by Rain Oxford
“I am against that,” Luca said. “I’ve got a rape whistle and I’m not afraid to use it.”
Our time was up. The vampire who hadn’t spoken grabbed my arm. Despite the thinness of his fingers, his grip was unbreakable. He had power. It wasn’t magical; it was the power to easily kill me just with his fists.
When one of the others tried to grab Luca, I reacted automatically. “Omtakha!” The two vampires were thrown back, but the one with a grip on me jerked his hand down, slamming me into the old pavement. I groaned as my head hit a rock.
“You bastard!” Luca shrieked at the vampire. Before he could attack my assailant, another recovered from my hit and grabbed Luca from behind. Luca slammed his head back into the vampire’s face, earning a shout of shock. Blood poured from the vampire and he started cursing in another language.
I opened my mouth to cast again when I felt a blast of hot pain in the back of my head. For the second time in less than a day, I passed out.
* * *
I woke to the vampires speaking in another language. I felt Luca’s breathing next to me and opened my eyes. My light was gone and the room was dim. We were in the living room of an old house that looked abandoned. I saw no furniture, only two doors and a set of stairs leading to a second story. The three vampires were talking between the stairs and the door, which I figured was the way out.
The walls were weather-beaten. I was pretty sure I could break through them, but I was also pretty sure that doing so would collapse the house on us.
It didn’t do any good to listen to the vampires’ conversation, so instead I assessed myself and Luca’s condition. We weren’t tied up. I suspected they didn’t feel threatened by us enough to bother. My head hurt, but moaning about it wouldn’t get us to safety. Using Luca to hide my movement, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my Writer book and pen.
I felt Luca jerk and tapped his back softly four times in rapid succession and then three times just as quickly. He froze. Morse code was one of the many codes we had learned for our games and we used H.S. as short for hold still. He was facing them. I opened my book and wrote with barely enough light to see the page.
Bright sunlight filled the room where the Writer and Luca were hiding.
The sentence faded. I supposed I had to have a source for sunlight. It couldn’t possibly be because I didn’t really want to kill the vampires. I wrote that I had a weapon that could be used to kill vampires, but that sentence also failed.
I put my book away. While a number of ideas came to mind, there was only one way to make sure Luca wouldn’t get hurt, and that was to get him out of there. I grabbed his arm tightly and whispered, as quietly as I could, “There’s no place like home.” Unfortunately, all three vampires reacted like I had shouted; they ceased their conversation and turned to us. “There’s no place like home,” I said, not bothering to whisper. Since I was caught anyway, I tried to say it as fast as possible. “There’s no place like---”
One of the vampires moved faster than my eye could track and was suddenly behind me, clamping his hand over my mouth. “Shut up, human,” he growled.
“Shows what you know, assface,” Luca taunted. “Neither of us are human.”
The vampire narrowed his eyes. “You speak English.”
“So do you.”
“We learned because many of our prey are human and one of their languages is English.”
“Parla italiano?”
“Si.”
“I told you it’s not a dead language,” he said to me. I pointed to the vampire’s hand over my mouth to remind him that I couldn’t speak. He rolled his eyes. “I know; now’s not the time. We’re still not human, though.”
“I am sure your blood will taste even better, then.”
“That’s racist.”
That made me wonder if our blood tasted sandy, which was both weird and the wrong time for such contemplation.
Megyar, I thought, picturing the vampire rolling on the floor in agony. I wanted to hurt him.
Using domatago without actually speaking was only something the gods could do. Although it was much less reliable for me than saying the words aloud, it meant others couldn’t counter my attack as easily.
The vampire shouted, released me, dropped, and started convulsing. Luca and I got up just in time to see the remaining two vampires rush us. I didn’t have the time to cast any magic. They never reached us, though. Instead, all three of them froze. “Oh, shit,” Luca said, pulling a flashlight out of his pocket. He clicked it, but it didn’t turn on.
“They’re here?” I asked, pulling one of mine out. It didn’t work either.
“Yes.” He pointed to the walls, where shadows were moving.
“That’s creepy as fuck.”
“You haven’t seen the half of it.”
At this point, a man and woman formed out of the darkness. The man was similar to the vampires, except he wasn’t wearing chains and his eyes were black. The woman had dark brown hair and black eyes. She was five-eight and buff enough that I almost confused her for a man.
They both stared at us for a few minutes before the woman said something in a foreign language. The man asked me something, but I had no idea what it was. “I take it they don’t meet as many humans as the vampires,” I said to Luca. The man asked his question again, louder. “I don’t know what you’re saying!” I yelled back.
The man held out his hand and red light started to form.
“Fetharsi!” Luca said, jumping in front of me with his hands up. “Noquodi. Bliorax lasollor.”
“What are you saying?” I asked.
“The only words I know, which Langril taught me to use if I ever ended up in trouble with Dothra wizards.”
“Which are?”
“Peace, claimed, and reward. Basically, I’m telling them that I mean them no harm, I belong to a Dothra wizard, and there will be a reward if I’m returned.”
