Alterni

by Sunshine Somerville

  Holy… thought Esme with a chill. That’s the biggest rift I’ve ever seen!

  She exchanged a wide-eyed look with Owen, then scrambled to stand with him and back away. “Have you seen this happen before?”

  “Nope. New one to me.” Owen redrew his weapon.

  The smoke now pouring out made it difficult to see, but Esme stood with the team and tried to prepare for whatever new horror they were about to face.

  “What is that?” Dax, standing nearest the rift’s edge, pointed.

  Smoke had cleared from the wide center of the rift, and Esme squinted to see into the malevolenci world. Every comparison to hell that she’d read was accurate. A scorched, smoking sky stretched over a desolate, bare landscape of black dirt and rock. The distance revealed volcanic bursts of gas and flames. Also, a herd of at least a thousand crustacox charged straight for the rift like their lives depended on it.

  Oh, shit! Hundreds will get through an opening this size! We’d never kill them all! I have to close-

  Dax took a step back. “Great god of Lycan…”

  Esme looked again at the horizon deep inside this hell. A massive form was chasing the crustacox. Wings ten times bigger than a chiroptorx’s unfurled from a body ten times that of a felicox. It was a bentaforx, and it made the fake one at Esme’s summono look like a baby.

  “Close the rift!” Max screamed.

  Esme found herself frozen.

  Owen stepped in front of her to break her stare and get her attention. “Can you do it? Esme, can you close this?”

  Esme snapped out of it. “I need room!”

  Owen and the cavali took several strides back from the monstrous rift, guns raised and ready.

  Brave, Esme noted, but they’re no match for thousands of malevolenci. I have to hurry!

  With this firepower covering her, Esme looked at her bleeding bare hand and knew she couldn’t use both again. The pain would knock her unconscious, and then they’d be screwed. Instead, she raised only her castorca.

  Beyond her outstretched hand, she saw the leading crustacox approaching the rift. Thousands of bellowing cries shook the air. Behind the herd, the bentaforx stretched its neck and roared, shaking the smoky sky.

  “Esme, focus!” Owen shouted. “You can do this!”

  She looked back at her castorca and pulled magic to her gathered fingers. While trying not to shake with fear, she drew the termino symbol over the giant rift. The symbol wasn’t quite right on her first try, and she had to flick away parts and fix a few lines.

  Davis fired as the first crustacox jumped from the rift. The demon was dead before it hit the ground, its smoke flaking into the grass.

  The finished symbol crackled over the rift, and Esme spun her hand. However, before she could blur the termino, another crustacox jumped out, this one breaking a swirl of the symbol. The whole termino flickered and threatened to go out. Frantic, Esme redrew the broken portion, but not before three more crustacox crossed through.

  “Fire! Fire! Fire!”

  The cavali guns erupted. Five more crustacox appeared, and the cavali had to break formation. The chaos allowed one demon to charge straight for Esme.

  Oh, shit!

  Before she could defend herself, the charging crustacox lashed out a tentacle and snagged her around the throat. The slimy, sucking tentacle squeezed, and Esme gasped for air. It lifted her off her feet, and she slapped at it with bleeding hands. This did nothing to deter the crustacox, and it yanked her downward. She landed on her side with a thud, the jolt knocking the wind out of her.

  “No!”

  Gasping for air, Esme watched from the ground as Owen fired at the demon holding her. But he was at a bad angle, and his shots didn’t penetrate the thick exoskeleton. The crustacox’s dense body swung away from Owen, and Esme lost sight of him as a pair of crustacox ran between them.

  “Esme!”

  The tentacle yanked her forward over the ground, and she gagged as the noose tightened. She tried the snapping spell, but it caught and snapped the wrong tentacle. This only infuriated the crustacox more, and it squeezed harder with every yank forward. It was pulling her toward its body, reeling her in where its tentacles connected to its mouth.

  Do not pass out!

  Esme’s vision blurred, but she saw cavali running and firing at the herd of crustacox spilling from the rift. She saw wisps of smoke as the demons trampled the field. Worse, as she was pulled across the ground, she saw the incomplete termino sparking over the rift.

