Prince in the Tower

by Stephan Morse

  Energy trickled up my arm, bringing with it a pleasure so intense it hurt, or a pain so strong it felt good. I opened my mouth and yelled. Water around us pulled back, or was pushed away. My senses dampened by the rapid changes.

  I felt myself shaking. Or more accurately, vibrating with an intensity I’d never felt before. The world had no more color. All that existed were shades of gray and heat so overwhelming it felt like my belly expelled lava.

  The heat burned. My body heaved. I heard a cry as the water around us boiled. The sea serpent had to be in pain, and must have been too enraged to flee. Now it suffered the price.

  Lava streamed in huge bubbling gasps, far more than the trickle prior. It split the earth and shot into the air all around. The sudden shift knocked us off balance and flopping to one side. Sea gave way as earth formed a new island. First a singular pillar, then a mile of rock. I hung on, screaming as we lifted out of the water.

  The Leviathan fell to one side, flopping and rolling. It hissed at me. I dug in with claws that cracked red like lava. The creature’s body couldn’t move as easily without water to create buoyancy.

  I stood on top of the newly forming island, to the side of an outcropping where lava flowed around me. There, I screamed, roared, and flooded the area with the sound of my triumph. Even the hacking feeling of sea water invading my lungs had dimmed to nothing as energy, unlike anything I’d ever felt before, suffused my being.

  Now. For you.

  The earth formed new shapes under the breaching volcanic eruption. Ash shot into the sky as it peaked. More oozed out of the side, expanding our new battleground.

  I felt larger than before. My head moved in a way that somehow looked down upon the waves and forming island. The lava gushed all around, forming thick rivers that meant almost nothing. My mouth dripped hotter liquid, if such a thing were possible.

  YOU DARE?

  It questions. I snort and pull my head back. It deserves to be looked down upon, as it had so many other creatures. Weak Pink Meat humans may be, this creature has not known of the same simple lessons I did. Beware arrogance, for arrogance leads to death.

  I sniffed and leaned over. The warmth of my stomach dribbled like fiery drool. It scalded the creature. My claws dug into its body, no longer unable to find purchase. They were larger than before, many times larger.

  My claws dug in harder. I placed a back foot on the creature’s midsection and raked. Its guts poured out, filling the air with a muffled foulness.

  The leviathan heaved to whip its tail at my head. I managed to block with the wounded wing. It crunched and I bellowed in pain. More flaming liquid flowed from me. I felt the leviathan’s thrashes increase. Its life ebbed away. My hind foot raked again, and sank into the leviathan’s belly where liquid sloshed.

  Its surges of motion shook everything, but the earth already rumbled. I could almost pick out the differences between shakes caused by the enemy’s movements, and my own trigger of Wylde’s power.

  My senses struggled to make sense of our surroundings. People spoke in the distance. Wolves cried to each other. Humans picked up leaves and created poor masks to block the ash. They were indistinct as the island still burned.

  Parts of the shore were heavily saturated with water. I couldn’t feel anyone in the multi-floored jail that had been my temporary home. The lack of sensation confirmed my feelings from earlier. They’d evacuated.

  I cast my senses farther away. The small party consisting of Leo, Stacy, and Deborah sat huddled on a beach under armed guard. Dozens of men carrying high caliber guns watched over an entire shoreline of prisoners. More people were arriving every minute, while an equal number of cars drove away at high speeds.

  Even there, the earth rumbled.

  “Do you see that fog?” Leo asked. “It goes on for miles.”

  “Smells,” Stacy muttered. “Like rotten fish and ash. Do you think…” she trailed off. “Do you think he beat that thing?” Stacy’s forehead sloped as if she struggled to remember the monster.

  “There were creatures in the fog,” Deborah said. “An ill omen. I don’t see the Agent.”

  “It looked like giant monsters. The kind my mom used to tell me stories about. But we couldn’t see them this far away, could we? It must be our imaginations,” Stacy’s voice peaked while her pulse quickened.

