Magical Redemption

by Nicola E. Sheridan

  * * * *

  Jinx woke to the gentle murmuring of voices. She felt wonderful, vibrantly awake, and refreshed. Then, she lurched to a sitting position in alarm. Voices?

  “Lucian?” she called and scrambled to her feet. She followed the sound of the voices. The swamp was alive with the sound of excited chatter. Feeling more alarmed, she clattered on her sharp high-heels across the wooden boardwalk as she rushed to discover the reason.

  “A drug overdose?” a woman asked.

  “Has anyone got a cell phone?” an American voice bellowed.

  “I’ve already called the ambulance,” a strong, Australian voice replied. “Everyone calm down.”

  Jinx caught a glimpse of a group of tourists through the trees. They were in a loose circle staring down at the boardwalk, clearly perplexed. She couldn’t suppress a frown as she hurried to see what was causing the stir amongst them. It didn’t seem like they were talking about the unique biodiversity of the area. They were discussing someone.

  “What’s with all the blood?” one of them asked.

  Jinx felt her heart skip.

  It was Lucian.

  Her chest tightened with greater alarm. Remembering his sports bag, she summoned it to her side and pushed through the crowd.

  “Out of the way,” Jinx growled, shoving people aside in her haste. “Lucian,” she gasped as her eyes fell to the boardwalk.

  “Do you know this fella?” the Australian voice asked. Jinx looked up and saw a woman who may just as well have been hewn from a block of milk chocolate. Long and lanky with riots of black curls, her large, dark eyes nestled under a strong, heavy brow. Her generous lips were tight and disapproving.

  “Yes,” Jinx said, kneeling down and turning Lucian’s face to hers. His breath was steady and slow. Bloody tracks ran from his eyes, ears, and nose. She shook her head in disbelief.

  “What’s wrong with him?” the woman asked. Jinx glanced at her and realized she was the tour guide.

  Jinx merely shook her head, unable to answer, and sent a gentle, coaxing wave of magic to test his life force.

  “We’ve called an ambulance,” the woman said. “What were you doing here, anyway?”

  “We were...resting,” Jinx said, drawing Lucian’s unconscious form closer to her and gently stroking his blood-streaked cheek.

  “Resting?” the tour guide asked.

  “It’s a very peaceful place,” Jinx murmured. A siren wailed in the distance, barely discernible over the hushed breeze in the swamp. She couldn’t allow Lucian to be taken to a human hospital. They’d find out he was a Magical Being fairly quickly. As he wasn’t registered in Australia, he’d be placed into detention as an Illegal Magical Immigrant. A detention center was no place for someone so critically ill. In fact, a detention center was no place for anyone at all. She looked at Lucian’s chest. Clad in the blood-stained green shirt, it rose and fell weakly–a far cry from the intensely alive man he was earlier. Jinx knew with a sick, twisted clarity that his sudden illness was directly related to the Pater Rex’s threat and the nasty, cutting pledge.

  “I’ve got to take him away,” she murmured. Without looking up at the alarmed tour group, she uttered a spell.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the tour guide said.

  Jinx didn’t care. Rainbow smoke surrounded them, cloying and protective. The intuitive power of her magic should be strong enough to help Lucian if she trusted it enough. Closing her eyes and praying to no god in particular, she allowed the magic to sweep them away and tend to Lucian’s unspoken but clearly visible need.

  Chapter Ten

  Jinx and Lucian arrived in a tangle of legs and arms in the hot street of Main Bazaar in Kuching, Sarawak. No one batted an eyelid at their sudden and disheveled appearance. The humid, tropical heat instantly soaked into her shirt. Lucian groaned. She struggled to stand and hold his weight. Breathlessly fighting the inevitable exhaustion that followed a magical trip overseas, she forced a spell around him to ease his crushing pressure on her small frame.

  “Lucian...” she said softly into his ear. “Wake up, please.”

  Her magic had taken them to the Free Zone. That was evident. The place throbbed with magical beings. Jinx, having never been to a Free Zone before, gawked at the myriad of creatures flying, crawling, and slithering past, each intent on their own business. Suddenly, something caught her eye. A manticore stared directly at them from across the street. His mutated, humanoid face was creased with a deep frown. Jinx stared back just as directly.

