The Chronicles of William Wilde Boxset 1

by Davis Ashura

  “She should be able to help,” Mr. Zeus agreed.

  Despite his lingering disappointment and his ongoing headache, Jake noticed something in Mr. Zeus’ tone. He caught a flash of regret on the old man’s face.

  Mr. Zeus noticed his regard. “Sioned and I have a history together,” he said. “A romantic one, before I met my wife.”

  “What was she like?” Jake asked. “Your wife, I mean.”

  Mr. Zeus hardly ever talked about his past.

  “Patient, to have put up with me for as long she did,” Mr. Zeus answered with a faint smile. “Smart, too, and lovely. She had a subtle sense of humor. I used to joke that she should have been born English.”

  “Where was she from?”

  “Nigeria.”

  Jake’s eyes widened. He knew some of Mr. Zeus’ history as the child of slaveholders. “She was black?”

  Mr. Zeus nodded, and his gaze grew distant. “It is strange how life works.” His focus returned to the here and now, and something in his visage told Jake that he no longer wanted to talk about the past.

  “You have any plans for today?” William asked Selene after he picked her up from school.

  Serena had asked him to get Selene, and he’d been happy to. Between his classes, Selene’s schoolwork, and the time she spent with her friends—she finally had made some—he didn’t get to see the little girl he’d come to think of as a sister nearly as much as he liked.

  The two of them crossed the triangular-shaped Village Green as bright sunlight beamed down on them from a cloudless sky. To the west, though, a cloudbank shrouded a trio of foothills—the Triplets. Rain would arrive later in the evening. Meanwhile, a saxophonist, a cajon drummer, a fiddler, and a guitarist had set up in the gazebo and were busy stomping out bluegrass music. A small crowd of twenty or thirty had gathered to listen.

  Selene shrugged in response to William’s question, in that infuriatingly blasé fashion every child mastered by the time they were five.

  William mentally smiled when he thought about the observation he’d made. Did he think of himself as an adult now?

  They stepped aside for a young couple flying a dragon-shaped kite. The wind lofted it high above Clifftop, and it reminded William of his stuffed dragon, Bartholomew, that Mr. Zeus had thoughtfully brought to Arylyn with him.

  An instant later Selene’s world-weary features transformed into puppy-eyed hopefulness. “Can we get ice cream?”

  “Your sister said to bring you straight home,” William replied.

  Selene’s face fell, and William laughed at her exaggerated sadness.

  “Do your teachers make you do homework?” Selene asked.

  William shook his head. He didn’t like talking about his lessons. He still failed more times than he succeeded when it came to braiding, and as far as he could tell, he wasn’t getting any better. “We have to practice, but it’s not like homework in the Far Beyond. This is stuff I want to do.”

  “I don’t want to do any of it,” Selene said, sounding despondent. “My teachers keep telling me to focus and concentrate, concentrate and focus.” She said the words as if they were a cursed mantra. “I’d rather play.”

  “Me, too,” William said in sympathy, “but that’s not the way life works.”

  They reached the Main Stairs of Cliff Spirit and began their descent.

  “When I grow up, do you think I can do whatever I want instead of what someone tells me?” Selene asked.

  “I don’t know,” William replied. “I think it depends on how well you focus and concentrate.” He grinned at her.

  She tried not to smile back. “Ha, ha,” she said, punching him lightly on the shoulder before taking off down the stairs. “Race you!”

  William’s heart lurched. What if Selene fell? It was a long way down. “Wait!” he shouted.

  She laughed in response.

  William sprinted after her, catching her four terraces down. He snagged Selene to a halt. “Slow down,” he warned, fear lending irritation to his voice.

  “I wouldn’t have gotten hurt,” Selene protested. She shrugged herself free of his grip.

  “But I would have,” William said. “I’m old, remember?”

  “You’re not that old,” Selene said. “Not like Mr. Zeus.” She brightened. “He let me have cookies every night when you and Serena were gone on your pilgrimages. I liked staying with him.”

  “You liked the cookies, huh?”

