First Sight: The Rune Sight Chronicles

by Boyd Craven III

  In my former job, I used to be the one who was called. I’d always assessed the situation and looked for a less than lethal option, but I wasn’t going to risk mine or others’ lives if a rampaging supernatural was too powerful to take down. That was what had got me into runes, in a way. I’d always done them as a kid, but over the years and travels, I’d picked up books on Runology. Norse, Celtic, Egyptian or wherever I could pick one up. It didn’t matter what culture runes came from, they all held the same basic form and function. It was the experimentation the other cultures had done that had advanced the magical technology, though much of it had been lost over the years. That was why I was always hunting down old books on the subject, like the one I’d forgotten to look into about a week or so back.

  It was the runes on both knives and the question of the sequence that Kerstin had dropped on me that had me thinking. The application was obvious to me, but so far Vassago hadn’t displayed any other magical talents except being an extremely powerful life mage and an asshole, if you counted that as a super power. I didn’t. Still… I had a thought and pulled my cell phone and hit the speed dial for Vivian’s office.

  “Keep an extra eye out for deer,” I said needlessly; both of my companions were already on it.

  “Got it boss—”

  “Yes, this is Thomas Wright, I need to get in touch with Mage Kerstin or Mage Rasmussen from the council. No, I don’t have their numbers. Can you have them contact me as soon as possible with my number listed? Yes? Thank you, this is kinda important.” I hung up and then tossed the phone on the dash and concentrated on the roads as dark fell across the mountains, casting them in an ominous gloom.

  “Elk coming down the hill half a mile up to your right,” JJ said.

  “Half a mile, wait…”

  “Smell him, it’s a bull. They smell musky this time of year. The early rut will be happening soon I think.”

  “Your rut already started,” Rose said defiantly.

  “You’re just mad that I put you in a cage and didn’t offer you a hunk of me.”

  “Oh God, somebody stab my ears,” I complained.

  “I can—”

  My phone rang, I could tell by checking the futures that it was an unknown number and I could tell who it was going to be, so I hit accept and put it on the Bluetooth speaker in the car.

  “Hello Mage Rasmussen,” I said softly.

  “Your departure caused somewhat of an uproar, but I assume since you’ve spoken to Vivian already, you know that?”

  “Yes sir,” I told him. “Something Mage Kirsten said to me offhandedly finally clicked with me. I was wondering if I could pick your brain a second or two.”

  “I am not the information directory of the magical world,” he said dryly. After a long pause, he sighed. “Go ahead. You’re going to ask me anyways.”

  “A couple of questions actually, but thank you. First, what happens to magical objects like the knife once the investigation is over? The really dangerous stuff?”

  “It goes to the library to be cataloged and stored,” he said in a quiet voice.

  “Tell me again, why was my mother afraid of coming to the Council of Mages?”

  “We were unable to save your father, and… she thought somebody on the council had betrayed her and your father to Vassago.”

  “What are the chances that there’s somebody within the council that’s still working for him?”

  He didn’t answer, so I took that to be a high probability.

  “In my encounter with Vassago, he only displayed Life magic,” I told him simply.

  “I can’t read minds over the phone, Thomas.”

  “What do you think Vassago can do with the knife he already has, if he then uses the one that steals the soul of the mage involved?”

  “Depends on what happens to the soul… oh, dear Goddess.”

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m thinking. If he’d had both weapons before, he’d be more than a life mage, wouldn’t he?”

  “That means he never possessed the blade,” Rasmussen said.

  “Or somebody from the Library was on the way to delivering it to him when the to-be librarian was killed.”

  “You know the size of the can of worms this hypothesis opens?” Rasmussen asked.

  “I can read the futures, trust me, I know. Back when you gave me the necklace, do you remember what I asked you?”

  “Yes,” Rasmussen said at once.