  The monstrous sea serpent thrashed under my claws. Fires sizzled and sputtered. The ocean floor we’d once sat on had become a second island, next to Atlas. Could they see it from the mainland?

  Could they tell how large I’d become? Did they see the red flaming claws piercing through the fog like a lighthouse beacon? I felt like fire incarnate and wanted someone to notice.

  Its head whipped around. Long thin lips drew back in a snarl. I snapped at its face to keep it in place. More drops of lava dribbled from my mouth onto its skin. Holes burned into the creature’s flesh. Impossibly huge muscles twitched uncontrollably.

  Shut up and die. Sea Slug.

  That was a rude response. Tal had taught me better. He wanted me to respect worthy foes. This had been the toughest fight of my life. Not the longest, though it certainly felt drawn out. Even now I still heaved for breath.

  That new voice twisted into my mind.

  JOR-COUSIN. I NAME YOU. KIN-SLAYER.

  It projected the words. The other voice in the back of my mind snorted distastefully. This defeated Leviathan may have scales and size, but we were not the same. We were not related. I had only one like me in this world and they’d been lost in the void.

  I snorted. Steam billowed. My tail turned and dug long spikes into the dying creature’s body. It didn’t have the strength to protest. These childish actions provided no release for budding anger.

  I am not your kin. You unbalanced Sea Slug. Hunger personified. Worthless. Base. Abomination.

  The way my mind said abomination startled me. My ears flattened and mouth pulled tight. The ground hissed as the earth finished its violent thrashing.

  KIN-SLAYER

  It whispered again. The flopping motions slowed to a crawl. My arm ached and body shook as muscle strain took a toll. The heat in my stomach still raged and my mind struggled to stay whole. With each passing second exhaustion pulled at me but my body cried out for more.

  I could burn down the nearby island and keep up this strength. Nothing could ever challenge me or threaten to take away what belonged to me. The earth would give me more, if I beckoned. Fire and a line of lava that would erupt and trail along under me. I could crack the tectonic plates with sheer force of will and Lacey’s powers.

  Who could stop me? The Gods were dead. Muni and Brand had said so. The greatest threat I’d ever known lay beneath me, gutted and weakly gasping. I embodied fire, took it into myself, and I could take anything I wanted for the rest of eternity until the world had nothing left to offer.

  WE ARE THE SAME

  It fixed me with a lax eye. Water gushed and wavered. It was as if the leviathan’s body continually oozed layers of flesh made of bloat from living in the sea too long. The smell fouled the air, mixing with steam vapors and silt.

  No. You are dying. I am fire. I took your life.

  YOU WILL SEE

  Something pushed my head. Thoughts that weren’t my own. Familiar in how they came, and annoying. My vision blacked out and senses narrowed as another dozen memories rushed in. Unwanted and useless.

  I pushed the thoughts away with a curl of my claws. The leviathan’s body unclenched as it fell to the side and stopped moving. I glared at the dead worm at my fingertips and sighed. My tail lashed slowly, knocking over what remained of the landscape.

  Kin-Slayer. What of it? I’ve no true kin.

  They’d been lost. My failure had cost the only blood relationship I could have possibly had. But this time I’d won. I’d proven myself the most useful monster.

  My chest panted. The single breath sent fresh burning liquid to the rock where it sizzled and cooled. Ocean water still swirled around the isl
and. Waves could be felt in the distance, cast off by the last few tail thrashes of the leviathan.

  They would reach the shore and flood that small area. Boats would dash to pieces in the harbor. My small family, away from their home, would drown during the aftermath of this great battle.

  Home.

  Before it really registered, my enflamed wings were already beating a path home, back to the shore I’d left behind. Back to a small part of the only family I had.

  23

  Power’s Price

  I’d observed a number of behaviors over the years. Action came easier when people didn’t stop to think. Simply deal with the problem, make a choice, take or give.

  Consequences came even swifter and with far more bite. Power’s price could be a heavy burden. Women who chose to be wolves sacrificed. Wolves couldn’t bear children, were tied to a pack, with sleepless nights during which they prowled.

