Steven stopped him. “Woah dad! Calm down it’s just some bible thumpers come to lead you to Jesus!” He stepped in and had Randall let go of the young man who was crying now and had possibly pissed his pants. “I’m sorry guys. Ever since the war he’s been a little crazy about people he doesn’t know trying to get in our house. Uh. Do you need some fresh pants?”
The two would be domestic missionaries chose to say goodbye and run back to their bikes to canvas a different neighborhood for a while. Randall shut the door and went to work convincing a scared family and a bemused witch that he wasn’t really a senile serial killer on the loose. The doorbell rang again. Randall looked over at Steven and they repeated the procedure. This time Randall took the time to focus on the two guys in delivery uniforms standing on the front porch. They were both Corvellans wearing illusion charms. They must not be sure this was the right house or they would have already busted in. Looking out on the street Randall saw a lot of movement as random people had suddenly started walking around the neighborhood in droves. Focusing he could see the shimmer revealing most of them were horde.
A Corvellan would probably not have the skill to see though his illusion charm but you never knew when you may run into one with some brains. He jerked the door open and grabbed the one furthest from the door and dragged him inside. Steven stepped past him and slammed an armored fist into the closer ones temple. They pulled both of the large demonic warriors into the living room where the struggle ended with two slashed throats and Corvellan blood all over the floor. Stella was no battle witch but she had thrown up an illusion to cover the front door which basically showed the two wolf demons still chatting away with an old lady. She would not be able to maintain that level of illusion for very long.
They needed Stella to drop the illusion since Ryan, Brent and Shelly were officially freaking out. They’d just seen two delivery guys have their throats slashed open a few minutes after Randall had tried to murder a Mormon. Randall poked around until he found the charms on the Corvellans and ripped them off. As soon as he removed the charm they could see the monster in its true form. This did nothing to help the mental state of the three freaked out family members but it at least cemented to them who the bad guys were. Stella dropped the illusion outside before it had a chance to leave her completely exhausted. She threw some psychic love at the family to calm them down then asked Randall how long before the extraction team would be there.
“They should have been here within minutes. The wolves must have gotten our local security. I’m assuming that cable van has a couple of dead bodies in the back now. The sweeper will be here soon. He was the backup for the cable guys. He’ll be driving a packaged food delivery truck. Heavily armored. We’re going to have to fight our way out of here.” Randall looked calm. He was in his element. The fact that he could see his enemy was a bonus. Sometimes in these battles the enemy was using magic and you were pretty much screwed unless you had serious magic backing you up as well. Having actual physical monsters to bash was the preferred battle scenario for any knight.
An SUV pulled up into the driveway and six men got out of it. Randall could tell that they were all armed and after a second to focus he could tell that one of them was a wolf demon. The other five were just scumbag human mercenaries. The horde would not have a problem with killing Brent. The necromancer could always bring him back as a zombie to torment the king. These guys weren’t trying to fail though and they probably weren’t in the mood to worry about collateral damage either.
Randall watched as two of them broke off to go around to the back of the house while the rest of them started moving towards the front. They’d have fancy guns and while Steven and Randall could walk through a hail of gunfire and come out the other side fine due to their armor the same could not be said for the rest of the party. Time to completely blow the lid off of whatever cover they had left. Randall motioned for Steven to go around back and take care of those two then he opened the door and stepped out to greet the men walking boldly towards them.
“Hi! Can I help you guys?” Randall asked as he brought his hands together over the top of his head and pulled out his broadsword. All knights who carried a broadsword were required to be strong enough to use it with no battle magic. Otherwise, it tended to get out of control when you tried to apply battle magic to it. The broadsword had been Randall’s go to weapon for close to a hundred years now. Some considered the weapon inelegant as you mainly won fights by bashing through the opponents defenses instead of utilizing your agility and skills to their fullest to win. Randall had decided he liked his battles over as quickly as possible and liked them to end with the enemy destroyed and him not feeling much pain.
Randall pulled the broadsword and launched himself at the disguised Corvellan. He wasn’t worried about the humans. They were just some paid mercenaries who had probably lied on their resumes and had actually been cooks or something in some third world coast guard. They were cannon fodder. The Corvellan looked like he may actually be competent though. He had moved into a defensive position as soon as the knight came out the door. When the demon saw the blade come out he pulled out a huge battle ax and smiled viciously. He spun the battle ax through the air now as he moved to counter the attack Randall had launched.
The massive broadsword driven by battle magic still had to play by the rules of physics and when the ax struck it the sword ended up going through the wolfs legs instead of his heart. No big deal he’d just bleed out slower and have to hop into the underworld. Randall completed the lunge and made quick work of the three men who were trying to get their gun sights on him. Only one actually got any shots off before having his head removed from his body. Steven came jogging around from behind the house to make sure all was well.