  “Of course,” Selene said. “I’m eleven. Who doesn’t like cookies at eleven?”

  William grunted, unable to find fault with her observation.

  At the base of the Main Stairs they crossed the Guanyin Bridge. William shaded his eyes as the silvery structure reflected the surrounding cliffs and cascades.

  What kind of dumbass built a mirrored bridge?

  From there they navigated the rocky remnants of Cliff Spirit before reaching the golden beach surrounding Lilith Bay. They headed south from there, taking a path through the nearby jungle.

  The thick canopy provided shade, but it also blocked out the trade wind and trapped the humidity. William began to sweat as the air grew stifling. The songs of birds and the buzzing of insects replaced the ocean’s rushing and receding waves. Leaves wisped and rustled in a stray breeze, and lizards the size of William’s palm balanced upon the trunks of trees as they seemed to watch them pass.

  Several hundred yards later, the jungle ended at a lagoon where Serena and Selene’s single-story cottage stood upon a rocky knoll. The exterior walls wore a happy yellow color, and the front door and shutters, an indigo-blue. Ruddy tiles shingled the roof, and a broad porch faced a white sand beach that stenciled the lagoon. Several mango trees provided shade, while flowering bushes and shrubs with violet and red leaves bracketed the brick path leading to the door. A large cliff loomed to the west.

  William whistled in admiration. Too late he noticed Serena on the porch, bent at the waist as she settled a surfboard into place.

  She stood up, wearing a quizzical countenance.

  “I meant the whistle for your house,” William said.

  Selene smiled smugly.

  “Shut up,” William muttered to her.

  Selene cackled as she gave Serena a quick hug and dashed into the cottage.

  Serena waited on his approach. She wore a blue, one-piece swimsuit and a towel wrapped around her waist. As William approached, despite everything between them he couldn’t help admiring the long, athletic lines of her tanned legs, and the easy grace with which she moved.

  “Thanks for getting Selene,” Serena said. “Jean-Paul took me surfing at Amaril Beach.”

  “I’m guessing it went well.”

  Serena grinned in triumph. “Yup.”

  William frowned. He’d never heard her use that word, or appear so relaxed.

  “Can I go swimming, or do I have to do my homework first?” Selene shouted from inside the cottage.

  “Homework,” Serena called out.

  The expected grumbling came from within.

  “How’s she fitting in?” William asked.

  “She struggled at first but she’s fine now, happier than I’ve ever seen her.”

  “And you?” William asked, not sure what prompted his question. Why did he care how Serena was doing?

  Her face became guarded. “Why do you ask?”

  William shrugged. “Curiosity. You’re happier than before, more like I remember. Or is this a lie, too?”

  “I told you before, not everything I did was a lie. In fact, most of it wasn’t.” Serena focused her disconcerting gaze upon him, something William hadn’t seen in months. “You still can’t tell when I’m lying or speaking the truth?”

  “I never could.”

  She smiled. “Good. Then I’m not losing all my skills. But in answer to your question, I’m not lying. I am happy. I can finally laugh and mean it.”

  “Good to hear,” William said. “By the way, I ran into Rukh and Jessira. They say ‘hello.’�
��

  Again Serena’s face became guarded.

  “What now?” William asked.

  “Those two bother me,” Serena said with a frown. “I don’t trust them.”

  William snorted.

  “I know you think I’m being hypocritical, but come on, those two . . . They don’t make sense.”

  “No, they don’t,” William agreed. “You know, the other day he outran me.”

  “And?”

  “After Kohl’s blood infected me, I’m faster than everyone. But not Rukh. He had no trouble beating me.”

  “I thought you had a bit of hero-worship going on with him.”

  “I did,” William admitted, “but it doesn’t mean I’m blind to his strangenesses.”

  Serena tilted her head. “Is that even a word?”

  “What? Strangenesses?” William shrugged. “I think so.”

  “Is that what you wanted to talk to me about, Rukh’s and Jessira’s strangenesses?” Serena's eyes twinkled in the way he remembered from long ago.

