| THE LORELEI SIGNAL |
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| Written by Dani Futoran / Artwork by Marge Simon |
| The Greatest Magic |
“Another fight, Abreti?”
“He started it,” Bret snarled at the floor in response.
“Yes, Abreti, someone else always starts it,” her father snapped. He paced in front of her and she watched
his military boots go back and forth. Her father’s dog familiar, Onba, sat at attention, his tail swishing back
and forth on the cold stone floor. “There is always something that sets you off, isn’t there? Why can’t you just
control your temper like a proper lady? Do you know how disappointed your mother is in you?”
Her fists tightened behind her back. “Yes, Father.”
Destrio slammed his fists into the desk in front of him. Never mind that it wasn’t his desk. He was a war
wizard. He could take what he wanted, when he wanted. Bret seethed at the thought, but her father didn’t
notice. “Then why in the name of Gorthan do you keep doing it? Why can you never simply meet our
expectations? Are they set too high? Do I need to lower my expectations, Abreti?”
If her feet could make fists, they would. “No, Father.”
“Don’t lie to me!” The books on the desk jumped at his anger. Bret didn’t; she was used to it. Her nails were
digging into her fists, she knew they would start bleeding soon. Her head was pounding; it would explode
soon. “Why can’t you be—”
“A proper lady?” Bret snapped. She brought her head up and glared at her father. “What you want? I don’t
know, Father, that’s just not—“
“Don’t you raise your voice to me, Abreti!” he bellowed. The room shook, and the book that had jumped
before went running under bookshelves, cowering before his anger. He shook his finger at her. “You will
respect me.”
“Why?” she demanded. The picture frames on the wall shuddered. “You don’t respect me.”
“You have done nothing to deserve my respect,” Destrio snarled. Onba jumped to her feet. “You pick fights at
school, you ignore the reprimands of your teachers, you act like a boy, you don’t do well in classes—”
“Yes, I do!” Bret protested. “I’m the best in my Languages class and at the top in History! I’m the gorram best
defensive fighter in my grade!”
“Do not swear and don’t you dare contradict me,” her father shouted. Onba paced near him, keeping a wary,
distrustful eye on Bret. “You’ll be eighteen and graduating soon—”
“And I want to go to an Academy!” Bret yelled. She stepped forward, staring her father in the eye. “I want to
keep studying!”
“Don’t interrupt me, Abreti! You know that is impossible. It is not our way!” Destrio barked. He checked his
watch and straightened his jacket. “Now, I must go. My platoon is moving to deal with a barbarian uprising in
the North.”
He stopped right in front of her. “I expect you to behave, Abreti.”
Bret’s mouth twisted. “You need to lower your expectations, remember, Father?”
They stared each other down for a moment more, before Destrio dismissed her and marched out, Onba
following close. Bret stared straight ahead for a moment, then turned around and stomped out of the office
behind him. He was just in the next room, his hand on a boy’s shoulder.
“Yes, Father, my classes are going well,” the boy was saying.
Destrio nodded once. “Well done, Caden. That’s what I like to hear. Study and do well on your finals. Your
mother and I will see you when you get home.”
Caden’s head bobbed and he smiled up at his father. “Yes, Father.”
The war wizard turned to Bret again. “And you—do well in your classes. The important ones, not the ones
you’ll never use. And stop giving your guards the slip. You know how much danger you both are in.”
“Because of you,” Bret muttered.
Destrio must not have heard her, because he simply squeezed Caden’s shoulder once more and marched
away, not looking back. As his footsteps faded, Caden turned to her. “Why wasn’t Lotki in there with you?”
Bret shrugged and folded her arms in front of her. “Off eating grass or something, I dunno.”
Caden sighed. “Neither of you know the meaning of the word compromise, do you?”
“What would the compromise be, Caden?” Bret demanded. As one, they turned and walked the halls, toward
the dormitory wing. As their father had said, there was studying to be done. “I go to Academy and then marry
whoever he chooses? I don’t think so. That’s not what I want.”
