Deep in a Romanian forest, King Wynn and his twelfth Jesnia alterni fought a crustacox herd stampeding from a rift. King Wynn slashed his sword and cut the tentacles from a hundred demon mouths, holding them back from a nearby village. Meanwhile, Jesnia used her castorca to draw on this world’s magic and cast the termino. Her spell tore the rift apart, cutting off the stampede inside. The demons trapped in our world found themselves cornered between king and alterni. The herd charged, but Jesnia cast a fire spell that surrounded the crustacox. She squeezed the fire ever tighter until the demons crushed each other in their attempts to stay clear. At the same time, King Wynn cast a lightning spell at the herd, and the shock killed most and forced others to flee into the fire.
That was King Wynn’s last alterni. They both lived into old age. Some alterni make it. King Dante only had two partners, and his second Elaine lived for another hundred years – helps that she was an elf. King John and his origini Allena got married and lived happily ever after. On the other hand…
Fast forward hundreds of years, and there were stories of Owen’s grandfather. Byron Lord had had twenty-two Reubens, and Esme had to agree that Byron was careless with their lives. The stories spoke of Byron’s bravery and skill, but he’d sought glory for himself rather than successful partnerships.
But, she reminded herself, then there’s Owen’s father. I see why Owen looked up to Daniel’s origini.
She smiled as she pictured a passage from this volume.
Trent Simons was a clever warrior. He spent hours studying each malevolenci species, seeking to understand their strengths and weaknesses. When the largest record of chiroptorx came through a rift, he lured the flock into a remote barn by piling dead rats (a chiroptorx delicacy) inside. King Daniel locked the flying beasts in the barn, and the king shouted war cries while tossing in a hand grenade. Not one chiroptorx made it out alive.
The very next day, Trent took advantage of the felicox fear of water and cast a rain spell to create a lake around an opening rift. The emerging felicox scrambled back from the rift and refused to invade. With the rift clear, King Daniel shot a missile into the demons’ world, and Trent drew the termino to collapse the rift before the explosion.
Esme slowed her pace on the treadmill.
No stories on Owen yet. Do they only publish a king’s book once he’s died? Seems that way. Roman must be writing things about each of my alterni now, but that’s not the kind of thing he’d be willing to show me. Oh, well. If I want to know anything, I can always ask Owen.
Everything she’d learned about the history of the Order was fascinating. The Chronicles of Kings spelled things out like a scientific study, reporting numbers and dates and methods of killing malevolenci. Roman seemed pleased when she’d made this observation. Ada was happy with her ability to memorize the weaknesses of each malevolenci species.
Esme frowned, nearly pouted.
They still won’t let me practice casting. It makes sense, I guess. This isn’t something they’re teaching me for fun. Most cavali have a hard time with simple hand spells, and even kings have struggled. The conjuri are the only ones capable of casting symbol spells. It takes most of them years of training, and that’s the level they’re expecting me to reach as soon as possible. Not just reach – surpass.
She grabbed her water bottle for a drink.
But I’m an alterni, and that’s supposed to give me an advantage – this world has magic only we outsiders can use. Can I master the alterni symbol spells? I’ve memorized how to draw the senso and the termino, but can I cast them using magic? What if I can’t make them work?
By the time she hopped off the treadmill and showered, the gym floor of the Capiti was silent. With the cavali gone, Esme tossed her bag over her shoulder and headed for the elevators. She looked at her watch – 11:46 p.m.
Part of my job is to be a night owl. I’m not tired yet. Guess I’ll go home and get in a few more hours of drawing.
As she rode the elevator to the sublevel garage where Thaddeus would be waiting, she adjusted her bag. She didn’t think Roman had seen her borrow the book on symbol spells. She already had a few burned into her memory, and she had notebooks at home filled with practice drawings.
Esme rubbed her thumb against the familiar callus on her drawing hand’s middle finger.
I’ve got the senso and termino spells down. Still, taking another look couldn’t hurt.
