Fury Lingers: Book One of The Foreseen Trilogy

by Ethan Spears

  “Of course,” said Cofus. “Actions speak more strongly than the longest histories.”

  A servant was called in and she escorted them out. As the door was closing, Aoden looked back to see Cofus looking like a small old man, hunched at his desk and puffing at his unlit pipe.

  Chapter 25

  Scale and Illusion

  They peered over the fence at Reggy’s house.

  Reggy was an illusionist, a trickster, that much they knew—what with passing himself off as a halfling for so many years—but a spy? Mergau couldn’t imagine that the little man who had protected her and treated her wound could have any bad intentions.

  They met those watching Reggy, gave the passphrase, and handed over the sealed papers from Cofus. The head of the group was displeased with the orders but didn’t complain as he filled the two of them in. They were instructed brusquely, suspiciously, and sent on. There were three groups of four stationed around the house, posing as neighbors or market-goers as needed. Aoden had seen the manacles, the kind covered in runes to suppress magical powers. If they wanted to take Reggy, they could and would.

  “We have to be careful,” Aoden whispered as they trod up the path to the front door. “With these guards all around, we can’t do anything to alarm Reggy. I know him and trust him, but people change when they’re cornered.”

  “Are you sure you know him? Because it doesn’t seem like you do.”

  Aoden frowned. “I hope I do. Just don’t panic him. You heard what they said: if it looks like we’re losing him, they’ll make their move, and that’s the last we’ll see of Reggy. I don’t want that to happen.”

  “Neither do I, but I don’t trust him as much as you do. He’s your friend, so I’m sure you’ll know what to say.”

  Aoden shook his head but didn’t say anything. He raised his fist and knocked on the door.

  Part of him wished Reggy wouldn’t be home, having figured he was being watched and vanishing during the night, that the Reggy the halflings saw was just a clever illusion meant to keep them here as he fled. There was even a smidgen of hope that there was another halfling mage named Reginald Bluecorn somewhere in the city, but none of these ideas jibed with reality. That truth had long since settled on Aoden’s guts.

  Reggy appeared soon enough.

  “Aoden!” he piped, holding his robe closed with one hand and the door open with the other.

  “Hi, Reggy,” Aoden said sullenly.

  Reggy slapped his leg. “I thought I was hearing things with that high knock, but what do you know? It was you after all! And you were just here a few months ago. Missed me that much, did you? You could’ve sent word before you showed up.”

  “It was short notice. Mind if we come in?”

  Reggy barked a laugh. “Listen to you. ‘Mind if we—’ of course I don’t mind. Come on in and have a seat. I’ll get some tea ready. And your lady friend.” He paused and looked at her face. “Is that you, Mergau?”

  Mergau gave him a forced smile. “Yes. Hi, Reggy. It’s good to see you again.”

  “Good to see me? Well, when did you become such a polite young lady? Still following ‘the Elf’ around, are you? Well, don’t just stand there, come in! I need to hear what’s happened with you two since I last saw you. I’m sure you have some interesting stories for me.”

  They entered his dining room and sat down, finding it much as it was when they last left: piled with books and candles and oddly-sized chairs, a plate of half-eaten food at the table’s head. Reggy sat behind the plate and pushed it away, babbling from his seat as the others took theirs.

  “So much going on lately, so busy,” he was saying. “Not that your presence is unwelcome, of course. Quite the opposite. I could use something to break up the monotony here. Nothing but research and writing, the occasional chat with the neighbors. I was actually thinking of taking another vacation myself, somewhere in the west, maybe a bit south if I feel like daring the cold. Maybe I’ll check the old gremlin mines in Watsa, see if the rumors of dwarven squatters have any truth to them. Their return would be more than welcome at this time, I’d think.”

  “Tommy,” Aoden cut in as the halfling was building steam, “we don’t have the time to discuss your schedule.”

  The halfling sputtered to a halt. “Tommy?” he asked innocently, flicking his eyes over to Mergau. “What are you—?”

  “She already knows,” Aoden said. “I told her on the way down.”