  He mentally scowled, cutting off that line of thought. “No. I was only dropping off Selene. I should go.”

  “You can stay for dinner if you like,” Serena said. Her words came out in a rush.

  A queasy, uncertainty developed in William’s stomach. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Okay,” Serena said. She wore an understanding smile, but William could see the disappointment in her eyes. “Maybe some other time.” She tucked a lock of hair behind an ear.

  William froze. Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. Serena’s graceful gesture that had once had him so enraptured. “Don’t do that,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Try to make me like you.”

  “I’m not trying, but if I were, you’d like me again.”

  “No, I wouldn’t.” William’s spine firmed.

  “Then prove it. Have supper with me.”

  William hesitated. Having dinner with Serena sounded like a bad idea.

  PRESENT RELAXATIONS

  November 1987

  * * *

  A few months after the near disaster in Australia, William took Ms. Sioned for a morning stroll along Lilith Beach. She wanted to assess his progress in the mastery of his Elements, but for some reason she wanted to test him near the ocean. She leaned against him as they walked, and William made sure to maintain a slow pace for her occasionally unsteady gait.

  This early in the morning no one else was about as they hiked the northern edge of Lilith Bay. Here, the golden sands transitioned into a shingle beach made of glassy-smooth stones, and William led Ms. Sioned around tide pools, full of small, white fish and an occasional suspicious coconut crab with her large claws up and ready. The wind whipped and carried the smell of the salty sea. Birds—fairy terns—called out as they wheeled in the sky.

  “Let’s rest here,” Ms. Sioned suggested a few minutes later, gesturing to one of the many boulders littering the beach. They’d likely broken off from the nearby ruddy-veined, granite cliff. On the other side of the escarpment was the canyon through which River Namaste swept northward to the Pacific.

  William helped ease Ms. Sioned onto a boulder, but he remained standing. He stared over the ocean and imagined himself sailing upon its aqua waves. The water glowed resplendent in the early morning light, but the sun had yet to crest the height of the soaring cliffs behind him, and the beach remained cast in shadow.

  “Dolphins,” Ms. Sioned said, drawing his attention to the bay.

  William looked to where she pointed and saw them. They slipped through the water, sleek and gray and probably part of a local pod. He smiled when he recalled seeing a dolphin for the first time.

  It had been during a vacation to the North Carolina Outer Banks in his sophomore year of high school. He’d seen a dorsal fin breach the water, and memories of Jaws had taken hold. Several swimmers had been out in the water, and William had jumped up and down, shouting and desperately trying to catch their attention.

  “Shark! Shark!” he’d yelled.

  “The hell you talking about?” asked a grumpy, old man standing close by. He had the broad accent of someone from Brooklyn. “It’s a dolphin.”

  William had crashed to a halt, reddened with embarrassment, and offered a nonsensical explanation for his reaction. “Oh. I’m from Ohio.”

  The man had shaken his head in disgust. “Well, I’m from New York,” the man had said, except it came out as ‘New Yawk.’

  “Why are you smiling?” Ms. Sioned asked. William told her, and she laughed. “You could have lied and saved yourself embarrassment.”

  William shrugged, not minding her laughter. “It’s what happened, and I’m sure everyone’s done something at least that dumb.”

  “Yes, but most of us are wise enough to keep it to ourselves,” Ms. Sioned said. Her eyes twinkled.

  “You asked,” William said.

  “So I did,” she replied. “Now, sit next to me and show me what Ward has taught you. Source your Spirit and embrace Fire.”

  William did as she asked. He sourced his lorethasra, separated Fire, and connected it to lorasra. The resultant braid crackled across his torso in thin, rippling waves, and the stink of sulfur lifted from it. He smiled in pride. Not a single stumble or hiccup had marred his effort.

  “Your Fire is very lovely,” Ms. Sioned said. “Almost as pure as Ward’s, but where did you learn to form the braid like that? It’s quick but inelegant.”

  “Serena,” William told her. “It’s how the mahavans do it.”

