Pursuit: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 4)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “So you’re Masataka Mawara,” I said, taking another sip of tea. “I’m not really impressed.”

  Masataka Mawara’s eyes opened just the barest fraction of an inch in surprise before he bowed, a huge grin on his face. “Sorry, Hyas Tyee,” he said.

  “How do you expect me to train someone like you?” I asked, standing and walking over to him. “You’re a royal. We don’t train royals in the fighting forces.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “My father is allowing it because I’m second in line.”

  “Mitsoumi could still be killed. If that happens there won’t be an heir if you are killed too. I won’t be responsible for that,” I said, circling around him like a stalking wolf. If he wasn’t a royal, he would be a good student. Even now, I could sense his innate abilities.

  “I wouldn’t worry about Mitsoumi. Diana is going to train him. We are both to be trained… so that we aren’t killed,” he said, eyes still cast downward.

  “By Diana?” I asked, sliding up to him and grabbing him by the hair with my hand and forcing him to look at me. “Why her?”

  “That is who he has chosen,” Masataka said. “I have chosen you.”

  “Why me?” I asked, putting the tea cup down so that I wouldn’t throw it across the room. I was being chosen by the second son while Diana got the eldest? That was sort of insulting.

  “Because you are the strongest in Lot,” Masataka Mawara replied.

  “The rankings would disagree with you. Reality would disagree with you.” I released his hair and his head jerked forward like a bobble-head. “Go have Kain train you.”

  “Kain is already teaching someone. He cannot have two trainees.”

  “Lies. Both Quentin and I were trained by Diana simultaneously,” I said. “You’re a royal, go break some rules.”

  “Dirge, I want you,” he said, and his eyes were so deep that I felt like I was drowning in an ocean of teal. “I’ve always only wanted you.”

  That’s when he reached out, wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me close to him. Everything around me lurched to the side and bombs started going off between my ears.

  “What… what are you doing?” I asked, stepping back and trying to push him off.

  His body stiffened, growing wooden beneath my fingers as he looked up at me, the elation melting into rage in the space of a second.

  “I almost forgot,” he said, shaking his head. “For a moment… it was almost like you were her.”

  “Like I was who?” I asked as he stepped back and drummed his fingers on the wooden table’s edge. Thump. Thump. Thump.

  “Like you were Dirge Meilan,” he growled and smacked his forehead with the heel of his hand.

  “I’m not Dirge Meilan?” I asked, confusion welling up inside me and making me feel sick. “You said I was Dirge Meilan a minute ago.”

  “You’re not,” he said. “I was just trying to pretend.” He sighed again. “Just for a moment, I wanted to pretend she was back.”

  “Okay…” I replied. “What the hell is going on?”

  “What’s going on is that this is all in your head while we string you up in the execution fields. What’s going on is you’re a cheap copy,” he growled, shoving me hard.

  I stumbled, falling backward and smacking my head on the floor. My vision went hazy around the edges as he reached out and grabbed the overcoat with one hand, tearing it free of my body in a shriek of ripping fabric. I lay there, trying to cover myself as he turned and flung the wooden table at the wall. It smashed against the white stone and broke to a million pieces.

  “Get me out of here,” he snapped. “Now!”

  The scene shattered into a million billion pieces of fragmented starlight. I shut my eyes against the glare of it, but it was so bright behind my eyelids that I could feel my eyeballs melting. I shut my eyes, trying to keep the glare from overpowering me.

  “It’s too bright,” I cried, but my voice came out muffled so it was more like “Mmmph.”

  “So you’re awake,” my mother said, and her voice sounded strangely close to my ear. “You can’t see because the sun is right in your face.”

  I tilted my head toward her and felt some of the glare ease away. I cracked one eyelid and looked through my lashes. All I could see was black dirt. Well, that was helpful.

  “What the hell is going on?” I said, but again it was muffled. I screamed in frustration, balling my hands into fists.

  “Don’t strain yourself, my daughter,” my father said from my other side, his voice raw and strained. I craned my head toward him, but it was too bright.

