As Merrick was contemplating Bradley’s accident, he failed to block an incoming Shomen Geri front kick to the left side of his abdomen. He tried to absorb the blow while retreating, but his opponent pressed his advantage and followed with a flurry of kicks that forced Merrick back toward the wall.
Luckily his attacker made a mistake, throwing a sloppy roundhouse kick. Instinctively, Merrick spun around and whipped his leg backwards with an Ushiro Geri donkey kick that caught the man hard in his sternum and knocked the breath out of him.
Merrick took full advantage of his opportunity. He dropped down, continuing his circular momentum, and swept his opponent’s lower legs. In a heartbeat, the man went down, and Merrick was on top of him, alternating hands, punching with one fist while guarding his face with the other.
His opponent knew that he was beaten, and as a last resort, he drew his arms and legs up to protect his body.
Seeing this, Merrick dropped his guard completely and hammered the man with blows from both fists.
Through the fog of his attack, Merrick heard a man’s voice yelling something.
“Yame!” the instructor said again as he signified that the sparring match was over.
Merrick snapped out of his frenzy, stopped his attack, and stood up, offering his opponent a hand up. The man reached up with a smile as Merrick pulled him to his feet. He knew that Gus was going to have some nasty bruising from their match, but Merrick didn’t feel bad about it at all. Gus could have tapped out at any time instead of waiting for Master Banzo, the stocky Japanese man they called Sensei, to call a halt to the kumite.
Merrick wasn’t surprised about Gus’s behavior at all, though. After all, the type of people recruited for the Alphas were not the kind who gave up easily.
Master Banzo called Merrick and Gus to him. They both stepped closer and bowed to their Sensei. His nickname was the Dueler, and Merrick did not have to feign respect for the man as he lowered his head. After bowing to their teacher, the two men turned and bowed to each other.
“Good match to both of you,” Master Banzo said. “Merrick, you showed excellent focus at the end, but you must remember to never completely lose yourself. You have to maintain your mental balance. Practice your mushin, your empty mindedness. Keep yourself aware of everything and nothing all at the same time.”
Master Banzo stood a foot shorter than Merrick, but the man was as solid as a boulder. He was also fast. One time, Merrick had witnessed him move so quickly that he had no idea the man had gone from being in front of him to being behind him. With his stubby but rock-hard body, Master Banzo moved more like a penguin than a martial arts expert, but his mastery of fighting was undeniable. He was untouchable and easily the best physical fighter the Alphas had.
Master Banzo and Gus walked off together as Merrick turned to see Cara walking toward him across the dojo floor.
“I was surprised when Betty told me you were sparring,” Cara said. “Thought maybe you’d be down with Bradley.”
“That’s exactly why I am here,” he said. “I know what Bradley’s going through must be tough, but I can’t help being mad at the guy anyway. He blatantly broke procedure, and that’s why he lost his leg. I realize that the last thing he needs right now is me telling him that he should have paid more attention to the rules. So, I’m here hitting people in a controlled environment instead.”
“How mature of you,” she said with a slight grin. “But you’re right. He doesn’t need to hear that kind of thing now. Doc wanted me to tell you that he can’t do anything else for him, other than dampen the pain. He’s got him pretty stabilized, and even though he wouldn’t normally recommend a trip for him, he thinks it will be worth the risk shortly, given the potential for getting his leg back.”
Merrick thought for a moment as he wiped his forehead with his sleeve.
“Do you think that Oodrosil could help?”
“The Yew can restore our energy, but it can’t replace entire limbs,” Cara said.
Merrick swore.
“Then one of us is going to have to take him to see the Earth healers,” Merrick said.
“Let’s talk and walk back to my office,” Cara said. “We’ve got a couple of other things to discuss.”
Merrick nodded and motioned for her to go first as they headed toward the door.
“I’ve got something I want to talk to you about as well,” he said.
The two of them left the dojo together, Cara in her formfitting business suit and Merrick in his white training gi.
As they entered the open hall of the third floor, Merrick looked through the large glass windows at the trees whipping around in the wind outside.
“It is the middle of summer, right?” he said. “What’s up with the gale force winds out there? Looks like a storm’s on its way. Again.”
“I think Araki’s mad about something,” she said.
They took the elevator up to the fifth floor and walked to Cara’s office at the end of the hall.
Cara and Merrick entered through the two large oak doors.
Merrick looked around and couldn’t help remembering that this office used to belong to Cara’s father, Ohman.
Merrick had considered the old man to be just like a father to him. And for a while, he actually thought Ohman was his father. When Ohman died at the hands of Merrick’s brother, Eudroch, Merrick had been just as devastated as when his adoptive father had died. Merrick understood that all energy in the universe was recycled and was never truly destroyed, but he was still depressed for months after Ohman’s passing.
Merrick and Cara sat on either end of an aged brown leather couch that faced a wall adorned with an immense television screen that was so thin and flexible it could be rolled up like a poster and moved almost anywhere.