  “I don’t know who I can trust, but I’m not going to let him keep my friend Cindy. I don’t know why, but I trust you Sigmund,” I said, using his first name. “When I send up the bat signal, please only bring people you trust implicitly.”

  “Who said I was coming or that we’re getting involved any more than Vivian’s strike force?”

  “Because I just asked you in my head again and the future self of you said you wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  “I doubt my future self would have phrased it like that, but yes, I would love to dive into the mind of that vermin.”

  “Well, if I can keep him distracted, can you and Vivian take him out?” I asked.

  “We want him alive for questioning.”

  “All I have to do is not cut his head off, or scramble his brains, and he’ll be alive. I’m not overly worried about killing him by accident.”

  “Then it sounds like the beginnings of a plan.”

  I hit a rough spot where the constant freeze and thaw cycle had loosened a patch of asphalt and left a crater. A bag in the back next to JJ bounced up and clanked, and he cursed loudly.

  “I take it you’re on the move,” Rasmussen said.

  “Yes, I don’t think the Arches is the last place I am going to go. He’ll probably leave a limited power gate stone there for me to go somewhere else, where the actual meet is going to happen. I’m going to try to get there first.”

  “Be safe then,” Rasmussen said and hung up.

  “That dude is seriously scary,” JJ said from behind me, “But not as scary as sitting next to a duffel bag full of explosives and claymores.”

  “They won’t go off that easy,” I assured him.

  “But if they do,” Rose chirped, “you can kiss your carcass goodbye!”

  “You’ll be sad,” JJ said.

  “Naw,” Rose told him, “I still owe you one for capturing me and imprisoning me in an iron cage.”

  I looked in the rearview and watched JJ swallow theatrically. Rose landed on my right shoulder, laughing to herself softly.

  The drive took longer than I’d intended and both JJ and Rose were sleeping as I pulled off the highway near the main arch. JJ was the first to awaken and sat up quietly. I looked around and saw the muted red and brown hues of the rock faces and, in the distance, the main arch that you could see just off the highway. I’d been out here before; it was mostly desert, but it had its own kind of eerie beauty. The land wasn’t lush and green like the mountainside I called home, this was the occasional scrub brush, struggling to break through the rocky soil into what little nutrients and moisture they could find. How this area supported a pack was beyond me.

  “We there?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I whispered back. “Can you scent anything?”

  He paused and then stretched before raising his nose like a dog, scenting the air through the open windows.

  “Lots of people have been through here recently, and the local pack has been through here even more recently, or are still here.”

  I nodded and thought about things. “If I showed you how to set up those claymores, would you be able to set them up in a pattern I lay out for you?”

  “Sure boss, what you got in mind?”

  “Proximity sensors, tripwires, claymores, death, murder, kill.”

  “That was the worst Stallone movie ever,” Rose said sleepily from my pocket and then stood up, crawled out and hovered in the air over the dash. “What do you need me to do?”

  “I need you to do your super spy, little terrorist thing
,” I told her quietly.

  She snapped her fingers and faded from sight. “What do you need me to do first?”

  “Recce the Arches over there,” I pointed. “I’m looking to see if there’s anybody else around there and if the terrain looks like it’s been booby trapped.”

  “On it,” she said, and there was a poofing sound as she disappeared outside somewhere.

  “What are you going to do?” JJ asked.

  “Rock climbing,” I told him and pulled a notebook and a stub of a pencil I’d brought just for this purpose, and started sketching out my plan.

  Then I pulled out a smaller duffel, one I’d put together with the scraps of what I had left over at my bugout. I opened it and took out a Calico 9mm with a single point sling, and put that on. Next, I fitted it with the 50 round magazine that sat on top of the funny pistol. It was an equal mixture of silver, unbinding and implosion runed bullets. To cover all bases, I had about seventeen bursts of three if I could maintain trigger control and not spray it empty like a firehose. That was why there were two magazines left in the duffel and I had my concealed guns, my M&Ps, with my Gerber folder.

