Authors: Rain Oxford
“I think Dad tried to tell me Kahún’s history… I wasn’t
paying attention, though. Those people asked me all kinds of questions about
our family and when I had a vision, they did other stuff to me, including
something that made me lose my vision. Have you talked to Dad? I can’t get
ahold of Ron and without magic, I can’t call Ikiru.”
“I can’t get to Dylan and you can’t get to Ron. The
demon war is starting and demons are attacking Dylan’s allies. We need to stop
them.”
“How can I help without my magic or vision?”
Unfortunately, he had a point. Although Dylan and I
were unstoppable together, I knew the value in having backup. Under normal
circumstances, Hail and I were a solid team, which I knew from friendly
competition against Dylan and Ron. With his bow and Ikiru, he was a formidable
force, but blind and powerless…
I also knew that Hail was too much like me. We are
both powerful in our ability to protect our brothers, and neither of us were
considered powerful by… anyone. After asking him to help me, if I changed my
mind, it would only intensify his insecurities. On the other hand, if I did let
him help me as he was, he could get killed.
“I will be right back,” I said to him. I closed my
eyes and focused on the god. “
Vretial
,” I thought as hard as I could.
“You don’t need to yell.”
I opened my eyes to find myself alone with the god.
“Heal Hail. He has been blinded and his powers are gone.”
“Both ailments are temporary and he will recover on
his own in a month or so.”
“Heal him now.”
Vretial smirked. “Are you willing to owe me a favor?”
“No. I will get you the mage staff. Heal Hail now.”
“Done.”
Without so much as a flash of light, I was instantly
standing in front of Hail. The teenager’s eyes returned to their usual purple.
“Wow. What did you do,” he asked, looking around the small cave.
“I made a deal with Vretial. Do you want to help with
the demons or do you want to rest at home?”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not staying at home while
everyone else is working. Where do we start?”
“I want to help!” Sari said.
Hail looked doubtful. “Hail, I will remind you what
happened to Sydney. Bad things happen to people we care about.” I could never
devote myself to anyone else because my most important job was to protect my
brother, which meant that anyone else I cared about could end up dead. This was
the same for Hail, although I honestly didn’t expect his relationship with Sari
to go anywhere.
Hail turned to Sari. “He’s right. You have already
helped me a lot, but I need to know you’re safe.”
“I was kidnapped at home. How is that safe?”
“We’ll leave you at Dylan’s place,” I suggested.
“There are powerful defenses that can protect you.”
“Vretial, send all three
of us to Dylan’s cabin to get supplies.”
I felt a falling sensation for a moment before the
world around us changed. When everything became clear again, we were standing
on the porch of the cabin. Unfortunately, the door was open.
“Did Ron forget to lock it down?” I asked.
“No. Ron is lazy, but he is careful. He would be
afraid of someone breaking in and stealing his violin or hair-jell. I think
this was the people who kidnapped me.”
As soon as we entered, Hail and I split up to search
the house for anything missing. Although nothing was missing, it was obvious
that someone had gone through everything. When we met back in the living room,
Hail had his bow over his shoulder and his quiver strapped to his leg.
“Ron’s violin was fine,” Hail said, tugging the
bandaging from his chest. The god had done a good job; there wasn’t a mark on
the teenager.
We packed food, water, weapons, and clothes, then set
the protection spells over the cabin. Sari was not happy about being left
behind, but we successfully swayed her with Dylan and Divina’s extensive
collection of books.
“Send Hail and I to wherever we need to be.
”
Before the thought was fully formed, we were standing
in a small village surrounded by mountains. It was dusk or dawn, a little
chilly, and although I recognized the gravity and the energy, I couldn’t place
it. I could also smell people all around us.
“Where are we?” Hail whispered.
“No idea.”
The energy is primal here. We are on Skrev,
Rojan thought.
Here, my dragon was at a disadvantage. I had plenty
of room to shift, but the people of Skrev could shift and ambush me before I
could ever make it to my stronger form. Plus, that would leave Hail vulnerable.
