by Jake Kerr
“Isn’t there anything that can stop it?” Naomi was doing a lot of magic, and I pictured her eventually collapsing in a pile of nothing more than thin skin and bones. She was already close to that.
Chuckling, she replied, “Food. Rest. Exercise. You know, all those things that I ignore. I’m not exactly known for living smart.”
“Didn’t you have food in your castle?” Arkady walked in with a couple carpetbags.
“Oh, I had plenty of food. I just didn’t have time to eat.” She nodded toward Arkady. “Ask him. Arkady, what did I do all day?”
“Study and practice.”
“So you didn’t eat enough?” When Naomi nodded, I replied, “Well that’s just stupid.”
“We must go,” Arkady said, interrupting my scolding. Naomi stood up. She looked fine, but for the first time I looked at her without being intimidated by her power and beauty. She was thin, some would say dangerously so. I knew that Naomi would never let me take care of her, but I promised myself to nudge her toward taking care of herself.
Our driver from the previous day was nowhere to be found, and the taxis refused to take us where we wanted to go, which was a small city called Toksovo. It was to the northeast and one step closer to the Arctic cold. The look on their faces when we mentioned the city seemed to indicate that very bad things happened there. We tramped back into the hotel, and Arkady spoke with the clerk.
Arkady would say a few words, and the clerk would shake his head. At one point, Arkady pulled out his wallet and laid a long string of bills on the counter top. It looked like the remainder of our money. He tapped the money with his forefinger and then said some words in Russian. The clerk, who looked to be about the same age as Arkady, nodded his head, grabbed the money, and then started walking around the counter to join us.
As the clerk led us to a car, Arkady explained what happened. “He can drive but doesn’t have a car. He is borrowing the owner’s car, which will certainly get him fired. So I had to give him an inducement to help us.”
“I’m guessing that inducement was quite a bit of money,” I said.
“I paid him about six months wages for him.”
We turned the corner from the front of the hotel, and there was a new black sedan parked next to the side entrance to the hotel. “It looks like we don’t have much money left,” Naomi noted.
“Well, we don’t have many more options after this. We either find the Angel and leave with the Coat or we don’t find her and leave without it. Either way we are leaving.”
“True enough,” I added as the clerk crawled into the driver’s seat. Once again Arkady sat in front while Naomi and I sat in the back. Naomi had talked about attempting to disguise us again with an illusion, but I told her that we’d need her energy for the confrontation with the Angel’s men. She nodded, and we all were quiet for what turned out to be a long drive into a wild but beautiful countryside.
19
THE ANGEL
I heard a shrill whistle and immediately knew what it was, a train powered by an Ifrit or Marid. The howl of pain was unmistakable. It reminded me of my original mission—to free the magical creatures in Europe like I did in England. The thought only hardened my resolve—I would retrieve the Coat of Invincibility, walk into Germany, and free the slaves.
But first I had to retrieve the artifact, and that was looking to be a difficult task. We were being knocked around as we bounced over rutted dirt roads, trying to get to some location where we would find someone who hopefully would lead us to the mysterious Angel of St. Petersburg.
“What was that spell you threatened the spy with?” I asked Naomi, thinking of the solid deep red ball that she held in front of the spy’s face.
“Zahhak’s Rage,” Naomi replied. Almost absent-mindedly creating it in her hand as we talked. “It penetrates whatever it hits and then burns it or them up from the inside. The heat is so intense that all it usually leaves is a pile of ash.”
“Wow. No wonder it scared him.”
Naomi closed her hand, and the spell snuffed out. She brushed her hair behind her ears and looked at me like she wanted to tell me something but didn’t quite know if she should.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Nothing.” Naomi turned away, once again staring out the window. She sighed and then said, “Zahhak was the last great dragon that terrorized the world. Jamshid defeated him, and rumor has it that he created this horrible spell to both honor the battle and remind us all of the horror that was Zahhak.”
“Neat,” I replied.
“Yeah. Neat.”
Naomi didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk, so I focused on the scenery outside the window. It was desolate and gorgeous. Wherever we were going was isolated and beautiful and dangerous. It seemed appropriate.
We stopped for food at a farmer’s stall outside of a tiny town. I had to practically force Naomi to eat, but she did. I asked Arkady what we should expect. “How much do we know?”
Crunching on a sweet onion, Arkady replied between mouthfuls, “There is a farmhouse in Toksovo. I have detailed directions. The farmer who owns it is the contact for the Angel. We will need to convince him to take us to her.”
“Nothing else?” It seemed like minimal information to me.
Arkady shrugged. “We have a name and a location. Hopefully that is enough.”
We piled back into the sedan and closed in on Toksovo. The trip took much longer than it should have as the roads were horrible—full of ruts and holes. Naomi was smiling over a particularly rough patch that tossed us all over the back seat.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“This is good practice.”
“For what?”
“Casting a spell while moving. It’s very difficult even when still, but when being tossed around like this?” She squinted her eyes as she closed and opened her hand. “It’s practically impossible.”
“Why do I always think that when you hear ‘impossible’ your immediate thought is to see it as your next challenge?”
