The Last Pendragon

Chapter 4

Things were going far too slow for Lyza’s taste. At least, that’s what she kept telling Kenji over and over again. Sure, magic was easy for him—on video games. He could tell anyone a hundred different ways that magic worked, but when it came to anything Lyza explained about how magic actually worked, he couldn’t do it. Nothing. Sure, the concepts were easy—he comprehended everything just fine. He did have a Bachelor’s degree in computer science, after all. Anytime he would follow her instructions— “flip your hands this way,” “palms up,” “say this,” or “say that,” –Kenji did it. Repeatedly.

Nothing happened.

Every time. Kenji was a perfectionist. He was a fourth-degree black belt in Taekwondo. He taught people how to fight for a living. Everything he did, he did to perfection and he always caught on quickly. That was how Kenji worked. For whatever reasons, no matter what he tried, magic just wouldn’t work.

“Maybe I’m not a Mage,” Kenji said, holding out his hands in anger. “I don’t know what that crazy psychopath was thinking, convincing me to come here. When I saw him cast magic, I guess I just—I believed him.”

Lyza pointed right at Kenji’s chest. “Exactly! No-mages can’t do that! As soon as they see magic being cast, they instantly try to kill the Mage who cast it and anyone with them. It’s part of the Pendragon curse.”

Kenji growled. “Then why can’t I do it?”

Lyza shook her head, sitting on the floor as she leaned against a shelf full of miscellaneous objects that ranged from a clock that had hands that moved backward, to a statue of a dolphin that Kenji swore actually moved. “I don’t know.” She met his gaze and then her eyes widened. “Um, Kenji…” Her voice trailed off as she gestured to him.

Kenji looked down. His skin was glowing bright red. Frowning, his eyebrows furrowed as confusion and near-panic made his heart race. “Okay… What’s happening to me, Lyza?”

Lyza chuckled, standing back to her feet. “Our magic comes from our emotions—the stronger they are, the more powerful our magic. When we feel intense emotions, our skin glows—evidence of the power within us. It proves that there is power inside you, Kenji.”

Crossing his arms, Kenji glared at her. “Then why can’t I do it? We’ve been confined here in this pawnshop and bar for a week now and nothing.”

Lyza sighed and then groaned. “I don’t know! Even baby Mages can sometimes throw out something! I’m not a teacher. I’m barely making it as it is…”

Kenji sat on the floor with his legs tucked beneath him - one of the old family habits that he couldn’t quite break, despite how much he didn’t like that side of his family. “What do you mean?”

Lyza didn’t respond. Instead, she sat right back where she had been before, up against the shelf.

Eyeing the dolphin, which had seemed to shift positions again, Kenji gazed at Lyza in depth. She was a beautiful woman; bright red straight hair that reached her hips, which at the moment was twisted into a braid down her back. Her eyes were a pale gray and she only stood about 5’3, but she was slender and there was a determined, closed off look in her eyes that made Kenji wonder how she got that way. “Why do you need Kharro to help you get out of the country? You a criminal or something?”

“Something like that. At least to the Mages.” Lyza’s tone had deepened a bit until she sounded extremely bitter.

“Wait, are they hunting you too?”

Lyza nodded, biting her lip and she refused to meet Kenji’s gaze.

He kept his gaze on her, watching her as her eyes carefully traced over the objects on a table to the left. “Wait…” Kenji remembered Kharro telling him about how the Mages were hunting the Pendragon family to break the curse so they could use magic openly again. “Are you a… Pendragon?”

Lyza met his gaze and her eyes were filled with sadness. “Apparently. I was born an orphan, abandoned by my parents. ‘Course now I know they were probably killed by the Bloods. Look, I don’t even know my family and they’re trying to kill me for it. I’m just a normal, everyday Mage. Or, at least I was… Until they found out. I don’t even care about the Pendragons and yet they’ve associated me with them and decided to kill me without even giving me a chance to defend myself or renounce the family or anything!”

Kenji swallowed. “The Bloods?”

Lyza licked her lips before pursing them in a tight, firm line. “Powerful Mages—the most powerful Mages and the ones specifically sent to hunt down and kill the Pendragon family. My ex-fiancé is the leader, apparently.”

Kenji sucked in a deep breath. “Ouch. Sorry.”

