Magic After Dark: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Margo Bond Collins

  The creatures surrounding him were of the same type he had seen before. They were generally man-shaped, thin and wiry, and lightning quick. They carried no weapons, but instead slashed with their claws and snapped with their oversized teeth. It was all Aeden could do to keep them from bearing him to the ground with their combined mass.

  A claw came from behind and to his right. Aeden’s sword barely got up in time to slash along the palm and bat it away from him. At the same time, one of the other creatures tried to sweep his legs out from under him with its arm, thin as a willow switch but solid as a piece of iron. It almost succeeded. The Croagh shifted his weight to one leg, lifted the other to reduce the resistance to the beast’s arm, and spun. His attacker overcompensated and stumbled off to the side, crashing into another of its fellows. As Aeden completed his spin, he lashed out with both swords and removed the arm from one creature and put a deep gash into the leg of another. He couldn’t prevent the gash he himself got just below his ribs.

  Aeden swallowed, trying to work moisture into his scratchy throat. As he turned and twisted to avoid a bite from one animaru and claws from two others, dodging around a tree, he spoke the words of power to call up his magic to burn the creatures to ash.

  Magic flared weakly, but then died without doing anything more than pushing one of his attackers back a step. He was just too weak to properly use the magic he was still not familiar enough with.

  He wondered if this was where he would die. He looked to his friends in the second he had before the monsters came around the tree to attack again.

  Fahtin slashed at any of the creatures that came near her, but Aeden had purposely drawn them away from her. Tere Chizzit was firing arrows, but most of them didn’t have a lasting effect, the targets for the most part ignoring the shafts that embedded themselves in their vital areas. All the enemies that could be made to disappear had already gone, but there were still nearly a dozen of the monsters left.

  Aeden parried a claw, dodged another one, and moved toward a clump of thick bushes so his foes could not come at him all at once. As he moved, he tried to use another type of magic, Pulsing Fire, one of the minor spells he had learned from one of the books in his clan library. It involved fewer words and simpler actions than many of the other spells, not as powerful, but not as demanding on him, either. Again, it had no significant effect. He was just too fatigued for it to work properly.

  His mind raced. The first thing he learned as a boy was that you never gave up, you never stopped trying to determine what it would take to win a confrontation. He had to think, to come up with another way to defeat these monsters.

  It was like trying to push his way through a brick wall. There was an immovable barrier there in his mind keeping him from thinking straight. He saw images of himself running at a wall, striking it hard, bouncing back with such force it felt as if he had broken every bone in his body, and then turning to charge the wall again. But still, he kept trying.

  The creatures came around both sides of the obstruction he had entered. He had run out of places of escape. He brought his swords up and prepared for his final defense. It was too bad he didn’t know any powerful defense spells. He wished he at least had a shield or armor encasing him.

  And then it came to him.

  Quickly, Aeden made a few small gestures and spoke words of power. “Liso. Vinctire. Aruna!” His swords began to glow with a cool, white light that was easily visible in the darkening forest. Then the creatures were upon him.

  Using the last of his strength, Aeden whirled into action. He spun, dodging where he could, parrying or blocking when possible, receiving slashes when it was not. The difference was that with each cut of his glowing swords, the monsters screamed as the wounds he inflicted flared with light. When he removed the head of one of the animaru, it dropped to the ground and did not rise again. He had found a way to destroy them without directly attacking them with spells.

  He whittled the numbers of his foes down, cutting savagely at them. Arms, legs, and heads were separated from the bodies of the creatures, and soon a pile of bodies lay at Aeden’s feet. The final dark figure, noticing that all its fellows were dead, feinted toward Aeden as if to attack, and then took off running, trying to escape. Two arrows in the hollow behind its knees brought it down, and Aeden pounced on it, both swords driving through its head and impaling it to the ground. The Croagh heaved with effort and slashed the swords outward, tearing its head apart in their passing.

  Aeden looked around, saw that there were no other creatures moving, and then slumped to the ground. As he did so, the glow on his swords winked out and the darkened world spun.

