Emergence: Return of Magic book 1 (7 page)

He felt ten more people as he got within his normal range,
and slowed further.  He wished he could see, but it was pitch dark, the
moon was behind the clouds, and he could only make out a few small patches of
stars.

Cynthia said softly, in his mind, “
There are eleven
people, a woman facing off against ten men.  The men have shields of some
kind.
”

After he got over the shock that she could talk in his mind,
he tried to figure out what that meant, and completely failed.  By now
though, he was backed by forty-three zombies, plus Cynthia who was probably
powerful enough now to tear up those other forty-three without getting out of
breath.

The woman growled, “Leave me be, I didn’t do anything.”

One of the men said, “You’re a witch, that’s enough.”

His mind… skipped.  Witch?

He frowned, “Excuse me, a witch?” his curiosity overcoming
his wariness.  He hadn’t met anyone else that could do… extra things like
he could do.

The woman said in a bleak voice, “I’m no witch, I’m a
sorceress.  It be the power of Earth after the realms were reunited, I bid
you again to leave in peace.”

Suddenly the area lit up, and he saw he was only about
fifteen paces behind the woman, the men were farther way.  What had him
fascinated, was the light source, a ball of fire sitting in the woman’s
palm. 

He cleared his throat, “That’s impressive”

One of the men barked, “Who do you think you are to involve
yourself here, this is none of your fucking business.”

He shook his head as his zombies fanned out and surrounded
the men.  Now that he could see, they had some kind of armor on, along
with shields and swords.  The swords and shields were a darker color than
the armor, and it took him a moment to recognize they were made of iron, not
steel.  That must be… incredibly heavy.

More importantly though, the fascinating woman with the fire
had long light blonde hair, a curvy waist, and a nice bubble ass.  She was
wearing a blue sundress with white designs on it, and a pair of sandals with
three inch heels.  How the hell did she run in those things?

He shrugged, “I live here, you’re in my yard, so it’s my
business.  Besides, I don’t see any pointed hats,” he quipped.

The woman turned her head for a moment and looked at
him.  He could make out her deep blue eyes, and beautiful heart shaped
face.  She didn’t look for long, but it was long enough to know she was
only about twenty-two, give or take a year, and also very nervous.

He added, “Unless she’s been going around killing people,
you have no business here.  I’d be happy to lend my protection, and those
of my men, to the young lady.”

She muttered, “Cassie.  Cassie Erwin.  And why
would you care, isn’t the fireball freaking you out?”

He shrugged, “Nope, I’m fairly odd myself, and all my men,
and Cynthia here share my point of view on the matter.  So what do you say
guys, go home, or… face the fearsome witch and the strange guy with forty-four
henchmen.”

He felt like a bit of a geek, but he’d been saving that
line.  Henchmen.

The field was kind of tense, but he felt… relaxed and in
control.  Unless she threw that fire at him, and he didn’t think she
would, matters were well in hand.  He walked up slowly and deliberately so
as not to startle Cassie, and stood next to her.  Cynthia moved up as
well, and stood on the other side.  Cassie tensed for a moment, but when
she saw all of our attention was on the men playing knights, she relaxed
slightly.

It had been a gamble; she could have freaked.  It would
have been a shame to drain her if she’d set him on fire, but he’d been fairly
sure…

One of them growled, “We have armor, swords, and iron
shields against her magic.”

He frowned, “Is that true, does iron block your magic?”

She snickered, “Yes, but the fire will still make a nice
splash.”

He shrugged at the guy who spoke, “We have over four times
your number, all carrying machetes, bows, and baseball bats.  You might
stab one or two, but I guarantee that won’t be much compensation to your
corpses.”

There was a tense silence, and he sighed, “Really guys,
either go or attack.  I have this thing about self-defense, but I want to
get back to sleep sometime tonight.”

Cassie turned to him with a shocked look, and he just
winked.

“We’ll be back, we won’t suffer a witch to live, or those
that help her.”

