A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1)

by Daniel Ruth

  “You can bite me you little shit,” he sneered back.

  So peaceful vibes weren't working. How about some suggestions with oomph? Bearing down on his mind, I pushed as hard as I could without damaging him.

  “You want to help me. Only I can get you through this alive.” Plan B, appeal to his survival instinct and extend a helping hand. The next step was to try to read his surface thoughts, but that always gave me a headache.

  “Oh geez, you suck at this,” a female voice said from behind me. Whirling around in surprise, I caught a glimpse of a short, slim oriental girl, with very athletic curves and an eye popping orange streak in her hair, sweep by me. I spun around again with a defensive retort on my tongue and an admonishing finger pointing at her, when she continued past me, completely ignoring me.

  “Come on you punk,” she spat out as she moved over to the prone man and lifted him by the neck with one hand, shaking him like a toy rattle. It was odd to see a man handled as if he weighed as much as a pillow by a tiny woman who couldn't have been more half his mass. Her hand reached behind her shoulder and suddenly a katana which radiated huge amounts of magical energy was in her hand and pressing firmly against the captive's throat. “Please give me a reason to remove your stinking head.”

  “Mercy,” whimpered the man. Apparently she was far more intimidating than me, because the man just caved. His tense posture collapsed into itself, and if the man hadn't been held up a foot off the ground and pressed up against the wall, I think he may have pissed himself. Never mind. I am just glad it wasn't my apartment.

  “So where is he,” she growled, while putting her formidable magic armament back over her shoulder, where it promptly vanished once more. It wasn't invisible; I see that kind of thing.

  “Um, don't you want to know who sent them first?” I meekly asked. Hey, I admit she even impressed me.

  “Shut up,” she told me absently, not even glancing away from the man she was holding. “I know who is behind this. All I want to know is where he is so I can kill him.” Can't argue with logic like that.

  “He... he sent us ahead,” the man shuddered as he talked. He probably thought he was as good as dead. I looked at the small but vicious Asian cutie holding him above the floor. He may have been right.

  “We were going to set up his operation so he could do his summoning when he got here.” That perked up my attention. Summoning magic definitely involved some form of dimensional travel. The wrong direction but very close.

  “What does the old freak plan to do this time,” she asked with a shake to enunciate her question.

  “Army of demons...” was as far as he got when he screamed in agony, twisting in her grip. I was still exerting some concentration to see auras, and saw a flare-up of magical energy. It was coming from outside the room, and flooding into our captive and to a lesser extent the corpses under the sheet and in my bubble. To my mundane vision, all I saw was smoke coming out of his mouth, ears and eyes. I winced, that was a nasty way to go.

  “Excuse me, but I think he's about to explode,” I muttered as I moved up next to her and grabbed the expiring man around the neck. It’s a very convenient handhold. She relaxed her grip enough to let me grasp it and I lifted the man over my head and threw him at the window. I turned around to run towards the now smoking corpse under the sheet, and so I didn't really see the fiery explosion blossom from the man I had thrown outside. I felt it though. I think the whole building may have shivered and I definitely heard some of the adjacent windows crack. It's more impressive than it sounds when you consider that they started using explosive resistant glass for window material, after terrorism and high yield explosives became a larger scale problem about 20 years ago.

  I was more worried about the still-smoldering bodies so I dismissed my bubble and picked them up and chucked them after the first poor SOB. These must have been on a slower fuse, because they had time to hit the roof of the building opposite us before they went off. This explosion was relatively small compared to the first. I suppose dead people don't explode as well as live people. I'll have to find a magic book that explains that one; I got nothing.

  It wasn't really the explosion on the roof across from us that gave me such a surprise; it was the explosion that came from just down the hallway outside the apartment door. Spinning, I faced the door, which had been blown open and now had smoke pouring through it.

  I have a pretty high tolerances for surprises; it takes a lot to phase me, but I admit I was looking around with my jaw agape trying to figure out what the hell was happening.