  “She better damn well strain herself!” my mother snapped. “Lillim, we need to get out of here before the rituals begin. Once those idiots get up here with their stone knives and canopic jars, we’re pretty much screwed.”

  “Diana… we’re bound to a totem pole, and we shouldn’t use our magic in the killing fields. It’s why Masataka has brought us here,” my father said, weariness etched into his voice. They’d clearly had this conversation already.

  “I’m tired of hearing you say that, Sabastin. You are a Hyas Tyee, act like one,” she snapped. “Lillim, you know how the bindings in the killing fields work, right?”

  I nodded because whatever was in my mouth was keeping me from speaking. The killing fields were designed to draw out a Dioscuri’s life force. Typically, Dioscuri were chained to a huge wooden post in the center of the fields. Then, the more magic a Dioscuri used trying to free himself, the faster the totems would suck the life out of him.

  “All things have limits,” my mom said. “We’re three pretty powerful people. Maybe if we all unleash our magic at once, we can disrupt the bonds and escape.”

  “What you’re saying is impossible, Diana. We’ve gone over this before. All we would do is hasten our deaths,” my father replied.

  “We have to try something, Sabastin!” my mother snarled. “We can’t just sit out here and wait to die.”

  “Someone will come save us,” Sabastin said, but he didn’t sound very hopeful.

  “No one is coming, Sabastin. Everyone is in the dungeon, dead, or hiding. If we are going to get free of these chains, we need to do it ourselves.” My mother reached out and grabbed my hand as she spoke, and the feel of her was strange, like a slowly cooling piece of steak.

  “Okay, Diana… let’s try,” my father murmured. “I love you.” He seized my hand a moment later. “Lillim, I love you too.”

  “I love you both, too,” my mom said and with those words I felt a blush spread across my cheeks as they squeezed my hands simultaneously.

  Their power flared then, igniting next to me like twin solar flares. The sky above us crackled, thunder booming like a cosmic bowling alley. The glare that had been assaulting me the entire time vanished, and I opened my eyes. Storm clouds roiled above us and lightning flashed across the sky.

  My mother was battered and bruised, blood seeping from a huge cut above her left eye. It slid down her face, collecting at her chin and dripping off to spatter on the ground. Her eyes were shut in concentration as her power leapt up and up and up.

  My father grunted, and I swung my head toward him. His skin was glowing with silver-blue energy. It licked across his skin like churning steam.

  I swallowed, shutting my eyes, and instead of flaring my power out like my parents, which may have had something to do with me not knowing how, I let go. I exhaled, releasing my magic along with the breath. It flowed out of me like warm rain cascading down my back and into my parents.

  They gasped in unison, hands squeezing mine even harder. My eyes opened as a flash of lightning tore the sky asunder, ripping the horizon into a thousand shades of twilight.

  Behind that sky, purple energy pulsed, breathing in the space like a living thing. The smell of maple leaves and roses filled the air as a giant lavender eye popped into existence in front of us. The iris went pinprick small in an instant as though it had suddenly been exposed to bright light. My father gasped. His p
ower surged like a rocket breaking free of the ground and surging into the sky above.

  “Dyeus… you’re here,” my father murmured, his voice filled with awe.

  “Sabastin,” it said and its voice was a thousand swirling tornados whipping through the air. “Why have you called me forth?”

  My father blinked once and his hand tightened around mine. “Sky Father, my family is in trouble. We need your help to get free. We need your help to break our bonds.”

  Dyeus seemed to consider this, and as he did so, lightning flicked through the air, striking the ground around us and turning the sand to molten glass.

  “Sabastin, raise Storm Heart to the sky. Call me forth and I shall aid you.” Dyeus spoke, and it was a hurricane given voice.

  My father tensed next to me, currents of electricity arcing through his hair as he raised our hands as much as he could.

  “Storm Heart has been taken, but I raise my family Dyeus. They are my strength,” my father said, and despite my situation, I felt a blush spread across my cheeks.

  Laughter echoed across the killing plains like the calm before a storm. Then thunder boomed, cracking across the sky as lightning snapped through the air. It struck the totem, and the wood grew so hot on my back, I screamed.