Naomi looked at me and smiled, “Why, Tommy, it’s like you finally understand me.”
The driver said something and pulled to the side of the road. Arkady handed him a large wad of Russian money, which the driver kissed and then shoved in his pocket. We all climbed out. My door wasn’t even completely shut before the car started to pull away. It turned sharply, passed us, and began the trip back to Leningrad.
“Arkady, we don’t seem to have a way to return to the city.”
“Don’t focus so much on the negative,” Naomi said. I glanced at her, and she was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. She seemed completely wired with nervous energy. “Where’s the guy who will lead us to the Angel?”
Arkady pointed to a dirt road that was even smaller and more derelict than the one we were on. Twisting to the right, my gaze followed it to the horizon, where I thought I could see a group of buildings, although it was far enough away that I couldn’t be sure.
“Let’s get us a coat,” Naomi said, starting forward. Arkady carried our bags, and I used the cane as a walking stick.
“We have to be careful. None of us are particularly good at seeing through illusions.”
Naomi nodded, but Arkady spoke up from behind, “It should not be a concern, Tommy. The spy told me that they are solely an armed group. The Angel carries a machine gun and uses regular armed troops. She does not believe in the power of magic.”
“Oh, I really want to take her down now,” Naomi muttered.
“But she’s an Archmage,” I replied.
Arkady shrugged. “She only uses the Coat for protection. It is just a tool, not an artifact to her.”
“The spy said this?” Naomi asked. She seemed skeptical.
“Yes. He contrasted the goals of his country, which is to utilize the magical artifacts and magicians to help achieve their goal, with the goals of the Angel, which is to simply destroy the Soviet Union and bring back the Russian monarchy.”
With each step I could feel a change in the staff. It was almost as if it was buzzing with excitement from the inside. It wasn’t a physical feeling of vibration so much as a psychic connection of excitement, as if the staff couldn’t wait to get to our destination. I had never felt anything like it before with the staff, and I took it as a good sign. Perhaps I would be able to bend light or stop time again.
“I see it,” Arkady said. I squinted and could just make out a farmstead in the distance.
“It isn’t exactly a fortress, assuming they aren’t hiding anything with an illusion,” I noted.
“Yes, but it’s on a hilltop. No one could get within miles of there without being seen first.” Naomi started moving her hands. “Which reminds me, I’ll cover us with a shield, but we should be ready for anything.” No one had to reply. We all knew this would be dangerous.
It was eerily quiet. There was the normal sound of insects and birds and the wind blowing through grass and trees, but there were no sounds of human life—cars, voices, or doors banging open or shut.
As we finally reached the house, I was tense and on edge. The staff was vibrating so hard I didn’t know if I could retain my grip, yet as I looked down I saw that it wasn’t moving at all. It was all in my head, thanks to my connection to the staff.
Scanning the surroundings, I couldn’t see anything out-of-the-ordinary. There was a field to the right with some cows, and a barn straight ahead with big closed doors. The farmhouse was to the left. To the right beyond the barn was a smaller barn that looked like it held livestock.
The farmhouse was surrounded by a rickety fence, and a broken gate opened to a path leading to the front door. I squinted as I looked at the house, but it was still and quiet.
“Is there even anyone here?” I whispered.
“We should knock on the front door,” Naomi answered.
I looked at Arkady, who shrugged. I opened the gate and the three of us walked to the front door. With no other option, I reached out and knocked. There was no answer, so I knocked louder. I turned and looked at Naomi and Arkady.
“Do you think we were misled by the spy?”
Before anyone could answer, the doors of the barn squealed open. A man in coveralls walked out wiping his hands on a cloth. He was dirty, and looked exactly like you would expect a farmer to look after fixing a tractor.
As he slid the cloth into his pants pocket, he closed the distance between us. Arkady waved and greeted him in Russian. The man seemed pleasant enough and smiled as he talked. They exchanged a few words, with the man shaking his head after every question from Arkady.
Arkady held up a finger to the man and turned to us. “He said he doesn’t know anything about an Angel of St. Petersburg or a Coat or anything like that.”
For the barest of moments my heart fell as I considered that we were misled, but that feeling was overwhelmed by a rush of insight from the staff itself. I gripped it tight, and closed my eyes. I had never been so connected to it. It wasn’t just a part of me, it was almost controlling me. For the first time since touching the staff I felt frightened.
“Tommy!” I opened my eyes to Naomi looking at me strangely. “Are you okay?” she added.
I ignored her question and turned toward the house. “The Archmage is inside. She awaits with the Coat.”
As soon as I said the words, the farmer squinted at me and then reached into his pocket. I ran forward and knocked him to the ground with my shoulder. Naomi and Arkady stared at me. “Open the door!” I exclaimed.
I couldn’t quite explain my urgency, but I had to get in and get the Coat. As the farmer tried to get up, I reached into his pocket and found a pistol. I pulled it out. He raised his hands even though I hadn’t even aimed the gun at him.
“Stand back,” Naomi said. She faced the door, and Arkady and I retreated a few steps behind her. With the barest of motions, a detonation flew from her hand and exploded against the house, leaving a hole where the door used to be.
