Windslinger

by JM Guillen

  “What?” I waved an arm widely, snapping at him. “If you think—”

  Reality exploded around us in a burst of shimmering turquoise and sapphire. Thunder burst around us, deafening. It rumbled through Serin’s desk, and his lamp fell to the floor, its glass shattered. Books fell from the shelves. A sharp explosion of savage wind burst into the room and caused his windows to rattle and a door to slam loudly. Serin’s papers flew wildly from his desk and drifted to the floor.

  I froze in place, realizing what I had done. On my wrist, the bracelet Simon had given me buzzed like an angry hornet before quieting into a soft, eldritch song.

  “Um,” I brilliantly stammered. “I didn’t mean to. The thing is—”

  “Sit,” Serin commanded, his eyes like wrought iron.

  “Okay.” I sat, my left hand covering my right wrist. It’s the damn bracelet. Simon had told me that it would give me a stat bump, but I hadn’t expected anything like this!

  Serin stepped over to his windows and gazed down to the street. He watched for a long moment before the tension melted from his shoulders.

  “Well.” He shook his head. “No real harm, I suppose.”

  Who is he looking for? The moment I had the thought, an idea popped into my head.

  Surely not the Silent Gentlemen… right?

  “I’m sorry,” I muttered.

  “I know.” He gave a brief smile. “You just lost your head. That can be dangerous for individuals such as us.”

  Wait.

  I stared. “What do you mean, ‘such as us’?”

  Serin said nothing. Instead, he reached into the collar of his shirt. Grasping something there, he pulled it out and let a small, silver pendant rest on his chest.

  A pendant with a stylized blue eye at its center.

  The Aegis of Dudael.

  “What.” It wasn’t even a question. I glanced down at my bracelet and shook my head. “Does everyone have one of those things now?”

  “Hardly.” He smiled. “I take it you know what you’re wearing?”

  “Yeah.” I stared at the pendant and remembered the first time I’d ever seen the eye, all those years ago after Simon’s lesson on the Silent Gentlemen. “I thought so, anyway.”

  “Your control will have to be impeccable while you are learning, Elizabeth.” He smiled. “Especially when you wear the Sign. Otherwise, it will not shelter you as it should.”

  “I was informed,” I sighed. “I suppose I just wasn’t as impeccable as possible.”

  “I can agree with that,” he chuckled.

  “But…” My head spun as I tried to connect all the dots. My dad… the shop… What did Simon have to do with this man?

  “You gotta spill.” I frowned and sank back into my chair. “What do you know that you aren’t saying?”

  “A great many things.” He barked a laugh. “But one step at a time.”

  “You’re… clever?” I’d used the wrong word, I knew it the moment I said it. “I mean, you’re saying that you’re… talented?”

  “Indeed.” He touched his pendant and the bracelet tingled on my wrist. His words may have trailed off but his voice did not. It plunged from a pleasantly low tone into a rolling basso growl a Tyrannosaurus would have envied. The light level faded away, and everything in the room became faint and indistinct except for him.

  I blinked, completely caught my surprise. Mr. E. Serin… shone.

  A sourceless light appeared around him, a nimbus of warmth and radiant goodness. He glowed like an avatar of the sun itself.

  “Wow,” I gaped brilliantly.

  “We are alike, Miss Shepherd.” The room began to tremble as if in awe of the creature in front of me. “We wield influence. This is the only power that matters.” His bass voice licked around my spine in a far too pleasant manner, and the sibilance of his syllables slid around my head in an avalanche of echoes.

  “Influence?” I blinked, stunned.

  “Influence grants us choice, Elizabeth.” Serin smiled. “We have far more choices than the average person.”

  Then, as if a cloud passed before the sun, the light levels returned to normal. Mr. Serin did not glow; the room remained rock steady.

  “I, uh… whoo!” I gasped for breath. “Okay! Bet you’re fun at parties.”

  He chuckled.

  “Now I have a billion more questions.” I raised an eyebrow. “Sooo… where should we start?”