Cassie stiffened, but he just said, “Good, make sure you
bring all the dumb asses at once, the world will be a better place without you,
and I don’t like long drawn out feuds.”

Cassie giggled in disbelief, but the men turned and left.

She asked, “Are you crazy?”

He shook his head, “Quite possibly.  I’ve certainly had
my own doubts Cassie.  You’re welcome to stay, but would you do me a
favor.  I don’t mean to insult you, but we have over fifty people in there
to protect.  Can I touch you, I’ll be able to read your intentions?”

Actually it was much more than that, but he didn’t think
she’d agree to him sucking out her whole life story.  He’d discovered it
on accident, because most of the women avoided him.  But one of the new
families, the husband had shaken his hand.  He realized that he got his
targets memory by taking their life force from a distance a while back, but if
he touched them, he could read their life force without taking it from their
body at all.  He felt a little guilty about the half-truth, but if this
woman was really a… sorceress, she could do a lot of damage before he took her
down.

She sighed, “I’ve never heard of that, where do you have
touch me.”

He frowned and joked, “The hand will do, but only because
you wouldn’t believe me if I named a more fun place.”

She snorted in humor, rolling her eyes, but smiling when she
held out her hand.  He shook it and flashed on her life.

She was… far from a good girl, but she wasn’t evil or a
killer.  She’d had to defend her life from those assholes twice now, but
he didn’t count self-defense.  After all, if he did, he’d be a killer too.

He nodded, “You’re more than welcome to stay if you wish, we
could use another talented person around here.  I’m sure you can take care
of yourself, but it doesn’t hurt to have someone at your back.”

She sighed, and looked him up and down, “And what will it
cost me?” she asked, in a loaded tone.

He snorted, “I wouldn’t say no if you offered, I’m sure you
know your very attractive, but I’m not like that either.  You just have to
contribute.  If you don’t want to do so with your magic there’s plenty to
be done.  Teaching, babysitting, farming, thinking up ways to improve the
place, pumping water into our new cistern on the roof, hell, whatever interests
you.  In short, as long as you don’t sit on your ass all day, you’re
golden and get three meals, a mattress, and safety.”

She asked skeptically, “Are you really running a women’s
shelter?”

“Sort of, but not really.  We started out with over
twenty women that were being held by a rape gang at Walmart, we found this
place after going for their kids.  Since then we’ve added a lot of
families, and security.  All these men around you are kind of…
zombies.  That’s why your fire didn’t freak me out, because I kill
murdering and raping assholes and then put them to work.  One of the new
people said I was a necromancer, but I don’t know if that’s true, it’s just a
label.”

She gaped at his little speech, but recovered quickly,
“Alright, thanks.  I’ll try it.  If these people can live with
zombies, I suppose they might not try to burn me at the stake.”

He shook his head, “They’d surely regret trying.  I
don’t allow violence, although I haven’t had to kick anyone out yet.  Only
murderers and rapists get the death penalty around here.  I decided
thieves and violent personalities could simply be… banished.”

He made a face, “I hate using that word, because I know this
isn’t a kingdom, but we are a community.”

He almost jumped when she took his arm, as they started
walking back.  He wasn’t surprised when Cynthia did the same on the other
side, and all the zombie men got back to guard duty.  He felt a little
guilty, as he was getting a running monologue from her mind, trying to decide
what she should do.  She was also considering hitting on him, simply
because she was randy after the adrenaline rush, and he believed it also had to
be partly about saving her even if she wasn’t thinking that, and her running
for her life the last few weeks.  He knew he was over ten years older than
she was, and not really all that handsome.  He was well endowed, and knew
how to use it, but very few women went far enough with him to find that out.

Yet, he supposed he did rescue the maiden.  Who was he
to turn down such a reward?

Either way, he’d let her settle down tonight, he was sure he
could get some if he played on the emotional high of tonight, but he really
wasn’t that much of an asshole.  At least he didn’t think he was.  He
wasn’t lying earlier, he sure as hell wouldn’t say no if she’d asked him. 