  Fahtin and Tere Chizzit were there instantly, holding Aeden up. The world had dissolved into a dark tunnel, blackness at the edges pushing inward to take his vision away. He breathed deeply and then took a sip of water from the skin Fahtin had offered him. After a few breaths, his vision flickered and the tunnel reversed, allowing him to see more normally. By Codaghan, he was tired.

  “That was neatly done,” Tere Chizzit said. “I thought we were done for. Those monsters won’t die. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Aye,” Aeden said. “That’s the problem with the buggers. Only magic can kill them. I’m not sure why, but that’s how it is.”

  “Do you think there are more around?” Fahtin asked.

  “No,” Tere Chizzit said. “The way they acted, mindlessly attacking only Aeden to the exclusion of everything else, if there were more, they would have attacked. I don’t think these beasts are too fond of planning ahead.”

  Aeden thought the tracker was right, but was too tired to speak. He took another drink and waited until he thought he might be able to move.

  Fifteen minutes later, Aeden levered himself to his feet. He took an unsteady step forward and then stopped. So tired, he thought. I’ve never been this tired. But then, he’d said the same thing before and most likely would again in the future. Things always seemed worse than they actually were. There was nothing for it but to move on. Raki’s life was at stake.

  “Do you think there will be more of them coming?” Fahtin asked as she watched him stumble. “Can we spare a little while for you to rest?”

  “No,” Aeden said, “to both questions. I don’t think there are more here right now, but there will be others eventually. We have to move now, or Raki won’t make it. I’m fine. Let’s go.”

  Fahtin insisted on dragging the litter by herself for the first half hour so Aeden could regain his strength. He shuffled along beside her, dodging the branches, roots, and other obstructions. He snacked on dried meat and some berries Tere Chizzit had found the day before. He began to feel like he might not die, but just barely.

  Switching off, Fahtin dragging Raki for a little while and then Aeden taking a turn, they made progress, if slow. Tere would come back and help occasionally, but he was normally up in front of them finding the best—and safest—path. As they traveled, the light faded and they continued on in the darkness. Somehow, the full moon’s light seemed to penetrate the canopy above as the sunlight could not, allowing them to see well enough to move. The foliage wasn’t as distinct as when the sun was up, but Aeden and Fahtin could drag Raki without tripping too often. Tere moved as easily as he had earlier. For him, it probably didn’t matter that the sun had gone down.

  It amazed Aeden that the part of the forest they were in felt different than the one where Raki had found the plant. It felt a little more comfortable, not as dangerous or unpredictable. He had never felt a personality of a place before, but did now. It was almost as if the land around him, the trees and other plants, even the small animals, held ill intent. At least, that’s how the other part of the forest felt. Though he was tense when they were in the edge of the Grundenwald before, now it seemed to be an old friend. He guessed it was true what people said: your perception of a thing was based on other things you had experienced. They’d seen a much more dangerous part of the forest than the one they were currently
in, and it made this part look tamer.

  “Stop,” Tere Chizzit said. Aeden was dragging the litter, and he halted so abruptly that he almost fell over. “If he is present, the one we seek is just through those trees, in a small clearing. I need to warn you that he may seem…odd. He is a good man, but living alone in the forest for so long has made him act a little differently than others you might have met. Just keep that in mind.”

  Aeden looked at Fahtin and she looked back. He shrugged at her and started following Tere. As the blind man said, they soon passed through the vegetation into a small clearing, almost a meadow. Long grass covered most of it, with the tops of a few rocks and the long profile of a fallen tree peeking out from the tops of the blades.

  At the edge of the space was a small, well-constructed house. It had two windows, one on either side of the doorway, and smoke curled up from the chimney near the back of the building. It was the oddest structure Aeden had ever seen. It looked as if it had grown up from the ground in one solid piece. The lines of it were smooth and without joint, rounder than a typical house. The roof seemed to be branches with thick foliage, still living and vital.

