The Wizard's War (4 page)

“Hold on to something, froutake, and close your
eyes.” With no further warning, I focused my mind on my brother and flashed. I
hated flashing; it always disorientated me. However, I had done it enough times
to realize when something went wrong. I felt the world contort violently around
me, like I was trying to land in Anoshii and was bounced off. When the ground
formed beneath me, I tried to hold onto it.

“This isn’t Anoshii.” I looked up to see us in the
very crowded downtown Shogo of Mijii… and people were staring. Erono was going
to be so mad.

“Yes, I know.” The words were barely out of my mouth
before the air filled with the light again and I felt my body being tugged in
several different directions. I hit dirt hard, but it was gone again before the
light could clear. This time, we landed in an alley. I rolled over and lost the
few bites of breakfast I had enjoyed. Sen managed to pull himself right to his
feet, no worse for wear. Stupid dragon. He helped me to my feet, but I had to
hold onto him, the wall, and whatever else I could reach to stay on them.

“Please don’t go that again.”

“The second time wasn’t me. I have no idea what that
bouncing was,” I panted. Unfortunately, I had a suspicion. If my separation
with Hail affected my powers, I was going to beat him up so bad.

“Let’s find your brother. He can get us home.” He
picked up our bags, which I was amazed we didn’t lose, and started down the
alley towards the busy street.

“I flashed to him. He should be right here,” I said,
stopping cold in the middle of the street.
“Hail? Where are you?”
No
response. I couldn’t feel him.
“Answer me, Hail. I’m on Anoshii. Where are
you?”
Nothing. It was so lonely in my head without him. “Something’s wrong.”

“We’ll find him. Everything will be fine.”

*          *          *

After two hours of wandering around Anoshii, Sen
convinced me to find a hotel. I couldn’t blame him; the boy grew up with
Kaori-mor Emiko. To him, anything less than luxury was an insult. He didn’t just
want to go to a hotel, he wanted to stay in the nicest one. Of course, he also
had no money, so I had to pay for it.

We wandered the streets, asking for directions to the
nicest hotel, and I was getting seriously frustrated. We ended up returning to
the first hotel we had looked at. It was the shape of the house that I liked,
as it looked like one of the old mansions from Zendii. There was nothing
symmetrical about it, but the rich red stone and the dark green roof made it
sort of charming. The windowsills and doorways were also green. We opened the
small iron gate, which was obviously more for decoration than anything else,
still arguing over our standards.

The pretentious entryway was a dark omen for my
saving, but at least it was clean. It was a mixture of modern and traditional.
Like in traditional hotels, we had to take our shoes off at the entrance
because of the special wood flooring, which was soft and textured. The high,
vaulted ceilings and pale cream walls were more modern. A wide, glossy red wood
desk greeted us… as opposed to the woman who occupied it, for she sat in her
seat, absolutely engrossed in her novel.

“We would like a room,” Sen said in Sudo.

“Of course,” she answered without looking up.

Sen and I glanced at each other. We had never
encountered a rude attendant before. Of course, when my family went traveling,
we attracted a lot of attention. “We would really like a room with indoor plumbing
as well, seeing as how I plan to kill my little brother here and bathe in his
blood in the bathtub,” I added.

Still, the woman nodded, not looking away from her
book.

“Also, we are both underage,” Sen said quickly. “You
can’t call our parents because they are on another world.”

“We can do that,” she said.

“Maybe we should go to another hotel,” I suggested,
starting to turn.

The woman’s head shot up. If she was of legal age, it
was by minutes. Her hair was white and her eyes were a light green, almost yellow
color. I didn’t like it at all, but her smile was rather desperate.

“Hello. I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there! We have
plenty of rooms available.” She stood and motioned with her arms that we follow
her into the hallway behind her desk.

“Are you sure what I asked for wouldn’t be a problem
then?” I asked.

“It is no problem at all, whatever it is.”

