Birthright - Book 2 of the Legacy Series (An Urban Fantasy Novel) (6 page)

“Welcome to my place, my young friend. How can I help you today?” His voice wasn’t raspy or throaty but it had a strength to it which conveyed power and confidence. But despite all that, he had a loving tone, like a parent seeing his child once more. Which was true to an extent, I suppose.

After I’d moved here, all messed up after Tenzin had died and all I had was an empty office and an even emptier heart, I had come across Sun Tsu’s in an attempt to find a place which catered to my particular needs. Turns out, Sun Tsu was more than just a shopkeeper. The guy was genuinely nice, a great listener, and gave words of wisdom which were actually helpful instead of cryptic.

“I have an apprentice now, Sun,” I said. He smiled and peered at Abi, who averted her gaze shyly. He kept staring at her.

“Ah, yes. She is special, indeed. Although this is hardly surprising. Special people tend to be attracted to each other by fate,” he mused. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss…?”

“Abigale,” she replied, and shook his fragile-looking hand. “Abi for short,” she added with a nervous laugh.

Sun Tzu’s eyes twinkled. “My dear, when you get to be as old as me, you’ll come to realize that patience is the best of virtues. And besides, Abigale is a beautiful name.” He bowed slightly.

I noticed Abi’s eyes darken, usually a look she reserved for drunken frat boys in clubs who hit on her like someone’s paying them for it. I leaned over and whispered, “He’s not coming on to you. That’s his way of being polite. Now, bow back.”

She bowed slightly and Sun Tzu’s expression lit up.

“What’s up, Grandpa?” said Amaymon. Normally, I wouldn’t take Amaymon out to a restaurant. He was rude and a glutton. Oh, and a talking cat.

I glanced over to the other patrons.

One of them gave me a blank look, before returning to his game of mahjong. Something told me this wasn’t exactly their first encounter with the supernatural. I had no idea what patronage frequented Sun Tzu’s, but if they were all like me, talking cats were considered less horrifying and more… cute.

Sun Tzu crouched down slowly and scratched the cat on its head. “Ah, talking kitty is here, too.” Amaymon let out a satisfied purr.

“I’ll put some noodles out for you,” cooed Sun Tzu.

“You’re the best, Gramps,” replied the cat.

“Come, come. Sit,” insisted the old man as he half-dragged us to an empty table. He craned his neck and yelled out something in his native tongue. A black guy, complete with an afro, popped his head out from the curtain of beads separating the kitchen from the main restaurant.

“Got it,” he yelled before disappearing and reappearing again with a tray. He placed the stuff on our table and stood there, awaiting introductions.

“Eddie, here, has been kind enough to help out in exchange for tutelage,” explained Sun Tzu.

I eyed Eddie. He looked like he belonged in a 70’s disco, with his ridiculously large afro. In contrast with his dark skin, his purple Chinese suit shone like a searchlight. He flashed me a cheesy smile.

“Hey, man, you’re Erik, right?” he said as he extended his arm. I shook it and nodded. “Man, it’s so cool to meet you. Heard a lot of stories about you.” He gave Amaymon, who had climbed on the table and dipped his head in the bowl of noodles, a raised eyebrow before setting his eyes on Abi.

“Oh, damn.” He quickly brushed his hands and swallowed hard. “I’m Eddie.”

“Abi,” she replied. Eddie blinked twice at her.

“Girl, you single?” he said as he raised his eyebrows hopefully.

Abi burst out laughing in his face. I tried, and failed, to hide my snicker. I mean, come on, is this what courting has come to? One handshake and a pick-up line from the
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
? Sun Tzu calmly raised his hand and smacked his student across the back of his head.

“Sorry, sorry,” Eddie said as he backed away. “Damn, that girl is fine.”

Once he left, Sun Tzu made apologies on his behalf. “If he made the same effort to train as he does chasing after women, he’d best me as a warrior.”

Abi sipped her tea. “I’m a succubus. Or part succubus. Not really sure myself. But that tends to happen often around me.”

“Ah, I see,” nodded Tzu. “Erik, may I ask why you are here today?”

I looked at the cat. “This was your idea. So, explain it to him.”

The cat looked up from the noodles and sat down in the middle of the table. In a few breaths, he explained the entire situation to Sun Tzu. The wizened old man simply stroked his beard and traced his finger gently around his china cup, never averting his gaze from the cat.