  The halfling thrust his fists into his hips. “Don’t go around giving away other people’s secrets, Aoden! I was going to surprise her with this big reveal so I could see the look on her face and everything. It was going to be so funny!”

  “I have a serious question for you, Tommy,” Aoden forged ahead, “and I need you to answer honestly. And I want to ask you, okay? Not Reggy. Can you do that?”

  Reggy looked taken aback by the suggestion, but Aoden was boring holes into him with his eyes. He put a lid on his lighthearted attitude for the moment and nodded. “It’s just the same little trick I taught you,” he said to Mergau apologetically. “Maybe a bit stronger is all.”

  She could feel his energy fluctuate, and the vision of Reggy melted away. There was no Reggy anymore. The human that sat in his place was near as tall as Aoden and looked a bit older, his hair short and black, his face clean-shaven, and his eyes a clever green. When the illusion was completely gone, he held his arms out to his sides as if to say ‘ta-da.’

  “Mergau,” Aoden said dryly, “Tommy. Tommy, Mergau.”

  “A pleasure,” said Reggy, performing an exaggerated bow. “I suppose a proper introduction was in order eventually, might as well be now. As for you, my elf-y friend, you’ve got a lot of nerve, you know. Telling me I need to ‘answer you honestly.’ I’m always honest with you. I’d thank you not to make such insinuations in my house.”

  “You’re saying you have no secrets you keep from me, is that it?” Aoden asked.

  “Not a one, my friend.”

  “You’re lying to me right now, Tommy.”

  Reggy looked like he had been slapped. “What the hell is wrong with you, Aoden? I let the first one slide, but if you’re going to come into my home and make accusations, I’ll be forced to retract my offer of tea.”

  “So, you’re going to stick with your story? You’re not going to come clean?” Aoden’s voice rose with each word. “I’m giving you a chance to tell me what you’ve been holding back before I tell you what I’ve found out.”

  Reggy was getting angry too. “You show up out of nowhere and start making demands of me, insulting my integrity; I don’t know how you expect me to react, Aoden.”

  “How about you—”

  “The both of you shut up!” Mergau grabbed Aoden by the shoulder and flung him backward into a chair. It tipped back and would have fallen if it didn’t slam into a wall first, putting a sizeable dent in the wood.

  “Hey,” the human began, “watch what you’re—”

  “Shut it, Reggy. I thought I’d leave the talking to Aoden, but you two become children around each other. It’s up to me to have the adult conversation.”

  “Now you’re insulting me, too?”

  “Reggy, they know. The halflings know about you.” Mergau stared hard into the man’s eyes. “And I’m not talking about the fact that you’re a human in disguise.”

  Reggy cocked his head. If he was still angry, that anger was hidden behind the shrewd gaze he was directing at the pair of them. “People hear all sorts of things,” he said sharply, “and I can’t be expected to know all that’s said about me. The curse of popularity, you know.”

  “We’re not talking about rumors, Reggy,” Mergau said. “We’re talking about the government. Some very high-ranking officials have learned some important secrets. Secrets about you. Aoden wants you to tell us willingly, or he would’ve spilled the news already. If you really are his friend, this is your chance to prove it.”

  Reggy looked between the two of them, considerin
g his words. “Okay, so let’s say, hypothetically, that I have a few secrets,” he said. “If you were to know one of these supposed ‘secrets,’ you’re going to have to be more specific. Maybe give me a code word that might clue me in as to what you’ve found, hmm?”

  “Lizard, Tommy,” said Aoden loudly. When Reggy stared at him bug-eyed, he repeated himself. “Lizard.”

  Reggy blinked. His mouth sagged open as his eyes darted between the two of them. “No,” he said at last, shaking his head. “You couldn’t have—they couldn’t have. That’s not possible!”

  “What, pray tell, isn’t possible, Tommy? Would you mind telling me? Finally?” Aoden sat back and folded his arms. “Or are you going to keep treating me like I’m an idiot?”

  Reggy waggled his finger and opened his mouth but couldn’t think of something to say. He sighed in frustration. “I refuse to believe this. They couldn’t know. I’ve been so careful over the years.”