“What do you want, Bret?” Caden asked. His familiar, a gray cat named Sov, wrapped around his ankles in
comfort.
Bret shrugged again. “I don’t know.” She blew a breath out and continued to stomp along. “Well, Father
dearest is right about something, anyway. You need to study, and be brilliant as always.” Bret gave him a
rough, one armed hug and ruffled his hair. “Worried about any of your classes?”
Caden shrugged and rubbed the back of his head. “Probably the advanced magical theory one. It’s really the
only one I need to study for.”
Bret chuckled. “The others are all just cake for you, right little genius?”
Pink tinged his cheeks. “Well, I still need to go over my notes and practice a bit, first—”
“Yeah, sure,” Bret teased him. “You’re just using that as an excuse to get close to girls, right?”
Caden frowned. “How does that work?”
“Girls like the scholarly type. If you walk around with a book in your hand, they’ll think you’re cute and smart,
which you are,” she explained. They reached the branch-off. Caden had to go to his grade level, and Bret had
to go to hers.
“Do you like the scholarly type, Abri?” Caden asked.
Bret grinned. “I like you, don’t I, Cadey?”
Caden raised an eyebrow. “After some fashion of the word.”
Bret laughed and walked up the stairs to her dorm room. Her good mood dissipated when she saw the pile of
books waiting for her, and the goat sleeping on her bed. Bret scowled at her familiar. “Hey, aren’t you
supposed to help me or something?”
Lotki stirred and shook his head. :What are you talking about?
“The job of a familiar, if I remember, is to inhabit an animal, and guide a witch or wizard. Isn’t that how you
get into heaven or something?” Bret kicked her shoes off and threw her sweater on a chair.
:It’s rather more complicated than that, Abreti.
“Don’t call me that,” Bret snapped, glaring at the piles of books on her desk. Two piles: one for classes she
liked, one for classes she didn’t like. The books shuffled and shifted, arranging themselves into more
comfortable piles. Languages, History, Defense, even her Exotic Creatures textbook all purred in contentment.
Her Etiquette book inched slightly away from her in a dignified manner, and her Math book growled if she
reached for it.
:You really do need to study, my dear.
“Then why don’t you shut up and let me, goat?”
:I have a name.
“When you use my name, I’ll use yours. That’s the deal.” Bret reached for her Math book anyway. It wasn’t
really math; it was accounting and other banal stuff. Someday, she was expected to balance the checkbook,
and be able to measure out ingredients. Bret sneered at the book. It snarled back.
:I do use your name. It’s Abreti.
“You know full well I prefer Bret. It suits me better.”
:Bret is a boy’s name.
“I wish I was a boy sometimes,” she muttered, forcing the textbook open. Just to spite her, it opened to the
baking page.
:Well, you certainly act like one.
“Are you going to start lecturing me on being more like a proper lady now, too? You sound like my father,”
Bret snapped. She leaned back in her chair and glared at him. “I really think you’ve got the wrong person.”
:My vision showed me you. Even though it took a hell of a long time to get to you. Do you know you put off such
an aura, hardly any animal will go near you?
“How’d you get that one to?” Bret asked.
:I believe it has brain damage.
“That’s just great. Well, leave me alone so I can study, okay?”
:How long do you really think you’ll be able to study before losing your temper?
“As long as I have to.”
:Bret, you need to calm down and study.
Bret spun and kicked one of her textbooks across the floor. It landed with a dull thump and hissed at her. She
hissed back, and How to Control Anger-based Magic skittered under her bed. “I’ll do what I want, you
goddamned goat!”
:Your attitude will not help you pass your exams, Abreti.
“Leave me alone. You don’t help,” she growled.
Lotki stared at her a moment before closing his eyes and resting his head on her pillow. Bret picked up a
crumpled up ball of paper and chucked it at him. It bounced off the bedspread and landed near his face. He
sighed. :Why are you throwing your notes at me?
“Screw you!”
