Magic and Mayhem: A Collection of 21 Fantasy Novels

by Jasmine Walt

  Seeing the misery on her face, he walks back to her, picks her up, and carries her into the tiny closet-like bedroom.

  After placing her on the bed, he covers her with the warm quilt. “Sleep.” He rests his hands over her eyes, fluttering her eyelids shut. “Sleep…”

  “But…” Exhaustion makes her eyelids heavy, but she manages to open them once before drifting off. His face hovers near hers, so close she could touch him if only the will to move hadn’t vanished from her limbs.

  He kisses her on the lips, taking her to the edge and back in just a few seconds.

  “You’ll see me again, I promise.”

  She is unable to protest as he leaves, vaguely hearing him as he completes his sentence under his breath “…perhaps in the next lifetime, then.”

  She closes her eyes and falls asleep

  All of this takes place just a few months before her seventeenth birthday. The weeks that follow are tough. The craving for more of his touch wars with her conscience, and she has to find a way of closing her story with Yudi. Yet what Egreog has shown her still echoes in her memory. The feeling of fusing into him and flowing across dimensions, across their different lifetimes together lives on. Could I dare believe what he showed me? Is this what I have been looking for? All those years of searching, and then he entered and slipped out of her life. She cannot understand why the series of coincidences brought them together only for him to walk out of her life.

  “Who are you, Egreog?” she wonders aloud. The question tears her apart, disturbing her so much that she searches in vain for an answer.

  One day, immersed in familiar unhappiness, she is walking near Pok Fu Lam—a strip of land used by the spaceships taking off from Java to the adjoining planet of Arkana. It is long, narrow, and well lit so that it can be seen for miles from space. Disregarding the spaceships landing and taking off, she walks to the very edge of the airstrip, which ends with a sharp drop into a valley. The pit is so deep that when she peers in, all she can see is a black expanse.

  This is it, then. She closes her eyes and wonders if she should step off the edge of the universe, and take the easy solution to her heart’s problems.

  When she opens her eyes, he is there. Her first sight of Mimir is how she will always remember him—floating in front of her, his white robes wavering behind him in the breeze, long white beard rippling, and a twinkle in his eyes, as if he is laughing inwardly at a personal joke.

  He holds out his gnarled right hand to her. “Surely you are not stupid enough to end your life over a love affair?”

  She wonders if she is going slightly crazy. “Actually, I was.”

  “Come with me, Tiina. There is better use to your life.”

  “Just like that? You’ll take me away from all this?”

  “I’ll take you away, but whether it will be easier than what you are leaving behind is up for debate.”

  “I know who you are. Mimir!”

  “Clever girl. You are the only one of my recruits who has recognised me to date.”

  “Isn’t it all a farce, though? This entire Academy of Half Lives thing.” Doubt crosses her mind as she recalls the billboard calling out to her. A place where she could hone her skills and be of use against Shaitan and other enemies seems far too perfect. “Is it?”

  “Find out for yourself.” When she hesitates, he prompts her. “What do you have left here, anyway? Give yourself a chance to discover your real future.”

  “Is this how you find your recruits? Those who have lost all hope to become broken pieces of life?”

  “I prefer to call them those who deserve a second chance.”

  It is still a mystery to her how he tracked her down her—a question she decides to ask Mimir at the appropriate time. For now, his explanation satisfies her and she nods.

  “What are we waiting for?” She places her hand in his and is pulled into a wormhole that transports them to Arkana.

  13

  Arkana, 3016

  Tiina reels from the sudden change in time and space. The journey to Arkana is a blur of images melding into each other. Home. Is this going to be home at last?

  It is a bright and sunny day when she walks through the front gates of the institute. “Academy of Half Lives,” the dull letters next to the gates declare.

  She is about to step over the threshold when a young man hails her.

  “Hello?” she says.