  “Careful of what, Tommy? Why won’t you just say it? They’ve found letters that you’ve sent and received in the language of the lizardfolk. They have your name on a list. There are a dozen government agents waiting outside for you. What are they waiting for, Tommy?”

  Reggy looked shaken. “Gods, they’re out there? I didn’t—I had no intention…” He glanced back and forth between his guests, but they both remained silent, staring with intense eyes. All at once, he looked worn. “Alright, fine, it’s true, alright? It’s true. I didn’t want to hide it from you. I’m sorry. I’ll show you, okay?”

  Aoden was on the verge of asking ‘show me what,’ but Reggy was already showing. He began to undulate, and Mergau could already tell what was happening, though she was confused. He had already diffused his illusion, hadn’t he? Why was he trying to diffuse it again?

  But she was only half right because he wasn’t diffusing just any illusion. Slowly, the vision of Tommy the human flaked away, his peach skin melting into a dark, mottled green, his face elongating, his nose sinking away and replaced by two wide slits, his ears vanishing and the skin stretching over the holes until there was nothing left, his eyes turning yellow and his pupils narrowing to slits. Just as Reggy had left Tommy in his place, so too was Tommy gone, and though neither Aoden nor Mergau had ever seen one before, they knew they were looking at a lizardman of Verka.

  He held out his arms again, ‘ta-da,’ though less enthusiastically.

  He waited for them to speak but neither could find their voice. Mergau had only just learned that Reggy wasn’t a halfling, and now he wasn’t a human, either? And Aoden might as well have been turned to stone for all the reaction he could produce. The half-elf let his entire face go slack, one hand having found his forehead as he simply stared. Reggy was still standing with arms awkwardly held out. He cleared his throat pointedly.

  “You’re… a lizard,” Mergau said, breaking the silence.

  Reggy worked his mouth. “That wasn’t… please don’t tell me this wasn’t the secret you discovered.”

  Mergau shook her head. “They only knew you were a spy of some sort. They didn’t know… this.”

  Reggy was quiet for a long, long, long time. "Oh, dear.”

  Aoden pulled out his sword. “Are you actually Tommy?!” he demanded. “Are you even who you say you are?!”

  “Yes, Aoden, calm down,” the lizardman said, raising his hands placatingly. “This has always been me.”

  “I don’t believe you. That can’t be true. Say something only Tommy would know. When did we first meet?”

  “You’re being paranoid, Aoden. It’s me. It’s really the same Tommy you’ve always known. We met at one of the harvest festivals back in Handock. I was there for three years staying with a friend of mine.”

  “Oh, a ‘friend,’ was she? Or was she another agent from Verka?”

  “He was. Heather Pamislow was his cover name.” he paused. “He didn’t survive the town’s destruction.”

  Aoden took a step forward, bringing his sword dangerously close to Reggy’s scaly green throat. “You better answer me, and by the gods, you better answer me truthfully, Tommy: did the lizardfolk have anything to do with the Fury?”

  “What?”

  “Tell me the truth!”

  “Of course not! Have you gone insane? What would make you think such a thing?”

  Aoden leaned forward to look into Reggy’s eyes to determine the truth, but he could make no sense of the expression in the lidless lizard orbs peering back at him.

  “What the hell happened to not panicking him?” said Mergau, placing a hand on Aoden’s elbow. “Put your sword away. Reggy isn’t going to hurt us, are you, Reggy?”

  “Why do you even need to ask that? I’m still your friend. I may have lied, but that’s no reason for blades and threats.”

  “I might have thought as much when you were still a human,” Aoden said, “when you were still Tommy, but you’re not. Your loyalties don’t lie here. We don’t know anything about your kind on this side of the isthmus. From what they've told us, you and the other spies have been sending information back to Verka regarding halfling defenses and supplies. That’s the kind of thing an invasion force would need to know. They think you plan to aid the orcs. They want to put you to death for treason, Tommy, and I don’t know if I should stop them.”