:That would make our working relationship very awkward.
Bret threw a pillow across the room. She used to throw chairs, but they left dents in the wall that came out of
her pocket. Bret stomped over to the window to get some fresh air. Her teachers always said deep breaths
would help get her temper under control, but she didn’t believe them. Mostly. Besides, her temper was good
for her. Bret worked primarily with anger-based magic, and she had plenty of anger to fuel her spells. At least
the courtyard was quiet during exam week. Everyone was locked up in their rooms studying, probably with
silencer spells to keep the noise out. Well, almost everyone.
A solitary figure wandered along the far side of the court, his nose buried in a book, wearing the ugliest
sweater she’d ever seen. Bret chuckled. Leave it to her little brother to end up wandering campus trying to
study. He couldn’t sit still anymore than she could. Typical Caden, she thought as he wandered in front of the
archway to the grounds. He’s likely to wander outside and get lost in the forest. She leaned out of the
window to yell at him for being an idiot and sucked in a deep breath—
Two limp figures crashed into Caden, knocking him to the ground. One flopped to the ground, unconscious,
and Bret could clearly see the insignia on his chest—the same insignia her guards wore.
“Caden, get inside!” she screamed. “Run!”
Caden scrambled out from under the other unconscious guard, just in time for two figures in black to shoot
out of the archway leading to the grounds. One smashed Caden across the face and the other caught his
unconscious body before it hit the ground. Her heart started beating again—double time. His book and
glasses went bouncing across the courtyard.
“Caden!” Bret howled. Lotki was shouting something at her through their mindlink, but Bret ignored him. Her
brother was in danger. She jumped onto the ledge beneath her window as one thug ran through the
archway with her brother. The other stepped just outside the courtyard walls and conjured a hail of pebbles.
Bret turned the air blue with curses diving back to safety inside her room. Magic was restricted, by rule and by
a powerful spell, in the courtyard. What a goddamned stupid rule for a magic school. As soon as the pebble
storm was over, Bret was back out on the ledge, but the man had vanished into the forest. She was right—no
one had noticed the attack because of the spells they’d put up.
“Nooooo!” she screamed. Bret half-slid, half-climbed down the rough stone wall, leaving small trails of blood
where her hands got cut. She reached the second level and jumped the rest of the way. The landing sent
pain screaming up her legs. Bret grunted and scrambled forward. Caden’s glasses were broken, but still
covered in his magical spoor. With that, she could hope to find his trail.
Bret could barely focus enough to detect the scent; all she wanted to do was beat some faces in.
Nonetheless, she managed to find his trail and set off, ordering Lotki to get help and follow her. Her guards
should have been right behind her, but they weren’t allowed in the girls’ dorms. He started to grumble, but
she blocked him out. She had to get to Caden. Nothing else mattered. Lotki, exams, expulsion. Bret had to
get to Caden. He was her baby brother and nobody hurt him and got away with it. Not bullies trying to give
him wedgies, not academic rivals trying to get him sick on exam day, and certainly not mercenaries trying to
use her and her brother as leverage. Bret was the only one allowed to bully, tease or punch her brother.
She pumped her arms and legs faster. She had to get to Caden.
:Bret, slow down! We need—
:No time! Catch up to me!
:You don’t even have a coat! It’s going to rain!
:So I’ll catch a cold! With that she shut him out. It was hard enough to concentrate on the trail without being
distracted by thoughts of her familiar. Tracking wasn’t her strong suit. She almost missed where Caden’s trail
shot off into the canyons. Bret charged heedlessly into the Red Canyon Range. Rocks slid down the slope
ahead of her and dust snaked its way into her lungs, making her cough. Far ahead, on top of the canyon
ridge, two figures did the same thing, running towards a large crack in the rock cliff. She couldn’t see any sort
of identifying marks or insignia, but she knew at least three old enemies of her father who would stoop to
kidnapping his children.
Gotcha! “Get back here you bastards!” she roared. They heard her and picked the pace up, not even
bothering to put any obstacles in her way. “You think you can get away from me?”
