Magic and Mayhem: A Collection of 21 Fantasy Novels

by Jasmine Walt

  The wind gusted, lessening the heat radiating up to them from Velminth. Other shapes prowled along the streets. Like an enormous wolf, its large ears flickered at each sound and bright eyes searched the night, scanning it with an uncommon intelligence. Massive jaws twitched and then one of them howled.

  Tan counted at least a dozen hounds along the streets. Some paced while others sat relaxed on their haunches. All looked aware. Waiting.

  Other figures moved quickly through the town as well. Darkly dressed, they moved almost nervously through the streets, careful to avoid the hounds. They swerved away from where Tan had seen the lisincend, though the shroud of the heat haze covered them.

  A large, squat structure cast long shadows near what had been the center of the town. It seemed slatted, like cage or a pen, and several hounds sat watching it. A few men paced around its perimeter.

  Clouds shifted overhead, letting in a silver shaft of moonlight. There were people caged within the structure.

  “Roine?” he whispered.

  “I see it.”

  “What is it?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  Tan turned to him, waiting. Roine looked back toward the cage and didn’t answer.

  A low whistle pierced the night. All the hounds suddenly stood, their stunted tails pointing straight behind them, ears perked. Each hound moved toward the square at the sound. One of the lisincend stalked over to the pen and motioned to a man standing guard, grabbing him roughly by the wrist when he didn’t move fast enough.

  The man swung open the gate. The people within crowded back and away from the open door and their captors. Someone shouted but he couldn’t make out anything of the words, only fear and screams like nothing he had ever heard.

  “You shouldn’t watch,” Roine cautioned.

  “Is this what happened in Nor?”

  Roine shook his head. “You saw Nor. What happened there was something else entirely, destroyed before there was a chance for this type of torture.”

  Two captors pulled a man from the cage. The lisincend seemed to watch, though with the heat veil Tan could not be entirely certain. The moonlight gleamed across his flesh and Tan saw dark tattoos twining around the man’s arms. Tan’s breath caught as he recognized him.

  “He’s Aeta!”

  The man kicked and punched at his captors as they dragged him out of the pen. Voices inside screamed, their cries filling the night. Suddenly, the man was thrown toward the open part of the square. Now free, he stood, looking around with uncertainty. The terror in his eyes was plain, even from a distance.

  He ran.

  A rumble followed him, loud and painful, the roar of a dozen Incendin hounds all growling at once. It was the sound of thunder. Tan cringed, unable to look away.

  As if one creature, the hounds throughout Velminth lunged. The Aeta never had a chance.

  He cried out as they caught him. The sound died in a flurry of eager howls. Blood exploded out from him as the dozen jaws latched onto him, tearing him apart.

  As Tan turned away, Roine watched him. “You were lucky to survive them,” he said.

  He remembered how the hounds had treed him. What would have happened had they not been scared away? Would he have suffered a similar fate?

  He looked back toward the center of Velminth, unable to help himself. If the wagon driver had survived, had others of the Aeta? Amia?

  And what of Nor? Could there be people he knew down in Velminth? Other survivors?

  His mother?

  Emotion overwhelmed him. “We need to help them.”

  Roine shook his head. “There is no help for them.”

  “Not if we do nothing,” Cobin said.

  He’d crept toward the edge of the rock. Bal rested back near the horses, not moving. Anger twisted Cobin’s face, an expression Tan had never seen from him.

  Roine shook his head. “I’ve faced one of the lisincend and barely survived. There are at least three lisincend down there. Anything we tried would only lead to our capture too.” He shook his head. “It would be best if we moved on. Hide for the night. Get Cobin and Bal away from here, down the mountains and to safety. Tan and I will keep going up. We need distance between us and the hounds.”

  Tan looked down at Velminth, staring at the barely visible shapes hidden in the cage. The sound of quiet whimpers penetrated the silence of the night. The hounds had finished their meal, leaving little of the Aeta other than a dark stain upon the ground. He couldn’t see the lisincend.

  Could he leave the rest of the Aeta to the same fate as the wagon driver? And if there were any survivors from Nor, could he just leave them?

  The answer was easy. His father would not have risked leaving anyone he knew and neither could Tan. “I have to try something.”

  “Even if all three of us did this, we couldn’t rescue those people from the hounds, let alone the lisincend. What you are suggesting is suicide.” He fixed Tan with a hard stare. “I have to get to the upper pass before Incendin. I can’t do that if I’m dead.” Thunder rolled in the distance, as if in emphasis.

  Tan imagined the Aeta trapped in the cage, perhaps Amia among them. Or his mother. He couldn’t live with himself if he did nothing. “We need to try. I’ve got my bow…all we need is a distraction.”

  Cobin placed a hand on his shoulder. “I will help.”

  “Cobin, Bal needs you.”

  A grim look tightened his mouth. “And them? If we do nothing, how do I explain that to her?” He looked from Tan to Roine. “Look, I can be a distraction. Make enough noise that I can draw them off. Bal will be safe.”

  “This is foolish—”

  Roine said it louder than intended and his voice carried into the quiet night. A low growl from one of the hounds answered.

