by D. N. Leo
Chiyo’s eyes widened, and she nodded slowly. “Your father was a shape shifter.” Chiyo’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. “He could turn into an eagle, but only that one animal. Your mother knew all about it, of course, because she was part werefox. Her family thought that she was marrying beneath her, and they weren’t happy at all with the union between them. Then they had you. You were the deadliner in their family.” The old man paused, waiting for his information to sink in. Chiyo was shaking her head.
“No. My parents were normal. They had no special abilities, and they never did anything to get them noticed. I didn’t even know that my mother had a family on her side.”
When her words subsided, the old man spoke again. “You were to end the magical abilities in their lines. You have no powers and do not have the ability to pass any on, either.”
Chiyo finally came back to herself and waved away the explanation as if she wasn’t interested. She changed the topic of conversation quickly. “Now about this key. You were in the Rojin, and you were friends with my grandfather. You have to tell me what it is and where I can find it.”
The wizard looked sharply into her face then crossed his arms over his chest, contemplating. He leaned back in his seat. “I’m not comfortable talking about that key, and I don’t have any information to give you.”
Chiyo’s face clouded with anger, and she jumped to her feet. “You told me that you would answer the questions that I asked truthfully! How dare you go back on your word!” She shook an accusatory finger in the old man’s face. Orla and Lorcan had both shifted a little in their chairs once she’d jumped to her feet, but they’d remained seated.
“I did tell you that I would tell you the truth, and I have about your family. I’d rather not discuss that key. If you have any other questions you need answered, I would be more than happy to tell you what I know.” His tone was measured and even, but Orla could see electricity in his eyes. He might seem like a kindly old man, but she knew better than to take anything at face value when there was magic involved. He was giving Chiyo a clear warning that she wasn’t heeding. Chiyo begged and pleaded, screamed and cried, but no matter what she did, the wizard wouldn’t tell her anything about the key of Psuche. The trio left the wizard’s house in disappointment, each with their own reasons.
“That key has to be somewhere close by! If it wasn’t, he wouldn’t be so secretive. If we start looking, I bet we can find it,” Chiyo said and stomped ahead. Lorcan increased his pace to follow, but Orla grabbed him and shook her head.
A misty breeze whirled up from the ground, and an eerie cold wind crept out from the gaps between trees and small shrubs along the road. They were outside the remote village, and Chiyo didn’t seem to be heading in the direction of civilization.
If Orla wasn’t mistaken, there was a reptilian hiss hovering in the air, and she was praying that it wasn’t coming from snakes. She wasn’t afraid of them, but she never knew which way they were heading, and that gave her a disadvantage in combat. Lorcan heard the sound, too.
He glanced around, feeling uneasy.
Chapter 23
Chiyo was now suddenly bound and determined to find the key, and it made Orla uneasy. She’d been swearing up and down that she knew nothing about it and wanted nothing to do with it this whole time, but now she’d made a complete one-eighty. It was as if her personality had changed somehow, like something else was directing her body and mind without her knowledge. Encouraged by the weird aura surrounding them at the moment, Orla decided to try to pry into Chiyo’s mind. This was a shady area of magic she hadn’t touched since she was a kid. But it was needed now.
Unbeknownst to either of her companions, Orla began to weave her fingers in a complicated pattern, spinning dark magic in her mind for a spell. It would let her touch Chiyo’s mind to see what she was really up to. It took her only a few minutes to complete the spell, and then she held her hand up to her face. The small ball of purple lightning that crackled in her palm didn’t look like much, but it made Orla smile. She blew it gently in Chiyo’s direction and waited. The ball of lightning spun on the air currents towards its intended target. When it reached Chiyo, it drew even with her ear and then lengthened before slowly seeping into her ear like water into a gutter.