The woman had power, and she was kind of hot.  But he’d
see how she felt later, for tonight, he just got her a place to sleep, in the
room with the other single women without kids, and took Cynthia back to their
room.  They got naked, back on their mattress, and eventually even back to
sleep.  One of these days they’d have to get bedframes…

Kurien wasn’t happy.  Mostly because Arielle
wasn’t.  They knew a lot more now, than when they’d left their forest, and
very little of it was good, most of it much worse than they’d expected. 
At first he’d thought Arielle was too young to go with them for silly reasons,
now he worried she would break under it.  She had a gentle soul, and the
death and cruelties they had witnessed, plus the reports they’d gotten on the
new bearer’s progress, who apparently was named Katie, just added to it.

He wasn’t thrilled about much of it either, but he was a bit
more pragmatic about it.  During their travels, they’d seen a lot of gangs
of looters, cruelty, rape, murder, and destruction.  There was a balance
though, they’d also seen people join together, and they’d passed a number of communities
that had pulled together for mutual defense, planting new fields for the
future, and acts of kindness.

In short, they’d witnessed both the best and worst humanity
had to offer.

They’d known enough to return now for a week based on their
original mission, Katie was on her way and moving in their direction, and they
knew plenty now about what had happened.  They even knew why Merlin had
returned them to this plane, when the world wasn’t ready.  It had been a
desperate attempt to save it from an invasion from another world, and while
that had succeeded it also left them in a difficult spot, which was hard to
wrap his head around.  Still, they were asked to continue on by the
council instead of returning, and link up with Katie to offer their support.

He was also a little frustrated personally, and felt selfish
for feeling so.  The more Arielle saw of their original world, the more
she closed off and her countenance turned grim.  He hadn’t seen her smile
in days, yet every day he felt more attracted to her.  He thought it was
ironic that he had worried about her chasing him, and here he was now mooning
after her instead.  He should have taken Bria’s advice on their second
day, it seemed to him it would be in bad taste to approach her romantically
now, when she was so obviously struggling with things.

What made it harder was they continued to share a tent, and
he continued to comfort her when she cried at night, not very romantic, and
utterly frustrating when he held her light supple body in his arms.  He
smiled a little bitterly as they came around the bend on the stone road, and
saw more smoke rising in the distance.  Humans really liked burning things
it seemed.

And as ridiculous as it was, he was angry at the whole damn
race for upsetting Arielle.

Arielle pulled up her reigns and sighed in sadness, and he
stopped next to her.  Bria was… off hunting, she needed to transform and
eat at least once a week.  She’d gotten unusually short tempered this
morning and flew off.  Dragons didn’t like empty stomachs.

Arielle sighed again and said plaintively, “Can’t we do
anything?  I think it would help if we could do something.  I just…
feel so helpless.”

He frowned, “Like what?”

Arielle looked at him strangely, as if he were dense, “Katie
has been cleansing farms every third day, and telling folks where to go to
help, and have food in the winter.  Creating more communities like the
ones we passed.  With our power, we could be doing the same.  I know
the goddess could cleanse the land through me, and you could…”

He shook his head, “Our mission was to…”

Arielle interrupted him in return and her voice was both
passionate and persuasive, “Our original mission is over.  Our new mission
is to join and assist Katie as an ally, do we really have to wait to join her
before we start assisting her people?  I grow tired of watching them kill
each other for scraps that will soon run out.  We can’t hide from the
humans forever because we are back on this world for good.  Wouldn’t it be
better if it were known we assisted, rather than watched them starve and
struggle their first few years?”

He knew she was right, but it would also be a huge
risk.  The humans could decide they were demons, or hell, maybe they’d
think they were the aliens.  A human showing up with magic to another
human was one thing, two completely new races they thought of as nothing but
legend would… the truth was he just didn’t want to risk Arielle.  Once he
realized that, he knew he’d have to, or she’d never forgive him.  Still,
it wasn’t up to him to dictate that policy, only lead within the orders given.