“I got us a car. You want to go grab everybody?” Randall didn’t want to wait for the armored truck. There was a chance it had already been ambushed and would never show up. He could see the people on the streets were already headed in his direction. He started walking towards them as he saw a truck with pictures of ice cream and frozen fish pull into the driveway behind the SUV. “Get them loaded up!” He yelled in Stevens direction. Then he raised his sword and went to work.
Chapter 18: The Not So Secret Library
Chris walked down the covered path to the open gazebo overlooking the ocean. Waiting for him were Nicole and Brent. He was supposed to have met them down here an hour ago but had been held up having to deal with a few mini-crisis. He started apologizing as soon as he was close enough for them to hear him. Nicole and Brent both bowed and waved off his apologies.
“Chris, you’re the king. We get you may have king stuff that trips you up sometimes. Like the times when you tell us to meet you here at three then you don’t show up until four. We were just amusing ourselves making up names for you which we have sworn never to call you by except when you leave us hanging like this. Now what’s the big secret you wanted to talk to us about?” Brent smiled at the king after delivering his monologue. Nicole looked like she was ready to chunk Chris in the ocean and then go get some ice cream.
“Sorry. They wouldn’t let me get out and I didn’t want to tell them where I had to be or why I was in a hurry.” Chris tried a smile at Nicole who just stared at him without blinking. Brent may be fine with being stood up but Nicole was going to go ahead and make it clear right now that she did not appreciate it. “Alright then. I’ve been thinking and studying but I think to do what we need to do I’m going to need some help.”
Nicole continued to stare and Brent looked confused. “Do you think you could be a little more vague your kingliness?”
“Right. So you both know I think the only way to win against the horde is to defeat them across all the universes. If we let them live somewhere they’ll just rebuild and expand and come back at our children or grandchildren. We need to grind them into the dirt. The problems I see with that are they outnumber us a zillion to one and they’ve been spreading across the universes for longer than any
one can describe. We also don’t know who leads them or pretty much anything else about them other than rumors and stories.”
“Yes your lateness. Those would be some valid reasons that we can’t beat them.” Nicole was intrigued with where the conversation may be headed. Enough so that she’d momentarily decided that she’d talk to Chris for a minute or two. She needed time to come up with the best way to torture him for making her sit out here with Brent for an hour anyway. She probably wouldn’t have even minded except this ‘out of the way’ spot that Chris had picked for their meeting happened to be along a trail that about half the people she knew at the school seemed to have walked down in the last hour. That meant she’d have to deal with a lot of questions and teasing about why she was sitting out in a romantic spot with Brent for so long. Especially since she couldn’t say she’d been waiting to discuss secret plans with the king.
“Ok. So I’m thinking what if we open some portals and start making allies with the places the horde has not overcome yet? Otherwise, we’re just sitting here waiting for the horde to decide they have some extra time and energy to come wipe us out.” Chris looked at them to see what they thought of that plan. He still hadn’t dropped the bombshell on them that his plan pivoted around.
“There’s no one who knows how to control the portals anymore. I thought that knowledge was lost with the last portal master and since we have them all closed down now no one else is really spending a lot of time on it.” Brent seemed to think that killed the whole argument.
“Which is why you are going to become a portal master!” Chris announced this like it was just the opportunity Brent had been looking for. Brent didn’t look as elated as Chris had envisioned when he’d come up with the plan. Nicole was in a mood to crush his dreams.
“The portal masters died out because the horde kept getting into the portals and sending assassins and soldiers through the portals to kill all the portal masters. If Brent starts messing around with portals and actually opens one up there is a good chance something will come through it and rip his heart out through his face.”
“Not if you and I are helping him and guarding him.” Chris said.
“You’re kind of busy being king and prepping for the trials aren’t you?” Nicole countered.
“Ok. Then maybe you could help him? I’d still help when needed but we need to get rolling on this and we need to keep it secret.”
Brent jumped into the conversation. “Isn’t messing around with portals illegal?”
“I’m the king. I’m pretty sure I can smooth that piece of it out.”
“I wouldn’t even know where to start though. Especially if I can’t ask anyone.” Brent was looking nervous. He wasn’t big on breaking rules as it was and this went way beyond a simple school rule. Chris held up a key.
“This I where I was and what took me so long. The key to the hidden library. It’s evidently just the door on the second floor of the library and this key opens it. It’s where all the forbidden tombs and everything are kept. Basically anything they think someone may have a need for is stored there including the portal master books you’ll need. Just don’t get seen reading them. I’ve told them you’ll be doing some research for me but I didn’t tell them on what.”