  “What the hell blew up?” I shouted as if I was yelling over an explosion. “I mean other than those bodies we just threw out the window,” I continued in a quieter voice.

  “Um, I guess the other three I killed on the way up to here,” the little Asian woman said uncertainly. I looked at her a moment.

  “What other three?” I deadpanned.

  “There were two waiting for me when I got out of the elevator and one ran by almost as soon as I had downed the first two,” she said, shrugging.

  I looked at the smoke billowing into the apartment. The fire sprinkler system triggered, soaking us both in seconds. “Well, I think I worked up an appetite. Dinner?”

  The woman I assumed to be Mei Ling glanced expressionless from the door blown off its frame to the hole where the window once was. “Let me get my travel bag. I think it’s time to check out.”

  Chapter 5

  We slipped down the stairs along with the stream of people evacuating the building. There were a few police and firemen running up, huffing and puffing and generally looking stressed out. Considering they probably were worried about further bombs, I suppose they had just cause. I would have told them it was merely exploding shifter wizard minions, but I doubted that would have soothed them.

  Once we were out of the building, we simply walked past the fire barges floating in the street and traveled a few blocks to a pub. Slipping inside, we found a dark cozy nook in the corner of the room and ordered a couple steaks. She ordered a beer and I had a root beer. I think she gave me an odd look, but I ignored her in favor of savoring the sarsaparilla flavoring. When alcohol, stimulants, and other drugs have no effect you take your pleasures where you can.

  The pub was made up in a style I recognized from Jeremy’s old movies as the 1930’s era. There was a tiny model train that slowly chugged around the wall that didn’t seem like an authentic period decoration but all in all the décor was set firmly in a simpler time period, long before cars flew and nanites melted Australia.

  Sighing in bliss at the sweet carbonated goodness, I started the conversation. “So what's a cute werewolf like you doing in a dump like this?” I think I heard a line like that somewhere on our movie nights.

  She started and then chuckled, “Well you brought me here, so you'd know best. Besides, I am not.”

  “You're not what?” I asked having lost track of the conversation. It was a bad sign considering we had just started.

  “I am not a werewolf,” she stated calmly, examining me for a reaction.

  “Oh. Er... panther?” I offered as a suggestion.

  “No.”

  “Tabby cat?” This merely garnered a look of mild disdain.

  There was a moment of silence. I guess I didn't really need to know her sub-species, but it boded ill to a possible partnership if she wasn't willing to share even this much. I hoped she wasn’t a were-elephant. It would really feel weird.

  “What were you doing in my apartment?”

  “Trying to interrogate the people I found there,” I offered. “They didn't seem to belong there.”

  At this point, the steaks arrived and we were distracted for a few minutes eating. Both hers and mine were extremely rare. I mentally checked were-elephant and were-whale off my mental list. I suppose a were-killer-whale was possible even though I had never heard of one. Would they be called were-orcas? I finished first since I tend to gulp my food and started another conversational
gambit.

  “You're Mei Ling?” I asked. It never hurts to be sure you actually are talking to the right person.

  “Yes.” I waited for more. “I’m Derek,” I offered to fill in the silence.

  After a few minutes of watching her eat, I figured I would start conversational gambit number two.

  “So how is your quest going to kill that wizard guy?”

  She stopped her methodical eating and stared at me. I think it was that domination thing that animals do to one another, but wasn't really sure.

  “Um... does that mean not so good?” I offered, to fill in the silence. Maybe I should have asked Jeremy to join us. He is good at this talking thing and he could use a few good meals after getting shot.

  “No, not so good. My best lead just blew up my apartment,” she spat sarcastically. I did my best to look wounded and innocent.

  “Hey, the wizard obviously had the true names of his employees inscribed in a circle of death and was keeping watch on them with a scrying spell.” I shrugged. “I refuse to take responsibility for the actions of evil wizards. It's like the weather and acts of God, even insurance people won't touch that.”