“Great, because I said I was going to kill my little
brother and bathe in his blood in the bathtub.”

Sen smiled at her and nodded.

Her smile faltered for just a moment before it
returned ten-fold. “Well, in that case, I will delay the morning cleaning
maids.”

We were shown to our room and left alone. The walls
were stonewashed maroon in color and the floor was hardwood with a nice, black
faux fur rug in front of the stone fireplace on the north wall. On the west
wall was a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking a lake behind the hotel.

Unfortunately, there was only one bed, but since I
wasn’t sharing it with my brother, it was big enough for two. Sen sat on the
dark blue blanket and ran his hand over the fabric. “It’s firmer than I like,
but this will work.”

“Good. Then now we can focus on finding my brother.”

“Maybe he just doesn’t want to be found. Maybe he
wants time alone with his girlfriend.”

“No. Hail doesn’t shut me out. I have blocked him
sometimes, but Hail would never hide himself from me. He can’t risk it. No,
something has happened to him. This must be Zherneboh’s doing or the demons. We
need to find him and rescue him.”

“Do you know where to start?”

“Yes. I’ll be back.” I flashed to Vretial, not the
Land of the Iadnah, so the fact that I was alone confused me. I stood in the
clearing before the apple tree, but the dark god wasn’t there. “Vretial! Don’t
play games with me!”

“You cannot save him. He will die,” whispered a voice
I was very familiar with. The presence I suddenly sensed behind me, however,
was dark.

I turned, but neither my uncle nor a horrifying foe
was there.

“Ron.” I turned back to the tree to see Vretial
sitting on the large boulder beneath it. “Where is your brother?”

“I don’t know. I tried flashing to him, but something
went wrong… it was like I was bounced off Anoshii. Then I flashed again to
Anoshii, but it wasn’t to Hail. I came here to ask you to send me to him.”

“I’ve never heard of that happening before. Normally,
I would suggest that your magic was trying to protect you, but that isn’t it.
Your
magic wouldn’t disobey you. Therefore, I assume either your father or your
brother was trying to protect you.”

“Well, override them and send me to my brother.”

“If you don’t find him, the balance will become
volatile. If I put you in danger, your father will destroy me.”

“Are you more afraid of the balance or my father?”

“The balance can be manipulated and your father owes
me a favor. The one I have to worry about is Zero.”

“We haven’t heard anything from him or the demons in
five years.”

“So you thought that was the end of it? Your brother
is alive for now. If this war is starting, you will lose someone.” I didn’t say
anything when he paused. “I refuse for it to be my choice this time. Who do you
choose to lose, your father or your brother?”

“Neither of them. I will not lose my family.”

“I can help you, but not even I can save them both.
Choose now or I will leave and you will lose both of them.”

Pain clogged my throat and the darkness stirred
inside me. “If my dad dies, I will destroy you. Save my brother.”

*          *          *

The flash cleared, leaving me in the hotel room with
Sen. Hail was still missing.

“Did you find him?” Sen asked, foolishly. He was
sprawled out on his stomach with his schoolbook in front of him as if we were
on vacation or something.

“If I found Hail, do you think I would have returned
without him? Work on your damn potions homework and leave me alone to think.”

Dylan

Edward coming to me with a mission wasn’t exactly
unusual. We worked well together, and sometimes Mordon wanted time off. It was
the mission itself that had me concerned.

We were sitting on the wicker lawn couch on the
porch. The couch and two matching chairs were dark cherry wood with dark gray
cushions. One of the chairs had a chunk out of the leg from Hobble chewing on
it, so none of us sat in it. Of course, we didn’t get rid of it either.

It was early spring and pretty much the first decent
day of the season. I had woken to a perfectly normal morning that was quickly
turning dubious. “About three hundred years ago, there was a witch hunter. He
was supposedly the best,” Edward said.

