The Wizard's War (26 page)

“But that would make Dylan my uncle.”

“That’s great! Dad is amazing.”

“Your mother is amazing,” he argued.

I shrugged. “My mother is a god. I mean, that’s cool,
but there are twelve of them.”

“She’s a what?!” Sari shrieked.

I ignored her. “My dad is more amazing. He will
protect you against me just because you are his brother’s adopted son. I
couldn’t cross him to hurt you even if I wanted to.”

“How is your dad more amazing than a god?”

I realized that Oran was getting too suspicious in
his preteen years. It was bad enough when he would follow me around and be too
shy to speak, but asking questions was dangerous. On the one hand, he was
family. On the other, he wanted to know things that weren’t ready to be revealed
yet.

“Ask him,” I said.

“Please. Give me some kind of clue. I feel like I
will never really be a part of the family. Mordon wants me more than my mother
does and it’s only because of guilt. I just want to belong.”

His pleading was so sincere. I understood it well,
because I knew the pain of not belonging. I knew how important family was. I
also knew that he was correct about Mordon and Emiko’s feelings.

“Just tell me something. Something that everyone in
your family knows.”

I sighed. If he broke my trust, I could just kill
him. “Hail, take Sari outside.”

“No way, I want to be a part of this, too.”

“Ron will kill you if you ever so much as
accidentally use the wrong name for someone in public. He takes our safety seriously.
We all do.”

“Please, I would never tell anyone,” she begged. Hail
turned to me, waiting for my call. With a sigh, I nodded.

“The moment my father was conceived, he was fifty
percent human, and fifty percent sago,” I said. “The moment he was born, his
soul was released. His soul was so powerful, the balance actually tried to
destroy him before he was born, which would have completely destroyed the
universe.”

“Wait, why would the balance try to destroy him
before he was born if it would destroy everything?” Sen asked.

“He was worth it. He was such a threat to the
balance, killing him was worth… suicide. Preventing his creation was worth the
destruction of everything.”

“Why?”

“Even we don’t know. I know this because the balance
is inside me, and I have seen its hatred for him.”

“Ron, go ask Mom to send us back to see Ronez while I
catch them up on anything they might not have figured out by now,” Hail said.
“Is
there anything I shouldn’t tell them?”

“Don’t tell Sen that his father was trying to
create a hybrid. If I’m not back in five minutes, go to Dad.”
For the sake
of not getting grounded, I changed my eyes back to their natural green. I
flashed to Mom and found myself in the middle of a battle. Mom and I were
surrounded by over fifty demons.

We were in a large Earth city with huge glass and
metal buildings. Although it was probably a well-populated street under normal
circumstances, it was currently deserted of actual people. It was dusk and
raining, so everything was shiny, gray, and slick. Furthermore, the only light
that wasn’t from the dark gray sky was from fires in the debris of damaged
buildings.

Mom was holding them off well with a pulsating rings
of energy about six feet wide, but defeating so many demons was a ridiculous
feat even for a god. Void magic, which the demons used, and god magic were on
opposite ends of the spectrum, so equal power of both cancelled each other out.
She could destroy a less powerful demon, but she had to work much harder to do
so.

One of the demons had a sword that glowed white with
void energy. He focused his attention on me. When he swung his sword at me, I
didn’t create a shield or sphere of energy. “Stop,” I demanded… and everyone
did. Every demon suddenly froze as still as statues.

The balance inside me didn’t react, but neither did
my Iadnah energy or nominal energy. This must have been something else.

“What did you do?” Mom asked.

“I don’t know.” I focused on the feel of the balance
inside me.

It always knew what was right and what wasn’t in
order for the universe to be strong. The demons were compelled to obey the
balance when they were in the universe, but these demons were being
destructive. When I first took the balance into me, I could use it to send them
back, so it only made sense that I still could. As long as I wasn’t fighting
the balance, I could use it.

“Return to the void.”

The demons all disappeared, leaving me alone with my
mother. Mom’s expression was surprised, but she quickly masked it. “Good job,
sweetie. Where is your brother? I sent him to you.”