“Can you speak to Trielle?” he asked, “Your idea has merit,
but also dangers.  The humans could easily turn on us, they’re
scared.  Fear can make people do foolish things.  Let’s make sure the
council agrees with your interpretation of orders.”

She frowned, but nodded reluctantly, “Okay.”

He waited while she did that, she’d need to use her magic
and commune with Trielle through their goddess.  In the meantime, he tried
to make out some clue what the smoke was about.  It was past the next rise
however and he couldn’t see.  He could get the eagle to pass simple
messages, like human, or even hunting human, or in this case, fire.  He
couldn’t get a whole lot of details though, as the bird’s mind just wasn’t
capable of complicated thought.

He felt the horses freeze in fear, and sent out soothing
magic to calm them down.  The source of their fear was obvious, when the
house sized silver dragon landed in the road fifty feet away. 

Bria was beautiful in that form as well.  Her silver scales
gleamed in the sun almost blindingly, and the yellow orbs of her eyes looked
like a firestorm.  Her snout was elongated, and her neck alone was twice
his height.  Her body was thin and sleek, like a reptile, but curvy along
the sides like a graceful animal, such as a hunting cat.  He’d guess she
was close to a hundred feet long including the tail, twenty feet wide, with
four large claws the size of the metal boxes abandoned on this strange
road.  Her wingspan was equal to her length, making them about ninety feet
long on each side.  She was… majestic.  Of course, he didn’t want her
to know that, so instead of gaping, he acted almost bored about it.

Dragons were arrogant enough after all.

He idly wondered what it would be like to fly with her, but
no dragon would allow an elf or human on his or her back.  She shimmered,
shrunk, and changed into her human form.  She was beautiful in that form
as well.  Sexy, and alluring, and he didn’t turn his eyes away as she
walked toward the horses completely unclad.  She looked at him and rolled
her eyes but had a smirk on her face as she walked gracefully, her hips swaying
seductively.  Nudity didn’t faze dragons at all, and of course, they loved
flattering attention.

Still, he didn’t turn his head as she walked past either,
affording her some small bit of privacy as she got to her horse and got
dressed.

“Much better, I found some nice deer.” she said in a soft
voice.

He knew that was as close to an apology as he’d get, for her
short temper earlier.

“Glad to hear it, and it’s always a pleasure to see you that
way.”

She laughed and asked archly, “As a dragon, or naked?”

He replied fervently, in all seriousness, “Yes.”

He turned and saw her actually blush, well that was interesting. 
Dragon and Elf romances weren’t unknown, but they were rare, because they never
resulted in children.  Those couples weren’t exactly ostracized, but it
was hard enough for dragons and Elves to reproduce that it wasn’t very common. 
Of course, short affairs and curiosity in the young was an entirely different
matter.

He’d have been tempted to explore that response, if it
wasn’t for the ash-blonde beauty beside him, that had painfully wormed her way
into his heart the last week and more.

“The fire?”

She shook her head and looked at him innocently, “Wasn’t
me.”

He snorted.

She sighed, “Just some human buildings in the next
town.  So far it hasn’t reached the forest, hopefully it will just burn
out.”

He nodded, “If Arielle gets a positive answer from the
council about… helping the humans.  Could you put it out?”

She looked surprised for a moment, but nodded.

He’d expected as much; dragons could manipulate the raw
elements as easily as an elf could bloom a flower.

She asked, “Do you think they will?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know.  My grandmother would’ve
said no.  My mother might say yes.  Back when we were here the first
time, we went our own way, and dealt with humans only when absolutely
necessary.  I know we’ve had quite a few conversations about that, maybe
if they understood us, knew us, it wouldn’t have gotten so bad.  On the
other hand, they destroy each other all the time so… there are risks and
rewards to both ways I think, so we’ll see.”

Bria nodded and said thoughtfully, “I wouldn’t be opposed to
it, but if they threaten us I won’t show mercy either.”

He nodded in agreement, “Defending ourselves, and each
other, will always take priority.”

He felt the difference as Arielle came out of her magic
trance and looked over to her.

