Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 34

 

“Of course not. I discovered it when I stripped almost all of his magic. Which is why he wants Parallax’s star.”

“You tortured you own brother and stripped his magic?” The feeling in the pit of Beckett’s stomach, the almost living entity he’d been feeling since his erupted, recoiled.

“Of course not. It was council business. He’s a criminal who lives in Eshya. It was for the safety of others.” Kastor delicately put his bowl down, wiping the side of his mouth with his thumb and licking it. “I didn’t torture him and removing his magic was safest for everyone. This is beside the point. I can help you get into Eshya, find the portal, and get through it.”

“Safely? Eshya is teeming with mage-killers.” Valrinda asked. “And can you get us through the portal together?” He pressed up against Beckett, his tail whipping through the air. Beckett jerked his up and stared up at him, then back at Kastor. Was that an option?

Kastor raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think a dragon going into the human world is what Parallax expected.”

“Let me worry about what he expected,” Valrinda growled.

“You can do that? You can go with me?” Beckett asked. He turned his back to Kastor, ignoring him completely. He’d never even considered that to be an option. Why hadn’t Valrinda said something before?

“From the Eshya portal? Maybe. It is rumored to be powerful enough. I don’t know if that’s true. The more magic in a being, the more power it takes to portal them. The mage-killers are notorious for consuming all beings with power they can absorb and use.”

“The more you talk about it, the less I’m feeling this plan. Killers? Like, individual murderers who would kill me if they catch me?” The butterflies in his stomach were turning into killer bees.

“I would never let them catch you. I would protect you with my dying breath.”

“Aww, how romantic.” Kastor’s acerbic interruption was not appreciated. “How about neither one of you die, I send you both through the portal like your dragon here wants, and then I get the credit for both getting you through the Eshya portal safely and helping return Parallax’s star.

“You do have it, right?” He dropped the last question with all the subtlety of an atomic bomb.

“Would we be willing to risk life and limb otherwise?” Dancing around giving a solid yes or no answer was old hat for Beckett. He liked to keep his teachers and parents guessing what he really meant when they gave him a bullshit hassle and then followed it up with a question like, “Were you listening?” or “Are you even close to being done on blah blah blah?”

The one time he’d answered with, “Wouldn’t you like to know?” had lead to a week’s worth of detention, but it’d been worth it to watch his freshman math teacher literally spit he was so mad.

 

 

After that, though, he got better at vague replies that sounded like answers that weren’t really answers.

Kastor’s lips were pursed so tight they turned white. “This would go better if we trusted each other.”

“Trust is earned,” Valrinda said. “You admitted to stripping nearly all of your own brother’s powers, even on behalf of the council, which is one step above being a mage-killer. Then offered to take us to Eshya. We would be stupid not to be suspicious.”

“Well, then let’s start our journey so I can go about earning that trust.”

 

On the map Kastor showed Beckett, Eshya was a large country to the east of them. They had to cross the desert. He summoned a mount, using his magic. Not only did Valrinda refuse to carry him, the journey was too far to support them both and not have to camp on the dangerous sands. In another jarring brush with fantasy tales, Kastor summoned a gryphon.

It’s damn talons looked almost as sharp as its beak, and those large eyes watched and calculated everything around it. His sleek brown, black, and white feathers ruffled as he puffed up and then shrieked upon take off. Watching him disembowel prey each night with the small, furry body held between taloned claws and waiting for a temple or throat strike.

Despite Valrinda being named his guide, those few days they traveled across the desert and into the forests that covered the eastern border into Eshya proved how much Beckett didn’t know about this land; Valrinda had spent more time keeping him safe alive and stumbling from one disaster to the next. Flying along in the air, they had time to talk. Very few topics were off limits, except for the star for him and his brother for Kastor.

That trust thing didn’t come cheap.

The one thing that Beckett wished Kastor could teach him most, and he couldn’t, was how to better control his magic. “That’s practice and time, and nothing I can do for you would help. Besides, I’m not mentor material.” Beckett snorted when Kastor said that, but nothing he’d said could convince the other mage differently.

The arrogant twat certainly made Beckett want to smack him a lot. But the first time Kastor opened a sink hole under a group of… things that he swore were coming to get them when they’d touched down for a lunch break, Beckett forgave him the cocky attitude and other bullshit.

Alive and annoyed was better than dead. 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 33

 

“Wake up!”

Valrinda’s snarl was truly impressive, and Beckett could feel the warmth in his neck increase rapidly. As much as he’d love to let him engulf the mage with a blast of flames, there was no telling if it would actually hurt him or not. While he didn’t like the mage—at all—Beckett needed his help. The star he was keeping in his pocket, and wasn’t that a trip to think about, needed to get back to Parallax as soon as possible. For that, he needed a portal, and for that, he needed this mage.

Beckett narrowed his eyes as he pushed Valrinda’s wing up so he could glare out into the too bright morning light that blasted over the bleak sand and rock formations. “Great. You’re here. Should we get started?”

