by Rain Oxford
“This is level one,” she said, passing me her spear.
“Do you know what it means?”
“It means this is the easiest it’s going to get.”
I nodded. I wasn’t afraid of a difficult training session. I was a little worried they would go ahead and kill me, but it was better them than Maori.
One of them pulled a metal stick from his or her pocket. It was about two inches thick and ten inches long. He shook it back and forth like if he was mixing a drink and it expanded in both directions to become a five-foot-long spear with spikes at both ends.
“Damn. That’s cool,” I said.
“I’m totally willing to beat up my brother if someone gives me one of those,” Luca joked.
The person attacked me. Luca tried to pull me out of the way, but I reacted with magic. “Omtakha,” I said, extending my hands as if pushing him away. Magic flowed through me like a fierce wind and struck him, knocking him back a few steps.
“Well, that was impressive,” Luca said sarcastically.
“Not enough,” I responded. Meanwhile, the other members of the group were extending their own weapons. “Stay out of this,” I told Luca.
“Fat chance. I can’t fight them and protect you at the same time.”
“Well, you’re going to have to, because you took my powers.”
He was right, and that sucked. When we attacked, Luca wouldn’t stay out of the way; it wasn’t in his nature. It was a dangerous risk I had taken, but I refused to accept the Painter as my brother. I didn’t want to share blood with the person who had killed my parents.
The forest people obviously realized I was distracted because they all attacked at once. Luca and I got struck once before everyone backed off. “You’re dead,” Malie said.
“We didn’t have weapons.”
“You have magic.”
“You said magic wasn’t used for attack.”
“It shouldn’t be. We had weapons and you didn’t. Does that mean the blade is superior to magic?”
“No. I’ve seen the damage magic can do.”
“Then magic is superior to the blade?”
“The most powerful caster I know couldn’t save my mother from a dagger, so no, I don’t think that, either. It’s not what you have but how you use it.”
“Good. You understand. Now, what do you hope to learn here? You said yourself that you cannot master weapons.”
“I would like to learn some things I can use to help me protect myself and my brother. Maybe we won’t have to fight Maori. Nobody said we had to kill him. Maybe we can sneak in, snatch the weapon, and not get killed.”
“Avoiding a fight you cannot win is usually the best course of action,” Malie agreed.
“What if we have to fight him?” Luca asked.
“We’ll hope for the best and prepare for the worst.” I turned back to the forest people. “Please continue.”
“You need a weapon,” Luca said. “Unless you plan to write while they’re attacking you.”
“Can I write that their weapons disappear?”
“Don’t ask me, try and see.”
I pulled out my book, but one of the forest people knocked it out of my hand. “Your god power has a major flaw,” the man who’d disarmed me said.
“That’s because there’s a balance in magic,” Luca said.
“What does that mean?”
“The first thing Langril taught me was that magic must be balanced. That means the more powerful your ability, the greater your weakness. Or, you might have an enemy who is just as powerful. Sometimes it’s both, sometimes it’s something different altogether. This is true for anyone, mortal or god, on any world. It’s part of magic itself.”
“If that’s the case, then no one, not even a god, is without weakness.”
“Exactly.”
The forest people, who had been kind enough to let Luca and me chat, decided all at once to rush me. I responded with the strongest spell I could do without my book. “Khatva taha!” A three-foot-wide, horizontal wind tunnel formed from my hands outward, tossing five of the forest people out of the way.
I heard a shout of fear in the distance and dissolved my attack. Malie stood, putting her hood down, and followed the sound out of the clearing. I picked up my book and ran after her. A hundred feet away from the training circle, we reached a cabin.
It would have looked the same as all of the others, except that the roof was half torn and one of the walls had collapsed inward. The glass window was shattered. In front of it, a woman sat in the dirt, staring at it with shock and horror. She was similar to Malie in height and build, with even redder hair and gold eyes.
My wind tunnel had damaged the woman’s home.
“Send for Ria and Terka to rebuild this cabin,” Malie ordered when another forest person approached her.
“Wait, maybe I can help,” I said, opening my book.
I wrote that the house started to repair itself, but it required describing every detail of the process. It took twenty minutes and a number of pages to accomplish. Before everyone’s eyes, wood, metal, and glass returned to its former condition, as if I was rewinding the scene.
When I was done, I was exhausted.
“You did a good job,” Luca said.
“It would have taken Painter three seconds.”
Luca shrugged. “His power is different, yes, but he also wouldn’t have done it.”
“Why not?”
“It wasn’t his job. He wouldn’t have taken the work from those it was meant for.”
“We do appreciate your help,” Malie said. “We are short of carpenters and Heta would have been sleeping in the dirt tonight.”
“Why wouldn’t she stay with someone else? Surely she has a friend who has room.”
She frowned. “That is her house. She can’t take someone else’s house.”
“On Earth, it’s normal for humans to invite others to stay in their house for a short time,” Luca explained to her. “They even have guest rooms, which are only there to accommodate friends and family.”
