Pursuit: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 4) (12 page)

“Sometimes?” I asked.

“Yes, I have been known to have the occasional bout of non-idiocy. Anyway, where is everyone?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow at me.

“Inside the walls. All the civilians were moved into the center of town to keep them from being cannon-fodder for invading forces,” I replied with a shrug. “Except we can’t really keep people outside the walls so they still die.”

Kain smirked at me before turning away and kicking a rock. It skittered along the dusty path sending up little clouds of debris as it skipped along. “That’s how it used to be actually. We used to keep everyone inside, but it got so crowded that people opted to move outside. We got huge plots of land for moving out, and a lot of us did so because, well, why not? Then, after the first invasion… well no one wanted to let us back in…” Kain shrugged, his shoulders rising and slumping.

“You were here when the first group moved into the outskirts?” I asked, stunned. I mean I’d heard about that time, but it might as well have been a fairy tale for how much weight I’d given it.

“I was really young when that happened. Too young to remember, really. I lived out here, in the outskirts, until I passed my tests and got brought in as part of the army. I do remember being stuck in a broom closet with my mother while people outside screamed.” A shudder ran through him, and without thinking, I reached out and hugged him from behind.

“I’m sorry,” I said, releasing him a moment later.

“Don’t be, this was before your time,” he said, his voice tinged with that same sadness. “It makes you wonder why I did it, doesn’t it? Why I let Manaka’s army in? Well, the answer is because I was an angry kid with too much strength to know he was weak.”

He stopped and pointed off into the distance. “See, my house used to be right there and, well, afterward we moved because no one would take us in. My mother was always afraid something bad was going to… to happen again. Then one day I saw the king, he looked so nice in his fancy clothes and guards. He had his two boys with him, Masataka and Mitsoumi, but Mitsoumi couldn’t have been more than two years old. Masataka had just been born and the king was showing him off, I guess.” He moved a few paces off the dirt road and looked toward the city. Its walls shown in the distance like sunlight stretched across white metal.

“Um… how old were you at the time?” I asked.

“My mom tried to get us good seats. She waited all night in the cold so I could see the king, and well, we were right by the road. It was so exciting, there were all kinds of people and… I dunno, I tripped and fell in front of the procession like the stupid kid I was and nearly got trampled,” he trailed off for a second, and a tear was slipped down his cheek. “Well, the guards descended on me, trying to keep me from getting near the king, and while they didn’t hurt me, a huge riot broke out. I’m not sure how it happened exactly but…”

“She died…” I said, and the words felt hollow in my mouth, like I was chewing on a piece of plastic.

“She died,” he affirmed, still staring off into the distance.

“So was it revenge?” I asked.

“Maybe? I think it was mostly stupidity.” He shook his head as we approached a spot a little farther away. He knelt down in the dirt, pawing at it for a minute before standing and wiping his face with the back of his hand. “Did you know that if you stand right here,” he said, kicking at the dirt with the toe of his boot. “And leap into the air about fifty feet, you’ll catch a wind current that will take you straight down to Earth?”

“No,” I said swallowing. “Though I find it a little hard to imagine jumping off a floating city miles above Earth is… safe?”

“It isn’t, don’t tell anyone.” With that statement, Kain leapt straight up into the air. There was a flash of silver light as he vanished from sight.

I turned and glanced back toward the city. “I should leave,” I said to myself. “I should follow Kain. I should run away.” I sighed and knelt down in the black dirt, picking up a handful of the stuff and letting it run through my hands. “But I’m not going to do that,” I said as I stood. “Why? Because I’m an idiot.”

Chapter 11

“You should get one of those devices the earth people stick in their ears when they talk on the phone,” Masataka said. “That way you won’t look so crazy when you talk to yourself.”

I whirled around to see Masataka standing there, leaning casually on his trident. He wasn’t wearing anything besides his Vajra, and it slithered over his skin like a living oil-slick, covering from head to toe in glistening darkness. Behind him was an army of Royal Guards, and while some of them were probably Charlie, I was betting that several more were real this time.

Behind them was an army of ‘regular’ Dioscuri, and while I recognized several of the faces, I was pretty sure they weren’t here to help me. There were so many people here… and they hadn’t been here a second ago. I took a hesitant step backward, kicking up black dust with my heel.