  “Not with any of that.” Serin nodded toward the paperwork. “We have business to discuss.”

  “You can’t play dumb now!” I sat back and crossed my arms. “Obviously you know a little bit about a little bit.”

  He stepped over to the window and again glanced downward. After a moment, he turned back to me.

  “Ms. Shepherd, I’m certain you have more than one thing on your mind right now and I seem like a good source of information. And you are correct in that assessment. However, I am also an expensive source of information.”

  “So?” I shrugged one shoulder. “You just told me I have over seven hundred thousand dollars. What do I care how much you charge?”

  “A valid point. However, there are two things to consider.”

  “Okay.”

  “First.” He plunked out one thick finger. “Those funds belong to Knucklebones, Inc. As your business manager and advisor, I advise against paying $750.00 per hour so that I can answer a few questions.”

  “Per hour?” I gasped.

  “Secondly, your father set up my retainer to do very specific business and legal activities. He did not provide those funds to you simply to hand them over to me for other matters. That’s hardly good stewardship, wouldn’t you agree?” He weighted his words oddly and I found myself nodding at his good sense before I knew it.

  Hey. I blinked. Had he just pulled something on me?

  “Aside from that, Aiden provided you quite a lot of instruction back at Knucklebones. You should peruse it, and then you may come to me with more complex concerns.”

  “Instruction at Knucklebones? What instruction?”

  “I understood you had been in the upstairs portion of the business. Did you not take possession of his notes?”

  “I mean, I found his desk.”

  “Books, Miss Shepherd. Hundreds of them.”

  “The books?” I wrinkled my nose. “Stupid stuff. Old tax ledgers and city planning stuff.”

  “Look again.” Serin smiled. “You will want to peruse them at length. They have some basic information you should find most useful.”

  I thought back to the rows of bookshelves and how they seemed to stretch out forever.

  “If so… that’s more than a little basic instruction,” I breathed.

  “I’m sure. I understand Aiden has quite the fascination with… odd happenings. He holds an extensive library of research materials.”

  I clung to the hope that I wouldn’t have to read every little page in the place before finding out what happened.

  “Regarding this, your father left something else in my possession.”

  “Yeah?” I leaned forward.

  “Mr. Shepherd indicated you were an inquisitive young woman. He seemed to think that you might wish to ask me—” He raised one eyebrow and shifted his tone upward, mimicking a feminine voice. “—a billion questions.”

  “Sounds like me,” I grinned.

  “He left this for you.” Mr. Serin reached into a drawer and pulled out a small bag.

  “He did.” I reached out as he set it upon the table and pulled the drawstring open. Inside, lay a small, leather covered book tied with a strap.

  I pulled it out, and only then noticed what else lay in the bag.

  A box? I reached for it, and pulled out a metal and wooden cube. On each face, a different symbol lay engraved in the center.

  Weird.

  “He indicated these items would assist you.”

  “What’s inside?” He gestured with the small book.

  “I literally cannot say.” He
gave me a tight smile as I untied the straps.

  The moment I opened it, I had to fight down a laugh.

  Of course he couldn’t. I slid the items back in their bag, and placed them in the oversized front pocket of my hoodie.

  “We have a lot of work ahead of us, Miss Shepherd, but I am instructed to inform you this was intended to be the basis of our first meeting.” He nodded at the papers in front of me, and the active ATM card. “You have what you require. If you like, we can set up an appointment in a few days and we can discuss some of the more pressing business regarding the store.”

  “Pressing?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Your father has a schedule for you, if you wish to peruse it. Employees.”

  “Employees?” I raised one eyebrow. I had a couple of candidates in mind.

  “Indeed. Also, we might consider traveling to conventions and the like to advertise the store.”

  “Cons? As part of my job?” Despite all the strangeness, the idea sounded wonderful.

  “Among other things. For now, you should consider how you want to handle daily operations. There are currently no other employees, and the store’s operating hours are somewhat sporadic.”

