War of Kings and Monsters

by Christopher Keene

  “You . . .” she said, her voice serious but soft as she gazed his way. “So, you’re a caller too, aren’t you?”

  She must have seen me trying to breach a seam in the barrier.

  Nathan froze, not because he was afraid, but for another reason that he couldn’t quite pin down. Something about her voice perhaps, or maybe it was her hair, reminded him of something for a moment, but then the memory was gone.

  “Who’re you?”

  Nathan swallowed loudly in the eerie silence. Kendra turned from Laine to Nathan and back again.

  “Where’s your pact item?” Laine demanded, as though seeing it would help her assess what threat he might pose.

  Nathan stepped back. “I . . . I don’t.”

  “You’re a caller too?” Kendra asked.

  He suddenly felt like he had lied to her by omission. Despite the intense stares coming his way, Nathan’s gaze didn’t leave Laine’s.

  Seeming to see the situation for the potential danger it presented, Aisic raised his hands and said, “Everyone, it’s night. We should set up a campfire. You two find a good place, and Nathan and I will grab some more firewood. We will discuss this later.”

  Nathan studied Laine, wondering if she had any other pact items on her, until Aisic put a hand on his shoulder, breaking his concentration. Nathan turned with a start, but went with Aisic as he moved off to gather wood.

  They moved under the shadow of the trees as Nathan’s questions began to flow. “Aisic, what’s going on? Who is this girl?”

  “As you just saw, she’s a caller,” Aisic stated as he stood up, hooking a collection of broken branches under one arm. “But I think you can tell there’s more to her than that, can’t you? I suggest you don’t tell her about your quest.”

  “Yeah, I figured that,” Nathan replied, recalling her suspicious glare.

  “What about her companion?” Aisic asked.

  “She’s nice.” And beautiful. Nathan hurriedly ducked his head and picked up his own pile of dried sticks, which Taiba had crawled over to investigate.

  As they walked back to the river bank, he noticed that Aisic was either limping or leaning his weight on the branch he was using as a crutch.

  The fight! Michael!

  “Wait, what happened to you . . . and where’s Michael?”

  Aisic’s eyes remained on his wood. “I can’t say.”

  “Please tell me. He’s my best friend!” Nathan shouted.

  Aisic just continued looking for firewood.

  “Why can’t you tell me?”

  “It’s complicated. Please, Nathan, listen to—”

  “Just tell me if he’s okay.”

  “I don’t know, Nathan! I’m sorry, just hear me out.” Aisic looked down. “We ran into a bit of trouble . . . a Melkai.”

  His grave tone told Nathan more than his words might have suggested.

  “We got separated during the battle,” Aisic continued. “I don’t know where he is now. But at the moment, we need to focus on where we are. Judging by the Melkai you just ran into, we’ll need to get out of this forest as soon as we can. It’s too dangerous here.”

  Is he avoiding the subject or does he really not know what happened to him?

  They made their way back to where the two girls had set up camp with a fire already blazing. They walked toward it, threw down their wood, then sat next to it, across from the two girls. Kendra smiled at him happily now that they were in a larger group, but her face twisted in concern as Aisic grunted uncomfortably as he lowered himself. Nathan’s eyes shifted to Laine, who was staring daggers at him.

  “This is Nathan,” Kendra said, gesturing to him. “Nathan, this is Laine, my friend.”

  Nathan nodded. He would have been impressed that she had the courage to speak first if he hadn’t spent most of the day listening to her talk. “This is Aisic, my protector.”

  “Your friend, ah . . . Aisic looks to be in bad shape,” Kendra replied. “Is he okay?”

  “He got attacked by a Melkai,” Nathan replied.

  “A Melkai? Like the one we saw here?” Kendra asked.

  “Kendra.” Laine’s voice sounded demanding again. “Go over there and heal him.”

  “All right.” Kendra nodded as she got up and went around the fire.

  “And you, boy,” Laine continued. “Come over here. Give her room to work.”

  Nathan rose to his feet, frowning at the way she called him boy. “My name’s Nathan.”