“I’m surprised you know what a phone is!” I snapped, glancing past him and trying to find my mother in the crowd. I didn’t see her.

Masataka grinned and stuck his hand to his chest in mock affront. “I’m hurt, Lillim. Sure, I might not know as much about the human world as you do, but I know my way around a coffee shop.”

I swallowed and reached down for my swords with trembling hands… only they weren’t around my waist. They were still trapped in my spirit pouch. Great.

“Is that so?” I asked, shoving my fear deep down inside me. I narrowed my eyes and took a step toward him. “How did you sneak up on me with this many people?”

“It is so,” he said with a smirk. “We’ve been waiting here for a while. Honestly, I thought you’d escape sooner, but I guess I gave you a little too much credit.” He took a few steps toward me as he spoke and reached out toward me with one hand. “See, Dirge took me off Lot from this very spot. I figured that since you’re her rip-off, you might try and escape like the weasel you are. This would be the most likely spot you’d use for your escape, which is why we’re here. Sure there are others spread out across Lot, but I was just hedging my bets with those.” He curled his hand into a fist. “I knew you would come here, Lillim. I knew you would try to run away.”

“For what?” I asked, stamping closer to him so that we were only a couple feet apart. “You already had me captured. If you were going to kill me, you had your chance already.”

“Kill you? Why would I kill you?” he asked, taking a step back and turning his body toward the crowd. “She thinks I want to kill her.”

Creepy laughter rippled through the Royal Guards, and they seemed to swell, like an ocean wave starting to form way out at sea.

“You don’t want to kill me?” I asked, slightly taken aback. Hadn’t he done nothing but try and kill me, like, this whole time? If he didn’t want me dead then why had he tortured my mother and hunted me down?

“Well I do,” Masataka said with a shrug. “But not until I’ve thoroughly beaten you, Lillim. I need to make you pay for what you’ve done. Slitting your throat while you’re unconscious in a dungeon is not really very fun.” He vanished from sight, and a moment later, I felt his hand on my cheek. His fingers were so cold that it was like ice trailing down my flesh as he stroked my face from behind me.

“You know you’re crazy, right? I haven’t done anything to you!” I whirled around, throwing his hand off me. I was done, just done with him. Everything about him was a riddle, some kind of puzzle I couldn’t quite wrap my head around. It was too much.

“You’ve taken everything from me, Lillim. You took Dirge’s memory from me. You took Manaka’s death from me. What have you left me with?” he asked, pushing his trident into the flesh of my throat.

I fought the urge to wince. Instead, I lashed out with my hand, pouring magic into the movement so that I seized his weapon. I rolled backward as I did so and flung him head over heels into the dirt behind me. I rolled, getting to my feet and facing him.

He lay there unmoving as laughter poured from his lips. It echoed across the blackened husk that had once been the outskirts. Behind me, the crowd trembled. Their anticipation was like a weight pressing against me. I glanced back at them once more. Where was my mother? Why wasn’t she with her Dioscuri?

“Dirge’s memory is still there! I’ve taken nothing from you, Masataka. Everything you and her had is still there. I haven’t changed that,” I said as I reached out with my left hand and tore apart the air. The familiar purple portion of space allotted to my spirit pouch appeared in front of me. “Come,” I said.

My blades flew from the spirit pouch, tearing free of the purple light with a loud plop. Isis and Set hit my hands with their familiar weight, and as I raised them in front of me, the energy of Lot surged through me. If we were inside the city, I could have drawn on more power, but I was close enough.

Masataka rolled to his hands and knees, still smirking as I pointed the twin blades of Shirajirashii at him. “Whose weapon is that?” he asked, teal eyes glinting.

“Mine!” I snapped.

“Wrong,” he said, standing. “Those swords belong to Dirge Meilan.”

“No they
don’t
!” I screamed, and the ground around me exploded in a spray of black dirt. “Why can’t you understand that she is gone?”

“Oh I do understand,” he said, smoothing away the mop of hair on his forehead to reveal a hideous scar. “I know she is gone because I’m the one who brought her back. I’m the one who was sacrificed, the one who stepped into Zef’s swirling pools.” He raised his trident into the air, and the ground beneath my feet shook. “I am the one who gave you life, Lillim Callina. Now, I just want to take it back.”

