Scales of Justice

by Brett Humphrey

  “Thank you,” she said. “I didn’t have these problems when I sailed on the HMS Beatrice with Alister earlier this year.”

  “My guess is you didn’t encounter any stormy weather either, did you?” I asked kindly.

  “No, but we did have people trying to kill us,” she countered and gave me a watery smile.

  I linked my arm through hers and walked over to the section of the deck where one of the cannons from the Flor do Mar was stored. After Jason and Brian found me, we swam back to what was left of the wreck on the ocean floor. One of my superpowers is the ability to pinpoint any area in the ocean I’ve been to before, making it easy for me to remember some of my favorite hunting spots.

  Rex Industries bought a salvage company in Australia and part of their fleet was a one-hundred-and-sixty-foot boat that was formerly used for crab fishing in the Bering Sea. If it could survive the rough seas and harsh climate there, I was confident it would work for us in this part of the world. Once the Salvage Marie was in place, Brian, Jason and I brought one of the cannons from the Flor do Mar near the surface so it could be taken aboard. We had to be careful with it because now the cannon looked like it had been under the ocean for over five hundred years.

  Once Hillaes used the cannon as part of her triangulation spell, Josef would announce the ‘discovery’ of the Flor do Mar and salvage the remaining treasure. We knew this would keep Afonso from being able to profit from any of the loot because there were already various countries claiming the treasure if it were ever found. I was going to keep the treasure I already recovered as my portion of the claim. Hillaes had high hopes that the spell would give us the exact location where we would find Afonso de Albuquerque.

  “Are you ready for this?” I asked when Hillaes finally looked like she wasn’t going to lose her lunch again.

  “As ready as I’m going to be,” she answered as she started sketching runes on the cannon with a yellow grease pencil. First she drew four triangles, two upright and two upside down. She drew a line halfway through each one. I watched in fascination as she continued to draw more intricate symbols on the top of the cannon then repeated the same on all four sides. She was concentrating so intently on her work that she wasn’t feeling the effects of the stormy sea any longer. I stood behind her to hold her in place while the deck moved beneath us. When she finished, she turned to look out at the raging sea and shuddered.

  “What do these symbols mean?” I asked to keep her mind off the roiling ocean.

  “Hmm?” she asked, then focused for a moment before answering my question. “The first four represent fire, water, air and earth, which form the basic elements to a searching spell. Those on the next line represent wood, gold, silver and iron, all things that were present on the replica and the original Flor do Mar. Finally, the last line represents man, both male and female, the hunter and the hunted, as well as wisdom, enlightenment and revelation. When I combine these runes with the incantation, the spell should reveal where we’ll find our quarry.”

  “What do you need me to do?” I asked.

  “Please give me the charm you retrieved from the ship then hold onto me while I concentrate. Since the concentration of magic on Earth isn’t as great as my home dimension of Claw, I must use all of the magic I’ve stored internally along with the magic stored in this.” She retrieved a necklace from under her shirt and showed it to me. Next to her thought medallion was a crystal attached to the necklace, pulsing softly with white light.

  “King Alister gave you access to a pocket dimension and affixed it to your necklace, but he gave me this instead.” At my questioning look she explained. “This is an arcane crystal from my home planet which can be used as a battery for magical energy. Even though the magical field on Earth is weaker than that on Claw, I’m still able to draw energy to fill up my personal magical reservoir and any excess I have, I’m able to place into this crystal. I’ll need you to keep me grounded as I channel energy into the spell. I hope it won’t happen but if I use too much, I might collapse, and I’ll need you to keep me upright.”

  “I’ve got your back,” I said to Hillaes with a warm smile. I was already impressed with the sorceress but my respect for her grew since she was willing to put herself into danger to help find the person responsible for so much death.

  “When you’re ready?” she asked and at my nod she turned towards the cannon and placed her hands above the writing on the top. I placed my hands at her waist and widened my stance, there wasn’t any way I was going to let her fall to the deck of the ship, even if she fainted with the effort.

  Hillaes began to speak softly and her hands glowed white. I couldn’t make out the words, but I could tell her spell was having some effect when the runes on top of the cannon began to glow red. Since I was a few inches taller than Hillaes, I was able to look over her shoulder and saw when the runes on the right side of the cannon glowed blue. Even though I couldn’t see the runes under the cannon, it was obvious when those were activated because a bright white light reflected off the deck. She was breathing heavier than before, and I could feel tremors throughout her body, but she didn’t stop what she was doing until the runes on the left side of the cannon glowed green.

  Hillaes took a deep, cleansing breath and reached into the leather satchel she had at her side, which I hadn't noticed until now. She held a piece of gold I had retrieved from the ship in her left hand and the block of wood holding the magical charm in her right. The tremors in her body were increasing and she started to sag, so I held her upright. Nodding her thanks, she continued with her incantation, holding the items in her hands out to the side, then raising her arms up in a slow half-circle until they were directly above her head. The wind savagely whipped Hillaes’ hair and my face was stung by the wet strands as they lashed my face.

