Of Song and Shadow

by Phillip Drayer Duncan

  “I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head.

  “What do you know?” I asked in little more than a growl.

  “I need your help,” she said.

  “You mentioned that already,” I replied.

  “Let me try,” Axel said, as though he were somehow the voice of reason. He smiled at our odd guest and said, “My name is Axel. What’s yours?”

  At first I didn’t think she would respond, but finally she said, “Eva.”

  Axel gave me a me a sideways glance that said, ‘See, you should let me do all the talking.’

  “That’s a lovely name,” Axel said, smiling. “And what did you think of my light show?”

  “Really, Axel?” I said. “That’s what you want to ask?”

  “It’s important to me, Wyatt,” he said, glaring at me. Then he turned his smile back to the woman.

  “It was…nice,” she said.

  “See,” Axel said. “Eva appreciates my light show.”

  “Okay, I thought you said you didn’t know who you were?” I said, trying to keep the topic on the strange woman beside me. “I asked you back at the bar. And don’t say you don’t know.”

  “I…I’m not sure,” she replied. “I just know my name.”

  “That’s it?” I asked. “You don’t remember where you came from? Or why you came looking for me?”

  “I just know I’m in trouble,” she said, studying my face. “I just know that I need Wyatt Draven, the Blade Mage. I can’t remember anything else.”

  “And just how did you find me?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Great,” I replied. “Well, that certainly makes things easy.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, looking down. “It’s the truth, though. I don’t remember anything from before…”

  “Before when?” I asked. “Tonight?”

  “No,” she said, a confused look on her face. “Since…I don’t know. I’ve just been running.”

  “It’s all right, Eva,” Axel said, patting her on the shoulder. He gave me a cross look and said, “Don’t mind the grumpy one. It’s not his fault. He’s just an ass by nature.”

  “Okay,” I said, “so, you don’t know why you’re running, or how long you’ve been running, or what you’re running from, except obviously it has something to do with those shadow creatures. You don’t know who you were before, or why you came looking for me. Does that sound about right?”

  “Yes,” she said, nodding slowly. “I just remember…darkness.”

  “All right, well, that’s creepy as shit,” Axel said, nodding enthusiastically.

  “And I don’t suppose you know what we’re supposed to do to help you?” I asked.

  She stared at me for a few moments, then finally said, “No.”

  “Hmm,” Axel said. “Maybe we’re supposed to do something specific. Like some kind of spell or something. Or maybe we’re supposed to find someone for you. Oh, or maybe we need to reconnect you with a long lost lover or something like that. What do you think?”

  “I don’t know,” she replied.

  I was really getting sick of hearing her say that.

  “Well, it all seems much easier than that to me,” I said, glancing at both of them. “I already have a plan that doesn’t involve any of the stupid things Axel just said.”

  “So, you’re going to help me?” she asked.

  “Oh, yeah, I’m going to help you,” I replied, nodding with as much enthusiasm as I could manage. “I’m going to take you to a motel and I’m going to get you a room. Then I’m going to call a real adult to come help you with all this craziness. Then I’m going to go home, I’m going to eat the stale pizza in the fridge, and then I’m going to go to bed. Anyone see any problems with this plan?”

  Axel raised his hand and when I didn’t call on him he said, “I’m afraid your plan will never work, Wyatt.”

  “And why not, Axel?”

  “Because I already ate the stale pizza in the fridge.”

  This, I decided, was not worthy of a response.

  Chapter 5

  It wasn’t hard to find a cheap motel in a tourist town. Which was good, considering I was rather grumpy about wasting money on a room. What we’d made wasn’t enough to cover the bills as it was, and I was throwing it away on a stranger with a limited vocabulary.

  The motel clerk was a dirty middle-aged man wearing a stained white t-shirt with a gold chain around his neck. He assessed us with beady little eyes and gave us a knowing look that indicated he knew what we were up to. Then he offered us the ‘special’ hourly rate. I did my best not to choke the pervert and explained that we needed the room for the whole night.

  Once that was settled, I asked if I could use the phone. Naturally, he declined, but informed me there was a pay phone on the other side of the parking lot. Axel took the room key and went with Eva to get her settled in while I went outside to see if the creepy motel man had told me the truth. He had.

  I grabbed some spare quarters from the console in my truck and headed over to the antique phone. It was getting harder and harder to find landlines to use these days. Someone needed to develop a cell phone that would last a wizard longer than a month. I didn’t even bother buying new electronics anymore. I would inevitably zap them, and I couldn’t afford to keep replacing them. Some wizards were good at making wards to dampen their own effects. I was not one of them.

  The instructions on the old phone were unreadable, so after a few moments of trying to remember how payphones worked, I dropped a few quarters into the slot and dialed.

  Parker Grimm answered on the third ring.

  “Hello,” he answered, and from the sound of his voice, it was clear he’d been asleep.

  “Parker, it’s Wyatt,” I said, pausing to consider what I wanted to say next. I decided to go for broke. “I need your help. Have something weird going down. The Cabal will want people on this ASAP.”

  “What’s going on?” he asked, his voice monotone and almost disinterested.