  I slung the lighter but still heavy duffel over my other shoulder and started walking towards the arch, watching the ground and the futures both. Many feet had passed over the sun blasted rocks over the past day, and there were still a couple people around. A married couple had taken the pull-off opportunity and were over a small hill on the right, and the sounds of their love making were loud in the night air. I didn’t have to be a mind reader or a fortune teller to figure out that they were going to be done soon, so I ignored them and kept moving slowly, hoping they’d be gone before I came back this way.

  Every future I could check, I did, and I was growing more and more frustrated by my stunted magic. What good is a three to five second window when I could really use the info that might come if I could look, say, an hour in the future of all possible futures? I knew that was a sure way to madness, but I still was bitter enough about it that I half wished it would happen.

  “Boss,” Rose said appearing in front of me, “don’t go up there.”

  I stopped. “Why?”

  “The Weres are up there; looks like they are having a large meeting just on the other side of the arch.”

  “Are Vassago or Vivian up there?”

  “No, but they were discussing the mage and his slave.”

  “His… what?” I asked.

  “All set boss,” JJ said, walking up to me.

  I did a double take; he was fast, but I could see that he had followed my instructions in the placement by checking the futures in which I walked through the kill zone I’d had him set up for me.

  “Thank you,” I told him.

  “Now what?” JJ asked.

  “Now, we go break into a pack meeting, talk to this Morrissey person and find out what we can. Hopefully I can ask him to help us out or let us operate unmolested.”

  Both Rose and JJ burst into quiet laughter. When I didn’t join in they looked at me, then JJ’s mouth dropped open.

  “But boss, this is their accorded territory, their treaty with the—”

  I pulled out my amulet I’d gotten from Rasmussen and let it hang plainly on the front of my shirt. Then I checked my personal weapons over again, patted the Calico affectionately and started towards the arch and the flickering light that had to be coming from a campfire from somewhere above me in elevation.

  “Tell me again, why are we going to pick a fight with the werewolves?” Rose asked.

  “Because… well, we’re not picking a fight. I’m going to talk.”

  “… and then we sent that British pretty boy and his slave packing,” a large Were was telling the larger group.

  I counted twelve Weres, at least four females with eight males. It was easy to see who Morrissey was: he was the story teller. One of the ladies looked on him with fawning interest whereas the others just seemed to be bored, yet were seated beside him opposite the other woman. These must be the wives of the big Were. The last woman was seated across the fire from the Alpha, with whom I had to assume was her husband.

  “And why did you send him packing?” I called softly.

  I knew they had heard our approach, I could smell the fire long before I saw it, and I’m sure my footfalls and scent had reached them also.

  “Ahh, so you do have balls. I was wondering if the two of you were heading up this way,” the big man said, looking at me.

  I realized that Rose had done her vanishing act, though I could feel her minuscule weight on my shoulder, ready to take to the air at any second. She gave my ear a quick pat with her hand to let me know she was there still. I appreciated the gesture.

  “I do. I’m here for the mage you ran off, that is, if he’s the idiot who dresses up like David Bowie?”

  The all burst into laughter at that. “That’s the one. Had a lady in handcuffs. I told him, the only way I like a lady in handcuffs is when she’s on a bed, but to each his own.”

  “Where did he go?” I asked him.

  “Said he was going to be back tomorrow and we better have cleared out. That’s why I called a pack meeting. Waiting on the rest to show up. No Council of Mages is gonna push us out of our own territory. Going to teach you fraggers a lesson, aren’t we?” he said, standing up and cracking his knuckles.

  After half a moment, he realized the woman to his side hadn’t stood when the rest of them did and he slapped her in the side of the head in a contemptuous manner. That was when I remembered I had my Enforcer’s pendant out in the open, and that was his signal for everyone to jump us. Oops.

  “I’m looking for that mage; he’s not with the council.” I took half a step back.