  She slapped the items she held in her hands on the top of the cannon as she shouted the last words of her spell. There was a flash, then a streak of light shot northwest from our position. Hillaes’ knees gave out then so I tightened my arms around to hold her in place.

  “Thanks,” she said in a weak voice, “that was tougher than I thought it would be.”

  “What do we do now?” I asked.

  “We wait,” Hillaes said.

  “I hate waiting,” I muttered and Hillaes laughed weakly.

  “The directional spell has to travel to Afonso’s location then come back to me. The length of time it takes will let us know how far away he is. That combined with the direction the spell is traveling will give us his location, within a twenty-mile radius or so.”

  Hillaes took a deep breath and straightened. She was standing on her own feet again, but I could tell she was still too weak for me to let her go. I sent a mental request for Jason to bring out something hot for Hillaes to eat and drink and by the time he came out she was able to make her way over to chairs that were bolted to the deck. I suggested we go inside to get out of the weather, but she told me she wanted to stay on deck so she would know exactly when the spell bounced back. Jason returned with a warm coat and blanket for Hillaes, but I told him I was fine and he went back inside.

  “If I weren't magically drained, I could keep us warm and dry,” Hillaes apologized.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I waved a dismissive hand in her direction, “this is nothing compared to the water temperature where I usually swim. The cold and wet don't bother me.”

  We chatted about how we met our life-mates and bonded over our good fortune. Hillaes shared how she and Wu were attacked on their honeymoon when they went back to her home on Claw, and I told her how Jason and I met. She was fascinated with my mermaid business and the funny parties that didn’t turn out the way I planned. She nearly fell off her chair when I told her how often I end up in pools as I try to take off my mermaid tail after a party; I really am quite clumsy on land. One of the greatest things I’ve learned in my life is to not take myself too seriously and laugh at things that are funny, even if it’s at my own expense.

 
; After two hours of waiting, Hillaes suddenly sat up in her chair and faced the direction where the spell shot off.

  “What is it?” I asked, suddenly on alert as the back of my neck tingled.

  “I’m not sure, something doesn’t feel right,” Hillaes said uncomfortably then her eyes widened in fear and she stood.

  I looked where she was and saw a streak of red light closely following the white of the direction spell.

  “We’re under attack,” Hillaes shouted in fear and I mentally repeated the warning to everyone else on the ship. The red light would hit the ship seconds after Hillaes received the information from the spell and I had a feeling we wouldn’t like what happened when it did.

  Hillaes waved her arms in an intricate pattern as she told me what she planned. “We need to know where Afonso is so I need to absorb the original spell, but I also need to put up a shield. I don’t have enough energy to hold the shield for long, so this is going to be close,” she said and I stood behind her to brace her for what was to come.

  “What can I do?” I asked.

  “Pray,” Hillaes whispered as the white light of the direction spell hit her in the chest. The streak of red was only a hundred yards from the ship and closing fast when Hillaes held both hands toward the danger and shouted the word, Spheara. There was a flash of light then the ship was encased in a golden bubble. The destructive spell hit the shield a second after it was in place and exploded. Even though the shield stopped the spell from exploding on deck, the strain on the shield was too much for Hillaes and she collapsed, taking the shield with her. The explosive concussion washed across the deck and the ship was rocked back by the force of the blast.

  The deck tilted hard to starboard and I found myself airborne, flying towards the raging sea with Hillaes in my arms. “Not again,” I muttered and transformed into my mermaid form before I hit the water on my back to soften the landing for Hillaes. The shock of the freezing water was enough to jolt Hillaes awake, she instantly transformed and I found myself holding onto the back of a nine-foot tiger.

  Hillaes, are you okay? I asked as I propelled us to the surface.

  She growled in response so I let her go so she could swim on her own. Two bodies dove towards us and Jason swam next to me and put his arms around my waist, holding me up. Brian transformed and soon had one of his tentacles wrapped around Hillaes and was gently lifting her out of the water to place her on the deck of the still rocking ship. Jason and I were next, but Brian told us he would go hunt for something to eat since he was already in the water and would rejoin us soon.

  Jason and I transformed and were soon standing next to a tiger who was spitting mad. She was growling and screaming her rage in the direction the red spell came from, so it was probably a good thing she was still in her tiger form. Who knows what kind of names she was using to describe our adversary, but at that moment I was glad we couldn’t understand her. One moment there was an enraged tiger pacing the deck and the next there was an incredibly angry, very wet woman standing there vibrating in her fury. Jason ran to get her another blanket while she fumed.

  Once she calmed down, I wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and squeezed her comfortingly.

  “We would have died if I hadn’t gotten the shield up in time,” Hillaes said through gritted teeth.

  “But you did,” I said and patted her shoulder. “You saved us, and now we know where to find this guy.”

  “Actually, we know more than that,” Hillaes said as she turned to face me, concern written on her face.

  “What’s that?” I asked, curious what had spooked her so badly.

  “We know that his magic is similar to mine so that means he came from Claw,” she said stunned. “And if I’m correct about that, then we’re chasing someone so evil parents on Claw still use his name to scare their children into doing what they want them to do.”

  “Well, doesn’t that make this more fun?” I said sarcastically and looked in the same direction the bolt of death came from.

