XV
1934 Words
XV
“How long until we arrive?” Miri asked.
Earl, until now, had been staring ahead dutifully, his hands on the wheel even though the car was on autopilot.
He glanced in the rearview mirror. Lucan was snoring. Then he turned to the professor and grinned. “About twenty minutes now, Miss.”
Miri couldn’t sleep. She’d tried to rest her head against the window, but it was cold. Besides, she couldn’t stop thinking about Old Dark. About her thesis and whether all the things she wrote were true. She kept playing the same facts in her head over and over, until she decided that she had thought about the matter enough for now.
“What part of town are you from, Earl?” Miri asked.
“The North Side,” Earl said.
“Any elven blood?”
With his broad stature he looked more human than elf, but one always had to ask so you knew what to say when discussing magic—or, in the case of a human, sometimes it was wise not to discuss magic at all for fear of making them feel ashamed.
“I’ve got a little in me,” Earl said. “About one sixty-fourth.”
“Can you use grimoires?” Miri asked.
“They don’t take to me, Miss,” Earl said. “Can’t ever get them to work on account of my blood. Doctor said if I was one thirty-second then I’d be able to use a modicum of magic. Painful to think about.”
Only elves could use magic. Humans reaped the benefits from the magical society, but their strengths often lay elsewhere. She felt bad for Earl. Everyone deserved to cast a spell every now and again.
“Lucan said you have kids?”
“Seven.”
Earl handed a smartphone to her. Its screen glowed with a picture of Earl in a t-shirt and shorts, a kind-looking blonde woman with graying hair, and seven boys who seemed to be ages five through eighteen. They all sat on a couch, smiling.
“My!” Miri gasped. “Then this is an especially late night for you.”
Earl laughed. “They take care of each other while I’m gone.”
“I can’t imagine having a child, let alone seven. And boys at that.”
“Boys are national treasures,” Earl said. “If only the university would help with tuition…”
“Call me when we get back,” Miri said. “There might be a few things I can do.”
Earl tipped his cap to her. “You’re too kind. You married, Professor?”
“Ha! To my work, sure.”
“So am I.”
“I don’t think I could work all day and not see my family, though,” Miri said.
“Comes with the occupation. I’m used to—”
A shadow darted across the road and the car struck it. Miri’s seatbelt snapped and pulled her back.
Earl flew forward and hit his head on the dashboard.
Lucan rolled onto the floor and woke up, bleary eyed. “Earl, what the hell?”
The car slowed to a stop and chimed. Earl took manual control, but it wouldn’t accelerate. The wheels revved and threw up gravel. Then the car jumped forward and started rolling, the front wheel sending up orange sparks.
Outside, the wetlands were pitch black.
Lucan pulled out his pistol. “What do you think, Earl?”
“Something tells me we better get ready for a fight, sir,” Earl said.
Lucan handed a white card to Miri. It had a pentagram on it.
“You handy with magic?” he asked. “We might have a monster on our hands.”
Miri nodded, even though she had never encountered a monster out in the open like this. She had taught a monster self-defense class a few years ago. But she struggled to remember what she had even taught.
Her hands trembled on the card, and she hoped she wouldn’t have to use it.
They climbed out. The night sky bore down on them and steam rose from the hood of the car.
A flat tire.
“Not good,” Lucan said.
“We’ve a spare,” Earl said.
A beastly, high-pitched shriek made Miri jump.
On the side of the road, a creature with ten tentacle-like legs slithered across the asphalt. It had a conch shell and two green, sickly eyes on both sides of its head. The shell was rounded at the back with a whorled pattern, and in front it extended over the creature’s face like a horn. The shell was cracked, and several of the creature’s tentacles were flattened from where the tires had run over them.
Earl reached into the driver side and pulled out a pump-action shotgun. He pumped, then fired, cracking the shell further.
Earl fired four times before the beast fell onto the road, screamed again and stopped moving.
Only then did Miri stop holding her breath. Her ears rung from the shots, and the monster’s wraith-like scream had made her feel light, as if the wind could blow her away.
“It’s dead,” Earl said, shouldering the shotgun. “You both okay?”
Miri knelt in front of the creature. Blood oozed from its lips and the road was covered in gray slime.
“This is a Magic Eater,” Miri said.
“Monsters are monsters,” Lucan said.
“I’ve seen them in books,” Miri said, “but ... never in the wild. They are drawn to magic. They feast on it, and it gives them magical properties. If they eat enough of it, they can be lethal.”
“So?” Lucan asked.
“They only come out in the presence of magic,” Miri said. “The question is why it’s here now.”
“There must be something magical around here,” Lucan said. “Luckily, we’re just passing through. Earl, let’s get that tire changed.”
Miri clucked her tongue. No point arguing with Lucan, but she couldn’t stop thinking of questions.
Earl was already at the trunk. He lugged out a tire and a jack and started replacing the flat tire.
Miri kept studying the dead monster. She circled the body, c*****g her head at the cracked shell.
“Why the hell are you so fascinated with that thing?” Lucan asked.
“It’s just unusual, that’s all,” Miri said.
“We’ve had a Magic Eater problem for decades, long before you and I were born,” Lucan said.
“They normally live underground,” Miri said, thinking out loud. “They have claws at the bottom of their tentacles that they use to burrow into the dirt. They eat vegetables and are generally herbivorous, but have been known to be aggressive and will eat dead carcasses if there’s nothing left. But their favorite food is magic. In a shortage, they can live for two years without food. The magic they eat calcifies into their shells.”
