by K. G. Wilkie
“Hmm. I hadn’t realized that was possible. You certainly don’t look like your ancestry,” he said.
“I know,” she yelled. “I’m not pretty, I’m too tough, nothing about me resembles a true Nymph, I shame all the Dryads, my contractor should never have agreed to pair with me. I’ve heard it all before! And I’ve fought my own kind like only a traitor would. But I had to fight, I had to protect my sister and the guards would never stand up for her and I would be just as much picked on if I hadn’t made a habit of fighting and showing that I wasn’t worth messing with,” she said. “And now my sister is gone and taken by who knows whom, to who knows where, and I wasn’t around to help her this time at all,” she wept. “It’s too much.”
She sniffed again. “And I’m not dreamy and gorgeous like every other nymph and dryad that has ever existed. I know that! I know I’m less than nothing among my people, and I should count myself blessed for looking enough like them they are willing to tolerate my existence and allow me to work at all. That`s why I do all the dirty work in the village. None of them give a fig about me and I have to protect myself because the actually trained warriors who are paid the tax are meant to be caring for all of our people but they wouldn`t care if some raging Taurus meant to kill us both. And I`ve taken care of her all this time, and I took her place, but I left her behind, and then she got lost, and kidnapped, and scared, and she might be dead,” she wailed.
The words came in a rapid succession, and at the end she was sobbing and holding onto the vampire in a bear hug, having dissolved the part of the hedge that was separating the two from each other. As she grew more emotional, her other charms lost their strength as well, and he was able to shake off the vine holding him in place. Sometime during her tirade she had started blubbering into his shirt, so the vampire felt compelled to put his arms to good use and hold her in a tight bear hug. He awkwardly patted her back until she started to quiet. He didn`t mention it, but his wounds had already clearly healed, and his arm was a touch stronger and warmer than the average for his kind. He gave her two quick pats on the back, blushing, and let his arms fall to his side.
“Ahem,” cleared his throat. “Um,” he said, “Well, that is, about that.” He paused. “Well, this is pretty awkward,” he muttered. “Well, let’s say my name. I’m Cillean. I’m a vampire, like you guessed.” He paused. “And you’re Jacqueline.” He waited, like he was expecting her to confirm her name or respond to him.
“About what I said earlier,” he continued, rubbing his neck in agitation. “Sorry,” he blushed. “It`s not that you aren`t pretty or anything, it`s just that some nymphs are kind of scary with that whole ethereal thing going on.” In a flash of inspiration he continued, “It`s actually a good thing, because it makes you seem more real, and, umm, and approachable.”
When she stayed silent he awkwardly continued. “Well, I was kind of sent to talk to you, that’s why I didn’t actually fight you.” He paused again.
“Oh, and your sister! I forgot to say. That’s why I was sent to find you in the first place, actually. I know where she’s been. For now she’s been staying at-”
Whamp! She socked him right in the nose. “You knew! This whole time! And you just wanted to stop and play fight and introduce yourself and waste time when I was worried sick! What a jerk,” she said. “Standing there blabbering on while my sister is lost! She must be scared without her sister to take care of her!” He was still smiling weakly at her increasingly hysterical insults and accusations. “My sister could have been killed, or attacked, or used, and you`ve been introducing yourself and playing guess Jackie`s race! She screamed, punctuating each word with a punch to his now thoroughly bruised shoulder.
He grinned weakly. “ I must have held out so I could experience the fun of being maimed and mutilated by you, of course,” he murmured.
She stared at him for a heartbeat. She screamed in fury and raised a whole collection of vines to cover his entire body in a choking web. Then, in a frenzy, her punches fell thick and fast upon his previous injuries. Wincing, he shielded his face, leaving the rest of his torso completely vulnerable. His blood was dripping steadily down his sides. With a gasp of shock, Jackie pulled her fist back, staring at the congealing blood.
Suddenly he was gasping for breath crouched on the ground. Another pale warrior suddenly jumped on her, pinning her arms back. Jackie rounded on him, biting and kicking in a desperate bid for escape. He hoisted her into the air and she began clawing at his arms. Cillean was also frantically gesturing an ‘x’ sign with his forearms and a finger horizontally dragged along the neck to signal the pale warrior to stop, but he didn`t notice.
“We only wished to retrieve you, not hurt you,” the new warrior protested. She continued thrashing. He sighed and blew into her face. Her body became limp and her eyes fluttered closed. “Her actions were unusual for one of her kind. It seemed like she had slipped into a daemon frenzy and lost all connection to her reasoning mind once you had assured her of her relation’s continued well being.” He looked over at the other vampire in puzzlement. “Why did you not ensure her passivity? I know you are capable of the power of sleep as well as I.”
“Butt out Daerick,” Cillean growled. “Do your job and keep your nose out of my business.”
“Ah,” the other quirked his lips, “The prized fight with such women is fun then?”
Cillean thumped him lightly on the shoulder. “Maybe I liked it,” he grinned. At the brunette`s gasp of shock he continued mournfully, “And she had just decided to play nice and chat with me a bit.” Perking up he added, “She might feel bad enough to give me a kiss for my emotional state after all those injuries,” he added.
