by G. K. Lund
“My friend was,” I huffed, my body demanding so much air. I bent, placing the flat of my hands on my thighs.
“Yeah, I’m still not on board with the you having a friend part.”
“That’s mine!” Melleta shrieked at the sight of the gem in his hand. Before either of us could react, she hurled a bright orange orb toward Loki. He didn’t have a chance to duck, only kept his hand up, sword pointing down. But the fire disappeared in a puff when it hit the gem. The surprise on the guy’s face was priceless, or would have been had Melleta not chosen that moment to turn and attack me. The first orb almost hit me, but I swung away at the last second. The next one met my daggers and flew into the already shattered fountain, breaking more pieces off of it. To my, and Melleta’s shock, Loki didn’t use the gem to cast his spell anew. Apparently, it only worked against any spell in action at the moment, and Melleta had more than her fetches at her disposal. No, instead of that, Loki shouted at me to catch.
I gaped as the blue stone was hurled over Melleta, like we were playing a cruel school-yard joke on her. A new orb of magic died in her hand at the sight of the price for her escape from Atlantis flying over her head. She had no magic to take hold of it, or else she was too confused to react fast enough to use it. I jumped a few steps sideways and caught the gem. Despite the magic it had been used to vanquish, it felt cool to the touch.
Melleta swore, and I didn’t even have time to draw breath. She summoned whatever magic she could and sent it after me. With my daggers in one hand and the Glory of Avalon in the other, I held them all in front of me out of instinct. The magic died before it could do me any harm.
Just like Loki must have expected.
When he attacked, it happened so fast, I was shouting “no!” after Melleta reacted. With his sword raised to strike her, he was flung back along the ground by her surge of almost see-through magic. The sword went farther than him, almost reaching the gate before it stopped.
Melleta did not let that distract her. Instead, she refocused on me, conjuring her fire-magic, hurling orbs and flames alike my way. Despite the Glory of Avalon making it easier for me to stop her, I knew one wrong step would have me killed right then and there. All this for a freaking rock?
I tried shouting for Loki, to see if he was even still alive after that treatment. He gave no answer, but something caught my eye near what I had thought was his unconscious body. He was getting up and then changed somehow. I saw the stern determination on his face and then he leaped forward. Magic exploded and blasted around me and hit the gem in my hand, but I caught sight of him as he blurred and turned… darker, shimmered, and then an enormous wolf, black and snarling, ran forth. Melleta seemed to notice something out the corner of her eye, but the shock-wave she sent was too high to hit the wolf and because she kept pounding magic my way, she didn’t realize until it was too late. The wolf leaped, its snarling and fanged maw the last thing she saw before those teeth clamped down on her throat.
A last orb of fire hit my daggers, and I used the gem to eviscerate it before lowering my hands. I stared in complete bewilderment at the wolf, which shook its head in a final snarling movement. One of Melleta’s legs twitched where she lay splayed on the sand, but it soon stilled.
The wolf stopped what it was doing then. At least I hoped so. It wasn’t going to eat her, was it? Was he? My mind knew that was Loki, but this was so new to me I didn’t know what to think. Thankfully, that was not part of his plan. The wolf moved off her and then stopped and stared back at me. He was bigger than a normal wolf and his fur pitch black. Emerald green eyes stared back at me before he seemed to decide he did not need to be in that form anymore. He shifted back into human form, the transformation blurry and not quite easy to grasp even when staring right at him.
“Bleh!” the mighty ex-god blurted and grimaced in disgust. Then he proceeded to walk over to the fountain, where he rinsed out his mouth. “I swear,” he said when done, “it tastes like nectar one moment, and then like a black-sausage smoothie gone bad when in human form.”
“Erh?” I managed.
“See to that one,” Loki said and pointed backward at Damyan. He strode past me, likely to retrieve his sword.
“Uh-huh…” I said, because why not, and then did what I was told because it was easier than thinking. I pointedly did not look at Melleta’s body, but even I had to see to walk and I couldn’t help but notice, out of the corner of my eye, the dark crimson pool around her head and neck, blending into the sand.
Damyan was waking up, and he was looking around in confusion by the time I reached him. Seeing where he was, had him get up fast though, despite a grimace revealing how painful Melleta’s possession must have been.
“You have no idea,” he told me, moments later after I’d explained the gist of what had happened to him. “I could see it, Emery. I could see through its eyes. I tried stopping it, I—”
I nodded and patted him on the shoulder, realizing why the poor wretched fetches were screaming silently all the time. It had to have been a nightmare.
“It’s over now though, she’s dead.”
Damyan eyed Melleta’s lifeless form. “Good.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Loki said and joined us, his sword back in its scabbard. “It’s not over though,” he added and pointed nonchalantly at the fire inside the side-building. I’d completely forgotten. It was a miracle it hadn’t taken over the building yet. “Also,” Loki continued,” we have company. He leaned sideways to see something inside the antechamber. I did the same and could see people moving inside the hall, coming this way. The order of the Learned and the Reflective must have awoken too, released by Melleta’s death.
“I guess our bargain’s done then,” I said to Damyan.
