Firebird Alex (The Sedumen Chronicles Book 1)

by Orren Merton

  And I’m not alone.

  I inhaled deeply. I closed my eyes and dug deep into my Sedu self. I pulled everything out, my entire being. This was the moment for holding nothing back. My hair and eyes burned as fiercely as they ever had. My fangs were sharper and my skin was thicker. I slowly exhaled. I was ready.

  I ran around the building. When I reached the third glass door to my relief the sign read “DR Blacksmithing.” I kicked open the door. I surprised a man across from the door behind a glass counter with dozens of ornate knives on display. I raced in, grabbed his head with both of my hands, and smashed it down into the glass countertop. His forehead shattered the countertop, and he fell backwards onto the concrete floor, unconscious with shards of glass poking out of his head and face.

  I ran around the counter into the large open room and immediately started scoping it out, the way I was taught. There was one man maybe ten feet to the right standing in front of a wall of every size and shape of blade I could imagine. Maybe thirty feet away directly in front of me was a small enclosed office, with a bald man standing not far from it. The open back door was just past the office’s closed door. Along the left wall, about fifty feet away, was a forge with an extremely huge man standing over it, throwing some things I couldn’t see into the flames. I could feel…I knew he was the Seduman. And next to him was a huge mirror like the one in the House of Keroz.

  The man ten feet away stared at me but was still startled. I moved. He reached into his jacket and drew a pistol. Before he could aim it at me, I jump-kicked it out of his hand. I clutched his left arm with my right as I landed and slammed my left elbow into his nose. I kneed him in the stomach, and when he doubled over I pivoted behind him and kicked him to his knees. When he dropped I grabbed him by the throat. He tried to grab my arm and push it away. I ignited my hand. He screamed as the palm of my hand scorched his throat, forcing him to release my arm and reach for the burning hand instead. I pulled out my Sedu blade and thought it into a dagger. I stopped burning him with my hand, put him in a headlock, and held my Sedu blade against his neck. I faced the two men in the warehouse still standing.

  The man at the forge turned around. He had dark hair, brown eyes, and while he wasn’t as big as Garz, he was extremely muscular.

  “Ah, Alex,” he smiled and slowly walked toward me. “I was afraid we wouldn’t meet.”

  “Free Linda or your friend dies!” I demanded.

  “Call me Dirk,” he said. “Or Lord Raum, if you’d prefer.”

  Dirk turned to the bald man. “Karl, kill the woman.”

  “I’m serious!” I said, tightening my headlock. I could feel the man squirm and try to get away, but on his knees he couldn’t run, and my hold on his throat was too tight.

  Karl looked to Dirk for direction. Dirk tipped his head. Karl pulled out a pistol and stared walking toward the office door.

  “These little people…their little lives…they’re meaningless,” Dirk said, slowly approaching me. “Nothing. We’re so much more than they are, you and I. Who cares if they live or die here? We are alive in two universes and can be royalty in both!”

  I looked over at the office. Karl had reached the door. He pointed his gun at the door while with his free hand he put a key in the doorknob.

  “Stop!” I yelled.

  Dirk stopped approaching me. He was about six feet away.

  Karl paid no attention to me.

  “I don’t think two Seduman have ever started a dynasty on Earth before,” Dirk continued. “Do you know the power we could have?”

  I swung my head between Dirk and the office door.

  Karl turned the knob.

  Dirk took another step toward me.

  Karl pushed open the door and stepped into the room.

  Karl raised his pistol.

  Just then, Jake sprang from behind the back door and slammed Karl’s head into the corner of the office door.

  I turned back to Dirk, hoping he wouldn’t see Jake.

  “I won’t say it again,” I growled.

  Dirk smiled. “I told you that I had loose ends to tie up. He’s one of them.”

  Crap….so much for using Dirk’s men for leverage.

  Dirk’s hair and eyes ignited, his fangs came out, and his skin tightened and darkened until it looked like hardened leather.

  Dirk inhaled and then spit. Out of his mouth flew a small fireball that grew in size as it flew through the air. I leapt back as the fireball burst on the man’s face and engulfed his head in flame. He screamed, buried his head in his hands, and dropped to the cement floor screaming as his face burned.

