by Kylie Chan
‘No problem. Your other fighter going to be okay?’
‘Yeah, just a training injury. He’ll be fine.’
‘Glad I could help. Thanks for the chance.’
‘Any time. Dunno what I’d do without ya.’ He handed over an envelope and slapped Alex heavily on the shoulder.
‘You still want me in next week?’ Alex asked.
‘Ah, give it two weeks.’
‘Sure. But I’m going to fight in London next month. Might stop in LA on the way back.’
‘Don’t be out of Sydney too long.’ Gary turned, nodded at the old man before slipping back out the door, yelling to someone down the hallway. Alex held up the envelope with a half-smile.
‘Is it as good as the mainstream prizes?’ the old man asked.
‘I get by.’
‘Which brings us back to my original point.’
Alex leaned back against the wall, annoyed. ‘Which is?’
‘I know your secret.’
‘Right. So what secret is that?’
‘I see what you see. Not nearly so well, I think, but I see it.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Patrick Welby, by the way.’ The Englishman extended a hand.
‘Alex Caine.’ He shook the man’s hand, noticed manicured nails and very soft skin. He did his best to be polite, but wondered why he was bothering.
‘I know. It took me a while to find you. These dos are a bit hard to track down.’
Alex ran out of patience. ‘That’s kinda the idea. Listen, I don’t have time for chitchat.’ He gestured at the door.
Welby’s shades became urgent. ‘You fight for money, away from the limelight, you live quietly in the country and have very little interaction with anyone.’
‘So?’ Alex said, hiding his concern at the extent of the stranger’s knowledge.
‘Am I right?’
‘I trained to fight and never really had much interest in anything else. I don’t play well with others.’ He gestured at the door again. ‘Now, out.’
The old man held up both hands. ‘Please. I’ve been seeking someone like you for a long time.’
Alex pushed down his anger, but let it burn gently below the surface. This old man bothered him. ‘Someone like me?’
Welby took a long breath. ‘I know that when you fight you see what people intend to do before they do it.’
Alex raised one eyebrow, spooked. ‘Is that right?’
He had never really been able to explain his abilities, even to himself. He sensed a change in the shade of the air around a person, a sensation most similar to vision, but not something he actually saw. Sometimes that sense would blossom into waves of colour at powerful moments. He could read it and know what people intended to do. In the scenario of a fight it became particularly clear, less so in other aspects of life. ‘I’ve been told I was born for fighting,’ Alex said. The old pang of grief cut through as he remembered his Sifu’s words.
Welby’s face was sympathetic. ‘Is that why you don’t play well with others?’
Alex shrugged. ‘The more you get to know someone the easier they are to read. Sometimes it’s better not to know.’ He cleared his throat. ‘You need to leave, now. I’ve got nothing for you.’
Welby’s shades became agitated again. ‘You can’t go on making a living like this forever.’
Alex moved to the door. ‘My house is paid for and I don’t get hit often. You have no idea what I can or can’t do.’
‘But I can show you so much more, help you understand yourself.’
‘What’s in it for you?’ Alex asked.
Welby smiled broadly. ‘Good lad! Always the most important question. Well, I think that you’ll be able to read a book that I can’t, and I really want to know what this book says.’
‘That’s it?’
‘This particular book requires something special. I can pay you with knowledge you wouldn’t find anywhere else, or money if you’d prefer. Or both.’
Alex stared long and hard at Patrick Welby. Something was certainly being held back, but it was unclear. ‘No, man, sorry.’
Welby frowned. ‘I can show you wonders. There are things you should know.’
‘I don’t need any complications.’ He held the door open.
The old man reluctantly stepped out. ‘You like to stay in control, don’t you?’
‘Who doesn’t? I just make sure of it.’
‘You’ll lose that control.’
Alex hardened his expression. ‘That a threat?’
‘No. Just knowledge.’ Welby’s shades fluctuated between defeat and hope. And something else fluttered like a dark moth, unreadable. ‘If you change your mind …’
‘I won’t.’ Alex closed the door, alone at last.
