by Rain Oxford
“How will you be able to hear what someone is saying when it’s in my arm?”
“They are Vaigdan technology.” I pulled a small black devise and held it up for her to see. “With this, I can keep track of you and everyone else I have the numbers for.”
“You’re going to track me with an iPhone? There’s a new tracker app? That’s a little… creepy.”
“What is iPhone? This is a computer. I put the numbers for your chip into it and I can hear what you here. If your cover is blown or I’m ready for rebellion to rise, I will push a button that will make the chips vibrate. It will not hurt, but it will feel very weird.”
When I pushed a button on the side of the computer, the screen lit up. I held the computer over her arm and it scanned the numbers automatically, adding them to the collection. Once a small beep indicated it was complete with its task, small letters appeared on the screen for me to type her name into it.
Vivian and I then split up so I could test the connection. When the human started singing to herself, it came in clearly through my computer. After that, I set it to find her and it brought me right to her easily.
With no more time for practice, Vivian went off on her own while I scanned the channels, listening into other rebels with trackers in place. It was very quiet, so I fell asleep.
* * *
That night, I heard Vivian being captured again. I hated putting my people in danger, but I had to help as many people as possible.
In a small, abandoned house, I was monitoring a conversation between two slavers. Since the captive was sleeping, the slavers felt safe enough to discuss where they were moving to next. When a muffled sound outside the house startled me, I turned the monitor off and stood from my chair, not sure if I should look out the window or hide in the concealed compartment under the bed. My choice wasn’t really that difficult; I was never one to hide.
I stepped behind the door and a moment later, it opened slowly. A large, dark form entered through the doorway and paused. “Nila, come out.”
I sighed. “You scared me, Kseve.” He shut the door as he turned. “How did you find me?” He held up a black tracking monitor identical to mine. “When did you…?”
“The second day after I became your guard. You disappeared and the whole kingdom spent an entire day searching for you. I found you sleeping, curled up with a book to your chest in an old, abandoned library.”
I grinned. “That was the day I discovered fiction stories. I remember it being a lot easier to get to after that.”
“It nearly collapsed on top of you, so I had a troll go in and reinforce the walls and doorway.”
“You could have just taken the books out.”
“You would have found somewhere else to hide from your people. Now, what have you found out?”
“Nothing so far. I put a tracker in Vivian. She is now in the old air filtering center. When she gets moved, we will send Rehta’s unit in to rescue the slaves. Did you find out anything?”
“No. I got those we rescued to the surface. Can we trust the human? Her mate betrayed us.”
“We can trust her. Did you find any food?” I asked.
“I got some bread and water from the surface.” He set out bag down and pulled out a bundle of cloth. I took it and unwrapped the loaf of bread. “Did you eat any yet?”
“Yes.”
“Liar.” I took a third of the bread and passed the rest to him. “Eat.”
“You need more than I do because my metabolism is designed better.”
* * *
The plan went well for the next three days. Vivian was traded from place to place and after each time she was moved, we sent a unit of goblins in to rescue the slaves and imprison the slavers. Meanwhile, I listened to the rebellion for any sign that the slavers had caught onto us.
We were gaining ground, but too slowly. Whoever the “physician” was, he was adding to his collection of bodies every day. Even worse, we still had no idea what he was trying to accomplish.
* * *
I was awoken by Kseve insistent prodding against my chest. “What?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. The only light source was a small candle. “I am so tired of the dark.”
“Soon, this will be over and you can move aboveground. Listen to this. Your human is being taken to see the physician.” He held up the monitor.
I listened to the obvious sounds of Vivian struggling. Other than some foul insults, nobody said anything to her. When a door shut and Vivian stopped yelling, I stood. “We need to find her now.”
Just as I was reaching for the doorknob, I head a door opening in the monitor. “Welcome back, human,” a voice said in Dego.
I froze with shock, for I recognized the voice.
“Nila, that is---”
“I know. Adre is the physician.” I swiped my finger to the right on the screen, changing the menu options, and selected the alarm button. “The rebellion has started. We need to save Vivian now. If you think my uncle is bad when he betrays us, you do not want to see him if we let his mate get killed.”
I set the monitor to track Vivian. We had followed her movements at a near enough distance that we were only a few minutes away. The building was little more than a large shack with people rushing through the doors. I knew half the captives in this compound were part of the rebellion, but not if any of them were close enough to save Vivian.
Kseve kept my path clear, debilitating the slavers on the way. We made our way through two rooms before we found Vivian and my brother. The human woman was backed into a corner, wielding a scalpel like a weapon. Adre turned to us and smirked at me, ignoring Kseve.
My brother aged poorly over the years. His black hair was oily and cut roughly. After working so hard his entire life to create a respected, clean appearance, it was a shock to see him look so rough and worn.
“I have been waiting a long time for this, little brother,” Adre said.
Behind me, goblins flooded into the room. Fortunately, I knew these were my supporters. “You have caused so many problems, Adre. Come quietly now, and you will get a very nice cell on the surface. There will be fresh air, plenty of good food, and clean water.”
Kseve stayed by my side while four of the ten other goblins surrounded my brother. Dytha took Adre’s left arm and Krehm took his right arm.