  “This strange woman approached me. Said she needed my help, but she doesn’t know why or remember anything. I was about to pass her off as a loon when these shadow creatures attacked her.”

  “Shadow creatures,” he repeated. “Tell me about them.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like them. Their flesh was completed black. Except for their eyes. They glowed bright white. Creepy as hell.”

  “I see,” he said. “And what did you do?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked. I was starting to get annoyed. “I grabbed the lady and got the hell out of there.”

  “And what did she tell you?”

  “Not much,” I replied. “Like I said, she’s says she doesn’t remember anything.”

  “I see,” he replied.

  “So, are you going to send help?” I asked. I was starting to lose my patience. Parker was an asshole, but he was a dedicated asshole. It wasn’t like him to be this laid back, and he knew I wouldn’t call unless it was an emergency.

  There was a long pause before he answered. “I need to know exactly what she said to you.”

  “Then come and ask her,” I replied.

  “I want you to tell me.”

  “What is this?” I asked. “You don’t believe me?”

  “I believe,” he replied. “I just want you to tell me what she said.”

  “What’s going on, Parker?” I asked. “Do you know something?”

  “You haven’t answered my question.”

  “About all she’s said is that her name is Eva,” I replied, growling. “Just get some people here, damn it.”

  “I already have them en route.”

  “Great, do you want to know where I am?”

  “I already know,” he said with an edge of impatience. “What did the woman say to you?”

  I was just about to start screaming when a new thought struck me. I took a moment to regain my composure and asked, “Who are you sending?”

  “The best
,” he replied. “Don’t worry about it.”

  With as much sincerity as I could muster, I asked, “Are you sending my old friend Anthony Burns? I haven’t seen him in a while, and I’d sure like to see him. Remember, we were just talking about that recently. He’s the only one I trust.”

  “Of course,” Parker replied. “Anthony is on the way. He’s looking forward to seeing you.”

  I thought about it for a moment, mulling his reply over. After a few moments I said, “This isn’t Parker Grimm.”

  “Of course it is,” he said. “You called me, remember?”

  “The voice is almost right,” I said, glancing around to make sure I was still alone. I was starting to feel a bit paranoid. “But I can’t stand Anthony Burns, and Parker Grimm knows it.”

  The responding silence was answer enough. Whoever I was on the phone with, it wasn’t Parker Grimm. It wasn’t the Cabal. How they’d intercepted my phone call, and did a nearly spot on Parker voice, I didn’t know, but I was sure I was right.

  Just then, I heard a pop outside the phone booth and the nearest streetlight went out, bathing me in shadow. I glanced around again, every instinct telling me it was time to run. I’d faced off with some pretty scary shit, but this was a different level of creepy.

  The façade up, the voice that replied wasn’t human. It sounded like a whispering curse. Baritone, yet slithery as a serpent. A voice suited for narrating nightmares. It said, “Return her to me.”

  My stomach twisted in knots. I took a deep breath to maintain my calm and asked, “Who is this?”

  “Return her to me, Blade Mage.”

  “Who is this?” I asked for the third time. It was all I could think to say as another shiver crawled up my spine.

  “You meddle in things you do not understand,” the voice replied. “Return her to me.”

  “You keep saying that, but I don’t know who you are,” I said, my temper pushing back some of the fear in my gut. “And I don’t know where you are. So, even if I wanted to return her, I can’t.”

  There was another brief pause and the voice said, “Who I am matters not to you, Blade Mage. As for returning her, you have but to walk away. We will collect the woman. Leave her there. Go back to your miserable existence and forget this night ever happened.”

  “Based on the creepiness of this conversation, I’m not sure it’ll be possible to forget.”

  “Save your brevity. You are afraid. I can taste your fear on the air, human. That’s as it should be. Go now, for I have little patience.”

  “Yeah,” I said, gritting my teeth. “I’m not known for my patience, either. So, why don’t you cut the bullshit. If you were half as nasty as you’re trying to make me believe, then we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Don’t forget, I am the Blade Mage. It’s my job to kill assholes like you, so fuck off with intimidation tactics.”

  All things considered, I thought I’d done a pretty decent job of sounding tough, despite the fact I really wanted to piss my pants and curl up in the fetal position.

  The voice laughed. “Blade Mage. You believe that matters? You’ve involved yourself in things that are beyond your station. Beyond your little Cabal, even. Perhaps your father might’ve proven a challenge. Perhaps he wouldn’t have quivered at the sound of my voice, but he is dead now, isn’t he? And you, Wyatt Draven, are nothing but his fleeting shadow.”

  “Fuck you,” I replied. “You want the woman? Then come and take her.”

  “I will,” the voice replied.

  Then every street light exploded all at once, leaving me in utter darkness.

  Chapter 6

  I bolted to the motel room and banged on the door. A moment later, Axel opened it and I glanced past him to see that Eva sat in a chair on the other side of the room. Both of them were looking at me expectantly, and I was just glad to see they were both all right.

  “We’ve got to go,” I said, glancing between the two of them. “She can’t stay here. It isn’t safe.”

  “What do you mean?” Axel asked.

  “There isn’t time. I’ll explain in the truck.”