Orla gasped and stumbled. Lorcan glanced back at her, but she gestured him to go on ahead. She regained her footing, but she still couldn’t wrap her mind around what her magic was telling her was real. Chiyo’s mind was empty. The ball of lightning couldn’t gather any information from her because there was none to be had. Orla’s body was still walking, but she was trapped now in the link between her own mind and that of Chiyo. Orla’s body fell to the ground, unconscious; her path back to herself was cut off.
Hearing the sound of Orla’s body thumping to the ground, Lorcan turned back. “Holy crap,” he called out and darted back to her. “Chiyo,” Lorcan called out for the doctor. “Please help.” He shook Orla’s shoulders, but her body seemed completely shut down. Lorcan was panicking. “Come on, honey. Open your eyes for me. Tell me what’s going on. Chiyo!”
Silence. No response from Chiyo. Lorcan looked up.
Chiyo began to laugh, a loud, guttural sound that sounded inhuman. Chiyo’s hair began to shrink upwards, like her scalp was reabsorbing it. She grew taller, and her smooth skin began to break out in bumps and ridges like that of a lizard. He watched as the creature reared back on its hind legs, returning to where Orla lay on the ground.
Lorcan sprang into action, trading blows and insults with the Godzilla wannabe in front of him. He made sure to keep himself between this creature and Orla. The more that Lorcan began to think his moves out in advance, the faster he became. His agility increased after every few moves until he was darting around like a little fox toying with a much larger predator. The lizard whipped her tail and dealt him more than just a glancing blow to his midsection. Lorcan let out a howl that didn’t even register in his own mind.
Lorcan swore as he reminded himself of what Orla had whispered to him in front of the wizard’s hut. She’d said something about Chiyo not being normal. That something was amiss with her now in a magical sense that hadn’t been wrong before. Lorcan had thought nothing of it. He promised himself to take whatever she said about magic more seriously from now on—if they had a chance to move on after this. The thing in front of him was awfully big, and he didn’t have a weapon. But he’d be damned, though, if he’d let this overgrown iguana harm Orla.
The lizard stomped toward Lorcan. He lunged at it with all he had. At the moment, he realized that his only weapons were his will and his fists. Punching the lizard felt like punching rusty metal panels. His knuckles tore and bled, and he swore it wasn’t his imagination that the lizard grinned at him. It swung a gigantic tail at Lorcan, and he was knocked four feet, rolling and scraping against the dirt road.
The lizard then turned toward Orla. Lorcan charged at it again, and copped another blow from its tail. He reeled up, his nose bleeding, his face scratched. This wasn’t smart, fighting bare-handed with the creature, he thought. But what choice did he have? The lizard was approaching Orla, and he couldn’t figure out how to stop it. Fury increased inside him, boiling his blood. He grabbed a tree branch and swung at the creature. It broke the branch with its tail, and Lorcan took another hit. There was only so much his human body could take. The thought raised a wave of strange energy in him.
He needed something heavier. He saw a large rock on the ground. When he reached to pick it up, his hands—or what used to be his hands—were now paws at the end of hairy electric blue animal legs. He turned to look at the lizard, and his vision was strange, rounded with blurry edges, and his viewpoint seemed to be very low to the ground. He was totally confused. He wanted to move forward but found himself tangled in his clothing. He shrugged off his jeans and shirt and lunged at the lizard. He wanted to grunt, but the sound erupting from his mouth was not a grunt, it was a howl.
The lizard turned around, paying
him some attention now. It waved its tail and thumped it on the ground, sounding almost like the rumble of a small earthquake. Lorcan walked around, circling the lizard. He realized he was walking on all fours now, and admittedly, he felt comfortable and very agile. He wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t come out of his mouth. He jumped at the lizard, climbed up its back from its tail and over the top of its head, biting down on its soft weak spot, the eye.
The lizard roared. Lorcan wagered if it were a dragon, it would have let out a stream of fire. But unfortunately for the reptile, it was merely an ugly lizard. It swung its head, hurling Lorcan to the ground. He howled in pain and then saw the lizard’s foot about to crush him. Springing to his feet to get away, he felt the lizard step on his tail.