“That’s a little emasculating.”
“So is having your body turned inside out. Think of the nastiest threat you’ve ever heard. These guys have done worse.”
While we were talking, the man and woman were also discussing it. “Can I write that I can understand them?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Thoth is your god and he’s the one who made all natives of Syndrial understand Common, so I bet you can if you write it right.”
I slowly started reaching into my pocket for my book, but the woman shouted something and pulled a weapon from her side. The handle was bladeless when it was on her waist. When she drew it, however, a katana blade appeared, blowing orange.
“That’s so fucking cool I’m having trouble being afraid,” I said.
“Well, you want to share some of those balls, mister lion?”
The woman demanded something. “Fetharsi,” I said. The woman narrowed her eyes, pointed to my pocket, and spoke again. “Fetharsi,” I repeated, reaching slowly into my pocket. Instead of reaching for my magic book, which they were likely to take, I pulled out my pen. She glared at it, so with the same exaggeratedly slow movements, I wrote on my arm that I could understand any language.
It faded.
“Write it in Syndrial Sacred,” Luca suggested.
“I don’t know that much Sacred.” I wrote it again, this time specifying that I could understand and be understood by any magic user. I also used my true name. I felt something very subtle change in me.
The man spoke again. I heard the words in their language, but I understood the gist of it. He was telling her we couldn’t understand her and they should just kill us. My head throbbed with their words. My magic wasn’t properly done, so it would be especially draining.
“We are here to learn from a very powerful wizard,” I said.
Their eyes widened.
“You’re still speaking English,” Luca said.
“I know.”
“You have a magic tongue,” the woman said. “I will cut it out and sell it.”
“No, you won
’t.”
“Don’t challenge them, Brother,” Luca warned.
“No tongue is worth more than the person it belongs to.”
They glanced at each other and the man nodded. The woman put her sword away. “In that case, we will take you to our master and collect the reward.” She motioned with her hand and my wrists snapped together as if bound by invisible rope. My pen was knocked out of my hand. “Sjokve,” I said automatically. My pen shot to my hands.
“What are they doing?” Luca asked.
“Taking us to their leader.” We followed them out of the house and onto a street. It looked like a typical American suburban neighborhood that had been abandoned for ten years. All of the vegetation was dead, the houses were decrepit, and the road was cracked and full of potholes. “This is a strange place,” I remarked.
“Yeah; very American. I think it’s because they’ve had so many humans get trapped here.”
We were led into the more populated town. There were people sneaking and loitering around in the dark. Whatever they were doing, I got the impression they weren’t up to any good.
“Where are you taking us?” I asked.
“To the master,” the man said with irritation. Obviously, he would rather have eaten our entrails.
“Does he have a name?”
“No,” the woman snapped.
“I have an idea, but I need to be able to talk to them,” Luca said.
Although I planned to get us out of there as soon as the opportunity struck, I couldn’t tell him so. I trusted Luca, so I pulled out my pen and wrote on my arm that Luca could speak and be understood as well.
“You two are quite the formidable pair,” Luca commented.
The man smirked, taking the bait. “Liona is my understudy.”
“Ah. That makes sense,” Luca said with a nod. I grunted and stopped walking. “You okay, bro?”
“Yeah, my sprained ankle is acting up. You guys go on ahead. I’ll just slow you down.”
“We are not letting you go,” the woman sneered. As she faced me, I angled myself away.
“I know. I’m not trying to weasel out of anything. I wouldn’t leave my brother.”
“Yeah, he’s super overprotective,” Luca said, resuming his pace.
“Stay with him,” the man said to Liona as he followed Luca.
Liona sneered at me. “I should just kill you for your weakness.”
“You could, but I’m extremely valuable to your master. Does that even matter to you, though?” I sat on the ground and massaged my ankle, which wasn’t actually hurt. “Do you get any credit or will your man there get it all?”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Well, I just assumed that you’re his “understudy” because you’re a woman. I haven’t seen him teach you anything. It happens on my world, too.”
“Stay out of my business.”
“You’re right; I overstepped my bounds. I bet most men stick their nose in your business around here. Besides, he could be telling everyone how great you are for all I know.” Once a seed of doubt was planted, the next step was to change the subject. Pushing my point or arguing would just make her resist. “I’m good now if it’s okay with you.”
With suspicion, she nodded and we continued walking. She couldn’t argue with me if I was agreeing with her.
“Thank you for letting me take a break. You’re a lot cooler than I thought you’d be.”
“How did you injure your ankle?”
“Luca and I are trying to take out a god, but he got the drop on us, I guess. It had all been a trap and he has our mother.”
“Why have you not killed him?”
“We’re not experienced in fighting gods.”
“Every being of power has the same crippling weakness.”
“What’s that?”
“Greed. Power is addictive and destructive. If you are willing to do what it takes, you can destroy him by exploiting his greed.”
“Have you ever done it?”
She stared at the man in front of us, still out of earshot. “Not yet. When I take over, I will be prepared to stay in control.”
