TALISMAN
TALISMAN
A STANDALONE TALE
By Krystyne Price
Copyright © 2018 by Krystyne Price
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Any names or characters, businesses or places, events or incidents, are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Published in the United States of America
First Edition, 2018
Krystyne Price
98-820 Moanalua Rd, I 5-1 Ste 745
Aiea, HI 96701
www.KrystynePrice.com
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Chapter One
There was only one talisman left for the Vloveks to find. It was all that separated Shinzar and its remaining inhabitants from extinction. The Vlovek leader Mulmak could smell victory through the giant nostrils on his elongated snout. Saliva dripped from a mouth full of railroad spike teeth as he sniffed the air and his eyes glowed in anticipation. For he had learned who held the fifth talisman.
Surveying the charred remains of what had once been a Shinzarn wizard’s hideout, Mulmak noted white drawings on the cavern walls. He couldn’t read them any more than he could understand the Shinzarn language. Neither could his sycophants who, though they had once been Shinzarn before his own army possessed their bodies, had lost the ability to speak anything but Vlovek as a consequence.
He snorted in disgust, kicking a strange contraption he suspected had held a Shinzarn child from its size. Yet he smelled no blood of innocents. He looked at a female crumpled against the wall. Her head was missing, but something was around the stump of her neck. He crept closer and reached out a leathery grey clawed hand, plucking the object quickly from the corpse.
Mulmak inspected the small item at the end of the thin twine that had once made this the Shinzarn’s necklace. At first he thought he’d found his prize, and threw his head back to call his legion and sycophants back to his side. But just as quickly he realized he’d been tricked. For the object, while the right color and shape, was dark. Talismans glowed and pulsated.
Screaming in rage, he threw the fake gem to the floor and watched it shatter. There was only one who would have tried to fool him in such a manner: the High Wizard Kana, and now he had a head start. Mulmak looked down at the small, broken bed once more and then back to the female.
Kana had a child. This Shinzarn must have been the mother. As his legion gathered he made it very clear what their next move was. Mulmak grinned when they crawled out of the cave and into the evening air. He could almost taste the blood of the child on his lips and felt hunger pangs tear at his insides.
Within seconds his scouts advised they’d picked up the trail of three who had escaped. Moments later the legion, sycophants upon their backs, were in flight, leathery wings flapping in the red-suns twilight. Mulmak would track them down. He would take Kana and the talisman, and then he would not only rule two dimensions, but have the most savory meal known to his race in celebration of his victory. Nothing, after all, tasted as sweet as the young of any species.
He cried out and the legion sang in response as he made a wide arc into the sky and dove back down toward land. It was time.
* * *
Black branches broke and tore at bare arms as they plunged through the dead forest. Kana clutched the child to his chest, adrenaline pumping, legs carrying him as fast and as hard as they could. The footsteps of his student kept in time just behind. His breath came hard and fast, mind racing far ahead of them. Abruptly he stopped, and Bijan slammed square into his back.
It took only a handful of seconds for him to get his bearings. Moving quickly again, this time veering slightly left, Kana half-closed his eyes to keep the branches from taking them out. Bijan was close enough that the High Wizard could feel the heat of his body as they plowed through the final row of trees onto a worn dirt path. The little girl and the talisman meant everything to him. Everything.
Looking first left and then right, Kana’s eyes found the solution he sought. Hand cradling the precious head of his daughter to him, he nodded to a tall silver-grey wall of rock at the end of the path and saw Bijan nod in return. The two sprinted the last several dozen feet, then he tuned and thrust the three-year old girl toward his pupil.
* * *
Bijan took her without question, nestling her in the crook of his arm as her large green eyes looked upon his face with the trust only a small child can have for another. Kissing the top of her head quickly, his eyes were riveted to what his mentor was doing. Silently Bijan prayed for it to happen quickly, because a distant screech wafting through the still night air told them both that there was very little time.
He couldn’t help but note every little detail of the High Wizard as he began to speak in a low tone. Bijan’s eyes were always riveted to his mentor because even the smallest gesture, the quickest flick of his eyes, taught him more and more about the role he was being groomed for. Kana’s hair was salt and pepper, cascading over his ears and along the length of his bronze-tan skin to just above his shoulder blades. His face was branded with lines that told of his tenure as one with the world’s problems to bear in a planetary war that had been raging for lifetimes.
As Kana’s hands rose with palms facing the flat cliff face before them, blood from the branch wounds to his arms dripped onto the reddish-brown dirt below, splashing up little puffs of dust in slow motion. A low, throaty tone that started as a single note soon grew into a harmony of two and then three until the full four-stream vocalization was complete. Bijan felt the air around them change, and while he was used to the sensation, it never ceased to fascinate him how everything seemed to expand and contract all at once when a portal was being opened.
“Kana, will it be in time?”
His teacher didn’t respond. He could see Kana’s lips moving and knew the words he spoke as well as he knew his own name. The screeching grew louder. Bijan tightened his hold on the girl, wondering if she understood that her mother had been killed by raiding sycophants. He turned to look all around them in the fading light. One sun had already dropped below the horizon; the other was only half visible. His attention returned to what Kana was doing, and he saw the portal his teacher had been opening was there, and growing incrementally. Every hair stood on end as static electricity filled the air.