Tail? Lorcan turned to see that he had a large, furry tail. He tried to drag it out from under the lizard’s foot, but it didn’t seem to move. He saw another foot coming down. This might be the end of him.
Part II
Chapter 24
A blast of icy blue energy sizzled over Lorcan’s head and hit the lizard square in the chest. He whipped around as the lizard began to scream in agony and saw the old wizard coming to the rescue, using his staff as a wand of some sort and shooting out blasts of energy from the tip. A final blast threw the overgrown lizard back about ten yards before it collapsed and lay still.
The wizard turned, looked at Lorcan, and gave him a warm smile. “It’s a shape shifter. Just like you. But it’s gone now, you needn’t worry.”
Lorcan was still standing protectively in front of Orla’s immobile form, but he couldn’t lift her up with his paws. The wizard crouched down next to him, “If this is your first time, it must be hard for you.”
Lorcan felt lightheaded. He staggered away, stumbling as his limbs stretched out unexpectedly. He lay down on the ground, gripping the earth for balance as his world seemed to spin out of its orbit. He looked down to see his human hands grabbing the dirt, and then he blacked out for a brief moment. When he awakened, Lorcan sprang to his feet, shivering in the cold. He looked down and saw he was completely naked. He dashed to the pile of clothes he’d shed earlier and put them on.
The wizard smiled and waited patiently. He then knelt at Orla’s side. He murmured some words and ran his hands the length of her body, pushing a green energy into her. Orla’s eyes snapped open, and she gasped. Sitting up hurriedly, her chest heaved in fear. Lorcan gathered her up into his arms. He crooned to her, calming her down until she stopped trembling.
“If you could learn to control your dark magic, child, you could be very powerful indeed,” the wizard said.
Orla stared at him, not knowing how he’d gotten here or what he was talking about. “What do you mean?” she asked groggily.
He smiled at her like a kindly old grandfather. “I’m familiar with your branch of sorcery, dear, and if you could refine the use of your powers, you could be quite formidable. If you’d like, I can try to teach you.” Orla looked from him to Lorcan and back again. The old man nodded, understanding that she make her decision later. “As for you, son, what happened was powerful. Use it to your advantage. You need to practice and see what works best for you.”
Lorcan said nothing in response.
The wizard nodded. “I’m sure both of you need some time to adjust, make sense of what just happened, and discover your natural talent. Come to me if you need help. Remember, things like this happen for a reason. Don’t take it for granted.”
The wizard smiled, stood, and walked quickly away in the direction from which he’d come.
“What was he talking about?” Orla asked.
“You passed out, and Chiyo turned into a gigantic lizard that I had to fight off.”
“What?” Orla sat up and saw the dead creature. She got up to her feet and inched toward it. “That’s why its head was empty.”
“What?” Lorcan asked.
“I was attempting to get into Chiyo’s—I mean, the lizard’s—head. I think it must have figured it out.”
“Are you saying you used your magic without telling me?”
“There wasn’t time to tell you. How did you fight this huge animal with your bare hands?”
“Well, it wasn’t me who killed it. It was the old man with his magic.”
“What was he talking about? Your talent? I know you’re a good fighter, but it sounded like he was referring to something else completely.”
“Well, I turned myself into a dragon, flew fifty feet into the air, threw jets of fire at the lizard, and killed it in one go. How does that sound?”
She smiled. “Not funny.”
Lorcan pulled her into his arms. “I know it’s not, but please laugh anyway.” When she pasted an awkward grin on her face, he shook his head. “That look could scare little children.” He embraced her tightly and kissed her forehead, his body shuddering with emotion. He knew she could feel it. The moment he’d seen his paws and felt that he couldn’t protect her, couldn’t speak, couldn’t call out for her—the helplessness of that moment came back to him now in a blast of emotions.
Looking up at Lorcan, Orla stared into his eyes and felt like she could lose herself in them for the rest of eternity. “Thank you,” she said.