“Well, come on then,” I said, extending my wakazashi toward him.

“Very well, Lillim Callina. Very well,” he said, turning to face the crowd. “I challenge her to trial by combat.”

A collective gasp went up from the crowd as Masataka turned back to me and grinned. “Your move, Lillim,” he said. “Or are you too scared?”

“I’m not scared of you, Masataka. I’m just a little confused as to why you brought an army out here with you to fight me one on one,” I said, readying my weapons and pointing them at him. “I don’t know what you’re hoping to prove either.”

“They are to make sure you don’t run away,” he said, grinning at me. “Like Kain.”

“Fine,” I said. “I’m not sure how we start though.”

“I know,” Masataka replied as he dropped his weapon to the ground. It hit the dirt so hard that it was like a gunshot across the field.

He vanished from sight, and I whirled around, swinging the twin blades of Shirajirashii in an arc at the space behind where I’d been standing. But instead of appearing behind me, like he’d done every other time, he appeared well… behind me. But the behind me that would have been in front of me, if I hadn’t spun.

His fist lashed out, cleaving through the air and crashing into my left shoulder. Pain shot through my left arm. Set slipped from my grip. It spun off across the dirt, kicking up debris as it tumbled end over end. Murmurs went up from the crowd as I dropped to the ground, avoiding his foot as it lashed out at my kidneys. I rolled in the dirt as his foot came down on the spot where I’d been.

I scrambled to my feet and pointed my katana at him… only he was grinning. “What are you going to do with that?” he asked, making a flippant gesture toward Isis. “That weapon has all the stopping power of a goldfish.”

Which… was true… my wakazashi, Set, was now halfway across the field. It was the one that had all my offensive attacks. Had he done this on purpose?

Masataka snapped his fingers, and the ground beneath me exploded. I threw myself to the side as huge spikes of stone burst from the earth.

“You know what’s interesting about you and Dirge?” he asked, striding toward me. Every single time his feet touched the earth, more stalagmites exploded from the ground so that I had to keep darting around in order to avoid them.

“What?” I screamed as I leapt at him only to be cut off by an explosion of stone. I fell backward on my ass and rolled to the side as a freaking mountain of pointy rock erupted beneath me.

“You never did learn any long range attacks,” he said with a grin. “I bet it’s why you use guns.”

“Actually…” I said, gripping Isis with both hands and whirling around to slash through another outcropping of stone. Power rippled around me and the sky above grew cloudy. “I’ve got one long range move, Masataka. You remember, don’t you?”

Masataka glanced from me to the sky overhead and screamed. He rushed toward me, no longer the calm, collected Dioscuri of a couple moments ago. His teal eyes were suddenly wild as he sprinted at me, hands curled into claws.

“Shikuhakku,” I said, the word slipping past my lips like a winter storm. Above us, crimson clouds swirled into existence. Masataka skidded to a stop a few feet in front of me, looking overhead in horror. “I don’t think you’ll find any cover here, Masataka.” I took a step toward him as the sky above began to bleed. Sanguine tears fell from the sky, turning the ground into bloody mud. “You’re not scared, are you, Masataka?”

“No!” he screamed, diving toward me. He hit me in the chest with his shoulder, and the force of it knocked my breath from my lungs. Isis went spinning across the dirt as his fist came down. My head snapped back under the force of the blow as red rain fell, pelting us.

Masataka’s eyes twitched as the fluid spattered across the back of his head, seeping into his hair and rolling down his cheeks like scarlet tears. “No!” he screamed, and it was the sound of a wounded animal. His fist lashed out again, catching me in the mouth. My lips broke apart in a spray of blood as he lifted his fist once more.

I smiled at him, my teeth a macabre canvas, and reached out to him. My fingers touched his cheek as he shuddered. “Don’t fight it, Masataka,” I cooed. “This is happening.”

He fell forward, eyes rolling up in his head until I could only see the whites. His Vajra pulsed, turning every shade of the rainbow as it tried to fight off the effects of my magic, only I didn’t think it could. The Vajra could ward off the red rain, sure, but not what had already hit his skin and seeped inside. It was like trying to cover a raging river with a beaver dam.