  I think I may have seen a hint of a smile, before something I said caught her attention. “You know what the wizard did?”

  “Well, it's an educated guess. I know the generals of how magic works, but not how to cast the specific spells,” I hedged. “That would be one way to do it. Rune magic could theoretically do it too, but that is a lot more overkill. Frankly, if it was rune magic you'd probably already be dead.”

  “Do not be so sure,” she said with a faraway look in her eyes. “He has had opportunities to kill me many times and has not taken it.” Her voice hardened as she continued. “I will not make that mistake if ever our roles are changed.”

  “Hmm. So hopefully you kill him before he summons hordes of demons and does his ‘take over the world’ stick,” I said while waving down a waitress to order some dessert. I ordered three, because well... I like sweet things and I don't have to worry about getting fat. My guess was actually a shot in the dark, but evil mages usually want power. Often its power that pure magic can’t give them. The taking over the world bit was a standard ploy though the ‘world’ could be swapped with ‘country’, ‘city’, ‘town’ or even ‘sandbox’. I was even less sure about the demon part, but I had seen that often enough in my home town and it meshed well with the henchman’s final words. What can I say? Demons are cheap labor. They work for the opportunity for slaughter and an occasional soul.

  “You must be hungry,” she offered, her eyes slightly wide after hearing my desert list. She hadn’t even twitched at my suggestion. Maybe I was off base on the demon part.

  “Not really”, I muttered, thinking ahead to the food I was getting.

  “Why were you looking for me?”

  “Well, I am something of an occult researcher and...” I was about to give her the entire spiel when she interrupted.

  “You cannot have the sword,” she stated flatly. I think I still had my mouth open at this time.

  “Um. Okay, no sword. Got it,” I answered, somewhat confused. “Anyway, I heard you were out to kill an evil wizard and I thought that, hey evil wizards have occult books and second, dead evil wizards don't need their occult books anymore.”

  “So you don't want my sword?” she asked, looking somewhat doubtful.

  “No, thanks, I already have a sword,” I haltingly said. Perhaps she was mentally slow. A pity, she seemed nice when she wasn’t scaring the shit out of the werewolves. “I need books, not swords.” I saw that she was about to protest and continued. “Not that your sword isn't nice.” I waved my hands at her placating. “It seems to be an artifact level rune sword and considering it's in this dimension, that dates it way back at least 6,000 years ago by either a rogue dwarf or a smith based god.” I paused in thought. “It could be more recent if it came outside this dimension, but it's hard to tell since I only saw it for a second.”

  This seemed to quiet her down for a moment. “You seem fairly knowledgeable about magic.” She grudgingly admitted.

  “It's what I do these days.”

  “So how would you go about summoning a demon,” she asked.

  I could see where this was going but at least we were past the one syllable answers. Awesome! I had guessed right about the stereotypical magical cheap labor. I have to admit they are superior to werewolf thugs on the minion power scale.

  “Well, that depends on if I was a verbal type caster or a circle user,” I paused to let her fill in the blank. She just stared at me so I sighed and continued. “If he's a circle user you're screwed. Ritualistic magic isn't as flashy or flexible as verbal magic. It can take hours or days to cast and the ingredients are expensive and rare... however it's also great for slowly gathering and focusing huge amounts of energy. It's perfect for summoning demons from Hell and there's no real limit on the time or place. Although they will make energy gathering better or worse.”

  “And if he's a verbal caster?” she asked dryly.

  “Then he's going to have to scrimp and save for every jot of energy he can get,” I said with a grin. “That kind of magic is great for waving a hand and tossing a fireball or zapping someone with lightning, but people that do that usually don't have the deep resources that circles naturally build up throughout the procedure and store during the ritual.”

  “So if he's limited, how is it going to work?” she asked looking intently into my eyes. I seemed to have captured her attention for the moment.

  “Well, he's going to have to do this where the walls between the worlds are weakest and at the highest magic flux.”

