by Sean Stone
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ he said unconvincingly.
‘Neither do I,’ Drew said, rounding on me. ‘You wanna fill me in?’
‘That’s what she said,’ I quipped and then laughed to myself. Drew’s scowl told me what he thought of my joke.
I took great pleasure in telling Drew about the mysterious backer who was going to turn the tide of power in Sangford and how I believed it was this mysterious Magraval. I left out the part where I’d told Monroe my suspicions. Even the stunted version of the story was enough to get the Prime Wizard sweating. Maybe now he’d rethink his plans. Or at least be more subtle.
‘After Dorian’s fall, I am going to revel in the punishments I bring down on the two of you. You both might like to consider relocating,’ Artemis told us, an air of malice in his voice. If I believed he was actually going to overthrow Dorian’s regime I might actually have been worried.
When the boy returned he needn’t have said anything. The terrified expression on his pale little face told us everything we needed to know. The ashes were gone. Kagen was free.
‘He could already have regenerated,’ Drew said as I drove us towards his flat completely ignoring the speed limit. Drew, being the Wiley wizard that he was, had kept the blood Kagen had left all over his sword. We could use the blood in a spell that would tell us where abouts Kagen was. ’He could be anywhere in the city. He might even have left the city.’
‘No. He’s still here. He won’t leave until he’s finished with me. By finished I mean killed me. He just wants to torture me a bit first. He seems to enjoy it,’ I said. Kagen could probably have killed me numerous times if he’d taken me by surprise but he never did. He wanted to play around with me first. He enjoyed the chase. That would be his downfall. One thing you did not ever do was play cat and mouse with the deadliest supernatural assassin this side of the Atlantic. Although until I figured out how to kill him I wasn’t all that deadly to him.
‘We need more lead boxes,’ Drew muttered.
I yanked on the steering wheel and tore around the corner just as the traffic lights changed from green to red. I opened my mouth to reply to Drew and that’s when I saw the flash of orange out of the corner of my eye. Drew and I both turned in time to see a massive ball of fire slam into the side of my beautiful car. The whole vehicle was lifted off the road and sent flying through the air. I didn’t have time to think of any protection spells. The car smashed down on its side and then rolled right across the tarmac to land, rather miraculously, on its wheels again.
All I could hear was ringing. Adrenaline was flooding through my entire body and stopping me from feeling the pain that should’ve been crippling me. I could feel warm, sticky blood oozing down one side of my face.
‘Motherfucker!’ Drew shouted. At least he was alive. I turned to him and saw that his forehead was cut open but otherwise he looked okay. I doubted my car looked as good.
I looked out through all the cracked windows of my now totalled Maserati. Smoke was pluming out of the bonnet. But I could see no sign of our attacker. I had to throw all my weight against the door to force it open and when it did I tumbled out onto the road. The pain was catching up with me now. My leg was throbbing and one side of my face felt someone had gone at it with a fist of barbed wire. I pulled myself onto all fours and that’s when someone’s boot kicked me right in the ribs. I felt one of the bones crack, and I fought back the wave of nausea that followed as I was forced onto my back.
I looked up and saw Kagen leering down at me against the night sky. ‘That was the longest time I’ve ever been dead,’ he told me. ‘It wasn’t pleasant.’
I threw up my hand but as I opened my mouth to utter a spell his boot slammed into my lips. Blood flew across the tarmac as my head smashed into the road.
Drew’s fist hit Kagen’s jaw and sent the Phoenix-Born staggering to the side. He delivered blow after blow to our assailant, hitting him with such speed and ferocity that Kagen never quite had time to retaliate. I climbed to my feet, still watching my uncle deliver a much-deserved arse-kicking. Even without magic he was a formidable opponent. Then Kagen’s entire body ignited in rich flame and Drew flinched back before his fist could make contact with the fire.
