by Rain Oxford
“Tell me everything that happened. It was probably a dream, but it might have been important.”
I shrugged. She looked so much like a younger Keira it’s creepy.”
“More proof it was a dream and that you’re a kinky pervert.”
“Shut up. She said she was a goddess from Duran.”
“There’s more proof; the goddess of Duran is named Tiamat and she’s not a child.”
“She told me Storyteller might be able to help me and then conjured a mirror. I walked through it into this dark forest with snow and an invisible, saber-toothed cat.” Luca stumbled. “I know. I know. The cat part is more proof that it was some sick dream about Keira.”
“Um… actually, that wasn’t what I was thinking. Mirrors can be used as portals, but it’s not caster magic. I know one person who looks similar to Keira, who is a child goddess, and who has a freaky saber-toothed cat. Her name didn’t happen to be Alice, was it?”
“Yes. How did you know? It wasn’t some weird fairytale thing, was it?”
“No. Alice is Dylan’s daughter.”
“Dylan?”
“The wizard who healed me from my wife’s boyfriend’s knife in my back. Remember?”
“Yes. He was the one who sent you to Merlin.”
“As I had asked him to, yes.”
“But Alice said she was a goddess.”
“Right. Dylan is married to Tiamat.”
“Wait… a mortal and a goddess?”
“Yep. Rest assured; it can work between you and your kitty. Alice is a bit of a brat, but she’s got a lot of responsibility to dread. She’s also got a soft side if you can find it.”
“And she’s really that powerful?”
“Shit, yeah. I’d bet on the twelve-year-old against all of Syndrial’s gods, including our father.”
“Damn.”
“Her parents are teaching her not to abuse her power. She has a tendency to play games with people, but she’s usually content to read. I don’t expect we’ll be dealing with her too often; she mostly likes to watch. Sometimes, she’ll drop in and bug me just for fun.”
“Like a niece?”
“Yeah.”
By the time we reached Kailo, he was out of bed and ready to go, so we went to the control room. There, Homa was waiting for us. He opened the hatch of the capsule by turning the wheel counterclockwise and pulling up. The doorway was round and four feet in diameter. On the inside, I saw an identical wheel.
“Before you leave, there are a few things we need to show you. In the other city, you will find the same machine as this. Find the navigation dial.” He pointed to the gear he had used to call the capsule. “Set it to Makha, and then pull this lever down. To get out, push the three buttons here.” He gestured to three buttons around a sun symbol. “Push the top one first and the side ones simultaneously. It will open the roof of the tower, which is where the control room is. Sand may pour in, so be prepared for that.”
“I got it. Thank you for your help.”
“We will likely meet again.”
I entered the capsule first. The interior was black without any windows or lights, so it was dark. I had to slouch down. There were four seats in a row, so I took the one in front. The leather chair had minimal padding and, to my surprise, it swiveled. Above the seat was a support bar, which I could pull down like in a roller coaster.
“What’s wrong?” Kailo asked.
Luca had stopped dead outside, unable to enter the capsule. “I thought you wouldn’t be bothered by the dark anymore,” I said, trying to sound sympathetic instead of accusatory.
“Painter had to make sure I was convincing, so the weaknesses he gave me are real.” The panic in his voice was real, but it was less than usual, as if he was trying very hard to hide it.
“I can send you home instead.”
He shook his head and took a hesitant step inside. “I won’t be a burden.” He wasn’t afraid of the dark if he could see, it was only absolute darkness that scared him, and he knew when the door closed, it would be completely dark.
I got up. “Back out. I have an idea.” He jumped out of the way. With enough light to write with, I pulled out my book and enacted my plan. Luca didn’t bother to look at what I was writing and instead waited for me to explain. “Problem solved,” I said, snapping the book shut.
“How?” he asked.
“Trust me. You won’t have to worry about the dark when the door closes.”
He nodded, trusting me. I reentered the capsule, took my seat, and turned it around to face the one behind it. Luca entered, shaking, but taking me for my word. I grabbed his hand as he sat. Before he could pull the bar down, his eyes closed and he slumped in his seat, unconscious.
“Is he hurt?” Kailo asked, taking the seat behind Luca.
“No.” I pulled the bar down just as the door was closed behind us. Blind, I pulled mine down as well and braced myself for a long ride. To my surprise, my seat turned itself to face forward as the capsule started moving. It was a smooth ride, but I could tell we were picking up speed quickly. Although I tried to reach back and make sure Luca was okay, I was pressed hard into the seat.
After a few minutes, I gave up and tried to relax for the long trip. I spaced out, thinking about the plot for my next book.
* * *
It was at least two hours later that my chair suddenly turned around. Judging by Kailo’s gasp of surprise, mine wasn’t the only one. If my knowledge of physics was correct, that meant we were slowing down, which suggested we had reached the halfway point.
* * *
Two more hours passed before we finally stopped. I pushed up my bar, turned my brother’s seat, and lifted his bar. “The door’s not working,” Kailo said, starting to panic.