  What the hell is he staring at? Jinx poked her tongue out, feeling absurdly irritable. The manticore widened his eyes for a second and smiled. After a moment, the manticore poked his tongue out in return before lashing his long, powerful tail and turning away. Jinx looked around, sweat prickling under her arms and on her brow. She had to get out of this intense heat. The sun was baking her where she stood. In vain, she looked around for somewhere to take Lucian. Jinx didn’t know anyone in the Free Zone. Lucian said he had friends here, but who? Her magic was intuitive, so she knew there was a reason they arrived here, but who was she supposed to find? She frowned as a feeling of complete loss threatened to swamp her. As she rearranged Lucian’s bag on her shoulder, she began a staggering gait toward the sheltered sidewalk and the inviting darkness of some of the surrounding shops.

  Sighing in the blissful shade, Jinx tried to ignore the patter of Lucian’s blood as it seeped from his cranial orifices. What was she meant to do? Someone had to stop the pledge from killing Lucian, but who? He forbade her to search for Antigone, so it couldn’t possibly be her. Could it?

  There were so many questions, yet not one answer. She gnawed her lip worriedly and looked around.

  She was standing on a cracked, uneven pavement beside a rack of carved items, outside a grocery shop. A carving of a small, wooden satyr entwined with a woman caught her attention. By the state and size of his ridiculously enlarged phallus, the satyr was clearly pleased to have her. Jinx shook her head with frustrated amusement. The distraction was swiftly interrupted.

  “What do we have here?” a snide voice asked from behind. “You will not find a hospital around here that caters to...his kind.”

  There was the clip-clop of cloven hooves behind her. Jinx felt her skin crawl as she turned to face the speaker.

  Words stuck in her throat. She gazed up the heavy, auburn-pelted legs and lingered for just the briefest of moments on the large, exposed genitals hanging between them. A real, live satyr―just what she needed. She looked upward and jutted her chin. Her defiant gaze was met by curious, auburn eyes and a sharp, angular face. Curling horns erupted from a mane of hair.

  “Do you like what you see?” The satyr smiled, showing perfectly-white, blunt teeth.

  “No,” Jinx snapped. Using her magic, she rearranged Lucian’s dead weight.

  The satyr tilted his head to get sight of Lucian’s face, and his shrewd eyes widened. “What are you doing with Lucian?” he hissed, moving forward with remarkable speed and raising Lucian’s head to examine him.

  The satyr was suddenly too close. He smelled like fresh hay, and his body thrummed with an unsettling energy.

  “You know Lucian?” Jinx whispered. She knew with uncomfortable certainty that this satyr was the reason her magic brought them here.

  “Of course I do,” the satyr snapped, his expression now concerned. “What’s wrong with him?” His amber eyes caught and held hers. Although she was fairly confident the satyr was here to help, she didn’t want to divulge everything too soon. She squirmed under his gaze.

  “I can’t tell you anything until I know who you are and what you know about Lucian.” Jinx steeled her spine and jutted her jaw, again.

  The auburn-haired satyr raised an artful eyebrow. “My, aren’t you a feisty one? I do like my women feisty.” He grinned a
nd sunk into a low bow. “I am Silenus, the stag satyr of the Kuching Free Zone.”

  “I’m not your woman,” Jinx said, hating the fact that her gaze was convulsively drawn to Silenus’s naked crotch. “Ugh,” she grumbled to herself. Silenus continued unabated.

  “Lucian is my friend–though, I will confess I have not seen him for many years. Time, clearly, has not been kind to him.” He narrowed his auburn eyes at her speculatively.

  “You say that like it’s my fault,” she snapped.

  “Is it not?” His eyebrows floated high, again.

  “No,” Jinx cried.

  Silenus smiled at her outrage. “Allow me to assist you,” he said and stretched out his tanned arms to relieve Jinx of Lucian’s burden.

  “No. Don’t touch him.” She jerked Lucian away. His head wobbled grossly as more blood pattered from his face. Dire as the situation was, she couldn’t risk Lucian to an unknown being, supposed friend or not. “I need to test your intent first.”