But they were going to. The two men kidnapping her brother were almost to the crevasse. Bret shouted and
cursed at them, but they disappeared inside the cave. A much better defensive position. Still, she would
chase them in, beat their asses up—
Above the crack in the cliff, a huge boulder suddenly detached from the rock wall and began to lower. It would
completely, easily cover the crack the bastards had taken her brother into.
“No! NO!” She sprinted the last hundred yards, threw smaller rocks in its path to stop it, and hurled fireballs
at it, but the boulder settled into place anyway. Bret reached it a moment too late, and her howl of fury
echoed off the canyon walls, bouncing back to her a hundred times amplified. She beat against the stone with
her fists, pumping anger magic through them in powerful blasts that would have torn holes in stone walls at
her school.
The boulder was unfazed.
Bret took a step back, channeled her rage, and let loose a torrent of blasting spells, each more destructive
than the last. The magic nearly blinded her with its intensity, but she kept going. Her brother was on the
other side of this boulder. There was no way in hell it was going to stand in her way.
Yet it did, mocking her efforts.
Bret abandoned traditional spells. They obviously weren’t working fast enough. “Let-me-through!” she
screamed, channeling pure magic at the boulder. The sound of her explosive attacks ricocheted through the
canyon. Her hair was beginning to smoke from the energy she was using, and the smell made it even harder
to breathe, but Bret wouldn’t stop. Pure red, anger magic splashed all around her, bouncing off the one
damned arrogant boulder, but pulverizing smaller stones and plants.
She was destroying everything except that one necessary boulder.
Bret threw literally every bit of magic she had at the obstacle. By the time her magic was fizzling just after
leaving her fingertips, there was barely a scratch to show. Panting, glaring at the stubborn rock, Bret threw
herself against it again, trying to smash her way through.
It did nothing.
She stumbled back, her shoulder aching, and cussed the boulder out.
:Really, Abreti, you should watch your language!
Bret staggered around to see Lotki standing behind her, a coat and small medical kit clutched in his mouth.
“They took Caden in there.” She wanted to shout, but her voice had gone hoarse. “It must have some sort of
resistance spell, because I haven’t been able to bust through it.”
:Is the lever broken?
“Lever? What lever?”
Lotki dropped his things and trotted over to the cliff wall. Sticking out just a few feet to the left of the boulder
was a crude, but obvious, lever. Lotki propped himself up on his back legs and pulled it down with his front
hooves. With a great groan and shudder, the boulder slowly began to lift. Bret stared in amazement and
embarrassment.
:You didn’t see it at all?
She didn’t answer, pulling her coat on instead. She’d leave streaks of blood on the inside from her hands, and
her mother would be angry that she’d ruin such a lovely coat. Bret didn’t care.
:Really? You just charged up and started blasting it without looking around? If you had used your head instead of
your temper, you would have saved yourself a lot of trouble.
“I know, I know,” she grumbled, clumsily wrapping bandages around her hands.
:No, clearly you don’t. How many times have I told you to stop and think? But no; you just charge right in, like an
elephant stampede in a pottery market.
“Not now, Lotki,” she growled.
:Now. Before we go in there and you do something stupid again. Do not let your temper get the better of you in
there. We don’t know what we’re facing. Use your head.
“I know, I know.”
:We’ll see.
“Where are my guards, anyway?”
Lotki sighed in her mind. :They were unconscious, much as Caden’s were.
“Whoever these guys are, they’re good.”
:Perhaps we should wait for help. These men are professionals.
Bret shook her head and tied her bright red hair back. “No, we at least need to keep following them. See
where they go.”
Together, they faced the dark crack in the canyon wall. Bret swallowed thickly but stepped forward. The
tunnel in front of them was long and narrow. As soon as they were inside, the boulder lowered again,
trapping them inside. The fireball Bret conjured provided minimal light, but enough so they didn’t impale
themselves on any jutting rocks or step into holes. Bret wrinkled her nose at the smell of mold in the damp air.