  I did not envy Stacy. She’d chosen to be what she was and still got a difficult deal. I’d decided to fight that creature, against sane reason, then subjected myself to an overwhelming power that reshaped the earth and pushed back the ocean.

  Even now I flew, high on borrowed strength from a creature who devoured others like kindling so she could survive.

  The ocean boiled. Fresh steam billowed in droves, swamping the ocean. I took another breath and unleashed more flame from my innards, attempting to vent the pressure.

  My wings beat in long slow flaps. The air struggled to keep me aloft. I flew close to the ground, unable to bring myself as high into the sky as I longed for.

  I did not envy Kahina and her responsibilities to her household. Having a family who relied upon one person to hold it together must have been hell. What did Roy feel when I’d left? Or Lacey? She’d been right to be mad at me.

  Killing the leviathan had done something else. Not only had it pushed thoughts at me, but impressions along with it. Memories floated by in the same haze I’d experienced before when recalling the Sons of the Mountain, dancing in their combat practice.

  I could feel parts of the dead monstrosity’s life. It’d woken here, mad and hungry, alone and tired. It roamed the seas, looking for something.

  I sucked in another breath and blew out fire, pushing back the water. It hissed and steamed before boiling off my too hot skin. The brief flinches of water brought clarity.

  Days and nights passed in flicker. Fish grew smaller, or the creature’s perception grew larger. The hunger remained, gnawing hard at the creature’s belly. At mine. I knew those feelings, those cold lonely nights where the world felt wrong.

  It was searching for others like it. Kin, family. Like I had before hiding away.

  Terror filled me. I’d been searching for someone left behind. The messenger person had said some went mad walking between worlds. What if I’d just killed the very person I’d sought for decades? What if I’d really killed the closest thing I had to actual blood relations?

  We’d been completely different.

  The moon’s reflection caught me. I glanced to the water and saw myself. Large wings cracked with unhealthy red. Veins shone like liquid magma. Something like napalm dripped from my mouth. The edge of my long jaw had become stockier, like blocks instead of the smooth ridges they had been a day before.

  Lacey’s power had changed me. I couldn’t say it was for the better. Had the leviathan’s power changed it? My father’s memories held no answers.

  I breathed out flame again, to purge the world of my reflection. My wings beat in a struggle to go higher. A wall of water loomed ahead. It slipped lower still as my constant assault upon the ocean played havoc with water levels.

  I couldn’t tell how much ocean we’d burned away. I couldn’t tell how much had been displaced during our battle. Every eddy banged and pulled against my senses. There were too many swirls to account for them all. The leviathan’s power and my own ignored natural laws.

  “Do you guys hear that?” Stacy asked from a million miles away. She cocked her head to one side and glanced up.

  “Something large moves overhead,” Deborah said. “It’s hidden by the fog, but you can see where the air sways. Red that doesn’t belong to the sunrise.”

  “Oh no. Oh no. That’s Uncle Jay.” Leo stood abruptly. He ran for the guards, yelling in a panic, “Someone give me a phone! Please! I need to make a call.”

  His words fell on deaf ears. The guards waved guns at him.

  I pulled back my senses and focused on the road ahead. Wings beat, muted and heavy. Miles passed.

  Ahead lay home. At the end of dozens of cords were the people I’d gathered. I could finally return to them, as myself. Older, maybe wiser, and triumphant for our cause. Bottom Pit would be my only refuge. There were no others left. Muni couldn’t hide me again, not like before.

  I needed rest.

  Wylde’s power burned off within me. I struggled against my desire to call forth more flame. Liquid seeped down elongated cheeks and trailed off. Pounding deep in my chest echoed in my head as the power sought an outlet.

  I couldn’t relax and let it go but tried anyway. With each mile my control slipped a bit more. The wreckage from my battle lay behind, half a county away in a few slow breaths.

  My wings carried on. The other voice in my head grew drowsy. Miles passed by where I drifted in and out. I woke to a pain in my wing. Material sloughed off and ripped behind me. A skin, or extra weight, lost in the miles behind me. My tactile senses reached out briefly and felt the odd material left behind. Smooth, porous, almost like an ash imprint of a lizard’s skin.

