Instantly, the serrated knife flew from the flotsam it had landed on and into the young mage’s hand. “Now what?” she asked.
“I—I don’t know,” Arzu admitted. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and her dark skin still looked very sallow.
“Wait…” Nissa said, remembering a handful of details she’d noticed earlier. She and her lover continued scanning the water for the monster. “I saw something…”
“What? What did you see?”
“I’m not sure, but…”
She hadn’t paid it much attention at the time, but why had her magical daggers sparked when they hit the shark’s mouth? That spell never sparked—unless it hit metal.
There was another detail, too: after she put up the sight, all magic glowed blue to her eyes. That spell was still functioning. The shield had glowed blue, of course, but something else had glowed too … something caught between the monster’s teeth—something that glimmered like gold.
“It’s coming!” Arzu cried, “Put up the—”
The undead shark burst up from below, as it had with the little girl, snapping its dagger-like teeth and shaking its rotting head.
But Nissa had thrown up her shield as soon as Arzu spoke. Casting the spell without words or hand gestures made her head pound, but she’d done it—and so quickly that even their master Tymon would have been proud.
The bubble lurched into the air, above the shark’s rotting face. Nissa clung to Arzu’s hand, keeping them both inside the enchantment.
The monster hissed and gurgled with rage, infuriated at being denied its prey once again.
The bubble reached its zenith and fell, straight toward the monster’s open jaws. Nissa held tight to her lover, knowing that as long as they were together, the spell would protect them both.
The undead shark jerked its head, deliberately smashing into the protective bubble as it came down.
The enchantment protected both women, but the shock of the blow made Arzu’s hand slip from Nissa’s fingers. The spell followed its maker one way as Arzu cartwheeled, screaming, in the opposite direction.
Nissa crashed into a pile of floating wreckage, but the shield kept her from harm. The impact jarred her concentration, though, and the spell vanished—taking her breath along with it.
Arzu splashed down into the water, two dozen yards away, and did not immediately come back up.
The monster, still on the surface, turned toward where Nissa’s lover had fallen.
“No, you bastard!” Nissa screamed. “It’s me you want.”
With all her might, she hurled the serrated dagger at it.
The knife wouldn’t have hit, but Nissa’s metal-summoning spell was still in effect. Now, she used it to push the weapon toward the precise target she wanted: the monster’s cloudy eye.
The blade sank deep into the socket, but Nissa willed it further, seeking the behemoth’s decaying brain.
The undead monster roared with pain and anger. It turned from where Arzu and fallen and wheeled toward Nissa, one eye dangling, the other now burst by Rat’s knife.
Nissa froze. Could it “see” her? Could the zombie shark still sense her location, even without its eyes?
The cold fist that clenched in Nissa’s stomach told her that probably it could.
But now that the unseeing face was staring right at her, Nissa could see the golden trinket, stuck in the shark’s teeth. Revealed by her enchanted sight, the object glowed bright blue—brimming with powerful magic.
An amulet!
Nissa relaxed her mental grip on the knife, which wasn’t killing the undead creature anyway, and turned her concentration to the necklace.
On the far side of the monster, Arzu surfaced, thrashing and gasping for air. The monster sensing her movement, turned toward Nissa’s lover.
Nissa shouted the monster’s name, “Saark!” and used her power to yank the amulet from between the zombie’s enormous teeth.
The shark flinched as the talisman ripped free, and for a moment, the rotting beast looked disoriented. The amulet hung in the air, two yards above its blunt nose. The creature thrashed its head left and right, apparently searching for what it had lost.
“Ar!” Nissa cried. “Throw the blasting spell at the necklace!”
Arzu nodded, but Nissa couldn’t hear her incantation over the surge of the waves and the thrashing of the monster. Would her lover have enough strength to summon the magic?
The shark lunged upward, chomping the empty air, trying to catch the necklace in its mouth.
