Immortality's Touchstone

by Mark Tufo

  “Could have been your urination, it was potent enough I wanted to get away from it. Wouldn’t that be a hoot if your discharge was the cause of your demise?” I told him.

  “The giraffe is out of the potato sack,” Bailey said.

  “That’s not quite the saying, but the point is taken,” I told her. “Just one more reason to hate his mangy ass. Plus, he pissed on my grave. You heard him. Who does that shit?”

  “I see that you are no longer dead,” he continued at us. “Unless the Red Witch is devising some sort of deceit.”

  “Oh, I can assure you this is indeed me. If you come out, I will prove it to you. I could send you on your way to meet back up with your brother; you could have a nice family reunion where he tries to kill you continuously throughout all time. It will be just like old times.”

  “You realize that you have a minimal chance of defeating him in your current state,” Bailey said.

  “Why don’t you just draft up a memo and let him know that.” I pointed in the general direction of the enemy.

  “I do not see how that would serve our needs?”

  “Sometimes I just can’t tell if you’re fucking with me or you’re deadpan serious.”

  “Oh, I am very serious,” she informed me.

  “I do believe it to be you, Michael,” Lunos called out. “But one must make certain in these types of events.”

  “Get ready!” I shouted to those around me. It was kind of like saying “the fries are done” after the timer bell goes off to announce that fact to everyone listening. My son Justin had to get his Captain Obvious moniker from somewhere. Lunos was going to be in much more dire straits than his brother had been. The town name was the same but nothing else. They now had a strong ruler in Bailey, who had seen to it that the citizens of the town were well-armed and well-trained. The fortifications were twice as high as they had been and orders of magnitude stronger. Lunos was about to learn a very severe lesson in choosing his targets better.

  The shooting gallery was open as the werewolves advanced. Then it really got interesting. Bailey gave the order to light the lights. I’d been half expecting some huge football stadium lights above and behind me to illuminate the entire region. What we got was much more understated but nearly as effective. Looked like some sort of phosphorous was ignited on the ground in a large circle that went around the entire outside walls; it blazed in a cornea-melting yellow and then long arms radiated out at even intervals. The result was amazing as the battlements remained shadowed while the entire field was as lit up bright as noon. The werewolves were clearly confused and hesitated; we were neither as we began to shred their ranks.

  Cheers erupted as the few that were left alive either slunk away or were called back. Bailey, instead of looking celebratory, looked like she could chew through steel. Her teeth were clenched tight.

  “You alright?” I asked her. “We beat him, you know.”

  “Those are people we killed tonight. Regular people that just want to live their lives, raise families, work some land. They are being enslaved.” She was furious.

  “Bailey, I know why I’m back. Tommy said it was because there was still more to do and I know now what that is. I need to get rid of Lunos and the Lycan threat once and for all.”

  I could see in her eyes that she doubted I still possessed the power to make good on my mission statement. I was surprisingly alright with that. After all, I was usually the underdog; why change it up now? And what was the worst that could happen? I would die trying and get to see my family? No surprise here, but I was completely fine with that “worst-case” as well. Just like that, Lunos knew he’d been beaten. He, unlike his brother, would not needlessly send his werewolves off to their death. I doubt it had anything to do with compassion—more likely just the hoarding of resources. When the phosphorous finally died out, I wasn’t sure if I would ever get my vision back. I had trails etched into my eyesight for hours.

  “Bailey, I love the illumination, but what the hell do you do if the battle continues on longer?” I was rubbing my eyes. We had gone back to the central meeting place. I was saddened when I found out that the mess service was closed until the morning. The hole in my stomach had opened back up and I was hungry again.

  “They would be suffering the same effects,” she said curtly. She’d grabbed a large, rolled parchment and unrolled it on the table I was sitting at.

  “You are familiar with Partrib,” Bailey said. “He has come to join our ranks. I have made him Captain of my armed forces.”

