Runic Vengeance (The Runic Series Book 3)

by Clayton Wood

  The K-Array, it turned out, looked a bit like one of those machines at the store that printed receipts...except much larger. It was about the size of a washing machine, with spinning rolls hidden inside that moved a sheet of paper rapidly as a pattern was being sensed. Each time a sensory rune in the K-Array sensed a part of a pattern being woven, it would print that pattern fragment onto the paper. What came out was like a huge receipt, except with rows of symbols written on it. By linking the symbols together, Erasmus was able to recreate the pattern that had been sensed.

  After demonstrating the K-Array a few times – while grinning like a boy opening presents on Christmas morning – Erasmus had agreed to teach Kyle the invisibility pattern. He'd handed Kyle a page with the symbol drawn out in standard Runic notation, just as Lee had for her lessons the other day. The pattern had been long and complicated, and Erasmus had made Kyle practice the pattern in the relative safety of the testing chamber a few times to make sure he'd gotten it right. After that, the old Runic had left to another meeting, leaving Kyle alone in the testing chamber...but not before destroying the drawing of the pattern, for security purposes.

  Kyle sighed, walking out of the testing chamber and back into the Archives. He made his way into the hallway, walking toward the riser at the end of it. He'd agreed to meet Ariana back in his bedroom, and he rode the riser up to the 41st floor to do just that. He walked down the hallway, staring idly at the painted statues that lined the walls on either side. He'd passed by them almost every day since he'd starting living in Kalibar's suite. The statues were extraordinarily old, and were thought to be of Ancient Council members. His eye paused on one of the statues – of a man – and he slowed, then stopped in the middle of the hallway.

  The statue looked awfully familiar.

  He stared at its face, carved out of stone, remembering that he'd thought it had looked oddly familiar the first time he'd seen it...the first time he'd been in the Tower, in fact. And now he knew why. The squared jaw, the stern eyes, the nose...even the hair...was identical to the person it represented. Whoever had repainted the statue had gotten the colors wrong – they'd painted the eyes brown and the hair black – but even so, there was no doubt who it was.

  Ampir.

  Kyle felt a chill run through him, and he stared at the statue, remembering his last moments with Darius. There had been no real goodbyes, no fanfare before he'd left to battle Sabin. He hadn't wished Kyle luck, or even really talked that much.

  He'd said nothing, really.

  And that, to Kyle's dismay, was what he felt now as he stared at the man's ancient statue...nothing. He wanted to feel sadness, but he didn't. He couldn't. There was only a hollow feeling deep inside, a void in that place in Kyle's heart where his feelings for the bodyguard had been.

  Kyle sighed, turning away from the statue and continuing down the hallway to Kalibar's suite. He unlocked the magical door with his mind, and the door opened of its own accord, letting him step inside. He found Ariana sitting on one of the couches in the main room of the suite.

  “Hey,” he greeted.

  “Hi Kyle,” Ariana replied, gesturing for Kyle to sit down next to her, which he did. “Did you learn the pattern?” Kyle nodded.

  “You want to practice it?” he asked. Ariana nodded.

  “Later,” she agreed.

  “We should do it now,” Kyle countered. “I don't want you to get caught when you go out to the shipyard.” Ariana considered this, then nodded.

  “Good idea,” she agreed. She stood then. “Come here first,” she stated. Kyle got up, following Ariana to his bedroom. She crouched down before his bed, pulling a heavy-looking sack out from underneath and placing it on top of the bed. She reached inside, pulling out a silver breastplate.

  “The Aegis,” Kyle exclaimed. It was the Aegis of Athanasia, magical armor created by the Ancients. Over two thousand years old, it was enormously powerful, able to protect the wearer from nearly any manner of injury. Kalibar had given him the Aegis weeks ago, during the awards ceremony after his coronation as Grand Weaver.

  “I got this too,” Ariana stated, pulling a gray cloak out of the sack. It shimmered in the sunlight pouring in from the nearby window, its edges glowing silver, like the lining of a cloud.

  “Your cloak!” Kyle exclaimed. She’d gotten it from Kalibar during the awards ceremony. He'd entirely forgotten about it.

