by JM Bray
During the time since the ritual, she had recovered her memories of the event. She told them what had happened in detail, from the moment she sat, to seeing the room fade as she lost consciousness.
‘It sounds like he responded thoughtfully,’ Coleman said. ‘I assume since you were led to him as you were to me, that he’s somehow able. But is he truly willing?’
Sari noticed the tenor of his voice. ‘Have you decided to do this?’
He stood and walked to the window, looking at the luscious gardens he had strolled with Jolie earlier. The sunlight had shifted, bringing a completely different beauty to them. He stood for a long while. A little time, and a slight move in perspective can change the whole of what you saw. The rightness of the cause settled on his shoulders like a mantle.
Still gazing out the window, he finally spoke, ‘How can I not? This evil threatens innocent lives and endangers the Realm. I’ve trained most of my life for the defense of these things.’ Turning back to them, he looked from woman to woman; Sari with her mouth agape, Jolie smiling and tears glistening on her cheeks, and the Matriarch with her arms crossed and head nodding.
‘So ladies, how do we go about this?’
Chapter 14
Lessons
Vincent slipped into the padded chair in his literature class and swung up the pivoting desktop.
Flea plopped down in the seat next to him. ‘Man I’m beat.’
‘If you wanna play you gotta pay.’
Flea stretched his arms overhead. ‘Hey, if ya land a night out with a fine woman, you take it.’
‘Even if it means driving to L.A.’
‘Yep,’ Flea grinned. ‘Even then.’
Flea getting a mid-week date; it must be something in the October air. The theater-like room was nearly full.
Flea yawned. ‘I filled the Celica up with gas, too.’
‘You didn’t have — ’
‘Never borrow a car and bring it back empty.’ Flea brought out a Scottish accent. ‘It’s just not cricket.’ His voice reverted to normal. ‘Hey do you have your sunglasses, the mirrored ones?’
‘Yeah, why?’
‘I feel like bein’ cool.’
Vincent chuckled and took them from his backpack. Flea slipped them on, opened his notebook and got ready for the lecture. Vincent tapped his number 2 pencil on the desk, and his mind wandered to Julie.
He’d never met anyone like her. Not that he knew many girls. Why would someone so beautiful, intelligent and full of life even give him a second glance? She could have any guy on campus. Why him? One thing was sure. He’d better step up his game. Or find some. If not, someone else would come along and he’d miss his chance.
‘Shakespeare.’ A girl behind him called out.
‘Keats,’ another voice said.
‘Byron.’
What’s going on?
The professor raised his hands. ‘All good guesses. Let me read it again.’ He started, delivering the lines with a slow, mesmerizing pace, his voice low and powerful.
“‘Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse;
Though hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes,
With one chain of thy neck.’”
Julie’s light brown eyes, with their almond shape, long lashes making them seem soft, floated into Vincent’s mind. The way she wore her makeup accentuating that softness. His heart danced a jig. The phantom Julie tilted her head in the way that made him tingle from his toes to hairline. Her long luscious neck arched ever so slightly. What he would give to kiss that white skin. It seemed that the words resonated in him, coming from his mind.
“‘How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse!
How much better is thy love than wine!
And the smell of thine ointments than all spices!’”
He wanted to drink her in; to take her scent, her very self, into him.
“‘Thy lips,’”
Such amazing, full, kissable lips.
“‘Oh my spouse, drop as the honeycomb:
Honey and milk are under thy tongue.’”
To taste that honeyed tongue, to have her lips on his.
The class fell silent, leaving a space where only those words existed.
Someone chuckled nervously.
‘Wow.’ A girl fanned herself in the front row.
‘I agree.’ The prof nodded. ‘This beautiful, erotically charged passage is attributed to King Solomon as read from the King James Bible.’
Again, the class went so quiet Vincent could hear a car passing on the road a hundred feet outside the open door. Finally a guy’s voice broke the spell. ‘Solomon had some game!’
The students burst into laughter. The girl who had fanned herself asked, ‘Where can I find that passage?’
Vincent turned to Flea. ‘That was something huh?’