  Partrib came in; his eyes grew wide when he saw me sitting there. To his credit, he didn’t turn around and leave.

  “You look well for one laid to rest,” he said. I looked for some sign of sarcasm, couldn’t find it.

  “Moisturizer is the key,” I told him as I helped Bailey unfurl the map; she placed mugs on the edges to keep it flat. It was a pretty decent representation of the general area. It showed a fair amount of the old eastern United States; I was happy to note that Talboton was smack dab in the middle. Nothing like some good old-fashioned egocentrism. This was surrounded by broken lines denoting the Landian influence. Ft. Lufkin had been crossed out, as had New Georgia, Harbortown, and Wheatonville—all either direct or indirect casualties of the Lycan war. How many other settlements had been obliterated by the Lycan that we had no idea about yet? They were getting their supply of werewolves from somewhere.

  “What exactly are we doing here, Bailey?” I asked.

  “Lunos withdrew quickly. He will have noted the futility of attacking our fortress; we must assume he will therefore take his forces elsewhere.

  “Denarth?” I asked.

  “We have armed them and they have restructured their defenses to match our own,” Bailey informed me.

  “You guys really have been busy.” That only left one settlement. “Robert’s Land,” we said in unison. The old Portland rebuild was more than ripe for the picking, there was not so much as a picket fence anywhere in the place. The only defense that fragile community had right now was the possibility that Lunos did not know of its existence. “Does he even know it’s there?” I voiced.

  “We will have to assume he does by now; it is likely that one or more of his captives has given him that information. He may not know exactly where it is, but that is common knowledge within the other settlements. They all trade amongst each other,” Partrib said.

  “Why would he come to Talboton first, then?” I asked. “He’s too smart for that. He could have hit Robert’s Land and crushed it before anyone even knew he was back.”

  “A test perhaps?” Partrib added.

  “Maybe. Something stinks here.”

  “It was possibly you,” Bailey said in all seriousness. “The scent of you, that is.”

  “You be dead for over half a year. You won’t smell all that good either,” I said in a defense that wasn’t really much of a comeback.

  “I am saying that quite possibly he was planning on passing us by but he detected your scent and came to investigate. You being alive would be intriguing, would it not?”

  “I’m really not that fucking interesting.”

  “We have to assume that Lunos is in possession of Calamus, the flower that allows the werewolves to change at will.”

  “I know what Calamus is,” I told her.

  “BT often spoke of your inability to remember key things; I thought it important that I reiterate a major weapon that our enemy possesses.”

  “Thank you for that.”

  “You are most welcome,” she answered.

  “You do know I wasn’t serious about that ‘thank you’, right?” I wanted to know if she was catching my sarcasm.

  “Of course I know that, but you said the words and I choose to take them at face value because that is the polite thing to do.”

  “You’re going to make me feel bad about being sarcastic? How very Midwestern of you,” I told her.

  “Could we please focus on what we need to do next?” Partri
b asked.

  I thought about devolving into the whole ‘she started it’ thing, but I took the high road. Lot of good that did me.

  “He started it,” Bailey said. She smiled at me as if she knew she had beat me to the punch. “So,” she continued without missing a beat, “it just so happens that it is the full moon when Lunos is in a position to attack. He sends a very limited force to test our strength and resolve and to also sate his curiosity. All of those things he now knows, and he has beat a hasty retreat. I do not feel that this was his primary goal.”

  “Or this was actually a lucky stroke on our part,” I said.

  “Lucky?” Partrib looked confused; Bailey got it immediately.

  “Yeah, lucky. Because we now know Lunos is still in the game. We have a chance to warn Denarth and Robert’s Land. If he had just showed up and attacked they would be gone. He would be able to build his army tenfold over what Xavier had; even these walls would not be able to stand against that kind of numbers.”

  Partrib shuddered. “This still makes no sense to me. Why would he destroy his food source in such great numbers?”