The Vloveks were almost upon them. And the portal wasn’t nearly large enough. Bijan felt fear well up inside him and stepped forward, laying a hand on Kana’s sleeve. “There isn’t enough time.”
Kana whipped around, their eyes locking. Bijan saw his own anxiety reflected in his master’s face and felt his heart clutch at the futility of their flight. When Kana held out his hands, Bijan gave him his daughter. He watched, heart breaking a little more with each kiss Kana placed upon her forehead, her cheeks, her mouth, her hair. She clung to her father’s neck as a shadow passed overhead.
“No,” Bijan whispered, shooting a panicked look up into the sky. His eyes lased back to the portal. “Kana, we must go.”
Looking first at his pupil, and then down to his daughter, Kana’s jaw set firmly as he placed the girl on the ground. “My daughter,” he said as more screams filled the air above and around them, “you are the last hope for Shinzar.” He reached into the pocket of his silver robe and pulled out the fifth talisman; the one he and Bijan had been guarding from the Vloveks for decades.
“What are you doing?” Bijan asked, a frown creasing his forehead.
“Saving Shinzar,” Kana replied. “Saving my only child.”
“By doing what?” Bijan asked, hands flinging between them in agitation. “How is giving her the talisman keeping anyone safe?”
Kana got down onto one knee and placed the necklace over the girl’s head. He picked up the jagged rose-colored gem that hung from the thin tree-twine rope. “As it has been since eternity, this Nake will protect your life,” he whispered, gaze leaving the gem and travelling up to his daughter’s eyes.
Howls and screeches filled the air. The demons were close. Too close. “We don’t have time for this!” Bijan yelled. “We have to go, now!”
Ignoring Bijan’s words, Kana took the gem in the palm of his right hand, closing his fist over it. He then put his left hand on the girl’s shoulder and began chanting words that were foreign to Bijan, although he understood on some level what the spell was. A couple hundred years learning from his master hadn’t quite taught him everything yet.
The rapidly pulsing glow of the fifth talisman increased ten-fold, enveloping the girl’s body. She stiffened and then fell forward into her father’s embrace. Bijan knew she’d lost consciousness, and realized this meant Kana must have put a dual spell of protection on her. The talisman and her own soul were entwining now. It would take too long, though, even longer than it took for a portal to open, for the spell to bind completely. Bijan glanced beyond Kana and his face fell as he realized with the approaching cacophony of Vloveks crashing through the black trees, that they’d lost.
He whirled when the first of the legion arrived, raised his hands in the air and let a massive white energy ball loose. It shot through the fading light, a flaming white-hot projectile, and collided with a dark green and grey body. The demon let out a scream of pain as Bijan whirled on another who appeared from the mists like a tower of Evil. This, he knew, was Mulmak. He hesitated for only a moment before an even larger ball of energy shot forth from his hands.
But Mulmak ducked and made to swipe at Bijan with his tail. Bijan jumped high into the air, somersaulting twice before straightening and flinging a jagged bolt of black energy the demon’s way. Mulmak sidestepped it, but it clipped his wing and he roared in pain. Reaching out, he very nearly had Bijan in his grasp as he landed on both feet, but Bijan moved too fast for him. He tucked and rolled to the side, slamming to a halt against the flat silver-grey rock face.
Looking to his left, his eyes widened as he watched Kana position his daughter horizontally, just above the palms of his hands. The portal was only around a foot square, not nearly large enough for the size both Kana and Bijan were. And that’s when Bijan realized what his teacher was going to do.
In a flash the girl had disappeared and Kana was revoking the portal. Bijan saw it begin to collapse in on itself and rushed to protect his master as Mulmak advanced, speaking in the Vlovek language no Shinzarn could comprehend. Bijan closed his eyes and silently recited the spell for freezing an opponent in place, but just as he began to think the last word, he felt Kana’s hands on his shoulders.
“You must leave me now,” Kana said into his ear.
Bijan completed the spell in his mind and flung his arm out. The freezing seemed to work as Mulmak whined, feet rooted to the ground, legs unable to move. He leaned forward, trying to swipe at the two Shinzarns, but Bijan turned and shoved Kana down to the ground, covering him with his own body.
“I’m not leaving you,” Bijan growled, nose to nose with his mentor.
“He will kill you and possess me anyway,” Kana said, placing his hands on either side of Bijan’s face. “You must live. You must carry on.”
Bijan shook his head, hands grasping those of the man he’d come to love as a son does his own father. “If he possesses you, Shinzar will be lost forever,” he whispered as the sounds of Mulmak’s legions clicking and clacking in talk, trying to figure out what to do with their leader frozen, advanced upon them in a semi-circle.
“No,” Kana said. “I pass to you, my student and most trusted friend, the light of the mark of the High Wizard.”
