Star Coven

by Kristoff Chimes

  Pads yawned and said, “We should give the Dyn a merciful death.”

  “What the hell?” Wolf shouted. “Who gave the talking cat a vote?”

  “Free him, Pads,” Night Fear said.

  Pads did a double take. “Did the Nec Lord’s breath melt your brain?”

  “Cut him down.”

  Pads dropped the Entity Sword at her feet. “If you want banishment so badly, you do it.”

  Night Fear sighed and took the Entity Sword. She reached up and shouted, “Free the Dyn,” as she touched the tip off the blade against the Pentacle Star.

  Wolf’s magical bonds evaporated. He fell to the ground.

  “What now?"

  CHAPTER 6

  A Wyrdra pursuit ship dropped out of the crimson clouds and brought its cannons around to target them.

  Night Fear gasped, “We’re trapped.”

  Wolf turned to Night Fear and grabbed her shoulders, “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s all my fault.”

  He glanced at Pads. “Get her out of here.”

  “What about you?” Night Fear asked.

  “I’ll give you all the time I can.”

  A ramp lowered from the ship’s loading gantry. A voice Night Fear recognized, boomed out of the ship and said, “What are you waiting for, Halloween?”

  “Mom?” Night Fear asked.

  “Get on board, kid,” Shadow Walker boomed.

  ***

  Once on board, the ship blasted off into a near vertical ascent. John Wolf headed for the small bridge, grabbing hold of the nearest thing to steady himself, which happened to be Pads’ tail.

  The familiar squealed and lashed out.

  John growled back at the familiar, “Which one of you pumpkin head morons is driving this damn thing?”

  Shadow Walker spun around in the pilot’s chair, “My invitation wasn’t extended to you, Wolf.”

  John sat down in the co-pilot’s chair next to her. “Nice to see you again too, Shadow.”

  He glanced at the ship’s scanner console.

  “You’re scanners are broken,” he said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Look,” he said and pointed at the blank screen. “According to your stupid ship no one’s in pursuit.”

  Shadow Walker sighed, “This is exactly why we split up,” she said. “You never give me credit. Maybe, and this will make you shit your pants, mister, but just maybe no one’s following because I’m that good.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe.” His eyes narrowed. “But something’s not right.”

  As if on cue, the scanners sounded an alarm.

  “On screen,” Shadow Walker commanded. The window shields rolled down and revealed they were flying into the path of a Nec Lord.

  A web-spell had ensnared the dragon. It writhed back and forth, biting at the magic lasso spell that had bound its ankles together and tethered it to a swirling vortex.

  John glanced at the scanner statistics, “That can’t be,” he said. “It’s…”

  Shadow fought with the pilot stick, working on an evasive maneuver. “And you always said I was the one who’d always complain until you told me to spit it out.”

  He did a double take. “You missed me, right?”

  Night Fear glanced down at the scanner stats. “This Nec Lord’s twice the size of any I’ve seen.”

  John nodded. “And twice as pissed.”

  The dragon beat its wings and exhaled a series of quick-fire flames at them.

  “Buckle up,” Shadow shouted and rolled the ship before anyone could.

  Night Fear stabbed at four rows of flashing red dots materializing on the scanner screen. “The only way through is blocked by a Nec Lord.”

  “They expect us to surrender,” Shadow said and accelerated the ship directly at the dragon’s head.

  “Why surrender,” John said, “when you can commit suicide instead?”

  Shadow shouted, “You want to talk suicide? Why did you come back? Look at the trouble you caused.”

  Night Fear shuddered as great balls of fire engulfed their ship.

  “I don’t want to die,” she shouted, “knowing my last thoughts are my parents hate each other.”

  Shadow and Wolf glanced at her. “We don’t hate each other,” Shadow said.

  Wolf shrugged, “Well, not all the time.”

  A moment later they emerged in open space.

  “How did we survive that?” Night Fear asked.

  Wolf narrowed his eyes, “Too easily.”

  Shadow shrugged, “You want to know all my spell-secrets? Forget it.”

  The ship shook violently.