  “The Tempest cloak,” she confirmed. “Kalibar said it would let me draw lightning from clouds, and I could never get hurt by falling if I wore it,” she added. Kyle nodded; nearly every time Ariana got hurt in the last few weeks, it had been due to falling. The cloak would certainly come in handy.

  Suddenly, Kyle had an idea.

  “Hey, why don't we just fly there?”

  “What?”

  “Why don't we just fly to Sabin's lair?” he clarified. “You could wear my gravity boots and fly us there.” He didn't know why he hadn't thought of that earlier; they could skip the boat entirely.

  “It wouldn't work,” Ariana replied. Kyle frowned.

  “Why not?” he pressed. “You don't need to sleep,” he argued. “You could fly us the whole way without stopping.”

  “I'd probably get lost,” Ariana countered. “Especially if there was a storm. And even flying, it could take days to get there. I don't need to sleep or eat or drink, but you do.”

  “True,” Kyle conceded.

  “Come on,” she urged. “If you teach me the invisibility pattern now, I won't have to wait until night to check the ship schedule.”

  “Okay,” Kyle agreed. He wove the pattern in his mind's eye, casting it outward. At the same time, he attached a magic stream to keep the pattern going. He saw a faint blue sphere surrounding him.

  “Oh...” Ariana murmured.

  “Is it working?” he asked. He had no way to be sure; he hadn't thought to practice the pattern on something else (other than himself) while learning it. Ariana cocked her head to the side.

  “Sort of,” she replied. “It's kinda like I'm looking at you through a really strong magnifying glass...”

  “Wait, let me try something,” he urged. With every pattern he'd learned so far, the more magic he put in the pattern itself, the larger the area of effect...in this case, the larger the sphere surrounding him. Changing the amount of magic streamed to the pattern changed how intense the effect was. He tried increasing the magic stream.

  “Whoa,” Ariana blurted, blinking her eyes rapidly. “Way too strong.”

  “Oh,” Kyle replied. He dialed back on the magic stream. “How about that?”

  “Better,” Ariana replied. “I can't see you anymore, but I can see the edges of the sphere.” Kyle nodded, then realized she wouldn't be able to see the gesture. He decreased his magic stream a bit further.

  “Perfect!” Ariana exclaimed. “Hold it there,” she added. Kyle did so, trying to get a feel for how much magic he was streaming. Then he dropped the pattern.

  “I'm gonna have to practice more,” he admitted.

  “Me too,” she agreed. “But there's a problem.”

  “What?”

  “Where the sphere touches the floor, it makes it look kinda weird.”

  “Hold on,” he said. He wove the pattern again, sending it out to Ariana. She vanished instantly, but there was a strange bending of light near the borders of the sphere. He decreased his magic stream, and the effect vanished...but not at the floor. Where the sphere met the floor, it made the marble look warped...twisted and stretched. Ariana was right...while she was invisible, her invisibility was not.

  “I see it,” he admitted glumly.

  “This isn't going to work,” Ariana muttered glumly. Then Kyle snapped his fingers.

  “We can fly!” he exclaimed. When Ariana gave him a confused look, he pointed to the gravity boots he always wore. “I can float us above the floor,” he explained. “That way, the sphere won't touch it.” He demonstrated, activating his boots to levitate a foot off of the floor. Then he wo
ve the invisibility pattern.

  “It's working!” Ariana exclaimed. “I can't see you at all now.” Kyle dropped the pattern and lowered himself to the floor, smiling proudly.

  “This might just work after all,” he stated.

  “Teach me the pattern,” Ariana requested. “We can take turns practicing it until we both get it right.”

  * * *

  The sunlight had long since stopped streaming through Kyle's bedroom window as noon came and went, and he stretched his legs out from where he sat on his bed. Ariana had taken quite a bit longer to learn the invisibility pattern than he had, having just mastered it after hours of practice. She knew that he'd learned it in a fraction of the time it had taken her, and before her death this would have frustrated her a great deal. But something had changed after her rebirth; she'd developed a seemingly unlimited amount of patience. Long after Kyle would’ve quit, she just practiced again and again until she got it right. Methodically, without stopping or resting. It was unnerving to watch...almost inhuman.