  There is something very familiar about him. He is tall, almost six-foot-four, she thinks, and is dressed all in black, his broad shoulders in a casual black vest worn over black leather trousers and on his feet he wears black boots. Thick dark hair frames a face with a determined square jaw. A wide smile reveals square, white teeth and reaches his eyes, making them twinkle. His eyes are not blue, not violet, but indigo. Indigo eyes with a devil may care twinkle in them. She knows him.

  It has to be him, and yet she has to ask, as if to be doubly sure, to hear it for herself.

  “Uh! Do I know you?”

  “I am Yudi.”

  “Yudi,” she says with a hesitant laugh. “You are…Yudi?”

  “Ah! That’s what I just said, didn’t I?”

  “You don’t really want to know my name…?”

  “Try me!”

  She puts her hand forward. “Um! Zara.” She bites her lip. It’s easy to lie.

  The sweetness of their final meeting is forever etched in her memory, married with the pain of having left her twin behind. She is not ready to reveal her name to him. Can he come back into my life, just like that? Slide right in as if nothing has happened in all those years?

  “Where are you from, Z?” He takes her hand, enclosing her fingers within his warm palm.

  Raising her eyebrows at the flippant way he has shortened her name, she says, “From a place far, far away.”

  “Well, Z from far, far away, let me buy you a drink before we head in there. God knows if they have alcohol in this place.”

  “Why not? A place filled with young people—surely they serve recreational drinks?”

  “Recreational drinks, eh? That is cute,” he says, and then adds, “You are cute.”

  “Uh!” Tiina swallows in discomfort. “You’re direct.” She tries to squeeze by him. “I’m in a hurry. I really do need to get on.”

  “Oh. Surely not. Z, come on. If not alcohol, then coffee. There’s nobody else here I’d rather be with than you!”

  “You’ll do anything to avoid going into the Academy, is that it?”

  “I came of my own free will, but school has never been my strong point.”

  He holds onto her hand as he speaks, looking into her eyes, his lips curved into a half-smile, while indigo eyes twinkle down at her, his hair ruffling just so in the slight breeze.

  “Come on… Just the one.”

  I am over the “love at first sight” thing, she reminds herself. And it is not lust…well, not just lust, either.

  There is an intense pull, however, an attraction and affinity and a strange sense of immediate trust, as if she has known him all her life. It does not seem to matter that it has been almost eight years since they last met; he still has a strange hold on her. All he has to do is look at her with his indigo eyes and just ask, and she could never refuse him.

  So, in pursuit of the dream she has kept alive for a lifetime, Tiina is a grown woman in pursuit of today being the first day of the rest of her life; Yudi, the reluctant hero, who is putting off the inevitable until the very last instant. The two of them get a coffee, which turns into two. They move onto a few drinks at the nightclub nearby. It is an evening that degenerates into an old-fashioned full-blown bender. Swept along on a tide of good feelings, the night reaches its inevitable climax as they make love under the night skies.

  Strange. A part of her almost observes their lovemaking in a dispassionate fashion. I didn’t think he would be so aggressive. It is as if he is taking everything I have, squeezing me of my last drops of energy, as if he is absorbing me completely.
So there is no more him. No more me. Is it possible to feel so close to a person and yet so separate?

  She takes the full brunt of his desire as he kisses the corners of her eyes, the centre of her lips, the stretch of her neck, the curve of her belly button, the dip of her thighs, the soft undersides of her feet. Then as if he can’t stop himself, he speeds up until he is touching her everywhere at once, absorbing her through every cell of his skin, sucking her very spirit, channeling it straight to his heart.

  She looks into his eyes as he plunges into her brutally, choking down the cry of pain escaping her lips, and feels the sweat trickling from his forehead to join the tears on her cheeks.

  He collapses, covering her, and lies his head in the crook of her neck. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to be that rough.”

  She tries to make light of the situation. “So all that lighthearted banter during the day was just foreplay? Beneath that smart, foolish exterior beats a heart, which is every bit as intense as Shaitan’s.”

  At her words, he jerks away and lies on his back next to her.