“You have defeated me. Kill me, little brother,” Adre demanded.
“I would never kill you.”
“Why not?”
“You are my brother.”
“You took away my power,” he snarled. “I will kill you happily and without hesitating.”
“I did it for your own good. You killed our father, and for that I took away your power. Now you have threatened our people, so you will go to prison.”
He laughed. “Did you really believe it would be that simple? You should have killed me years ago, when you had the chance.”
Dytha wasn’t prepared for Adre to suddenly kick him in the side of the knee. By the time, Krehm reacted to pull Adre away from Dytha, my brother pulled a weapon out of a holster at his side. The sound of electrical charging was the only warning before he aimed the silver gun at Krehm.
“Get down!” I yelled at the goblin.
Unfortunately, while they were powerful in strength and magic, goblins were slow. A white energy burst exploded from the weapon, hit the guard, and threw Krehm across the room. Kseve pushed me back into the doorway and tried to block me.
When Adre turned the weapon on Kseve, I gripped my guard’s arm and pulled him to the ground. I was fast enough to get Kseve out of the way, but not myself. My brother pulled the trigger, the energy shot out… and imploded. The burst vanished in thin air, causing everyone to freeze in shock.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt anything,” a stranger said, appearing right between us. “I just thought it would be rude for you to die before I could offer you the chance to live.” He was tall, but not as tall as Kseve. His eyes were light brown and his hair was reddish brown. The smir
k on his face didn’t bode well for us.
“Who are you?” Adre asked, aiming the weapon at him.
The stranger scoffed and waved his hand dismissively. The weapon actually disintegrated into ash in my brother’s hand. “You should ask that before you threaten me, mortal. I am Vretial, the most powerful god you will ever meet, and you just happen to be on my bad list.” He turned to me. “Void, I am here to offer you something you have wished for your entire life.”
Kseve tried to pull me away, but I patted his arm calmly. “Please explain.”
“I can break the curse that made you a void, which will give you your powers back. Now, unfortunately, it will mean the blood you pumped into this mortal’s system will lose its power. He will also be able to use magic again.”
“Do it!” my brother demanded.
“How can you end the curse?”
“I can break the deal your brother made with the demon.”
“What deal? I thought I was born a void because Adre killed my father.”
“You were lied to. This is all because of your brother’s greed and jealousy. Tell him, spy Noquodi.”
It took me a moment to realize he was no longer talking to me. Kseve and I both turned to see Nano standing in the doorway. My uncle’s eyes were on Vivian as he nodded. “I didn’t take you in because I felt charitable towards your mother. I was actually very curious about the circumstances of your condition. However, it wasn’t until Adre was driven off that I learned what really happened.”
“You know why I am a void?”
“Your father left Adre’s mother because she couldn’t give her a more powerful son. Knowing the problem was actually on his end, he took many women, expecting to eventually get a child. Since your mother was the first to become pregnant, he married her. Adre was jealous because Atos doted on his unborn child. He began slipping Atos small doses of poison until the king became confused and suspicious. Finally, he got it in the king’s mind that you would use your powers to take the throne.
“Adre told Atos of an old ritual to call demons and control them. Atos summoned an Ancient and made a deal for your power. Unfortunately, the demon demanded a life first in return, because he could feed off of that energy. Atos wasn’t willing to kill himself, so he agreed to kill Adre.
“Overhearing that his plan had backfired, Adre killed Atos, and then demanded the same deal the demon had offered your father. The Ancient agreed, but warned Adre that you could break the curse for as long as you lived. Adre got your power, which was minuscule at best, and you became a void.”
“I want to stay a void.”
“Having magic means you can protect yourself,” my uncle insisted.
Kseve put his arm around my shoulder. “Protecting him is my job.”
“Why wouldn’t you want your power?” the stranger asked.
“Power corrupts. It has happened to so many of my people. I am king, so I have power, but nobody wants my power and I don’t want theirs. I am a void. If I lose that, I will just be a wizard.”
“So you don’t want your magic back. In that case, I will just kill this mortal and be done with it. Less work for me; I like it.”
“No! Please don’t kill him. He is my brother. Imprisoning him is enough.”
Furious, Adre took advantage of Dytha’s distraction and snatched the sword from her. He lunged at me, but the god just sighed and waved his hand again. Adre vanished, leaving behind the sword that clattered to the ground.
Vretial sighed. “Too stupid to live comes to mind.”
We were all silent for a moment. “Did he suffer?”
“Why would he have suffered?” the god asked.
“You killed him. How could that not have hurt?”
He gave me an odd frown. “I thought you didn’t want me to kill him, so I didn’t. I guess if you have changed your mind---”
“No, I wanted him to live… but what did you do?”
“I sent him to Canjii, which is the most failsafe imprisonment system in all worlds. Sorry if that wasn’t dramatic enough for you. I know Dylan loves a show, but most of the grunt work is boring.”
“Why did you come here? Why did you save me?”
“Family obligations,” he said simply. Then he vanished without another word.
