by Scott Duff
“The Yanks? No,” he scoffed, then gulped.
As I moved around to the driver’s door, I felt the Stone in my head shift and move back. Then I heard a metallic clink on the ground. I turned but didn’t see anything, making me more nervous.
“We need to go,” I said through clinched teeth. The Stone moved again, feeling like bricks, forming a square shield around me. When the Day Sword flared to life in a flash of golden light in my right hand I knew something was wrong. A microsecond later, I saw Kieran passing out on the other side of the car, hitting the hood first and sliding down to the pavement.
“Kieran!” I yelled, running for him around the back of the car. Sticking out of the seat of his pants was a dart, the kind you see in nature shows where they’re sedating wild animals to tag them. I jerked the dart out and rolled him over. Kieran had a split lip from the fall and probably a pretty good bump and no telling what drugs were in his system. I had no idea what to do.
“Ethan! Help me!” I cried out. Where was he? I heard another metallic clink and a dart rolled under the car behind me. The rock was shielding me. I got that now. I stood up to find Ethan and saw the blond hopping off the car but no Ethan. I jumped over Kieran’s prone body to the front of the car. There was Ethan, lying on the ground with two darts sticking out of his shoulders, a small puddle of blood forming around his head. The blond primed to kick him in the guts.
“Get away from him, you prick!” I yelled, raising the Day sword high enough to mean business. He cut and ran, taking the threat for the reality it was. I jerked the darts out of Ethan’s shoulder and rolled him over. Same as Kieran, drugged and banged from the fall. I had to get them in the car and get out of there. I looked back at Kieran to see him floating three inches above the ground and moving away fast. I ran after him for three, maybe five steps before losing sight of him in the gloom. An unnatural gloom. I turned back to see Ethan floating off in the opposite direction just as fast.
Is it possible to live with this much panic and still be sane?
I don’t know.
Peter said run. Kieran said keep moving.
Ethan and Kieran were both a hell of a lot stronger and knew libraries more than me. I jumped in the car, started it, and peeled out of the parking lot, throwing firecrackers of varying noise and light everywhere I could.
I ran and I hated myself for it.
Chapter 8
I drove around Atlanta for hours aimlessly, totally lost. I’d figured out where Peter meant for me to meet him: the Atlanta Aquarium. That had to be the place. It was the only attraction we’d talked about that was actually inside a city. Everything else sat outside, but near, a city. I hoped I was right because I didn’t have any contingencies. I also didn’t know how to get there, but I remembered seeing a couple of blue tourist information signs on the interstate on the way in. With plenty of time on my hands, I drove back out to see what they had to offer. I still had time for four drive-byes before dawn. I wouldn’t be getting near the building; the entrance was gated.
I pulled up at dawn and stopped, worried that either I’d picked the wrong place or something had happened to him because he was coming to help. He wasn’t there. I waited a minute, but the panic was rising as I looked up and down the street. The seconds felt like hours. Then there was a light tapping on the passenger window. I jumped. There was Peter, kneeling beside the car. He was a little older, his hair was shorter, and he needed to shave, but it was Peter. He was smiling and he looked really concerned. He really looked like his father.
I popped the locks and he climbed in, throwing the bag he carried in the back seat.
“Seth, you doing okay?” he asked calmly, buckling himself in.
“No,” I said as I pulled back out on the road. “You were right about them tracking me by my phone. They found us before we could get out of the hotel.”
“We?” Peter asked.
“My brother, Ehran, and a friend of his, Ethan,” I said. “They shot them with darts and floated them away from me. I didn’t know what to do so I ran.”
“Do you know who it was?” he asked. I shook my head, then he said, “I thought you were an only child.”
“I did, too, until three days ago,” I said. “You wouldn’t believe all that’s happened in the last three days.”
“Three days?” said Peter. “That’s nothing. Deputy Harris has been banging on my dad’s door for two months looking for you. Wouldn’t say why exactly, just that he needed to speak with you or your parents. Do you know where your parents are, Seth?”