A worldwide news show was airing a special on climate change. The anchorman in the blue suit was discussing with the show’s local meteorologist how global climate change was not a challenge for some time out in the future anymore, but was instead a current and ongoing crisis that the world had to deal with right now.
“First things first,” Cara said as she motioned to the television display. “I wasn’t joking about Araki. All the extreme weather. Any or all of the dragons could be causing this kind of thing, but it smells like Araki’s work. Notice there’s no follow-up storm from Sigela. No real heavy rain—so Lagu’s probably not involved. Just wind. A lot of wind.
“That brings me to thing number two. I received a message about an hour ago from the Fuugoshujin family. And I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“The Wind Family? You’ve taught me a lot about how to deal with all of the different Drayoom factions,” Merrick said, “but I’ve never been clear whether the Wind Family is our friend or not.”
“Friendly to our face,” Cara said. “But I’m not sure what they really say about us behind closed doors.”
“What did they want?”
“Something very out of the ordinary,” Cara said. “The Emperor wants to...stop by for a visit—to pay his respects to the new Ard Righ.”
Merrick looked up at the video display on the wall and laughed.
“He wasn’t talking about me, was he?” he said.
“Of course he was, Merrick. I told you there’d be a lot of Drayoom from both the Earth Clan and the Fire Tribe who would consider you to be the new Earth King. You’re the son of the current Earth Queen, and it’s obvious to members of both families that, even though you have the blood from two dragons running through your veins, and despite the fact that your brother was mentally unstable, you yourself are not an aberration.”
“Why do you think he really wants to see me?” Merrick said.
“The Wind Family has never gotten along famously with the Earth Queen, so I’m guessing this visit is as much of a political move as anything—one we need to take seriously.”
“Don’t worry. I’m taking it seriously,” Merrick said with a grin. “When’s this supposed to happen?”
; “That’s the bad news,” Cara said. “Wednesday. Day after tomorrow.”
Merrick blew out his breath through pursed lips.
“Any way we can tell them we already have plans?” Merrick said.
Cara smiled and looked back to the news show that was doing a feature on the extreme weather just outside the nation’s capitol. Merrick allowed himself a glance at her face, lit up by blue washes from the television screen. He was with Mona, and things were better off than ever before, but he still found Cara attractive in many ways. She was smart, driven, and of course, beautiful. It was no wonder to him that, when he had first met her, he had followed her around with a massive crush before realizing that they were never going to happen.
“I don’t think that would be such a good idea,” Cara said. “I’ll take Bradley to the Earth Clan this afternoon and be back tomorrow morning to help you get ready for the envoy. Since the Emperor himself will be coming, they’ll most likely send a detail tomorrow in advance to check out our building for any security weaknesses. I’m sure the old guy doesn’t make it down to terra firma very often, and they’re going to be paranoid.”
“That sounds like a plan. I hope they don’t expect too much time, though. I’ve got a lot of work to do, and no offense to Bradley, but with every day he’s out, that’s another day we’re behind schedule weaponizing the new, smaller cubes.”
Cara got up and paced back and forth. She whispered a word under her breath, and the television display, now showing areas where potential tornadoes might touch down in the local area, went to mute.
Merrick looked at her in anticipation. He could tell that she was about to bring something up that she perceived as being sensitive.
“What else did you want to tell me?” he said.
“Since you’ve been back, you’ve been sort of obsessed with things,” Cara said.
“I thought I was being dedicated?” Merrick said.
“You know what I’m talking about. You’re working yourself and some of the employees to death. I understand this is the new you. You’re focused. You’re purposeful. I get that. Hell, I even like that. But you also work with the divinium and drain your internal power so much every night that when you leave here, you look like an old man. If we didn’t have Oodrosil to replenish our life forces when we went home each night, you’d have died a long time ago.
“You need to think of this like a marathon, not a sprint. Theoretically speaking, you won’t be able to finish recreating the Earth Dragon’s lexicon until the last of her followers are born, reach maturity, and then remember their creation names anyway. That’s a long, long time from now, Merrick. At least, I hope it will be.
“If you keep pushing yourself and our employees, there’re going to be more accidents like the one this morning. Adding all of these words so quickly and turning half of them into weapons is just dangerous. Bradley losing his leg today proves that. We need to proceed, but we need to do so with more caution.”
“Bradley knew the procedures,” Merrick said, standing up and looking down at Cara from his full height. “His accident had nothing to do with me pushing him hard. He was just careless. That’s his personality.”
“Then he shouldn’t be working that assignment,” Cara said.
“Since Chris passed away, Bradley’s the best programmer we have,” Merrick said. “It’s not like I can just put an ad in the paper. Wanted—computer programmer fluent in object oriented programming languages and magic.”
Cara turned her back to Merrick and stared again at the television display.
“I’m also concerned about the increasing amount of words from the other dragons we’re housing here lately. This place was built to contain and to work predominantly with the Earth language. I know that you’ve established teams to work on the Fire, Water, and the Wind lexicons, too. That’s a lot of power being stored here in one place—power that hasn’t been brought together in a long, long while anywhere else on this planet.”
Cara turned back to face Merrick.
