by Rain Oxford
An adult male lion, around six hundred pounds, with a full, majestic mane, blocked the bridge. None of us panicked; large cats of all sizes roamed the city freely, along with horse-sized black dogs. In fact, they were guardians of the cities. The cats usually wore jewelry and the dogs usually wore armor. This lion had gold cuffs on his paws and a gold pendant around his neck.
“Excuse me,” I said, gently. Keira had told me that the cats of Syndrial, although not shifters like she was, were highly intelligent. He knew I wasn’t food, but I had to make sure I didn’t sound frightened, because that would tell him I didn’t belong there. I also didn’t want to sound arrogant, because he was a six-hundred-pound cat with a powerful hunting drive. “We need to get to the bridge.” I kept my voice conversational.
The lion sighed heavily, yawned lazily, and then leisurely shifted his massive weight out of the way. I didn’t let that fool me one bit; if he wanted to kill, no one could outrun him.
We made our way carefully across the arched stone bridge that connected the lands. Mist over the water had made the stones slick, and there was no rail to hold onto.
“Did you know that a lion can jump higher than a house?” Luca asked Katok.
Katok’s eyes widened with horror. “What?”
“It’s because lions have very powerful muscles in their legs. Houses, on the other hand, have no muscles or legs, so they can’t jump at all.”
Katok frowned, having no idea what Luca was talking about.
“What do you know of Maori?” I asked.
“Only that he rules Kradga.”
“What myths do you have about him?”
“Myths? What’s that?”
“You know what myths are. They’re stories. Like that people who anger the gods die and go to Kradga.”
“Oh. True stories. I thought you meant like the murder fiction your world likes.”
“He does mean that,” Luca said. “Nathan doesn’t believe in Kradga.”
“I believe it exists as a planet,” I argued. “I just don’t believe it’s a planet of the dead.”
“How do you not believe something that is true?” one of the priests asked.
Luca laughed until tears were streaming down his eyes. “The world in black and white is so ugly,” he said.
That sounded like something the Painter would say, and it made me worry that Anubis’s magic wasn’t strong enough to hold back Painter’s insanity. It might not be healthy to question a god’s power.
We finally made it to the other side of the lake, were we were led through the trees by a stone path. Soon, we came upon a massive building with flat, polished granite walls and a slightly angled roof of terracotta tiles.
A ten-foot by twenty-foot covered porch greeted anyone who dared approach the temple. The floor of it was made of granite and the ceiling was painted with Egyptian art. The front door was made of dark wood and stained glass. Except for around the temple, I had never seen trees on Syndrial, so wood was rare.
“I don’t miss this place,” Luca said. “The art and history, I like, but there’s more oppression here than feminists at a wet t-shirt party.”
“What?”
He shook his head. “I have no idea what the hell I just said. That made no sense. Welcome back to Saint Dreamcrusher’s Academy of Magically-Inclined, Imagination-Repressed Kids.”
I ignored him and turned back to Katok. “So, do you have any new books or spells that can help us defeat Maori?”
“A caster doesn’t stand a chance against a god,” the priest on the right said.
I decided not to tell him that I was a demigod yet. That would make a much better surprise later. “Who are you?” I asked, wondering if his power was pessimism or ignorance.
“I am the Historian.”
“Can I meet the Her-storian?” Luca asked. Predictably, Luca’s humor went right over their heads. When they didn’t laugh, Luca pouted. “That would have been funny if you spoke English.”
“No, it wouldn’t have been,” I assured him.
We went inside. The entryway included a wall to our right and to our left, each with centered, iron doors. Across from us, the wall was open to the statue room, which contained seven marble statues of the major gods. Every inch of the walls were etched and painted with animal-headed gods, people, and hieroglyphs.
I couldn’t read the hieroglyphs because they were written in another of Syndrial’s language. Common Syndrial was natural to everyone. It was forbidden for anyone except a priest to write in Sacred Syndrial. Magic words were always in Sacred.
“Call for Keeper,” Historian said.
Keeper was the High Priest of the temple, meaning he was in charge of providing for the vessels of the gods and keeping the temple in good order. It also meant the other priests answered to him… as long as they agreed with him and felt like it.
Keeper opened the door to our right before Katok summon get him. “Hello again, Writer, Luca. This way, please. We should go to the courtyard garden to speak in private.” He gestured for us to move without actually being rude enough to shove us. He could be quite grouchy, but this time, he actually seemed nervous.
Through the door was a very straight hallway. The temple wrapped around the pyramid, so the long hallways were simple without branches. Doors to practice and ceremony rooms lined the walls. There was also the door to the dining hall and another to the courtyard garden, which separated the walls of the temple from the walls of the pyramid.
We didn’t get very far, however, before the apprentices converged around us, as all but the youngest remembered Luca. Although they were cautious of us because we weren’t wearing our robes, they were used to it from Luca.
By the time we were alone in the courtyard, I felt like a famous rock star’s bodyguard. I pulled out a Brew-Chew and ate it slowly, earning a grimace from Luca.