As I was busy worrying for his safety, the teenager
had drawn his bow, notched his arrow, and aimed at something in the distance.
His bow and the arrow both glowed with an eerie blue color to indicate that his
power was flowing through it.
I focused my attention on his target which was a
draxuni-like creature I recognized called a varug. “Stop,” I warned Hail
quietly. “It’s a child.”
He gave me an incredulous look. “It’s huge.”
“The varug of Skrev are huge, but that is about half
the size of an adult.” Hail had actually faced the varug when he was a baby–
and threw a woman against the wall in anger. He wasn’t even two years old,
however, so I expected him to forget.
Before he could argue, his target shot at us at a
powerful speed. Hail aimed the bow again, but hesitated at the last second and
lowered it. Just as he did, three slightly-smaller raduma came around the
corner of a house. As Dylan had once shifted into a raduma, I knew these were
the size of adults.
Three adults against a child… I couldn’t make a
shield as strong as Dylan’s, but I was a wizard, and these were just animals in
the face of magic. I formed my energy into a wall right behind the varug. Hail
instantly pushed his Iadnah magic into mine to strengthen my shield.
The raduma hit the shield and rebounded in obvious
pain. The varug finally reached us and dived between us, only to hit the ground
and quiver in fear.
“Shift,” I told the child. Hail repeated my command
in the Skrev language.
Fur instantly receded into pale flesh and the child’s
body shrunk. As the varug shifted, I realized I underestimated his maturity.
The boy was actually closer to Hail’s age than I thought, but he was smaller
like Ron. He had the same dark brown hair and gold eyes as he had in his furry
form. He was young enough, small enough, and frightened enough that I knew Hail
would find cause to protect the stranger.
“What is going on here?” I asked, which Hail
translated.
The boy stood on shaky legs, pointed to the raduma,
and said something.
“He was separated from his pack and they attacked
him.”
“Were you in their territory?” I asked.
Hail translated and the boy answered. “They attacked
him in his village.” The raduma shifted quickly. They were a lot bigger with
serious athletic builds, pitch-black hair, and reflective orange eyes. When the
three men shouted in obvious defense, I disliked them immediately.
I shifted my eyes to see their auras light up. People
of Skrev were difficult for me to read because they were all just as much
beasts as they were people. On Skrev, the strong survived and the weak became
stepping stools.
Ghidorah had once explained that they didn’t normally
kill those who were weak. Instead, many of the weaker people found a way to
serve the strong in exchange for protection. These raduma had no interest in
protecting anyone; they wanted blood.
“They said he was found in bed with their leader’s
daughter,” Hail explained. The varug was shaking hard now.
I sighed. “So what do you want to do about this?” I
asked.
He gaped at me. “You’re the adult!” he said, he voice
breaking just a little.
I smirked. “You’re the Guardian-in-training. This is
the stuff Dylan has to deal with when the world isn’t falling apart.”
“Ron would have a fit and tell them all to deal with
their petty squabbles like men. What would Dad do?”
“He would stand tall with grace and tell them all to
deal with their petty squabbles like men,” I assured him. Hail turned to face
the raduma when the sound of an explosion left a ringing in my ears. A nearby
cabin went up in flames. Spurred by the danger, people and raduma sprang from
hiding places everywhere. Demons soon followed the villagers into the clearing.
Demons always knew exactly what form to take to be
terribly frightening to their target. As it turned out, I had previously come
face-to-face with the nightmare of the Skrev people. The demons took the form
of a creature that was about the size of the raduma, meaning their heads would
come up to my chest if they were on all fours. They could easily be considered
gangly, were covered in black matted fur, stood bipedal, and had large,
leathery black wings. Their heads were short with solid, blood-red eyes and
wide snouts, full of fangs that were so large and sharp they could barely fit
in the creature’s mouth. Their ears were pointed and sitting high on their
heads.
Hail reached for a cluster of the demons and they
were thrown back. I drew my fire out and set some of them ablaze. Realizing we
had magic, many of the people tried to hide behind us, which I found interested
since a varug pack once tried to kill me for having magic.