  A man opened the door as they approached. His black hair was messy, reinforcing the image the several days’ growth on his face gave. He was slender, but fit looking. His shoulders slumped slightly, making him look almost slovenly. When he caught sight of them, his gray eyes flashed and a smile leapt onto his face.

  “Ah, visitors,” he said, but then the smile disappeared. “And me with no bread in the oven or cakes to offer. My, my. I am failing at being a host. She will not appreciate that. No. ‘Set an example,’ she would tell me, ‘bring glory to my name.’ No, she will not be happy at all.” His eyes seemed to be looking at something far off as he got caught up in his introspection.

  “Urun,” Tere Chizzit said firmly. “Urun,” he repeated when he did not get the man’s attention.

  “What?” the young man said. He swiveled his eyes to the blind man and tightened them to focus. “Ah, Tere Chizzit. Well met, my friend. How is it you find yourself here at my door?”

  “Urun, we need help. This boy has been attacked by a barb plant. He was injected with poison from more than a dozen of the thorns.”

  The man blinked and then caught sight of the others, Fahtin and Aeden standing, Raki in his litter. “Barb plant? Nasty things, those. Have you used yellow wort?”

  “We have, along with Hunsen’s nettle and draw weed to remove as much of the poison as possible. It’s too much venom for the herbs to counteract. He needs you, or he will die.”

  “Yes, yes.” Urun said. “Of course. Well, bring him in. I will see what I can do.”

  Chapter 36

  Tere picked up one end of the stretcher and Aeden the other. They brought him into the house, the Croagh stumbling three times before he was finally able to set his friend down on the table. As he passed the owner of the house, he heard the man muttering something.

  “Visitors. Yes, it has been a long time. It surely has...”

  Urun trailed off as he eyed the others and raised an eyebrow. Tere Chizzit snapped his fingers in front of the man’s face and pointed to Raki. “Take care of the boy first. I will give introductions later. He needs you now. He’s dying, Urun.”

  The strange man turned his attention to Raki. Tere pointed toward a pair of large upholstered armchairs and the other two sat down. Once he was still, Aeden’s eyes began to close. He could just make out the man, this Urun, chanting or singing something, and then he lost all sense of time and space before sleep took him.

  When Aeden opened his eyes again, there was a smell of food in the air, fresh bread and some kind of stew. His mouth watered, and he realized it had been more than a day since he had a real meal. Probably much longer than a day by the light slanting in the windows.

  He stirred and found that someone had put a blanket over him. Fahtin, curled up in a chair nearby, was still sleeping, her breathing regular. She looked peaceful there. And safe. Tere Chizzit was sitting at the table where they had lain Raki the night before. He was talking to a man.

  Yes, that’s right, the man they had come to see. It was coming back to him now. How long had he slept? Where was Raki?

  Tere Chizzit’s head swiveled to Aeden. “He’s sleeping in the other room,” he said, answering the question Aeden hadn’t had a chance to ask. “And you slept for the rest of the night and most of the morning. Come, have some breakfast. Or lunch.”

  Aeden got up and walked to the table, keeping the blanket wrapped around him.

  “Aeden of Clan Tannoch of the highland Croagh, meet Urun Chinowa, High Priest of the goddess Osulin, and all-around good guy.”

  The man, not quite so young as Aeden, but no more than a few years older, stood and put his hand out. When Aeden looked into the other man’s gray eyes, he saw power dancing there. The man shook his hand firmly.

  “Pleasure to meet you, Aeden.”

  “For me as well. Thank you for helping us.”

  “Oh, it’s nothing, really. Nasty bit of work, that barb plant poison, but we got it all sorted out. I have removed it from your friend and he sleeps now to allow his body to recover from the shock. He will be fine, though when he wakes he will be as hungry as three men.” A curious look passed over the man’s face, as if he had forgotten where he was. “Oh,” he said it so abruptly that Aeden jumped. “Food. How rude of me. Forgive me, Aeden. Would you like something to eat? I have fresh bread and a nice vegetable stew.”