“Well, think about it for a minute. That door would now just lead back into the dark tunnel.” Reaching behind me, I felt another wheel. It had been so dark that I hadn’t seen it, but it made sense that it would be there. I turned it, heard bolts slide, and pushed. The door opened and light spilled in.
I pulled Luca out of his chair and he instantly woke. He blinked, confused. “What happened?” I let him go and he stood on his own.
“You slept through the trip.”
“You made me sleep?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t feel betrayed?”
“That you prevented me from suffering at the hands of a self-imposed handicap? No. I’m glad you did.”
“Can you have this conversation outside?” Kailo asked. “It’s very cramped in here.”
We exited the capsule and found ourselves in a control room identical to the one we had left, except it was even dustier. The first thing I did was go to the controls and send the capsule back. The dial had all different names than the one from Makha, but Makha was listed, so I set it to that. When I lowered the lever, the capsule disappeared into the dark.
“Kailo, do you think you’re fit enough to levitate us?” I asked.
“Yes. Why?”
“I’m going to open the roof and we might end up swimming with the sand octopuses. If that happens, I’ll try to fend off anything that comes at us. You levitate us.”
“I can do that.”
I grabbed Luca’s arm, not about to risk us getting separated and then reached for the buttons… “The fuck?” I asked. There was the same sun, but the buttons were broken off. “How the hell did that happen?”
“Looters?” Luca suggested.
“Looters would’ve taken the valuable parts,” I argued.
“To everyone living outside the cities, valuable means it aids survival,” Kailo said. “If one of us exiled found an underground place like this, safe from predators and the sun, he would try to make a home of it, not steal its parts.”
“Well, how do we get the roof open now?” Luca asked.
“If I blast it open, the walls could collapse in on us,” I said.
“But if we’re already at the top, it should work. Na
than, you levitate us. Kailo, can you blast the door open?”
Kailo frowned at it with doubt.
Luca rolled his eyes. “Combine omtakha with hokra.”
“Wouldn’t that just blast the ground?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes extra hard. “It rebounds the blast, yes, but omtakha is an explosion of magical energy, which creates feedback. Think of Newton’s third law. If you’re levitating, you have no friction, only magic. That means if you blast something, you’re going to be shot backwards. However, if you use it with hokra, it pushes all of that kickback around you and propels you upward. It also strengthens your omtakha.”
“Isn’t that the equivalent of turning our bodies into a rocket?”
“Absolutely. That’s why you have to destroy the roof before you reach it. If Kailo fails to do it correctly or if he’s not strong enough, the last thing that will be going through our minds are our asses. We’ll be dead. We’ll be so dead that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men won’t be able to put us together again.” He patted Kailo on the shoulder. “No pressure. I just want to tell you both, good luck. We’re all counting on you.”
“What?” Kailo asked, paling.
“He’s quoting a movie; ignore him,” I said. “We have to try. It’s not like we have many options.”
“Maybe we should look into another way,” Kailo suggested.
“Alright, but we don’t have much time.”
* * *
We spent four hours scouring the city, but we found nothing. Eventually, we gave up and made our way back to the control room. I levitated us up carefully, focusing on stability rather than speed. Levitating myself was difficult enough. I even managed Luca as well as myself once. “I hope you have good timing, because I only have energy for one go,” I told Kailo.
“I really don’t like anyone relying on me.”
“Well, cry a river, build a bridge, and get over it.”
“No distractions right now,” I demanded.
“Sorry,” Luca said, instantly serious. A minute later, when we were about five feet from the door, he shouted, “Do it now!”
“Omtakha hokra,” Kailo said.
The ceiling above us exploded outward at the same time we shot up. I did get hit, but it wasn’t badly. When we landed outside, in the sand, I was disoriented. The sun was blazing with a fierceness that could only mean we were back in the desert.
Kailo recovered quickly, but I had trouble getting my feet under me. Instead of trying to get up, Luca pulled his hood over his face and dramatically cried, “No! The sun! It burns!”
I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up. “Come on, marshmallow. We need to get out of the sun.”
Kailo pulled a metal object out that looked like a pocket-watch. After slowly turning in a circle, he pointed in one direction and said, “We need to go this way.”
“You have a compass?”
“How else were we supposed to know which way to go?”
“Humans can learn to sense magnetic north and all sago can,” Luca said.
Kailo blushed. “Oh… never mind, then.” He was disappointed.
I expected Luca to cheer him up, but my normally friendly brother was suspiciously quiet.
“My sense of direction isn’t great on Syndrial,” I said. “Besides, everyone makes mistakes, so I’m glad your compass can provide certainty.”
He smiled, relieved. “Well, I’m happy I can do that, but I’m not using my compass.”
“Then what’s that?” I asked, pointing to his device.
He pulled out another, similar one. “This is my compass.” He put it back in his pocket. “This directs me to the strongest magic close by.” We started walking.
* * *
As we travelled, Luca and I discussed Maori’s motive. The only thing anyone would need a magic god-killing sword for was to kill gods. There were plenty of reasons to kill gods, but we figured his was probably for power.
“He could be in love with Isis and trying to kill Osiris,” Luca suggested.
“That’s a bit random, isn’t it?”