Flea sat, not laughing, unmoving, a pencil in hand touching the paper in his notebook, sound asleep behind the mirrored sunglasses.
Flea waved as they walked from the class. ‘Gotta scoot… Oh, hi Julie.’ He added as she rounded the corner.
‘What’s your hurry?’ She smiled and Vincent almost fanned himself like front-row-girl.
‘He has a nap to catch, I’m guessing,’ Vincent said.
‘Gotta get my beauty sleep.’
‘You got that right.’ His comment turned Julie’s smile into a giggle that weakened his knees. Flea hustled off and Julie slipped up next to him, planting a light kiss on his lips and twining her arm with his. It was time. His heart skipped a beat and his mouth went desert dry. ‘Why don’t we…um…take a stroll up by the business department?’ Yeah, that was him, Mr Smooth.
‘Sure, I’m done for the day, that would be great.’
Good thing Julie was forgiving. They strolled along and the pack of students thinned to a scattered few as the last classes of the day ended. No one was around, Go Vincent.
‘So, how was your day?’ he asked.
‘Good. I had bio lab. I don’t know what the deal is with these squealing girls, I think dissections are fun.’
Dissections? How was he gonna transfer from that to —
‘We did pigs feet.’
Feet. That was it! ‘And how are yours feeling?’
She frowned and looked up. Even that was cute. ‘My…pigs feet?’
‘No…I um…meant…how are your feet feeling.’
‘Oh.’ She shrugged. ‘Fine, why?’
He deepened his voice and tried to make it sound velvety. ‘I thought they might be tired, because you’ve been running through my mind all day.’
Her eyes widened and she burst out laughing, clutching his arm with one hand and her stomach with the other. Not the reaction he’d been hoping for. He smiled, trying to cover the fist that slammed into his gut.
‘Did you get that off Saturday Night Live?’
‘I, um —‘
‘Oh, wait, I know. That guy from Caddyshack.’ She patted his arm. ‘The one with the eyes…’
‘Rodney Dangerfield?’ She thought his big flirt line was Rod —
‘Yeah that’s him. You did the voice and everything!’
He tried to speak, but the weight of his failure crushed his lungs. He’d never be able to keep her interested, she’d eventually understand what a dweeb he was and get tired of him. They came to the end of the sidewalk at a large lawn overlooking the campus and ocean beyond. A really romantic spot, if he had any idea how to be romantic.
‘Oh, Vincent.’ She chuckled and looked over. ‘Oh…Vincent? Are you o…oh, oh. Vincent, you were serious.’ She stepped in front of him and put a hand on his hot cheek lifting his gaze off the ground between them. ‘Sweetie, I’m so sorry. I thought…I…well…’
‘No, you got it right. I’m a dork. A joke, and sooner or later, you’ll get it…and…’
‘And what? Walk away?’ Her voice went up. She paused and when she spoke, it was just above a whisper. ‘Do you really think I’m that shallow?’
He’d done worse than stumble a
round, he’d hurt her. No one would have to steal her, he’d drive her off himself. Sweat broke out on his forehead.
‘No…nonono, Julie.’ He clutched at her hands. ‘I think you’re amazing. The most wonderful girl I’ve…no…the most wonderful person, girl or guy I’ve ever met.’ His tongue was off its chain, over the fence and running down the street. ‘You’re beautiful, kind, feisty, cool, sexy, deep…not shallow…never shallow…so deep I can’t fathom you,’ she started to smile, ‘loving, kind…wait, I already said that — ’
‘It’s okay, say it again, and beautiful, that one too.’ Her eyes twinkled on top of the smile.
‘Beautiful,’ his words slowed. ‘Kind…the kindest person ever to walk the face of the earth…and intelligent…and…that’s what baffles me.’
‘What?’
‘You’re so wonderful and smart, eventually you’ll realize I don’t deserve someone like you.’ His voice trailed off near the end of the sentence, the last words barely escaping his mouth.
Her gaze held his. ‘Why don’t you, Vincent?’
‘Because I’m…’ He shrugged. ‘Me. The guy who doesn’t win, who doesn’t know what to say, who girls walk away from and — ’
‘And they were fools. Those words you used to describe me. Remember them?’