  “Why learn it?”

  “I need to separate the Elements more quickly for when I face a mahavan.”

  “I see,” Ms. Sioned said. “It must have been hard to ask Serena for help.”

  Her voice and features remained nonjudgmental, but William struggled not to squirm beneath her gaze. His feelings toward Serena remained conflicted. A part of him—a shrinking portion—still distrusted her, while another part of him had long since forgiven her.

  “Thicken the braid if you can,” Ms. Sioned said.

  William followed her instruction.

  “Now add Earth.”

  William didn’t hesitate. He reached for the Element. His weave of Fire trembled a moment, and he steadied it. He formed a braid of Earth and let it wrap around his hands like a strand of ivy. It rippled in an unseen wind.

  Ms. Sioned clapped her hands. “Well done,” she enthused. “Now thicken both of the braids.”

  William managed it without any problem, and tried not to be smug.

  “Are you up for adding Air?”

  William nodded. While adding a third Element was trickier, he’d done it before. Plenty of times, in fact. He could actually hold all four braided Elements now. A notion came to him, and he added both Air and Water.

  “Very nice,” Ms. Sioned said, “but don’t get over-confident.”

  She sent a whiplash of Fire at his linked Elements. Her thread slammed into his Elements and incinerated all his braids.

  William froze in shock. “How did you do that?”

  “A trick of an old raha’asra,” Ms. Sioned said with a crooked smile.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “We are, somewhat, masters of all Elements,” Ms. Sioned. “We can do what others can’t.”

  “Mr. Zeus once told me that only the rarest of asrasins can become masters of all five Elements. I asked if he meant raha’asras, and he said ‘no.’ But Fiona said we were masters of all the Elements. Which one is it?”

  “Both,” Ms. Sioned said. “There are asrasins who are masters of all Elements—samra’asras—but their control of Spirit isn’t at the same level as a raha’asra’s. And while we can somewhat master all the Elements other than Spirit, we aren’t as powerful in our use of them as a samra’asra.

  “Serena thinks I’m powerful in all of them.”

  “You are more powerful than most asrasins I’ve known,” Ms. Sioned agreed, “but I have also known a tru
e samra’asra in my time. She was old when I met her and died shortly after I came to Arylyn, but I tell you she held the raging seas and the sun within her.”

  “I think Sinskrill’s Servitor is a samra’asra.”

  “Given what we know of him, and what happened in Australia, you’re likely correct,” Ms. Sioned agreed. “Evil always finds a way to personal power, but perhaps with prayer and luck, it will always be defeated by the unwavering hearts of good folk.”

  Jake held Selene's hand, and they sidestepped the crowds of people clogging the narrow roads and alleys of Clifftop. The farmer’s market was held twice a week at the Village Green and during it Clifftop became a beehive of activity as everyone shopped for produce and meat. Of course, Jake never actually saw money exchange hands. Lilith’s economy didn’t require anything fancier than the barter system.

  His dad probably would have complained about it, but it worked. Even the island’s government, the Village Council, had a wonderful simplicity to it: a councilor to represent each of the five Cliffs and a mayor to oversee them.

  The lack of finance and government meant that the people of Lilith could do whatever they wanted without any bankers, accountants, lawyers, or bureaucrats to get in their way. At least the lack of the last two would have made his dad smile.

  The memory of his father caused Jake to frown.

  “Why are you sad?” Selene asked, interrupting his thoughts. She’d gotten out of school early so Jake could spend the afternoon with her.

  He paused before answering the young girl, whom he thought of as a daughter and sister mixed up in one. He pulled her out of the way of a passing group of middle-aged women, holding burlap sacks in hand and pets on leashes. Most had dogs, but some had miniature lions, tigers, or bears.

  Jake sometimes still found it hard to believe the fantastical things he saw on a daily basis here. Even more surprising was how everyone took those near-miracles as a matter of course.

  “I was thinking about my family,” he said in answer to Selene’s question.

  “You miss them,” she said, her expression solemn.