by Harry Nix
“You could say that. How many spells do you know?”
Even Juno and April were cagey around this question. Apparently, it was just. not. done. A breach of etiquette to ask such a thing. Alex didn’t care though. He wanted spells, even if it meant just reading more of them.
“I have some,” Stephen said.
“Can you resurrect a dead body?”
“It’s not resurrection. It’s reanimation and no, I’m not quite there yet. I’ve only been able to reanimate a child.”
Alex got a sudden vision of Xavo diverting bodies intended for burial, faking cremations, all so they could have access to the dead for their purposes. To hear Stephen speak so... casually about it was a shock. He supposed the kid had been raised to be a necromancer though. He’d probably seen dead bodies from childhood.
“Can you show me that spell?” Alex asked.
“We’re not meant to do that.”
Alex had already decided he’d let Stephen go, and there was to be no more good cop bad cop threats, but he wanted those spells. Any one of them might have new lines that could help him advance his spell writing.
“I see my spells like code. At first it was gibberish, numbers and symbols and characters from other languages. Then it changed to English and became readable. That’s how I edited a shield ring from three charges to thirty. I also wrote my own healing spell. Do you want to see it?”
Alex pulled his chair over closer to Stephen without waiting for an answer and held out his hand.
“It doesn’t work if I’m wearing these. They’ll hurt me,” Stephen said.
Alex pulled out the key.
“I unlock you and you attack me... it’s not going to go well so you won’t do that, right?”
Stephen quickly nodded.
Trusting his gut, Alex set him free, dropping the mage-cuffs on the bed. Then he touched the back of Stephen’s hand and opened up his homebrew Healing Flame spell.
So far, Alex had only connected magically to Juno, April, and Henry. Henry was a necromancer and his spell screen had been dark with red veins through it. A sort of cold eternity mixed with pulsing life.
Stephen’s was more like life with just a hint of death. It was golden, to start with, shimmering with a warm glow. Through it were tiny lines of black that spoke of death. Alex wasn’t sure if it was because Stephen was still young and inexperienced or just not that great of a necromancer.
“I see computer code... what do you see?” Alex asked.
He could feel Stephen’s attention on the spell. It was like knowing where someone else was looking.
“Comic book pages. They move for me. Like I can see a doctor in white and then he bursts into flames before starting to operate. There are two other characters in the background just standing around doing nothing.”
“Like who?”
“A woman with a map. She has all the directions, but the doctor isn’t talking to her.”
Alex’s head started to spin. Had he in his hasty writing of the spell not connected the parts correctly? Juno’s spell managed to find its way to any injury in this body.
“Who else?”
“There’s a man using a scoop to lift materials out of various bags. Bits of metal, I think. That’s all.”
“Can you... cut the women with the map out, just her, and move her to a separate page?”
Stephen bit his lip and moved his free hand in the air. Alex could feel him working on the spell. Soon, the code appeared on the spell screen above Stephen’s head. Alex immediately copied it.
He was running out of space—the image he’d captured from the Great Barrier spell, plus all the numbers and everything else was taking up most of his spare pages. He’d even had to delete his nascent fireball spell that he’d been working on to make room. Still, there was a little space and he dropped the code into it.
Now that he read through it, he got hints of what it might do. A sort of finding, a measurement or test of injury. If injury wasn’t found it moved to the next location and tested again.
But how to connect it properly?
“Tell me what you see,” Alex said. He opened the spell, duplicated it, leaving him with no space left, and then started moving pieces of it around.
“The map women just dropped her map,” Stephen said.
“Now she has it back again. She’s yelling at the doctor, but he can’t hear her.”
Alex kept moving code, trying to join the “map” bit with the “doctor” bit.
“The map woman is now dressed in running gear, like an athlete. The doctor is listening to her.”
Alex stopped changing the code around. Had he done it? The execute button was lit up, so at least the spell could be cast. He just needed a way to test it.
If he were a heartless werewolf, he’d slice Stephen on the leg and then touch his shoulder to see if the healing spell would make the trip. Instead of doing that he stood up and shifted to his hybrid state.
Stephen immediately jumped back on the bed.
“Oh, sorry,” Alex said.
He cut his leg with his claw, ignoring the lure of the pain, and then cast the new and improved spell. The flame lit on his finger and then he pressed it against his arm.
The zap that went through him was like he’d touched a live wire. It sprinted from his arm to his leg and closed the wound. Alex must have still had some metal in him because he now had a line of gray holding his flesh together.
“That’s a healing spell? But it’s tiny. I don’t know any healing spells because they’re still too large for me to copy.”
Alex put his giant claw on Stephen’s shoulder.
“Copy it from me,” he said.
He wasn’t quite sure why he was offering his spell to Stephen. Perhaps to push a quid pro quo. Somewhere in the back of his mind he was thinking of what Howey had said about winning hearts and minds. What better way to start than by turning an enemy into a friend?
Stephen copied the spell, Alex wondering what exactly it looked like as he did. Did he see fragments of comic pages that gradually filled in? Or did it start black and white and become color?