  Laine said nothing in reply to this, and he walked around the fire to where Kendra had been sitting, trading places with her.

  As he passed Kendra, their eyes met. “I didn’t know you could summon,” she whispered.

  “Yeah . . . well, you didn’t really give me the chance to tell you.”

  He sat down next to Laine, whose hunched shoulders showed she was still ready for a fight at any moment. Instead of paying her any mind, he watched as Kendra went to work mending Aisic. Her hands moved to his leg and began to glow green in the darkness.

  “You did it wrong,” Laine said, the light of the fire dancing along her intense features.

  Nathan swiveled. “What do you mean?”

  Laine rolled her eyes. “When creating your pact, you did it in the wrong order. That’s why it took you too long.” She snatched up a stick to give him an example. “The pact item must be used as a conduit through the Melkairen barrier to make the connection. It looked like you were trying to do it the other way around.”

  Nathan smiled and face-palmed. It was a novice mistake.

  “I know . . . you’re right.” He turned to look into the warm firelight. “Thank you for saving us.”

  “Just be careful,” Laine replied and screwed up her face. “Otherwise, there’ll be one less caller in the world.”

  Nathan nodded, pleased that the two of them had found common ground for a conversation. “I’ll remember. It’s just strange; I never had to use a pact item when I called forth Taiba. I guess I forgot about it.”

  “Taiba?” Laine asked, suddenly on edge again.

  “Oh, yeah!” he said as he raised a hand to his hood. “Come here, boy.”

  The quick little lizard crawled onto his hand and down his arm as its eyes searched the darkness for the girl in front of them.

  Laine’s shoulders lowered. “Oh, I see . . . a first-circle Melkai. That’s a relief.” She sighed, reaching up to stroke her cloak collar.

  This action reminded Nathan of how he patted Taiba through his hood. The similarity between them made him smile. “You do that too, huh?”

  Laine quickly lowered her hand. “What?”

  Nathan stroked Taiba. “You know, reassure your Melkai like that. I personally find it’s more for my sake than for his sometimes.”

  Laine’s frown softened. “Oh . . . I suppose so.”

  In that alone, we are kindred spirits.

  Laine peered closer at Taiba. “I could have easily mistaken him for a regular lizard, but I definitely sensed the presence of another Melkai somewhere. I just didn’t think it would be one so weak.”

  Taiba was looking around in curiosity, mouth hanging open and tail wagging.

  “I already know he’s of the weakest circle.” Nathan smiled. “I keep him around me for the company more than anything.”

  “You keep a Melkai as a pet?” Laine asked incredulously.

  “Pet?” Nathan shook his head. “No, he’s my friend. He’s more useful than you might think.”

  Laine shook her head, smiling. “Well, now I can sleep tonight.”

  “Of course, why wouldn’t—”

  “Now that I know you aren’t any kind of threat.”

  Nathan winced at her retort. “Wow.”

  Laine’s brow furrowed. “What?”

  “I mean, I’ve never been great at making friends. I never fit in with the noble-born dandies that made up my classmates or their cutthroat world. But I have a feelin
g you have the same problem for the complete opposite reason. How can you hope to get along with people if you treat strangers so coldly?”

  Laine’s lips pulled inward, and Nathan hoped she didn’t take what he said as an insult.

  Instead, she lowered her gaze to the flame guiltily. “You’re not the first person to make that observation.”

  “Don’t worry; you’re better than most people I’ve met. There are a lot of vile people in the world.”

  “I hear you. I hope they don’t bury you in Avatasc. I’ve heard that’s where you’re heading.” She smiled back at him when he nodded. “But I’ve never thought of myself as one of them before. Kind of sheds new light on my world back home, I suppose.”

  * * *

  Laying on the stones, Aisic looked over the flames of the campfire, seeing that the girl who had been acting so cold to him before looked to be talking more openly with Nathan. The boy had that talent about him: a friendliness that made people wish to let their walls down and open up to him.

  “She’s a noble, is she not?” Aisic asked as he looked back at Kendra.

  Kendra continued to focus on his leg. “Why do you think that?”