In the eighteen years I knew my uncle, he never
changed. With the exception of my slimmer stature and my green eyes, I looked
just like him and his twin brother. Eighteen years since I became the Guardian
of Earth…

“Pay attention.” Edward snapped me out of my
reminiscence. “We tracked him down and killed him.”

“Three hundred years ago,” I said. He nodded. “Then
what’s the problem?”

“The problem is he’s back.” He paused for me to
interrupt, but I stayed quiet. “He killed hundreds of innocent people in the
name of witchcraft. Ronez stabbed him in the heart and buried him in a coffin.
Now he’s been sighted again. If it is him, we have worse problems than him
hunting witches.”

“Are we talking time travel, space travel, or
zombies?”

“We’re talking about blood magic.”

“The witch hunter’s a witch?’

“We knew that from the beginning. He’s a master of
ritual magic. He used to say it was a form of prayer, for cleaning the devil
out of people before they were sentenced to death.”

“If I remember correctly, the difference between a
witch and a wizard is that a wizard is a descendant of a Guardian, whereas a
witch is someone who studies witchcraft. Witchcraft uses nominal magic, so
someone can be both a witch and wizard and neither term is gender specific.”

“Correct.”

“Compare nominal energy to ritual magic,” I said.

He sighed. “Ritual magic uses nominal energy, but
it’s extremely powerful. Far more powerful than what we do on a daily basis. It
is, however; extremely slow and rather limited.”

“Compare it to Iadnah energy.”

“Outdated. Ritual magic actually has nothing to do
with god magic; it is slower, far too limited, and wouldn’t hold a flame next
to the higher magic. In fact, I suggest you dig out your lotus wand. That
combines ritual and Iadnah magic. However, if we’re talking about blood magic,
we might have trouble. It is ritual magic, upgraded with the blood of
innocence. Which makes a lot of sense when I consider the man we’re after.”

“Can we fight it?”

“We can fight anything, but if he is using such
tactics, we need to outsmart him, and be quick about it. Think of blood magic
like demon magic.”

That actually gave me a really good idea. “How did
Ronez kill him last time?”

“We followed the rumors to him, then set up a
meeting, saying that our neighbor was a witch. He came right to us and Ronez
killed him with no fuss.”

I looked at him. “Um… That didn’t sound like a trap
to you?” I asked.

“It was three hundred years ago. Things were
different then.”

“People were idiots then? A high-powered witch hunter
just meets with someone without some kind of reference or checking them out in
some way? I mean, if he’s a witch hunter, wouldn’t he work real hard not to get
ambushed by witches?”

“He probably felt he could handle himself.”

“You know him better than me, but if he’s over three
hundred years old, he didn’t get that way by being overconfident. Just from
what you told me, it sounds like Ronez did
exactly
what the witch hunter
wanted him to do.”

He rolled his eyes. “Be ready to go in an hour.”

“Ron is making spaghetti. Stay for dinner and we can
leave in two hours.”

Edward was about to argue, then thought better of it.
My son was a great chef. We went inside to find pretty much everyone. Meri
gravitated towards Edward, trying to get away from Emiko without being rude.
Emiko’s son was missing, which told me he was in the kitchen with Ron. Mordon
was talking to Hail, and it looked to be a really important conversation. I
figured that Mordon would tell me later. I was heading for the kitchen when
Divina intercepted, wrapping her arm underneath mine and pulling us both over
to sit on the couch.

Shinobu jumped into my lap. She was getting pretty
old, but she only rarely showed it. Dinner was an adventure in itself; our
family was rowdy and goofy and just a little insane. Sen kept sneaking Hobble
spaghetti and Hail kept pushing Shinobu off the table. We spoke of everything
except work and school. Sen was a smart kid, but he and Emiko lived on Mokii,
so he went to public school. He was rather jealous of Ron and Hail.

After dinner, Divina found me packing a backpack.
“Where’s my ID?” I asked.