Bijan felt a jolt from head to toe that made his body jerk against his master’s. “I’ll never be able to defeat you with him inside you.”
“You won’t have to,” Kana replied, his face placid as though he’d already come to terms with his decision. “But you will keep Shinzar alive, and you will ensure the talisman never falls into Vlovek hands. You will keep my daughter safe.”
With that, Kana shoved Bijan off him and sprang to his feet.
“I’m not leaving you!” Bijan hissed. The sounds of the freezing spell breaking, and the crackling of Vlovekian and the groans of Mulmak, filled his ears even as the rush of his own blood tried to drown it out.
“You have my power,” Kana said, looking sadly into his eyes. “And my love.”
Before Bijan could even think of a reply, he found himself thrust backward into the thick, gnarled branches of the dead forest. And just like that an invisibility shell had been placed around him. He could see and hear what was happening, but was powerless to be free of the shell. He yelled Kana’s name over and over, tears rolling down his face as the scene unfolded.
In the seconds before the demon struck, Bijan saw his mentor wave a hand over his own head and saw his lips moving, but couldn’t make out the words. Then it was Mulmak grabbing Kana in his large hand. Mulmak tossing him to the ground like an unwanted toy. Mulmak morphing from a solid, real being to something that barely resembled a black puff of smoke. The smoke slamming into Kana’s body, forcing Kana to cry out in agony. Bijan banged and banged on the shell, skin breaking, blood trickling down his wrists. He used every removal spell he could think of, but was powerless to stop the horror before him.
“Kana,” he whispered as his former teacher rose to his feet and looked around, eyes glowing red. Suddenly the man was speaking the Vlovek language and Bijan knew the deed was done. Kana, now possessed completely, led Mulmak’s legions off into the mist, leaving Bijan with nothing to do but sink to the dirt in defeat.
“Kana,” he whispered once more, and then exhaustion overtook him. Against his will, his eyes closed and he slipped sideways against the inside of the shell, before giving in and allowing his body to slump to the ground.
Chapter Two
Kaia stretched, letting her fingers and toes extend as far as she could before rolling to her side and stretching again, arching her back as she yawned and her eyes blinked open. She smiled at the sunlight streaming through the off-white blinds covering her bedroom window. Today was the first day of the rest of her life. Yesterday, she’d graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in Ancient Studies and Civilizations.
Her smile faded, though, as she thought of her mother and father. If only they’d lived long enough to see the moment their daughter made them proud. Her father, the Dean of Ancient Studies at the University of Iowa, wanted nothing more than for his daughter to follow in both his and his wife’s footsteps.
Her mother. Kaia cursed inwardly. They had only been dead six months. Finishing out her degree had been nearly impossible in light of the tragic drunk driving crash that had taken their lives. A professor of ancient symbols and languages, Janice Lehman had been full of childlike wonder and all the excitement of a kid opening presents on Christmas Day. Her enthusiasm for Earth’s past peoples rivalled only that of her beloved Charlie Lehman, and their dedication and love for their work had infected their only child from an early age.
Forcing herself out of her reverie, Kaia sat up, sighing deeply as she planted her bare feet on the hardwood floor. It was the bedroom she’d had all her life. The walls were still the same pale pink, the rug at the foot of her queen-sized bed was still the latch-hook rug she and her mom had made when Kaia was only six, sporting faded pink roses with brown stems and deep green leaves inside an oval rose gold-colored frame.
Kaia had always loved the color, and the rug. And the quilt on her bed given to her by an old friend of her father’s. Everything in her room
was varying shades of pink or rose pink, right down to the curtains that covered the blinds on the window.
It still hurt like hell, she admitted to herself as she wandered into the hall. When her folks had been around, she’d been assured of an Associate position at the U of I. Now, though, the new Dean of Ancient Studies had made it very clear she was up for the position against three other highly qualified individuals, and that the decision would be made based on the candidates’ qualifications, and not who their parents had been.
Grabbing her toothbrush, she decided she would spend the morning having a leisurely breakfast at her favorite cafe in the heart of Iowa City, and then she’d find the perfect outfit that screamed Associate Professor for the interview she had at three this afternoon.
She’d wow them. She knew more than any other recent graduate because she’d lived and breathed the subject matter her entire life. Kaia grinned before spitting the foamed toothpaste out of her mouth. Yep, by the end of the day, she knew she’d have the job.
* * *
Bijan woke, wondering what had happened. He sat up and frowned at his surroundings. His mind travelled back to the stories passed down by the ancestors as he scanned the landscape. Thousands of years ago Shinzar had been such a beautiful planet. Now the terrain was harsh and barren. Gnarled and hollowed branches reached like crooked fingers to the star-filled sky. Even at night, Bijan thought, the air was still tinged with red, like the more powerful of their two suns.
A breeze upon his flesh startled him out of his reverie. He shouldn’t be able to feel the wind when in his abode. Kana! Bijan scrambled to his feet as the memories came back full-force. Kana had put him into an invisibility shell. Reaching his hands up, he pushed against where the wall of it should be, the momentum of nothing there carrying him face-forward into the ground.
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