The Lure of Fools

by Jason James King

  “Golden womb of the goddess!” Ezra swore as his patience escaped him. “Settle down, son!” he snapped, but Mulladin couldn’t hear him over the weeping. Ezra closed his eyes, his shoulders drooping, knowing he couldn’t leave the boy alone. He was going to have to take Mulladin with him. Ezra drew in a steadying breath. “We’re going too!”

  Damn that girl, she didn’t leave me a choice!

  “What?” Mulladin asked as he looked at Ezra through watery, bloodshot eyes.

  Ezra smiled and nodded, “We’re going to go on a holiday and meet up with Jek and Mae!”

  A smile slowly crept onto Mullidan’s face, and his sobbing morphed into laughter.

  Ezra sighed. “We best be getting you packed and ready to go.”

  Mulladin scrubbed his eyes with the back of his hairy forearm as he nodded, still hiccupping aftershock sobs. Ezra turned away from him and took two steps toward his bedroom when he was struck by a wave of icy panic. It hit him like a physical force, and, for a few heartbeats, Ezra was paralyzed. Old reflexes resurfaced, and, just as quickly as he froze, he cleared his mind to shove the fear aside to whip around and wrestled the boy-man to the floor just as an explosion rocked the house. Shelves rattled, dishes shattered, the table knocked against the floor like it was asking someone to let it in.

  Mulladin cried a frightened screech, and Ezra hissed, “Quiet!”

  “ARGENTUS!” a voice called from outside the house.

  Devil in hell, he’s found me!

  Ezra shooshed Mulladin one more time and coughed as smoke began to seep into the room. He’s trying to smoke me out, he realized, or maybe just burn the house down with me in it.

  “ARGENTUS!” Kaul called again, his voice accompanied by another house-rocking explosion. “I SAW YOU WALK INTO THAT HOUSE! COME OUT AND FACE ME YOU COWARD!”

  Thick, black billows began rolling into the room, snuffing out the air and leaving it impossible to breathe. Gasping, Ezra stood and threw open the front door, towing a cough-crying Mulladin with him. He looked up to find Kaul standing a dozen meters away with four armed men. Ezra walked several paces away from the house, glancing over his shoulder to see the roof completely engulfed in flames, and stopped to finish a fit of coughing.

  “Time has not been kind to you, old friend,” Kaul chuckled. “You’re skinny and wrinkled.”

  “And your eyes still don’t match,” Ezra coughed.

  Kaul grinned and spread his arms as if he were welcoming Ezra to come and embrace him. “Argentus! It’s good to see that the agrarian life hasn’t dulled your wits.”

  Ezra noticed the ring on a finger of Kaul’s right hand. It was gold with rubies encrusting the band and was capped by an amethyst stone. I know that talis. It was a flame ring that had belonged to another of Argentus’ friends among the Rikujo lords, a Tolean woman who had once been his lover

  “You’re burning down my house with Arynda’s ring!”

  Kaul nodded. “I knew I needed more than just my dread medal to confront you, Argentus. Even at your age, that sword could make you dangerous.” Kaul put on a face of mock sorrow. “Poor Arynda never did learn your trick for resisting the fear.”

  “You killed her,” Ezra growled.

  “Not at first.” Kaul smiled wickedly. “I decided long ago, Argentus, that I would have everything you had and more. So, I started with her.”

  Although that love affair ended over twenty years ago, Kaul’s cruel revelation stung. Ezra had loved Arynda. She was the only woman he had ever loved. “You bastard!” Ezra shouted. Besides him, Mulladin covered his ears and began to whimper.

  Kaul shrugged. “I make no pretenses to be anything else. Unlike you, I accept what I am.”

  “So you came here to kill me and take my talis, like you did to Arynda?”

  He nodded. “I am going to need it for what I have planned.”

  “And what is that?” Ezra scoffed.

  “I’m glad you asked, because I was really hoping to tell you,” he said, his voice dancing with excitement. “See, unlike you, Argentus, I have a grand vision for the destiny of the Rikujo. I want to make it much more than a prestigious thieves’ guild. I’m going to make the Rikujo a real power in Shaelar. I want kingdoms and glory for myself and all who follow me.”