  I have to finish it, she thought with another gasp for air.

  Yanked forward again, she ignored the crustacox set on devouring her. She lifted her castorca. With every ounce of strength she had left, Esme fixed the broken symbol and spun her hand. Rocks dug into her body as the tentacle reeled her in, but she activated the spell and blurred the termino.

  The giant rift shook. Then the edges shattered, and the rift narrowed as the spell sucked it into the termino. The bentaforx and herd of crustacox still inside disappeared from sight, and the rift collapsed entirely.

  “Yes!” This sounded like Max. “Hold on, alterni! We’re coming!”

  Gunshots fired all around the field. Crustacox bellowed. Esme had no strength left, and she went limp as the crustacox pulled her nearer the source of all those tentacles.

  Out of nowhere, Owen rolled in front of her to shove a gun right up into her captor’s face. When he shot, a splash of bloody goop sprayed his arm, but he ignored it and rolled out of the way as the demon fell.

  The pressure around Esme’s neck lessened, and she clawed at the tentacle to pull it from her throat. Inhaling with a wheeze, she crawled away from the dead demon and lowered her forehead to the dirt, coughing and sucking in air. Her head was pounding. Then she felt the pain in her hands where her palms pressed into the grass, and she flopped to sit and hold them in her lap. She sucked in air again, and her throat burned with the attempt. Her arms shook with spasms.

  Owen was beside her in an instant, and he knelt to examine her. First his fingers touched her neck, then he reached for but stopped shy of her ruined hands. “It’s okay. Stay calm. You’ll be alright.”

  One more shot rang out, then the cavali guns were still.

  “Help me get her to the truck!”

  Esme heard the cavali rushing over, but she had no strength to lift her head. It wouldn’t surprise her if her neck was sprained. Her lungs… Her head… Her hands…

  The pain was overwhelming, and Esme slumped into Owen. He put an arm around her shoulders for support and held her head against his chest, protecting her neck. With soothing noises, he gently rested his chin on the top of her head. She didn’t understand why, but she began to sob.

  “Is she okay?” asked Benja.

  “My lord, one of them made it across the road! The damned thing knocked me-”

  “Go after it, Davis! Max and Dax, go with him. Tank, Benja, come with me. We have to get her to the hospital.”

  “Yes, my lord!”

  The trio ran off in pursuit of escaping malevolenci. Esme saw nothing more of them as Owen shifted and Tank lifted her in his strong, stubby arms. The troll held her like a fragile doll and hurried out of the field. Esme’s vision was blurry with pain, and she closed her eyes.

  “I have you,” said the troll in a surprisingly comforting tone. “Let’s get you home.”

  A smaller hand touched her shoulder, and Benja said, “You were amazing, alterni.”

  Tank marched onto the crunching gravel of the road, and Esme opened her eyes to find Owen. The king was right beside her, walking stride for stride with the troll. Owen’s face was smeared with dirt and sweat, but even with blurred vision Esme saw his frown of concern. Serious concern.

  Her remaining strength faded, and she finally passed out.

  Esme woke in a hospital bed. She could tell from the room that this wasn’t the medical floor of the Capiti. Too quaint. Too…un-magical.

  She tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. Ever
y part of her body throbbed in pain. A brace surrounded her neck. Both hands were bandaged. One missing element freaked her out the most.

  My castorca! Oh, no! Am I back in my alt-world? Did they send me-

  “Hey.” Owen leaned into her field of vision. “How are you feeling?”

  Esme now saw he’d pulled a chair up to her bed. Owen had taken off the cavali shirt and was down to a black undershirt. Even this was dirty from their ordeal. Owen’s face looked so tired, like he might fall asleep any second. Clearly only anxiety kept him awake.

  Esme swallowed, which hurt her throat. “I’ve been better.” Her voice sounded hoarse. “Where’s my castorca?”

  Owen laughed with obvious relief. “That’s what you’re worried about? Benja’s got it in the truck.”

  She looked around the room. “Where…?”