“No,” said Seth, “that’s why we were here, Ehran and I, to see our attorney to get information.”
“What happened there?” Peter asked, watching traffic with me. He started directing me through traffic as he talked. I guess he had a destination.
“The offices were attacked by a butt load of elves and men with automatic weapons. I’d never even seen an elf before two days ago,” I said, starting to roll. “My attorney blew his office up just as we left. It was a fun afternoon. We decided to spend the night and look through the records. All my financial information is electronic and I can’t get to it. And the other information is so massive it would be easier to organize onto a computer and you were the only person I know that ever had a computer. I thought you could tell me what to do or who I could go to. Ya’ know?”
“Seth, pull the car over there,” Peter said, pointing to a convenience store.
I signaled and pulled in. He got out walked to my side and tapped the window.
“Come on, Seth,” he said, “stretch your legs a bit.”
He stayed there until I got out of the car. I was a little shaky. Peter was right beside me nudging me all the through the store to the bottled water, then made me buy a chocolate bar. He promised a real breakfast shortly but the chocolate and the water helped a little. Then he made me walk the parking lot with him for a few minutes. He was taking care of me and I needed that right then, to feel worthy of someone’s concern.
We climbed back in the car to find some real food. IHOP was the nearest and Peter actually got us a somewhat secluded table. Peter excused himself to go to the bathroom right after ordering and disappeared for a few minutes. When he came back, he closed his eyes, mumbling something under his breath, and moved his hands like he was opening and closing an umbrella. The sounds of neighboring tables died away immediately. Then he put a small, rectangular quartz at the edge of the table. It had a silver wire wrapped tightly several times at one end, leading to a ring with a single key. The quartz had a light yellow glow to it.
“As long as this is yellow,” he said, “Nothing goes beyond this table, okay?”
I nodded. “All right,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about this all the way down here, and frankly nothing I came up with will fly. I need to know what’s happened to you. You didn’t even know your parents were missing?”
“No, Mom and Dad traveled all the time,” I said. “It wasn’t unusual for them to be gone for two to three weeks at a time. Not usually at the same time, though. Mister Colbert came down to Savannah just after my mother left. He told me and the rest of the house that Mom and Dad had decided to buy a villa in Brazil or somewhere and they were gonna split our stuff between the villa and the house he moved me into. We set up schedules with movers, then a week later, he moved me up to Huntsville. He told me it would be a while before my parents would be back, that business was just complicated this time.
“I’d just turned seventeen. My parents were leaving me alone, trusting me to be alone, in a new house. I could do anything I wanted, any time I wanted. Do you know how badly it sucked after the first month?” I felt like such a loser for tearing up at that, of all things.
“No, I can understand that,” Peter said. “Think about this, Seth. Shh.”
The quartz glowed blue as the waitress stepped up to the table, sliding a plate of scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon in front of me.
“Y’all need anything, Sweetie?” she asked, s
liding the second plate in front of Peter. He looked up at her, shook his head with a smile, and thanked her. Peter projected a sense of contented-ness to her. I found that… interesting. He pushed a very specific emotional sensation to her through his aura. I wondered if he knew he was doing it. She walked away and the quartz returned to its pale yellow glow.
“Think about it,” he said, starting on the bacon. “When most people our age move out it’s for a reason: college, work, insane parents, something. There’s usually a support group in there somewhere, whether it’s friends, fraternities, family. You didn’t have any of that. That was, what, the end of January?”
“Yeah,” I answered, poking at my eggs half-heartedly.
“Did you try to call your mom or dad at all?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said, eating a little. “You can still call and get the ‘This subscriber’s voice mailbox is full’ message.”
“Then what?” Peter asked.
Shrugging, I said, “I waited. I shopped, read, went to movies, whatever I could to pass the time. Even thought I’d made a few friends. That ended badly. That’s when I met Kieran.”