“That is so strange.”
Luca nodded.
“Why is that strange?” I asked.
“As far as I know, humans are the only ones who do it,” Luca answered. “On Duran, you don’t sleep at a friend’s house and you don’t invite people to stay at your house. If you do, you’re basically asking them to move in. Visitation is fine, but sleeping over is where the line is crossed. It’s a serious commitment, like handing over half your house. If you invited someone to sleep over, they basically have just as much right to stay as you, and they can modify the house as they see fit.”
“That seems extreme.”
He shrugged. “Then don’t invite anyone to stay the night.”
“I won’t.”
“It’s also why we’ll always be welcome at the temple; as far as they’re concerned, we live there by order of the gods. They have no right to turn us away, even if we’re not wearing our robes.”
“We should get back to training,” Malie said, motioning that we return to the clearing.
“How can I? I destroyed a person’s house.”
“You are impulsive and not trained well enough. More training and experience will prevent mistakes like that.” Luca and I followed her back to the clearing. “Your attack was impressive. Try visualizing the attack being vertical. You will have better aim that way.”
I did as she instructed and this time, a tornado formed around me. Although it wasn’t calm inside, Luca and I weren’t blown off our feet. After a few seconds, I let it go and it quickly dispersed. The clearing was destroyed, as a lot of the grass and rocks had been relocated. In fact, all of the forest people in the clearing were on the ground.
“I think that’s good for now,” Malie said, obviously hurt as she stood.
“Do you need help?” I asked.
“No. Every injury makes us stronger. We will have food now.”
* * *
Br
eakfast consisted of peach-shaped fruit that was dark purple inside and had bright red skin. It tasted a lot like a super sweet apple. I didn’t care for it, but Luca liked it. “They’re like huge milwyd berries.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to return to Duran?”
“I will be fine when we get back to our regularly scheduled lives. I was never able to talk about it before. It wasn’t easy.”
* * *
“We’re going to teach you something new,” Malie said. We were back in the training circle. Luca was helping the forest people gather food. The jaguars were protecting them as they did, so I wasn’t worried. Two more forest people joined us with their special metal spears.
“This looks like it’s going to be fun.”
“Have you ever bitten the inside of your mouth and tasted your blood?”
“That metallic taste? Yeah.”
“Keep that in the back of your mind. While you do, imagine everything metal being thrown away from you.”
“Why metal?”
“We can control all inanimate objects with one cast or another, but it takes many years to master every one. This is a good one to start with because people usually attack with metal weapons. Watch a demonstration.”
I stepped back from her as one of the warriors approached her. He swung his staff over his shoulder to strike her in the head. It was fast and unexpected enough that I reached for her to pull her out of the way instinctively.
“Dresek,” she said calmly.
I would have been too late…except that she hadn’t needed me at all. As if it had hit a ward (one that did work against weapons) the staff rebounded mid-strike and flew out of his hand. The man ran off to retrieve his weapon.
“Your turn. Now, focus.”
I did. It was easy to imagine the metallic taste in my mouth. Imagining the weapons shooting away from me wasn’t much harder; I had just seen that it worked. I was completely confident. The two warriors swung their weapons. “Dresek,” I said.
One of the rods whacked me across the stomach and the other struck my shoulder. My spell hadn’t even softened the blow. I groaned with pain and collapsed to my knees. The warriors backed off.
“You either weren’t focused enough or you weren’t determined. Try again.”
I did, and I got hit on the chest and the back of my knees.
“Again,” Malie said, not bothered at all.
“Shouldn’t I rest and think about how to do it better?”
She pursed her lips. “How long will Maori give you to rest?”
I stood carefully. “Fine. Again.”
I got the crap beat out of me pretty badly. The tenth time, when I didn’t think there was another bone left to be broken, Luca joined us. He stayed out of the way and observed, not distressed by my condition. To him, it was nothing.
Well, it was nothing to the Painter.
His easy acceptance of the fact that I took away his magic was weighing on me. I had to do it for him. He believed I could do it.
It occurred to me there was a reason I needed to think of the metallic taste of blood in my mouth… other than the fact that I had blood in my mouth.
The metallic taste was because of iron (ferrum in Latin) which was magnetic. The casting was basically making my body repel metal the way the same poles of two magnets repelled each other. Somehow, having an idea of how it worked— even if I was wrong— made it more like science. I couldn’t fail at science.
I couldn’t fail because Luca needed me. I took away his magic for my own selfish desire not to have my family and friends killed. He was counting on me.
The warriors attacked. “Dresek.” Blue energy pulsed from me and their weapons flew out of their hands.
“Good,” Malie said. “Keep practicing. Try to make your energy invisible. Doing so will make it more difficult for your opponent to counter it.”
* * *
I practiced the metal-repelling spell, the tornado spell, and summoning the rock creature for the rest of the day. By the time I crawled into bed, I could barely move. Even still, after half an hour, I couldn’t sleep. “You awake?” I asked quietly.