  “Another hit like that and we’re space dust. That’s it,” John said and took over the flight controls. “My turn.”

  Shadow left the bridge without a word.

  Pads walked over to John and swiped the back of his head, “Male chauvinist pig.”

  “Enough with the compliments,” John said. “They go to my head.”

  Night Fear ran after Shadow and caught up with her in the loading bay. Shadow Walker climbed onto her single-seeker Wyrdra Hunter. A one-woman stealth vehicle.

  “Mom? You’re bailing on us?”

  Shadow Walker turned and placed a finger on Night Fear’s lips.

  Instantly, Night Fear felt her entire body unable to move. “You cast a spell on me?”

  “Where I’m going,” Shadow said and fought back tears, “you cannot follow.”

  Shadow Walker ordered the ship to create an exit-chute in the camouflage field.

  Night Fear asked, “Am I a child of rape?”

  “The moment I leave,” Shadow Walker said, “an invisibility spell cloaks this vessel.”

  She powered-up her Wyrdra Hunter.

  “I need to know!”

  Shadow sighed. “Nineteen years ago, I shot down John Wolf’s spy ship. It crashed on Wyrdra. I found the ship in an isolated area of the jungle. John was the only survivor. He was badly injured. But even then I sensed he was not like other men I’d encountered. I took him prisoner and nursed him back to health. Far from civilization we fell in love. No, it was not rape.”

  “Then why allow people to think he raped you?”

  “It was John’s idea. If the Star Coven had discovered you were conceived of love between Wyrdra and human then all three of us would have been executed. I tried to convince him to escape with my help. But he’s a stubborn bastard and wanted to stay until the birth. To hold you in his arms.

  “On the night you were born, my familiar intended to betray John to the Star Coven. It broke my heart. I killed her. I blamed her death on John to force him to flee. John wanted to take us with him. Perhaps if it had been just the two of us, but I had to consider your future in a galaxy hostile to our kind.

  “I told him we’d meet him. It was a lie. He never forgave me.”

  “All this time you lied to me. Why?”

  “To love a human is a shame we cannot bear.”

  “But why?”

  “It marks us as weak. The moment our enemies sense a weakness, is the day Wyrdra is doomed.”

  Shadow said goodbye with her final words, “For a human, John Wolf is a good man. You might consider that, before it’s too late.”

  “You can’t leave me.”

  “You’ve proved yourself today, Night Fear,” Shadow said. “My gift to you is a chance at freedom. A chance to create your own destiny.”

  Night Fear felt her tears sting her face. “Where are you going?”

  “Someone’s got to divert the Pursuit Ships away or we’re all dead.”

  She powered up the Wyrdra Hunter and as she gunned it toward the exit, a camouflage spell created an exact replica of their Pursuit Ship.

  “Mom, no—”

  ***

  Half and hour later, the freeze-spell wore off. Night Fear rushed up to the bridge.

  John glanced at her, “You missed all my wicked moves,” he said and then furrowed his brow. “You OK? Where’s yo
ur Mom?”

  Night Fear pushed Pads out of the co-pilot seat and said, “Shadow’s the reason we lived through that battle.”

  “Huh?” Realization dawned across his face. “Shit! Really?” He checked the scanners. “I wondered why they gave up so easily.”

  “What now?” Night Fear said. “I’m banished for sure. Where will I go?”

  “There’s an entire galaxy of wonders you’ve probably never seen,” Wolf said. “But first step is your new home.”

  “Where?”

  “Marshal Town Academy.”

  “Is that where you live?”

  “I run it. It’s where I train Mage Marshals.”

  “But I’m Wyrdra. Your people hunt mine down and kill us.”

  “You’re half human. So relax.”

  The remainder of the journey continued in silence. They arrived at the secret headquarters of the Mage Marshal Service on the Dark Side of the moon.

  CHAPTER 7

  “Kid, you can relax now, we’re home,” John Wolf said as a team of Mage Marshal Star fighters formed up in escort. The lead escort ship fired its cannons and shook Wolf from his pilot’s chair.