  “Ambitious.” Ezra’s breathing returned to a steady rhythm as he pushed away the last lingering effects of Kaul’s talis. He couldn’t let Kaul rile him like that again lest he lose his mental discipline and succumb to the artificial fear caused by the man’s dread medal. “You’re gonna first have to take control of the Rikujo before you can use its power to win any kingdoms or glory.”

  Kaul waved his hand dismissively. “Oh, I did that years ago.”

  The thought of this sadistic monster controlling an organization of hundreds of highly skilled thieves and assassins made Ezra’s stomach roll. “So you killed Jaris too?”

  “You should’ve seen him, Argentus—at the end I mean. You wouldn’t have recognized him. I broke him, made the man with the reputation for having a heart of stone weep like a child.” He smiled. “It was beautiful.”

  “You must be amassing quite the collection of talises.” Ezra ground his teeth. Jaris had been a friend. The man was a conniving thief, a pathological liar, and a skilled assassin, but a friend all the same. In an odd dichotomy of character, he also possessed a strong sense of honor. That was why Ezra arranged for Jaris to become his successor when he fled his life of crime instead of the maniac standing in front of him.

  Kaul lifted his left arm to display a silver bracelet wrapped around his wrist. “Quite a remarkable piece of talis craft. The shield has saved my life on several occasions.” He laughed as though he were repeating a joke to a friend. “You should’ve seen Arynda’s face when I took one of her fireballs to the face without it so much as singeing my eyebrows.”

  With so many weapon talises, Kaul was already a terrible threat. Gaining the sword would make him practically invincible. Ezra found himself feeling vindicated in giving it to Jek to smuggle out of the village. “And so you’re here to add my sword to your collection?”

  “There is no weapon talis more powerful than the legendary sword of the Invincible Shadow!” Kaul said in a mock voice of grandeur. Then his smile disappeared. “Give it to me without a fight, old friend, and I’ll let you go back to your glorious retirement.”

  “We both know that’s a lie, Kaul.”

  He shrugged. “Fine, I’m going to kill you either way, but you can mitigate your circumstances by cooperating.” He frowned. “Where’s the sword?”

  “I don’t have it,” Ezra said and he quickly focused on an image in his mind—a dilapidated fisherman’s shack ten miles away. He had discovered it when he had taken Jekaran fishing two summers ago, and, for some reason, the abandoned shack stuck in his memory.

  “Do you think me a fool, Argentus?” Kaul snapped. “I know you have it. It may not hold a charge, but there is no way you would willingly part with it.”

  Another wave of fear slammed into Ezra and he had trouble keeping hold of the image of the shack while countering the artificial fear Kaul directed at him. “I may be old, Kaul, but that pathetic medal of yours still doesn’t work on me!”

  Kaul smiled again. “I am glad to see that at least something of your old strength remains.”

  Ezra looked at Kaul’s entourage. “You think that they would be of any help to you if I did still have the sword? They’d fall before they knew what was happening!”

  “WHERE IS IT?” Kaul shouted as he raised his hand again, this time directly at Ezra. Heat distortions bent the air in front of Kaul’s palm and Ezra knew that he was out of time. He just hoped there was enough Apeiron left in his earring for two people.

  Ezra grinned defiantly. “Rot in hell!”

  The last thing Ezra saw was an explosion of fire in front of Kaul’s outstretched palm and then everything around him changed in a flash of purple light. A moment later, he found himself lying on grass pockma
rked with small rocks. He quickly turned his head to his right, relief washing over him as he saw Mulladin rising to all fours with a thoroughly confused look on his face. Ezra cast a glance to his left and saw the abandoned fishing shack he had fixed on in his mind. It worked! His earring brought him and Mull a distance of ten miles in the blink of an eye. He reached up and rubbed the talis. Transporting two people had cost him dearly; the earring was completely drained.

  Ezra stood up and looked to the north. Jeryn, he had to make it to Jeryn. Then he could search for an Apeira well and recharge the talis. But with no supplies or money, that was going to be difficult. He would likely have to sell his displacement talis to get what they needed to make the trip. But what if Kaul came after him again? No, not if, but when. Kaul would come after him. He needed the earring.