  When the growling died away, Roine turned to both of them. “You can’t hope to rescue those people. Even with a dozen shapers, you couldn’t rescue them.”

  “They’re people,” Tan said.

  Roine looked at him with a pained expression. Tan could tell he wanted to help, but the desire to reach the mountain pass before Incendin—the lisincend and the hounds—weighed against him.

  Another scream from the pen made them all turn. Tan waited, anxious, as he wondered whether the lisincend would feed another Aeta to the hounds. When the sound died off, Roine turned to them.

  “If I agree to help, we will do this my way.”

  Roine looked at the town and the wind picked up again, revealing the lisincend briefly. Two stood near the edge of the town square. Another waited at the edge of town surrounded by several hounds. The rest of the hounds scattered through the town, prowling after the men not in the pen.

  “This will require two diversions. I will provide one.” He stopped and looked over to Cobin. “You will be the other. Take Bal. Head down the slope on horseback. Make some noise as you go, but get her to safety. You just need to distract them long enough for my diversion to be effective.” Roine turned to Tan. “Your role will be to sneak into town and open the cage. Once you do this, you run.”

  Cobin looked at Tan and then down into the town. “Tan and I should provide the diversions,” he said. “We know how to move in the forest and—”

  Roine cut him off. “My way.”

  Cobin watched Tan. “Can you do this?”

  What Roine asked was dangerous. Could he sneak into Velminth, all the way into the center of town, past the hounds and the lisincend, and release an unknown number of prisoners?

  But he had to try. He couldn’t simply leave these people to die as Roine suggested, not and live with himself later. Even thinking about it left him remembering his mother admonishing him.

  A howl erupted, breaking the quiet of the night. The sound was nearby and followed by a harsh throaty growl. The hounds in Velminth all stood, hackles up, and sniffed the air. Ears flicked and turned and their eyes stared into the night, piercing the darkness.

  “Great Mother,” Roine swore under his breath. “Go!
”

  Cobin scooped Bal off the ground. She moaned briefly.

  “Are you ready?” Roine asked.

  Cobin looked down at Bal. “Just get downhill?”

  “Make a little noise. I’ll do the rest.”

  “How will I know?”

  Roine smiled. “You’ll know.”

  The hounds began baying. They had been scented.

  Roine met Tan’s eyes. “Wait until the hounds leave. Then do what you can to save the people down there.”

  With that, he ran into the darkness, disappearing.

  Cobin watched him go. “Tan, if this doesn’t go well—”

  Tan didn’t look at his friend. “I have to try.”

  “Your pa would be proud.”

  Tan swallowed the thick lump in his throat. “Go. Get Bal to safety. I’ll find you when I can.”

  Cobin clapped him on the shoulder. “We’ll see each other again. I promise you that.”

  Tan turned away. He didn’t want Cobin to see him cry twice in one day.

  17

  Rescue

  The rocky slope overlooking Velminth was Tan’s safest option. He scrambled up the slope to reach the small stream, afraid to leave a scent the hounds could follow. The water was colder than it had been earlier in the day, and though his heart was beating wildly, the cold still startled him.

  Tan started down, moving carefully in the water, trying to keep his profile low. The farther he climbed, the more he realized it was unnecessary. The rocky slope quickly grew steeper and the stream moved through larger and larger boulders. Tan no longer worried about being seen but rather about being ambushed and caught unaware.

  Though he moved as quietly as he could, the howling of the hounds filled the night. Tan stayed hidden along the rocks as he crept lower, slowly moving his way toward the town.

  What kind of distraction should he expect from Roine? There hadn’t been time to discuss. How would he know when it was safe to move?

  Tan hunched behind smaller rocks. The braying sounded louder here. Tan kept himself tight against the rocks as he moved, inching his feet forward, fearing a rockslide with each step.

  Peering over the nearest stone, he was high enough that he stared down into town. Nothing moved along the streets. He saw no sign of the hounds. Or, more importantly, the lisincend.

  This close, the heat they radiated was a dry heat, powerful and caustic. His lungs ached as he breathed it in. What sort of distraction would be enough to draw them away?

  The distant howling intensified, as if cornering its prey. Then the ground started to shake.

  The rumbling started far up the slope, a slow shaking of the ground such that Tan had to steady himself on the nearest rock, and gradually intensified. A deep rumble came with it, vibrating his body. Tan had only once before experienced something like this and that was during a rockslide long ago. A few small rocks slid toward him from up the slope, but nothing larger.

  The shaking knocked Tan off of his feet.

  He tucked his head to his chest, trying to protect it during the fall, and rolled. When he stopped, he jumped to his feet. The baying hounds cried painfully before falling silent.

  Now Tan saw the lisincend clearly, as if the shaking ground disrupted the veil.

  It looked around, sniffing the air carefully. The men within Velminth cowered toward the protection of the buildings. A few looked ready to run, staring at the lisincend as if waiting for an opportunity. Finally the lisincend looked down the slope, toward the south, and slid down the road and out of sight. Toward Cobin and Bal. He prayed they would be fine.

  Tan moved down the rest of the slope, trying to use the still-sliding rocks as camouflage for any noise he might make. Then he reached the soft ground at the base of the rock.