  Night Fear looked down on her father, “I’m relaxed,” she said.

  Pads leapt across the bridge. “Another blast like that one, Dyn, and you’ll be sucking on space dust.”

  “For fucks sake,” Wolf said and hammered on the communication console. “This is Mage Marshal Wolf piloting a Wyrdra Pursuit ship. Cease fire or—”

  A volley of cannon fire clipped the Pursuit Ship’s wings and destroyed the engines.

  A holographic video of a tall, slim woman with an eye patch appeared on the communications console.

  “Star Marshal Scar, will you please tell your--”

  “Wolf, where the hell have you been?”

  “I left a message.”

  “Like hell you did. Give me one good reason I shouldn’t atomize you?”

  “I brought guests,” he said and turned to the camera to face Night Fear and Pads.

  Scar growled, “You brought magic creatures into a non-magic zone?”

  “I’ll explain once I land.”

  “This better be good,” Scar said. “Prepare for lasso.”

  The lead fighter fired a spiraling lasso spell that ensnared the Pursuit Ship and dragged it toward the moon surface and a building shaped into a five point Marshall Star.

  Inside the landing bay, Night Fear and Pads were escorted by a squad of Mage Marshals, while Wolf was taken directly to see Star Marshal Scar.

  In her office, she glowered at him. “Of all the stunts you’ve pulled—”

  “No need to thank me.”

  “Thank you?”

  “We’ve got our first Wyrdra recruit. Have you considered what a public relations win that is for the Mage Marshal Service?”

  “If she doesn’t turn her instructors into toads.” Scar sat down behind her steel desk. “What madness possessed you, John?”

  “A Father’s duty. Where’ve you taken her?”

  “Medi-bay for regulation quarantine.” Scar rolled her eyes. “What’s your daughter’s name?”

  “Night Fear.”

  Scar scowled. “You do realize a Wyrdra is named after the thing that most defines them. Night Fear suggests a Wyrdra magical ability with nightmares. What do you know of her power?”

  “She was never inducted into the Star Coven. At least, not for more than an hour or so.”

  “She caused nothing unusual to happen while you were on Wyrdra?”

  He shrugged. “Got herself banished. That’s a good thing, right?”

  “Maybe.”

  “She’s just a kid. No more than eighteen years and totally innocent of the Galaxy.”

  “She must prove herself worthy of the Mage Marshal Service, John. You know that, already.”

  “She defied Queen Hera’s order to execute me.”

  Scar suppressed a smile, “Hera’s gone up in my estimation.”

  Wolf glared.

  “OK,” she said. “It’s a start.”

  “So I can go ahead and tell Night Fear she can join us?”

  Scar nodded, “If you promise to watch her closely, then yes.”

  An alarm sounded. Scar punched a button on her desk. A holograph appeared of a Mage Marshal standing next to the Wyrdra ship.

  Scar forced calm into her voice and asked, “Whats happening?”

  “Star Marshal, this is Mage Marshal Giant. The guard you ordered posted on the Wyrdra Ship—”

  “What about it?”

  “He’s dead.”

  “How?”

  “My guess is the ship had an extra occupant.”

  Scar glared at Wolf. “You know anything about this?”

  Woolf held his hands up in defense. “Nothing. I swear.” He paced back and forth along the wide window looking out to cold space. His stomach tied itself in knots.

  This must have something to do with…

  Scar returned to Giant. “You’ve detained the stowaway?”

  “We’re searching.”

  “How is it possible the stowaway evaded our security, Giant?”

  “My guess is they are bonded with powerful stealth-magic.”

  “Like a Wyrdra assassin?”

  “That’s my guess.”

  Scar nodded. “Keep me posted.”

  “Well, John?” she said and turned to Wolf, but he was already gone.

  ***

  Night Fear allowed herself to be analyzed and blood drawn. Various scanners moved over her body as she watched Pads prowling up and down a domed shaped magic-cage.

  “I could snap these bars in an instant,” Pads said.