  How the hell did Dirk do that?

  I recoiled at the writhing, burning man, unable to hide my shock and disgust.

  “Now stop being foolish,” Dirk demanded. After a flash of blinding light behind Dirk I could see pairs of Mazzikim coming through his portal, splitting up and creeping toward me.

  “You’re over your head and outnumbered. There’s no need for you to suffer.”

  “There was no need for you to make anyone else suffer!” I retorted.

  He shook his head dismissively. “So I end some of these little human lives early to fuel my House. Is that what this is about? Did I take someone close to you? I tell you honestly I had no idea you even existed, so obviously none of my actions were intended to distress you. Besides, what’s the difference? They kill more of themselves every day than I would take in a year!”

  “That doesn’t mean they deserve to die,” I scowled.

  The Mazzikim pouring out of Raum’s portal were now surrounding me.

  “Back off, all of you!” I spun around and shouted at the Mazzikim. “I know if you die here you won’t come back—is that what you really want? Because I don’t want to hurt anyone!”

  “Then put down your blade,” Dirk said. “No one will hurt anyone. Everyone wins. Now stop being childish,” he reached out his hand.

  I spun around and swiped my blade in the air behind me, creating a portal of my own. I turned back around to face Dirk, but I could see the walls reflect the light from my newly created portal opening.

  “Oh now, you shouldn’t have done that,” Dirk sighed, pulling his own Sedu blade out of his pocket. “Do you really want to turn what should be our first date into a bloodbath? Now close that portal before you and everyone you care about in Sediin dies in this room. Just admit you’re over your head and you made a mistake, and we can start this again.”

  “Are you sure I’m the one who made the mistake?” I seethed. I concentrated on my blade and extended it into a curved sword burning with the blue flame of the Greater Sedu.

  Dirk looked taken aback. I took a step toward him.

  “I tell you sincerely Alex: I do regret that you have to die,” he said as he backed up rapidly.

  “Kill her,” he ordered his Mazzikim.

  A bear-like Mazzik with a gorilla head raced toward me. I spun around it and ran it through with my blade. It screamed as it fell. I felt terrible. I pulled out my blade.

  “Don’t make me kill you!” I shouted.

  Four more Mazzikim ran at me from all sides, with half a dozen more behind them. I tried to keep spinning in all directions and wave my blade at all of them. The closer they pressed toward me, the less I could keep track of them.

  I crouched low, my blade in front of me. I breathed fire in the hopes of distracting them, but it only lasted for a second.

  I trembled. I did feel in over my head. I was surrounded. I kept looking around for a way out, but there wasn’t any. I figured the best I could do was try to cut my way through a few of them and hope that the ones behind me couldn’t get to me in time.

  I lunged toward an ape-like Mazzik in front of me and slashed at him. As he fell away, a dog-like Mazzik leaped at me.

  I raised my Sedu blade to try and block his massive jaws.

  Before the Mazzik landed its blow, Zaebos leaped into it from the side. His huge paws crashed into its head and back while his open jaws l
ocked onto its throat. As Zaebos slammed it into the floor, he violently thrashed it around until it stopped moving. I spun around and saw that all the enemy Mazzikim were being engaged by Mazzikim wearing tunics of the House of Keroz. And more were pouring through from both sides all the time.

  I turned back to Zaebos to shoot him a quick thank you. I saw a savagery in his fierce red eyes I’d never seen before. He nodded his bloody muzzle and then charged another Mazzik.

  I turned back toward the forge and Raum’s mirror. I tried to find Dirk through all the mayhem. I saw him next to the office door, shouting orders to the huge gorilla-lizard Mazzikim next to him. When he saw me he pointed, and the two Mazzikim both leaped at me. I slashed at one and it dropped but the other landed a blow with its powerful claws across my face. The force of the blow knocked me backwards. My face bled. I raised my Sedu blade to defend against another blow from above, but the other Mazzik was back up again and punched me in the gut. I doubled over just as the first one’s fist pounded into my head. The blow shoved me to my knees. My vision went momentarily went black. I blindly held up my flaming blade in case there was a follow-up attack. None came. My eyes regained their ability to focus just as a knife flew into the second Mazzik’s head. I turned around to see Vetis, wearing two bandoleers filled with knives, grabbing three of them at a time with his insect-like arms and throwing them in every direction.