When Amaymon finished, Sun Tzu gazed at me knowingly. “I can help with your apprentice. But I would also like to talk to you in private once you have the chance. I shall make preparations to see if anything in my collection meets your specifications, Abigale.” He gave us a slight bow and called Eddie again. “Please prepare the basement for a selection process.”

Eddie gave a stern nod and dashed back inside.

Sun Tzu stood up. “Long, would you please mind the shop for a while?” he directed to the group of patrons who had ignored us all this time. One of them, the tallest, with a pencil-thin figure and a long chin, raised his hand — a long and wiry thing with curved fingernails - and with deliberate calm placed a mahjong tile in place. He muttered something in Chinese.

Some zoologists say that the frequency of a lion’s roar triggers something in the human brain — a long-dormant alarm bell which sends us running away screaming from a predator which can swallow us whole. I’ve seen things that make lions as much of a threat as a fichus. Even my cat, sitting two feet away from me, was more dangerous than I could even begin to understand.

But when Long spoke, the rumble of his voice struck against my very soul, and it was all I could do not to wet myself. Amaymon had stopped stuffing his face to look at him with predatory eyes. Even Abi took an unconscious step backwards.

“Hey, Amaymon, isn’t Long Chinese for-” I began.

“Dragon, yes,” he finished for me. We both looked at each other, and then back at the man in question.

Sun Tzu muttered a thank you in Chinese and saw our expressions. “Oh, don’t mind him. He likes to show off.” With a chuckle, he beckoned us to follow him.

Abi grabbed my sleeve and held me back.

“What the hell is this place?” she exhaled, her teeth clattering as she tried very hard not to shake uncontrollably. With a hard expression, she continued. “I’m not backing out or anything, but at least tell me who these people are. That guy over there let out one vowel and I was ready to run away screaming.”

“I’ve got no idea who those guys are. This is the first time I’ve seen them. Or perhaps they’ve always been there and I never noticed them,” I explained. “This is a shop that caters to people like us, Abi, so expect some strange and scary folks out here.”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” she said. “But that guy can’t be Sun Tzu. I googled him after you guys mentioned him last week and there’s no way that’s the same guy. He’d be thousands of years old.”

Amaymon hopped from the table and began following Sun Tzu. “Occam’s Razor, Abi. The obvious answer is usually the correct one.”

She gave me a horrified look. “That’s the real Sun Tzu? How?”

“I’d guess he’s immortal in some way,” I said.

“Is he some sort of god?” she asked as we began following Sun Tzu to the basement.

“Nope. No god is able to keep a human form for that long. And he’s no demon or angel. I think he’s the next best thing to a god.”

“What would that be?” she asked.

“My guess, an avatar.”

The basement was huge, almost twice the size of an aircraft hangar. On the far side of the right wall a large computer screen dominated the entire wall. Other electronic components and gadgets were spread across the large workbench that ran along the length of the wall. It looked like something out of a sci-fi flick, and I seriously expected aliens with bulbous heads and eyes to appear out of a hidden door.

“What is this place?” asked Abi as she eyed the leviathan space.

“This is a training facility, a laboratory, and a storage room,” said Sun Tzu. He slowly made his way to the computer. “Over here we shall see if I happen to have something suited for your particular needs.”

I looked around. Supposedly, Sun Tzu had an entire collection of monsters and magical memorabilia, the likes of which were never collected before. At least that was the word on the street. And yet, in this supposed ‘storage room’, all I saw were bare walls and a computer as big as the first one ever built.

“Where are the monsters?” I asked.

Sun Tzu chuckled. “Monsters?” he repeated. “I suppose I did allow the rumors to get out of hand. There are no monsters here, my dear friend, other than the ones we bring with us.”

“Huh?” said Abi and I said in unison.

“I have no monsters here,” he said. His storm-gray eyes poured directly into mine. “I am no warlock, Erik. My methods are much more ancient. I simply have a collection, which happens to include certain items which may suit your apprentice.”

“So, no channels?” said Amaymon. “No wonder this place looks so barren.”

Sun Tzu let out short, annoyed breath. “Ah. No, no channels. Nothing like Erik’s Djinn sword.”