  “Do that,” a Mage Marshal in combat armor said and aimed his Mage Marshal Curse Maker weapon at the familiar, “And I get the pleasure of skinning you in a hundred different ways. Turning you into a nice rug for my apartment.”

  Pads growled and slashed at the bars. An orange lightning burst out from the bars and threw the familiar across the cage.

  “Pads,” Night Fear called out. “Knock it off.”

  The leopard retreated to the shadows of the cage. “As you wish. But so far, banishment is everything it promised to be. It is my cross to learn possess limitless patience before you understand what you’ve wrought on us.”

  Pads and Night Fear jolted to the sound of gunfire. Their guard ran to the doors as they slid open. He collapsed as green lightning eviscerated him.

  Stepping gracefully over his smoking body, Hydra entered the medi-bay.

  She smiled at Night Fear. “I’ve come with a message from Queen Hera,” she said as her familiar, the tigress Sicarius leapt over her shoulders and bounded toward Night Fear.

  Pads leapt at the bars of her cage. Gripped the bars with her jaws as lightning battered her body and smoke rose off her fangs.

  As Night Fear leapt from the body scanner, Sicarius pinned her down and growled, “After I dine on your soul, I shall floss my teeth with your bones.”

  Pads broke out through the bars and leapt at Sicarius. The two familiars rolled across the medi-bay, slashing and biting at each other’s throats.

  ***

  John Wolf found the medi-bay guard dead. He burst through the doors and found the staff dead. He found the leopard, Pads, fatally wounded.

  John asked, “Familiar, where is your mistress?”

  The leopard raised its head sightly off the floor and in a strained weakened voice said, “I failed her.”

  “Where?”

  “Wyrdra assassins always set their escape at a place of mirrors.”

  The leopard’s head slumped to the floor with a final gasp.

  “A place of mirrors?” Wolf asked himself.

  He patched into the security chatter on his armor’s communication system.

  Disturbance at the recreation area.

  ***

  Hydra dragged Night Fear to the foot of a hundred foot high waterfall. She threw Night Fear to the pool an
d commanded Sicarious to pin her down. She stared at millions of reflections in the water droplets and with her Entity Sword froze the flow.

  She merged the reflections into one portal. A vortex that that seemed to spiral into infinity.

  A shadow moved across the waterfall. Sicarius whipped around as Wolf’s boot kicked out at the tigress’s jaw, sending her spinning away down the portal.

  Hydra grabbed at Night Fear, placing the edge of her Entity Sword to her throat and spun around. She faced Mage Marshal Wolf aiming his Curse Maker at her.

  “Let my daughter go free,” he said.

  “Impossible,” Hydra said and pushed the tip of her blade deeper in Night Fear’s neck.

  Night Fear screamed.

  Hydra said, “I’ve never failed a mission yet.”

  Wolf aimed for Hydra’s head, but the assassin used his daughter as a shield.

  Wolf shouted, “If you’re motivated by vengeance then take me instead. But choose now, as you’re running out of time. I’m guessing there’s only enough room for one.”

  Hydra glanced back at the closing portal.

  “Very well,” Hydra spat and hurled green lightning from her Entity Sword. It struck Wolf in his heart.

  He collapsed and fell into the pool.

  Night Fear kicked out at Hydra and sent her tumbling back into the portal. It snapped shut behind her and the waterfall resumed. Pummelling Night Fear.

  Night Fear waded through the waterfall’s pool and dragged Wolf to the edge.

  “Why?” she cried and pawed at the charred hole where his heart had been.

  His body contorted. In his final breath he said, “You’re my daughter. The symbol of my love for Shadow Walker.”

  “I’m so sorry, Father, it’s all my fault. You shouldn’t have felt love for me.”

  “No,” he said. “This is the curse of magic. Not love.”

  A dozen Mage Marshals gathered around the waterfall and carried wolf away. Star Marshal Scar helped her from the pool.

  “I’m a friend of your father’s,” Scar said.

  Night Fear sobbed, “I never got to know my father. Now I’ve lost both my parents. My familiar’s dead. My best friend is dead. His spirit trapped in a sword. I’m all alone. What will I do now?”