Gambit: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Solumancer Cycle Book 1)

by J. C. Staudt

  “Well, shit, I’m coming.”

  “And not for the first time today, apparently,” Ersatz cracks.

  Felita rolls her eyes. “I guess that means I’m coming too.” She points at Ersatz. “Shut up.”

  Ersatz shuts up.

  The Maserati’s back seats are snug, so Felita rides shotgun while Quim squeezes himself into the seat behind her. We race across town and arrive at Kingdom’s Keepe around lunchtime to find the chain link gate locked and the parking lot empty except for the battered Mercedes with which I had my run-in earlier in the week.

  “You sure this is a good idea?” Quim asks as I park across the street.

  “Not a chance. Let’s go.”

  We get out and cross the street. Ersatz jimmies the padlock with a spell, and I slide the gate open wide enough to let us through. I’m not expecting to surprise anyone with our presence in broad daylight, nor am I worried about anyone surprising us while Felita and Ersatz are scanning the airwaves on nose-radar. As we approach the hangars, though, it doesn’t appear there’s anyone around to surprise—or be surprised by.

  The door to the primary hangar pushes open easily. I give my friends a look and head inside. The lounge is still stuffed with pillows, couches, and cushions, and nothing appears to have been disturbed. We follow the hallway to the back offices and find them in much the same state. Everything’s where it should be.

  “How many of the satyrs do you think your pack hunted down last night?”

  Felita gives me a blank look. “All of them.”

  “Like… every last one?”

  “The ones we didn’t kill left blood trails, and I don’t smell blood.”

  We spend a few minutes searching Krydos’s office. Felita sniffs around a picture hanging on the wall—a framed print of the colored men from Reservoir Dogs. She pulls it down to reveal a recessed wall safe.

  “Thanks for showing me that tracing spell, Ersatz,” I tell him, just before casting it. The combination lifts off the wheel to float in purple numbering. I dial it in and pull the latch.

  Inside, behind a dozen neat stacks of hundred-dollar bills tied in mustard-colored straps, sits a heavy tome bound in wrinkled leather and banded in pewter cornice pieces. “Holy mother of hot sauce,” I breathe, pushing past the money to grab the book. I open it to the title page and read the inscription.

  Codex Infandum

  The Book of Abominations

  Sixth of the Six Grimoires of Magic

  Where All Are Gathered, All Shall Be Revealed

  “Same inscription as mine. Where all are gathered, all shall be revealed.”

  “This book is priceless,” Quim says.

  Felita looks at me. “You’re going to steal it?”

  “Hell yeah I’m going to steal it. This is the ultimate cereal-box prize. Do you know what happens when you collect all six of these in specially-marked boxes?”

  “Something good, it sounds like.”

  “Something the best. You get to be there when all is revealed. I don’t know what all is, but I want to be there for it.”

  “Do you know where the other four books are?”

  “I wish. Some could still be on the otherside, but I don’t think it’ll stay that way forever. These books have something to do with how the fabric of worlds started weakening. I’ve read spells in the Book of Mysteries that talk about it. It’s like if you were inside a collapsing building, would you rather be on the lowest floor or the highest?”

  “The lowest.”

  “Right. So you could get out quicker. In this case, though, the only way to escape your building is to enter another building which is also collapsing. In fact, the two buildings are collapsing into each other, compressed by opposing fields of matter. So yeah. Much fun had by all. That’s about as well as I understand the merging of the two worlds. Some kind of primordial rift that only came into alignment recently, and blah blah blah. You know how ancient texts are.”

  “Not really.”

  “Everything’s cryptic and mystical. The more I read, the more I’ll know. At least, I hope that’s how it works.”

  “What about the money?” asks Quim. “There’s over a hundred thousand dollars in here.”

  “Who’s around to spend it now?”

  “Part of it should go to the pack. For dispatching with the goat-men.”

  “Fair enough. How much do you want, Felita?”

  “They’ll be happy with half.”

  “Great. Quim, you can take the other half.”

  “What about you?”

  “I just got a call this morning. I’m not going to need money for a long, long time.”

  Epilogue

  Being Arden Savage doesn’t suck. About two weeks after the events of that warm August night at Club Sephora, I received a bank wire containing probate funds to the tune of more money than I’ll ever spend in five lifetimes. I withdrew a sizeable chunk of cash and left it in Mr. Montpellier’s mailbox to pay out my lease term and reimburse him for the damages to my shitty apartment. Maybe he’ll make a few improvements when he renovates.

  I also made an anonymous donation to the Charles Altuna Hope Foundation to cover the costs of building a new orphanage and paying the medical bills of the children injured in the accident. I hope they pick a better orphanage director this time around. I’ll be dropping in on him (or her) every now and then to make sure.

  Don’t misconstrue my efforts here. You can’t solve every problem by throwing money at it. But for a lot of the problems I’ve caused, money doesn’t hurt. I can’t think of a better use for a pile of cash than to help those less fortunate. If I’m going to be a total prick and cover up the murder I committed, it’s the least I can do with my borrowed fortune.

  As for what else I plan to do with the second chance I’ve been given… well, lots of things. The first of which is reading. A whole lot of reading. A thousand pages of archaic writings on the forbidden arcane enigmas of the universe. Hopefully that gets me closer to finding my father—and, if applicable, to the jackholes who took him from me. I’ve got a few things in store for them.

  This whole shift is going to take some getting used to. It’s hard enough moving into a new neighborhood or a new town or a new state. Moving into a new life is something else entirely. Like Ersatz says, there’s no turning back now. I’m in too deep.

  So this is my gambit. My sacrifice for something greater. I’m giving up my life to start a new one. Detroit is my home, and I want to do right by it. Anyone who wants to screw with my home is going to have to come through me first.

  There’s a whole city waiting for me out there, hiding plenty of mysteries I’ve yet to uncover. That includes the people who want Prince Cade Cadigan dead—and judging by what Krydos said, maybe even a few who are waiting for him to show his face so they can rise up in support of their long-lost prince. I’m not planning on doing that anytime soon, so mum’s the word. For now, just call me Arden Savage.

  Afterword

  I hope you’ve enjoyed Gambit, Book One in the Solumancer Cycle. Sign up for my Readers’ Group if you’d like to receive FREE advance copies of my future books and other exclusive perks (yes, I do give out free books to members of my newsletter, often before their release dates). Thanks for reading!