  Silenus’s eyebrows hit his curly hairline. “Test my intent?” A smile tugged on his lips suggestively. “I don’t think my intent needs testing. I make a habit of being perfectly transparent.” He grabbed his crotch and cupped his genitals, proffering them to Jinx.

  “Christ,” she gasped and looked away. “No Maronite girl should ever have to see that. Have some decency, will you?” She gulped, willing the furious blush from her cheeks.

  Silenus chortled and threw his head back. “Decency? I’m a satyr…a satyr in the Free Zone. I therefore have none.” He sobered quickly. “Enough. Lucian seems to be in some trouble. Allow me to take him to our colony. I will call the healer to look at him.”

  “A healer won’t do any good.” Jinx grimaced. No healer could remove the cutting pledge. The only person she knew who could do it, and whom she was not forbidden to approach, was the Pater Rex. She gnawed her lip. “I have to get back to Kuala Lumpur.”

  Silenus looked skeptical. “I don’t think Lucian is fit for further travel. Besides, Kuala Lumpur? That’s no place for anyone of magical heritage—so many rules.”

  “I know...but...” Jinx chewed her lip and realized she was going to have to trust the satyr. There was no doubt in her mind the Pater Rex was making good on his promise. The pledge was killing Lucian. He barely stirred since they arrived and groaned as another trickle of blood bubbled afresh from his ears. “I have to. Lucian is my master. I have to assist him. He cannot die.”

  “He’s demon spawn, and it’s highly unlikely he’ll die.” Silenus shuffled his cloven-hoofed feet, causing them to clip-clop on the cracked pavement. Jinx’s mind raced. A revoltingly ugly siren sashayed past and threw a curious glance at Lucian. Her hair was long and lustrous, but her skin was as weathered as old leather. She narrowed her pearl-globe eyes on Jinx and stared hungrily at Silenus and his naked crotch. Silenus grinned at her and slightly inclined his head as she tutted and strode past. Hurrying behind her was a harried-looking,, older man. He thinned his lips and stared at Jinx then bustled past scratching his small goatee. In his wake was the unmistakable scent of genie. He was the siren’s genie. Wow. Had their situation not been quite so dire, the Free Zone was somewhere she’d like to spend more time.

  “Come, tear your eyes from our resident siren and her slave.” Silenus sniffed.

  Slave. The word brought Jinx screaming back to sensibility. She was a slave, soon to be the bomoh’s slave, and she had no choice in the matter. She felt Lucian’s heartbeat slow, thudding, and strained. She didn’t have a choice in that, either. The satyr was right. He couldn’t travel any further.

  Pitter-patter. More blood hit the pavement in wet, sticky drops.

  Jinx found herself assessing the satyr, again. Was he trustworthy? The concern in his eyes was turning impatient with urgency. Yes, he was trustworthy she decided. More trustworthy than herself, perhaps. Knowing what she was going to do was in essence a betrayal. Something cold struck in the region of her chest. She tightened her hand around the bag containing the lamp. Lucian had ordered her to retrieve her lamp, but he never commanded her not to give it away. Hadn’t the Pater Rex threatened to kill Lucian if she took the lamp? Perhaps they would let Lucian live if she returned the lamp to the Pater Rex and the bomoh. Like a sad guitar solo, she hoped she was right. Intuition warned she was not.

  What else can I do but try?

  “Okay,” Jinx agreed slowly. The satyr’s eyes lit up. He jumped and kicked the air jubilantly. “Don’t get excited. I’m not staying.”

  “Can’t I persuade you otherwise?” He winked.

  Lord, does he never give up? “No.” Jinx shook her head. “I’ll see that Lucian is safe, and then I must go.”

  Silenus shrugged. “Follow me.”

  They turned, and this time Jinx allowed Silenus to take Lucian. The satyr’s naked, muscled back strained as he heaved Lucian over his shoulder and headed into the depths of the Free Zone. Jinx sighed and paused at a stall to get some food, which she paid for with conjured money. Keeping a constant eye on the satyr, she hungrily scarfed the food. It was a bizarre sweet, enough to give her some energy but not enough to allay her fears. She had never been so scared in her life.

