by J. P. Rice
“I owe you one,” I told her. I had to be careful though and not let her put me in danger. The Morrigan had said friendships are like two people holding onto a string. Too many strings and you could end up hanging yourself.
The Goddess of Death saw friendship as a hindrance that could get one killed. Friends know your secrets and can betray you, she would say frequently. It was why I lied about myself a lot and didn’t reveal much of my past to strangers.
The converse effect was that after five hundred years, I still didn’t know the real Junipher. Was I the loving wife? The murdering magical thief? The mother? The benevolent relic hunter who had stopped the Nazis? The one trying to end the ongoing winter in Pittsburgh? Or was I subconsciously only worried about myself and doing this to secure my spot in the pantheon?
Perhaps they were all true. They had all formed the individual sitting here in the lair of a demon cult. I was damaged, but not broken. I couldn’t help thinking there was a higher purpose to my life. After all I’d been through, there had to be a reason I was still alive. A higher meaning.
Purrmecius burst through the door with an evil grin on his face. Staring at the platter, he opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. With his mouth agape and his tiny cat finger pointing at the empty platter, Purrmecius stood in silence. Apparently, he’d wanted to yell at us for not completing the task.
“Well done,” he said in a defeated tone. “Now you can join the general population.”
Chapter 11
A few days had passed, and the operation was clear. Purrmecius, two demons and one human were attempting to brainwash the recruits. Most days were spent getting lectured about the terrible humans who weren’t to be trusted. The rest of the time, they taught us a few spells to practice.
The indoctrination lasted from the moment I woke up until I lay down to sleep for a few hours deep in the night. They wanted everyone to feel sympathetic to the demons, and it appeared to be working. Most of the recruits had been beaten down by life to the point that they had grown bitter. They viewed their plights as the fault of everyone else, who deserved to die.
My background story seemed to be on par with most of the down and out recruits. I could barely concentrate on anything they said because I was constantly worrying about my dragons. I’d known this would be a longer mission, but being away from my babies was killing me. Unfortunately, I had a mountain to climb and I was still standing at the base.
I entered the basement and some of the recruits were standing in a straight line. This had all the makings of our first magic test.
Magic. The great equalizer. It could turn a tiny man into a giant. Or it could help a tiny man defeat a giant in battle.
About one in ten thousand humans could harness magic. I still had trouble coming to grips with that. A normal human could handle magic, but someone born from two Gods like me couldn’t. It didn’t make sense. Anyway, only a very small number from that pool would ever realize their magical abilities.
There were some people out there who had more power than I did, but they’d never learned how to tap into it properly. For every Mike Merlino, there were thousands of humans who would never discover their innate talent.
Many wondered how normal humans stumbled upon magic. I had a theory. Changelings.
A changeling was a creature from the Fae world left in place of a human child stolen by the faeries. When the changeling had children, he or she passed down that magic to the offspring. The raw power that Mike possessed led me to believe he could be a changeling himself, especially with his vampiric appearance. It was hard to believe that he was just a normal human.
Purrmecius raised his hand and everyone stared at him in silence.
“Psychokinesis,” Purrmecius said with one eye closed and his head tilted as he paced in front of us. The hairless cat demon seemed to derive a certain pleasure from his position of authority. He basked in the glory of the new recruits hanging onto his every word.
When I had seen him in the Red Cavern, the higher up demons had treated him like a lackey. This seemed like a nice promotion for the cat demon.
Purrmecius had herded us into a dimly lit room with no furniture except for a portable square table with a tennis ball on it. Eight new recruits including me were standing in a straight line.
Purrmecius continued, “Magic. In its truest form, magic is performing actions with your mind. Psychokinesis will allow us to find out if you have any special ability. Some magic can be learned, but the best is natural. It’s burned into your soul. Therefore, you can never lose it. Forget the words to a spell, and they are useless. Innate magic. Nothing can trump it.”