“In the fire safe.” She pulled it out from under the
bed. “You’re going on mission?”

“Yeah. Edward and I are going to Earth. It will
probably only take a few days.”

“I’m going to Zendii this evening and Hail is going
to Anoshii to see his girlfriend for a few days. So Ron will be alone. Do you
think he’ll be alright?” She looked worried.

“He’s fourteen. He’ll manage.”

“He doesn’t like being alone.”

She was right, but there wasn’t anything I could do
about it. Honestly, I was rather shocked that Hail would leave his brother for
a few hours let alone a few days. It was probably a good thing; Ron was
extremely reliant on Hail and Hail would go along with any shenanigan his
brother wanted to do.

Aside from whatever trouble Ron got them into, Hail
was extremely responsible. For that reason alone, I had no worries about him
spending several days alone with his girlfriend. While I couldn’t have said the
same for myself at his age, Hail wouldn’t do anything with a girl that he
hadn’t carefully thought through. Oddly enough, Ron never looked twice at a
girl and preferred to focus his energy on building his power to overthrow the
gods.

I had weird kids. I was almost afraid to think what
my daughter would turn out like if I was ever lucky enough to have one.

Mordon entered without knocking and Divina left.
“Miko and I are going to Zendii on vacation.”

For the past ten years, Mordon and Emiko have had a
semi-relationship. The only saw each other about once a month, but that seemed
to work for them. During the year and a half we lived on Earth, Mordon was more
concerned with how Emiko was treating her son than he was about her. Emiko
still avoided me; she never got over my refusal to kill Maslye, the arch mage
and king of Treslen. I never told her that Ghidorah went to judge the mage, and
I never asked what the Guardian’s judgment was.

Her son, though, was a sweet kid. Even though Mordon
treated the boy like his own child, we all knew that he was a reminder to Emiko
of what Maslye did to her. Sen was actually an impossible child, so he fit in
very well with the family; his mother was a dragon and his father was a mage
from the future and a world that wasn’t even created yet.

“When are you going to be back?”

“In a few days. Where are you going?”

“Earth. With Edward.”

“Should I go with you? Miko can wait.”

“No, go on vacation; you need it. You’re too stressed
lately. You’re looking a bit old,” I said. The rest of my words were cut off as
he hit me with a shoe.

“I’ll see you in a few days.” He left, herding Emiko
with him out the front door and leaving Sen. I was glad Ron wouldn’t be alone,
but I figured Sen would bug him to pieces. Then Meri left to return to Edward’s
cabin, where she lived semi-permanently. I was surprised she and Edward hadn’t
married yet.

Divina and I said goodbye far too quickly because
Edward was waiting on me. I flashed Edward and me to Earth, landing in one of
my father’s houses. This one was the first one I had discovered, which turned
out to be one of many. Ronez had over a dozen homes scattered across the world,
all of which he put in my name. This particular house was a few miles out of a
very small town in Oklahoma, littered with protective wards to keep it from
vandalism. It was a small, two-story house with a magic room in the basement.

We set our bags down. “We need to do some research to
find out where the hunter is now.” Edward said.

Magic interfered with technology, which was the reason
technology was so regulated on Duran. It was odd, though, because my demigod
sons could use laptops, but one was liable to explode in my presence ever since
I became a Guardian.

“How do we do research on a witch hunter in
modern-day Earth?”

“I have contacts here. I’ll call Abigail and she’ll
tell us where to go. And before you start…” he interrupted my oncoming
outburst. “She has no relation to the Salem Witch Trials or Abigail Williams.
I’m going to find a phone.”

“There’s a town about five miles south of here.”

He headed out and I found some extra blankets in the
basement. While I was down there and alone, I opened the magic room to find
everything as I left it, including the mage king’s staff. Somehow, I knew the
evil thing would be necessary. I could sense it… however, when I tried to focus
on the feeling, my head hurt.