Peter listened carefully to everything I said about Saturday night through this morning. I didn’t hold back on anything except saying Kieran and Ethan’s real names. I watched the curiosity rise and fall in his aura as he picked up information. I looked around the restaurant for a moment. Peter wasn’t the only person I was reading more easily. Everybody was clearer, sharper. It had to be Kieran’s see in truth spell affected my vision permanently. Once I’d finished my story, we paid and left the busy restaurant.
Once we were back in the car, Peter said, “Well, there’s not a lot I can add directly. Your whole family, you included, dropped completely off the radar around the first of the year, not that any of you were really out there to begin with. Started freakin’ a lotta people out. Since my dad and yours are friends from way back, we got a number of people coming our way asking questions. Dad didn’t know anything. It got him looking around, too. The Marshals even got involved. Deputy Harris has been on Dad’s ass for months, threatening all sorts of things he can’t legally do, but when you’re that high up in a branch of government that doesn’t exist there’s a lot you can do that isn’t quite legal.”
“Deputy Harris?” I asked.
“Yes,” Peter said in confirmation. “Why?”
“There was a Deputy Director Clifford Harris on the list of possibles on Mr. Colbert’s list,” I said, recalling the name I couldn’t place last night. “And I spoke to a Deputy Harris on the phone before we were attacked in Huntsville.”
“Curious,” said Peter, considering my comment. “And the attackers there were mercenary elves?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“That would be against his nature, at least his reputation,” Peter said. “He hates elves. Not saying it couldn’t be true, though.”
“I have to help Kieran and Ethan, Peter,” I said. “They wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for me. I have to find them.”
“To bad you don’t know this Ethan thing’s real name,” Peter said. “We might be able to trace a demon that way.”
“What?” I asked, excitedly. This was news.
“Names have power,” Peter said. “Once a demon, or any spirit that’s been bound really, is here, its name can be used to find or control it. Well, providing you’re strong enough.”
Kieran said names have power. I remember that. And the first few times either of them said Kieran’s real name my sense of Kieran went directly to Kieran. The same with Ethan. This had a lot of promise. I sat back in the seat, clearing my mind, pulling in power the way I’d felt everyone else doing it. I’d only done this once, said his name the right way. He was very close then, but I felt him. This time, I didn’t know.
“Kir du’Ahn,” I said, calmly but with the power I had gathered behind it. I stretched my senses out, following the wave of power I’d just sent into the world. It slowly dissipated as it rolled miles around. Suddenly, three hundred and sixty degrees of freedom collapsed into one on the northwest side of Atlanta and I saw him. I saw Kieran as a fuzzy blob of potential magical energy in my mind. Then, like a soap bubble in a bathtub, the image popped and I was back in the car.
I gasped. “They’re here! They’re still in Atlanta. Give me the map.” I explained to Peter what I had done. All he heard from me was grumbling, but he did feel the sensing go out. He felt me reaching. I pegged where I felt Kieran on the map and started the car. It took us a little over an hour just to get close to it. We stopped at a Wal-Mart for a pair of binoculars and a change of clothes for me more suitable to running and hiding. When we got to the car, I tried again.
“Kir du’Ahn,” I whispered softly, pushing my voice and power outward. I faced the direction I remembered, but let the energy go in its circle, unwilling to take chances. He showed where I thought he should, closer and stronger. But wrong. I hadn’t seen it before. Maybe it was the distance, but something was wrong. I held the image as long as I could, but I didn’t see the problem, only that there was a problem. It left an oddly metallic taste in my mouth and an acrid smell in my nostrils. Was he hurt? Was this because of some sort of cage? Neither of them could be easy to hold, not after what I’d seen them do. Ethan, Ethan was the key here.
“Eth’anok’avel,” I said, louder this time. The circle went out. There! He was there beside Kieran, very close, but he was like a dimple in space—a human-shaped rock. Not like before when he radiated his presence and life and power. He was inert now.