Along with secretly practicing the symbols, Esme had made mental notes of how Ada moved her fingers when showing Esme hand spells. The past few nights, Esme had stayed up late, replicating the hand moves and teaching herself small defensive spells. She couldn’t do anything magical yet – not without her castorca to strengthen her link to this world’s magic – but…
I keep making sparks off my casting hand. How is that possible? It’s a good sign for when I get my castorca and use the real thing. Hmm… Can I tap into this world’s magic already because my memory of spells is so accurate? Better not get cocky, though. I can’t screw this up.
She flexed the hand meant to wield magic and clutched the strap of her bag.
I have to prove to Roman and Ada that I’m ready to cast. Then hopefully it won’t be too many more weeks before they let me perform my final Order trial. Owen needs me in the field ASAP. I know they’re being careful with me and want me to be as prepared as possible, but-
The elevator dinged, and Esme pulled out of her thoughts. When the door opened, her eyes widened.
A row of cavali trucks was parked across from the elevator, and over two dozen cavali had unloaded from the trucks. The normally still, wide subterranean garage was abuzz with shouts, shuffling, and slamming truck doors. The cavali wore their standard black SWAT-like uniforms, but several were torn and muddy.
Three arguing men ran by the elevators.
“How did you miss that crustacox?”
“Your cameras were supposed to surveil the parking lot!”
“You stupid mutt, you set up the cameras in the first place!”
“Go hump a tree, nymph!”
A truck door slammed behind Esme, and she turned to see another group of three limping with less urgency toward the same door as the first trio. Their faces were pale and covered in scratches.
“Let us through!” a woman shouted.
Esme looked at the crowd loitering by the trucks. A woman with long brown braids and tattoos on her neck pushed a medical gurney through the parting crowd. Two cavali ran on either side, helping her direct the bed while shoving people aside. The patient was moaning and writhing in pain, and blood soaked the pad of the gurney where his left leg should’ve been.
They reached the elevator, and one of the men yelled at Esme, “Get out and give us room! We need to get him upstairs!”
Esme pulled herself together and tried to comply, but the gurney now blocked her exit. “I can’t-”
“By the gods, alterni! Are you completely useless?” shouted the other man. He stepped aside to give her space. “Out! Now!”
Esme squeezed by and almost fell. The cavali men didn’t spare her another word, and the woman push the gurney into the elevator.
One of the men cursed in a string of what she’d learned to be jinn. He said to his partner, “What’s more worthless than a novice?”
The other man sneered. “An alterni novice.”
This sounded like a well-rehearsed, familiar joke to them. Esme’s heart sank.
The elevator doors closed, and Esme was left with the cavali who hadn’t yet dispersed into the main building. Many had taken notice of her, and several glared.
“Esme,” said a deep voice behind her.
She started and spun to find Thaddeus looking down at her.
“We should go, miss. The king ordered me to find you and get you home. You don’t need to see this.”
Esme glanced back.
Don’t I? How many cavali died tonight? How many more will die before I’m ready? I have to move forward with my training! They can’
t protect me until I’m an expert – these cavali need me to close the rifts now. I’ll learn on the job.
She took a shaky breath and nodded at Thaddeus. He turned to lead the way to where he’d parked the car. As she followed, she adjusted the bag on her shoulder.
I won’t be getting any sleep now. I’ve got practicing to do.
Two weeks later, Esme had lost track of what day it was. All she knew was that she read in the morning, passed Ada’s quizzes in the afternoon, and practiced on her own at night.
Today was different, though. Ada had finally agreed Esme was ready to try her castorca.
Esme stood in the enormous magic lab and shuffled from foot to foot. The computers and other equipment along the side wall were unmanned, as Ada had suggested the techs clear the room while the alterni practiced. Esme and her teacher were alone, so at least there were no judgmental eyes. Instead, the malevolenci inhabitants of the metal and glass cages, which lined the other wall, were the source of Esme’s nervousness.
Her skin crawled as she looked at the enemy.