Arielle sighed, “They aren’t happy about it, but they
relented.  We are under strict orders to disengage and flee as soon as
possible if things go badly, but we can try to help and make inroads to
peaceful cooperation if we wish.  Do you think that’s likely?  That
they’ll attack us I mean?”

He sighed, “I don’t know.  They lost their technology,
and their survival instincts are dictating their actions.  Some by
cooperation and others by…  Let’s put it this way, if we lost all our
magic and ability to communicate, then had our world invaded by unknown aliens,
and then had our food source attacked.  What would we do if a strange race
showed up?”

Bria tilted her head, “You think it’s doomed to failure?”

He shook his head, “No, I think it’s a roll of the
dice.  We are known in legend, and we won’t be killing them, and there
have been indications of magic back in the world if they’re paying
attention.  It really depends…” he turned to Bria, “You ready to put out a
fire?”

Bria nodded slowly, and Arielle smiled at him.  He
couldn’t help but smile back, he’d missed her smile, as well as her upbeat
personality, and it took his breath away to see it again.

Bria winked at him knowingly, probably smelled his
pheromones, and he turned his head away as they moved up the incline of the
road at a trot.  When they went over the top, they took in the town below,
nestled in the valley.  He frowned as he looked around, he could see
humans running around all over the place.  They seemed to be running from
the other humans, who had short crude looking blades, and what looked like a
cudgel, but longer and thinner.  It was hard to see the weapons from this
far, but he didn’t think they had any metal spikes on the ends either.

A few men fought back, trying to protect the town, but they
were being taken down fast, apparently not used to fighting at all.

He looked at Arielle whose eyes were narrowed and angry, and
he knew she wanted to rush in and stop the raiders.  He was tired of the
death as well.

She said sadly, “I suppose this fits the definition of gone
wrong and withdrawing as soon as possible?” with a bitter tinge to her words.

He frowned, “Most definitely, although I’m not altogether
certain we can disengage until those poor innocent people are safe,” he said
innocuously.  He wanted to stop them too.

Bria shook her head, “It’s tempting, but I don’t think your
mother would agree with that logic.  There’s a difference between helping
the humans, and interfering in their own… differences.”

Arielle sighed, “I know you’re right, but if we are to have
friendly relations with humans, it will be with the ones being killed right
now.  We’ll never find peace if we allow the aggressive humans, who simply
kill whoever and take whatever they want, to rule the others.”

He coughed, he happened to agree, at least with the
sentiment, but it also wasn’t that simple. 

“Bria, what if you did a low altitude fly by, and put out
the flames, maybe roar a bit.  That could… break things up a bit.”

Bria whispered, “I’m sorry, that… might just make things
worse.”

Arielle cursed, kicked her horse’s flanks, and took off
toward the town.

He knew she was upset, but hadn’t counted on that reaction
at all.  He and Bria shared a quick look, and then galloped after her,
following in her wake as they left the big road on the little small road that
led to the town.  He pulled out his sword while reaching out into the
surrounding forest to try and summon aide.  A pack of wolves answered his
call, and started to race for the town as well.

While they were still racing in Arielle’s wake, the hawk
dove and dug its talons into a man’s face, one that had been chasing a young
teenager.  He’d almost caught up to Arielle as she pulled her sword out
and he felt her magic as she called upon Charites.  He suddenly felt
stronger, faster, and his horse seemed to perk up and run faster as well.

The three of them swept into the town, each taking down one
of the raiders effortlessly in the first few moments.  The raiders had no
fighting style at all, simply swinging the club with no finesse, as if they
were simply toddlers hitting something with a stick.  The three of them
parried the simple attacks and cut into flesh in two lightning fast movements.

The surprise was past, and the panicked running
started.  For the raiders this time, not the people that lived in the
village, or town as these humans called it.  The raiders turned to flee,
but wound up running straight into the wolves he’d summoned as they bound out
of the trees.  Five more went down, with a wolf’s jaw around their throats. 
The rest of the raiders continued to run except two, who stayed to help their
comrades and swung their strange cudgels at the wolves’ heads.