  “Sorry. That was meant to be a joke.”

  “Never joke about Shaitan with me.” The threat running through his voice barely masks his attempt at staying calm.

  For a few minutes, they lie quietly, his words casting a pale shadow over both of them. Tiina shivers, wondering just what kind of a man the young boy she knew has become. Then, he puts his right arm under her head, pillowing it, and after pulling her close, he kisses her forehead.

  Tiina closes her eyes and burrows against his chest. They stay still for what seems like a few minutes, but she realises must have been longer, for she dozes off, only to be woken when he finally asks, “How long are you going to keep up the pretence?”

  Still dazed by the events of the day, Tiina shifts. She does not want to open her eyes in case all this is a dream. “What do you mean?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  Finally, she opens her eyes and joins him in gazing at the heavens. “It is gone, you know. I’ve looked for it many nights.”

  “Ka Surya. So far, yet so near.”

  “It will always be in our hearts.” She turns to him and rests her palm on his heart.

  “No…,” he says, smiling when she looks at him in surprise. “You know, there is only space for you here.”

  “When did you know?”

  “As soon as I saw you. Did you really think I would not know you, Tiina? Many nights I have gone to sleep with the touch of your lips on mine.” He bends over and kisses her. “And how could I forget this?”

  Much to her shock and amusement, he smells her neck.

  “That’s what I missed the most.”

  “We meet after all these years and all you can say is you missed how I smell?” she asks, not sure if she should be flattered or indignant.

  “Ah! But it’s so potent, so uniquely you, something I never thought I would smell again.” He sniffs her once more. “If I were to bottle it and sell it, I would become very rich.”

  She laughs until tears come to her eyes.

  “I missed that, too.”

  “What?” She chortles, wiping her eyes.

  “That full belly laugh of yours.”

  “You have a good memory.”

  Seriousness returns to his tone. “Why did you lie to me?”

  Tiina unwraps herself from him, putting distance between them. “I just couldn’t, Yudi. How could I, when every time I look at you, I still see her?”

  “Maya.”

  She nods, unable to say her sister’s name aloud.

  He turns to the skies. “Maybe she is out there somewhere.”

  “Maybe.”

  He puts his arms around her, drawing her into his embrace again.

  The two of them came together immediately, again, she notes. Yet, she has changed so much in the last few years. Their attitudes to life are now remarkably different. She wonders if he notices the changes in her. No longer is she the carefree ten-year-old he had known. In place of the girl, he would find a sober, more focused, more meticulous, sixteen-year-old, or at least, she imagined that is how he found her. More boring, a voice within her whispers.

  Yudi has weathered the years better. Always lighthearted, he has turned out to be one of those gifted people with a natural ability for many tasks and is always happy-go-lucky.

  Then there is me, she thinks. Average abilities, perhaps even good at a few things. Yet there is not one specific attribute, no specific trait, at which I excel. Except perhaps…swordplay?

  Nothing about her truly stands out, but all of this makes her fiercely determined to keep moving, to find something that truly inspires. What she does not realise is that it is this drive to make a difference that makes her stand out.

  The first few months at the Academy are, for Tiina, the best days of her life. Yudi balances out her intensity. The strange tone of their first encounter is forgotten as his easygoing attitude and happiness for the small things in life become infectious. Everyone around him seems to love him.

  It is something Tiina envies. In comparison, she feels cynical, used up, wise beyond her years. Unlike her, he makes friends quickly; indeed, he revels in the closeness of others. For once in her life, thanks to Yudi, Tiina is in the company of those she likes. It is a new sensation of belonging.

  14

  Rai’s Journey: Bombay, 3016

  After Thalia died at the hands of Shaitan, Rai is lucky enough to be taken in by one of the few surviving orphanages in Bombay. Over the next few years, he learns to beg, borrow, and steal his way to adulthood. Sometimes, he wonders about the medallion he wears around his neck, and often comes close to selling it to eat for a while. If he knew how much it could really fetch on the market, he may have sold it even faster.

