by D. N. Leo
Alyna understood that the club was his baby. He had worked here his whole life. The summoning was a centennial event, and being able to host just the trial for it had been his lifetime dream. But she saw no chance of the event happening here.
“Tomkin!”
“What?” he asked and kept digging.
“Tomkin!”
“I’m busy here! What do you want, Alyna?”
“The building is ruined, and so many trainees have lost their lives. The trial is not going to happen here next week. I suggest you focus your energy on something else.”
He stabbed the shovel hard into a pile of dirt and loose bricks. “Like what?”
“Develop new programs. Talk to the families of the dead trainees. Do damage control for our reputation with the public. No one is going to use our private security service if we can’t protect our own people. You’re good at publicity. Why don’t you take care of that, and I’ll take care of the trial.”
“I want to be at the trial. I’m not a mage, so I won’t be invited to the summoning. But can I please be at the trial? It’s a centennial event!”
Alyna nodded. “I’ll talk to Pukak.”
“Why don’t you ask Ben to stay and help?” he asked as she turned around to leave.
“I respect his decision to go South. He’ll do better there, I think.”
She looked at the clock and wondered where Caedmon was. He’d said he was going to drop by the LeBlanc headquarters in central to transfer the money so that Amaraq could use it to hire a new venue in town for the event. It seemed like the perfect solution to her.
She headed toward the express to go home. She lived in the middle of the city, and hopefully it was close enough to central so that she could give Caedmon assistance in case he needed her. She chuckled inwardly. Since when had she started to think that a man would mix with someone like her in such a social circus?
She recalled the moment he carried her out of Tony’s place. The feeling of her body pressed against his. The sensual scent emanating from his skin. His hands on her body, unclasping her bra, loosening her hair.
She shook her head and gave herself a mental slap.
By the time she approached the corner of her place, dusk had settled on the city. The sky was magnificent. She loved the blood red sky scattered with mysterious black clouds. She wondered what it had been like before the Great War. Pukak immersed himself in literature and loved history. He knew a lot. She wasn’t a fan of curating knowledge of a culture that no longer existed. She was pro-development and all about moving forward.
“Alyna!” Sam called from behind.
She turned around and saw him standing in the alleyway running along the side of her complex. He had the gray cat in his arms—the one she’d claimed was hers—and he was grinning at her.
She approached him. “Where did you find him?”
“I didn’t. He found me.”
The cat hopped out of Sam’s arms, landed on the ground, and sauntered toward Alyna.
“He could have found you himself, I think. But he’s quite lazy. Look at the weight on him. He just wanted me to carry him all the way here.” Sam laughed as the cat rubbed around Alyna’s legs.
“His name is Lazi, Sam.”
“Oh…well, that explains it.”
From the corner of her eyes, she saw a creature step out from the darkness into the red light of the dusk. It didn’t have a tangible form but appeared instead to be a collection of semitransparent black particles. It was the same thing that had jumped out of Tony’s dead body and strangled her.
Alyna staggered back, and the cat scurried to find a hiding place.
“What is it, Alyna?” Sam asked.
“Run, Sam. Go away.”
“No! Just tell me what’s going on.”
“There’s something here. It’s going to attack me. You can’t see it…”
It flew at her. As much as it was invisible to Sam, it felt like a ton of bricks hitting her. It started squeezing her neck, just as it had done before, but she couldn’t defend herself. She swung her arms at it, but they struck thin air. The creature continued to strangle her.
Sam darted over, but he didn’t know what to do.
The cat jumped toward Alyna, hitting the creature with its front legs. It was small in comparison to the size of the creature, but the creature staggered back and hissed at the feline.
Alyna gasped for air and then scrambled to her feet. The cat stood in front of her, meowing and hissing. Its hair stood on end, its eyes sparkled green, and its teeth were bared. The creature stood immobile, a lump of static particles. It dared not move against Lazi—her dead cat.
“Sam, come stand behind me!” she shouted.
But it was too late for Sam. The creature flew over her head. Sam didn’t see it coming. It lifted him up and dragged him away, several feet above the ground. It choked him, and then it slaughtered him.
“Lazi, get it! Over there!” she shouted, but the cat wouldn’t leave her side. She charged toward Sam. But she knew she was too late.
The skinny body of the teenager was mangled, and his neck was broken. His soft green eyes stared into nothingness. He never knew what had hit him.
But she knew.
It was evil. She didn’t know how to describe it.
Tears streamed down her face. She hadn’t cried in a long time. And now she was crying for a person she hardly knew.
She looked up and saw the sky was completely dark. She understood now how Caedmon had felt when people had called Leanne’s dead body waste. She couldn’t bear the thought of Sam lying in the dark alley, waiting for the trash truck to come to pick him up in the morning. But she couldn’t just take him inside the building. The other residents would object to it.
She went into her apartment and grabbed a blanket. She wrapped up Sam’s body and propped him up against the fence next to the trash cans. Then she sat down next to his body. She would wait there until the morning to be sure he was taken care of and treated properly.