He had no idea where they came from, but he remembered. ‘Yeah.’
‘Good, because they’re exactly how I feel about you.’
He tried to look down but her eyes demanded he didn’t.
The corner of her lip twitched. ‘Except for the “I don’t deserve you” part. I’ve hoped for someone exactly like you. After all the frogs I’ve kissed, I’ll take a prince, thank you very much.’
‘A prince?’ Somewhere in all of this his stomach resumed its proper place, but now his heart started to soar upward.
‘Yes.’ She spoke the word slowly, her lips, those amazing lips, parted just a tiny bit. He kissed her deep and full, but after only a moment she drew back. ‘And, Vincent, if you want to be romantic…’
He really did. ‘I do.’ He nodded.
She was so close her breath caressed his cheek. ‘Just…be you.’
Him. She wanted…him.
‘Oh, and those words, they work too…’ She brushed her lips against his neck, sending a shiver down his leg. ‘And…kissing…that’s alwa — ’
He put her advice into practice.
A Tumble
‘It’s wounded. Press the attack.’
‘You can’t. The passage is too narrow, and Olaf is in the way,’ the leader said.
He looked up. ‘The ceiling’s high; maybe I can get over him.’
‘Go!’ A comrade slapped him on the back.
The Warrior ran forward and flipped into a handspring, then another, his momentum carrying him up over the Warrior in his way. Tucking into a tight ball he tumbled through the air and drove his short sword deep into the torso of the beast as he came down.’
‘Roll your tumble check,’ Knife said to Vincent.
Their desperate and dying party had fought this beast for some time. It was a gamble, but could turn the tide for them. All eyes were on him as he picked up his d20, shaking it around before tossing it to the table. The dark maroon die rolled away from him, its ivory and red numbers spinning by too fast to see and came to rest on...
‘Nineteen, plus my tumble skill, makes thirty-four.’ He looked at Knife.
Knife nodded. ‘You made it.’
‘No way — ’
Knife looked sharply at Emily, who swallowed the rest of her comment.
‘Roll your attack.’
They all watched intently as he picked up the die. When he did, there was an audible ‘click’ in his head. That feeling, it was here again, but his hands kept moving of their own accord. Everything slowed and the lights dimmed. He looked across the table at Flea. On the wall behind his head, in blazing letters, was a single word in the strange, vertical script. It resolved itself.
Tonight
The die fell from his hand and time cracked back. It tumbled along the table, bouncing off his small wooden dice container, and came to rest.
‘Twenty.’
‘Oh my gosh.’
‘God dice, I tell you.’
‘Nice.’
‘No stinkin’ way.’
Vincent looked around at his friends. They hadn’t seen what he did. How could something like that even happen? Let alone twice! Sweat trickled from his temple and he fought the urge to bolt out the door and into the night.
Knife told him, ‘Roll again to confirm your critical hit.’
He fumbled for the dice, knocking one onto the floor. ‘Sorry.’ He bent over thankful for a moment where no one could see his face. Hang in there, Vincent. You can do this. He grabbed the black die and sat up, tossing them to the table. ‘A sixteen plus my attack bonus makes twenty-eight.’
‘That’s a hit,’ Knife said.
Vincent rolled his damage.
‘Tell us how you kill it, please,’ Knife said with a solemn nod.
Well, first time slowed, then a glowing word appeared. Vincent paused for a moment to consider. The group waited expectantly for the new twist in the story. ‘The force of his spinning body drove the short sword down to the hilt. Two feet of cold steel entered the beast’s shoulder near its spiny neck and pierced behind its ribs, unimpeded, into the creature’s heart.’
‘Oh, nicely done,’ Flea said.
‘Absolutely.’ Mike nodded.
Julie smiled at him. ‘Very well told.’
‘They’re cheater dice.’ Emily said scooping up his d20 and tossing it to the table. The dark maroon die landed on a one.
‘Don’t mess with the god dice,’ E.T. said, ‘you might jinx ’em.’
She wasn’t giving up. ‘Besides it’s not like anyone could ever do that.’