  The totem shattered into a billion arcs of blue-white electricity, and the three of us tumbled to the dirt. The bindings around our bodies smoked and writhed like serpents, coiling around us in an instant and cinching us together.

  “What is this?” the voice of the wind sang in my ears, reminding me of morning dew and springtime. I spun my head toward it, and my jaw very nearly dropped and hit the floor.

  A feathered serpent the size of Godzilla stood there preening itself with its golden beak like an exotic bird. Feathers all the colors of the rainbow glittered on its body like effervescent gemstones. Its body coiled ever upward, looming over us in the storm-hewn sky, giant head cocked toward my mother. Its black eyes glinted as its head snaked downward and nuzzled my mother like a huge cat.

  “What is this, Diana Cortez?” it asked, revealing a mouthful of jagged man-sized teeth. “Who has bound you?”

  “So you’ve come out at last, Quetzalcoatl?” my mother asked, her voice half-annoyed, half-amused. “Didn’t want Dyeus to hog the spotlight?”

  The serpent sulked for a moment, tongue flicking out to taste the air. “No,” it said.

  Laughter rippled across the landscape as the huge eye of Dyeus glanced at Quetzalcoatl and seemed to smirk. Which I can’t even begin to describe because it was weird. I mean, how does a giant, disembodied eyeball smirk?

  Quetzalcoatl flicked its enormous black tongue again, and the bindings vanished a heartbeat later. “How is that?” it boomed in a way that reminded me of a pretentious rooster.

  “It’s a start,” my mother scoffed, glancing from the giant serpent to Dyeus and back again.

  “Diana,” my father said, and his voice was low and chastising. “Say thank you.”

  “For what?” My mother snapped. “I’ve been trying to get featherbag to help all day, and he comes out now? After you summoned your god?”

  “I am not a jealous god,” Quetzalcoatl said, and the wind around us howled. “I was busy.”

  “With what? Painting your nails?” Diana snarled, stamping her foot. “I needed you!”

  “I’m here now. What would you have me do?” the giant serpent god replied, hanging his head slightly. Which was crazy, right? Had my mom seriously just browbeat a god? Had that really just happened?

  My mother’s face dropped into cold detachment as she stepped in front of me, shielding me behind her body. “Kill Masataka Mawara,” she commanded, pointing into the distance.

  A tremor rippled down Quetzalcoatl’s body as its immense bulk swiveled toward the bridge that led from the walled city of Lot to the killing fields. I craned my head around my mother and that’s when I saw him.

  Masataka was striding forward across the silver bridge and while there was no one else with him, it felt like he was bringing an army. His Vajra surged over his body like a swarm of gooey ants. The royal medallion burned so brightly around his neck that it was like a miniature sun. His trident was in his hand, the brown metal glowing with inner light.

  Quetzalcoatl turned back to my mother and shook its huge head, “I cannot kill him,” it paused, glancing at Dyeus. “The Sky Father cannot stand against him, either.”

  “And why is that?” my mother growled. “You’re plenty strong.”

  “Because Gaia will not let them interfere,” Masataka said, and even from several hundred yards away, it sounded like he was right next to me. “You’re strong, Diana. I won’t try to argue that, especially since the three of you actually overpowered one of our totems.” I saw him gesture at the various totems that littered the killing fields. “I guess I owe Warthor five bucks. He had said it was technically possible. But seriously, how was I to know you could call on Dyeus and Quetzalcoatl? How’d you find those spirits? Did you just flip through a book looking for storm gods and point at two of the big ones and say ‘I want that them?’”

  “You know that isn’t how it works,” my father said. “The spirits pick us, not the other way around.”

  “Sometimes,” Masataka replied, stepping off the bridge and onto the killing fields. He was only a few yards away now, and he shifted his gaze to me. “But not always.”

  “Sabastin, what will you have me do? My time in your reality is fading quickly,” Dyeus rumbled, blinking at my father.