  That’s when a thought occurred to him, one that made him sick. His options were beg or steal, and he had never been any good at begging.

  Rasheera forgive me for what I am going to have to do, he prayed.

  Kaul dug through the charred wood of the collapsed house while his men looked on in confusion. He didn’t answer their unspoken questions. Digging through the rubble, a little manual labor, was necessary. Some jobs just required personal attention instead of delegating the menial task to another. In this case, if any of his lieutenants discovered the sword talis and bonded with it, he shook his head. No, he wasn’t going to allow that happen. Even if there was very little chance it held any Apeiron. If the sword still held a charge, Argentus probably would’ve attacked him.

  He had been afraid of that, which is why he brought four of his best lieutenants, each a master swordsman in his own right. A little caution never hurt anyone.

  “It’s not here!” He stood and brushed his hands together to clean them of black soot. He had known it was a possibility, but had assumed his old master would’ve held onto it. What have you done with my prize, old friend? Anger welled up inside Kaul and he kicked a pile of rubble. Charred debris flew a dozen feet and a piece of black wood struck his first lieutenant in the back. The man yelped and turned to look at him. Kaul smiled, as though the assault had been deliberate. Causing injury to his allies ensured they remained intimidated, subservient. Uncomfortable.

  Kaul glanced down. If it’s not here, maybe there are some clues to where it is. His foot prodded the debris, pushing it in one direction and then another. Not much remained of the farce Argentus created for himself. Perhaps the fire wasn’t such a good idea after all. He clenched his teeth, his jaw setting in a firm line. He took a step, prodded again, and saw a framed image buried in the soot. He bent and picked it up, wiping ash off of the soft, white canvas. It was a picture made by a color trap talis, an image of Argentus and a boy with green eyes. The same young man Kaul had seen earlier in town. From the look of the picture, it was clear Argentus and the boy were family. In fact, they looked like father and son.

  “Clever bastard,” Kaul said aloud. He must’ve given the sword to that boy with the green eyes—his son. He wanted to laugh at the idea of his old friend being a father. Oh, not just him fathering a child, for Argentus had spread his seed around and was sure to have a few children out in the world. Hell, Kaul probably had a dozen bastards himself given the number of women he had bedded, both willingly and not. No, the humor he found was in the idea of Argentus settling down, raising a child – of The Invincible Shadow changing diapers and speaking sweetly to calm a crying baby.

  Kaul looked at his men and barked, “Back to town.” The boy was sure to be gone too, but Kaul would find out where he went, and, if none of the inbred villagers of this goddess forsaken place would tell him, then he would burn the town to the ground. Apeiron cost be damned.

  Tending to her garden relaxed and distracted Kairah. She was particularly gifted horticulturally, even amongst the Allosians, all of whom excelled in growing things by virtue of their nature. In Kairah’s garden, however, grew an array of rare flowers, some of them the last of their kind. The metallic-gold, five-petal Dawn Stars, the blue luminescent Ice Roses, and, of course, Kairah’s personal favorite, the white Spirit Lily, of which she only had one.

  These unique, telepathic plants were said to exist only in Allose. Because they absorbed Apeiron instead of sunlight, they were different than regular plants, having a measure of basic sentience. Consequently, they were once believed by the humans to be conduits for speaking to the spirits of their dead loved ones, which of course was ignorant superstition.

  The humans, Kairah mourned, the thought spoiling her attempt at self-distraction.

  Are you sad, Kairah? The white flower, which she had long ago named Aeva, asked her telepathically.

  Kairah nodded as she dipped her fingers into a nearby reflecting pool.

  Why? The plant asked in its characteristic child-like tone.

  “The synod rejected Jenoc’s latest proposal,” Kairah said aloud.

  That is good, Aeva said.

  She withdrew her hand from the pool and sprinkled droplets of water on the stone bench where she sat. “It will not hinder his efforts. In fact, just this morning he confided in me that he has been working secretly for months, without the knowledge of the synod.”

  What has he been doing?