“I do not think so,” the other responded. “Women do not hit people when they are happy,” he continued seriously. “I am afeared, my friend, that you may be what they call delusional.”
“She was just so happy, she didn`t know what hit her,” Cillean replied with a pout.
“That is not likely to be so,” the man replied confidently. “Neither do I understand why your injuries are so comforting to you,” he said, eying the starry eyed man as he cheerfully draped his jacket over the unconscious girl.
“Shut up Daerick,” the other bit off.
“Ah,” the other smirked knowingly. “I see now. The king enjoys a challenge it seems.”
“Shut up, Daerick,” Cillean responded with vehemence. Mind your own beeswax.” He paused. “Besides, I`m not a king anymore,” he continued sulkily. “That was a few centuries ago, under those useless elves. With all this damn centralization by those dragons, I`m just some lousy headman. I wouldn’t have any power at all if I didn’t still have my people’s respect and voluntary decision to follow any order I give at all.”
His friend clapped him on the back. “We follow you, sire, as we have for thousands of years. That will not change if the most powerful ruler is the faeries, or the dragons, or even something ridiculous like the humans. We will follow you because you have done well by us, and we wish to do well by you.” He grinned. “Besides, I know you enjoy working for that prince.” Cillean argued the point but they both knew it was true.
Daerick looked over at his unusually pensive friend. “Following you may become more stressful if you fall into a mating frenzy though. You know, I never thought you’d find any appeal to a daemon of all people,” he added knowledgeably. He had to duck to avoid a boulder thrown towards his head.
“Never. Never a true daemon,” Cillean returned. The words were icy and bit off with a killer’s glare.
His friend put his hands up in appeal. “Fine, fine. No offense was meant.” He quickly sobered. “I was not implying you resembled your bearer in any manner whatsoever, sire. You are one of the most respected of our race.”
Cillean quickly cheered up and clapped his friend on the back. “Well, sometimes you are a dummy, or at least say stupid things,” he grinned, “But friends are allowed to be a little loosey goosey with the rules I suppose. Besides,
best friends are supposed to be there to make me look smarter in comparison and you do a good filling that role,” he teased. Stone faced Daerin tripped him, only for Cillean to return the favor. They were both laughing with each other, and Cillean hefted the unconscious Jackie unto his back in a fireman`s hold. They continued chatting on their leisurely walk through the Twilight Wood moving faster than a human eye could track.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Wizard on the Run
He remembered his orders well, though it had been many months since he’d received them. “We need you to do it,” the elder had told him. “We have already sent a much higher ranked individual than you to see to this particular person, this Alyss. But that mission failed and now our target is moving. We must avoid Aeron’s suspicion. This time we only have a mission of surveillance. We need someone to follow this target, and follow the deeds of the prince as well for good measure.
“What all of this means, boy, is that we need someone to go to the mundane’s human world.” He paused. “We are sending you on this mission of surveillance.”
Now he gawked at his latest orders. “But Gruzelvelt, sir!” The old man stopped talking to glare at Darien. The teen blushed in return. “Sir elder, that is. I know I am not ranked highly enough to call you by any of your names.” He paused now. “But sir, I must protest these orders. You sent me to watch Alyss, to keep her safe. I wasn’t sent as an assassin. She hasn’t done anything wrong and isn’t even aware of our world, let alone acted against our interests in any way.”
Gruzelvelt snorted at him. “This is why you are a failure, you know. You aren’t good at understanding these things. We aren’t killing the girl because she’s actively a threat right now, we are killing her because there’s a good risk of her becoming one in the future.”
Darien looked at him. “You had me live as her brother. I spent two years sharing dinners, washing dishes, going exploring on Saturdays, helping each other with homework. We are family now, more like family than even her parents. “
The elder laughed at that.
“Of course her so called parents weren’t like family. They’re golems. Their job is to be there and serve a function. There’s nothing in their makeup that lets them be overcame by namby pamby emotional ties.” He glared at Darien. “I wish I could say the same of you. It’s very disappointing that you became attached to your job like this. It’s even wore that you are letting that emotion make you fail as our agent. Your latest orders are to kill the girl, and the prince too.”
Darien stared at the man. “What could I do after killing royalty? I’d be a wanted man in two worlds.”
The elder pursed his lips. “You will do your assignment with joy for having been given work that will advance the cause of our people. You will kill them both, allow the younger prince to capture you and do all the torture and such he feels necessary, and continue acting as a distraction while we pursue our plans.”
“Torture? You want me to be tortured for this cause? What kind of cause is so important I have to sacrifice my whole life for it?”