A ball of scintillating green light formed at the tips of Arzu’s outstretched fingers. The spell streaked out and surrounded the amulet.
Nissa concentrated, and drove the spell-wrapped necklace down into the monster’s snapping maw.
“Now, Ar!” she cried.
“Kinil!” Arzu shouted.
KA-WHOOM!
Arzu’s spell exploded into a huge green fireball, blowing the shark’s head into a million pallid fragments. The golden amulet sizzled and melted, its magic dispersing into nothingness.
A scream—the voice of the undead warlock, Nissa assumed—shook the air like thunder:
“NOOOOOOOOooooooo…!”
The zombie’s huge, headless carcass crashed into the sea, dead once more. Its bulk sent huge waves surging in all directions.
Nissa, collapsed, exhausted, onto the wreckage and clung there, gasping, until the last ripples of the zombie shark’s passing faded and the only sound remaining was the gentle lapping of the waves against the flotsam of Scaletown.
Nissa let out a long, relieved sigh.
Then the piece of walkway she was lying on shifted unexpectedly, as if something was trying to drag her down.
Nissa sat up, terrified, mentally groping for a spell, hoping she would have the strength to cast it.
But it was only Arzu. Her lover had swum through the wreckage to her in the aftermath of the monster’s passing. “Are you all right?” Arzu asked.
Nissa nodded, unable to find the energy to do more. “You?”
“I’ve been better,” Arzu replied, pulling her pale, wet body atop Nissa’s makeshift raft. “What about the little girl?”
“I’m here!” Rat cried, swimming quickly toward them. She smiled and clung to the tiny raft’s edge. “We killed that son of a sea slug,” the little girl enthused.
“Aye,” Arzu agreed. “We did.”
“But what do we do next?” Nissa wondered.
“I know how to build a boat,” Rat offered.
Nissa gazed out over the sea of flotsam, trying not to think about the watery graves marked by each piece of debris. “It’s a good thing one of us does,” she told the girl.
Arzu took a deep breath. “We better get started then, before the Shark Keys earn their name.”
Nissa nodded grimly. “Again.”
“The real question is,” Arzu said, “where do we go from here?”
“I don’t care,” Nissa replied, “so long as it’s high and dry.”
Rat grinned at the two women. “Then we better get going.”
FIN
* * *
AFTERWORD
SAMPLES OF OTHER STORIES
Here are some samples of other stories by me that you may enjoy.
Don’t forget to read the “About the Story” and “About the Author” sections that follow the samples!
DAIKAIJU ATTACK
(Giant Monster Battle)
Serialized FREE Online at
www.daikaijuattack.com
1. The Meteor Shower
~ July, 1966 – Near Sunset ~
Akiko Natsuke had never walked out on a posh party before—or on a photo assignment for that matter—but she supposed there had to be a first time for everything. To her right, just out her driver’s-side door, the Seto Sea whispered seductively, offering quick, cold release from her heartbreak.
She rubbed the back of her fist across her eyes, smearing away her tears, and continued driving down the
seaside highway. She knew she’d just ruined her makeup, but she didn’t care. She only wished that she could wipe away the memories of tonight as easily.
Despite her desire to forget, the terrible image still burned in her brain: Shinobu, her boyfriend of two years, in the bathroom of the Tadaka beach house, his half-naked body entwined by the pale limbs of Rika Tadaka, starlet on the rise.
I wish I’d never opened that bathroom door! Akiko thought. Why didn’t I knock first?
She choked back a sob, pulled over to the shoulder of the road, and stopped, yanking the parking brake so hard that her hand hurt. It would have been so easy not to stop, to run her sporty convertible through the flimsy guardrail and then over the side of the cliff into the surf below...
But no. Akiko was stronger than that. She wouldn’t give Shinobu—or that tramp—the satisfaction.
The newspapers, even the Tribune, where Akiko worked, painted Miss Tadaka as pure and innocent; that was part of her appeal.
Ha!