  But in the end, she got it right. And in the process, they both learned a few other limitations of the pattern. Anything that passed into the invisibility sphere's influence vanished. If Kyle tried to pick something up, it vanished. When walking through narrow corridors, he had to be careful not to get too close to the walls, or they would end up appearing warped, like the floor had. Making the invisibility sphere as small as possible helped to limit these effects, but they would still need to be very careful.

  Kyle yawned, stretching his arms up into the air, then dropping them to his sides. His stomach growled loudly, and Ariana looked at him from where she sat on the edge of his bed.

  “You should go eat,” she offered, sliding off the bed, and ushering him back into the main part of Kalibar's suite.

  “Good idea,” he replied. “What are you going to do?”

  “Check the boat schedule,” she replied. Kyle's brow furrowed.

  “Now?”

  “I'll be invisible,” she replied.

  “No you won't,” he countered. “You don't have gravity boots on...the ground will look weird if you use the pattern.”

  “I mean I've got a disguise,” she replied with a smile. “I'll just be another girl on the street.”

  “What disguise?”

  “You'll see,” she stated rather mysteriously. She said nothing more then, touching the communication orb nearest her, then walking to the front door to leave the suite. “I'll be back in a few hours.”

  “Good luck.”

  It was only moments after Ariana had left that Jenkins arrived. Kyle's stomach growled again, and he asked for his favorite dish: roasted duck. Jenkins bowed, leaving immediately to satisfy his young master's request, and Kyle's mouth watered with the thought of the delicious meal to come. He sat down on a nearby couch, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Something hard jabbed his fingertips, and he frowned, pulling out a small crystal cube. It was a fresh crystal, one that hadn't been inscribed yet.

  He sighed, remembering the lesson with Lee earlier. He'd managed to create a gravity shield around the cube itself, which wasn't very useful. But if it created a gravity shield big enough for a person...

  He placed the crystal on the table in front of him, bending over it and closing his eyes. He wove the inscribing pattern, then inscribed the gravity shield rune. This time he made the “wire” thicker, so magic could flow more easily through it, and make a larger sphere. When he'd finished, he slid the cube as far away from him as he could, then walked behind the couch. He streamed magic to it...and a large gravity shield appeared around the cube. The cube shot up into the air, the shield bouncing off of the ceiling and flying back down to the table. It bounced again, ricocheting up and down until it finally settled, floating a few feet above the table.

  The front door opened suddenly, and Kyle quickly severed his magic stream, the cube falling with a clatter onto the tabletop. He was expecting Jenkins, but it wasn't the butler who walked through the door...it was Kalibar. The Grand Weaver looked imposing as ever in his jet-black uniform, his black gravity boots clicking sharply on the marble floor. When he saw Kyle, his customary strict expression softened into a warm smile.

  “Ah, Kyle!” he exclaimed. “Have you eaten lunch?”

  “Jenkins is getting me duck.”

  “I'll double that order,” Kalibar decided. “I haven’t had lunch yet either.”

  It wasn't long before Jenkins appeared with Kyle's meal, and he quickly ran off to fetch another for his Grand Weaver. Within a few minutes, Kyle and Kalibar were sitting at one of the tables, digging in to their respective meals. When they'd polished off their plates, Kalibar sat back in his chair, regarding Kyle silently for a long moment.

  “What?” Kyle asked.

  “Kyle, is something bothering you?” Kalibar inquired. Kyle blinked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You're quieter than usual,” Kalibar observed. “And you haven't smiled much today.”

  “I'm just tired,” Kyle lied. Kalibar said nothing, continuing to stare at Kyle until the silence became extraordinarily uncomfortable. Then he leaned forward.

  “You can tell me,” he insisted gently. Kyle swallowed in a dry throat, lowering his gaze to the tabletop and saying nothing. Kalibar reached across the table, putting a hand on Kyle's. “You can tell me anything, son.”