Lazi sat down next to her and purred for a while. Then the cat stood and started meowing. He bit her finger gently, and then bit into the sleeve of her shirt and pulled.
“I won’t go with you, Lazi. I made that decision years ago. And I’m not changing my mind. You can go, though.”
The cat didn’t look happy, but he sat down next to her and stopped protesting. She stroked his head. “When the time comes, I’ll respond to the Teacher’s call. But not now.”
As if he understood what she was saying, Lazi started purring again, tilting his head up for Alyna to scratch his neck.
27
C aedmon was on the way down. It was a risky decision, but it was his best choice. He had just cut the giant high rise in half with his mind blade, and both sides were on the verge of collapse—and he was on the ledge of the tenth floor.
His eudqi was on at full capacity, and now he moved as a Silver Blood—lightning fast and agile, and he could jump dimensions. Admittedly, his dimension-jumping technique had room for improvement. He couldn’t just jump by himself—he had to rely on the technology of his wrist unit to open the gateway before he did so. He opened the portal below him so he could use gravity to his advantage and fall right into the gateway.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the shape of the dematerialized creature—the same kind of thing that had tried to kill Alyna and had attacked him in the apartment. He had killed one of them with his heatwave, and he could do it again. But this one was incredibly fast. It flew into the air and hit him when he least expected it.
It knocked him out of his trajectory to the gateway. He was now free falling.
He adjusted his wrist unit to alter the gateway’s position. But the creature struck him again. He was halfway down to the ground. The gravity on Earth was stronger than he’d expected.
The creature approached him again. It didn’t give him a chance to manage the escape hatch. He turned around.
“You asked for it,” he said.
He stopped fidgeting with the gateway. When the creature hit him again, he grabbed it and hopped on top of it, not sure whether he’d be able to grab its semitransparent form. But apparently, he could.
It wriggled, turned around, and was upside down. It looked at him. Its form glowed in a shimmery red color, and he could see its face more clearly—hollow red eyes and a face that looked like nothing more than a human skull. It reached its arms up, trying to strangle him.
He’d had enough. He pumped a heatwave into it. It exploded into several thousand pieces, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass. He was sure it had dropped pieces of red ice to the ground as had the one he’d killed before. But he had no intention of finding out. If he did, it would mean he had hit the ground.
He was close now. And he wasn’t sure he had enough space for another portal. He looked up. The one he had opened previously still hovered in the air above him. The gateway refused to come down to him.
He looked down to the ground. He didn’t relish the idea of his body landing on the hard concrete.
Another shadow zoomed toward him. Before he could blast out another heatwave, he realized it was giant air motorbike. The driver dipped down a bit, partially to indicate to Caedmon he had no intention of hitting him, and partially to make it easy for him to jump on the backseat.
No matter who the driver might be, Caedmon figured the backseat of an air motorbike was a much more promising option than the hard concrete fifty feet below.
Caedmon jumped on the bike.
A SHORT MOMENT LATER, the motorbike landed in an industrial area. The ground was covered in red dust, and they appeared to be on the outskirts of the city. From where they were, Caedmon could see the city covered by a semitransparent dome. He guessed they had passed through the dome’s gate at some point, but he hadn’t felt the impact.
He had turned his eudqi off to avoid a scan and detection from whomever he might be talking to. They’d known he wasn’t human when they sent the driver to pick him up in the middle of the fight with a supernatural creature. But he didn’t want them to know exactly where he had come from. He wasn’t going to give them entry into Eudaiz.
The driver hopped off the bike and gestured for Caedmon to follow him. A wall-sized rusty steel door slid open, revealing a warehouse-style space. Everything was made of oxidized metal and wood of some sort. Several air motorbikes were scattered around as used for furniture.
At the far end of the open space, there was a raised platform of metal bars and wooden panels. A man sitting on a metal chair stood and approached Caedmon. He reached out a bare, muscled arm, covered in tattoos, for a handshake.
“Nathan,” he said.
“Caedmon.”
Nathan grinned. “One of the LeBlancs.” He gestured around. “This is the deep North of New Australia, but your family has a reputation everywhere.”
Caedmon nodded. “Thanks for picking me up at the headquarters. So I guess you’re not the one who sent the mercenaries after me?”
Nathan laughed. “Did any of them look like my guys?”
Caedmon cast a glance at the bikers. “No. But nothing would stop you from having someone else do the work for you.”
Nathan laughed again, climbed the platform, and sat on his chair. Caedmon realized the chair looked like a lot like a throne.
“You’re Ethesus!”
Nathan clapped. “Unlike what people have said, the LeBlancs do know something the North.”
“I guess you haven’t invited me here for a party, then?”
“Not at all. Wartime is coming. No time for partying.”
“War with whom? Amaraq?”
“Oh no, I don’t consider them enemies. I know they don’t see the dynamics of our relationship the same way.”