  “Aye, that would be much appreciated.”

  Urun set about gathering the food. He brought a full loaf of bread on a platter—still steaming from the oven—a variety of cheese, bowls of thick stew, and a pitcher of milk. The two guests set about eating, but Urun just sat there staring outward, his eyes unfocused.

  “I couldn’t help but notice that you have recent wounds,” the priest said, “some of them with a kind of taint. They are not infected, but I could wipe them away from you, if you would like.”

  Aeden stopped mid-chew. He looked over at Tere Chizzit and found the man’s white eyes pointed toward him.

  “Urun serves Osulin. She is a nature goddess. Her domain is the entire natural world. She provides him with a measure of power, of magic. He’s a healer.”

  Aeden swallowed. “Oh, I see.” He turned toward Urun. “I thank you, but the wounds are small. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you after everything else you have done for us.”

  “It’s no trouble at all, Aeden,” Urun said. “It won’t take but a few seconds. I offer it freely, with no obligation. Really, it is my desire just to help.”

  Tere nodded and Aeden figured that his not accepting would be insulting to his host. “Very well,” he said. “Thank you.”

  He had thought that the man would touch him, lay hands on him, or perform some ritual. Instead, he muttered a few words and waved his hand toward Aeden. A wash of cold went over him and soaked into his body. It felt like he was being dipped slowly into a pool of cold water. It was unsettling, but not unpleasant. It passed through him starting at the head and moving along until it exited his feet. When the power left him, he felt wonderful. His wounds were healed, but so was his soreness from the last few days and even his aches from sleeping in the chair. It was fantastic.

  “That feels marvelous,” he said to the priest. “Thank you. It is a great gift.”

  “Think nothing of it.”

  “I explained to Urun about the creatures following us, and the small group of them that attacked us,” Tere Chizzit said. “A scouting party, no doubt, or it would have been much bigger. He is aware of the animaru, though they haven’t dared to come near his home. He thinks it’s because of the nature magic he wields.”

  A soft groan from the other side of the room announced that Fahtin had awoken.

  “Good morning, sleepy-head,” Aeden said to her. “Do you fancy something to eat or drink?”

  She lifted her head and nodded. Her long, black hair was tangle
d and held a strange shape from sleeping, and her eyes squinted, trying to focus, but she was still beautiful. Urun noticed that fact immediately.

  “My Lady,” he said, “please allow me to get whatever it is you desire. Bread, milk, stew, the moon? Just ask and I will bring it to you.”

  She laughed as she got up from her chair, wrapping her own blanket around her as Aeden had. She shuffled to the table and sat down next to the Croagh. “You are very kind…?”

  “Urun,” the priest said, “Urun Chinowa, at your service.”

  “You are very kind, Urun. Whatever the others are having would be wonderful. Thank you so much for helping us out. Oh! Raki. How is he? Where is he?”

  “He’s in the other room,” Tere Chizzit said, frowning as if perturbed to have to repeat himself. “He’ll be awake soon and you can talk to him then. Until then, let’s just eat.”

  They did so. Soon, they had their fill and sat chatting and waiting for their friend to wake up.

  When Aeden mentioned Urun was a priest to the goddess Osulin, she smiled and her eyes lit up. “Osulin?” she said. “The same Osulin who is the daughter of Mellaine and the human Trikus Phen?”

  “You know of her?” Urun said, obviously proud.

  “Oh, yes. I have heard the story of Trikus and Mellaine many times.” She turned to Aeden. “Don’t you remember? We heard it not more than a few months ago.”

  “I remember, now that you mention it.”

  “I love that story,” she said. “It’s one of my favorites. When the other gods left Dizhelim, she stayed because she loves humans and out of respect for her father. How did you come to be her priest? Were your parents in her service?”

  “No, oh no,” he said. “They are farmers. I am actually the first priest of Osulin for more than a thousand years. She never did go in for the whole setting up a priesthood thing. It was more happenstance that made her take me in.”