“Who can sleep with you stressing harder than a mouse in a cat factory?”
“You’re the weirdest person I know.”
“Thank you. It’s not even game day yet, Nathan.”
“The longer we wait, the greater chance he has of killing the gods.”
“Let’s hope he starts with Set.”
“I’m being serious.”
“So am I. They’re the ones who dragged us into this because they’re too afraid to face him themselves. We don’t owe them anything.”
“I owe them. Anubis gave you back to me. Thoth gave me my writer ability. Speaking of which, can’t my staff enhance my power?”
“When you learn how to use it properly. That I can’t help you with. I preferred to just kill people who… I mean… the Painter… It’s so weird to talk to you about this while not being the person who has all this experience.”
“If you could go back to being the Painter, would you?”
He nodded. “I want both, but if you were killed because I couldn’t protect you, it would destroy me. I’m the older brother; it’s my job to protect you. It’s always been my job. I’m willing to give you up to keep you safe.”
“I guess I’m not that brave.”
“When the time comes, I have faith in you. You’ll do what you believe is best for both of us, even if my point of view is different. We should go to Kradga in the morning. For now, try to get some sleep.”
A few hours later, I finally fell asleep.
* * *
When I woke, Luca already had the portal to Kradga ready. We joined the others for breakfast. I felt pretty bad, but it was nothing a hot shower and five cups of coffee couldn’t fix. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a hot shower or any coffee. Instead, we thanked Malie for her help and bid her farewell.
As soon as we returned to the cabin, I reluctantly activated the portal and we stepped into it.
Chapter 7
We were standing on an islet of cracked, black, volcanic rock, surrounded by a river of lava. The islet was around ten-foot by fifteen-foot wide. Centered on the land was an eight-foot-tall, black rock structure. It didn’t look man-made. The rocky surface was both uneven and smooth, making it ideal for slipping on.
The air, not to my surprise, was hot and dry. The sky was light enough to suggest it was day, but the clouds were thick and red, blocking out any direct sunlight and making the lava seem brighter in contrast.
“Well, now I see why Kradga is called the world of fire,” Luca said. “Why are there clouds? Surely there’s no rain.”
“It’s probably a visual effect.”
“I don’t know. It really looks like it’s about to start raining lava.”
“That is against science.”
“Everything fun is. What’s the plan?”
“We find Maori… somehow… defeat him… somehow… and get the weapon… somehow…”
“Thank Thor. I thought we were going to have to wing it. I should have had more faith in the mighty plan-master.”
“We need to find Maori. How do we find the most powerful person on a planet?”
“We go up to someone and tell them to take us to their leader.”
“How often does that actually work?” I asked automatically. Then I thought about it.
Luca frowned, also thinking about it. “Actually… all the time. It has never not worked for us.”
“Your use of double negatives is deplorable.”
“You poking fun at my grammar when we’re surrounded by lava is deplorable.”
This was why I needed my brother. To anyone else, we looked like we were wasting time. In reality, we were studying our surroundings, scouting the best shelters, weapons, and supplies we could need. While this went on, we talked because it kept us calm and because we had a few code words, which we could sneak into regular conversation.
>
“We have to find someone to demand they take us to their leader. We also need a plan for when they capture us.”
“Well, I’m going to go with the usual plan.”
“Which is?”
“Kick ass, don’t die, and celebrate with pizza. “
He was definitely Luca. I had my brother back after so many months.
“Hey! Weird person at your seven.”
I turned, automatically blocking him from whoever was advancing. The guy was faceless, dressed in a black robe like one of the priests. He was also standing in front of the spot I had pegged for us to hide behind. If he attacked, there was only a river of lava behind us. “Do you still have your ring?” I asked.
“I could never risk you finding out about the Painter early or someone else getting it and endangering you, so when the amulet activates, my ring, books, brush, and paint all vanish to a secure hiding place.”
So he was mortal. More than that, he was defenseless.
The faceless man suddenly appeared beside Luca. In response, Luca punched the faceless man in the face… sort of. When that did nothing, he kicked the man in the gonads. Again, nothing happened. “What the Fritos!”
I grabbed Luca by the arm and raised my right arm to the faceless man. “Omtakha.” A blast of energy struck him and he was thrown into the lava river. He made no sound or attempt to protect himself.
“Fuck. Did I just kill someone?”
“I don’t think those are people,” Luca said.
“I really hope not.”
“They aren’t,” said a voice. We turned back to the mountain in time to see a head duck behind a rock.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” I said. “We need to get to Maori.”
“You can’t,” the young man said, still hiding. “He will call you when he’s ready to hear your plea.”
“We won’t be making a plea. We’re demigods, not dead, and we were sent by the gods.”
“Then Maori is going to be angry. This is his world and he doesn’t listen to the other gods. You two would just be an insult.”
Luca laughed. “Yeah, I know how that feels.”
I ignored him. He wasn’t making it easy on me to forget that he was the Painter. “We aren’t expecting this to be easy. How can we get to him?”