  Yet, in some recess of his mind, a faint memory pulls, declaring it to be a token from his mother. Below that veneer of street smarts lurks a soft heart after all, one which would get him into trouble many times over the years. So, on some level Rai realises that it is the only tenuous link he would ever have to his past, and decides to keep it. Tiring of yet another attempt when someone had tried to steal it though, he had made sure it always stays hidden among his clothes.

  Over the years, the necklace became as much a part of him as his eyes, until he forgot about its existence, and he becomes too busy trying to survive to worry about his origins.

  As soon as he turns fifteen, he fulfils the one desire he had always had—to see the world. He runs away from the orphanage without a backward glance. After stowing away on ships, intercity jets, trains, buses—any moving vehicle he can find—he finally makes it to the hot deserts of Rajasthan, a once beautiful and historic part of the country now razed to the ground by Shaitan.

  There, he first experiences a true awakening of the senses when Gerald takes him in his arms in the midst of the desert and shows him the honest, sweaty emotion of healthy male lust. Rai stays to lead many tours around the region, navigating through the spirits of those slaughtered by Shaitan, searching the skies above the ruins of the Taj Mahal, among the living dead of Agra.

  After a year of wandering, Rai comes full circle and is back in Bombay.

  All through the ninetieth and the twentieth century, the city had grown unchecked to become a gigantic megalopolis, among the world’s alpha cities. It was one of the most populous urban areas in the galaxy and among the richest. Bombay’s growth had continued unabated until it was proclaimed as the commercial and entertainment capital of the universe. Then it was razed. For once, Shaitan was not the culprit.

  Nature had taken its revenge for the centuries of greed, which had turned the city into the centre of corruption and commerce. In the year 2930, a giant tsunami had come out of nowhere and drowned Bombay. When the waters receded, there was no more maximum city. All that remained was Bombay as it had been at birth—a virgin city made of seven separate islands.

  When Shaitan’s conquering footsteps reached the city, there had
not been much for him to destroy, and so he had moved to Ka Surya, leaving the remains of the islands to grow and flourish.

  The temple of the Goddess Mumbadevi, after whom the city was named, emerged unscathed from the tsunami, igniting a deep faith in the survivors. They also believed she had prevented Shaitan from further destroying the city. In tribute to her, the Bombayites simulated the holographic image of the humanoid goddess—the patron of the salt collectors and kolis, the fisher-folk, who were the original inhabitants of the seven islands of Bombay. They came to her, calling her the Great Mother. Many who came chose to stay and the city grew once more.

  The tsunami had also wiped away all the filth from its once crowded, dirty beaches, leaving miles of pristine coastline where children could frolic and music lovers could dance under the watchful eye of the full moon until dawn. The city also became a magnet for DJs from around the universe to come and play their best; for them it was about finding their faith by playing from the heart. It seemed as if in this avatar, the soul of the city was about finding oneself, and it could be through prayer or through pleasure.

  Perhaps it is this that Rai understands, for even as he sets foot in Bombay once more, he senses the heart of the city beats for him and him alone. It is a place that consumes him, lives through him, drives him to struggle toward hopes and dreams he might never have achieved elsewhere. Here he will find the pinnacle of his life, where he will meet his love and perhaps lose trust, but he is ready to risk that, for the city excites him. It makes him breathless, as if something monumental is just about to happen. Here, he can be himself—no inhibition, nothing weighing him down.

  The city welcomes him with open arms. On arriving in Bombay, it takes him less than a week to find an apartment on the most happening of all the islands—Colaba. Soon, the highlight of Rai’s life is the Saturday night rave parties held on Colaba beach, where the once magnificent structure of the Gateway of India now lies reduced to a ruined arch by the tsunami. It provides a great backdrop for weekend celebrations. Surreal by moonlight, the techno beats bouncing off the structure and the laser beams lighting it up cause people from all over the country to come and dance on the sand.