  “He was called Akore the Butcher, and he was born on Claw over six-hundred years ago,” Hillaes explained as we sat huddled around a table in the ship’s galley drinking hot cocoa.

  “Wait, was he called the Butcher because he was actually a butcher or because he killed people in horrible ways?” Brian asked. I turned my head to look at him and he held up his hands in defense. “Just trying to lighten the mood,” he muttered.

  “He was a sorcerer, proficient in the blackest magic who tortured and killed people to further his knowledge of the arcane arts.” Hillaes shuddered and a haunted look darkened her face.

  “Forgive me for asking, but do people on Claw usually live this long?” I asked.

  Hillaes shook her head. “If someone on Claw lives to be a hundred years old, they are considered ancient. Akore’s long life can’t be attributed to natural means and neither can his power.”

  “So, how did someone from ancient Claw turn up on Earth?” King Alister asked from the video screen mounted on the wall. One of the first things Josef did when he purchased the ship was to have it outfitted with the latest technology developed by Rex Industries. This included a way for us to communicate with the King across dimensions. Since this was a conference call, Josef was on the screen, also.

  “I’m not sure how he turned up on Earth but according to stories on Claw, the ruling council judged Akore for his crimes against the people and condemned him to death. The most powerful sorcerers and sorceresses stormed Akore’s fortress to bring him to judgement and there was a great battle. Over half of those who were sent to confront Akore were killed in the fight and his fortress was destroyed. A severely burned body with Akore’s magical signature was pulled from the rubble and it was assumed he’d been killed,” Hillaes related.

  “But if he was killed over five hundred years ago, how can you be sure it’s really him?” I asked her.

  “Because he was such a blight against the magical community on Claw, everyone who receives formal training has to learn about Akore and how he destr oyed others. Part of the course is being exposed to his magical signature so we can become familiar with the way black magic affects the practitioner and taints everything they do. While I am very familiar with black magic in all its forms, there is no mistaking the stench of Akore’s unique brand of evil.

  “Before you ask, I did get hints of evil from the spells on the charm and the replica of the ship, but it wasn’t until the missile spell broke against my shield that I was sure it was Akore.”

  “So that brings us back to the mystery of how he came to be on Earth,” Alister repeated.

  Josef offered a suggestion. “Sire, I suggest you ask your father to see if he can give us any insight on this. If I have the timeline correct, this Akore would have escaped to Earth shortly before your father ordered the dimensional gates closed to everyone but those of us in Tionchar. I was already working behind the scenes in the New World by that time but Akore could have slipped through any of the other gates across the planet.” Josef paused in thought for a moment. “That’s probably what he did since he changed his name to Afonso de Albuquerque and worked with the King of Portugal and won some amazing battles during his career,” Josef explained.

  “So, what did you learn from the directional spell?” Alister asked Hillaes.

  “Quite a lot, actually,” Hillaes brightened. “The spell traveled in a northwesterly direction from the ship and based on the energy contained in the spell when it returned to me it had made a round trip between ten to twelve-thousand miles.”

  “Can’t you be a bit more specific?” Brian teased.

  “If you’d like to help me work out the very complex mathematical and magical equations later, I can be as specific as you’d like.” Hillaes scowled at Brian.

  “Never mind,” he grinned. “Between ten-thousand to twelve-thousand works for me.”

  “You’re almost as bad as Shelley,” Alister said to Brian who just laughed.

  “If I may continue,�
� Hillaes huffed, “I’ll need to do some calculations with a map, but I should be able to give us a smaller search pattern within the next day or so.”

  “Thank you Hillaes, I’m grateful you’re on this mission,” Josef added.

  Hillaes blushed at the attention but squared her shoulders to continue. “I’d be surprised if Akore is still at his hideout when we arrive. Even if he doesn’t know I’m a fellow practitioner from Claw, he will know he is dealing with someone powerful. Perhaps he believes his missile destroyed us, but we can’t rely on that being the case. We must be careful when we finally confront him, even though he’s not as powerful on Earth as he was on Claw, he’s had centuries to perfect his craft.”

  “So where do we go from here?” I asked.

  “May I, Sire?” Josef asked and at Alister’s nod, he continued. “Cyndi, you and Jason should swim back to Melbourne while Brian travels with the rest of the team on the Salvage Marie. That way you can pick up another artifact from the shipwreck in case we need it and meet the team in Australia when they arrive in about eighteen hours. By that point, Hillaes might have a better location for us to begin a ground search for Akore. Based on the probable miles and direction of the spell, we’ll be searching in India. That’s a large area, so anything to help us to narrow our search will be welcome.

  “Your team is still running point on this operation but I’m also going to call in Raksaka Gupta to join you when you get a pinpoint on the location. He’s a naga shapeshifter and will be able to scout out a location in his serpent form before you travel there.”

  Josef shifted his attention to King Alister. “Sire, I’d like you to have a discussion with your father to see if he knows anything about Akore. Meanwhile, I’ll comb through the Tionchar archives for that period to see if there is anything relevant to our current situation. If there aren’t any objections, we’ll reconvene here when the Salvage Marie arrives in Melbourne.”