After just a bit of walking, the mountain goat faring slightly better than Bret on the uneven ground, they
reached a stone wall. Bret stared up at the intricate patterns covering it from top to bottom.
:Those are some impressive locking spells.
Bret sneered. “Yeah, well, they won’t stand up long against my magic.” She instinctively went to summon a
blasting spell, but Lotki stopped her.
:Remember how well that worked last time?
Her hands clenched.
:Think this time, don’t just go—
“Alright, alright,” she grumbled. Bret dropped her hands and actually inspected the wall before her. It was
two sides of the narrow tunnel, dragged together. Caden and his kidnappers had to be on the other side of
that, and they’d thrown up a powerful locking spell to prevent her from pulling them apart. Some secret
hideaway in the mountains. If she hadn’t followed them immediately, Caden would have been lost forever in
the twisting ridges and canyons. Bret stared at the spell. She’d have to line up the symbols on either side of
the crack where the two halves met. Only then could she undo the spell and open the way to Caden again.
Her first try was a bust. The spells didn’t line up right, and when they randomized again, one of the symbols
had disappeared. “WHAT?” Bret snapped.
:With each failure, it’s supposed to get harder. This will only make you more frustrated.
“So I have nine more tries before they all disappear, right?”
:It would seem that way.
“I’d rather just punch through it,” she growled.
:You saw how that worked last time, Abreti.
Bret spared a moment to glare at him, but turned her attention back to the problem before her. It was
standing between her and Caden, who could be hurt. She would get through this and save him. She had to.
Those sons of donkeys had taken her brother.
She closed her eyes and tried to remember what the one symbol was. She knew that one was right at least.
Bret reached out and magically moved the symbol to its mate. The next two were references to old myths,
gods that worked in pairs. They settled into place easily. Bret kept going, pretty sure on the next four. The
last three stumped her.
“What now?” she wondered. “If I miss this one, another symbol disappears.”
:Are you sure on the other seven?
Bret nodded, taking a deep breath like her teachers taught her. Her skin was crawling, something inside just
waiting to burst free. “So, just guess on the other three?”
:That’s all I’ve got, Abreti. Bret reached up and just randomly guessed at the other three. The symbols glowed,
but not nearly enough to indicate an unlocking. They went back to their original positions, but this time, the
first seven she guessed were missing.
Bret screamed in frustration and punched a wall. She felt something in her hand snap. Fire engulfed it and ran
up her arm. She bit her lip tight and rested against the tunnel wall. Despite her best efforts at nonchalance,
Lotki noticed.
:You broke your hand? I don’t know what to do with you!
“Shut up!” Bret snarled. She faced the lock again, with only three symbols left. “Why did so many more
disappear this time?”
Lotki snapped, :You are an ungrateful brat who is incapable of making smart decisions. Why should I help you? I
want to leave.
“You’d leave my brother to rot because you don’t like my temper? You selfish prick!” Bret roared.
That seemed to get him. Lotki turned around and glared at her. :Fine, I will help you find Caden—for him. He is
a sweet boy. But you have some serious issues you need to work out.
“Yes, fine, we’ll talk about it later. Just help me here. Why are they all gone now?”
Lotki sighed. :I think that whichever ones you get right disappear.
“. . . I preferred the first version.”
:Do you remember where they all were?
“Not all of them.” Bret stared at the mostly-blank wall. The three symbols she didn’t know were etched into
the stone, pulsating, mocking her. The young witch glared at the wall. Her left, unbroken hand clenched tight.
Another obstacle between her and Caden. She didn’t even know why those men had taken him. He was
beyond that wall, unconscious, maybe dead. Bret snapped. “This is taking too long!”
Bret raised her hands to send a blast of pure anger magic at the wall to shove it apart.
:Bret, stop. Think.
She hesitated for just a second. “Okay, I thought.” She let loose.