“Thanks for the history lesson,” Lucan said, rolling his eyes.
“This one’s shell isn’t very developed,” Miri said. “It cracked easily, which means it must have just emerged from underground, where the dirt and moisture softened it.”
Miri traced a path through the grass. Lucan followed her to a burrow that looked as if it had been ripped into the dirt by several claws.
“It came from here,” Miri said. “Strange.”
She picked up the dirt and ground it in her fingers. “The dig is fresh, Lucan.”
But Lucan wasn’t interested.
“Earl, how are we doing?” he shouted, irritated.
Earl was tightening the lug nuts on the spare tire. “Ready, sir.”
“After you, Miri,” Lucan said.
Miri started back to the car, stealing glances at the hole several times. She had just started to open the door when they heard another shriek. On the side of the road, something was digging its way out of the dirt. Clods flew in every direction and yellowish claws emerged.
They heard another scream.
And another.
And another.
Another.
Another.
A group of Magic Eaters pulled themselves out of the ground and slithered onto the road. The monsters surrounded them, leaving a trail of gray slime as they moved.
“Not good,” Lucan said.
Earl grabbed the shotgun and fired several more rounds. The bullets cracked several Magic Eaters’ shells, but they kept coming.
“I’m out of bullets, sir.”
“So you were onto something after all, Miri,” Lucan said.
Miri hid behind him. “What do we do?”
“Professor, you act like you’ve never seen a monster before,” Lucan said.
Despite the impending danger, Lucan was calm. He threw a white card into the air. It flashed as a pink wheel of light radiated in front of his face. It looked like a clock, with runes inscribed on it instead of numbers.
He navigated through the wheel with his finger, rotating it clockwise and counterclockwise like a rotary phone. As he did, the wheel spun two runes into the center, and they glowed brightly.
He pushed at the runes with his open palm, and a wave of fire flew from the wheel and engulfed the Magic Eaters. The beasts yelled in pain and writhed in the flames.
Lucan cried out. His arm was on fire, and he patted it frantically.
“You’re hurt!” Miri cried.
“Miri, use your grimoire!” Lucan shouted. “First spin, two runes clockwise!”
Miri tossed her card into the air. The pink wheel flashed in front of her face, illuminating the area.
She recognized the some of the runes, but many were unfamiliar.
“Faster!” Lucan said.
The flames subsided and the Magic Eaters shook them off.
Miri touched the wheel and it pulsed at her fingertip. She dragged her finger clockwise and the runes spun with it.
Two runes clockwise.
She picked the one she thought was correct, a scrawling s***h mark. She dragged the rune into the center of the wheel.
She hesitated.
This was pure magic. It would have a cost.
“What should I expect?” she asked.
“Just cast the damned spell!”
A Magic Eater jumped into the air with its teeth ready to sink into her arm.
She pushed the rune with her palm and closed her eyes.
The air grew cold. She heard a great shimmering sound.
Then cracking.
Then shattering.
She opened her eyes.
The Magic Eaters were lying on the ground, frozen in a layer of ice, their shells in pieces across the road.
“Nice work!” Lucan said.
Earl smashed several of them with the shotgun, crushing them and creating an opening for the car to pass.
“Get in!” he ordered.
He stomped on the accelerator and barreled through the hole he’d created.
Miri’s heart was still beating hard, and she didn’t even remember running to the car. As they drove farther away, she breathed in deeply and braced herself against the seat.
Then she felt cold. Her arm.
A long, red burn was plastered across her inner forearm. It was cold, yet it burned, and she grimaced.
“Freezer burn,” Lucan said. “That was the cost. Not as bad as it could have been.”
He held out his arm—his suit jacket was charred and he had a black mark on his arm. The interior of the car smelled like smoke. “You’ll live. Small price to pay.”
The pain radiated through her entire body and made her want to throw herself to the floor. She grimaced and patted her arm.
Lucan opened a compartment on the side of his seat and pumped a liberal amount of lotion onto his palm. He took her arm gingerly and rubbed it on. “It’s an organic salve. No cost. It’ll ease your pain.”
After a few seconds, the pain subsided, replaced with a dull tingling that was easy to ignore.
Exhaling, she rubbed her arm.
“That was a grimoire from my Classic Collection,” Lucan bragged. “Twenty spells. The wheel is patented. It feels smooth, like luxury.”
Miri nodded. “It was ... nice.”
She couldn’t get the image of the Magic Eaters out of her mind.
“We’ll be far away from whatever they were searching for,” Lucan said, noticing her anxiety.
Ahead, the dark tree line of the bog loomed near.
Miri settled into her seat. They rode in silence until Earl broke it a few minutes later.
“Sir.”
Lucan was on his phone and didn’t acknowledge Earl.
“Sir.”
Earl pointed to the side of the road. Shadows gathered there, green eyes glinting in the dark.
“There are more of them?” Lucan asked, incredulous.
They sped past a cluster of Magic Eaters, who were all sludging slowly down the road in the same direction.
“What do you think they’re going for?” Lucan asked.
“Magic Eaters can sense magic up to twenty miles away,” Miri said.
“You don’t think—” Lucan said, trailing off.
Earl pointed ahead.
There were hundreds of snails in the fields ahead.
They were headed for the bog.
- Writer