  “He has been poisoned by the pill of power. He got but a glimpse of it from his brother and wishes to succeed where the other failed,” Bailey said.

  “Forced march, he can make it to Robert’s Land in what? Ten days, two weeks? We need to go,” I said, wanting to get on the road right then and there.

  “And do what, Michael?” Bailey asked. “Robert’s Land inhabitants are notoriously suspicious of outsiders. Just because you come riding in, warning of imminent disaster, does not mean they will listen.”

  “There has to be someone that has diplomatic ties with them. Someone that can get them prepared.”

  “You should sit,” Bailey said.

  “Bailey, we have to get moving.”

  She placed her hand on my shoulder and pushed down. I complied, mostly because I didn’t want her to physically prove her dominance. I was already feeling human enough, I didn’t need to add an extra dose of humility.

  “Denarth has ties to Robert’s Land,” she began. “More specifically, Lana does.”

  “Dammit,” I hissed.

  “Yes. What a burden you must carry! A beautiful young girl is enamored with you.”

  “You enjoying this?” I asked her.

  “What do you think?”

  “Funny. So we need to talk to Lana?”

  “We do. After Xavier’s war, she made it a point to open up negotiations and create ties with every community she could find. To ‘make us all allies in life’; she called that her campaign.”

  “Smart girl.”

  “There is more.”

  “If she’s having a kid, it isn’t mine.”

  Bailey’s lips pursed at that, though she said nothing. I looked at her for a long time to glean whatever it was she was not saying. She moved on. “She’s getting married.”

  “Oh thank God. Who’s the poor bastard? I mean lucky guy?”

  “Mathieu.”

  I would have choked on my own spit if I hadn’t been so dry. “That’s fantastic!” And I meant it. Nothing would make me happier than to have my friend be happy again. Well, that and having Lana removed from the playing field. I somehow felt like a dirty old letch every time she was around, even though it was her that initiated all the contact.

  “We will leave tomorrow as planned,” Bailey said.

  “As planned? We haven’t even discussed it,” I said, nearly indignant.

  “We have been invited to the wedding. Bailey is the Maid of Honor,” Partrib explained.

  “There is a lot of strange timing at work here,” I said.

  “You have no idea,” Bailey said. Again, she did not feel the need to explain herself. “Partrib, now that there is the threat of Lunos, I would like to add another fifty to our column.” He nodded. “Michael, we leave at first light. You should get some sleep.”

  “I’d rather get some food,” I told her. “I can’t seem to keep my stomach full.”

  “I will get you some smoked meat and bread. Will that be sufficient?”

  “I’ll make do. Any chance Mathieu left some beer?”

  Bailey’s head sagged. “Do not drink too much.” She showed me a keg with the symbol of a Wolf’s head branded on it.

  “Mathieu going into business?” I asked with a smile as I touched the burned mark. “I’m taking this with us,” I told her.

  “Eat, have a mugful, and get some sleep. We have some hard riding ahead of us if we wish to stop Lunos.”

  “Mugful...sure, sure.” I’d damn near forgotten about the hard salami. “Go, go...I’ll be alright. I have some getting reacquainting to do.” If getting intimate with a barrel wasn’t considered weird, who knows what might have happened in that storeroom.

  Chapter 4

  MIKE JOURNAL ENTRY 4

  * * *

  OH, BOY, DID I forget some of the benefits of being a vampire. When Bailey came to get me I was still hammered and very much asleep. She could have poured me into that saddle. The first few miles were alright as I wasn’t awake or aware enough to realize I was bobbing around like a Styrofoam cup on the ocean during particularly rough weather. Once the buzz started to subside and the hangover began to assert itself, well...yeah, that’s when the fun really kicked in. We were moving too fast and Bailey was in no mood to baby me. I generally hung to the back so when I leaned down low on my saddle I could puke without too much of an audience. I was dismayed by the way I felt and also by all the good food I was leaving in my wake. Got more than one mean mugging stare and a couple of “fucking idiot” murmurs as other horsemen passed me by.