Eventually it was done and then the young necromancer cast the spell, the blue flame lighting up on the end of his finger. He waved it around and then touched it to his skin. There must have been an injury somewhere because he jumped as the magic zapped through him.
There was a rap on the door. Juno.
“The funeral is about to begin,” she called out.
Alex picked up the mage cuffs off the bed. Stephen put his hands out, but Alex just stood there for a moment before dropping the cuffs on the bed.
“I’m going to trust you, and I hope you’ll trust me,” Alex said.
He was thinking this could be an incredibly stupid thing he was doing. Who knew what spells the kid had?
But it felt like a worthwhile risk.
“Okay,” Stephen said.
Alex left the room without another word, blocking Juno’s view of Stephen as he came out the door so she couldn’t see he’d freed the kid.
Juno stepped closer to him and wrapped her hands around him. In his hybrid form he towered over her.
“You need to either kill him or take him to the city. Whatever you decide, do it fast, because the longer he’s here, the more upset your pack is getting,” Juno said.
“Can’t I just roar at them that he’s under my protection?” Alex asked.
Juno shrugged.
“If I’ve learned anything from Super Buddies, the 2013 masterpiece and final installment of the Air Bud series, it’s that you should listen to your wife.”
“Is that really the message of Super Buddies?”
“You’re right... I do need to watch it again. Next time we’re in Baxter, we’ll set it up, make a night of it. Sound good?”
“Yes. Wonderful. I can’t wait,” Alex said, plastering a smile on his face.
6
“Ito... cow! Ito... dog! Ito... chicken!” the child with the stick sh
outed out, waving at the others. The three other children playing with him began to obediently moo, bark, and cluck.
Alex and Nia were near the edge of the village waiting for Nia’s father Julius and some of his werewolves to arrive. Bish's sister was part of Julius’ pack. Nia had used the satellite phone to contact her father to let him know of Bish's death. It triggered a bit of worry for Alex, given that he had no idea if satellite phones could be tapped. He presumed at some point the satellite phone would simply stop working as the bill went unpaid, but for now it was working and so they'd used it.
They were standing and waiting, watching the children play. The mood of the pack was somber. The children were children, no matter what, playing some complicated game involving sticks as wands that could transform you into various animals.
“Who's Ito?” Alex asked. Nia had her arm entwined with his. She rested her head on his shoulder.
“Ito was a trickster werewolf from mythology. He’s magic, a shapeshifter, he steals things, plays tricks. In some stories he’s like a living God who is supremely powerful and fights for werewolves. Growing up werewolf means hearing endless stories of Ito and his crazy adventures. My favorite is Ito and the Otherworldly Pigs.”
“Otherworldly pigs?” Alex asked.
“Yeah, you know, magic pigs that give magic bacon. Ito steals them which sets off this huge war between these mages and some giants.”
“Are there any other stories of magic werewolves?”
“Not really. He’s the most famous so he kind of blocks everyone else out. Certainly, no one like you, if that's what you're asking.”
“They're here,” Jeremiah said. Jeremiah was one of the pack werewolves and, in human form, he looked like a Jeremiah, with an enormous beard and forearms that said he'd been chopping wood since he could walk. He wore a red plaid shirt too and had a shifter charm, good for a year, the sign of the previous wealth the Greenacre pack had held. He was also one of Bish's friends and was going to be leading the funeral.
Alex turned to see Julius emerging from the forest with a small pack of werewolves—about fifteen in total. They were all in hybrid form but a few were carrying backpacks which Alex assumed were full of clothes in case they decide to shift into human form.
He'd noticed that not many of the werewolves bothered to stay in human form. He'd found himself doing it too, just remaining in hybrid form at all times.
As Julius and his pack approached, Alex scratched a line in the dirt and then followed the ritual, Julius putting his foot slightly over it, and then Alex pulling him across the line.
“After the funeral we need to talk,” Julius said.
“We do,” Alex replied. The funeral was due to begin so they left it at that, Nia giving her father a quick hug as they walked down the hill to where the werewolves buried their dead.
Alex had been wondering what Julius would say about Jasper and the fact that Alex had killed him. Nia seemed to think he wouldn’t be too worried about it considering Jasper had been considered an asshole but Alex wasn't quite so sure. Jasper had also been the emissary, the conduit of the werewolves, who, at least on paper, had a seat at the table with the vampires, mages and witches.
Although it appeared he’d been fatally compromised and perhaps working for the mages or someone else, Alex wasn’t sure whether that would still be enough to justify the killing.
He pushed his mind off it as he walked down the hill, resisting the urge to do a headcount of his own people. Stephen was up in his room now, unguarded, not wearing mage cuffs. This would be the perfect time for him to attempt an escape, not that he would get far, but it would also be the perfect time for a werewolf to murder the mage. Alex hoped it wouldn't come to that; he at least figured now that Stephen wasn't wearing the mage cuffs there’d be some warning if a werewolf got ideas.
They arrived at the small graveyard, if you could call it that. Werewolves, Alex discovered, had a burial rite that would seem grotesque to outsiders. There was no coffin; the body was dumped naked in the dirt in a hole and left to dissolve back into the earth, to become part of all things once again. It was what happened before this that Alex found unnerving. To put it simply, the werewolves pulled the body to pieces. They did so gently, with reverence, according to Nia, but Alex wasn't looking forward to seeing. Nia had called it a tradition, but Alex could see what it really was—a defense against necromancy. A dismembered body couldn't rise from the dead.