The magic had no effect on the wall, but the energy rebound slammed into Bret hard, sending her crashing
against the tunnel wall. She tried to land on her feet, but her right foot found a round rock instead of solid
ground. Her ankle twisted out from under her and Bret’s knee was the first point of contact with the ground.
It throbbed for a second, and then exploded with pain. She landed fully on her side, the impact knocking the
wind out of her. The tunnel shuddered and threatened to collapse, but held tight, only raining down dust.
Bret coughed, and tried to breath. It came slowly in rasps.
Lotki caught his bearing, spun on her, and head-butted her in her other side. His horns poked her, but didn’t
actually hurt. His words on the other hand did.
:You goddamned idiot! You realize that if you’d been at full strength, that bounce back would have killed us! Didn’t
you think of that?! What is wrong with you? Didn’t you learn anything from outside? I am through with this. I’m
going back and asking for another assignment.
Bret didn’t move, and just let herself lay on the hard rock floor. She made herself look up at the wall, only to
see that all of the symbols had completely vanished after her attack. The lock was still in place, and she had
just lost the key. She had failed. Lotki stomped his hooves in anger.
:You impetuous brat! You were so lucky you didn’t get us both killed! If I could I would go right back home! Why
am I your familiar?
Bret closed her eyes and let Lotki’s ranting fill her mind. Her hands were broken and bleeding. Her knee was
probably dislocated. Her side hurt. Her hair was smoking. Her magic was completely depleted. And she still
didn’t have her brother back.
Tears burned at the back of her eyes, but she wouldn’t let them out. She couldn’t hold back a sniffle, but
rolled away from Lotki to cover it up. Observant little bastard noticed though, and trotted to her other side to
see her.
:I—are—are you—you can’t be crying, Abreti. You don’t cry.
Bret ignored him and curled into a ball. She was probably too late. Who knew what kinds of maze of tunnels
was in here? They were probably already gone, lost in the mountain. Caden could be dead, injured, tortured.
The spirits only knew what those mercenaries would do to him. He was a ransom, but their father didn’t
negotiate. Whatever these people wanted, Destrio wouldn’t give in. Bret shuddered; she had failed.
:Abreti. Abreti, listen to me. Abreti, I have the medkit, you have to get up. Abreti.
“Go away,” she whispered. “He’s gone. Caden’s lost.”
:You don’t know that. We need to keep following him, remember? Abreti, you need to get up.
Bret ignored him. She’d all run out of her anger. What was she without her temper? She was just a brat, a
disappointing tomboy. She had no usable skills, no etiquette. Without her anger magic, she was nothing.
What did she have left?
:Bret.
She opened her eyes. “You’ve never called me that before.”
:I believe in you.
Bret rolled over and stared at him. “What?”
Lotki sat there, the medkit in his mouth. :I know you can do this. Why did you chase these men?
“Because they took my brother. I have to take care of him.” She rubbed at her eyes, wiping away the salty
tears.
:You chased after them because you love him, right?
She slowly sat up. Her side ached and she could barely breathe. “Of course I love him. He’s my brother,
remember?”
:Then you have no choice but to get up and keep going. You may be all out of anger, but love isn’t diminished so
easily. Is it?
Bret shook her head.
:Good. Now use this medkit and take care of yourself.
She reached for the medkit and pulled out a set of potions and bandages. The first one she downed was a
bone-knitter, for her hand and the ribs she’d no doubt cracked. “So what brought about this change of mind,
Lotki?”
He rested his head on her thigh and stared up at her as Bret took care of herself. She wrapped her knee up
tightly; it was just strained, thankfully not dislocated. :I’ve watched humanity a long time, and heard stories
from my brethren spirits. They would tell me of their wizards, be they heroes, healers, scholars, or anything. I
waited and waited for my turn, hoping the person I was assigned to would be a hero. Strong, powerful, kind,
chivalric. The stereotype.
“I must have been quite a disappointment to you then.” She spread disinfectant across her hands. It burned
into the cuts, destroying the germs and dirt she’d gotten into them and partially cauterizing.