  “The way she acts. The way she carries herself.” Aisic noticed this about her even as she talked freely to his companion. “She must have wealthy parents.”

  “That’s strange . . .”

  “That I can tell her parents are rich?”

  “No, not that.” Kendra intoned, her head drawing back slightly from his leg. “I’m doing my best but there’s not much of a wound here to heal.”

  Aisic laughed. “Well, Laine did bind it beforehand, and I’ve always been known to heal quickly.”

  “Yeah, but that’s the thing. No one I’ve met has regenerated this fast during the mending process before.” Kendra stopped her spell and the glow faded.

  Aisic sat back up. He looked at his leg and moved it about to see if there was any pain. “Maybe you underestimate your own ability,” he said.

  Kendra still gave him a strange look, but then just shrugged off the subject. “Well, all I know about you is that you know Nathan somehow.”

  “I’m his protector,” Aisic cut in.

  “Right . . . but my real question is how you came across Laine.”

  Aisic sighed. “It’s more like she came across me and decided to help me out. She seemed quite hesitant though, helping a stranger.” His eyes shifted with a smirk.

  Kendra tittered, deriving some meaning from this that he failed to discern. “If you think that’s funny, Nathan literally caught me mid-fall, and, after we finally got to the river, a rogue Melkai showed up. It’s been a very exciting day.”

  She continued to talk about her experiences and how they contrasted with her boring life in Kydia. All the while Aisic watched as the conversation between Nathan and Laine played out.

  * * *

  Although Nathan had tried to brush it off, the dismissive tone in Laine’s voice when she said he wasn’t a threat made a sudden anger rise in him. But then, with how he had frozen against the charging Melkai, he thought he shouldn’t be surprised by her reaction.

  He tried to recall exactly what Aisic had told him about callers. “I heard that the power to summon came from the bloodline of the Kairens.”

  Laine stared into the flame. “The Kairens were nearly wiped out during Ramannon’s reign. That’s why there are so few of us.”

  “The Kairens were nearly wiped out as well?” He frowned in thought. “Well, it was the bloodlines of both the Arions and Kairens which made him immortal, so it makes sense that he would try to wipe them both out so another like him couldn’t be born.”

  “He tried to wipe out the Senadonians as well because only they had the foresight to see how his orders would affect everything. That’s why they joined the fight against him in the end,” Laine added, eyes going distant. “They knew only the Kairens could lock away the Melkai when the time of the barrier weakening came. Maybe that’s why they left. After all, they were only trying to save the land from the Melkai invasion, and yet the Ramannon Empire ended up trying to eradicate them as well.”

  Morrow had taught him about the Senadonians. However, unlike when listening to the old man’s lectures, Nathan was drawn in by her words. Even her speculations on the past were engaging. “I don’t understand everything, Laine, but I can’t help but feel that this is all connected.”

  Laine’s gaze dropped to the ground but then rose to meet his. “Yeah . . . I have to say you do look familiar somehow. By chance, have you ever lived in Avatasc?”

  Nathan nodded. “Yes, actually. Well, from what I’ve been told, I was born in Avatasc.”

  “But I assume you left?”

  Nathan nodded, though he could barely remember it.

  “When?”

  Nathan frowned. “I honestly don’t know. I was too young to remember, but the kin—” He stopped talking and corrected himself. “But everyone I know tells me that’s where I originally came from.”

  Laine cupped her chin. “You don’t say . . . Then I guess you were lucky. You must have left Avatasc just before the throne was usurped. You weren’t around long enough to see it fall into squalor.”

  Nathan’s eyebrows pulled inward at Laine’s bitterness. “Why do you ask?”

  Laine shrugged. “When I was younger, much younger, I knew a boy who you remind me of.” She smiled. “We were friends, I think. I didn’t have many friends back then. Still don’t, really. But this boy used to always be by my side. We went everywhere together. Then one day he was gone. I always wondered what happened to him.”

  “And you say I look a lot like him?” Nathan smiled. “This friend of yours?”

  Laine nodded. “Of course, he was much younger than you are now.”