  Rain poured ahead. Thunder rolled through the sky, accenting the downpour. I didn’t need to the light to see, but the jolts served to keep me slightly aware.

  The world grew larger. I found more strength to carry on. Every mile another few bits would flake away. Each one made the stormfront I’d been flying into more apparent. I blinked, then closed my eyes entirely and relied upon extra senses to keep from crashing.

  Rain pelted giving my senses a dull perspective. Words from my father, about water giving us clarity, slowly came to mind. I had no strength left to worry and struggled on. I knew, with water’s gift, this flight would end with my face in the dirt.

  Clarity didn’t help. I hoped by the end I’d find someplace safe to rest. Passing out amid the ruins of an Order of Merlin base a second time would be a huge risk.

  Father Thomas. He’d known of the leviathan. He’d known where I ended up. The Order would be out there, waiting for signs of my continued existence. My body felt heavier than ever as the realization set in. I’d decided to fly over land as a giant winged creature.

  It was too late. There, miles ahead, was the city I’d left. A highway below me had cars along it. Heavy rain should obscure most images. People never looked up.

  Must reach safety. Home. Must stay aware. Danger everywhere. Pink Meat and guns. Will tear weakened hide.

  I struggled to stay coherent. The leviathan’s memories were pushed back. Others took their place. Then I sat on solid material rubbing my fingers against wet cement. Rain poured in this bit of past.

  This remembrance came right before I’d submerged myself in the wanderer’s lifestyle. Daniel and I stood on the rooftop of my apartment complex. Julianne’s bar could be seen just over the edge.

  “Listen, man.” Daniel patted me on the shoulder. “There’s a chance this could all go horribly wrong. The Order of Merlin could find you. Some Hunter who doesn’t know who they are could feel your power. Or maybe you do too much for a girl. Or elves gut you like stuck up assholes.”

  I laughed, a short, half felt bit of mirth.

  “Man. I’m not joking. I know your weaknesses: strong women, your stupidity, and shiny objects.”

  “Hey,” I said.

  “You’re not stupid, stupid. You just—make stupid choices. You can’t help it any more than Tal and Roy can help constantly being at odds. Or those girls you rescued being airheaded and very, what’s the polite word
…”

  “Promiscuous.”

  “I think that’s the biggest word you’ve ever said,” Daniel responded with an elbow jab.

  I rode out the brief indignity, suppressed my inner grumbling, and nodded. The girls Daniel meant were those I’d brought back over the years. There were a lot of them, and they weren’t ignorant. They simply enjoyed partying a lot and were easily lured into the bedroom. Energetic was a kinder description.

  “So while you’re under, I’ll be trying to get everything in place. Me and a few others, we’re dedicated to making this work. But if that day comes, when you end up on a news channel or something we can’t stop, then we may have to be enemies.” Daniel glanced down and swallowed. “If the council decides you’re better off dead.”

  I thought back to the train yard from so many years ago. A month of childish hunger, a complete sense of abandonment, and loneliness. Daniel had simply bullied past all of that. If it weren’t for him, I would have been dead of starvation or killed by police for being essentially feral.

  The world wasn’t kind.

  “I won’t hold it against you,” I said. Daniel could have killed me a thousand times over. He’d been there since the beginning. Tal, Roy, Julianne, and even Kahina, all came later. They were all secondary.

  If there were still gods, then maybe they’d taken pity on me by making sure Daniel had such a kind soul. The years had made him harder, as they did to all of us, but he still struggled against insane odds to keep everyone alive. Even making friends with a monster like me.

  I don’t think many people could have taken that route in life.

  “I know you won’t, man. But I don’t want that. It’s why we did all this. Not just to find your family. Not just to stop evil creatures from killing humans while others remained oblivious. We’ve been operating in the shadows—” he shook his head. “Okay, we’ve been operating and Muni has just wiped people’s minds. Sorry, man, sorry. I know you have no concept of stealth.”