“No!” Hail gasped unexpectedly.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. When his eyes glowed purple,
I reached out and caught him just as he started to fall. This was not a good
time to have a vision.
I was able to hold most of the demons back with fire,
which encouraged the people behind me so that when a demon got passed me, the
people shifted and attacked. Finally, after several minutes, Hail shook his
head and his eyes cleared. He got his feet under him, so I let him go.
“What did you see?”
“Nothing,” he lied. I knew the teenager since he was
eighteen months old; I knew when he was lying to me. Unlike most
sixteen-year-olds, Hail never went through a rebellious, self-destructive
phase, so if he was lying, he had a damn good reason to.
It was a struggle, but we fought the demons for about
half an hour before they decided they had enough and all simultaneously
vanished. After everything settled down, we discovered the little varug
protecting an even smaller raduma.
The rest of the raduma pack tried to converge on them
until Hail pushed himself between them. No raduma was getting passed a dile.
Men shifted and started yelling at my nephew, but the teenager was as stubborn
as they come. Finally, another man was drawn to the commotion and the crowd
split with fear to let him pass. The man had the same black hair and reflective
eyes as his pack, but his aura was much more powerful. Hail met the man’s eyes
easily.
They spoke to each other in calm voices until they
came to some sort of agreement, after which Hail stepped out of the way and
returned to my side. “Edine was the only one brave enough to protect the pack
master’s daughter while her own guards ran in fear,” Hail explained. “The alpha
was impressed and made him her official guard, with the stipulation that if he
impregnated her, he would be neutered. The alpha went on to explain the process
in which Edine would be neutered and I felt a bit sick. Seriously, it involved
glass, dirt, and fire.”
I laughed. “Pretty good for your first field mission,”
I said, sheathing the azurath sword.
“I think Edine just became the most celibate man on
Skrev.”
“Mission accomplished. Next place.”
We appeared in a city on Vaigda. If the glittering
city and the medical/communication bracelets on everyone’s wrist wasn’t enough
to clue me in on where we were, Shiloh fighting demons was.
The city before us with the insanely tall structures
was in dire condition. Glass littered the ground and once elegant statues were
smashed and crushed. Entire buildings had holes in the sides. People here were
not afraid of a little war, however.
On Duran, bows were outdated but classic. These
people had guns small enough to fit in a pocket that shot beams of light that
literally vaporized any demon unfortunate enough to get in their way. Any time
I tried to focus on a particular demon, someone shot it first. The demons, who
were all in the form of people, were disposed of within minutes.
Shiloh turned to us and smiled politely. “Hello,
Mordon, Hail… Where are Dylan and Ron?”
He had short, medium brown hair done and medium blue
eyes. His normally ridiculously white clothes were dingy with the ash of
demons. I thought it was odd that every person of Vaigda had a problem with
blood and dirtiness, yet none of them were freaking out about the ash.
“They’re busy. We just came to help, but it looks
like we weren’t needed at all,” I said.
The Guardian shrugged. “We know how to take care of
ourselves.”
“Send us to somewhere we can actually do some
good,”
I thought at the god. Nothing happened.
Perhaps we are needed here for some other reason
,
Rojan thought.
I sighed. “Have you heard anything from the others
about Janus?”
“Ghidorah is hiding a few of the void guardians, who
seemed to believe Janus went into hiding
before
the Ancients started
attacking. Kiro should have better luck finding him; they were friends of some
sort.”
“Kiro is working with Dylan on something else.”
Though I wasn’t sure exactly what it was. “If Janus did act first, he must have
known something was happening. When he is found, I want to know what tipped him
off and why he didn’t warn Dylan.”
“Is Janus our friend or enemy?”
“He is our friend until proven otherwise.”
“Hey!” Hail said, poking me hard in the arm and
pointing off to a crowd behind me. “Someone just vanished. Like Dad and the
gods do, some woman just disappeared.”