“I didn’t exactly . . .” She stopped his words with her kiss.
They stood in the chill air for a while, then reality came flooding back. “Lorcan, I don’t think the Chiyo-lizard that attacked us was the real Chiyo. I know you won’t believe me, but I feel like there was something different about her. My magic picked up on it when she was knocking on the old man’s door. Something different about her presence.”
“Then we should ask the wizard for his opinion. Also, I think you should take him up on his offer.”
“What offer?”
“To teach you how to control your dark magic.”
Orla raised her arms. “You think I can’t control my magic?”
Lorcan grabbed her arms. “No, please. I can’t handle two episodes from you in a day.”
Chapter 25
The pack gathered at their secret meeting place at a small temple on top of the hill. Mori walked in, Roy flanking her right side. There were twenty other werefoxes around, now in human form. Mori sensed a strange aura in the air, but said nothing. As usual, she walked to the middle of the room as the leader of the group. Five senior members of the clan sat on chairs on a raised platform in a corner of the temple.
Roy glanced at Mori to be sure she was okay. She limped a bit but seemed to be moving fine. Mori looked up and caught his deep brown eyes—her fierce gaze always made any other fox flinch, but not him. He smiled at her instead.
An old man standing at a corner grumbled, “Why was this meeting so urgent? I need to work for a living. If you can’t bring in the money to support us, at least give us some room to maneuver. You can’t expect us to drop everything to be here on a whim.”
“This is urgent.” Mori gave him a stern stare. “Don’t speak before I do. And don’t speculate on whether or not it’s important. The clan’s matters come first and are of utmost priority. If you can’t make a living doing what you’re doing, the clan will support you financially, but you have to earn your way first.”
Everybody turned to look at the old man. He stared back at them, shoving his hands into his pockets and casting a condescending look on Mori. She ignored him and spoke slowly and clearly, “The Yakuz were looking for the key again.” She waited for few seconds, letting the information sink in while she gauged the reactions of the senior members. The five sitting on chairs looked at one another.
“What proof do you have of that?” one of them asked.
“I know someone in town who might have information about the key and its location. This person was attacked, kidnapped, and tortured for the information. Our spy in the Yakuz was killed during the process,” she answered.
“The Yakuz!” There were rumblings among the people in the temple. They looked at one another. Amid the confusion,
Mori knew, there was fear. It wasn’t the Yakuz, but the fear that worked to destroy the morality of her clan. It was her worst nightmare.
She projected her voice to the far end of the room. “And before you ask, I don’t know what triggered the attack. I don’t know why they want the key . . . or why now. But it’s our mission to protect it and the secrets that come with it, so we must delegate more members to the location—just in case they find out where it is and decide to hunt for it.”
The old man who spoke before raised his voice. “Are you saying you want to send our people to that place? Are they supposed to remain there for the rest of their lives? I, for one, am not volunteering for this.”
“And I’m not asking for volunteers.” Mori stared at him, demanding his silence. “As I said before, I don’t know what triggered the Yakuz attack. But war is coming our way, and we have to live up to our sacred mission.”
“We’ve sacrificed enough for the mission,” said one of the senior members.
“What do you mean?” Mori asked him.
“You are too young to know. I have seen deaths. I’ve seen the battle, and I think we’ve given enough,” the old man muttered.
“What are you talking about?” asked a young member on the floor.
The crowd fired up with questions, and Mori didn’t know which one to answer first.
Sai, a man in his mid-twenties, stepped out to the middle of the room. He had inherited his family’s fortune and was willing to throw money at anything that money could buy. The only thing he didn’t have to go along with his wealth was the alpha bloodline. “The Yakuz are deadly. You ask us to protect the key, but what do you do to protect us, Mori?” he asked, broaching a sensitive topic. Everyone quieted, allowing Mori to answer.
“I’ll handle this. I’ll negotiate with the Mahito family. They’ve been supporting us for generations,” Mori responded.