  “I have never had beer,” Partrib said. He had slowed up to ride alongside me. Tough to tell him what he was missing out on when I could barely open my mouth without having some sort of watery discharge. “Is it worth it?” he asked as he watched me suffer.

  I didn’t even have to think about it, I dragged my sleeve across my mouth. “Without a doubt.” Then I wretched some more. Most of the day passed by in a blurry haze of ill comfort. By the time the night was settling down upon us, I was sort of wishing I’d thought to fill up a couple of water containers with the brew. Nobody ever said I wasn’t a glutton for punishment. I didn’t stay up too long; I was exhausted and recovering. Even so, when I heard the hooves of a horse fast approaching, I rolled off my thin mat and grabbed my rifle.

  “Relax, Michael. It is one of my scouts.” Bailey was standing next to me.

  “How long have you been there? You’re kind of creeping me out.”

  “It is not often that death is cheated. You cannot blame me for looking upon you and seeing if it is possible to catch a glimpse of how you did it.”

  “Well, if I ever had the answer, I tossed it from my innards all along the trail. What is the rider all about?”

  “I am hoping he’ll have news in regards to Lunos.”

  “Do you mind if I listen in?” I was already following her to wherever she was going.

  “As long as it will not disturb your sleep. I know how cranky you old folks get when your naps are interrupted.”

  “Hilarious.”

  “Good tidings, Chair Person Tynes,” the scout said.

  “Good tidings, Kurner. What news do you have?”

  “Lunos and his charges are indeed north of here, roughly ten miles. We are nearly abreast.”

  “How could you be sure to send him north?” I asked Bailey.

  “I sent scouts out in all directions, though the safe bet was the northern corridor, which leads almost to Robert’s Land’s borders,” she told me.

  “How many Lycan were with him?” I asked. I was trying to ascertain whether Lunos had been able to consolidate his power onto all the packs.

  “I did not see any besides himself,” Kurner replied.

  “None?!” I expressed my disbelief in such a way he took offense.

  “I can track a chipmunk on a rocky outcropping. If I tell you there were no oth
er Lycan, then there were not,” he said.

  “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to doubt your expertise. I’m just having a difficult time trying to figure out what the hell Lunos is doing without the Lycan to back him up.” That seemed to mollify him.

  “How many humans?” Bailey asked.

  “Nearly a thousand.”

  I think it was me that gasped but I’m going to blame it on Bailey because it sounds manlier for me to do that.

  “There’s more,” he continued. “There were werewolves shepherding the humans.”

  “What the fuck? Like sympathizers?” was all I could think to ask.

  “You are sure, Kurner, that these were not Lycan?”

  “I am confident, Chair Person. They were indeed werewolves. I watched them more than once throughout the day drink a tea steeped in the Calamus flower.”

  “Could he really have won the hearts and the minds of the people? Are they now willingly fighting on his side?” I was just asking questions out loud.

  “That very well may be,” Kurner said.

  “Most of the people in the world live an extremely difficult life. Hard, backbreaking work does not always translate over into success. How many would willingly go if they were promised immortality, the protection of an army, and unlimited food?” Bailey asked.

  My mind was working overtime, I was setting up a useless argument that this kind of shit would have never flown in my time. But the more I thought about it, the less likely I felt like I had a valid point to make, or anyway, not a fair one. At least the people in Bailey’s time had a reason: they were dirt poor and starving. Many would be conscripted anyway, at mortal risk to their families. My guess is the affluent little pricks in my day would have come in droves to be a part of the werewolf movement. The government would probably get pressured into recognizing them as a legitimate group and have to give them rights, possibly even privileges. Lunos would be given tax-exempt status as he built his new empire, free land to house his armies, premium parking wherever he went, box seats to the playoffs. I wisely kept my mouth shut. I did not intend on telling Bailey just how much idiocy wandered around unchecked back then.