Elf Mastery

by Bryant Reil

  Mr. Withers turned to face the voice. “Is that you, Rob? Well, I got my flashlight here but it doesn't seem to be working properly.”

  “Nobody's flashlight is working properly.” The man called Rob stepped into the light. A few other people shuffled into view behind him. “We need some of those.”

  Kyla clutched the orb to her chest, blocking most of the light. “It's the only one I have. I need it.”

  “We all need it. Look, I don't need it for long. Just want to have a look around, get some food and supplies together so my family and I can wait this out. Give it to me for half an hour and I'll bring it right back. Promise.”

  Other voices chimed in that they also needed to borrow it, just for a short time to get their things together. Kyla felt sorry for them and wanted to help, but realized that if each of them used it for half an hour she wouldn't have it when Erebus arrived. She also wasn't confident in their honesty. It was likely the only light in town, and possibly the world. Someone was apt to run off with it, for who could go after them?

  “I need it. I'm sorry. But don't worry. I think we can get your lights working again soon. Hopefully in another day or so.”

  “We don't have a day. We don't have an hour. My kids are freaking out. I just need it long enough to get them comfortable.”

  Kyla gave Rob a firm stare. “No.”

  “I've had enough of this.” Another man stepped into the light. He was larger than Rob and was pointing something at her. It was black and had a hole in one end. She didn't know what to make of it but when she caught a glimpse of the handle she recognized that Mr. Withers carried a similar device in his belt. Some sort of human weapon, perhaps? She stood firm, but Mr. Withers appeared very nervous, and this made her nervous too.

  “Just let him have it,” Mr. Withers told Kyla. He had his hands up in a pacifying manner. “Not worth dying over. Not worth killing over, either, Will!”

  Will's face was twisted in a combination of rage and fear. “You're not Sheriff anymore. There's no government, no nothin'. It's about survival now, and if you want to survive, you're gonna give me that ball!”

  “Ease up, Will!” Rob shouted. “What's wrong with you?”

  “There's no reasoning with these folk. They're not gonna give that up. They know they'll never get it back. Who knew. I stocked up on food and water and ammo for years getting ready for something like this.” Will stomped forward and snatched the ball from Kyla, who scowled but didn't lash out as she feared the weapon in his hand. “Who'd've thought it'd all come down to a little glowing ball? And if you think I won't—”

  Growl.

  A white blur sent Will rolling along the side of the road. The aurichalcum ball and the weapon dropped to the ground. Aspen and Eunoe (who was no longer glowing) jumped off Castor's back and the crowd backed away.

  “You?” Mr. Withers' stared slack-jawed at Eunoe. She grabbed the weapon and Aspen ran for the aurichalcum ball as it rolled into the crowd. Kyla feared one of them might try to fight her for it, yet they all backed away. Their faces were frozen in surprise, and their eyes darted from Eunoe, to Castor, to Aspen.

  Mr. Withers stepped over to Kyla, though his eyes never left the scene on the street. “Friends of yours?” His voice sounded meek. Almost terrified.

  “Yeah. That's Aspen and Eunoe. They were at your house, too.”

  Mr. Withers nodded slowly. “I know. We met.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  A Jar of Jam

  Kyla inspected the crowd. Would anyone else try to take the orb from her? Suddenly their eyes turned to something behind Kyla, and she heard footsteps and a familiar gurgling voice.

  “So that's what you were up to! A special light to hold back Erebus? It won't work so well against me!”

  Kyla turned to see Dunkin by the corner of the house. He looked battered and one leg was twisted in a way it probably shouldn't. Castor struck quickly and swiped his claws across Dunkin's chest, but Dunkin grabbed him by the leg and threw him against the wall of the Withers' home. The persistent tiger roared and pounced again, pinning the dwarf to the ground, until Dunkin freed his arm and punched him in the face. Castor dropped to the ground and Dunkin jumped to his feet.

  There was a wind, and a shout, and Aura swept past Kyla. Dunkin grinned. He anticipated her attack, and held out his hand that bore the negation ring. Kyla started to shout a warning but it was too late. Aura shrieked and dispersed into the air. To Kyla's relief Aura retreated and coalesced into solid form. She looked pained and confused, and eyed the ring warily.