  “As is mine,” Quetzalcoatl added, glancing from Dyeus to my mother. “But I can last longer than him.”

  “Return,” my mother said, holding her palms out in front of her body. “Return to me Quetzalcoatl.”

  The giant serpent regarded her for a long time. “Very well, Diana,” it said before exploding into a million scintillating splinters of golden light. Like magic, my mother’s weapons formed in her hands. The bone handled whip and javelin glowed with inner light as she took a step forward and pointed them at Masataka.

  “If you take another step, Masataka, I will end you,” she said and the lightning tore through the darkening sky above us. “Go now and I won’t chase you. Go now and find some place to hide, and I will ignore you. I will not offer you this chance again.”

  Masataka stopped and looked down at the dirt in front of him. He looked back up and smiled, teeth glinting. Then he lifted one foot and took another step. He glanced at my mother and took another step. “Oops,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I didn’t quite catch that,” he said. “You were going to ‘end me’ now, right?” he asked and yawned.

  The wind howled, ripping through the horizon and flinging sand across the killing fields as my mother exploded forward. My mother slammed into Masataka like a bolt of lightning, flinging him backward across the dirt. He hit the ground and skidded several feet before coming to a stop.

  But my mother hadn’t stopped. She was still moving, and she leapt into the air, javelin raised above her head. She struck the dirt, burying the weapon halfway into the ground… but Masataka was gone. Just gone. He reappeared behind my mother and drove the spear-like end of his trident backward. It skewered my mother, tearing through her back and bursting out of her chest in a crimson spray.

  She staggered forward half a step before reaching down and grabbing the bloody edge of Masataka’s weapon. Her other hand shot upward and lightning exploded from the sky, slamming down on her hand and ripping through her body. It burst from the trident in a flash of energy so bright that I had to shield myself from it even though I was pretty far away.

  Masataka’s hand seized around his weapon, and his eyes went wide with shock as electricity arced through his body. My mother whirled, tearing the trident free of his hand as her whip lashed out, catching Masataka across the face. He grunted and fell to his knees in a splash of crimson, hands grasping the dirt.

  The ground beneath our feet rumbled, and my mother smirked, leaping into the air. Hurr
icane-like winds exploded into being, lifting her high above the killing fields. Boney wings tore from her back in a spray of black ichor. They caught the air and held her aloft. With an almost casual effort, my mother tore the trident free of her body and flung it away.

  “Go fetch,” she called and threw her hands outward. Lightning tore from the heavens and slammed into Masataka. He threw his arm up, catching the magic on his Vajra shielded arm. It glowed like a solar flare for a second and he pawed at the ground, smiling.

  “I forgot that you were a demon, Diana. For a moment, I forgot,” he said and his voice was loud even over the howling wind. “Soshi Kuruma!”

  Totems tore free of the ground all around us, spinning upward in the air. The totems began to glow with effervescent light, each with a different color as they formed into weapons of various shapes and types. Masataka reached out and plucked an immense golden longbow from the spinning armory. As he pulled the string back, blue lightning formed where the arrow should have been.

  “Die Storm God,” he said, launching the arrow at my mother.

  “Diana!” My father screamed as the arrow ripped apart in mid-air turning into two, then four, then eight arrows. Splitting and multiplying over and over until the sky was filled with arrows that chased after my mother like homing missiles.

  That was the moment my father snapped. He flung his hand out, and as he did so, the giant eye of Dyeus evaporated into mist. My father’s weapon Storm Heart flew through the air. It hit Masataka square in the back, pitching him forward into the dirt.

  My father jerked backward on the ribbons of his spear, and the hooks on the weapon dug into Masataka’s Vajra and flung him backward at my father. My father’s foot lashed out, passing through the spot Masataka had occupied only a second ago. Without thinking, I drove my left hand out.

  My fist caught Masataka in the side of the head and sent him sprawling to the dirt. “You just keep using that shadow step don’t you?” I said as my father shoved me behind him and twirled his spear in front of him like a baton. Electricity licked along the edge of the weapon, snapping and crackling through the air as my father flung the weapon forward in a wide arc.