Lyza shook her head, waving a hand in dismissal.

Kenji saw through it. There was a flash of pain in her eyes, just a flicker in the center where the pale gray met with the stark white, and then it was gone in an instant, the firm mask that Kenji had gotten used to firmly put back in its place, leaving Lyza a complete mystery.

*****

You can do this, Matthew mentally encouraged himself. Clutching his phone as if it was a lifeline, Matthew inhaled and exhaled deeply, practicing his meditation to stay calm.

“Hello?” His mother’s beautiful voice soothed a deep part of Matthew’s heart he hadn’t realized had needed it.

“It’s me, Mom.” Did his voice c***k?

“Matthew!” Michelle shouted excitedly. “Oh, it’s so good to hear from you! I mean, it’s been well over seven weeks! How are you? Are you still overseas? Your tour wasn’t supposed to be over until December, right?”

Matthew trailed his fingers along the smooth wooden floorboards. For a moment, he imagined it was sand. “Yeah, I’m still here. Things have been… crazy lately, so I haven’t had much time to call or write. Sorry.”

“... Is everything okay? I know the divorce is hard and that you’re angry with me, but Matthew, I can hear that something is wrong. I’m still your mother.” Michelle paused and he concentrated on her quiet breathing to collect his thoughts.

For a moment, he almost told her, almost blurted the entire story right there. Pulling the phone away, Matt closed his eyes to stop the tears and took a deep breath. “Yeah, I’m good. No worries, Mom,” he said as he put the phone back to his ear. “How’s Kenji?”

“He’s good. He isn’t here if that’s what you’re asking. Then again, you could have called him instead of me. Matt, I don’t want the divorce to ruin the friendship you both have. Call him, okay?”

“Love you.” Matt hung up the phone before he told her anything else. Guilt formed a lump in his throat and a bitter ache in his chest. No, Matt thought. He didn’t want to feel it—didn’t want to feel anything.

Mentally, Matt darted through the corridors of his mind until he reached the bedroom at his old house. Even though pieces of the bedroom were distant and gray from memory, the navy blue bean bags he and his brother used to always sit in became vividly clear.

“Back again?” Kenji asked him quietly.

Matt nodded, putting his head in his hands.

“Why won’t you call me?” Kenji c****d his head in question.

Shaking his head, Matt clenched his fingers, desperately searching for an answer. “I—I don’t—I can’t, Kenji. I don’t want your pity.”

“What makes you think I’m going to pity you?”

Matt looked into Kenji’s eyes, but they had no color. He couldn’t remember their color or specific details of what his brother looked like. Just a foggy image from the last time he’d seen his brother: on Skype. “I don’t know.”

He felt so helpless, but something about being in the room in his mind made him feel safe. Outside his bedroom door, Matt could hear rapid gunfire. Panic surged in his chest and he backed up against the wall.

Kenji reached out for him. “Matt… It’s okay.”

Matthew stared at the doorway as the gunfire grew louder. His ears rang but he could hear the soldiers closing in… “No. I don’t want to go back there. I don’t want to relive the memory again,” Matthew pleaded to no one in particular.

Kenji disappeared as Matthew was viciously yanked from the bedroom in his memory.

Snapped back into his mind, Matthew turned around to see Haruto standing in the doorway, back facing him. “I just hung up with Mom,” Matthew said, expecting Haruto to be happy he finally listened to him.

Turning around, Haruto’s shoulders sagged in relief with a quiet sigh. Matt knew one reason for that. “And? How did it go?” Haruto asked, briefly distracting him.

“She wants me to call Kenji.”

“Why won’t you?” Haruto asked.

Clenching his jaw, Matthew said, “I don’t know. I just can’t.”

Haruto’s forehead creased with worry. That combined with the relief from a few moments ago told Matthew one thing:

He must have gone into a dissociative state again. “Did I…? Did I do it again?” he asked, unable to say it out loud.

“Yes, but it only lasted a few minutes this time, Matthew.”

Panic made his heart race and Matthew clenched his fists, feeling helpless. “I don’t—why can’t I remember doing it? Why does this happen?” He felt as if he was tied down, unable to move or do anything while this happened to him and he despised it.