  “Came ready for you this time!” the dwarf grinned, and then hacked up a mouthful of blood and scowled.

  “Stop!” Mr. Withers had a small rectangle in his hand and was pointing it at Dunkin. It didn't look very threatening and Dunkin disregarded it, so Kyla's heart pounded as she braced herself to kick out the dwarf's kneecap. Dunkin charged and she swung her leg. Her foot glanced harmlessly off the dwarf's thigh. He grabbed her and swung her hard against Mr. Withers' car. She nearly dropped the aurichalcum ball but managed to clutch it against her chest. There was a bright flash as her head hit the metal door, and she was frankly surprised she was still conscious. Dunkin grinned through blood-stained teeth.

  Then his grip tightened, he twitched, and then dropped to the ground. Kyla kicked her leg free and rolled under the car, turning to see Dunkin lying down with two metal cords sticking out of the side of his face. He yanked out the cords and stood. Kyla could see Mr. Withers' feet as he ran up to the car, but a single blow was enough to send him rolling back toward the house with a groan. Dunkin peered under the car at Kyla, gurgled, and spat some blood. With a groan he placed his hands beneath the car and heaved.

  The car rolled off Kyla and came to a stop in a neighboring yard, drawing frightened gasps from the spectators on the street. Kyla scrambled backward.

  Dunkin cracked his knuckles. “You gonna try to run? 'Cause as long as you have that orb I can see you wherever you go. Turn it off, and sooner or later Erebus'll crush your soul. Let me save you from a slow, painful death. I mean, it'll still be painful, but I can try and make it quick.”

  Dunkin stepped forward, looking ready to bolt in whichever direction Kyla chose to flee, though he wasn't so spry on his damaged leg. Mr. Withers shouted something but Kyla wasn't paying much attention and if Dunkin heard it he paid no mind. Then there was a cloud. Mr. Withers sprayed something in Dunkin's face which made him howl and push Mr. Withers back to the ground. A small amount of the cloud reached Kyla and burned her eyes. It didn't stop Dunkin, who forced his red eyes open, but he did turn from Kyla to Mr. Withers, and while she worried for Mr. Withers she shamefully had to admit to herself she was glad Dunkin's attentions had moved elsewhere. Mr. Withers drew his little hollow weapon but Dunkin punched him hard in the stomach and sent him sprawling across the grass, and the weapon dropped. He leaped to his feet and tried to fight back but Dunkin was too strong. The dwarf couldn't reach Mr. Withers' face so he punched him in the gut. Mr. Withers collapsed back onto the grass, and looked like he might vomit.

  “Nice try, human, but I don't have time for your interruptions.” Dunkin rose a foot and looked as though he was going to stomp on Mr. Withers' neck, but there was a loud bang and a sudden red hole in the side of the dwarf's head. He didn't have time to look surprised, but simply fell to the grass next to Mr. Withers. Kyla turned to see Mrs. Withers with the little weapon, and heard a surprised yelp from Eunoe who was now gingerly examining the similar device she had taken from Will.

  It took Kyla a moment to soak it in. She had seen terrible violence the past few days, and the dead bodies of friend and foe at Equinox, but this was the first time she witnessed someone's passing. Dunkin's skin went suddenly pale, and his body slumped to the ground. She felt a chill.

  Mrs. Withers stepped over Dunkin's body and placed her hands over her husband's wound. She turned to the crowd. “Janet! Do you have your first aid kit?”

  A woman with dark hair and skin repl
ied. “It's at home. I'll be back in a sec.”

  Mr. Withers took his wife's hand and smiled weakly. “Don't worry too much. I have a feeling this is all just a dream.”

  “Oh, honey, if only we should be so lucky.” Without releasing any of the pressure on her husband's wound, she leaned forward and gave him a light kiss.

  Then there was a buffet of wind, and at first Kyla thought it was Aura, but instead four great claws touched to the ground and the crowd of humans screamed, and many fled from the range of the light's influence.

  “Sheriff Withers! Are you alright?” The voice was loud, and roaring, and draconic.

  Mr. Withers peered up at the massive dragon looking down at him. “Denny? Is that you?”