  JJ shot me a worried look and backed up as well, and I heard Rose poof, but couldn’t see any evidence of her.

  “Well, we don’t like any mage interfering, now that I come to think of it,” he said grinning.

  Unlike JJ, who looked normal, though muscular for a human, Morrissey looked lupine. His smile showed teeth that were either filed to points, or were not normal.

  “I hate to say it, but if you challenge him, you can fight him one on one,” JJ whispered.

  “I heard that pup, and there ain’t a human alive who’s allowed to challenge a Were.”

  “Um… He’s already won one challenge and his territory butts up to the Solaris pack,” JJ told him.

  “JJ, ixnay on the allengechay,” I said through gritted teeth.

  I knew a fight was inevitable, but I was trying to buy time. I was looking though the futures where violence was avoided and I saw zero possibilities. The group, minus a handful, were all on their feet and ready to pounce.

  “He’s not a…” then Morrissey sniffed the air and then looked at me with a cocked head. “Well, I’ll be dipped in possum puke, this here boy is a mage Alpha.” There was a note of interest in his voice, though it didn’t stop him from slowly working himself into the perfect position to attack.

  “No Hakuna his Matattas!” Rose shouted, bursting into view, a rainbow of colors and glitter bursting forth just as the Alpha leapt.

  It startled him badly and his jump probably would have given him ample time to ride me to the ground, but I had foreseen that - and Rose’s timely help. I moved to the side even as the glitter fart exploded into his eyes, and I flicked open the Gerber. Morrissey wasn’t the only one on the move, but he was the one who was coming after me. The rest just dog piled JJ, no pun intended. The off balance alpha was close and I swung the blade and sunk it into the side of his leg, near the hip, before I was clotheslined by a werewolf who’d been waiting in reserve for an opening I hadn’t seen coming. That was what sucked about only seeing a handful of seconds into the future, sometimes it would be less when I couldn’t concentrate.

  My ribs erupted in agony and I felt something crunch as the man on top changed into a hybrid form. The Calico was ripped away, the strap giving me friction burns as it finally snapped. I tried t
o concentrate on the futures where I wasn’t killed to figure out what to do, but another heavy blow to the side had bones cracking in my ribs. I cried out in agony and quit trying to figure out what to do and fought. Fighting something twice your size and a magnitude stronger and faster than you is fool’s play. That was why I quit trying to figure out what to do and just did. I figured from the pain that my right ribs were broken and, as the Were lowered his head and sank his fangs into my right shoulder under the armpit, I screamed again in agony, but I’d drawn the pistol on my left side and started firing into its hairy chest.

  The teeth were gone before he could shake his head and tear my arm off, as another Were hauled him back. Four gaping wounds in his chest were ringed with powder burns and I saw Rose go flashing by, a gigantic rock in her hands, before my attention was diverted.

  “Little popgun, is it?” the big Were snarled, a surprise since most couldn’t speak coherently while changed. “We’ll see what good it does ya.”

  I looked at Were he’d pulled off me and his vision followed mine for half a second, then he did a double take. The Were was lying motionless in the dirt, transformed back into human. I’d fired four times, I had three left. That was when he turned back to me and pulled back a huge fist. I raised my left hand up, knowing where to aim. My hand was shaking and breathing was hard. I coughed and my shot went wild. A red mist hit my face and I realized that it had come from me. The Were flinched when I missed, then his grin was big and wide, and he jumped at the same time I moved my wrist and shot again.

  That time I had half a second to check the futures and, though I didn’t have much strength, I didn’t need it. My gift allowed me to see if I would hit or miss, so sometimes I could seemingly pull off some amazing feats of marksmanship that had nothing to do with my actual skill. The shot drilled him in the face, exploding out the back of his head. That was when a freight train hit him from the side, knocking him over, and JJ’s hybrid form cleared the path of the other two Weres who were coming in for the kill. The dead man knocked them sideways, and then Rose was there, standing over me.