Once everyone was at the ceremony and the children corralled, one or two still holding sticks, Jeremiah began speaking. He talked of Bish the hunter, and told stories of her taking down a gigantic boar all by herself. His stories turned comical, recounting a run-in with not one but two skunks and how he and Bish and other members of the pack had been forced to stay in a cave for a week, unable to get the scent off them, before they were allowed back in the village. He spoke of Bish the friend. Bish the amateur cook. Bish who was obsessed with murder mysteries and whose cabin was piled up with books. Bish’s sister quietly sobbed, as did other werewolves, and more than once Alex found himself wiping away tears for a werewolf he barely knew. Although she'd been part of his pack it felt as though his pack had been thrust upon him, much in the same way his mates had. They were his, yes… but he still did not know them.
After Jeremiah finished, he asked if anyone else would like to speak, but no one did. Bish’s sister was still shaking her head, wiping away tears. As Alpha, Alex was expected to participate in the next step. He steeled himself and stepped over to the side of the deep hole that had been dug. Bish was naked in her hybrid werewolf form. She'd been washed, but the werewolves did not perform any tricks upon the dead, so the bullet wound in her head was still visible. Following the lead of the others, Alex took a wrist and together, the werewolf pack lifted Bish off the ground and began to pull. With so many of them, it was incredibly easy, her hands and arms coming free. There was very little blood and Alex was surprised to find that his stomach didn't turn, as he feared it would. It was done quickly, the body pulled to pieces, and each part dropped into the hole. It was then the rest of the pack and Julius’ pack came forward. Using their hands, they pushed in the enormous pile of dirt, filling the hole back to the top. Then it was done.
It was now late in the afternoon, and in celebration of Bish there would be a feast. The crowd dispersed and Alex quietly took Juno aside.
“Can you guard Stephen? No more good witch, bad witch though. I’m getting somewhere with him, and don't go into his room either,” he asked.
“I can't even give him a little fright? What’s the point of being a witch?” Juno said.
“I know the others want to kill him, but I'm starting to think capturing that kid is gonna work out really well for us,” Alex said. Juno nodded, gave him a kiss, then walked away.
Julius nodded to Alex, and he nodded back, waving towards the main house, Julius falling in beside him. As usual, Jacob had picked up the habit of shadowing Alex when he was around. At the front door of the main building, Alex sent him away to help with the meal preparations, and Jacob went without complaint. Alex took Julius down to the meeting room where he'd been conducting his experiments with enchanting. It was still cold as hell down there, no matter the temperature outside, and he was glad he was in his hybrid form.
“So, the kid adopted you,” Julius said as soon as they went in. Alex sat down in one of the chairs, looking at the blistered surface of the table and the blackened crater that the explosions had made.
“It's weird, but that's what I feel like too. I mean, I know I'm really only eight years older than him, but he’s kinda like my little brother now. I just want to protect him,” Alex said.
Julius walked around the other side of the table, taking the time to inspect the ruins of Alex's experiments, the twisted pieces of metal, the broken jewelry. He then sat down across from Alex.
“That’s what being the Alpha is about. Mages and other outsiders think it's always about violence and power, dominance and con
trol. But it's not. You are at the heart of it, a servant. Have you heard of Vindiciae contra Tyrannos?
“Nia told me. You rule only by consent, right?”
“My daughter was always the smart one. Then of course she went off to college and studied a ridiculous amount of Latin and I’d buy books off the internet trying to keep up with her,” Julius said with a smile.
Alex was once again struck by the ease of the alpha and how things weren't really the way he assumed they were. It was clear to Alex that Julius was in charge of his pack, but at the same time he'd seen the alpha playing with children, putting on silly voices, and having clods of mud thrown at him before chasing them through the darkness, while they squealed and laughed.
Alex saw at that moment that he wasn't Julius. Hell, he didn't even know all the members of his pack's names. He supposed that it was what the obstacle course challenges had been about — integrating them, getting to know them, making connections through adventure and action. Of course, now with Bish's death and Stephen’s capture there was unrest in the pack, and he didn't even know some of them personally well enough to make an appeal for solidarity.
“We'll talk about Jasper but first I have some information for you. I found a pack. An alpha and a witch and some other wives and children. They disappeared around twenty-three years ago. I can't confirm any more details though. Where they live is surrounded by packs that are almost entirely wild. They almost never shift to human, there is no way to make a treaty with them, and they kill on sight. I presume there's a map around here somewhere, so once we find it I’ll mark it on there.”
“If they kill on sight what do the werewolves who live inside that area do? Are they the same?”
“The surrounding packs tolerate them using the slipways to go in and out, but only for them. Outsiders die. There is no contact, no satellite phone. The only way to get in there would be to sneak along a slipway, make it through the territories, or if you’re an Alpha, you could challenge a pack on the outside, kill their Alpha and take over. Which brings us to the next point. How is it that Jasper is dead?”
