“I don’t think so. But if we do, you know we’ll call you right away.”
He paused, with relief or disappointment, I don’t know. I couldn’t assume either reaction—after all, I know he had cared for me, but he was also Ryu. And a month was a long time for someone like him, despite his longevity. He was a mover and a shaker, not a waiter-arounder.
After that we made some small talk for about ten minutes. We discussed Caleb and Iris, and we talked about my dad having been healed. We did not talk about Anyan. Eventually, Ryu was the one to wrap up the conversation, reminding me that all I had to do was call and he’d be there in a snap.
I thanked him, and I meant it. Then he hung up. And then I waited.
Only to discover that nothing happened. I didn’t feel any unrequited lust, or any anger, or any grief. I felt the pleasant feeling one feels when they’ve talked to someone who is important to them, and the conversation had gone well. I felt like… Ryu and I could be friends.
And that felt good.
Less good, however, was the other thing I suddenly both felt and heard: an explosion from somewhere to my right.
What the fuck? I thought, as the rest of the forest went silent.
I was about halfway between the edge of town and my house, so basically in the middle of nowhere, which meant it couldn’t have been a car backfiring. Plus, it had been strong enough to be felt, and not just heard, so that meant some kind of explosion. And as most of our locals avoided hunting with grenades, an explosion had to be something nefarious.
Another huge boom rocked toward me again, but this time I was ready. Putting out my feelers, I recognized a clear undercurrent of magic.
Without thinking, I raised shields and a mage ball and ran toward the sound. Well, scrabbled is more accurate, as the underbrush was pretty dense. When I did start thinking, my first emotion was pride that I had, finally, learned some reflexes that sent me toward danger rather than from it. My second emotion was to worry about what the fuck I was getting myself into.
But I didn’t let my fear stop me. Instead, I put a little magic into my run, pushing forward with my shields to clear the ground in front of me so I could move faster. I backed off on my magic only when I knew I was getting near the commotion. I could hear what sounded like pretty intense fighting from right up in front of me.
Hoping to sneak up on whatever was making all the racket, I shut down the mojo as I crept toward what had to be a glade. In the dim evening light, I could see stars twinkling from a space free of canopy… and a fuck ton of magic being thrown about like it was D-day here in Boofookey, Maine.
When I neared the clearing—hunkering down to stay behind a cover of undergrowth—I nearly gave myself away by swearing.
For standing directly in front of me—less than a yard away—was the unmistakable tree-trunk legs of a spriggan. And since I could clearly see the now rather melty face of Graeme, the rapist incubus, standing on my right-hand side of the glade, I knew that spriggan had to be my favorite shit-for-brains thug, Fugwat.
What the fuck are they doing here? And where is Nell? There was no way the gnome could be unaware of such explosive trespassing.
I got lower, so I could peer between the spriggan’s spraddled legs to see what he and Graeme were attacking. What I saw made my blood boil.
Pinned by enemy fire against an enormous boulder, his arms spread as if protecting something precious, stood Gus. His bald pate gleamed with sweat and his glasses hung off one ear as he bravely defended his rock.
Or are the rocks defending him? I wondered, as I watched various stones—some mere pebbles, some as large as my fist—unearth themselves from the ground and go winging toward Graeme and Fugwat.
I stood, quietly, ready to attack Fugwat from behind and make my way to Gus, when a series of shrieks pierced the air.
And where goeth Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, there followeth the damned air brigade, I thought as, sure enough, Kaya and Kaori (whichever was which) came streaking downward, harrying Gus away from his rock. My rescue plans were put on hold as I tried to figure out