Knife just shook his head and started packing. The rest of them followed suit.
‘Seriously,’ Emily said.
Flea turned to her. ‘It’s fantasy, Emily. A chance to pretend the impossible, to tell wild stories.’
Mike jumped in. ‘Boldly go where no man has gone before.’
Knife said, ‘Yeah, but wrong setting.’
Flea laughed, shaking his head. ‘Of course it can’t be done.’
‘I could do it,’ Vincent said quietly.
Emily rounded on him. ‘Ohhh. Really?’
As Vincent picked up his dice, his mind raced. He had no idea why that came out of his mouth. It felt like someone else had controlled what he said.
‘Well?’ Emily crossed her arms.
Seeing her standing there, so sure he would fail, woke something in him. ‘I’ve done some gymnastics, so yeah, I’m pretty sure I could. Never tried it, though.’ He shrugged.
‘Prove it.’
‘Emily.’ Julie looked at her, and sighed. ‘Come on, quit acting this way.’
Vincent put his dice box in the backpack with his notebook. ‘It’s okay, Julie.’ He touched her upper arm and turned to Emily. ‘Tell you what, I’ll try it if you let me jump over you.’
Her naturally hard features hardened further. ‘What, you think I’m crazy? I don’t think you could do it. I’m not gonna let you go running into me.’
Knife looked up with a gleam in his eyes. ‘Let’s give it a go, bud.’
‘This I gotta see.’
‘The lawn outside is flat.’
‘You sure about this?’ Flea said to them both.
‘I’m game,’ Knife said quietly. ‘If he misses, who cares about a little bruising? If he makes it, maybe Emily will finally lay off.’
Vincent nodded. ‘My thoughts exactly.’
They stepped into the cold night; wind whipped and swirled in the courtyard deflected by the buildings. Emily started pacing off the area. ‘If Knife stands here, and your character was about twenty-five feet from him, which would be about...here. Or do you want to just admit you’re wrong now?’
‘No.’ He set hi
s backpack down. ‘That looks about right. Knife, wanna stand over there?’
‘You got it.’ Knife put his back to Vincent, standing in the spot indicated.
‘Okay, a couple of things. Knife.’ Knife looked at him. ‘If you can, try to relax. Whatever happens, it’ll be less dangerous that way. Emily, how about this? If I make it, you show us your nice side for the next month. Deal?’
She thought it over for a few moments. ‘Sure, why not?’
‘A kiss for good luck.’ Julie ran up and landed a fast peck on his lips.
‘Dang, sorry, Emily,’ he said, faking an out-of-breath pant. ‘I’m all done in.’
‘Mmm hmm,’ she replied with a nod. ‘I thought you’d try to get out of it.’
‘Nah.’ He smiled. ‘Only kidding.’
He called out to Knife, ‘Turn around and relax.’
Knife turned. ‘Ready.’
He blew out twice, fast and hard, ramping himself up. He needed to see where he wanted to be; once he had it fixed in his mind, Vincent exploded toward him. He took several strides then dove, folding into a tuck, and flipped forward once in the air. As the rotation brought his feet around, he opened up, letting them land and propel him into a powerful twisting back handspring. His body catapulted into the air. He let his feet travel in a high arc that fully carried his momentum. As he passed over Knife, it seemed he balanced inverted, a half foot above him. The twist he initiated in the handspring rotated him so that he ended it facing forward. He landed smoothly, letting his arms come down in a powerful striking motion that finished with him crouched in front of his friend.
There was a shocked silence and then the group erupted in pandemonium. They surrounded him, patting his back and hugging him. Julie’s kiss was much more than a peck. Wow! He grinned. ‘I’m gonna have to do that more often.’
She smiled mischievously. ‘Which?’
‘Both.’
‘Good sir.’ Emily’s voice rose above the din and they quieted down. Her face was somber. ‘You have done as you said you would. I concede defeat.’ She lowered her head slightly then looked up with a huge smile. ‘Besides, that was awesome.’
As they grabbed their things, Vincent quietly asked Julie to stick around. She nodded in agreement. ‘I’m gonna hang with the guys a bit after that epic moment.’