  “Mr. Serin, you said you don’t know where Dad is, and I get that.” I kept my tone measured. “But you guys set all this up two months ago. Surely you know something about why he did it?”

  “No.” He shook his head slowly. “I don’t ask my client’s intentions. It’s easier to protect them that way.”

  “Protect, not defend?”

  “I protect my clients, Ms. Shepherd. It’s a dangerous world we live in, as you might have noticed. Special individuals need special care.”

  Oh we’re special alright, I didn’t quip. I decided to try a different angle.

  “My thought is that maybe you know more than you think you do, Mr. Serin.”

  He cocked his head.

  “Like… like Knucklebones! You seem to be familiar with it and the upstairs portion. Did Dad really live there? What happened with his apartment? Did someone make him move?”

  “All I know about Mr. Shepherd’s living arrangements is that he resided above Knucklebones when he put my services on retainer. This would be shortly before we created the accounts you and I discussed.”

  “Right.” I nodded, unsurprised.

  “Liz, take heart.”

  I looked up.

  “Your father provided for you specifically for this instance. He didn’t come to it unaware. He seemed very prepared. In advance. There’s hope in that.”

  “That’s… that’s true.”

  “He also provided the means to prepare you. Go back to Knucklebones. He wanted to say something to you, so go and read his words. If you absolutely insist on paying me more money, we can discuss other… oddities later.”

  I nodded before he finished speaking. With a small shake of my head, I stood and held out my hand. “Thank you, Mr. Serin.”

  He stood as well and shook. “My pleasure, Miss Shepherd.”

  I mulled over what he said on the elevator ride down. Dad had gone to a lot of trouble to set all this up. It seemed he’d provided a part for me to play too. In Knucklebones.

  Reading.

  Forever.

  Mr. Serin’s words about good stewardship echoed in my mind.

  Perhaps that wasn’t a bad idea. I pulled out my phone and dialed up Rehl’s number.

  He picked up on the second ring.

  “Hey! So what’s the word?” he asked in a chipper tone.

  “Word is… complicated. I had a question, though.”

  “Sounds like you have more than one.”

  “Well, yeah, but this one’s for you.”

  “Do tell.”

  “I wondered, Rehl, if you might know anyone…” I trailed the sentence out, to build a bit of suspense. “…who needs a job?”

  Ambush

  I left Mr. Serin’s office in a daze. I walked down the hallway, completely passed the elevator, and had to come back.

  Mechanically, I pressed the elevator buttons and mused over mysterious wealth and the machinations of tight-lipped mentors. It all felt like a bit much, and my head swam.

  As I stepped out onto the sidewalk, the tune I had been humming blossomed into muttered singsong, “Where did you come from, where did you go—”

  “Damn it!” I stopped mid-lyric, and stood in place as I realized what ridiculous awfulness had stuck in my head. I laughed to myself.

  After a half block or so, I found a small deli tucked away into a New York nook. Time for some early dinner. Hefting my father’s book in hand, I stepped inside, ordered myself the greasiest meatball sandwich on earth, and grabbed one of only two booths.

  Only then did I open the bag and pull out the small box.

  “You’re a mystery, aren’t you?” Several obvious seams between the metal and wooden pieces confirmed my suspicion. Dad used to buy puzzle boxes for me when I was young—things meant to hide a young girl’s treasures. This was another one, but I couldn’t see how to open the thing.

  It might take a bit to sort that out. I placed it in the bag and pulled out the book.

  My father had written it in such a way that few other people in the world could possibly read it. Only a few pages contained script, but I had to work the code out manually.

  “Fucking Slieteri.” I couldn’t help but laugh at how similarly we thought. The language of my father’s fictional snow elves happened to be something only a handful of people knew about. The idea that he would use it as a code made me giggle.

  It had been years since I even tried to logic out the tongue, though, so I had to slog through, letter by letter. Fortunately, as time went on it became easier.

  Wanderer, it opened, in true fantasy style. Find you here the hidden lore by which your fortune shall be won.