I left the room, closing it behind me, and went back
upstairs. Edward returned about twenty minutes later, saying that he couldn’t
get ahold of her. Since it was late, we went to bed. It was a creepy house in
the dark; old, drafty, and had an utterly vacant feeling, which only made it
worse when I could hear creaking and whispering. Constantly scanning the area
with my magic and finding nothing alive, I finally fell asleep.

*          *          *

I woke to a new sound. It wasn’t the hard rain on the
roof or odd scratching that disturbed me. In fact, everything quieted when I
opened my eyes and sat up. Then it came again. Knocking. Definite, hard
knocking on the front door.

I went downstairs, carefully creeping past Edward’s
room. He was a light sleeper; he should have been woken by the sound. Once
downstairs, I slowly approached the door. Surely it was a neighbor who
accidently locked themselves out of their house and needed to use our phone…
not some psycho-killer going door-to-door trying to see who was stupid enough
to answer their door at three in the morning. The knocking came again as I
reached the door and I hesitated for just a second before opening it. Even as
my palm touched the metal, I wanted to run back to bed and forget about it.

“Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my
chamber door. Only this and nothing more.”

Here I opened wide the door…

Darkness there and nothing more.

I shut the door and locked it, tugged on it to check,
turned around, and started for the stairs. There was a sharp creek and the
sound of the rain increased. I turned to the door to see that it was wide open.
A hand came down on my shoulder and I screamed.

“Jesus, kid, you have some lungs on you,” Edward said
from behind me. I turned to see him and clutched my pounding chest.

“You don’t sneak up on me in a dark house like that,”
I demanded.

“Actually, that sounds exactly like the kind of thing
I do. Why did you leave the door open?”

“I didn’t.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that.” He went to
the door and shut it, then turned back to me and I had about a second to feel
relief before I felt a breath on my neck. He looked right at me and froze.

“Who’s behind me?” I asked.

“There’s nobody behind you, Dylan. Don’t turn around.
Just keep looking at me, Dylan, right at me.” His eyes flickered for just a
second to what was behind me.

“Who’s behind me?” I asked again.

The breath moved away. “There’s nobody there, Dylan.”
He was using my name; he was worried. I turned to look behind me. The kitchen
door was open, even though I could have sworn I had closed it. Edward stepped
up beside me.

The creek came behind us again. The rain was louder.
A cold gust of wind blew passed us. The door was open, and we both turned as
one. Behind us was a Japanese girl, sopping wet with pale white skin and lips
blue from the cold.

“Aren’t you going to scream?” Edward whispered to me,
not taking his eyes off her.

“Too scared,” I whispered back.

Her eyes focused on me and she grinned. “Hello,
Dylan,” she said.

*          *          *

Edward sighed. “How did you find us?” he asked her. I
looked at him and saw not an ounce of worry in his eyes. I looked back at the
girl, a woman, really, and noticed a little more. Her lips were bluish, but the
rain outside was cold. Her eyes were brown, not black like I first thought, and
they darted between us in a way ghost eyes wouldn’t. She wore a black leather
trench coat, which demons and ghouls wouldn’t need.

She was alive.

“I didn’t actually know what I was tracking,” she
said, dropping her scary tone for a normal one. “So the stories about you are
true?” She looked back at Edward. “I felt something incredibly powerful and
needed to check it out. I had no idea I was tracking a person… or whatever you
are.” She said the last part to me.

“Dylan, this is Abigail Harland.”

“Abby,” she corrected, reaching out her hand for me
to shake. I took it automatically and my magic reacted with hers. My Iadnah
energy dwarfed her nominal energy and she jerked her hand back from the shock.

Odd… I felt something uncomfortably familiar about
her magic. “Have we met before?” I asked. She was in her thirties or forties,
but she had aged well. Before becoming a Guardian, I had been at odds with my
magic and would never have known a wizard from anyone else if I saw their magic
myself, but her magic was familiar.