“He’s at home with Sari and Sen. I’ll explain later,
but we need you to send Hail and me back in time to see Ronez when he was
alive. We think he has one of the god weapons.”

“You have the ability to travel in time yourself, and
you will learn how if you travel a lot, but it can be a terribly corruptive
power. I will send you to him, but you have to be absolutely sure. I also
cannot bring you back from this point in time. That means once you get there,
you will have to find someone to return you to our time.”

“Okay. I can do this.” I closed my eyes and
straightened my spine, ready for anything.

“Hey.” Mom smiled at me when I opened my eyes. “I
know you can; you’re your father’s son. I have never doubted you or your
brother.”

The area filled with bright light and I felt the
energy of Earth disappear. The energy that I felt when reality formed around me
was… Earth’s… Hail and I were standing in the familiar living room of Ronez’s
house. This was the house with a magic basement and an odd mirror.

The furniture consisted of a brown leather couch, two
matching cushioned chairs facing the fire, a cupboard, a table, and a
bookshelf. Other than a rug on the floor, a dark red velvet curtain over what I
knew to be a huge mirror, and a creepy painting on the wall of a skull, there
was little personality to the room. The walls were brick, the floor was
hardwood, there were no windows, and there were only two doors, one of which
was open into the kitchen.

I heard a sound in the kitchen and Hail tried to pull
me to hide behind the one of the black leather chairs, but I resisted. “We’re
here for his help. We know Ronez. He may not know us yet, but we know him well
enough.” Then, just to be on the safe side, I returned my hair to its natural
color.

“What do you suggest?”

“We go introduce ourselves,” I said, turning and
walking to the kitchen. Hail sighed, but followed. It was with shock that I
stopped cold in the doorway, however, because it was not my grandfather who was
cooking at the stove.

I saw her face in the reflective window. The young
woman had black hair, dark brown eyes, and a Japanese facial structure, but her
complexion was lighter than the Asian norm. Hail tripped over the edge of the
rug and smacked into the door. Alerted of her audience, the woman turned,
raising her gun before she saw us. “Who are you?” she barked.

It didn’t matter that I could easily defend myself
against a gun; she threatened me. Hail jumped in front of me and his bow
appeared in his hand by magic I didn’t realize he had. An arrow appeared as
well and he notched it, aimed, and paused. “Put the gun down.”

The balance roared inside me, screaming at me to stop
Hail from hurting her. Obviously this woman was extremely important in the
future.

“You’re a kid,” she said, not lowering her weapon.

“And I will absolutely kill you in a heartbeat just
for threatening my brother. This is your one warning.”

“Hail, she’s a fixed point. She must survive
this,”
I said.

“She looks very familiar. Does she need her gun
hand?”

“No.”

Ronez burst in behind us and placed himself between
us and the woman. “Whoa, whoa, settle down, kid. What’s going on here?”

“We were looking for you. This woman shoved a gun in
my face before we could even introduce ourselves,” I explained.

Ronez sighed. “Abby, they’re children.”

“They’re in your house.”

“That should have told you more than anything that
they were safe. You know my home is protected. Listen, why don’t you go home
and I’ll take care of this. I’ll call you later,” he said, giving her a half
hug and small kiss on the cheek. He walked her through the living room to the
door. “And tell your mother to call off the dogs. No twenty-five-year-old
should have a curfew.” He shut the door behind her and turned to us. “Now, who
are you?”

“I am Ronez Versus Keisei Yatunus, son of Dylan
Yatunus and---” Hail cut me off my slapping his hand over my mouth.

“I’m Samhail Yano Toke Yatunus,” my brother said,
taking his hand back.

“You two are Dylan’s sons from the future? It works
out then? I mean, you both have Duran names.” He made a gesture to the couch so
Hail and I sat.

“Well, it works out for us. Dad became the Guardian
of Earth when you died and was trained by your brother.” The Guardian’s face
turned ashen and I could feel Hail cringe beside me, but I didn’t want to lie
to Ronez.