I tapped the handle of my short sword absent-mindedly. “I thought Amaymon specified a channel.” I shifted my weight uncomfortably. I had this sinking feeling Sun Tzu was not telling me the whole truth and it felt like betrayal. I mean, my entire family is one skeleton in a closet after the other. I thought I could trust Tzu. Guess that showed me.

“Yes, he was specific.” The elderly man sat down on the leather swivel chair in front of the computer and turned to face us. “But I cannot provide one,” he said as he clasped his hands together. “I simply do not have the materials for it.”

“But you know who does,” I said.

“Yes. I suspect your sister may have what you are looking for. But not even she can provide a channel since she does not know the method for such magic,” he replied.

“And you do?”

“Yes.”

I folded my arms. “Then, if we were to get a monster, will you be able to do the ritual and create this channel?”

“I could.”

“But you won’t.”

“No, I would not.”

“And why the hell not?” burst out Abi. Sun Tzu turned his gaze to her and gave her a stern look. The girl shuddered violently and shrank back.

“Because, my dear,” said Sun Tzu with a deliberate calm. “You are too immature to handle such power.” He held up a hand to silence me. He seemed to know that I would argue, that we had already gone through this and had reached a decision.

“You neither have the power, nor the knowledge for it,” he continued. “A channel is not a mere weapon. It is a part of the user’s soul clad inside the object. It carries great strengths and terrible weaknesses. For someone at your level, it would surely sabotage you.”

He closed his eyes and exhaled a long breath. “What you seek is a weapon. That, I can provide. Only that shall I provide today, until I deem you worthy of handling a channel of my creation.”

For a long time, no one said anything.

“Hey, hey.” The loud voice was accompanied by the sudden appearance of a loud, purple uniform and an afro. Eddie burst in, swaggering.

“Am I–” He froze on the spot, taking in the tense situation. “-interrupting? What’s up with you guys? You all tense and stuff.”

Sun Tzu beckoned him over with a wave of his hand.

“We’ll take it,” said Amaymon. All of us looked at him, and he turned his feline orbs toward Abi and me.

“We’ll take whatever weapon he offers Abi,” he said. “I’ve trained her for a week like you said, Erik, but after listening to Gramps over there I’m not so sure that she can handle it. Besides, a weapon is exactly what we want. If it comes without risk, all the better.”

Sun Tzu nodded. “Very well. I shall open our vault,” he said to Eddie.

Slowly the Asian man stood up and gracefully walked over to a wall, devoid of decoration. He placed his hand over the wall and murmured something indecipherable in his native tongue. From his palm, a small bead of light spread further and further, like a spider’s web. The light branched out in different directions, bending sharply at intervals to create boxes. Soon, the entire wall was divided into thousands of squares, outlined by a ray of light. The wall went from blank to a lit up chessboard.

“A safety deposit box vault,” commented Amaymon. “There must be thousands, or tens of thousands, of objects in there.”

“I’m sure that with this selection, we can find something which suits your needs,” said Sun Tzu. “But first, we must assess your power. The more information we can have, the better we can narrow down the selection.”

“And how do we do that?” I asked.

“I have no idea,” replied Sun Tzu simply. Smiling at my confused look, he added, “I, myself, have never done it. I am not competent to assess her power properly. I shall leave that to one of my associates.” Sun Tzu closed his eyes and fell silent.

We both heard it at the same time: a sound, as if a thousand blackboards were being scratched at the same time and a million radios exploding with static. The world spun, and I lost track of where was up or down, left or right. Pain seared inside my head, overloading my senses like someone driving a knife inside my brain and scraping a hole from end to end. Then, a familiar sensation washed over me. In my head, I saw a red sky, red sand, and a red world. In the middle, looming in view, were large, black mangroves, each trunk twice the size of my chest.

I was snapped back to reality, and the first thing I saw were thick, black bars in front of my eyes. I quickly realized that I had my own fingers digging into my forehead, deep enough to draw blood. Black mist shrouded my body and slowly began creeping over every inch of me. My mind went into instant panic mode – this was my power. Whatever Sun Tzu had done triggered the mysterious power asleep within me. This was the same power that emerged when Lust had killed me the first time around. Whatever it was, it had deemed Sun Tzu on par with one of the Seven Deadly Sins.