He moved closer and paced in front of the recruits. “Before we start teaching you any magic, we need to figure out your starting point. Some might start with more advanced lessons. Those who demonstrate magical ability will be the most valuable. An obvious statement, yes. Show your value to the cause, and we will respect that value greatly.”
I knew that was a lie from my last stay in the Red Cavern. If someone showed too much power, the demons saw it as a threat, thus eliminating the threat. But if they showed no magical ability, they were treated like slaves. It was a weird tightrope to walk.
With the tennis ball on the table, I had a pretty good idea where this was headed. That boded well for me. My psychokinesis skills were nowhere near that of the Morrigan. She could pick up vehicles and hurl them at a target.
My skills were much weaker. I’d obtained them from a pure magic practitioner, so they had certain parameters. With this skill, I couldn’t use them to steal money or do anything destructive without an underlying noble reason. Would I be able to use it to move a tennis ball on a table? It wouldn’t hurt anyone, but it also wouldn’t help anyone.
The Morrigan had always told me that the skills would come through when someone’s life was on the line. She’d compared it to when a tiny woman would lift a car to save her dying child. Most people only used a tiny fraction of their real ability and had a capacity for supernatural feats of strength.
With this exercise being totally for show, I wasn’t sure if my psychokinesis would cooperate. The pure magic always had rules attached, unlike the dark magic. There weren’t many contingencies with the black magic. Except that it could seize control of my body at any time and turn me into an instrument of death. The pure magic never took over like that. It existed peacefully inside me.
Three recruits had failed miserably. None of them had budged the tennis ball. As the third recruit skulked back into line, Purrmecius pointed his finger at me.
“Next,” he said without emotion. His frown told me he wasn’t happy with the results so far.
The tennis ball sat in an indentation on the padded tabletop. I started to sweat. If I didn’t make the ball roll, I could be stuck in this house for months. But if I showed too much power, the demons would see me as a threat and kill me.
Unfortunately, it was extremely difficult to control my psychokinesis. The restrictions had annoyed me so much that I hardly ever used it. With so many other talents that were easier to operate, psychokinesis didn’t get much use.
I cleared my thoughts and focused on the tennis ball. A few seconds passed and I used my mental force to move the ball. I sent the energy right at the number 8 at the top of the ball. That should roll it out of that divot. Come on. Start rolling.
Dammit. The tennis ball didn’t budge.
Fook. Purrmecius was licking his teeth and making a nasty smacking sound that prevented me from concentrating on my task. He had to be growing frustrated with this activity since no one had succeeded yet.
Pushing all my crowded thoughts to the side, I locked my eyes on the tennis ball. A calm focus washed over me. All my problems were vanishing. The tightness in my chest loosened, and despite the lack of caffeine, I felt wide awake.
The number 8 turned sideways and a surge of clean magic coursed through my body. It waded through the darkness, something I had great trouble with, and sna
ked out to my extremities. My scalp tingled and my chest pumped.
As I stared at the 8, it rotated again. I heard the recruits and Purrmecius gasp, which told me I was on the right track. The number 8 tumbled over and over until the tennis ball rolled off the small table.
I turned to Purrmecius, whose mouth was agape. He closed his jaw quickly and pursed his lips. “Not bad. Perhaps you could teach your cohorts how to do that.”
I couldn’t. I was useless as a professor of magic. My talent was stolen, and I couldn’t teach it to anyone. I’d sworn to the Morrigan that I would keep the blood ritual a secret. People might ask how the Morrigan would ever find out?
Her birds. Some of her crows were physical creatures and some of them were magic. And they could be invisible. One could be in this room right now. Hidden in plain sight. And then the magic bird would go back to the Morrigan and repeat the entire conversation verbatim.
I didn’t understand how she did it, I just knew it had happened many times before. She had obtained secret information that no one else could get. And if the Morrigan found out that I was passing her secrets along to other people, she would kill me out of principle.