  “We didn’t want to risk transporting you all the way to the Capiti, so Tank drove to the nearest hospital. These docs took a few x-rays and scans and stuff, and they’re keeping you overnight for observation. You’re basically okay. Nothing’s broken. You’re pretty banged up, though, so we won’t transfer you to the Capiti until morning.” Owen grinned. “Then you’ll get the good drugs.”

  Esme tried to smile, but the battle was still too fresh. The memory of the bentaforx chasing thousands of crustacox…

  That’s not something I’ll forget.

  Unbidden tears again rose in her eyes.

  Owen started to reach for her hand, then remembered the bandages. Instead, he rested his arm on her pillow and stroked her hair. “Shh. It’s okay. You’re okay. Tonight… This was a bad one, but you were amazing.”

  Several images flashed through Esme’s mind, not the least of which was Owen rolling up to the crustacox and shooting it point blank to free her.

  Just when I thought I had the hang of this war…

  She took a shaky breath. “Thank you, Owen. You saved my life.”

  He smiled. “Now we’re even.”

  She had so many questions. Despite the pain in her throat, she asked, “What was that? Three rifts opened at once. And they were pinpointed right at me. How is that possible?”

  Owen looked almost as afraid as she felt. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like that. When I saw the rifts open behind you, that was freaky enough. Then those chiroptorx dive-bombed you, and I thought…”

  He thought he lost me, she realized.

  Esme met Owen’s eyes. She wanted to say something reassuring, but she had nothing. With a painful swallow, she turned her head from him.

  Tonight could’ve been the end of me. Yeah, that freaks me out, but for Owen it’s a whole other thing. These past few months… We’ve both tried to avoid how connected we are.

  Esme focused on her questions. “Did the rifts rip into one because of the bentaforx? Last time you faced…”

  But she knew Owen didn’t want to think about that time he’d lost one of her.

  To her surprise, Owen didn’t appear to be thinking of her origini at all. “I’ve never seen the rifts do that. Last time I fought a bentaforx, the rift was huge right away.” He shook his head. “Tonight’s bentaforx was a complete surprise. I never expected to see another one during my lifetime.”

  Esme thought back on her reading. “The only kings who’ve encountered two bentaforx had longer than average reigns. Normally, the bentaforx only invade once per generation. Sometimes they even skip a generation.”

  “And now I’ve seen two in five years. Lucky me.” Owen sighed and moved on. “How’d you do that against the chiroptorx? You cast two spells at once. You used both hands?”

  Esme held up her bandages for inspection. “Seemed like the thing to try at the time. Hurt like hell.”

  “Worse than when you split that felicox?”

  She thought about it. “The magic felt stronger – I wouldn’t say worse. But my off-hand sure suffered without the castorca.”

  Owen nodded, again in his own thoughts.

  Esme looked at her bandaged hands.

  What is going on with my magic?

  Owen removed his arm from her pillow and rubbed his face. “None of this makes any sense.”

  She agreed. At the same time, while non-Order meds weren’t as strong as those of the vamps, the drugs were doing the trick in making her sleepy.

  We survived. We deserve sleep. Besides, we can go over everything in the morning when they bring me home.

  Owen must’ve been thinking the same, and he rose from his chair. “Okay, I’d better get out of here. Sleep tight, alterni. I’ll be here in the morning to drive you to the Capiti.”

  “If you’re too busy, you can send Hakim or-”

  “No, I’m getting you myself.” The king didn’t sound like he’d accept arguments. Without warning, he leaned over to gently kiss her forehead. “Goodnight, Esme.”

  “Goodnight.”

  Owen left her room, and Esme closed her eyes. She still felt the moisture from his lips on her forehead as she drifted into sleep.

  After a few nights with the vampire healers, Esme was as good as new, at least physically. She still felt shaken whenever she remembered the last battle, but she toughened up fast these days.

  Now she sat with Roman and Ada at the grand library table. They were searching for anything to account for why more rifts and more malevolenci had appeared during Owen’s reign than any other king for hundreds of years. The Order had wondered about this for some time, but after this week’s bentaforx sighting, they felt prompted to redouble their investigation.