2
Alex walked along a dim alley, heading for the main street and a taxi to his hotel. He always treated himself to a fancy suite after a fight, a good room-service feed and a big bed. The two-hour drive home in the morning was easier that way. Two silhouettes stepped into his path, one large, one small. They held long heavy weapons, bats or bars of some kind. Alex sighed. This is getting old.
‘Piss off, you monkeys!’ he shouted. ‘I don’t work for anyone.’
‘The King thinks differently,’ Eugene called back. ‘You cost him a lot of money tonight.’
They faced each other, thirty metres apart. Alex read their shades, recognised the shifts and colours as nervous, especially the little one, Karl. But they both intended to do their boss’s bidding. There would be a fight here. Alex shrugged his sports bag off his shoulder, put it down out of the way. ‘Come on then,’ he said. ‘Bring it!’
The shades throbbed and swam around the men as they raised their weapons and rushed him. Baseball bats, he noted. These guys were gorillas, street thugs using intimidation and numbers to win fights. They were no threat at all, even with bats. As the gap closed, Alex danced between them, striking out as the bats whistled past. Two strikes each and it was over, the men squirming on the bitumen, groaning in pain.
A third man, not ten metres away, pointed a revolver. Alex cursed. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
‘You’re costing the King money, Caine. We can’t have that.’
Alex frowned. ‘Your king should start betting on me instead.’
‘Doesn’t work like that. He controls. You’ll work for him. Or you’ll die.’
Alex vaguely registered a car slowing at the mouth of the alley. ‘I don’t work for anyone.’
The man gestured with his gun. ‘You are in no position to negotiate. Come with us now or I kill you right here.’
Alex tried to figure the best angle to move. The man knew what he was doing, positioned close enough that he would be unlikely to miss, far enough away that he would be hard to reach without getting a shot off. Alex centred his breath, about to launch forward, and a bright orange glow erupted over the man’s shoulder. He yelped as flames licked the side of his face. He frantically tried to beat at his back, Alex and the gun forgotten. Alex rushed, wondering if more guns were trained on him from the car parked at the end of the alley. How the hell did he catch alight?
The man dropped and rolled, trying to smother the flames, and Alex leapt over him. He skidded to a halt when he saw Patrick Welby’s face smiling through the window of the car. ‘Need a ride?’ the old man called out as he pushed the passenger door open.
Alex jumped in and Welby peeled away as the man with the gun staggered, smoking, to his feet. A concussive crack followed them as he squeezed off a shot.
‘What was that?’ Alex said angrily.
‘Looked like you were about to be shot.’ Welby’s hands were steady on the wheel, a slight smile played about his lips.
Alex scowled. ‘I don’t fucking need your help.’
Welby said nothing and they drove in silence. Alex thought over the events. Why was nothing ever simple? Always someone trying to get a bite of your pie. The image of the flames bursting across the gunman’s back
returned. Welby slowed for a red light. ‘How did you do it?’ Alex asked.
‘Do what?’
‘You know fucking well what.’ He caught his breath, catching his anger with it. ‘Did you throw a petrol bomb at him or something?’
‘Never so ham-fisted.’
‘So how?’
‘I simply threw fire at him.’
‘Threw fire?’
‘Can I buy you a drink?’ Welby asked. ‘I’d really like to talk with you some more.’
Alex felt his world spinning, his control slipping away. He refused to let other people dictate his life. ‘No, you can’t. Just take me to my hotel. I’m at the Four Seasons.’
Welby lifted a hand from the wheel, wagging one index finger at Alex. ‘How many people have you told about your … ability? The things you can see?’
‘My life has nothing to do with you, Welby.’ Alex’s anger burned. ‘Stop the fucking car, I’m done here.’
‘I can help you!’ Welby said, desperation in his tone. ‘You don’t owe me anything, but at least talk to me until I get you to your hotel. Please? How many people have you told?’