I didn’t fear anyone. But if I made a list of people I didn’t want to fight, the Morrigan would be at the top with Kovana. We’d sparred verbally many times. On a few occasions, words had almost turned into a physical altercation. I couldn’t even imagine an all-out brawl with her though.
Three more recruits attempted to move the tennis ball. All three failed. Purrmecius called on my only friend in the house.
Cheryl took two even paces forward and two to her left, squaring herself with the tennis ball in the middle of the table. I stepped to the right so that I could see a profile of her face. Her eyes were closed and her lips were moving, but no words came from her mouth.
Her eyes flashed open and I turned to the tennis ball. The thing didn’t budge. Hmm. I liked Cheryl. If she failed, she would likely be stuck in this house for a long time. I had to act quick as she stamped her right foot.
I hesitated because of the odds. It was astronomically unlikely that two people in this small group had access to magic. If I helped her, Purrmecius could grow suspicious and it could blow my cover. However, it wasn’t impossible. If one dealt with numbers enough, anomalies did occur. Sounded like I’d made up my mind.
My psychokinesis powers weren’t great, so I created an invisible ball by reassembling some of the elements in the air. It grew to about the same size as the tennis ball. I injected some camouflage magic into the ball to make sure Purrmecius wouldn’t see it.
I waited until the cat demon turned away and focused on the target. Holding the invisible object by my hip, I flicked my wrist sidearm and the ball launched from my fingertips.
I watched it sail across the room, skim off the top of the table and smack into the tennis ball. The green ball shot off the table and rolled toward the open door. Purrmecius caught sight of it and lifted his head, staring at Cheryl. He raised what would have been his eyebrows, but only wrinkled his forehead.
“I was not expecting that. Two in one day has never happened before,” the leader said, staring at me and nodding in admiration. My heart fluttered as he held his gaze on me. Then, he turned to the door and said, “Now follow me upstairs for the next lesson of the day.”
Phew, that was close. I wanted to keep Cheryl as close as possible. Being undercover meant I could be friendly with her and not reveal anything about my real self. And I’d just paid back my debt to her and she didn’t even know it. I headed for the door and someone yanked my shirt from behind. As I turned around, I closed my fist and prepared for action.
I completed the one-eighty and was face to face with Cheryl. She looked me in the eye with a goofy smile, then lowered her head, apparently unsure of what to say. Maybe she did know I’d helped her.
I ended the awkward silence. “Nice job.” It was all I had. As I tried to think of something clever, she stepped forward. The heat of her body made my heart race, and she wrapped her arms around me.
She whispered in my ear, “Thanks. Now I owe you one.” She kissed me on the cheek, and I jumped back like a virgin. Whoa. This put me in a precarious situation.
“Let’s go,” Purrmecius yelled from the top of the steps.
She looked me in the eye and smiled. She winked and said, “Thanks again.”
“Don’t mention it.” No. Like, seriously. How did she know it was me?
Oh, right. I was the only one to complete the challenge. Not exactly a five-star mystery there. As I climbed the steps, a jolt of positive energy flashed through me for helping someone out. A feeling that didn’t come around very often. I just had to avoid this going any further than a friendly kiss on the cheek.
Chapter 12
Purrmecius called us into the basement, which was nothing more than an open room with dull green carpeting. It was the first time all twenty-two recruits were in the same place at once. Purrmecius lined us up against two walls for what appeared to be an inspection.
I closed my eyes and remembered the manly features I’d seen in the mirror a few days ago. If I slipped up on my appearance under close inspection, it would be game over. I got a strong visual and locked everything in place.
Once I shifted, the look normally held, but I had a few worries this time. My magic had been wonky since the lava bath so it wasn’t a forgone conclusion that I could maintain the same appearance for days on end. The abnormalities put me on edge, but also caused me to focus on the details.
I had to walk a tightrope. I couldn’t show all my talents. That meant I was being judged as a fraction of myself. And the fact that I was in male form didn’t help my chances.