:I won’t lie, he admitted. :You were not what I hoped for. You are volatile, unpredictable, short-tempered,
improper, crude—
“You really know how to complement a lady, don’t you?” Bret snapped. The last potion she took was the
painkiller.
:Even you admit you are not a lady. I didn’t think much of you, I’ll be honest. Like I said, I was expecting a
stereotype. You are far from a stereotype, Bret. I didn’t see who you were because I was trying to fit you into a
mold I had created. That wasn’t fair of me, and I’m sorry. It takes a lot of passion, a lot of dedication to drain your
magical reserves as you have.
She grunted and slipped a brace on her broken hand. “Fat lot of good it did me, right?”
:Well, anyway. I realized you have potential. I’d still like you to swear less, but—
“You’re stuck with me, Lotki,” she said. Bret pulled herself up. “Now, let’s try this lock one more time.”
Lotki danced around her knees, rubbed up against them in a strange form of encouragement.
“You should have been a cat.”
:All the cats were scared of you. I tried inhabiting one, but it wouldn’t go near you. Let’s get to work.
Bret stared at the blank wall. “How am I supposed to unlock this thing without being able to see the
components?”
:We’ll try together. I can remember some of them. Come on, let’s try.
Bret sighed, but tried to pull from her memory what she could. The first try didn’t open up the rock. She took a
deep breath and tried to keep her temper in check. Lotki waited for her. Bret ignored the throbbing in her
head; already the painkiller was wearing off.
The second try was closer, and this time Bret could see which ones she got right again. When she attacked
the locked tunnel, the spell had made all the symbols vanish, but it seemed the spell was fading. She’d be
able to see them all soon.
Unfortunately, the second try didn’t work either.
:Bret, stay calm, okay? Losing your temper won’t do anything. Come on, we’re almost there.
She limped around, breathing deep again. “I think I preferred you when you were stuck up.”
:Do you want me to stop being encouraging? I can be quiet if you like. He trotted off and sat to the side. :Go
ahead. I’ll just wait here.
“You’re a moody little goat, you know that?” Bret muttered. She limped up to the wall and surveyed it. She
could just see the three that were missing now. Bret had caught up all the ground she’d lost with her
untimely temper.
She reached out and placed the seven she knew for sure. By now, their positions were imprinted in her mind.
She stared at the remaining three. They were something to do with math, but it was the advanced math
she’d never been taught. Bret sneered at the locked wall. She could do this.
Unfortunately, the wall disagreed.
“Noooo!” Bret howled. That damn lock! It was a spell; she was a human. How could it be tricking her? She
should know this. It was keeping her from getting to Caden. Bret clenched her fists, and her broken hand
screamed in pain. She hissed and brought it close to her chest. The painkillers were wearing off, reminding
her of the extent of her injuries.
Bret limped away, cradling her hand and staring at the wall. Her first instinct was to get angry. That was how
she’d always dealt with problems, and she figured it always would be that way. But this last temper tantrum
had hurt her in a bad way.
:Did you hurt yourself again, Bret? Lotki asked.
“No need to sound so exasperated, Lotki,” she said, leaning against the rock wall. “I’m just taking a moment
to think.”
The rock wall was hanging there, mocking here. She could see those three symbols etched into it; the three
she couldn’t get. It really would be so much easier if she could just blast through the rock wall and keep
going. Bret shoved down the urge to try again, the little voice that said one more hit would do it. One more
hit, one more bounceback like the last one and she’d be dead. Bret took a deep breath, just as her teachers
had taught her, and ignored the little voice.
She rubbed her eyes with her good hand and stood up, facing the wall one last time. Her magic was almost
depleted; Bret could barely feel it. This last try would, for all intents and purposes, completely drain her. She
placed the seven she knew for sure, and only the three unknowns remained. Bret thought back to the other
times she’d tried. There were only three combinations with a matching lock like this; that much she knew. The
problem was remembering which ones she’d tried already. Bret scraped up all the magic she had left and
moved the pieces. The symbols glowed brilliantly, brighter than they ever had before, and the tunnel
shuddered. Bret sighed in relief and nearly collapsed. The rock wall opened, returning to its natural formation.