The gray-black smoke that shook off the demons as they moved was creepy enough. Then there were the chiroptorx, with long-beaked faces and bat-like, fibrous wings that flapped and beat against their confinement. Or the spindlox with their horrific bony legs. Or the crustacox with tentacles that sucked and left slime trails on the glass.
Esme gulped.
Knowing their names doesn’t make them any less terrifying.
She and Ada stood in the center of the open lab. Ada, ever in white robes, held a box with Esme’s castorca. This accessory consisted of a gold bracelet, a ring for each finger and her thumb, and chains that ran from the bracelet to each ring. The bracelet held a small red stone. This alterni stone was made from a mixture of her blood sample and sands from the original land of the Order. The stone apparently bonded her to this world enough to access its magic.
Esme had opted for comfort that morning, and her yoga pants and tank top didn’t exactly complement the extraordinary piece of magical jewelry. At least she didn’t have sleeves like Ada’s robes, so she could put on the castorca with ease.
Ada stood calmly, overseeing Esme’s application of the device. “Remember, our magic doesn’t work like the stories you heard as a child. We don’t cast with words. This world’s magic hangs in the air, always present but undetectable to the public.”
Esme nodded. “Like radio waves,” she remembered. “And the castorca allows me to play the waves like a harp if I know the right movements.”
“Precisely. It’s all in the movement of your hands.” Ada lifted an eyebrow behind her glasses. “Which, if your memory is as good as it’s proven to be thus far, you know better than half the conjuri.”
Esme smiled, trying to be equally confident.
“The symbols we create,” Ada added, “act to hold our spells once we’re no longer casting. These symbols continue to vibrate and pull magic. The vibrations fade over time, however, so we have to keep putting magic back into them to restart the vibrations.”
“Got it.”
Roman explained the summono. It depends on these magical vibrations more than any other spell. Sounds cool. They put sand from the Order’s original land in whichever world’s symbol they want to draw an alterni from. When he casts the summono, the sand vibrates as the magic connects with that symbol’s world. Then alterni pop into this world. If Roman wants to send an alterni back, he spells that symbol again so the vibrations work so hard they disintegrate the sand. Then those weird bubbles encapsulate that symbol’s alterni and – pop! – the alterni goes home. For those of us who stay, they clean up the sand and leave us here. If I want to go back, they’ll use new sand and pop me home-
“Are you ready?”
Esme snapped back to her surroundings. “Yes.”
“First, a barrio spell.”
Ada walked over to a small cage. A spindlox, one of the bony-legged demons, was running laps inside the cage. Ada lowered her hand and positioned it over the burned barrio symbol in front of this cage. She spread her fingers as if tossing chicken feed, causing the burned symbol to crackle and turn to ash on the floor. The bubble-like shield of the barrio spell crackled and dissolved. Ada next made a motion like she was screwing in a lightbulb, and the ash on the floor spun in a mini-whirlwind. Ada flicked her hand, and the ash flew into an open trash receptacle.
Like it’s nothing. Will I ever perform magic so casually?
A squeaking sound drew Esme’s attention back to Ada. The older woman was pulling the small cage to the middle of the lab. Once it was isolated, Ada brushed her hands together, turned her back on the cage, and rejoined Esme.
“Okay. You know the barrio. Let’s see you do it.”
Esme took a deep breath and stepped forward toward the cage. The spindlox inside seemed to sense it was no longer confined by magic, and Esme paused to see what it would do. The little demon ran in faster circles around the cage and threw itself against the glass. A shrieking noise Esme hadn’t heard before exploded from the cage, and she covered her ears.
She looked back at her instructor. “Is that this asshole?”
“Yes!” Ada called over the noise. “The barrio blocked it before, but a spindlox’s cries can shatter glass if left unchecked for too long!”
“Shit!”
“Language, alterni!”
“Sorry! How the gosh darn heck do I make it stop?”
“Barrio!”
Esme turned back to the cage and uncovered her ears, since that didn’t help anyway.
Alright, you leggy bastard.