“What brings you back to us?” Keeper asked. He was an old man, probably in his seventies, who had been in charge of teaching Painter and me magic privately. Other apprentices were not afforded so much attention. Although he had tried to kill me, I liked the Keeper.
Of course, it hadn’t been his fault that he tried to kill me; he was under the control of Whisperer. Whisperer had the power to put commands in anyone’s head while they slept. He and his accomplices had been behind killing children rather than exiling them and they had felt threatened by my power when I had returned.
Fortunately, they hadn’t had the chance to catch Luca or me asleep thanks to our erratic sleep schedules and Keira’s intuition. Before I even met her officially, she decided to stick around me and protect me.
What does a two-hundred-pound jaguar do at night? Whatever she wants to do.
“The gods want us to face Maori.”
“You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because Maori is the ruler of Kradga, and the living can’t go there.”
Luca rolled his eyes. “You didn’t even tell Keeper?”
“Why would I have?” I asked.
“Tell me what?” Keeper asked.
“Keeper has to keep our secrets. I told him I was the Painter and your twin brother the first chance I got.”
“What?” Keeper’s god-given power was the ability to keep secrets. Not even the gods could get a secret out of him. He couldn’t reveal them even if he wanted to. People also felt compelled to tell him their secrets. He’d told me that he knew the Painter’s secrets, but he wasn’t able to tell me what they were.
I was a little pissed that Keeper knew Luca was my twin brother before I did. Or that I had a twin brother. Or that Luca was the Painter.
I was more than a little pissed.
“Yeah, as soon as you went to sleep. He was my first teacher of magic.” He looked at Keeper. “You can tell him everything now. My brother can know all my secrets.”
“I couldn’t tell you, Nathan.”
“You could have told me I was a demigod.”
“That’s part of why I told him,�
�� Luca interjected. “He would have figured out we were siblings the first day of your training, so I had to tell him in order for it to count as a secret. Thus, he couldn’t even tell you that. I wanted you to learn magic before you hated our father.”
“What all did you tell him?”
“I told him everything. Like, stuff you still don’t even know.”
“Like what?”
“There were four attempts on your life from Whisperer and Reader that Luca stopped, aside from the two you knew about,” Keeper said.
“Then Keira helped,” Luca said. “Anyway, we’re here because we need some more training for Nathan so he can fight Maori and get a magic weapon from him.”
“You should be best equipped to teach your brother magic.”
“Actually, I got myself in trouble and now I’m stuck as Luca forever. I have no magic.”
Keeper blanched. “That’s horrible. I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Ouch.
“It’s okay, but Nathan needs more help than my little books could provide. I relied mostly on my Painter powers.”
“Well, I am afraid we’re not the people to ask. We are taught to serve our gods and protect our cities, not fight gods.”
“Then who can help us?”
“As much as I hate to say it, the Voska can help you.”
Voska was the priests’ derogatory name for the people who lived outside the cities. Luca and I just called them sand people. They were my first choice in most aspects, but they weren’t easy to reach.
Since caster children were either trained to become priest or were exiled, none of the priests were born to caster parents. The sand people, however, mixed their magical blood and passed their knowledge on. They grew up practicing magic to survive rather than to pass their trials.
“Have you had any trouble from them since I left?”
“No. They stopped attacking us.”
“And are you still exiling children?”
“That will not change,” Keeper said regretfully. “We do not allow girls into the priesthood because they wouldn’t be able to pass their trials. Boys who are not powerful enough are also exiled. If they make it back into the city after being banished, we know it means the gods want them to live, so they are welcomed.”
“You can stop---” Luca started.
“I will not. I know there are worse things to be than exiled.”
“You lived out there, practically a sand person yourself. You can’t really believe that.” Keeper’s parents had taken him out of the city as soon as he developed magic because they didn’t want him to be taken by them. All they got for it was death.
“I am old, Nathan, and I have seen many things.”
“Secret keeper has secrets of his own,” Luca said, almost mockingly. I didn’t know if that was more Luca or the Painter.
“They’re not my secrets. I can’t tell you… however… if someone dies, I can tell you their secret. As long as they’re alive, I can’t tell.”
“What does that have to do with us?”
“It has everything to do with you. If someone dies, I can tell you her secret. If she’s still alive, I can’t.”
“Okay, dude, don’t get your panties in a bunch,” Luca said with a shrug. “We get it; you can’t tell us shit. We need to go see the sand people.”
Keeper sighed with frustration. “It is dangerous out there.”
“We know,” I said. “There aren’t many choices, though. Can Traveler take us there?”
“Not unless you know where you’re going.”
“Then we’d better get walking.”
“Eat first, and we will get you both some robes that will protect you from the sun.”
“That might not---”
“We’ll do that, thanks,” Luca interrupted. “I burn like a marshmallow. It’s not pretty.”
We left the courtyard. “He’s weird,” I said quietly.
“Maybe Keeper is crushing on you.”
“Gross. He reminds me of Grandpa.”
“Grandpa Paul, who thought you were the antichrist, or Grandpa Dale, who tricked you into trying chewing tobacco?”