“Not at all. A number of gods and even mortals have tried to kill him to win Isis.”
“That sounds reasonable,” I said sarcastically.
“It sounds horrible,” Kailo argued. He hadn’t said much during the journey because he was still reeling over the discovery that there were underground civilizations.
“I think our best bet is to try to sneak in,” Luca said. “If it comes down to a fight…”
“That’s what we’re trying to prepare for.”
“Maybe there’s something to trade for it.”
“Not for something that valuable.”
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
I also told him everything about Alice and the Storyteller. “Have you ever heard of him?”
“Nope. A servant of mine named Zuras retrieved my paint and brush. He found out where to get it from Ascelin. I never encountered Storyteller myself. If Alice says he’s important, though, I believe her. She might be a little early, but she doesn’t waste people’s time.”
He was speaking as if he was the Painter again.
Chapter 6
It was an hour later that we saw the forest and another two hours before we reached it. The forest was like any on Earth. What I found interesting was the stark difference between the forest and the sand; there was no grass or weeds blending the line. With one step, the loose sand changed to grass and dirt and trees shaded us from the blazing sunshine.
“That seems a little… deliberate,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Kailo asked.
Of course he wouldn’t notice; his people had never seen a forest before they travelled north.
“I agree, but it’s not exactly Earth or Duran,” Luca said.
“You’re right. It could be the chemistry of the sand.” I reached into my pocket, only to remember that I had burned my coffee squares. My first thought was that I wished I hadn’t done that. My second thought was that even if someone did poison them, I still wanted one. My third thought was that I might be addicted to coffee.
About fifty feet into the forest, we came upon a camp. There were small cabins spread around and lookout decks in the trees. Kailo led us to the center of camp, where logs were placed in circles around a fire pit.
I was impressed.
“I thought there were cats around,” Luca said.
“They usually stay away during the day,” Kailo explained.
“Nathan! Luca, it’s nice to see you two again,” Malie said from a lookout deck above us.
She wasn’t wearing her sand uniform. Instead, her dark auburn hair was tied back out of her face and she wore a short-sleeved, fitted tunic along with loose pants. I’d never noticed before how well-built she was.
“Wow. You’re not sand people anymore,” Luca said. “You’re tree people now.”
“We are casters no matter where we live or what the priests call us.”
“Please ignore my brother. He’s going through book-withdrawal.”
“And you’re just buckets of sunshine without coffee,” Luca said.
I reached for a Brew-Chew again and groaned. He rolled his eyes. “Anyway,” I said to Malie, “I was hoping you would be willing to continue my training.”
“You saved us,” she said, gesturing to the forest around us. “I will help you in any way I can.” Actually, it was Painter who told me to tell them to head north. I gave them supplies to help them get there, but they made the trip alone.
She stepped off the ledge and whispered something. Instead of falling and breaking a number of bones, she floated down gently.
“We’ve been asked to get a weapon away from Maori.”
“The god of Kradga?” she asked.
“Is there anyone who hasn’t heard of his assholerly?” I asked, not really expecting an answer. “Any chance you know his weakness or how to fight him?”
“No, but we
can teach you to fight and defend yourself with magic. If you avoid Maori, perhaps you can defeat his underlings and get the weapon.”
“Sounds like a good start.”
“First, I think you should show us what you know.”
“You saw what I could do when I created food and water for you.”
“Are you suggesting you poison Maori?” she asked.
“Of course not.”
When she made a motion with her hands, two spears shot off a rack on the deck and landed in front of us, sharp ends down. She grabbed one and I reluctantly grabbed the other.
“I really don’t think I want to fight magic with spears, and I think it takes longer than a few days to master weaponry, anyway.” Without giving me a chance to prepare, she threw the spear at me. “Ikem,” I said automatically. My invisible shield went up as Luca shoved me out of the way. The spear went right through the shield and grazed his arm.
“Ow! Son of a biscuit!” Luca yelled. “Magic wards don’t protect against metal, stupid!”
“I know,” I said, getting up. “I didn’t think about it.” I tried to check his wound, but he put his hand over it.
“Magic is not a weapon,” Malie said, not at all upset that Luca was hurt.
“I’ve seen what it can do.”
“Yes. You have seen it hurt people, but you have also seen it help people. Magic is a tool, nothing more or less. Your brain is what determines the winner of a fight. Experience, magic, speed… those are all tools.”
“Nathan needs lessons in magic, not lectures on philosophy,” Luca said, turning his frustration on her.
* * *
Casters used two kinds of magic; gatatago and domatago. Getatago was more powerful, as it required rituals. Portals were getatago. Domatago was “word magic.” It was easy to cast domatago magic by focusing the mind and speaking the sacred words, but it had to be learned. Being demigods, Painter and I could do some getatago and domatago just with our minds. Since we had our Painter and Writer abilities, however, neither of us used that much.
“It is not a matter of learning words and imagining what you want,” Malie explained. “You have to want what you’re about to do. Thus, you can’t heal someone you hate or kill someone you love. Magic is a tool, not a weapon. Don’t try to hit people with magic.”