She looked over her shoulder and shrugged, a smile on her face. “Maybe that was overkill.” Without a care for her own personal safety, she walked right through the hole, which seemed big enough to weaken the structure of the house. Arkady followed her in, while I motioned with the pistol to the farmer.
“You seem to know what’s up,” Naomi said, as we stood in the living room and looked around. “So, where is she?”
“I don’t know. She is close, though.” I didn’t know it; the staff did.
“Maybe I should just blow up the house. She can’t be harmed, so we’ll just dig her out of the rubble.”
I was about to object when the sound of a woman came from a hallway on the other side of the living room. “That will not be necessary, miss.” A woman entered wearing a thick velvet coat that flowed out behind her. It was almost impossibly black. Under the coat she wore an elegant maroon dress. Her hair was up, but not in a pony tail, rather it was arranged in an elegant formal style.
It took me a moment before I realized that she had spoken English, although with a Russian accent. “The Angel of St. Petersburg,” I said as she walked up to Naomi.
“I fear I haven’t done much to protect my beloved city lately, so the title is perhaps undeserved at this point.”
Arkady appeared to be in shock, while Naomi stared at the woman, a spell poised at the ready in her palm. The woman seemed completely unconcerned as she walked around Naomi.
“A young woman shooting detonations. Have we sunk so far that women are all that’s left to defend our friends?” As if illustrating the Angel’s comment, the farmer inched over to her side.
She turned to me and crossed her arms. “I’ve heard of you. They call you the Archmage.” I stared at her but didn’t say anything. She looked middle-aged or older, and had a roundish face. She didn’t look cruel, but she didn’t appear kind either. More than anything she seemed serious and determined.
I leaned on the cane. “It is a title that was given to my family ages ago.”
She looked at my cane and then back at my face. “I know something of titles.” She spun around. “But let us talk over tea. Enough of destroying things. Perhaps we can work together on rebuilding lost legacies.” She walked into a room to the right that looked like a rustic but comfortable dining room.
Naomi looked at me, and I shrugged. Arkady had already started to follow her.
The Angel snapped her fingers, and the farmer hurried into the kitchen to retrieve a teapot. Naomi sat at the table, and I sat next to her, across from Arkady. I placed the pistol on the table. With the Angel wearing the coat I knew I couldn’t hurt her.
She walked around the table and poured tea into a cup that she had placed in front of me. “How much do you know about me, Archmage?”
“Nothing, really.” She moved on to Naomi.
“How much do you know of the artifacts of Jamshid?”
I looked at Arkady but he couldn’t seem to stop staring at the Angel, his brows furrowed as if he was concentrating on something. I wondered if she had used some kind of magic to affect his mind.
“That there are three. And two of them are in this room.” The Angel moved on to her cup and filled it.
“Nothing more?” I looked at Naomi and she gave a slight shake to her head. She wanted me to play ignorant, which wasn’t too hard as I really didn’t know much more anyway.
“I’m afraid not. Up until recently I didn’t even know there were three artifacts.”
She sat down. “Oh my, I have been rude, asking you questions without even introducing myself.” She nodded her head toward me. “My name is Ana. I bear the Coat of Babr-e Bayan.”
“I am Tommy Black.” I paused, not even knowing which artifact I held in my hand. It was embarrassing. I sputtered, “I bear the Staff.”
She nodded. “The Staff of Darius. The most powerful of the artifacts.”
I motioned to Naomi. “This is Naomi
, a legendary magician.”
“Legendary, you say?” Ana looked at Naomi and then turned away dismissively. “I have not heard of you.”
Before Naomi lost her temper I waved a hand toward Arkady. “And this is Arkady, a master illusionist.”
Ana said something to him in Russian, and his eyes went wide. She smiled kindly and nodded her head. Arkady stood up so quickly that his chair fell backward. He bowed. “Your majesty!”
I was confused. Majesty? She just said her name was Ana. As she spoke again to Arkady in Russian, I remembered something from my incomplete education. “Wait,” I blurted out. “You’re Princess Anastasia?” Just as she did to Arkady, Ana nodded to me. “But she was assassinated with her family.”
Ana rubbed the fabric of her coat between her fingers. “Before he died, Rasputin passed the Coat on to me. Someone who cannot be harmed cannot be assassinated.”
20
THE PRINCESS
Arkady picked up his chair and sat back down while I stared at Ana. No wonder she had people fighting alongside her. She was the last of the Tsars and the old Russia that the Soviets had pushed aside for their new communist utopia.
Ana laughed. “Everyone is so quiet. Yes, I am Princess Anastasia. My mentor was the great magician Rasputin. He bore the Coat for decades, in service to my family. He knew he would die in handing it to me, just as he knew it would save me.” Ana lowered her head. “He was a great man.”
I rubbed my eyes, and Ana turned to me. “You feel it, don’t you? The artifacts. They need to be reunited.”
I didn’t answer, but the pull toward Ana was enormous. I can’t say that I felt compelled to hand her the staff so much as I felt that the staff wanted to be joined with the Coat, however that happened. There was no reason for me to deny it. “Yes. They belong together.”