He rubbed his neck in obvious pain but nodded. Then, at a loud boom, he straightened up. We all faced the gate. Where else had it come from? Another boom came, someone knocking a ram against it?
“This is the constabulary!” someone shouted from outside. “Anybody in there?”
“I certainly am not,” Damyan said and eyed the roof above.
“Neither are we,” Loki pointed out as Damyan scampered up via the column and the decorative ridges in it.
“Why not?” We had done nothing wrong. We had helped the order, hadn’t we?
“This is the constabulary! Last warning!” The pounding against the gate sounded again.
“Look behind you,” Loki said and began climbing up the column himself.
I did, and then immediately regretted it. Melleta. Killed and in a particularly bloody fashion. I glanced inside the opening and past the ruined door into the antechamber. Helios came walking first, leading the others outside, his father, Dekel right behind him. They all hobbled and looked weak. They must not have gotten much nourishment over the last few days. Helios raised his eyes and met mine then, surprised and scared.
“Red!”
I glanced up and saw Loki on the roof, a hand extended, urging me to get a move on.
The ram hit the gate with a resounding boom. The constables were done with their warnings all right.
I climbed the column and happily took Loki’s extended hand to let him help me up. I needed to gain some strength to do this on my own. Just as I got my legs over the edge, the gate burst open and I rolled away from the drop.
Gruff voices shouted and a small chaos ensued. Several uniformed constables poured inside the messy courtyard and the next few minutes were spent securing the area around Melleta, gathering up the confused and weary order, and putting out the fire.
“Why couldn’t they have shown up when we needed their help?” I murmured. We were hiding in the shadows on the roof, the clay tiles still warm from the sun earlier. A large tree that grew right outside the fence provided more obscurity for us.
“People likely heard those blood-curdling screams and were dissuaded from entering the premises,” Loki said.
“The constables too?”
Loki harrumphed, and that
was all he had to say about that.
“Where’s Damyan?” I asked, realizing I couldn’t see him.
“Left at once.”
“Okay… then why are we still here?”
“I want to see if we’re going to have any problems.”
“Problems?”
“The order member… Helios. He knows our faces. And our names.”
“Uh-oh.”
“What does that particular eloquence imply?”
“He saw my face once more before I climbed up.”
“Hmm,” was all he had to express on this matter.
More constables seemed to enter through the gate. Some of them went outside too, so it was hard to tell how many there were, but apparently, this kind of mess got their attention.
“Chocolate?” I offered after digging around in my jacket pocket. Loki took his eyes off the constables and seemed to be about to say something disparaging, but then he sighed and broke off a piece before returning to watching the courtyard while munching on it.
“So…” I began after a long while of spying and my chocolate bar gone. “You’re a werewolf, huh?” It hadn’t been a large dog the Guardians had spotted as reported in The Lantean. Loki had eluded them by changing form, obviously, but ladders and climbing must have forced him to remain mostly in human form.
“Your lack of magical knowledge does not cease to amaze. Werewolf? I am no such lesser… vermin.
Vermin? “There are a few in the city. They only eat livestock, or so I’ve heard. And they pay for it too.”
“Naturally, they have to say that. They could hardly live in a civilized society if they kept eating that society. People would riot.”
“May I point out that you just ripped a woman’s throat out?”
“Her or us, Chastity.”
I sighed. “Maybe.” Melleta had been beyond reasoning, and with the gem within her grasp, she had been trying to kill us. I understood that. “I didn’t think restoring my name and making amends would involve killing someone.”
“We are merely staying out of the dungeons.”
“You can say what you want, but we have a chance here.”
Loki didn’t answer, probably thinking there was no point.
“So if not a werewolf…?”
“A shapeshifter. There is a difference.”
“Oh, I’m sure.” We were lying on our stomachs, but I managed a small gesture of raised fingers in concession at least. “How do you keep your clothes on?”
“Though it’s understandable you’d want to see me naked—because who wouldn’t?—you are too young for my tastes.”
“Ew! That’s gross, old man.”
Loki snorted, but there was a hint of a smile there. “This may be hard for a neonate such as yourself to comprehend, but it’s called magic for a reason. Can you imagine how impractical it would be to lose your clothes all the time?”
“Can you by any chance change into a horse…? Like a… mare?”
Loki took his eyes off the constables at that and eyed me with obvious indignation. “A horse yes, though not anymore, and it would be a magnificent stallion. And…” he continued when I opened my mouth to speak, “that is the last time we will ever talk about that, or I swear I’ll draw the constables’ attention.”
I had to press my lips together not to laugh.
Loki huffed and shook his head. “The disrespect!” Then he forgot all about it, judging by the way his head perked up. “Here we go. Now something’s happening.”
“What?”
“By the gate. They called in some higher-ups.”
I saw where he pointed, and my heart sank. “Uh-oh…”
“Again with the fancy talk. What now?”
“So, that inspector that just walked through the gate? Not the blond one, but the dark-haired one with the angry scowl plastered on his face?”
“Yes?” Loki gave me a side-eye, which already told me he wasn’t going to like this. Which was fine because neither did I.
“Well, that’s my uncle Alyn, and he hates my guts.”