Brent looked less than enthused about this turn of events but he nodded and bowed his head. He understood this could be a very important skill if Chris kept up his plan to defeat the horde. Nicole asked if Chris had any other news or wanted them to knock out any additional illegal tasks for him while they were at it. He told them not yet but that being his friends would come with a special set of responsibilities since he couldn’t just confide in anybody. Looking to change the subject Chris asked Brent how everything was working out with his mom and dad.
“My dad finally got to go to orientation to join the accounting team for your financial empire.” Brent’s dad had been an accountant in the outside world. When he started looking for something to do while his wife and son went and learned about their magical potential it had been a natural progression for him to go back into accounting. It gave him a way to earn money and contribute in a meaningful way. “My mom is loving the sessions she is getting. She’ll probably end up becoming a healer with her empath skills. She already understands anatomy and all that from being a nurse so it should work out for her.”
“How about you?” Nicole asked. “Your mom and dad seem to be adapting but how has this been for you? Plucked from obscurity in the outside world to becoming a scholar of illegal magic and confidant of the king? Eh?”
Brent smiled. “Going pretty good so far. I always felt like there was something out there just beyond my fingertips that I could do but I never really put my finger on it until Sir Randall came and showed us magic. I knew right then that’s what had been missing. I’m loving learning about magic. Being a confidant of the king is turning into a royal pain in the you know where though.” They all laughed at that.
“You’re doing good. You’ve only been here for about a year and you’re already caught up with cliff notes the wizard over there.” They all kept laughing at that. Brent was catching up to the same level as Chris in some areas but he was far behind in others that were the domain of the royals only. Chris pushed everyone to do their best including himself so there were no hurt feelings if someone was better by virtue of reached potential. The only issue Chris had was there was so much he wanted to learn that he did search out lots of summaries. With the time constraints he also found himself doing things like giving illegal and dangerous tasks to his friends instead of doing them himself. Of course, if they knew what else he was working on in his spare time they’d realize hanging out in a not so secret library after school wasn’t so bad.
Chapter 19: The Hunt
Chris, Nicole and Brent walked away from their clandestine meeting and headed back to the manor for dinner. Following dinner they planned to all go to the library and take a look around. Sir Steven came to find Chris at dinner and let him know that Sir Randall had some information for him and would meet him over in his hall whenever Chris was done with dinner. Sir Steven took his leave and Chris choked down the rest of his food ignoring the questioning looks thrown at him by Brent and Nicole. When he had finished he told them he wouldn’t be able to go with them to the library but that he’d let them know why very soon.
He left the main hall and started walking quickly towards his hall. He had met Sir Randall and Sir Steven after they had successfully brought Brent and his family back to the island. He’d learned of the type of work Sir Randall did and decided he’d be an excellent resource. He’d set Sir Randall to tracking down the necromancer that had been in charge of the Corvellans who had killed his father at the lighthouse and later threatened his mother in Ireland. Sir Randall had set up shop and stared working on it. Chris had told Omasa that he was going to have Randall report directly to himself for a while Omasa was fine with that and with keeping it secret.
Chris had been getting regular reports from Randall. The necromancer had proven to be extremely difficult to track down. Randall and Steve had been spending rivers of cash on informants and spies and had very little to show for it. They’d gotten a few rumors and some more substantial leads they had followed up on but nothing had gotten them close to the necromancer yet. The last lead they’d been checking on had just been a witch who reported that she saw a bunch of disguised Corvellans getting on a train bound for Hungary. Randall and Steven had jumped on a plane to go see what they could find out.
Since Steven had come and grabbed him at dinner Chris figured it must be some big news. He’d always been the one to seek them out for updates as Randall typically just ran with his task until completed. When he arrived in the hall he saw Randall and Steven both sitting in the alcove he typically used to speak with Omasa in. Chris returned the bows of his fellow students and told Steven and Randall to sit back down as they had both risen when he entered the room. Chris slid into the alcove and sat on the large couch Steven was on. He
looked over at Randall expectantly.
“Your highness, we think the necromancer is holed up in a villa in Hungary. We found one of the Corvellans hanging out by a train station and were able to interrogate him.” Chris shuddered. You didn’t really want to be interrogated by people like Randall. You absolutely would talk. He was also certain the Corvellan had not walked away from the experience after telling everything it knew. Randall continued explaining what they had found.
“We checked out the story and there is a luxury villa that’s protected by a force of the Corvellans. Pretty much anything could be inside but we suspect it’s the necromancer. The wolf had orders to go try and see if it could locate any more of your family members or friends to try and lure you off the island your highness.” Having provided all the relevant information Randall fell quiet to allow his young king to process.
Son of the Keeper: Book 1: Principles of Magic Page 15