  Kyle shook his head silently, resisting the urge to pull his hand away. He felt absolutely horrible lying to his adoptive father, especially after everything the man had done for him. He'd risked his life to save Kyle, after all. He'd defied the Dead Man, Xanos, and even the nearly unstoppable Void spheres. An image of Kalibar laying on a table, his arms and legs held by red-clad Death Weavers came to Kyle's mind. Of the Dead Man plunging his pale fingers into Kalibar's eye. Of Kalibar falling to the ground after his first eye had been plucked out, then staggering to his feet, pushing the Death Weavers surrounding him away.

  He pictured Kalibar willingly climbing back onto that table. Laying down on his back so that the Dead Man could take the other eye.

  Kyle felt a sudden, overwhelming shame come over him. He'd kept so many secrets from Kalibar, even though Kalibar had kept none from him. How terrible was he, that he was ready to betray Kalibar's trust by leaving him, by making him fear for Kyle's life yet again? What kind of son was he that he could keep so many secrets from the only person who had been there for him, time and time again, without reservation?

  He felt Kalibar squeeze his hand gently.

  “Tell me what's wrong, so I can help you.”

  Kyle looked up then, pulling his hand away and shaking his head from side to side.

  “You can't help me,” he replied miserably.

  “I can try.”

  “It's no use,” Kyle countered. “It's too late.”

  “Secrets are a lonely burden,” Kalibar advised. “They only grow heavier and lonelier the longer you keep them, Kyle.”

  Kyle swallowed again, refusing to meet Kalibar's gaze. He felt the sudden, mad urge to tell him everything. Everything. About Ampir, about Darius...about his and Ariana's plan...everything. With Darius dead, and Sabin free to destroy the Empire, there wasn't any reason to keep Darius's secret any longer. But if he told Kalibar, he'd still be betraying Ariana.

  “I would give my life for you, Kyle,” Kalibar stated firmly.

  Something inside Kyle broke.

  “Ampir is dead,” he blurted out, his voice cracking. He drew in a shuddering breath, then let it out slowly through clenched teeth.

  “Excuse me?”

  “He's dead,” Kyle repeated, looking up at Kalibar's face at last. The old man looked shocked, his mouth agape.

  “My god,” Kalibar blurted out. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure,” he replied. “He went to kill Sabin,” he added. “He found out where Sabin lives, and he went to kill him.”

  “What?” Kalibar pressed. “Ampir found who?”

  “Sabin,” Kyle
answered. “He failed,” he continued. “He couldn't beat him.” Kalibar stared at Kyle in confusion.

  “Sabin?”

  “The Ancient,” Kyle clarified. “He's the one behind everything,” he added. “He's Xanos.”

  Kalibar stared at Kyle uncomprehendingly, his mouth opening, then closing.

  Then his eyes widened.

  He stood up suddenly, putting a hand over his mouth, his eyes wide but unseeing, staring far off into the distance. Then he lowered himself to the chair absently, sitting down with a thump.

  “I'm sorry,” Kyle mumbled. “He told me not to tell you.”

  Kalibar stirred suddenly, and he looked at Kyle as if he'd forgotten he was still there. He stood up, walking up to Kyle and putting a hand on Kyle's shoulder.

  “Thank you,” he stated. He paused then. “How long have you known?” he asked. Kyle shrugged.

  “Ampir told me just before I came back here,” he answered.

  “I see.”

  “He made me promise not to tell,” Kyle insisted. Kalibar smiled with his mouth but not his eyes.

  “I would not have defied him either,” the Grand Weaver admitted. “You did what you had to.”

  “Are you mad?”

  “No,” Kalibar stated firmly, shaking his head. “Not mad. Just...a little shell-shocked,” he admitted. “It all makes sense now,” he added.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Everything,” Kalibar answered with a shrug. “Just...everything.” He stared off into the distance again, as if in a trance, then shook himself out of it. “I should have figured it out.”

  “Why?”

  “The Void crystals,” he replied. “Sabin pioneered research into Void crystals back in Ancient times.” He sighed then. “And he created the original Behemoths, after all.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So both he and Ampir managed to live this long,” Kalibar murmured. “Two thousand years...” He shook his head. “And now Ampir is dead.”

  Kyle said nothing, letting his silence speak for itself.