“Dale, and it looked like chocolate.”
“That’s why you don’t like chocolate!”
“I do like chocolate, just in moderation.”
We headed to the dining hall, which consisted of three ten-foot-long, polished concrete tables and chairs made of metal. The walls and ceilings were decorated with art. On the south wall was a metal door, while the north wall had an open doorway into the kitchen. There were two dozen students eating dinner and a small number of them moved aside to give us our old usual seats at the end of the third table.
We got food out of the kitchen and sat. I ate my unknown meat steak, broccoli, and bread while Luca chatted away with his mouth full. I couldn’t have been happier to see his disgusting habit. I had my brother back.
The apprentices wanted to know all about our lives back on Earth. “Did you read the letters we gave Nathan for you?” Katok asked, joining us with his own plate of food.
I winced. I had lied to the apprentices that Luca had returned home instead of breaking their hearts by telling them their hero was the Painter. However, I hadn’t had a chance to tell him since getting Luca back.
Luca, being the perfect pacifist, lied without skipping a beat. “I sure did! Nathan gave them to me as soon as he got home and I read them every time I was feeling down.”
That brightened a lot of faces.
It was impossible to believe Luca was the same person who had killed multiple people.
“Here you go,” Keeper said, approaching us with two silver robes. I took the one he offered me and slipped it on. It was so baggy on me it looked ridiculous, but I knew the light material would be protective against the sunlight. Luca reluctantly took his and set it in his lap. Keeper didn’t even bother arguing; Luca’s tenaciousness had won the first time, whereas I had given up and wore the robe.
* * *
The night was pleasantly cool and dry. It made the impending doom all the worse.
Keeper insisted we cover our faces before he led us across the city to the gate. Once we crossed the lake, the city was similar to the temple; it was square. The three roads were square with steps leading from the high end to the low end. There were no side streets.
The middle district was the market, where the cobblestone road turned into compacted dirt. The buildings were less grand and made of concrete. It would have been jovial with people enjoying their night, except no one wanted to face the priests.
The lower district had crop fields on the north end. Here, they had loose sand rather than roads and the buildings were connected so that they were wide, with straight angles. They looked like cheap apartments, only three stories high, and were made of sandstone. There were windows, but no electric lights that I could see.
Enclosing the city was a fifty-foot tall stone wall, which also went ten feet below ground. It was designed to keep out the dangerous creatures that lived beyond the wall. We stopped in front of the twenty-foot tall iron gate. There were guard towers at the top of the wall, and after a horn blasted, the gates slowly opened.
“I wish I could help,” Keeper said.
“You do what you can. We appreciate it,” I said.
“Well, a car would be nice, but whatever,” Luca said.
* * *
“What’s that?” Luca asked, pointing to something ahead of us.
I froze and whispered, “Khapma?” Khapma were predators that swam through sand like it was water, hunted by sound and vibration, and usually traveled in groups. The only way to spot them was by the mounds of sand that formed when they were near the surface, and by then, it was probably too late.
“No, something else.”
I watched for a second before I saw it. A light flickered about a hundred feet north of us. I grabbed Luca’s arm to hold him still and looked behind us, where another light was flashing. “They’re sign
aling mirrors, reflecting some light we don’t see.”
“We’re about to be trapped in some kind of energy beam,” he said.
“Syndrial is a world of magic, not tech.”
“Five bucks.”
“Done, but wards don’t count.”
“They so count.”
Before I could argue, the air in front of us wavered and an instant later, a four-sided stone tower appeared. It wasn’t the most impressive tower; it was only twenty feet tall and had a door at the base of it. The top was open as a lookout. It was identical to the tower we had seen at a sand people camp. Beside the tower were three creatures that were similar to Komodo dragons with extra-long legs.
The door opened and a man came out of the tower, holding a spear. “We come in peace,” Luca said. “Unless you mean to eat us, then get ready for some indigestion. Oh, wait, we know you.”
The man wore fitted, sand-colored clothes that covered every inch of his skin, including his hands and face. His mask was down, though. I didn’t recognize him simply by his light brown eyes, but Luca was better at that than me.
The man reached us and lowered his spear. “Yes. My name is Kailo. I was at the camp when you two drove off the khapma. I was also there when you told Malie to take us and head north.”
“I take it you guys didn’t.”
“We did, and we found all the food and water we could ever need. There are rivers, trees, and food of all kinds. It is paradise.”
“No sand monsters?”
“No. There are other predators, but cats protect us like they protect the cities. It’s perfect. However, the priests have not stopped exiling children, so we made these routes between the cities and the north. Instead of letting the children die, we take them north and teach them.”
“That sounds great. Do you have assigned watchers?”
“We take turns scouting the sand. Our turns can last a couple of days or half a month. I’ve been here three days.”
“Can you take Luca and me north?”
“Sure. I thought you were a priest, now.”
“No. I’ve taken the trials and I’m the Writer, but I won’t join the priests. Actually, Thoth has asked me to defeat Maori and get a weapon from him. The priests can’t help, so I was hoping you guys could.”