  * * * *

  After a swelteringly hot walk, they arrived at a building. Silenus pushed the door open. The entrance hall was cooler but by no means air-conditioned. It was decorated in orange hues. Open windows allowed a sticky breeze to circulate the air around.

  The wail of a child greeted them.

  “Si, did you get it?” an English voice asked, followed by the incessant wailing.

  Jinx heard Silenus groan.

  Within a moment, a woman appeared, and a gasp echoed in the entrance hall. Jinx assessed the woman.

  “What is going on?” The woman narrowed her eyes as she looked at Lucian and Jinx. “You’ve not brought another woman home,” she hissed. “She is not staying.”

  Jinx raised an eyebrow and held her stance. The child’s wailing got closer, and clip-clopping could be heard on the shiny, tiled floor.

  “Da?” The wailing stopped and a small, fawn satyr clip-clopped around the corner.

  “Eloise, take him away. He doesn’t need to see this,” Silenus said. He turned to ensure Lucian’s face was obscured from the child’s view.

  Eloise nodded. “You better not have come home without a new pacifier, Silenus,” she spat and gathered the struggling toddler in her arms to obscure his view of the unconscious man his father carried. The wailing erupted again with ear-splitting intensity. Eloise stared at Silenus and extended a hand. “Well? Where is it?”

  Silenus coughed. “Why did you not send another to get the pacifier? There are many other maenads and satyrs to do such menial tasks.” He was clearly biding his time.

  “You are his father,” Eloise snapped. “You are the one who should have done it. Clearly, here you are...back at the colony, with a strange woman, a sick man, and no pacifier.”

  “Eloise, really. Do you think I should have left them?” Silenus spread his hands wide. “Lucian is a friend, whom I have not seen for many years. I couldn’t abandon him in his hour of need.” The child’s wailing increased as he began kicking in earnest, struggling furiously for release from his mother’s arms.

  “This is my hour of need. I need some damn peace and quiet,” Eloise shrieked. “As usual, you’ve thought of everyone else before me.”

  “In the name of Dionysus,” Silenus cried, nearly dropping Lucian in frustration.

  “Here” A small explosion of rainbow smoke erupted near the child’s mouth, and the screams instantly ceased, only to be replaced with soft, contented sucking sounds.

  “A genie?” Eloise growled. “You’ve got yourself a genie? A female genie?”

  Jinx didn’t have time for this. She couldn’t care less what jealous and screwed-up relationship t
he satyr and his partner had.

  “Actually, no. I’m not his.” Jinx interrupted any further argument. “I belong to Lucian. If you don’t mind, I really have pressing matters to attend to.” She turned to face Silenus, whose face had taken on a harried appearance similar to that of the siren’s genie. “Please watch over Lucian until I return.” She dropped Lucian’s bag and unzipped it. Peeling through the loose notes, credit cards, and other items, she found her lamp. It sparkled white and blue and gently exuded the scent of spice. She cautiously reached to touch it. “What are you doing?” Silenus asked, his eyes darkening on the lamp.

  “That’s none of your business,” Jinx snapped. “Go and put him into a bed.”

  “I don’t understand why you can’t help him,” Silenus said.

  Jinx’s eyes flew to Lucian, whose head lolled grotesquely as the satyr strained to carry him.

  “I’m going to help him,” she hissed. She touched the lamp with her trembling hand and felt it throb under her fingers.

  “Well, do something soon,” Silenus said, barely suppressing a shudder as the pitter-patter of blood hit the tiles. He walked slowly up the stairwell.

  Jinx nodded. She didn’t really expect this to work and didn’t know if she would be able to move the lamp. It was a long shot. A genie usually couldn’t change the location of their lamp without their master’s express permission. She knew Lucian would not permit it. He’d rather die.

  Expecting resistance, Jinx curled her fingers around the smooth porcelain and lifted. The lamp came easily into her hand with a jerk. She felt close to tears. If she was able to move the lamp without Lucian’s permission, it meant he really needed her to do it. He was dying.

  “Please, take care of him,” Jinx whispered as Silenus’s hoof-falls disappeared down an upstairs corridor.