“What’s taking you slowpokes so long?” Luca asked. He was done sowing his own seeds.
We joined them and walked in silence for another twenty minutes until we turned the corner of a store and saw a massive castle. It was the kind that belonged on a hundred-thousand-acre lot, yet it was jammed into the middle of the city. There was a ten-foot tall iron fence with a concrete tunnel spewing water into the street. There was also rubble everywhere, as if part of the castle had been blown up. Most of the stone walls and towers were warped. Whoever designed the thing was drunk off their ass, and whoever built it had no idea what they were doing.
Liona prodded me in the back to tell me to move, yet it wasn’t hard enough to be painful.
I grabbed Luca’s arm. “Maybe this guy knows Langril.”
“If not, be ready.”
“I am.”
As we approached the gate, it opened. The yard was overgrown where cement and stone rubble wasn’t crushing the dead grass and weeds. The wooden porch creaked ominously as we walked on it. Luca sidestepped a hole, then stopped to peer into it. “Where’s the crocodile?”
“Not everyone can afford a crocodile,” I said. “Some people have to settle for rusty nails beneath their trap porches.”
“That’s so sad. There are so many crocs that need a home.”
Liona knocked and a man in his early twenties answered. “We’re taking these two to see the master.”
The man stood aside and we entered the castle. It was bare. There was no artwork or decorative furniture, and every door was closed. There were no windows and the walls were all painted maroon.
“New management or bad divorce?” Luca asked, pointing to a spot on the wall where something had been moved. A rectangle was mostly clean, whereas the area around it was dusty.
“The master has recently overthrown our previous master,” Liona explained. “The new one is much better.”
“That’s got to get really confusing without names. You got the old master, the new master, the not quite so old but not the new master, and the oldest master…”
“They do not get overturned that often.”
After another ten minutes of walking, we arrived at a grand set of double doors, which opened automatically. I assumed magic had a hand in it. The room was thirty-by-thirty with twelve-foot high ceilings. The hardwood floor was scuffed and bloodstained.
Only one item of furniture was in the room; an extravagant, blue satin throne. Sitting on the throne was a man I wasn’t expecting. He was middle-aged with a dark blue dress shirt and black slacks. His blue eyes were friendly and his brown hair was cut short and professionally styled. He struck me as a CEO more than a wizard, but maybe that was intentional.
Next to him was a pretty woman in her mid-twenties with long, straight, gold hair and big, light brown eyes. She wore a knee-length, dark red dress with straps that draped off her shoulder and a black, sparkly choker with a silver Edelweiss hanging from it. Her eyes widened when she saw me, but the man didn’t react at all.
“These two had been captured by vampires, and---” Liona started.
The man in the throne put up his hand and she shut up instantly. “Rewards for you both, now leave us.”
They made no attempt to argue. They disappeared faster than chocolate chip cookies at a baby shower. There were also no guards, telling me the man valued his privacy and was confident in his ability to protect himself. When we were alone, he didn’t introduce himself.
“Nathan, this is Langril, my old mentor,” Luca explained.
“He’s not what I expected.”
“He’s completely insane.” He didn’t bother to whisper. “Hello, Heather,” Luca added politely.
The woman frowned at him. “Do I know you?”
Langril laughed. “Of course you know him.”
“I know him,” she said
, pointing to me.
“Um… I don’t know you.”
“No, you haven’t met him yet,” Langril said to her.
“I’m lost,” I said.
“Yeah, me too,” Heather said.
“I’m the Writer, and this is my brother---”
“Nathan and Luca,” Langril interrupted. “There is no need for Syndrial formalities here. Luca, I’m glad to see you found your brother. It’s a shame you lost your magic, though. Nathan, it’s nice to finally meet you. Your brother has told me a lot about you.”
“Not that much,” Luca argued. “I’m not the Painter anymore.”
Heather gasped, obviously having filled in the holes. “I didn’t realize your brother and you were twins.”
“This is my daughter, Heather,” Langril explained to me.
“I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but Luca and I are here on rather urgent business.”
“Of course you are. No one ever comes for a friendly visit or to thank me for my help.”
Heather rolled her eyes at her father’s antics.
“Our mother is in trouble.”
“That’s terrible, especially considering Luca told me she was dead.”
“It’s a long story.”
“Then you should probably get to explaining if you want my help.”
* * *
We told him everything, and fortunately, he didn’t interrupt with any questions or comments. Of course, Luca kept getting off subject.
“That’s very interesting,” he finally said, sitting back.
“Can you help us?”
“I can, but there’s something I want out of it.”
“What’s that?”
“Oh, nothing big.”
“I’m not making a deal without knowing what you want,” I said. “I know about Luca’s ‘favor’ to you.”
“I don’t regret that,” Luca said.
“I don’t care. I’m not making a deal on a favor. Tell me what you want exactly or we’ll figure this out on our own.”
Luca paled. “Nathan, tone it down. I don’t have my powers and you haven’t seen what he can do to people who piss him off. He’s got less morals than the gods.”