She reached out her hand with the castorca and focused. Slowly, she brought her fingers together, drawing power to her. She felt her castorca tingle. This felt bizarre, but Esme stayed focused and aimed her pointed, gathered fingertips at the bare floor in front of the shrieking spindlox’s cage. She pictured the symbol for the barrio spell in her mind. With this image locked in her sights, she stared at the floor and moved her fingers, mentally tracing the picture.
A burn sparked on the floor, and Esme’s heart skipped a beat. The burn spread and spiraled and turned in on itself as she completed the drawing. Once the whole symbol flared with sparks, it looked identical to the other cage’s barrio symbols. Esme summoned a bubble of magic in her castorca hand and flicked it at the symbol. A crackling bubble spread over the spindlox’s cage, then faded to invisibility.
The horrible shrieking stopped.
Esme sighed in relief and massaged her ear. A blink later, she realized what she’d done and saw the spindlox cowering against the back of its cage. It shook smoke and opened its mouth’s pincers, but no sound escaped the new barrio.
Esme looked back at Ada with a proud smile. “I did it.”
Ada took a step forward and examined the symbol. “I’d say so. It’s perfect. You’ll need to practice until you can draw the barrio in seconds. It’s a spell you’ll need often and quickly in the field.”
The older woman wasn’t one to gush praise, and she walked to another cage. She repeated her spells to remove the barrio symbol, but now Esme focused more on the malevolenci inside the cage. This was a crustacox, smooshed inside the glass walls. The brown exoskeleton of the demon covered everything except its small, clawed feet. Long, slimy, suction-cupped tentacles lashed out from where its head peeked from under the shell. The crustacox tumbled against the glass as Ada rolled the cage forward. With a look back at Esme, the conjuri put a hand on the cage’s lock.
Esme’s eyes widened. “You’re letting it out?”
“Yes. I want you to use hand spells now. All the defensive spells you can manage. If the crustacox loses focus on you and attempts to destroy the lab, I’ll stop it myself.”
Esme tried not to make a face.
Great, but what if it attempts to destroy me?
She took a deep breath and held her castorca hand at the ready.
Ada gave her a nod and released the cage’s lock. The spry old woman stepped back as
the front of the cage swung open, and the crustacox took no notice of her. Instead, it emitted a deep bellow and charged out in a cloud of smoke.
Esme went with her first instinct and twisted her hand while thrusting her arm forward. The crustacox was instantly thrown to the side and fell hard onto the tiled floor. It sucked in its tentacles from the force of the blow, making a gross slurping sound. Its small legs worked frantically to right itself again, but before it could, Esme hit it with a freeze spell. Ice crystals formed over its exoskeleton. The crustacox’s tentacles lashed out and were longer than Esme had expected, and she jumped sideways as they whipped past where she’d stood a second earlier. She reached back and rubbed her thumb against the tips of her other fingers, and the flailing tentacles snapped at odd angles. The crustacox bellowed again and pulled back its tentacles. Esme hit them with another freeze spell by holding her palm out and tapping her fingers in the air similar to using a keypad.
With the whole crustacox frozen, Esme moved to its side. Her heart was slamming against her chest with adrenaline, but she thought of one last spell and lifted her arm over her head. She curled her fingers toward her palm and moved them like playing notes on a guitar. Making a fist, she slammed it down so the meat of her fist connected with the freezing, almost metallic exoskeleton. The force of the magical blow broke the frozen demon into thousands of pieces, and Esme twisted her hand around and around to create a whirlwind. This sucked in the pieces while leaving her unharmed in the center of the wind. Then she opened her palm wide, and the dismembered crustacox fell around her to the floor.
Esme breathed hard but felt pretty good. She looked back at Ada.
Ada faced Esme with eyes narrowed. “Have you been practicing the hand motions after our lessons?”
“No.” Esme shuffled her feet and tried not to look guilty. “I’ve just memorized everything, remember?”
“But your hand movements are perfect. And I’ve had enough discussions with Lexi to know you’re not that coordinated.”
Alterni Page 11