Alex ground his teeth. There was no point in denying the obvious. ‘None really.’
‘Why?’
He saw where the old man was heading with this. ‘Because in the first instance it’s very hard to explain and in the second, it’s unlikely anyone would believe me.’
‘And why wouldn’t they believe you?’
‘Because it’s a hard thing to prove.’
Welby grinned. ‘Exactly. But who has the better understanding of reality? You? Or them?’
Alex chose not to answer. Rhetorical question. Let him blather on, he didn’t really care. He wanted to be in his hotel room, alone.
Patrick Welby said nothing for a few blocks. Then, ‘Your talent could be far better. If you can see as you do, that means you have the ability to do all kinds of other things most people would consider supernatural. Magical. You just need to know how.’
Alex smirked. ‘Magical? I’m an open-minded guy, I know most people wouldn’t believe me about what I can see, but it’s not magic.’
‘Isn’t it?’
‘Mine is just a well-developed natural aptitude,’ he said. ‘Empathy.’
‘Why do you resist the truth?’
‘Resist?’
Welby pulled the car over to the kerb. They were nowhere near the hotel. ‘What are you doing?’ Alex asked.
Welby took a bottle of water from the back seat. ‘I want to show you something.’
He unscrewed the cap and raised his right hand before his chest, palm out, holding the bottle in his left. Alex watched the old man’s hand curiously. Welby gestured subtly with his chin, drawing Alex’s eye to the bottle. A sensation of static rose, coppery, tickling across the skin. The air seemed to swell slightly and he saw subtle shades shifting through the space between himself and Welby. The water shivered. Then it rose in the centre, a finger of clear liquid standing up through the bottleneck against gravity.
Alex jumped like he’d been stung. Welby curled his fingers slightly and the column of standing water twisted in a graceful spiral, glittering in the light from the dashboard. Welby gestured again and the spiral of water unwound, stood taller, and fell back with a soft splash. Alex stared, his eyes hard.
‘You felt it too, didn’t you?’ Patrick Welby said quietly. ‘You didn’t just see it, you felt the magic.’
Welby was patient as Alex pondered. Some kind of trickery? He had been less than two feet away and watched everything in crystal clarity. He had felt the swell of something in the air between them, the charge of something preternatural occurring. And he knew he had felt it before. Fucking magic? Really?
Welby screwed the cap onto the bottle. ‘I realise all this is a lot to take in, but you really deserve to know the potential you have. It deserves to be nurtured.’
Alex pursed his lips. ‘And you want me to look at this book,’ he said.
‘You use your vision in a very practical way. I’m aware of my limitations. I think you’ll be able to see what I can’t.’
‘What’s so special about this book?’
‘There are many in the world that are powerful. The contained knowledge makes any book a magical item. Do you like to read?’
‘Yes.’
‘Some books are designed to be specifically magical. Grimoires that impart arcane knowledge, ancient secrets, dangerous truths that men have killed and died for.’ Welby reached into his jacket and pulled out a small, leatherbound tome. It looked like an extra-thick address book, but for the weathered age of its cover and the edges of its pages. As soon as Alex saw it, he knew it was something infused with more than the leather and paper and twine of its construction. ‘You can feel it, can’t you?’ Welby said. ‘Already you’re learning. Just by knowing there is more to know, you are improving.’
Alex said nothing. He saw slight shifts in the shades around the small book. If he concentrated, he could see them gently moving up over Welby’s hand, up his arm and sleeve, like questing tendrils of translucent smoke. As if the book not only had some kind of power, but the power itself had a presence. A simple sentience that sought its own experience.
‘This is a potent little item,’ Welby said. ‘It contains secrets of the elements, of air, water, earth, fire. It teaches methods of drawing on those elements. There’s some commanding knowledge in here, more than the trickery I just demonstrated.’ He reached out, offering it.
Alex didn’t move. ‘I’ll take your word for it.’
‘You don’t want to see? You don’t want the understanding?’