  I rose to my feet, staring at Dirk the entire time. “For a Seduman in charge, you sure seem happy to let others do your dirty work,” I taunted. “Do you feel over your head? Are you ready to negotiate yet?”

  “You wish to surrender and stop this foolishness? Excellent, I accept,” he said. He rushed me, slashing downward with his Sedu blade. I parried his blow, but its ferocity nearly knocked my arm down into my head. He launched himself at me again. I dodged to the side and tried to stab at him. He blocked the blow and spit a fireball at me.

  It burst on my head. It didn’t burn me, but I grunted in surprise. He swung his blade at my head with such force that when I blocked the blow it knocked my arm away from my body, and he punched me square in the face. It knocked me backwards, and I tripped over the corpses of two Mazzikim. Nearly blind with pain and with shaking knees, I rose and held my blade in front of me to ward off another attack. I scooted backwards and found myself up against the office wall.

  Dirk stood in front of me, his eyes almost crazed with fury.

  “Do you see what you’re up against now?” he shouted. He leaped over the Mazzikim corpses and stabbed at me. I feinted to the side and kicked him as hard as I could in the balls.

  That pissed him off.

  He leaned over, but not before he slashed at my throat. I jumped backwards but he still cut me. The shallow but long gash hurt like a thousand paper cuts all across my neck. I could feel myself bleeding down the front of my shirt. My face was throbbing, and I could barely stand.

  Backed against the wall, I held my sword in front of me.

  I kept my eyes on him, but I became aware that I was hearing less Mazzikim fighting around me.

  He leaped at me and raised his sword above his head, poised to strike down on me.

  I raised my Sedu blade to block the blow.

  Instead, he punched me in the stomach so hard I felt to my knees. He grabbed my hair and pulled me away from the wall toward the forge. He grasped my sword arm and pushed me down. I reached up with my free arm to keep his own sword arm from coming down on my head. I ignited my hand, but he didn’t budge. I tried to breathe fire on his sword hand, but I didn’t have enough breath.

  “Assbag!” I heard shouted from behind me, then a loud crack. Dirk reeled as a bullet slammed into his shoulder.

  Thanks Jake!

  Dirk grunted and spit a fireball over my head.

  The distraction was enough that I jerked my head toward his sword arm and bit down with all my might. He screamed and pulled his arm out of my mouth violently enough that my teeth smarted something fierce—but not before he dropped his Sedu blade, which reverted to its dagger form.

  I head-butted him in the stomach, grabbed his Sedu blade and spun behind him. Before he could turn around to face me, I plunged his Sedu blade into his back through his right lung.

  He gasped for air as he fell to his knees. I concentrated on extinguishing the flames and held my own Sedu blade to his throat. He put his hands on my sword arm, but every time he so much as twitched, I twisted the dagger in his back.

  I looked at where I had heard Jake. He was lying on the ground with his hands covering his head, breathing hard. Thank God he was alive.

  “Turn to face your portal,” I demanded.

  I tugged the blades in his back and at his throat in the direction I wanted him to turn. He gasped and grunted as the blade through his back tore his insides. We spun until we were facing the portal about fifteen feet in front of us.

  Seeing the portal, I realized what had ended the Mazzikim battle. Garz had arrived with two huge Mazzikim, one of which I recognized as Leeik, and they were standing in front of Raum’s portal. The two Mazzikim completely blocked the mirror, and Garz had been fending off attackers behind them. By the number of Mazzikim corpses in front of Garz, I could tell he’d been busy.

  “Call your father,” I demanded.

  Garz tipped his head at me. He tapped the Mazzikim on the shoulders. Garz stepped away from the mirror a few steps toward me to the side. The two Mazzikim stood each to one side of the mirror.