“Switch places,” I said to Peter, getting out of the car. Once we had, I pulled out the map and found the spot where they were. “There. Get us close to there. I’ve got to concentrate on getting Ethan awake.”
“What does that mean?” Peter asked, canting his head right.
“I really have no idea,” I said, looking him in the eye. “I’m operating on instinct. They’re both there. I have no idea what or who else is there. It looks like they are hurt. Ethan… may be able to regenerate. If not, we may have to run like hell. Just get us close.”
Peter exhaled slowly, then started the car. Consulting the map, he pulled out onto the main road. I closed my eyes and started thinking about my problem. Ethan was anchored to me, locked in place by accident through the Pact magic. Start there. I opened my eyes and stood in my cavern of magic. My ego had built a body form for me this time. I stood before my Pact, sitting on its new Stone foundation. The Crossbow leaned on the Quiver in front, two Swords gleaming regally on either side. It was a beautiful and dangerous vision, but not what I was here to see. Ethan’s anchor was in here somewhere.
I turned and began searching the darkness around me. What I found surprised me: light. It was a silvery-white light everywhere I looked, and I looked everywhere. I scoured through every nook and cranny I could see and found nothing but myself, my own silvery-white energy surging through my own soul. So I went back to my center and stared at the Pact. The anchor had to be in the center.
“We’re turning into a residential area, Seth,” I heard Peter say, distantly.
Damn, running out of time. These were constructs in my mind, representing things stored magically elsewhere. They could be moved. The elven weapons were after Ethan came, not part of the issue. They dropped down a few feet, leaving me looking at the Pact sigil’s magic and the Pact itself. I inspected the sigil and found its power covering the Pact in a protective sheen so fine I hadn’t noticed it before.
“Eth’anok’avel,” I whispered and the Pact pulsed slightly, like it was pushing away the power of the name, everywhere but… there. An extremely small dot of nothingness seemed to swallow the pulse. That was my link. I had it now. I just had to figure out how to use it. I felt the car slow and stop, so I pulled myself out of my cavern.
Peter was watching me, expectantly. “This is not a good idea,” he said, eyebrows furrowed, nervously looking around, checking mirrors constantly. “We don’t know why you we
ren’t affected by whatever happened to them. We don’t know who or what is waiting or even if they know we’re coming. This is stupid, Seth. Do you even know which house?”
I looked up the street directly ahead of us. “Three streets up, where the houses are just starting development, there is a ward. They’re down that street, I’d bet, about five houses down, on the right. The darts never connected because of the Stone I’ve been carrying around. I’m pretty sure I can change its shield form to cover the whole car. I’ll try that before we start moving though, to be sure. And you’re right—this is stupid. Got any better ideas? I’m listening. ‘Cuz Kieran and Ethan are already hurt somehow and these people caused it. I have to do something, Peter. Something!” I was pleading. I did not want to go into that house where people were trying to hurt me, where people had succeeded in hurting people a lot stronger and more capable than me.
Peter inhaled and exhaled slowly, looking at me the whole time. “What do you want to do,” he said softly.
“I found the anchor,” I said, looking in the direction of the house. There were several houses blocking the view, though. “But I have to wake Ethan up from whatever they’ve done. And I don’t know how.”
“Can you travel through his anchor?” Peter asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, “I wouldn’t even know how to try.”
Shifting my perspective, I stared at the spot on the Pact, and shrugging, I jumped headfirst into it. I didn’t bounce back, like I expected. Instead I learned the difference between one instant and the next—one tiny vibration of an atom in the sole of my foot against the next—and I was in Ethan’s world. It was beyond description, but at least I understood the name Kieran had decided on.
“Eth’anok’avel!” I shouted, thinking I needed to be overheard here. “Kir du’Ahn needs you. I need you. Wake up!” I was in front of the Pact again, reset on its new stone foundations. There was suddenly a light breeze in the cavern.