
“Sushi?” Alyna asked.
“Excuse me?” Caedmon turned toward her. He had been looking at the billboard hanging from a tall building, advertising exotic holiday deals to Nepolymbus. It fascinated him. Not the holiday deals, but the development of New Earth since the years he had known it. Nepolymbus had been a submarine dimension that was at war with humans. But if they were now organizing tours there, they must have made peace at some point.
“I asked if you’re hungry.”
“No, thank you. But I can wait if you need to eat.” He chuckled on the inside, remembering how his secretary, Leanne, had warned him about food consumption.
She smiled at him. “I only need five minutes.” She tapped a small device on her belt. “I have to maintain a regular intake of necessary nutrition. There’s no magic when it comes to strength and fitness.” Then she walked
across the road to what looked like a street food vendor.
She must be a hell of a fighter, he thought. Her long and agile body glided across the street with ease. Her long hair was pulled back tightly into a braided ponytail that swung between her shoulders. He thought her hair to be flattering and flirty at times, but he was sure she didn’t think about it that way. Her dress code and posture was combat-ready. He had seen it in some of his female commanders, and he knew enough to not mess around with them.
The street looked just like Midtown New York. He had never been, but he had done a quick scan of the data and possible locations before embarking on this trip. Unfortunately, his data seemed to be quite outdated.
In about three minutes, Alyna came back to him.
“Done already?”
“It wasn’t exactly a three-course lunch.”
“Are there places that have such offers?”
She laughed. “So you’re hungry, but you’re not quite into street food.”
“I was told to be careful about what I eat.”
“And you are absolutely right to do so. This is midtown, so it’s not too bad. But I’ll take you to a place uptown, and then you can have whatever you need.” She gestured ahead. “The clinic is just around the corner.”
“Thank you.”
As they walked toward the clinic, he discreetly turned on his eudqi—a special source of Eudaizian energy designed just for him. With that activated, he had access to a personal micro internal computer system that could perform various small tasks. He snapped a scan of the area and recorded the map. Then he turned the system off and switched back to his normal operational mode.
In normal mode, he had a human body with Eudaizian energy.
He saw the clinic at the end of the small side road. It looked quite charming from the outside.
Alyna’s communicator buzzed, and she picked it up. Then her face paled.
“What is it, Alyna?”
“Just a problem with the security business. Given that’s not what you’re interested in, let’s just take a look at the clinic, and then I’ll take you back to where you’re staying.”