  ***

  The next few hours were a barrage of questions that quite frankly were getting in the way of production, though Kyla did appreciate the humans' sudden commitment to the cause. Now that the plan was underway Denzig returned to his cave and brought back Phaethusa, Lampetia, and the remaining aqualux. In the meantime Janet, who turned out to be a nurse, kept an eye on both Will and Mr. Withers, who were laid out in adjacent bedrooms. Will asked for his weapon back but Eunoe refused to give it to him. Aias, perhaps overexcited by the new weapon, kept taking control and trying to play with it, but Eunoe kept telling him to put her back in charge so she could help Kyla. Meanwhile, Mrs. Withers had emptied a concrete storage room in the basement so Kyla could paint the interior with aqualux.

  “We need to make sure the space around the door is seamless,” Kyla ordered. “Don't want Erebus getting through the cracks!”

  Aspen stumbled on her wounded leg, the three gashes across her calf bleeding through the bandages.

  “Are you alright?” Kyla wondered when she saw, taking a break from sanding down the rough cement walls of the storage room to inspect Aspen's leg.

  Aspen looked oddly happy about it. “Yes! Ach'vach's going to be so excited! Orcs love battle scars!”

  “What happened?”

  Aspen told about the attack at Denzig's cave, and that she had been the victim of a wakwak which she had stepped over, thinking it was dead. It managed a final swipe before Aura finished him off. She then explained why they had been delayed: after the attack, they needed to lock the portal, attend their wounds, and find their way to the Withers' home. Even Denzig couldn't see, and so they were flying above town quite lost until Kyla came outside with her aurichalcum ball.

  It all sounded interesting and Kyla had many questions, but she had work to do so she forced herself to focus and resumed her painting. As soon as the first wall was covered in aqualux, she turned off her aurichalcum ball to inspect her work. To her dismay, it was entirely dark. “Oh. Right. No aurichalcum.” Her heart sank into her stomach. All this work, all this planning, was going to fail because of one oversight.

  Until Aspen spoke up. “Mix it with blood.”

  Kyla had to think about this for a moment. She thought, and still didn't understand. “Huh?”

  “Eunoe glowed when the aqualux got in her bloodstream. So maybe if you mix blood with the aqualux it will work like the aurichalcum.”

  Eunoe nodded. “Maybe. It'll be temporary. I glowed for several hours, though.”

  Kyla pursed her lips and stared at Aspen through squinted eyes. “You're both disgusting. I like it. Except—” Kyla thought about Dunkin's body in the front yard. “I don't think it would be appropriate to cut Dunkin open and—”

  Aspen started removing her bandages. “No need. I have plenty right here.”

  The room, when it was painted in the aurichalcum-blood mixture and enchanted by Lampetia, lit like a great white emptiness, so bright the corners and edges were barely visible. Lampetia enchanted the room so Kyla could turn the light on and off by stomping her foot on the floor.

  “But Kyla,” Aspen wondered, “what about yourself? You're going to cast a shadow.”

  “No. I'll be surrounded by light.”

  “Yes but what about your clothing? It makes shadows on your body. Can't he hide in there?”

  Kyla looked down at her shirt. “Oh. Maybe. I guess I could paint my skin or go naked.” She wasn't excited to paint herself in blood. The thought made her feel like one of the cannibals or barbarians from stories.

  “Won't he be able to hide in—you know—one of your orifices?”

  Kyla did want to keep her orifices Erebus-free. Luckily Eunoe had a solution. “Well, there's some blood in your hair from when Dunkin smacked you against the car. I think you might just have enough of a head injury for us to get some aqualux in and make you glow.”

  Kyla smiled. “Hooray!”

  ***

  Sheriff Withers took the gun from Eunoe. “This is the safety. You need to press it before you can pull the trigger. There's a second safety on the grip so it won't go off unless you're holding it. Just pull this back before you fire. Holds eight rounds, and I don't have any more ammo for you, so don't waste shots.”

  “Got it.”

  “This thing's not a toy. Don't point it at anyone unless you mean it. I mean, you get the basic idea, right? You've seen a gun before.”

  Eunoe took the gun. “No, but I'm going to let Aias take care of this.”

  “Aias?”

  “Some ancient spirit living in my body. He was a soldier, so I let him do the fighting.”