Drew changed tact. He pushed his hand forwards, his magical ring glowing and said, ‘Butio.’ The ring’s light flickered and then died as it ran out of juice. A curtain of horror fell over me. I’d forgotten to recharge it for him. In my defence, he hadn’t exactly reminded me. Even through his flames I could see Kagen smirking at my uncle’s failure.
‘Rabole!’ I yelled, before Kagen could harm Drew. The Phoenix-Born was jolted back into the building behind him. The brick cracked with the force of my spell and sparks flew off Kagen in all directions.
Crowds were gathering to watch the commotion now. Phones were up no doubt recording the action. This debacle would appear on the morning news as would my rather handsome, if somewhat bloodied, face. That could not happen. I closed my eyes and drew the energy from every electrical device around me. Every light around us, from every phone, every streetlight, and every building was vanquished as I stole the juice that powered them and the whole area was plunged into darkness. Moans came from the roads as their phones died without saving what they’d been recording. Unless they’d been broadcasting live the world would not be seeing this showdown.
I was full of magic and ready to blast the shit out of Kagen. The brief moment I’d had my eyes closed was all he needed. As my eyelids opened I saw the stream of fire coming my way. I didn’t have time to do anything. I had to stand there with a stupid, shocked expression on my face as the flames engulfed me. I’ve been in countless fights over the course of my illustrious career as an assassin. I’ve experienced pain on levels most people couldn’t imagine. But nothing compared to the feeling of phoenix fire igniting every nerve ending on my body. The screams that flew out of my mouth could only be described as girlish. In times of extreme pain the human brain often shuts itself down and starts finding ways to block out the pain. This time, however, I managed to summon a rational thought. I saw the river just a few feet away and I ran for it.
I was aware that running whilst on fire would only fan the flames but I certainly wasn’t going to walk over there. Pedestrians flew out of my way as I approached. I probably looked like a human torch running right at them. I reached the railing and leapt over it, flinging myself into the icy depths of the river. The fire was snuffed out and my whole body was washed in sweet, delightful bliss as the coolness of the river consumed me. I enjoyed it only for a moment before my brain said enough was enough and cut the cord to my consciousness.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I woke up beneath the dazzling sun. Its warm rays shone down on my body making me feel quite snug. I was enjoying the comfort of its heat so much that it took several minutes for me to remember the fight with Kagen that resulted in me throwing myself in the river.
I needed to make sure Drew was okay.
I sat up in a hurry and paused when I saw the back of a naked woman a short distance from me. Fiery red hair ran down her back and despite its vibrancy I somehow knew it was natural and not dyed. My eyes trailed down her back to her bare backside which was… well it was a welcome sight.
I felt a stirring down below. It was a natural reaction to what I was seeing. A refreshing breeze blew over me and my lower region felt it a little too strongly. I looked down in horror to see that I too was totally naked.
‘Oh!’ I said in surprise and looked around for something to cover myself up with. The girl turned to face me. Her eyes flicked down to my manhood and a childish giggle escaped her lips. This was obviously some sort of coma induced dream. Not only was it too bizarre a situation even for me to have somehow ended up in, but also my body was completely unharmed. I should’ve been covered from head-to-toe in burns.
‘Sorry,’ she said when she saw me blush. ‘I haven’t seen many… thingies.’ Her use of the word thingy was test
ament to that. Referencing it so blatantly only made me turn a deeper shade of red. I placed my hands over my genitals to protect it from further examination.
The girl turned her whole body to face me and I saw that she had a truly beautiful face. It was familiar in some way, but I was too confuzzled to figure out how so. I’m no pervert but even so, it took a good deal of willpower to stop my gaze from wandering down below her neck to look at the rest of her body. She had seen all of me so it would only be fair, but still it would only make this whole scenario even more awkward than it already was.
‘It’s okay, you can look,’ she said with an exasperated smile.
My eyes shot down before I even told them too. I couldn’t stop the satisfied smirk from creeping over my face. Having allowed myself a glimpse at her stunning naked body I raised my gaze back to her eyes.