“Because you have extreme PTSD, Matthew. We are lucky that you didn’t have a flashback or worse; stay in the dissociative state long enough to turn violent. I just… I want to help you. Talking to Kenji might help. What did your counselor say?” Haruto walked over to sit beside Matthew where he leaned against the wall.

“... I didn’t tell him anything,” Matt finally admitted.

“He is there to help you. I know you don’t want to face it, Matthew, but it will help you.” Haruto glanced at his son.

Glaring at the floor, Matthew desperately wanted to ignore his father’s words, but he knew if he did, things would only become worse.

*****

Lyza hadn’t realized she had dozed off until Kenji’s sharp voice in her ear woke her. The sounds of fighting and magical energy blasting fully snapped her awake and she leapt to her feet, hands out and a fire-strike spell at the ready.

“What’s going on?” Kenji asked, shifting his legs into a strange stance.

“Mages. They found me.” Lyza’s heart pounded in her chest and she thought about doing a teleportation spell. But she couldn’t leave Kharro. They would kill him for helping her and as powerful as dragons were, Mages knew how to kill them. After all, it had been Mages that had hunted dragons to near extinction.

The liquor cabinet was blasted into bits with a massive explosion of lightning. Keeping the fire-strike spell in her right hand, she clicked her fingers against her palm and then jerked it outward, forming a shield to protect her and Kenji from the lightning and the debris.

Mages stormed into the room and energy surged in every direction. Kenji moved faster than Lyza expected, taking one of the Mages by surprise and kicked him in the face.

That was all Lyza had time to see as she cast the fire-strike spell. Flames zig-zagged across the room, piercing two mages in the chest unlucky enough to be in the way.

“Come on!” Kharro’s voice roared over the sounds of the fighting and energy buzzing. Lyza peered through the haze of energy to see Kharro charging toward her and Kenji.

The floor in front of her split as green acid shot toward her face from another direction. Lyza had no choice but to drop down into the cracked floor as she chanted in runic. “Rise up and rise again, ice spikes form and grow within!” The instant the words left her mouth, ice spikes grew from the floor beneath her and rose high enough to pierce the ceiling. As she jumped out of the c***k, Kenji reached down and grabbed her, yanking her up. A Mage slowly formed a spell from behind him, but Kenji slid backward and kicked the mage in the throat, before leaping to his feet. He twisted around as he jumped in the air, kicking another Mage in the face. When he landed, he punched a third in the chest, face, and chest in quick succession, before striking the man’s throat.

Kharro grabbed Lyza and Kenji’s arms and darted through the pawn shop. In the back, he knocked over a shelf of trinkets and then threw the entire shelf. It slammed against three other Mages, knocking them to the ground. “In here,” Kharro said, shoving them forward.

Rather than hit the wall, as Lyza had expected, at the last second, the wall changed into a transparent, shimmering energy. Her stomach lurched into her throat and gravity disappeared.

When it returned, her feet planted firmly into the firm ground as cold air surged on her. It was difficult to breathe. Lyza opened her eyes to see a beautiful snowy landscape rising all around her. Clouds floated above her, not as high as she expected. The world stretched out thousands of feet below her. She gasped, but her breath was shallow and her lungs burned. As she stood to her shaky feet, her vision blurred.

They were high on a mountaintop.

Behind her, Kharro appeared and Kenji stood up with widened eyes.

Lyza glared at Kharro. “You had a portal in the back of your shop the entire time? Why didn’t you let me use it?” she screamed. Fury pulsed through her, raising her adrenaline, which only made it more difficult for her to breathe. Air filtered through her lungs, making them ache and burn.

“Uh, Lyza… You’re glowing bright red. Worse than I was,” Kenji pointed out.

Kharro lifted up his hands in surrender. “Hey, you ran out of favors you could call on, remember?”

Lyza growled. “Dragons! I hate dragons!” She coughed and as the air wheezed from her. It felt as if her throat had been lit on fire. Gasping, she panted and collapsed.

Kenji smoothly caught her. “Lyza, hey, Lyza…” He was breathing heavy too. His voice began to sound muffled as if he was speaking from behind a pillow. Lyza’s vision faded to black.

“It’s the mountain air. C… om… siiiii….”

Unconsciousness wrapped a firm hand around Lyza, refusing to let her go.