  “But so were you, from what you’re saying.” Nathan inclined his head. “Well, whether or not I am this boy you remember, I hope we can be good friends, too.”

  Laine waggled her head and flashed her own grin. “Perhaps. With how you handle your Melkai, I admit you’re interesting for a caller, but we’ll see.”

  Nathan’s eyes locked with hers, but before he could say anything more, Aisic called, “Alright, you two, you’ll need to get some sleep or you’ll just be a burden for us tomorrow.”

  Nathan nodded and stood, noticing the troubled frown on Laine’s face. Was she enjoying our conversation that much?

  “I’ll give you some pointers, boy,” she called as he walked around the fire. “At least, enough to make sure you don’t kill yourself or us before we part ways.”

  “As I said, my name’s Nathan,” he replied.

  He caught Kendra’s eyes as they traded placed and he averted his gaze before looking back. For once, Kendra didn’t say anything, only giving him a wry smile.

  He sat down next to Aisic. “What did you tell her?”

  Aisic lay down and said, “Don’t worry, you’ll find out soon enough.”

  No more words were shared between them. He noticed that Aisic and Kendra were also unpacking their gear and preparing to go to sleep. He did the same. However, he tossed and turned under his blanket.

  I really am a pretty pathetic caller. I should be more like Laine. In fact, when it comes to fighting in general, I need to get better!

  Laine had broken the illusion that he was ahead of everyone else. Now he had to catch up.

  Chapter 11: Parting Ways

  There was something in the air the next day that put Laine in high spirits. Aisic had risen first and was at the water’s edge before she had even opened her eyes. That he hadn’t taken their stuff and fled was a good sign. The boy’s lizard Melkai was sunbathing on a rock next to the river bank. She was still getting it through her head that the creature was a Melkai, let alone one loyal to a caller and not confined to a pact item.

  The black remains of the fire had been kicked out, likely by Aisic, so they would avoid detection. She looked at Natha
n. His green eyes and sandy blond hair reminded her of King Kissick, yet his friendly nature was the polar opposite of the cruel tyrant. He yawned, stretching with his arms in the air before getting up and walking over to Aisic.

  She grunted, disgusted that she would allow herself to have her mind changed so easily by the boy, if even for a moment. Nathan was naive to be so kind without power. Anyone could take advantage of him or betray him. Of course, when she achieved her goal of gaining the key to the Melkairen, maybe then she would have enough power to let down her guard. These two had seen her Melkai and Nathan’s reaction to it showed she would have an upper hand in a fight. Now she just needed to be careful with what she said about the keys.

  Laine woke Kendra, and they spoke of what they needed to do next. “We’ll have to follow the track up so we can go back the way we came.”

  Kendra nodded. “I promise I won’t fall off this time.”

  “Be sure you don’t.” She smiled in the direction of the two by the river. “What about them?”

  “Well, we are heading in the same direction.” Kendra bobbed her head from side to side. “I thought we could travel together for a while. I mean, we’ll be separating at the cutoff anyway, right?”

  Laine sighed. “I suppose so. I also want more time to talk to this young caller. I did promise to teach him, after all.”

  Kendra continued talking, but Laine phased her out, focusing on Nathan and Aisic’s lips to make out what they were saying.

  “Laine said she would tutor me,” Nathan said.

  Aisic looked over his shoulder at her. “She’s a dangerous girl so be careful with what you say around her.”

  At least the big one knows not to mess with me.

  He was cut off as Kendra called out, “You two! We’re leaving, and you’re coming with us!”

  They muttered something that Laine couldn’t see, shrugged, and walked toward them. Together, the four of them set off. Kendra began filling the silence with her amazing ability to talk about nothing for long periods of time before Laine finally decided to interrupt her, eager to converse with Nathan on their shared vocation.

  “Alright, Nathan, show me what you already know.”

  Laine remembered how hard it was for her to learn to summon. The pressure put upon her by her teacher had driven her to tears more than once. If she wasn’t so determined to gain a semblance of the power Kissick had, she never would have pulled through. Rushing had done her more harm mentally than good, and she knew she would have to be patient with Nathan so he didn’t turn out the same.