A loud knock on the door claimed everyone’s attention. An ugly grin developed on Purrmecius’s face as he waddled quickly over to the door. Through the opening, I could see one of the Chieftains from the Red Cavern nod at Purrmecius and enter the room.
Aka Manah was an interesting demonic creature. He had the body of a tall, strong man, but his head resembled a bleached steer’s skull with twisted horns. Two yellow eyes with black slits for pupils were embedded into the orbits. A golden amulet shaped like a half moon clung to the middle of his forehead.
Dressed in a black pinstripe suit and a white tie, Aka Manah paced in front of the recruits, looking each person up and down. He stopped in front of Cheryl and pointed at her. “I’ll have this one,” he said, and Purrmecius scurried over.
Purrmecius hooked Cheryl’s arm and led her to the door. Another demon waiting at the doorway took my only friend in the house away. I assumed this was the selection process for the Red Cavern. Aka Manah picked another female and then held a whispering sidebar with Purrmecius.
Purrmecius pointed his clawed finger at a few of the recruits. Then I watched him point at me and whisper something to Aka Manah. The two demons finished their talk and Aka Manah turned his attention back to us.
My heart pumped in anticipation. I’d been here for five days and this was the first time someone from the Red Cavern had showed up. If I didn’t get selected, could I wait around here for another week or so? My dragons were already calling me. And I wanted to check on Alexis.
Aka Manah chose four more women, who were rushed out the door and up the steps. Perhaps my decision to shift into male form would hold me back. I’d wanted to avoid all the cruelty women had to put up with in the Red Cavern. Unfortunately, I’d overlooked this process and the fact that they favored women.
The demons wanted humans to join their cause, but they worried about them gaining too much magical power. They favored women because they viewed them as the weaker sex. Their fear of powerful humans had resulted in my lava bath the last time I was there.
Someone had ratted me out and told the demons about my true powers. I’d tried to downplay my magical ability and only confided in a few people. One of them had apparently betrayed me and tattled to the higher ups. One other possible scenario was that someone just d
idn’t like me and had lied to the devils and chieftains to take me out.
Either way, I’d love to find out who sold me out, but I needed to stay focused on the main task at hand. The people of Pittsburgh were suffering. The Dagda’s Harp stood as the only chance to stop the never-ending winter. I couldn’t fail. Unfortunately, I needed to gain access to the Red Cavern first.
Aka Manah stopped in front of me and put his bony finger in my face. He turned to Purrmecius and grunted. The latter nodded with his eyes closed, and Aka Manah grunted in return.
“No. How about you?” Aka Manah said and pointed to the guy next to me.
Fookin fook.
My heart sank into my shoe as Purrmecius followed Aka Manah out the door, signaling that the selection process had ended.
I turned to the person next to me. “How often do they do this?”
The shorter, lazy-eyed gentleman looked up at me. “Bout once a month.”
I couldn’t stay here another month. No way. Perhaps I could shift the plan? Call in my favor from Zeus, round up all my friends and take the Harp by force? Not a bad idea. It would take some time to set up, but I would be on the outside and able to visit my dragons.
My mind shifted to an escape plan. They didn’t guard the house well, so walking out in the middle of the night seemed logical. I was pissed that I’d wasted five days in this dump with nothing to show for it.
A few minutes passed, and Aka Manah and Purrmecius burst through the door.
Aka Manah stuck his finger an inch from Purrmecius’s wrinkled nose, and said condescendingly, “How could you not catch him?”
“How was I to know he would run?” Purrmecius defended himself. “You picked him.”
Aka Manah backed his finger away from Purrmecius’s face and pointed at me. “Is he a runner?”
Purrmecius answered, “I don’t know.” The demon walked up and stood right in front of me. “Well, boy. Will you run if selected?”
I was glad they couldn’t read my mind. Thirty seconds ago, running away was the only thought in my head. “Absolutely not.”