“You captured me and killed Leanne. It’s hard for me to consider you a friend.”
“Not friend, but an ally. Look at us.” Nathan gestured around. “Yes, spiritually we are on the opposite side of Amaraq. I offered an alliance, but they turned it down. We don’t use technology for anything other than watching screens. You were captured and brought to a place with a full lab and lots of computer geeks, right? They used sedatives, and they copied our logo, too? But take another look…do we look like them?”
“So who are they?”
Nathan smirked. “I’ll find out. And I’ll crush them to dust. But to do that, we’ll need financial backing. I know you promised that to Amaraq. But we can work together…as an alliance. Pukak can’t see the big picture. But you can—”
Caedmon raised his hand to stop his speech. “I don’t have the money. At least not right now. You picked me up from the headquarters. That was only connection I had. Now I’m cut off, and I’m not sure how long it will take to reconnect, let alone transfer any funds.”
“But when you reconnect, will you reconsider my proposal? We’ll stay within our red dirt areas in the outskirts, and Amaraq will stay where they are in the central. No invasions, no harsh feelings. And I reckon whoever it is who’s disguising themselves as us and causing friction between Amaraq and Ethesus is our common enemy. The funds should be used to destroy that enemy…not to fight each other like mad dogs.”
“Any idea where this common enemy might come from?”
“The South.”
28
T hunder Child threw a knife at the dummy and hit it right in the center of its forehead. The Teacher clapped.
“In terms of fighting, I think you’ve graduated. You’ve achieved a lot in such a short period of time.”
“It’s been two years. That’s not a short period of time.”
“Don’t be impatient. You’re young. You have plenty of time.”
“I’m eleven. That’s not so young.”
The Teacher chuckled. “Well, compared to being a few hundred years old, you’re very young.”
“Will you teach me new skills?”
“Yes, of course. How’s your master doing with the Scorpio key? Still trying to cut the stone?”
She sighed and nodded.
“All right.” The Teacher wrote on a piece of old fabric. “Here are the ingredients. This compound, if you process it correctly, will both soften the stone and help it maintain its shape after it’s been cut. It won’t return to its original shape.”
She grinned and reached out her hand to take the recipe, but the Teacher yanked it away. “It’s too soon for me to give this to you. This compound works, but it isn’t harmless. If you want me to give it to you now, I’ll need you to do something for me.”
“What is it, Teacher?”
He showed her a jar of potion. “This is a poison I have compounded. I will take you into town, and you will put it into someone’s food.”
“You want me to kill?”
“Yes.”
“Whose food?”
“I have found the murderers of my children. I could simply kill them, but that would be too easy for them, considering I have suffered for hundreds of years. So I’m going to take you to a school of magic where their children are studying. You will kill their children. I want them to feel what it’s like to lose a young child.”
“But your children died hundreds of years ago. How can their children still be going to school?”
“They’re soul traders. They buy, sell, and exchange souls so that they and their families will remain the same age for eternity.”
“I can’t kill innocent children.”
“Not even to get the recipe for your master?”
“No.”
“What if I give you something more appealing? What if I give you a recipe that will help you kill those who killed your parents?”
She chuckled. “They can’t be killed with poison.”
“You know them?”
She locked eyes with the Teacher. “Yes, and one day I will kill them. But not with poison. I will kill them to seek justice for my parents, but I won’t kill innocent people just to make them experience what I have suffered
my whole life. I won’t do that for you, either. Not for anyone.”
“There is a prophecy that says if I seek revenge, I will be dead. Nevertheless, I can’t pass up this opportunity. So if I don’t see you next time in the woods, you’ll know what happened.”
“If you die, I will seek revenge for you.”
He crouched and looked into her eyes. “Really?”
“Yes, I promise. Who are they?”
“Amaraq.”
29
A lyna rushed into the medical clinic, almost stumbling on the bucket Pukak used to catch rainwater to make his medicine. Caedmon trailed behind her.
“Please tell me this isn’t true,” she said.
Pukak looked at her, the kind old eyes of a grandfather drooping even more. He pulled up his sleeve, revealing a wound that ran down his left forearm. “I know my time is limited, Alyna.”
“You’re a mage. You make medicines that cure people.” She wiped the tears from her face. “There’s no poison that exists that doesn’t have an antidote. Can’t you make yourself one?”
“Alyna…I don’t have much time. I need you to listen to me.”
“This was Ethesus. This is their doing,” she snarled and whirled back and forth in the little office.
Caedmon grabbed her, but she couldn’t be held still. “You can’t be sure this was an Ethesus job,” he said. “I talked to Nathan—”
“It was him,” she growled. “Do you know how badly they want to host the summoning?”
“You can’t rule out the possibility that there’s another adversary—or maybe even two. Those who will just sit tight and wait for Amaraq and Ethesus to destroy each other. If you behave like this, you’re doing them a favor.”
“I don’t care what they want. A bunch of cowards ambushed an old man. If they killed Pukak, I’ll tear them to bits…”