XI. Keep your enemies closer. Part 1
946 Words
I have never liked feeling the gaze of everyone who occupies a place in the room where I am, focused on me. Even though there were few of us in the bedroom, not counting the corpse that danced on top of us, the overwhelmed attention bothered me too much.
"Me?" I managed to speak. "How?"
"Garpur will ask you not to make this trip, to stay away from any event that has anything to do with him or his brother. Just as he asked his loyal friends when he confronted my father."
"Garpur is dead," Vuk said. "Are you kidding us, i***t?"
"How's it that you are here?" I faced him, with a more rebellious tone, and trying not to start a brawl with Vuk's comments.
"I was born with my uncle's gift," Bastian replied. "With you, we are one of the few astral Geister in history."
"And how many are left?" I asked curiously.
"Uh..." Vuk tried to intervene. "It'll be better that..."
"Just the two of us," Bastian managed to reply.
"Now I understand why he's only looking for me," I narrowed my eyes. "You both planned to tell me something at some point, I guess." My eyes pointed to Vuks' and my thoughts, to Francesca.
"I was charged not to scare you, boy," Vuk confessed. "And telling you that you were the only one left and that things had gotten a little strange lately, doesn't help much."
"I understand," I replied. "So…" I turned my attention back to Bastian.
"Aren't you… angry?" Vuk asked cautiously.
"I understand your point," I replied. "Keeping someone on the sidelines and in ignorance to avoid increasing their doubts is typical of the day today. Is there anything else I should know?"
"Well, I suppose not…" said the dwarf, scratching his hairy head.
"So, no problem." I looked at Bastian. "How exactly do you plan to stop him?"
"My father is one of the most powerful Geister in this world. We are two astral who can go back and measure his movements. While one stops him, the other can seize the moment. Also, your lycanthrope would be very helpful."
"And who do you think would be the bait?" Francesca whispered to me, to follow Bastian's thread of conversation.
"You want Vuk and I to distract him..."
"And Delyth," he interrupted. "She will take care of the nymph, but she has no chance against my father. You and your wolf will give him a good fight."
"What will you do, kid?" Vuk yelled at him, in that raspy voice he kept up all the time.
"I'll watch the fight and come back when I see the right moment. They both won't even realize that I left."
"How do we know this is not a trap? How do we know that your banshee won't attack us as soon as you leave us? I mean, if you leave us, you may stay to fight for your father, and everything will be a trap." I took a few steps back. Vuk realized my intentions, so he showed his long claws on each hand, which even in human form, were hard as stones.
"Would you rather lay the ambush?" He stared at me. "I'm staying to fight, but I will need your wolf, otherwise I won't be able to hold him for long, and you will have no chance against him."
"Vuk..." I called out to him, but he was still staring at Bastian. "What do you think?"
"It's a unique opportunity... Varick always keeps company with his best warriors. This time he'll come alone…" Vuk scratched his hairy head, wondering what would be the right thing to do. "We cannot change the past, it's not our place to be involved in this."
"If you miss this opportunity, you'll regret it for the rest of your lives," he warned us. "Do it for Michelangelo, not for me or for my i***t father. He didn't deserve to die this way. My father killed him when it was not his turn. That must be a c***k, I forced it, and I'm going to patch it up, you would not break any rule, and, in any case, it is my c***k, the punishment is mine."
"Vuk," I said. "What is the punishment for disobeying the Alt?"
"They hold you in Zatvor, an archipelago cut off from civilization or any contact. I think you know it as the Bermuda Triangle," he answered.
"That makes sense... I'll help you." I felt Francesca raise her eyebrows at me, I felt her anger inside. "You lead the attack, tell me how I stop it."
"Sounds fair to me." He unfastened his arms from the loop where they were and put his right hand in his pocket of the jean pants he was wearing. "Here." He offered me a small box with a beautiful stone inside.
"What is this?"
"It's the Flamel stone!" Said Vuk. "By the beards of Perún! How did you get that, boy?"
"I stole it from my father. He was going to use it with you, but when he realized that his sibylline had sent him to the wrong place, he didn't have the opportunity, and he returned to the camp in a fury. I took the box and put it in my leatherette jacket."
"How does it work?"
"The dying Geist has to touch it while you hold it," he explained. I looked at Vuk, and he nodded, although I suspected he didn't know a damn how to use it. "Only then the Geist will be trapped inside, and conjuring in a different creature."
"Okay," Bastian smiled. "Follow me".
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