The elder shrugged. “I shouldn’t really tell you. You aren’t important enough to know these things, because all of the important people already know them,” he said. “Never let it be said that I am not the kindest among the council of elders, however. The cause which you have been called to sacrifice your life for is the revolution of our people. It has been too many years that we have been under the rule of the disgusting dragons when our city and our sister city is so superior in culture and skill and in every way from all of these other,” he paused, “Creatures,” he spit, “That we cannot stomach continuing to be in such a system that values these vermin over our own kind.” His eyes grew dreamy and distant. “We will empower our people. We’ll destroy this facsimile of a world even as our kind first created the Shadeworld so that this realm and the original Earth will once again be combined as one entity. In the chaos the scared and confused mundanes will turn to our superior gifted humans for leadership, and the other creatures will seek our guidance when dealing with the mundanes who killed thousands of the the magical vermin during the Magic Crusades, and we will use the chaos to gain control of all species.”
Darien was staring at the old man. “You can’t be serious. What you are speaking of is revolution! It’s treason! In case you’ve forgotten, that means if any of this goes wrong we’ll all get the death sentence!”
The old man shrugged and brushed off the concern. “Some of our people may be tried for our acts, but it will all be worth it knowing that they’ve contributed to our future. A few dead and thousands of years of rule seems a fair trade.”
Darien shook his head. “I’m sorry. Elder, you know I am loyal to our people and have sacrificed years of my life as a spy for the benefit of the city. But I can’t kill two innocent people, and I can’t support the combining of the two worlds. Geeze, did you think of how dangerous this would be? Even if you ignored the wards and infighting that would have to result from all of this, we can’t know how dangerous it would be to fully unite the realms again.”
The old man glared. “So you are saying you would rather ignore your orders, betray your kind, and work against us?”
The teen held up placating hands. “Nothing that strong, I just feel like there’s a way to improve things without killing thousands of people first, most of them innocent. I’d just like to not be involved with killing at all, really.”
Gruzelvelt glared at him. “You are a nothing, a nobody. You don’t get the option of turning down orders. You will support our cause fully and do any order we give and kill any person we tell you to, or you will be cast out from our people.”
Darien sighed. “Well, since I am so useless to my people anyways, and the only way I can support them is to murder the innocent, then I think I must leave the city.” He tore off his necklace with a signet of his name, the only gift allowed to be given to his kind by their parents before they were entered into the Child Centers of their correct city to be raised and indoctrinated in the ways of their people. Casting off the one piece of family and roots he had was what was done by any who chose to leave the Domed City and be a rebel against their people like the Alchemists. It was a strong statement they both recognized as him leaving the cause.
The elder just smirked at him in the scrying sphere though. “So you have decided to abandon our cause. It’s no matter, really. You have been involved in all of this enough that when we go to the King himself and complain how this terrible criminal cast out by our people is trying to destroy the separation between the two worlds without care for all the possible deaths that could cause, we will have enough evidence to show that you are guilty of all of these crimes.”
Darien stared at him. “So my punishment for not supporting the murder of thousands, maybe even millions, is to be the scapegoat for the very crimes I protested against?”
Gruzelvelt grinned at him. “Who better? If you will not support us then we will punish you for your insolence somehow. It’s even more delicious to have you punished for the very thing you betrayed your people over.” Darien opened his mouth to defend himself more, though he did not know how to go about it. It didn’t matter. He opened his mouth and the elder cut him off again. “I have said my piece, you have abandoned your people, and now there is nothing more of importance that can be said by a betrayer of his people. You do not exist to me or any members of the city, you may not contact any friends, all of your belongings are now forfeit, and you are barred from communicating with any aspect of our city forever more.” He swished his hand and the scrying sphere collapsed, cutting off his last communication with any of his kind. He looked around the room, seeing his bedroom in the human world with his adoptive family as new. He had no great closeness to their so called parents, but he was close to Alyss and between the two of them they took care of each other. He had books he had bought on a shelf, and video games scattered in a corner, and different odds and ends he had liked the look of in the store and
been able to buy. It was a stark contrast from his room in the Domed City, that had held only the tools needed to clean the more important people’s spaces and rooms and two spare changes of clothes. He stood up to look through his bedroom window to see the street, and someone he didn’t even know passing in the street smiled and waved at him.
He went over to his backpack and packed some clothes and things for a trip. “I don’t know who to trust or who to go to,” he mused out loud. Then he smiled. “I know for sure that Aeron dislikes me but cares about Alyss, so he will do something about all of this if I tell him.” He stopped and picked up a different chain from his desk. It had been given to him by his adoptive sister for Christmas last year after she’d complained that his normal necklace, the birth necklace he’d never told her the importance of, was ugly and gave him a new one shaped like a wing. He smiled and put it on. She was right, it was far prettier than the one his parents had given him as an infant before they’d sent him off. It was also a better connection to the family he had now.
He breathed in deeply, to prepare mentally, then used his power to cast himself onto a road in another realm, another region, and into a new quest of his own design.
Darien hadn’t really told the transport spell where to take him, just that he wanted to be taken away. The power surged and ended up landing him in the Shadeworld, where he was rapidly pacing along on the Great Road North through the Pallid Race’s Realm of Shades and moving through an offshoot called the Southern pass. All of a sudden a howl echoed off the tree trunks. Glowing eyes and shadowy forms sprouted up along the trunk, and a band of werewolves sprung out from their hiding places to surround him completely.