  Tan followed the stream as it wound toward the Drestin. The stink of sulfur and heat filled his nose. Breathing through his mouth didn’t help much. As he reached one of the town’s streets, he snuck quickly along the muddy road, hurrying to a nearby building. The structure was squat and built of huge logs, and Tan pressed his back into the wood, hoping to blend into the shadows.

  Already he worried that he had been discovered. His heart pounded wildly and he strained to control his breathing. Any loud sound would give him away.

  But nothing moved in the night.

  Down in the town, the distance to the pen at the center of town seemed so far away. He moved from building to building, pressing against each as he passed. Constant fear of hounds and lisincend worked through him.

  It seemed to take an eternity as he moved through the town. Buildings that had seemed small now loomed large and imposing. Streets that had looked like straight conduits through town were no longer as certain.

  And then he saw the square. It was small, more of a grassy opening, a place for the weekly market and somewhere for the townsfolk to gather and conduct meetings, yet on this night and with the strange shadows over everything, it appeared immense.

  The cage stood at the center of the square. There was nothing exotic about it; it was constructed of simple stripped lumber and did not look as large as it had from above. People cowered toward the middle of the cage, fearful of getting too close to the open slats. The door opened on this side.

  The challenge now was getting to the cage.

  Two men made their way around the square, pacing with muted steps. Occasionally, they cast glances at the other or at the cage and the prisoners within. What would it take for someone to work with the lisincend? Fear would drive someone, he knew. But could there really be any sort of reward?

  Tan needed his own diversion. Any distraction would do, something to take the men out of the square. Roine couldn’t have planned for this, which meant he’d have to do it on his own.

  A sudden crack of lightning sizzled through the air so close it could have been over his shoulder. A clap of thunder followed, a deep rumbling that shook the building where he hid. The men standing within the square looked at each other nervously a moment, then the man closest to Tan walked across the square to the other.

  “It could be them,” one said. It was the man who had been closest to Tan. He was shorter than the other and his voice was pitched low.

  The other shook his head. “They left to check on the hounds.”

  “Not them.”

  “You think more?” His voice rose in a moment of fear.

  The shorter man shrugged. “Let’s pray it’s not. Perhaps they simply return.”

  “Great Mother!” He looked up the street in the direction of the last lightning strike. “We probably should check.”

  The men took off at a jog up the street. Tan waited until he couldn’t hear them before peeling away from the building to peer around the square, looking around and searching for signs of men, hounds, or worse—the lisincend.

  Nothing moved in town. More importantly, no heat radiated toward him.

  So he ran.

  Sprinting across the square, he looked around him, keeping his head low. Clouds had shifted, covering the moon and leaving everything in strange, twisting shadows. The run felt like it went on forever, but it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds until he reached the cage.

  Someone inside cried out and was quickly shushed. Tan looked between the slats at the people within and saw no more than ten, each wearing the bright colors of the Aeta. Their clothing was stained and covered with ash and mud, yet still unmistakable.

  He felt an overwhelming sense of sadness and disappointment. No survivors from Nor.

  “I’m here to help,” he whispered.

  “Who are you?”

  The voice carried more strength than Tan would have been able to muster under the same circumstances. “I’m from Nor. I’m Tan Minden.”

  “Son of Ephra?”

  He recognized the voice and the authority it carried. The Mother still lived. Could Amia as well? “Is this all of you?”

  “All that are left,” the Mother answered.

  Tan
shivered with the connotation, remembering the caravan of Aeta that had ridden into Nor only a few nights before. So many now lost. Fewer than lost in Nor, but lost just the same.

  A heavy iron lock hung on the door, but the rest of the cage and the door were wooden. If he could cut through the wood, he could free the captives. If only he had Cobin’s axe.

  The only thing he could find was a large rock laying half buried. He struck at the wood around the lock. He dented it, but the door suffered little other damage.

  There were cries within the cage and someone urged him to hurry. He struck harder upon the wood to no avail.

  Another crackle of lightning split the sky, briefly blinding him. Clouds seemed to have thickened. Rain would come next. Pressure began building in his ears again, as it had several times throughout the day. Tan ignored it, focusing on the door. Yet the pressure built to a painful level, getting worse with each strike on the wood.

  Still he did not stop. He could not stop.

  With a sudden explosion, the wood around the door shattered. Lightning burst in the distance and the pressure in his head was gone. Tan pulled the broken door open, leaving the lock in place. The Aeta stumbled out.

  “Six?” he asked, counting the Aeta as they left the cage. Amia was among them. She stared at him as she came through the door. “That is all who remain? Where are the rest of your people?”

  The Mother shook her head, a pained expression upon her face that quickly passed, replaced with a steely resolve. “Gone. As we should be.”

  There was no time to waste. If they made their way back toward the stream and up, they might hide their departure as long as possible. As they reached the edge of the square, a voice in the shadows stopped him.

  “I can’t let you do that.”

  Tan skidded to a stop. His heart beat rapidly.

  A dark shadow stepped forward from the street and Tan felt his stomach drop. His hand went for his hunting knife. He paused, the knife forgotten, as he recognized the person blocking his way.