“I’m going to die?” He sat heavily on one of the
chairs. “I always planned… I always thought I would find a way to balance our
magics so we could… I was going to try to take him to Duran. I just wanted to
be there for him.”

“Well, he did find out how to balance his magic.
There is a guy named Mordon just a few years younger than Dad who is half
dragon. He is Dad’s balance like Hail is mine. Once Dad met him, he stopped
being unlucky and his magic was able to develop the way it was supposed to.”

“I met Mordon when they came to me in 1989, before
Dylan was born. I made the time map for them. When am I going to die?”

“You will meet a guy name Krael. He’s actually the
good guy even though he’s working for Vretial. You have to be his friend
because he ends up saving our parents… everyone really. He was sent here to
steal your book, but it’s actually another servant of Vretial’s that tries. At
that point, you discard the book and he kills you. The book goes to Dad.”

“I was planning to contact Dylan tomorrow.”

“You can’t! Dad has to become the Guardian of Earth.”

“Not without knowing that his father loves him.”

“Write him a damn letter!” I stood when the balance
inside me tingled furiously beneath my skin. Hail stood to try to calm me, only
to moan and collapse.

“What’s wrong with him,” Ronez asked worriedly. He
picked my brother up and laid him gently on the couch.

“He’s a seer. He’s…” At that point, my own vision
dimmed. Suddenly, I was standing to the side of my dad and uncle. It was cold
and dark, but clearer than any of the other times I had seen it, which meant it
was closer. Once again, Mordon had blood across his chest and his dragon claws
were exposed. The expression on his face was resigned, as was my father’s.

When Dad stood still as Mordon stabbed him with the
azurath blade, I wanted to scream at them, but I couldn’t breathe.

*          *          *

I woke, startled by shrill screaming until I realized
it was me making the horrible sound. I panted as Hail pulled me into his lap
and hugged me. Ronez crouched in front of us. “What did you see?” he asked.

“You have to let everything take its course,” I said.
“Write him a letter to say goodbye, get all your affairs in order, but do not
contact my dad. Your time is almost over. However, if you screw this up, you
could cause his death as well.”

He nodded and stood, obviously miserable. “What did
you come here for?”

“Vretial asked you many years ago to hide a sword
from him, right?” I asked. He nodded. “That is a special weapon used in the war
of the gods. There are other weapons, too, including a bow, a dagger, a battle
axe, and a wand. A war is starting between demons and everyone else, which we
can stop, but we need something to fight with. We already got the dagger,
battle axe, and bow.”

“So you need the sword?”

“No, actually. From our time, we have it. We need the
wand.”

“I think I know what you’re talking about.” He left
the room without another word.

“Poor Ronez,” Hail said.

“I know.”

“Can we do anything for him?”

“Not until after he is dead. Maybe we can call him
back to our world for a while. I mean, he comes back enough after death that he
probably has frequent flier miles. We’d have to wait until he is done training
Blue Jay and Phoenix. Those two are very spirited now that they’ve gotten used
to Dad.”

“Now that they know Dad isn’t going to blow their
heads off with his superpowers, they are brats,” Hail argued.

Ronez returned carrying the one object I had hoped
never to see again; the mage staff. “I thought it was supposed to be a wand.”

“Other than size, what is the difference between a
wand and a staff? I believe this is what you are looking for. I found it on my
lawn one morning. The postman tripped over it trying to get away from my dog,
Cujo. He was a three-pound hellhound. Anyway, there was a letter taped to it,
but the letter was completely blank.”

I scoffed. “Sounds like what Dad would do.”

When I tried to reach for the staff, the darkness
inside me stirred and a force filled the air between us, similar to magnets.
Just like the tricks Dad liked to play with magnets, the force grew stronger
each time I tried to grab the staff.

“It’s a paradox. I can’t touch it.”

“Then how are we supposed to use it to win the war?”

“You cannot use it yet,” Alice said, appearing right
in front of me. Ronez showed no sign of seeing her. “You must give it to the
mage king of Treslen so that Dylan can retrieve it from him.”

“No.”

“Absolutely not,” Hail said.