Some “innocent”! Making love to another girl’s fiancé in the bathroom of her own father’s beach house—and in the middle of a publicity tour party, no less.
Well, Akiko would see that Rika got plenty of press coverage—just not the kind that little witch wanted. Aki only wished she’d had the presence of mind to snap a picture of the two of them in the act before storming off. After all, that’s why she’d been assigned to the party in the first place: to take pictures.
But when she accidentally stumbled across a big scoop, what did she do? She went crying off, like some middle-school girl. Sure, Shinobu’s betrayal was heart rending, but…
“Some photojournalist you are,” Akiko chided herself, resting her forehead against the steering wheel of her Fairlady 1500. The red plastic felt cool, almost soothing, against her skin.
Her mother had warned her that Shinobu would never work out. “Never date a reporter,” Mama had said, “and never anyone you work with.” It looked like Mama Natsuke had been right on both counts. Akiko could almost hear the “I told you so” already.
She took her head off the steering wheel, her tear-blurred eyes lighting briefly on the ring on the middle finger of her left hand: a golden circle set with a beautiful white pearl.
“Just a token,” Shinobu had promised her. “I’ll get you a proper engagement ring when my raise comes through.”
Well, he’d gotten a raise tonight, all right...
Angrily, Akiko stomped out of the car and pulled the ring from her finger.
With all her might, she threw the golden circlet as far as she could past the roadside cliff face and out over the sea.
For a moment, the ring caught the light of the setting sun and shimmered like a star as it fell. It looked almost... beautiful. Then it vanished into the deepening twilight—just like her relationship.
Memories of two wasted years—memories that had seemed happy just yesterday—welled up inside Akiko, and tears budded in her eyes once more. What a fool she’d been.
She should have seen the signs, should have noticed the way Shinobu had paid extra attention to the ladies when the two of them were out on assignment together.
But, wasn’t that his job, to flatter the starlets so he could get a good story and Akiko could get good pictures?
Aki looked at the camera outfit lying on the passenger seat, thinking of the pictures she’d taken of that hussy earlier in the evening, half tempted to throw whole case into the surf after the ring.
No. Even if she and Shinobu were through, she still needed her job at the Kobe Tribune. How else could she keep her apartment? If she quit—or got fired for throwing the paper’s expensive camera into the ocean—she’d have to move back to Shirahama to live with her mother, and that was the last thing she wanted right now.
She blinked back her tears, and the droplets sparkled on the edge of her lashes—looking like more falling stars in the darkness.
No … Wait … it wasn’t only her tears...
Those were stars, just winking to life in the cerulean sky … Falling stars!
Akiko smeared away her tears with the back of her hand again.
This was amazing!
Bright streaks of orange, white, and red, like fireworks on New Year’s Eve, lit up the entire sky.
Quickly regaining her wits, Akiko fetched the Tribune’s camera—a Pentax Spotmatic SP—from the passenger seat of the Fairlady and began taking pictures. Here was a series of images that would push that no-good would-be starlet off the front pages.
Akiko found herself smiling as the Pentax SLR’s shutter clicked as fast as she could wind it.
I’ll have to put in a new roll of film soon, she told herself.
She flipped the camera up to check the shot counter; she’d lost track in all the excitement.
Just three shots left.
As she looked heavenward once more, gazing across the Inland Sea, her eyes went wide.
A huge fireball was streaking across the sky!
Quickly, she raised the camera and shot again: once...
The fireball grew larger, brighter. The pictures would be amazing!
Twice...
Still larger and … Wait!
It’s headed straight for me!
“Duck!” Akiko cried, as if saying the word might force her to action.
At the last moment, she threw herself down on the shoulder of the road behind the Fairlady.
Heat seared her skin and a roar like a freight train blasted her ears as the meteor zoomed overhead.
Akiko looked up as it shot by, the wind from its passing tugging at her short-cropped hair.