Chapter Fifteen
The narrow space between the buildings and the fence was not empty when Loki and I peered over the roof’s edge. Two constables were walking through with a lantern each.
“There’s nothing here,” one of them told the other, his voice exasperated. He was likely not fond of the superior who’d sent them to check out the area.
Loki and I pulled back from the edge to avoid being seen should one of them look up, and waited. When the sound of their steps faded, we moved closer again and gathered our limbs under us. We couldn’t see the street outside from our position, but most of the noises came from the courtyard and the street which the gate opened into.
We made the short jump and glanced down. Few people were about in this street, and most weren’t close. We didn’t have much of a chance anywhere else, so we went for it. The climb down from the fence was easier than the other way, at least, but I landed awkwardly, stumbling a bit as I hit the ground. Loki, of course, landed with the elegance of a cat, damn him.
“This way,” he said and pointed out our direction. It would be faster to pass by the gate, but that was not an option.
I nodded my response. We needed to get to the Pyramid and hand the gem over. If my uncle got wind of me being involved in the mess inside, he was sure to come knocking. It would be best not to be caught with a missing crown jewel then. I patted my jacket pocket for reassurance, feeling the shape of the stone there.
A carriage rattled past, and we waited to cross the street when a strangled whimper reached my ears. I whirled around, a dagger in each hand, and startled to see someone so close.
“What?” Loki asked and came back only to see the same thing I did. Behind one tree that grew so close to the fence and supported the canopies far overhead, which cast their shades on the roof, sat a huddled Helios. His knees were drawn to his chin and his arms were clasped around them. He looked terrified and was breathing hard despite sitting still on the ground.
“Helios?”
“What’s wrong with him?” Loki asked, keeping his voice hushed and peering up and down the street.
“I think he’s having a panic attack.” He must have snuck out of the order house to be alone.
“Why?”
I glared at Loki, but he seemed genuinely perplexed. “Because not everyone is used to being possessed by magic and forced to do its bidding.”
Loki only shrugged. “Huh…”
“You killed her,” Helios uttered. He was fighting hard to control himself. “That stone is cursed.”
“What? This one?” I retrieved the gem from my pocket and held it out. Despite the street being lit only by streetlamps with few watts in them, Helios had no trouble recognizing it. His feet scraped against the cobblestones and he appeared to push himself even closer to the walled fence behind him.
“It’s cursed!” he repeated.
Loki tsked at that. “That stone saved your fried flesh.”
“Bacon,” I corrected.
“That stone saved your fried bacon.”
I rolled my eyes at that. “It was what she wanted, yes, but it never belonged to her.” I put the gem back in my pocket. The sight of it did not seem to ease the man’s fears. Or nightmares. He would likely have quite a few of those going forward.
Realizing I would not hurt him with a cursed stone in the next few minutes, seemed to shake Helios out of his worst fears. “How did you get out?” The volume of his voice exploded. “The constables—”
“Never mind the constables,” Loki cut him off.
“You shouldn’t be here! They wanted to talk to everybody.”
Loki touched my shoulder, indicating our agreed-upon escape route.
“Hey!” Helios went on. “The constables should know you’re here!” He arose then, and I decided Loki was right. Helios’ panic attack was morphing into something different now. Reasoning with him would take too long and be too loud. He kept sh
outing as we ran away. I noticed a few other people turn to stare, Helios drawing way too much attention to us.
We ran down several streets and opted for cutting through some alleys where fewer people noticed us. After about ten minutes of this, we stopped near a fashionable clothier shop in a popular street. Keeping to the newsstand next to it, we could catch our breath and reorient ourselves. We were about a half-an-hour brisk walk from the Pyramid. Loki looked like one might expect after our ordeal in the order house. His short hair was messy and slightly dusted by the sand. The same could be said of his crumpled clothes. His face was also reddened and showed small nicks here and there because of the cruel whipping of the sandstorm besides the bruises. I could only assume I looked the same. I certainly felt it.
“I think we got away,” I said, eying the busy street. People were milling about on their various errands. Carriages passed both ways in the street proper. The rattling of the wheels and the horses’ hoofs clattering mixed with voices, almost made it impossible to seek out any specific sound.
“I think not,” Loki disagreed and gave a slight nod to something behind me.
It turned out to be a carriage, one with a barred window on the door and several constables atop it, their eyes scanning the street for someone.
“What are the odds they’re looking for someone else, do you think?” I asked, though I followed Loki back into the deep shadows of the narrow passageway we’d come through.
“Slim, considering I recognize a few of those men from the order house.”
I raised my eyebrows at that. He did? I hadn’t even thought to pay attention to details like that. Unfortunately, that meant Helios must have run back to the constables… and my uncle.
“This means Uncle Alyn knows.”
“Yes, the inspector.” Loki shook his head in disapproval. “Can’t you just have insane relatives like everyone else?”
“Considering who you’re asking, I do.” Not Uncle Alyn exactly, but there were many who’d consider me and my parents absolute ding-dongs.
“Let’s backtrack a bit,” Loki said instead, and we did, paying close attention while finding alternate routes to the Pyramid. “Those guards on that carriage are ahead of us now.”