  “You little bitch!” Dirk hoarsely spat. “If you think…”

  I concentrated on the flames, and my Sedu blade ignited again.

  He screamed as loudly as his pierced lung would allow as the blue flame lapped his cracked, leathery Seduman hide, burning his throat and chin. He tried to writhe, but the blade in his black tore his lung more with every twitch.

  His screams were enough. In no time, the portal brightened, and a Sedu stood on our side of the portal.

  “Thank you for your cooperation,” I hissed and made the flames disappear.

  Raum was just as tall and red as my dad, but way skinnier. He had horns too, but they were shorter than my dad’s. Even so, Raum looked frightening, like a lean and mean demonic force to be reckoned with. And he stared at me with a savage arrogance.

  “Your son is dying,” I said. “He only has minutes here. I will give him to you, alive, to heal in your House. But you must free souls in exchange.”

  Raum shot a quick sideways glance at Garz. Garz slowly stepped over toward me.

  “Very well,” he said. “I free the souls that Dirk has delivered me. Now give him to me.”

  “No!” I shouted defiantly. “I know the words! Anima shir otak Mary Brockton Harman, and that you release your claim. Dirk doesn’t have long…”

  I twisted the dagger. Dirk gasped and winced. I could feel him struggling to remain conscious.

  Raum took a step closer to me and roared. It was a fierce, angry roar, the roar of a millennia-old being who had survived by being brutal and cruel. The rage in his face was terrifying.

  What was I doing? I couldn’t beat a Sedu! What was I thinking? I tried to maintain my defiant expression as my insides started quivering and my knees felt like they were going to give way again.

  Suddenly I felt a wave of warmth come over me. My cuts and gashes burned less. The throbbing in my face and throat diminished. I could feel my bruises start to heal.

  Garz was by my side, his leg brushing against my leg.

  Garz placed one of his hands over Dirk’s entire scalp. He squeezed. Blood seeped down from Dirk’s head under each of Garz’s fingers.

  “Rrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuummmmmmmm…” Garz growled, in a voice so low that I felt it through the floor more than heard it. Every muscle in Garz’s body was taut, ready to spring. He stared unblinkingly, pure hatred in his flaming eyes. There was no doubt that if Garz chose to, he could squash Dirk’s head like a grape and pounce on Raum before the Sedu lord could even react.

  And
Raum broke. He yelled again, but this time the shriek was one of frustration.

  Raum turned to Garz. “Will you swear that you will return my son alive to me?”

  “Lady Firebird speaks for the House of Keroz,” Garz snarled.

  I smiled inwardly. While my brother’s touch was healing my body, his faith in me was healing my spirit.

  Raum turned to me.

  “There are no lies in the House of Keroz,” I said.

  “Very well,” Raum grumbled.

  “And remember, part of you must be in Sediin,” Garz added.

  I gave Raum a nod, but really the nod was to thank Garz.

  Raum backed up and shoved an arm through the portal.

  Garz released his hold on Dirk.

  “Anima shir otak Mary Brockton Harman; I release my claim on you.”

  I exhaled, a wave of joy coming over me. Jake’s mom was free!

  “And now you will—”

  Dirk pushed my sword arm away from his throat.

  Dammit!

  In my elation, I had relaxed my stance. I tried to regain my balance and tighten my grip on the blade in his back.

  Dirk pivoted toward me.

  Garz shoved his hand into Dirk’s shoulder, wrapping his hand around the Seduman’s collarbone like it was a handle. Garz picked Dirk up with one hand. He pulled the blade out of the Seduman’s back. Garz roared, and with both hands threw Dirk at Raum. Dirk crashed into his father, and the two of them tumbled into the portal. Once the two were through, the mirror shattered.

  37

  “I’m sorry Garz…” I sighed, lowering my head and reining in my Sedu self. “I blew it. I didn’t get Raum to release all the victims.”

  “No,” he said. He reached up and gently touched my face. Another wave of warmth flowed over me, and I felt my wounds closing and bruises healing. “You succeeded.”

  I looked up at him.

  “This was, for you, always about the one you freed.”

  “But the rest…”

  “Had you memorized their names?” Garz asked.