‘Why are you — why are we naked?’ I asked. Usually if I woke up with a girl and we were both naked that meant I’d got some action, but I could tell that that was simply not the case. Reason one, I would remember doing anything with this girl. Reason two, I still felt as horny as a teenager, so my needs had clearly not been met.
Confident that my little fellow had gone to his resting state I removed my hands. It seemed silly to cover it up when she’d already seen it all.
‘Well, when I found you your clothes had been burned to rags and I had to remove them to heal you properly. Trust me, they weren’t covering much up at that point,’ she told me. She had a sweet voice. There was a childlike quality to it which frankly made it a bit disturbing that she was naked. She looked quite young, early twenties at a guess.
‘Wait, you healed me?’ That explained why my body was completely unblemished. She’d healed the wounds from the phoenix fire as well as the cuts and bruises. Even my broken rib had been mended. This woman had quite a skillset.
‘Yes, I did. You did want to be healed, didn’t you?’ she said, a moment of worry muddying her expression as she thought that I might actually have wanted to stay injured.
‘Yes, yes, of course. Why wouldn’t I want that?’
‘I don’t know what you human folk like these days. I’m not like my sisters, I stay here where I belong,’ she said rather cryptically.
I raised a hand to my forehead to try and make sense of all the craziness I’d woken up to. ‘Right, listen. I’ve got a few questions if you don’t mind. I understand now why I’m naked, but why are you naked? What are you, since you’re apparently not human? Why have you helped me? What happened to my uncle? And who are your sisters?’ I looked around at the absolutely picturesque place we were in. Luscious trees and shrubbery was all round us and I could even see rabbits hopping about in the distance. ‘And where the hell are we?’
She laughed lightly and shifted position to get more comfortable. I noticed her eyes flick down to my todger again and I repositioned my own legs to obstruct her view a little. It didn’t really make a difference though.
‘That’s a lot of questions,’ she said. ‘Let’s see… I am a river nymph. I’m naked because… well I’m always naked.’ She shook her head as if wearing clothes was simply ridiculous. ‘My sisters are the other river nymphs. I helped you because you fell into my river and it seemed cruel to let you die. And I have no idea who your uncle is or what happened to him. Oh, and we’re in Sangford. I think your people call it the South End.’
‘No, we’re not,’ I said with a self-assured smile. The South End was rough as hell and this place was quite simply heavenly. The nymph pointed behind me. I looked over my shoulder and my jaw dropped. Not far from where we were sitting were the oldest, crumbliest buildings you could imagine. We were in the Dregs somehow. I turned back to her in confusion.
‘I carved out a small chunk of this boggy land and made it beautiful. Unfortunately, this was the best I could do. The rest had to stay as it was,’ she told me.
I ran both hands through my hair as I once again tried to process the information she was giving me. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Hmm,’ she looked over at the river ponderously. ‘I’ve never gone into the city so I’ve never needed a name like my sisters. What’s a nice name to have?’
‘Are you serious?’ I said in astoundment. She was actually asking me to name her.
‘Yes. Of course.’ She had such an innocence about her. It was a good thing she hadn’t gone into the city or she would have been eaten alive.
‘Uh…’ I tried to think of a nice female name but only the crappy ones came to mind like Agatha. I couldn’t name her Agatha. ‘Marie?’ I suggested, picking the best of a bad bunch. It wasn’t a great name but it was better than Agatha.
She smiled sweetly and nodded. ‘Yes. My name is Marie.’
‘Okay, Marie. Now we’ve got that out of the way I need you to explain this river nymph business to me.’
‘Okay,’ she said, nodding ponderously like a teacher trying to figure out where to start. ‘The river that runs right through the city is split into three branches.’
‘North Sanguis, West Sagnuis, and Sordus,’ I said. I knew my city geography. If we were in the Dregs that meant that the river we were currently next to was the river Sordus, the shortest branch of the river.