  “Which would be...”

  “At the crossing of ley lines during the solstice or equinox,” I said confidently. I thought of something. “Does he sacrifice people for energy? If he's a blood mage of some type he may be able to gather energy at a weaker node.”

  “Node?” she asked in a confused tone.

  “When ley lines cross, energy pools in the flows and you get nodes. Various cultures also call them other things but let’s just call them nodes. The more lines that cross, the more energy and the weaker the fabric of space.”

  “Are there any in the city?”

  “A few. The biggest is in Minerva Memorial Public Park. I doubt he'll be able to use that one unless he can find a way to get a few days alone.”

  “Any others?”

  “A lot of smaller ones but he'd have to be pretty powerful to make use of them.”

  “He is pretty powerful,” she said quietly, almost talking to herself.

  “If you can give me an idea of his powers I probably can be more specific,” I offered.

  After almost a minute of silence, during which the desserts arrived and I started shoveling the food in my mouth, she began. “He appears to be a caster. I never saw him use a circle or found one in his manor houses once he abandons them. He does do that flashy magic you mentioned. Fire, lightning... wind.” Her voice became more contemplative. “I usually fight his minions, he has his reasons for not confronting me. Although lately it seems easier to track him. I have heard that he is a shapeshifter, but he doesn’t seem to be limited to one animal form nor have I actually seen this. He also usually stays in his human form. All I have is hearsay on that.” That last part was disturbing. It automatically opened up the possibility that he wasn’t human and one of a slew of greater supernatural beings.

  “Okay. Start with his minions. He blows them up so he must have some tricks.” I was personally wondering how you would blow a person up without a death circle.

  “His followers are all devoted to him, sometimes mindlessly so. I have seen them throw themselves into suicidal situations without a thought. The exploding upon death or capture is new.” Now that she was talking, she seemed almost happy to unburden herself. “Most are shifters of some type and many have supernatural powers. He seems to have more werewolves than other kinds.”

  �
��Powers? Like?” I prompted her.

  “It's odd,” she stated, almost unsure of herself. “They seem unrelated. Some are unstoppable juggernauts, others are masters of elements, while others turn invisible or hurl bolts of force.”

  My brow furrowed as I thought of what would bring such a wide range of supernaturals under the power of one wizard. “That’s quit an eclectic group you have there.”

  “Yes.”

  “Given that they can do all of that,” I paused thinking it through. “Why did the shifters we met in your suite have nothing?” A couple of lightning bolts would have made things more interesting.

  “Jin just recent arrived in the city. I don’t know how he acquires new followers, but they all start off as normal shifters. I would bet that in a few weeks the ‘elite’ start showing up.”

  That didn’t sound familiar. “Do these people have anything else in common?”

  “They have strange designs inscribed on their bodies. These are the ones that can use powers that they didn’t previously have.”

  Well damn. That didn’t narrow it down too much. Many demons and dragons can shape shift. My breed for one are exceptional shape shifters, which is why being trapped in human form was very stressful for me, but any except the very primitive breeds could do it. Demons usually only have a handful of shapes except the Rakshasa. Those were accomplished shape shifters and very master-plan oriented. However as a demon they wouldn’t have much trouble summoning more. We would likely be up to our necks in minor demons if it was one of them. The good thing is they wouldn’t bring over greater demons for fear of being overthrown. It probably wasn’t a demon just based on that factor. Unless it was going to summon its master. That would be a worst case scenario.

  Assuming he isn't a random supernatural entity such as a demigod, it was very possible he was a dragon. I would normally sense another of my kind, but that can easily be shielded against. I know I personally do so on an almost unconscious level. Rune magic is pretty much forbidden, there's no mystical commandment against it, but people that pursue it tend to disappear. However, there are other methods of impressing permanent or temporary abilities onto subjects. These range from inking magical sigils onto a person's skin to alchemical potions that grant temporary power or pacts with demons or elementals.