  Kairah was never certain just how much Aeva could comprehend. Her limited sentience made her little more than a child in understanding. Still, Kairah had never hesitated to tell Aeva anything and never tried to dumb it down. She had a connection with the flower, one that was forged when her mother had joined Apeiron. She was a child then, not fully understanding what death was, and so found solace in speaking with the flower. At first she had believed, like the humans, that the Spirit Lily was the soul of her mother. That had been why she named it Aeva, her mother’s name. As she grew older though, she had discarded such childish notions. Still, their bond held and was so strong that she could communicate with Aeva even across great distances.

  “He has been visiting the human leaders, trying to turn them against each other in war. He also tried,” Kairah hesitated, the very thought disturbing her greatly, “reaching for the other magic. Fortunately, that failed.”

  That is bad, Aeva said.

  Did Aeva even know what the other magic was? Kairah wasn’t sure anyone did. “He plans to start working more aggressively now, showing the humans how to make weapon talises.”

  A long moment passed before Aeva asked, What are you going to do, Kairah?

  “Do?” she asked, surprised. “I cannot do anything.”

  Why not, Aeva asked, her flower-mind lacking the understanding to recognize just how ridiculous her question was.

  “I have tried persuasion, but Jenoc will not change his mind. I suppose I could try warning the synod, but it would take weeks for me just to be granted an audience with one member of the council to say nothing of the entire synod.” Kairah sighed. “This is why I am sad. I do not know what I can do. I do not wish to betray him or bring our family dishonor—” She slowly shook her head, her amethyst-colored hair falling off a bare, alabaster shoulder. “But the humans—”

  What? Aeva asked.

  “Apeiron desires life for all creatures, even the dangerous ones. Driving the humans to extinction would be like annihilating all the serpents in Shaelar just because many are poisonous. It feels wrong.” Kairah sighed in frustration and then stood. “Even to enslave them, like Jenoc proposed to the synod this morning, feels wrong.”

  Then do something, Aeva gently suggested, and for just one moment her voice sounded like that of Kairah’s mother. It gave her pause.

  “I suppose I could warn the humans,” she finally said. “But leaving Allose secretly would be difficult. And how shall I move about the human lands without drawing their attention? I do not have Jenoc’s skill with the Fourth Discipline and so cannot alter my appearance.”

  The Fourth Discipline, or the Sensory Discipline, was one of the most difficult of the Five Disciplines to learn. It was second in complexity only to the Fifth it
self, which was time. In line with Kairah’s talent, and like most Allosians, she excelled in spell casting using the First Discipline: creation, as was evidenced by her talent for gardening. Kairah had some talent with the Second, the elemental discipline, and even some use of the Third, which was space. But she was entirely inept in the Fourth Discipline, the ability to influence, communicate through, or deceive the senses of others, something her brother had mastered long ago. In fact, it was only through a disproportionate amount of concentration that she could mentally reply to Aeva, which was the reason she usually answered her by speaking aloud. Fortunately, by the nature of its magic, the Spirit Lily was able to perceive her audible words in spite of having no hearing organs.

  You could pass for one of them, Aeva said.

  Kairah laughed, “Perhaps they would dismiss my pale skin, but I doubt that they could ignore my hair or eyes.

  Use a talis, Aeva suggested.

  “I do not possess an illusion pendant, they are too rare.” Kairah paused. “However,” she said slowly, “there is one in the college’s historical treasury.” Suddenly Aeva’s suggestion to undermine her brother’s plans didn’t seem so impossible. But no, Kairah thought, it would take just as much time to requisition it for study as it would to gain an audience with the synod.

  Then just take it, Aeva said.

  Kairah started. She wasn’t directing her thoughts at the Spirit Lily, and therefore hadn’t expected a response.

  “I cannot,” she finally said, shaking her head. “Such a theft would get me expelled from the college.”

  Then you are going to let the humans die? Aeva asked, her tone honest though the question seemed manipulative.

  “I—” Kairah began, but the words died in her throat. Did she really believe in the Will of Apeiron? Did she really think her brother misguided? Could she live the rest of her long life with the genocide of a species on her conscience, when she had the knowledge and power to prevent the extinction? That last question stung her. The wrongness of what her brother was attempting barreled over her every sense. Kairah hooked a lock of her long, amethyst-colored hair behind an ear. “I have no choice, do I?” she asked Aeva.