  “God, you’re lame.” I took a bite of meatball sub and grinned to myself. “Biggest geek I know.”

  All lay before you, yet the veil rests across your sight. This is as was intended, so that the uninitited could not witness the truth.

  “I’m going to assume you mean ‘uninitiated’ there, big guy.” I shook my head. Sussing this out was a legitimate pain. I didn’t know that I could spend ten minutes on each page like this.

  Within my secret chambers lay knowledge the likes of which few dare seek. It is guarded by a creature from beyond the realms of men. When next you enter my sanctum, use the secrets contained herein. Abriel shall make herself known.

  “Abriel?” I cocked my head. I half wondered why this wasn’t some name I knew, my own snow elf character, perhaps.

  “Abriel,” I said again, rolling the name around on my tongue. Now that I considered it, it reminded me of some of Simon’s special Names, like Tarahiel.

  “You knew Simon,” I mused. “And Mr. Serin knows Simon too, no doubt.” I considered Simon’s words again, how urgently he wanted me to go to my father’s shop.

  The shop I’d never told him about.

  I turned the page and squinted at the first line of letters that awaited me.

  Here lay instances of significance. They will be quite enlightening. Still, peruse these things only after you speak with Abriel.

  “Weird.” I skewed my mouth around as I read, trying to figure out the next bit. A list of numbers lay below the line, which were easy to read at a glance. Yet I didn’t see—

  “Oh.” I ran a finger down the page. “Dates. Dates and…” I shook my head. “Diary entries? Latitude and longitude?”

  Maybe.

  “Okay.” I furrowed my brow. “Weird.”

  The next several pages were more of the same. Specific times—all in the past—followed by specific locations and long lines of text. I could easily transcribe the numbers, but reading full on Slieteri took time.

  I flipped to the next page. There was little text on it, but I couldn’t help but notice the script seemed far more rushed. It ran a bit sideways as well, as if Dad hadn’t
even tried to remain on the lines.

  Oh. It also happened to be in English, as if the person writing it hadn’t been a lunatic.

  Ramble ‘neath the silvered moon, twilight cloaked.

  “Well, that’s something for later.” I chewed my sandwich, lost in thought. What could that last bit mean? “An anagram?” Dad loved logic puzzles and riddles. But would he seriously toy with me right now, while I desperately tried to find him?

  “Yes.” I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. Of course he would.

  I sighed and decided I’d perhaps wandered off the path set before me. Sure, Dad probably wanted me to do something special with that ‘rambling’ bit, but until then, he had given me a very specific task.

  “Fine. I’ll read the rest of you later.” I stood up and tucked the small bag into my hoodie pocket. I felt Simon’s key there, and placed the bag next to it.

  Might as well keep all my mysteries in one place.

  It seemed as if the next part of my quest lay back in the shop. I wasn’t certain what Dad had planned out, but the man had always been meticulous. I knew I could trust him to have everything in place.

  “Far be it for me to be the one who ruined the entire adventure,” I chuckled.

  Only the worst kinds of players do things like that.

  2

  I hadn’t walked two blocks before I noticed him.

  “Fuck me,” I swore as I caught his dark reflection in a car window. I picked up my pace and my mind raced.

  “No.” I fought down panic. “No, no, no.”

  Things just couldn’t be easy.

  I rounded a corner and stepped up into a trot. Ahead of me shone the wide mirrored windows of a department store, and as I walked I had eyes for nothing else. If it actually was him…

  Yes. In the reflection of the windows I saw the man make the turn.

  The not-so-silent Garret followed me.

  “Being a little bit public about it, aren’t you?” I growled quietly and clutched at my bracelet. I had to admit I hadn’t expected this. When Simon had told me the Aegis would keep me out of sight, I imagined I had seen the last of the Facility ass-hat.

  But then, Simon also told me to lay low and not call upon the wind. I remembered the way Mr. Serin kept peeking out the window after my accidental outburst and practically bit my lip in frustration.