Lotki came up behind her. :Be careful, Bret. You have no more magic left and you’re terribly injured. How are you
going to fight these kidnappers? They took out your guards, after all.
Bret stared ahead into the darkness. “I’ll go forward. You just hang back a ways behind me, okay? Eventually,
I’ll see where they are and where they took him. When I see them, they’ll probably catch me. I’ll distract
them, but you have to escape, go back through the tunnel and get some help, like I told you to the first time.”
Bret stripped her school tie off and lit it on fire, since the fireball she’d conjured was slowly going out.
:That is a stupid plan. And do you just intend to strip and burn your clothes until you find them?
“If I have to.” She stepped forward, pushing the dark back foot by foot with her tie-torch. “And do you have
any better ideas?”
Lotki grumbled, but didn’t come up with anything better, so he hung about ten feet behind Bret as she limped
down the tunnel. It forked off, but Bret could just feel Caden’s magical trail. She followed it through the
winding tunnels, checking every now and then that Lotki was behind her and was paying attention to the
way.
:I have an exceptional sense of direction, Bret. I also have ways of marking our path.
“What ways?” Bret whispered.
:Let’s just leave it at “ways.”
She ignored the comment and kept walking. Suddenly, a flickering light reflected off the cave wall ahead. Bret
dropped her flaming tie and stomped it out, waving Lotki back furiously. He disappeared around a bend just
as one of the thugs who kidnapped Caden appeared, carrying a torch. He squinted at her.
“How did you get in here?”
Bret grabbed a rock and threw herself at him. “You have my brother, you bastard!”
The man stumbled back at her surprise attack, but he was a trained fighter and easily overpowered the
already injured seventeen-year-old. He scooped her up, pinning her hands to her chest, and ignored the kicks
she sent at his shins. The thug carried her through a couple more turns before dumping her next to Caden in
a huge, hollowed-out cavern.
“Ah, good,” one of the others said. He was one of about fifteen men standing around the cavern. All were
armed; all were dressed in black with no identifying marks. Bret stared at them, trying to figure out which of
her father’s enemies they represented. She knew of quite a few, but couldn’t pick out anything that would
clue her in to whoever hired them. The one who had spoken stepped up and inspected her face. “Yep, this is
the girl. How did you catch her?”
“She was walking through the tunnel. Tried to attack me with a rock,” he guffawed. The other thugs chuckled
along with them.
Bret rolled over and faced Caden, who was staring at her. “Wait, did you follow me here?”
“What else was I supposed to do?” Bret shrugged and rubbed her knee. The painkillers were almost
completely worn off. She wouldn’t be able to walk without them.
“Get help!” Caden hissed. “I sent Sov to get help.”
“If I hadn’t followed you, no one would have known where you were. You know how easy it is to get lost in
the Range,” Bret growled. “Now let’s stop talking about familiars.” She raised her eyebrows and willed him to
understand.
Caden blinked at her and looked around, seeming to realize that once again, Lotki was not with her. He fell
silent immediately and Bret smiled at him. Caden leaned back against the hard rock wall. “So, help might be
on the way?” he whispered.
Bret slowly wrapped an arm around his shoulders and winked. “What, I don’t count? Help is here, little
brother. Never fear.” Caden rested his head on her shoulder. “We’ll be just fine.”
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Dani just graduated college with a degree in English and is looking
forward to the next step in her life: her writing career. It's just getting
started, but if you liked this keep an eye out for her in other magazines.
Her passion lies in speculative fiction of all kinds, breaking stereotypes,
and trying new things.
forward to the next step in her life: her writing career. It's just getting
started, but if you liked this keep an eye out for her in other magazines.
Her passion lies in speculative fiction of all kinds, breaking stereotypes,
and trying new things.