He was certainly curious. So much so that he physically ached to open it up and read. But the way the book’s magic slipped and slid around Welby’s hand gave him pause. ‘Can’t you see it?’ he asked tightly.
‘The magesign? Does it bother you?’
‘Is that what you call it?’
‘It has many names. Everything magical gives off ’Sign. That’s the name the ancient magi and wise men used. You could call it an aura or energy field or whatever you like.’
‘It’s like the way I see people, only so much clearer, more intense.’
‘Yes. Arcanes, magical folk, have an aura like a lighthouse on a dark night. The more powerful they become the brighter they shine, so they learn to mask themselves. That’s something you’ll need to do. You shine quite brightly. It’s something I can teach you.’
Now Alex knew why Welby’s shades seemed obscured. The old man masked himself. ‘It’s creeping around your hand. As if it’s trying to escape and climb up your arm.’
Welby cocked an eyebrow. ‘Is it?’ He looked down curiously. ‘You truly have a clarity of vision.’ He held out the book again. ‘Really, it’s harmless. Some ’Sign can carry dangerous energies, but that would be very obvious, especially to you.’
Alex took the book. It buzzed between his fingers, the magesign even clearer now he held it, swirling around lazily. But the sensation of sentience had passed. It seemed no more malevolent than the steam from a kettle, a simple by-product of the thing itself. His head ached as he tried to take everything in.
He flicked open the cover. The page was dense with tiny characters and diagrams, the writing unlike anything he had seen before. ‘This looks like a tough language to learn,’ he said, trying to discern the swirls and ellipses of the text, like a strange kind of Arabic or Sanskrit, complicated and beautiful. He read a line that poetically described the personality of water. With a start he looked up sharply.
The old man was pleased. ‘It’s an eldritch language. A magical language. Those with talent can learn to read it. I must say I’ve never seen anyone decipher one quite so quickly.’ Welby’s face was alight with an almost childlike joy. ‘You can hang on to that,’ he said through his mirth. ‘A token of my goodwill. It’s worth a fortune and it might teach you some useful skills.’
Alex closed the book, his heart racing. ‘This isn�
�t what you wanted me to look at?’
‘No, just an example. A way to show you the method of looking. I thought you might need a bit longer to get the idea but your skill is remarkable. What I need your help with is far older and more obscure. It’s about the oldest and most powerful book I’ve ever seen, but I can’t read it. No one I know can. The language is intricate and dense, something only someone with a rare clarity of vision could decipher. Which is why I’ve spent so long seeking someone like you.’ He sat back.
Alex’s curiosity burned. ‘All right. So you want me to look, and then what? Translate it for you? Do you have it with you?’
Welby shook his head, becoming serious. ‘No, I don’t. It’s not actually in my possession. It’s owned by … an acquaintance of mine. I’m hoping if I take you there to see it, and if you can read it, that he’ll sell it to me. Perhaps I’ll have to agree to share the information with him, I don’t know. I wanted to find someone capable of reading it first. Will you come with me?’
‘Where is it?’
‘A small place in London.’
‘London?’ Alex laughed. He held out Welby’s gift. ‘Take me to my hotel.’
Welby’s face fell. He pushed the book back. ‘Please, Alex. Aren’t you fighting soon in London anyway? I overheard you in your dressing room. You’re facing a bit of trouble here right now too. Perhaps a sojourn might be a good idea, till the heat’s off.’
‘The heat? This King Scarlet fool is going to continue hounding me. I can’t just run away.’
‘That man was prepared to shoot you. To kill you.’
‘But he wouldn’t have succeeded.’
Welby’s eyes narrowed. ‘Are you really so in control of everything around you?’
‘Yes, I fucking am. Take me to my hotel.’
Welby sighed. He pulled away from the kerb and they drove to the Four Seasons without speaking. Alex sensed the old man’s frustration. He felt sorry for him, but not enough to upend his life. Too much had happened tonight, way too fast, and he had his own problems. He had contacts. He needed to get home, make some calls, sort out this King Scarlet thing.