I turned back to the doorway to find Nano gone again. Dytha checked on Krehm as one of the other goblins tended to Vivian. Other than shocked and horrified, she seemed okay, but she wouldn’t release her scalpel.
“High King…” Dytha said, solemnly. Everyone turned to her. “Krehm is dead.”
* * *
With Adre out of the way, my rebellion won easily. We had casualties, but once word spread that Adre was dead, most of the slavers surrendered. The only thing left to clear up was getting these people settled in on the surface so that the goblins and trolls could reclaim their land.
Vivian went ahead of Kseve and I. She was miserable, as if we had lost, and I knew it was because of Nano. I was still shaken from learning that Adre was the cause of my curse… and that my father was willing to kill one son to gain the power of the other.
We were at the mouth of the cave when I heard a raspy laugh. I turned, forcing Kseve to pause as well. The rest of our troupe went around us until we were alone. Kseve didn’t ask me for information; he just put his hand on my shoulder in support.
“Come out, father. I know you’re here.”
Shadows merged and darkened, then grew upright into the shape of Atos. He laughed again, causing a chill to run down my spine.
“You think you have seen the end of this.”
“Slavery has been abolished. I am still a void, which means you cannot hurt me. Whatever you have planned, I will stop you. You need to let it go and return to the spirit world.”
“You are wrong. I have already won.” With one last laugh, the shadow disbursed.
Chapter 14
Dylan
When Mordon flashed, there was no doubt in my mind what happened. Instead, I felt overwhelming pain and frustration, for Mordon needed me and I could do nothing but grind my teeth. “Tiamat!” I yelled, the sound bursting from me without foreknowledge. My wife had been injured, but when she immediately appeared, all I could do was stutter out that Mordon was gone.
“Gone where? What happened?” she asked. Whatever healing Ron used, he did a good job.
“Ghidorah,” was the best I could get out. I was shaking. Luckily, Sydney was thinking clearly enough to get the children out of the room.
Divina vanished only to reappear a second later with Ghidorah. “What happened?” he asked.
“Mordon accidentally flashed to Skrev and I can’t get to him because of this,” I held up my wrist to show off the bracelet.
When it was first created by Vretial, it only prevented someone from drawing in energy, and only one of his servants or himself could remove it. The second generation was created to hide Mordon and my power. Therefore, it had to keep me from creating Iadnah energy and him from creating fire. It could be removed by Ron and Hail because Vretial wanted them as his world’s Guardians. This one apparently could even overcome the lotus wand.
Ghidorah’s face turned ashen and I felt my heart drop into my chest.
“During the Ajaskakara, he has no chance. His dragon will rise and seek the most basic instincts. Since there are no dragons to mate with on Skrev, he will try to kill anything that gets in his way. He will kill until he is killed, and because we have little water, he will likely die quickly.”
“Take me to him!” I demanded.
“I don’t know what the Ajaskakara will do to you, Dylan. You might kill my entire planet. Those who have no beast are themselves a beast when the rain turns to blood.”
“I will go and save him,” Divina said, resigned.
“The Ajaskakara was created by Araxi to weed out the weak. It would affect you as well, if you go there now. Either of you is liable to destroy the population.”
“I don’t care,” I said. They
both stared slack jawed at me. “But I’m not losing you, too,” I told my wife. “I’ll go. With this on, perhaps it will keep anything from coming up. In fact, I might be the only one of us that can survive it.” I wiggled the bracelet.
“You will be defenseless.”
“You have to go,” Ron said, appearing in front of me.
“Were you spying on us?”
“I felt a disturbance in the balance. Dad, if you don’t save Mordon, I can’t stop the balance. It’s hard enough when you two are together. If you don’t save him, you’ll die.”
I took off my bag and handed it to Divina. “Send me in.” She flashed me to Skrev.
* * *
I knew three things; it was raining something thick and warm, it was pitch-black, and something very large was right behind me. Trying to face my opponent, I turned, only to trip over a root and fall hard on my back. My breath was knocked from my lungs, but before I could try to inhale, I got a mouth full of blood. It was raining blood.
I had enough time to spit the iron-rich fluid out of my mouth before a creature pinned me to the ground with a single furry paw that spanned the entire width of my chest. I closed my eyes against the foul downpour and put up my arms to defend myself. Heavy, hot breath was my only warning before huge, sharp fangs sank into my right arm, effectively snapping my bone in two places. Heat burned all the way up my shoulder, but I didn’t scream. I had enough brain power left to decide I would rather be eaten alive than die by drowning in blood.
As the beast began dragging me over thick roots and sharp rocks, the pain of his bite spread with each beat of my heart until my entire body was paralyzed with agony. As if he knew I couldn’t escape, the beast abruptly dropped me. Blind and in so much pain I couldn’t breathe, I rolled onto my back. It wasn’t a heavy rain, but the blood was sticky.
Cramps struck my legs and abdomen, painful enough that I managed to feel them over the fire in my blood, before bones throughout my body started breaking with sickening cracks. My knees popped painfully. Skin and muscles stretched as my limbs reformed, tearing my clothes easily. My head throbbed with the worst migraine I had ever felt. The heat was unbearable, but the energy that ran through my blood was like lightning.