“Sometimes I wonder if you have any idea how dangerous that is,” she said.
“I created a whole new lab especially designed to contain the Fire Magic, and I’ll do the same for the other dragon tongues as soon as I get a chance,” Merrick said. “I’m not being reckless, Cara. I’m doing things the right way. I just happen to be doing them a lot faster than usual.”
Cara bowed her head and took a deep breath.
“I just think you’re too focused on this part of the job and not enough on other things.”
“What part of Rune Corp am I ignoring?” Merrick said.
“That’s the problem. You’re not ignoring the company at all. But when’s the last time you spent an evening relaxing with Mona or going out on the town? You can’t keep up this kind of pace without burning out. The last thing we want is to wear you out, and the last thing you want is to screw up your relationship with Mona.
“I also don’t understand the urgency. Things in the Drayoom world are going pretty well compared to the way they were even a year ago. Swella is the acting leader of the Fire Tribe, and they’re actually communicating with the Earth Clan, even if the Queen is still being her usual arrogant self. I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of love between the two communities yet, but there’s a general acceptance, and it’s because of you. And that’s unprecedented. Things are good right now.”
“They’re only good for as long as the dragons allow it,” Merrick said. “The Queen may think she’s the Earth Dragon’s representative to her Drayoom followers, but trust me, the dragons do whatever they wish, and they don’t consult anyone.”
Now it was Merrick’s time to pace across the room. Cara followed him to the large round window encased in an ornate wooden windowpane that was carved into a series of complex runes. Merrick and Cara stood side by side, looking out at the surging storm and the grey sky.
“You want to know why I’m in such a hurry? I’m afraid that if we don’t recreate a unified language from all four of the dragon tongues, we won’t have the power to fight back the next time someone attacks us or if the dragons decide that we’re just not worth all the hassle anymore.”
Cara opened her mouth to say something, but Merrick continued.
“I think your father felt the same way. I found some of Ohman’s notes in his private digital archives. He must have wanted me to read them, because the cubes gave me permission to see the files.
“Ohman wasn’t just trying to recreate the Earth lexicon. He was trying to unify all of the dragon tongues. He was populating hidden repositories for each of the other three dragon tongues for years. I’m not doing anything new here. I’m just trying to carry on what your father was working on. He thought this was important enough that he gave his life for it, and after experiencing the power of the dragons firsthand, I have to agree with his concern.”
“That’s like saying you want to make a nuclear bomb before someone else builds one,” Cara said.
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Merrick said.
Cara dropped her hands to her sides. Her face turned pink.
“Other than the dragons, what are you worried about?” Cara said.
“You’re looking at this the wrong way, Cara. Everyone was so focused on me and Eudroch and the prophecy for so long, I think they forgot the real danger out there. What does the Book of Abred talk about? It teaches us that the real dangers facing the Drayoom and this world are the dragons themselves.
“They’ve never viewed this planet as our home. They created the first Drayoom for one reason only—they created a servant to select one of their own kind to rule over everything—to rule the universe—the Manred. Even Terrada wanted to lord over her siblings. Abred had an adversarial relationship with all the dragons except maybe Terrada, and who knows what the Earth Dragon’s motivations for helping Abred really were?
“I think the Drayoom have lost sight of the real enemy. They all think that the dragons view us as their childr
en or as their loving worshipers. But the dragons aren’t gods. I think they see us as unfortunate consequences to something they did at the beginning of time, and nothing more.
“That’s why I want to unite the power of all the dragon tongues. You’re right. It is like having our own nuke. The Drayoom need a bigger and better weapon. Six months ago, Sigela tried to return to the Earth—to turn our home planet into a giant fireball. It frightens me to ponder what the dragons might try next and which of the Drayoom leaders is going to help her.”
Cara opened her mouth to say something, but Merrick could tell that her brain was busy processing what he had just said. She knew that he was telling the truth.
When she finally spoke, her voice was soft again.
“Just after my father died, I watched a message from him that he stored in this pendant,” she said, holding up a teardrop-shaped piece of divinium that hung from around her neck. “It showed me a series of snippets from his memory. One of the memories was of him receiving a quest directly from Terrada, but it was in a language I couldn’t understand. He was ordered to keep the quest a secret, and he did. He never told the Queen what it was, and he never mentioned it to me.”
“You have no idea what it was about?” Merrick said.
“No, but after hearing from you about what he was working on, I think I have an idea. Maybe the quest had something to do with combining the dragon languages into a single lexicon—recreating a single dragon language, like the one Abred used to possess. That would explain why my father left the Earth Clan, so he’d have the freedom to collect words from all four of the families. The only thing that doesn’t fit is why Terrada would ask my father to recreate the very language that Abred once used to enslave the dragons.”
“For some reason, Terrada seems to be the one dragon that cares the most about us and even about humans,” Merrick said. “I think she knows that the Drayoom are going to need a bigger weapon if they’re going to survive. And she also knows that none of the families can be trusted with that much power. Maybe she trusted your father instead.”
The Equilibrium of Magic Page 4