  “He doesn’t mean that,” said Mergau. “He’s just hurt. But they do want to execute you.”

  “Halflings don’t execute criminals,” the lizardman said weakly.

  “Well they’re making an exception,” Aoden shouted, at last pulling his blade away from Reggy’s throat, though he kept it free of its sheath. “The only reason those dozen agents outside didn’t come in instead of us was that we happened to find out about it in time—and don’t bother asking how, because it’s a long, long story I don’t feel like telling. Your comrades won’t be so lucky.”

  “You can’t let them be killed,” said Reggy, lowering his hands. “We mean no harm. This information is meant to aid, not to destroy. You must believe me on that.”

  “I might be willing to listen, but you better have a damn good reason.”

  Reggy flinched away from him. “I’m forbidden from revealing any more than that,” he said quietly.

  “Are you kidding? There are lives on the line, Reggy!”

  “I know that, but I can’t tell you. I literally cannot tell you: due to the magic that binds me, I’d die before the words left my mouth. You think we lizardfolk are secretive? You have no idea. I have secrets in me that would be a danger to the halflings if they were revealed. It would be better if I died than if I talked, not for Verka’s sake, but for everyone else’s.”

  “You honestly expect me to believe that?”

  “It’s the truth. I swear on my life.”

  “True or not, that puts us in an awkward position,” Mergau said, shifting between the two of them. “We made a deal with someone in power: we can buy your freedom, but the cost of that freedom is information, so we need to get it from you. Can you write it down?”

  He shook his head. “The geas that binds me would know my intentions. I could only reveal that information if I had express permission from my superiors. Anything less would cause my geas to fail, and I would die.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll have to do. We’ll meet with one of your superiors.”

  “They’re all in Verka. I would need to send a message. It could take weeks for a reply to come back, maybe even a month.”

  “That works for us,” she said, “because there’s something else you need to do for us if you want to go free.”

  “You need to get us into Verka,” Aoden supplied.

  They could read his surprise even through his alien features. “Sneaking you into Verka would be impossible, and I would never betray my people in that way.”

  “You were fine doing it to these people,” Aoden noted.

  “Now see here—”

  “You don’t have to sneak us in,” Mergau said. “We’ll knock on the f
ront door if we have to, but you must do whatever it takes to get us in. If you can supply proof that your network of spies wasn’t planning harm to the halflings, they will stay the executions. Do you think you can get us through the isthmus?”

  “I… suppose I could try. But why do you need to get into Verka in the first place?”

  “That’s none of your business,” Aoden said.

  “I can’t rightly save my own spies by introducing spies into Verka. I’d need as good a reason as you’ve got.”

  “Would you believe us if we said we’re trying to stop the Fury, and Verka is the place we need to be?” Mergau asked.

  She was being somewhat facetious, but Reggy’s reaction was immediate. He was gawking at her. “What did you say?”

  Mergau looked at Aoden. Aoden furrowed his brow and waved his hand in a ‘go ahead’ fashion. “I said we’re looking to stop the Fury, and the means seem to lie in Verka. Does that sound reasonable to you?”

  To their surprise, he nodded. “Yes. Yes, it does,” he said slowly. “And you’re sure you don’t already know the answers you seek? Because…” he rubbed his neck thoughtfully. “I suppose I can’t say any more, but you’ve made the right call if you wish to go to Verka. In fact, if what you say is true, it would actually be my duty to bring you there, though I’d scarcely believe such an obscure order would have to be carried out by me of all people. Life is strange that way.”

  Aoden made a noise of frustration. “Do you have to be so damn cryptic?”

  “Until I’m released from the geas, I’m afraid so.”

  “Fine, whatever,” said Aoden, putting his sword away. “It sounds like you’re at least willing to help. Do we have a deal, then?”

  He sighed. “I have little choice in the matter. Tell them to hold off on harming my fellow agents until we return. If they absolutely insist on taking them in—which I suppose I can’t blame them given the conclusion they’ve jumped to—the halflings can use my name and my compatriots will know to go quietly and await further news.”

  “I’ll let them know,” Mergau said, turning towards the door.