  “Crustacox are a fascinating species,” Roman was saying.

  Esme tried to listen, but she was sick of Roman’s obsession with the demons that had almost killed her. The Master Conjuri went on with his speech, and Esme’s gaze drifted. Ada continued to ignore Roman as she read. In front of Esme lay several open books, and she leaned forward in her chair to see the pages better.

  I’ve spent hours in this library. Never been this tense, though. Not even when I feared bombing as an alterni.

  She flipped a page of the Chronicles of Kings, Volume XXI, which told of King Andrew’s reign with his Perth alterni. She’d hoped to find something useful, but Andrew’s story was boring. He’d been a selfish, pompous monarch, and half of his alt-Perths chose to go home, back to their worlds where they could forget the whole thing.

  Esme flipped another page, not bothering to memorize this book.

  I’ve memorized volumes I-XX and LXX-LXXIX. The malevolenci were definitely this bad during the first kings – Cesare, Pasquale, Massimo, and Ignazio. Once their alterni closed the original rifts, though, things calmed down a bit. Then malevolenci attacks flared up again. The tenth king, Eglid, went through thirty-one alterni because the malevolenci were so volatile during his reign. King Aaron after him had twenty-three because he had to clean up the mess Eglid left once he killed himself. After that, the war mellowed out again. But the seventeenth king, Nathaniel, dealt with more rift openings than any king prior or since. After King Benjamin cleaned up that mess, malevolenci were again less active.

  She frowned at the piles of books beside her on the table. These were volumes XXII-LXIX, which she’d only skimmed so far.

  For hundreds of years, malevolenci attacks were fairly consistent. No king had to fight back serious invasion until Virgil, the sixty-fourth king. After that came another lull. That’s why Ada had me skip to volume LXX. King Paxton saw a lot of action, then King Baxter, Wentworth… I always thought Jerome’s story was interesting because of the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death, but he faced an abnormal number of malevolenci during his reign.

  She leaned back in her seat and gazed up at the mural on the ceiling. In the age-old paintings, it was impossible to sort out truth from legend. Heroes and monsters… Green forests and hellish landscapes… Gods and demons…

  Conjuri dedicate their lives to studying the history of this war. If they haven’t found a pattern in malevolenci attacks, I’m not likely to fi
nd one either. The flare-ups don’t happen every certain number of years. They don’t happen with any one species more than another. One place doesn’t get hit repeatedly like a weak spot. Is there a pattern?

  Esme heard the door open, and she turned to see Owen enter the library. He wore his cavali uniform, having spent the day away at an Order outpost in Kansas. No longer needing to make an impression, he rolled up his sleeves to his elbows.

  “Find anything?” Owen sat across from Esme and looked to Roman.

  The old man only scowled and continued to read.

  Ada turned a page in her book, and her eyes narrowed in focus. “Here’s something. King Eglid’s last alterni died when attacked by felicox.”

  “Yes,” said Roman. “Ah, yes…” He pushed up his reading glasses in contemplation.

  Owen looked from Ada to Roman. “And?”

  Esme remembered. “The last Devon was closing a rift when another opened right behind him. A felicox jumped straight at Devon and tore him apart before Eglid even knew the rift was there.”

  Now Owen understood. “More than one rift at a time, aiming right at an alterni. Like the other night.”

  Roman picked a book and flipped a few pages, then trailed a finger over the text. “King Wentworth’s last alterni died much the same way. Five rifts opened in one day, and he was too exhausted to close the last before spindlox swarmed him.”

  Esme remembered this too. “It took every cavali in the Capiti to put down that swarm. When Wentworth died not long after, many rifts remained open. Hundreds of cavali died before King Jerome’s origini was able to close them.”

  “Yes.” Ada nodded. “We often suffer great casualties between alternis.”

  Owen smiled over the table at Esme. “Good thing your crazy brain learned quickly.”

  Esme returned his smile. “I appreciate the support, your loyal lordship.”

  They held eye contact another second or two. Esme was finding it increasingly difficult to look away from Owen. Only Roman’s voice pulled her attention back to the others.