  Neither of them argued and followed me back outside. Checking back out was the least of my concerns, and I doubted the shady clerk would give my money back anyway.

  On the way to the truck, Axel asked, “So, where are we going?”

  I didn’t have an answer.

  ***

  I thought about driving out of town. I thought about putting Eureka Springs in my rearview and driving until we hit the interstate, then putting the hammer down. The other, and possibly more sensible option, was to make a dash for the Castle. The Cabal’s main compound was just south of Fayetteville, which was only about an hour’s drive.

  After I told them about the call, Axel and I debated these options as we tore through town. Eva sat quietly between us. There was one major flaw with both ideas. Any way we might leave town involved a long stretch of dark windy roads. The thing, or things, pursuing us had somehow tracked us to the motel, had managed to intercept my call from a payphone, and had remotely blown out every light in the neighborhood. I had little doubt they could track us down on some old highway in the middle of the night. And they’d expect us to pull a move like that.

  Best I could figure, they had some kind of tracking spell on Eva. How good of a spell it was, I couldn’t say, but my guess was it was pretty damned good. Which meant we needed to get her someplace that it would be harder to track.

  Once the Archmage of the Cabal had told me that he hadn’t been able to track me because my sword veiled me. It was possible that my sword was veiling her now, and that they’d only locked onto her when I stepped away to use the payphone. I didn’t have anything to substantiate this hypothesize, though, and I didn’t want to risk our lives on it.

  There was also a chance they’d struggle to ping her while we were moving at fifty-five miles per hour in my truck, but I didn’t trust that, either. And if we made a break for the Castle, I was going to have to stop for gas.

  Whoever, and whatever, they were, clearly they were some distance away, or they wouldn’t have bothered threatening me. They would’ve just shown up and taken her. Yet, the shadow creatures had been here. Did that mean there were two different parties hunting her?

  My brain felt like it was turning to mush.

  So, in the end, we ended up back at my cabin. The hope was that my sword and the wards around the property would protect us, at least until morning. Then we’d come up with a better plan.

  I offered Eva a seat at my dinner table and sat down across from her. Axel went into the kitchen and returned with half loaf of bread, peanut butter, jelly, and a butter knife, and started making us all sandwiches.

  I kept an eye on Eva. She was quiet and seemed half asleep. Couldn’t blame her for that, though. I felt beat myself, and I’d only been running from the shadow monsters for the past hour or so. If she’d been on the run for days, it was no wonder she was half out of her mind.

  “Are you all right?” I asked her.

  She nodded slowly, her lips still attached to the sandwich Axel had given her. In seconds, the whole thing was gone, and I wondered how long it had been since she’d eaten. I wondered if she even knew the answer to that question. Axel started making her another.

  “Just tired?” I asked.

  She nodded again and stared at the table.

  “And scared?” I added.

  She hesitated for a moment, then nodded again.

  “Yeah, well, that makes two of us,” I replied. “We should be safe here, though. The wards will protect us.”

  I wasn’t sure that was true, but there was no use being negative. If she could relax a bit, maybe she would remember something useful.

  I glanced at Axel and said, “We need to check the wards, and we probably need to take turns on guard duty.”

  Axel shook his head. “We don’t need to stand guard, Wyatt. The wards will be enough. I’ll make sure they’re good before I lay down.” />
  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Pops made those wards years ago. They should all still be standing, but I don’t know how much power they have left.”

  Axel made an exaggerated sigh and handed the completed sandwich to Eva. “Wyatt, I’ve been maintaining your father’s wards since I started staying with you.”

  “You…what?”

  “Yeah, when I first got here they were starting to run out of juice. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want you to feel bad, but, well, I was always pretty good at defense wards, you know? One time your dad showed me how he made his. So, when I got here, I saw they were starting to wear down and I beefed them up a bit. Not sure I could replicate one from scratch, but I know the guts well enough. All the little nuances he used. In truth, I’ve improved on them a bit. Your wards are better than ever. If my light show took out a few of those shadow creatures, your wards will evaporate the lot of them. And nothing is coming through without us knowing. And if something makes it past them and lives, well, I’d prefer it kills us in our sleep anyway, because it’s going to be way out of our league.”

  I stared at him, unsure what to say. Finally, I settled on, “Axel, that’s awesome. I didn’t know Dad had showed you. I’m terrible at wards, so it wasn’t something we ever spent a lot of time on together. Mostly, I just remember a few bits from school.”

  “I know,” he replied happily. “That’s why he taught me instead. Let’s face it, Wyatt. You’re best at being a wrecking ball. I’m better at the more subtle, precise, and clever work.”

  It might’ve been meant as a compliment, but it felt a little backhanded. It also wasn’t a rabbit hole I wanted to go down with him.

  I excused myself from the table and went to the laundry room to see if I owned any clean sheets and a pillow I could offer Eva. When I returned, Axel offered her his room and yanked his sheets off in one big pile, which he unceremoniously dumped on the couch.

  As I started to make the bed, Eva silently moved to the other side and helped me spread out the fitted sheet. After the corners were tucked, she waited while I unfolded the regular sheet and took the other side of it as well.