Marie nodded and continued. ‘Each branch is governed by one of the nymphs, my sisters and me. Our mother lives in the fork. We draw our power directly from the river. My sisters like to go and spend time in the city sometimes which is why they have human names.’
‘Ah, now I get it,’ I said.
‘My oldest sister was given the longest stretch of river that goes through the West. My second oldest, the middle child, was given the nicest part of the river that runs right through the North. She got that because she’s the prettiest so she got the prettiest part of town.’ Marie was right about being the prettiest part. The West branch was decent enough but it did have the bogs on one side of it. So did this part of the river, in fact. I could see them through the trees on the other side of the river. ‘Being the youngest, I got what was left. The shortest and ugliest part of the river. Bogs on one side and the South End on the other. That’s why I made this pretty little place for myself.’ She smiled and stretched her arms wide at our surroundings. Stretching her arms forced her breasts forwards at me and I had to look away before they ignited another reaction.
‘Still it’s a bit unfair to give you the ugliest part.’
‘Well, I am the ugliest sister,’ she said. She didn’t speak in a way that asked for sympathy, she said it like it was a cold, hard fact.
‘Marie, you’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. Seriously the only people more beautiful than you that I know are…’ And then I realised who her sisters were. ‘What are your sister’s names?’
‘When they go into the city they’re called Jasmine and Leah.’ There it was. Mystery solved. I supposed she was right about being the worst looking of the three, though to say she was ugly was in no way true. She was still one of the three most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. And to be honest, there wasn’t much difference between her and Jasmine. Leah was the one who was clearly on top in the looks department.
But, more importantly right now, Leah was a river nymph. She was the middle child which made her the nymph of the North. That explained how she was able to control the water at Monkeys so easily. The water was from the river which put it very firmly under her control.
‘Now, I’ve told you lots about myself. It’s your turn to tell me how you ended up on fire and floating around in my river.’
Fair was fair, so I took a deep breath and told her everything. I even told her that I was an assassin. It seemed harmless to divulge the secret and she swore to tell nobody. To be honest, there was a strange air about her. It made me relax more. I felt like I could trust her. If she was anything like Leah then she was definitely trustworthy. I wasn’t too sure about Jasmine yet though.
‘It seems odd that the man who hired you had heard of you,’ she mused.
‘How so?’
‘Well, you said he was a… noncult?’
‘Nocult.’
‘He was a Nocult. So how did he know about you? Nocults wouldn’t know about a supernatural assassin if you never dealt with them.’
I had no answer to that question. That sort of thing was Drew’s area of work. He handled the clients. But that was a question I definitely wanted answered now. The more I thought about it this whole situation was starting to look more suspicious. How did Kagen’s father-in-law not know he was a Phoenix-Born? He didn’t exactly hide it. I was starting to get the hideous feeling that I’d been set up. But why? And who would have the mental fortitude to come up with such a dastardly plan? This was some next level evil mastermind stuff. Nobody I knew had it in them.
‘You’re pretty old right?’ I asked as tactfully as I could which was not at all. She nodded, apparently taking no offence. ‘You must have seen a lot of creatures. Do you know how to kill a Phoenix-Born?’
‘I’ve never seen a Phoenix-Born. I’ve only seen the creatures that pass through this land and I can assure you that I do not get involved with killing them.’ The last she said a little sternly. Clearly, she did not condone such practices.
‘So that’s a no then?’ I wanted to be certain before I left.
‘It is. However, in my experience all creatures, most creatures, are most vulnerable when they’re children. Or when they’re still growing. That’s why we have parents to protect us. That’s why birds have eggs to cover them and keep them safe until they’re ready to enter the world. But if you can get through those defences, parents, eggs, or whatever else, then you will have the most defenceless thing imaginable. Why anybody would want to harm something in that state I couldn’t imagine. But my point is, even the most invulnerable things are most vulnerable when they’re growing.’ That wasn’t a great deal of help to me since Kagen was already an adult. He’d done all the growing he was going to do.