She swung the camera back up to her eye as the meteor sizzled over the mountainous hills beyond the seaside highway.
WHOOM!
The fireball struck just behind the ridgeline, shaking the earth with its impact and sending flames blazing into the cool evening air.
The thunderous sound entirely drowned out the soft click of Akiko’s Pentax.
Third time lucky, the photographer thought. This would be front page worthy!
Smoke and steam from the blast rushed into the sky, forming a billowing mushroom-shaped cloud.
Akiko wound the reel and hit the shutter button once more, praying for that extra shot or two a lucky photographer can sometimes squeeze onto the end of the roll.
The button only depressed halfway; the shutter didn’t click.
Damn! Not lucky enough!
Tonight had been a real mix of good and bad timing.
Akiko looked at the billowing smoke, knowing that by the time she loaded another roll of film, the cloud would have dissipated into the twilight air.
But she would have plenty of time to reload before she climbed the mountain.
NEXT: The Meteorite
2. The Meteorite
~ July, 1966 – Sunset ~
Drenched in sweat, Akiko plopped down on top of the wide, flat boulder to catch her breath. She felt grateful that she kept her spare hiking boots in the trunk of her Datsun Fairlady; she’d never have been able to trek up the mountainside without them. She was also glad she’d brought a flashlight. The sun had dipped below the horizon as she climbed, and beneath the tall trees, darkness was closing in fast. Of course, it was no coincidence she’d had the right equipment for this job. A good photographer needed to be prepared for any eventuality, and Akiko prided herself on being ready to handle whatever came her way.
So why had Shinobu’s betrayal caught her so flat-footed?
She cursed quietly and spat a bug from her mouth. Mosquitoes were starting to swarm in the twilight. She needed to get going, or she’d be eaten alive.
Akiko hoisted her camera bag, hung her reloaded Pentax around her neck, and started trudging up the steep, forested slope once more.
Ahead, she could still see a faint trail of smoke from the fallen meteor—A meteorite, now, she reminded herself—curling into the early evening sky. In the distance, she heard the wail of sirens. Firetrucks… B
ut were they racing toward this crash site, or had other meteors landed in a settled area? Certainly the meteor swarm had been big enough for multiple impacts. Could one of the nearby towns be ablaze even now? Akiko hadn’t seen light from any fires, but…
She sniffed the air, but didn’t smell much of anything burning, only faint wisps of smoke and a lingering earthy odor from the blast, both of which she’d noticed before starting her trek. No indication of fire there. Plus, the blackish cloud over the meteor’s landing site had been growing steadily thinner, not more dense.
Akiko still felt nervous.
She had almost been caught in a wildfire once, while on assignment near Kure; being surrounded by flames wasn’t an experience she cared to repeat.
Nothing’s burning, she told herself, pressing on. There’s no fire.
She had almost reached the top of the ridge now, and she felt certain that she’d find the crater—and perhaps an actual meteorite—on the other side. Her body tingled with anticipation. She was an explorer on the verge of a great breakthrough. Beyond the next rise lay something no one had ever seen before … undiscovered country.
She smiled. Once her editor saw pictures of what she’d found, he’d forget all about Rika Tadaka—the aspiring actress (and fiancé stealer!) that Akiko had been sent down this deserted stretch of coastline to cover.
Perhaps with photos of the crashed meteor in the bag, Akiko could even “accidentally” lose the snaps she’d taken of the little tramp. She could almost hear herself explaining the problem to her boss now: “I’m sorry, Goro-san, but in all the excitement, the rolls of film with Rika must have slipped out of my bag. It was a long, hard hike to the crash site, you know.”
Goro Arota, her editor, would be mad of course, but he’d soon get over it. And hadn’t Nick Burr, that American assigned to their bureau, taken pictures of the long-haired hussy at a shopping center opening just a few weeks back? The Tribune could run those pictures again, if they really need to put Rika’s piglike face in the paper.
Zombie Shark Page 5