  Sheriff Withers sighed. “Right. And that's your flying tiger outside?”

  “Yeah. Oh, you know, I actually got the idea for the design from your picture downstairs! I was here at Halloween. I'm...sure you remember.”

  “Yeah.” There was a long pause. “So you designed that tiger?”

  “Well, I made him from a kit. Base tiger. It's still more work than you'd think. There's a lot of changes you need to make for him to be able to fly. It's not just about adding wings.”

  “I'll bet.” There was another uncomfortable pause. Aias was dying to take over so he could play with the gun, but Eunoe could sense a question coming. “Are you a magical elf, too? Your ears look normal.”

  “I'm an alseid. A type of nymph. A nature spirit, I guess you might say. And I wouldn't call elves magical. They're really just humans with pointy ears. Don't tell Kyla that, though.”

  “Uh-huh. And what makes you different.”

  “Well, I'm immortal. Sort of.”

  “That might come in handy soon.”

  “I can still die, if I get stabbed or something.”

  “Immortality isn't very useful, then.”

  “Not really.” The conversation stopped, and Paul Withers pinched himself in the arm several times.

  “Not a dream. I must be going crazy. I mean, you're basically human, right? And Kyla. I'm losing my mind. Can you reach inside that drawer for me? There's a little bottle of whiskey. I could use a bit right now.”

  Eunoe opened the drawer and found the bottle hidden inside a roll of socks. “So you never knew Denzig was a dragon?”

  Sheriff Withers opened the bottle, took a shot, and gave Eunoe a strange stare. “I've had many theories about Denny. That was not one of them.”

  Sheriff Withers didn't say anything after that. He just lay back on his pillow and looked up at the ceiling. Mrs. Withers came in with some soup, and Eunoe excused herself and handed control over to Aias, who immediately took to an enthusiastic examination of his new toy.

  ***

  “Are you an angel?”

  Janet walked around Kyla, eyeing her curiously.

  Kyla looked down at her glowing body. “Oh. No, the angels are in the basement right now. I put some aqualux in my bloodstream. It's making me glow. Pretty cool, huh?”

  “Is it safe?”

  “I hope so.”

  “Do you have any extra...uh...aqualux? The people outside are all huddling in the dark.”

  “Yeah. We already used up the aqualux mixed with blood but you could use the other one. Just get it into their bloodstreams and they'll glow for a while. You sure, though? I mean, you'd have to cut
everyone to apply it.”

  “I have lancets.”

  The other humans, much like Janet, asked if Kyla was an angel when she went outside.

  “Nope! Just an elf!” she insisted, though to the humans both angels and elves were equally interesting. They were eager to glow themselves, so they could see where they were going. Janet pricked each of their fingertips and Kyla applied a dab of aqualux to each, though with such small pinpricks it took longer for each person to absorb enough to start glowing. There was much cheering, and awe, and thank-yous, and several went back to their homes to see to their families. This led to further cries down the street involving terrified children and something called a Rapture.

  The additional light also led to the discovery they were being watched.

  Various creatures, including some humans who were surprised to see the aforementioned creatures, were sitting on the sidelines observing the goings-on at the Withers home. The non-human creatures were a motley assortment of leprechauns, sprites, trolls, and the like, and Kyla couldn't tell if they were refugees or Avowed. Not until one of them, a tall, gangly woman with disproportionately long and slender limbs, stepped forward and leaned down to speak to Kyla.

  “You must give it to us.”

  “What? The aqualux?”

  The woman's voice turned to a sudden shriek, which caused everyone present to cover their ears. Kyla dropped the aqualux, and the jar shattered and spilled. “The rubbing! You know what I want and its the rubbing!”

  “How do YOU know about that?” Kyla had hoped that with Linkin tied up and Dunkin dead the pursuit would have stopped.

  “I know because I must know. Because I was pulled from my proper duties to find you after you killed the dwarves.”

  “Wait–Linkin's dead, too?”

  The woman shrieked again. “We are here to get the rubbing.”

  Kyla was afraid, but also wondered if the woman knew what she was asking.

  “You do realize if you give it to Erebus he'll summon Chaos? We'll ALL die! You too! And I was told Erebus didn't even want it that badly, so why do you keep bothering me?”