“Not quite yet. Dragon.” The mage nodded at Valrinda, who had not moved from his protective stance over Beckett.

“His name isn’t dragon. You can call him Val.” Hey, asshole, you never told me your name.” He’d been calling the guy the mage, but he’d been too scared, angry, and tired to ask his name during the confrontation with the council the day before.  

“Kastor Greengrass.”

“Seriously?” Not what he would have expected. “Whatever. Didn’t anyone teach you any manners?”

“Did anyone teach you that it’s dangerous to sleep exposed when you have something others want?”

Valrinda rumbled again, and Beckett put his hand on his neck. “Like you?” Valrinda asked. “Besides, he wasn’t exposed. I protect him.”

“No. I don’t need Parallax’s star; I have enough power of my own.” Kastor snapped his fingers and a flame appeared above a flat rock to their left. He snapped it again and a pot appeared suspended above the flames. “You also make a fair point, dragon. How about some breakfast? I am not completely without manners, despite your accusations, and I assume hunger is a big source of your regretful manner with me.”

“Waking me up by yelling is the source of my manner with you,” Beckett grumbled, mimicking Kastor’s haughty tone. “Who does that? You’re lucky I didn’t let Val burn you to a cinder. Which is what he is called, or didn’t you hear me? His name is not dragon.”

“I’m fireproof, but thank you for your consideration.”

Beckett rolled his eyes. Sanctimonious bastard. “You want to fill us both in on your plan, now that you’re here?” There hadn’t been time the day before, plus Beckett had wanted Valrinda to hear what Kastor had to say. He knew next to nothing about the world he’d been portaled into, the magic he was supposed to have, or what the solution should be other than find a new portal and get back to the real world to find Parallax and give Colby’s cat back the magical star that would supposedly give him back his tail.

Which he needed for some vital reason that mattered to everyone and everything. What Beckett really wanted to know was if he could use his magic to portal himself back. He was also really tired of constantly thinking about not having a plan, or wanting and needing a plan… he just wanted a damn plan and to get shit done. “Val’s my partner, so he will help me decide if we’re going to go along with your plan.”

Kastor raised one dark eyebrow as he swept his cloak aside to sit on a stone across the merrily burning fire. “I thought we had an agreement.”

“We did. For me to listen to your plan to get me to Parallax. Not that I’d follow you without getting advice from my guide, who I told you about before.”

The mage pressed his lips together, then nodded. “Just so.” He waved at the pot and ladle hanging over the side. “Please, eat while we speak so we may move on quickly once an accord has been reached.”

“You first.” Maybe it was rude but… no, it was just smart. Who ate something a mage conjured into life?

Sighing, Kastor pulled a wooden bowl and spoon out a bag that also magically appeared on his hip. What kind of magic did this guy have? He ladled something that looked like oatmeal with berries out of the pot, blowing on a steaming spoonful before he ate a bite. “Happy?” he asked.

“Ecstatic.”

“The pot is charmed to produce the meal you wish to eat, no poison included, so feel free to get out whatever your… Val wishes as well.” He paused at the sharp look Beckett gave him, but didn’t say dragon, so Beckett let it go. Beckett was able to dish up something meaty for that came out in nearly bucket-sized quantities and an eggy breakfast casserole with bacon and sausage came out for him. Was it any surprise he wanted to come back here? He wondered if he could learn to make the pot with his magic or if it was something that Kastor had purchased.

“So,” Beckett asked, gesturing with his spoon as he chewed. “What’s the plan?”

“We fly to Eshya and use the portal there.”

Valrinda’s wings flared. “Are you insane?” he roared. He knocked over his platter of food, and it quickly soaked into the desert sand.

“Of course not,” Kastor said calmly.

Beckett set his bowl down. “What is Eshya?” He darted a look between Valrinda and Kastor who couldn’t have been more different. Kastor was almost abnormally calm.

“Only a haven of dark mages who skin dragons to make their cloaks and young mages to steal their magic. No one goes to Eshya.”

“No one except someone who is in desperate need of a portal. My brother lives there, so I happen to know they have an active portal.”

“The brother who wants to steal Parallax’s star?” This was starting to sound shadier and shadier. “He just volunteered that information, did he?” 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 32

 

“Jesus Fucking Christ. Pick a problem to have a hissy fit about and stick with it will you?” He was getting whiplash trying to figure out who was snarling at him and why. Getting met with a golem, told to make an appointment, and having to trudge up all those stairs to meet in their exalted tower room just so they could be all on high was pissing Beckett off.

Badmouthing his dragon, not answering his request for help, and now freaking out about him being human—or not human—had created a furor. Different council members were hissing or barking or whatever they did that didn’t make sense as speech, at least to him.

He’d met a lot of helpful beings on this journey that had looked like ordinary animals, but these mages were fucking strange. They looked like animals but not, and they were not helpful.

Coming out from hiding behind the largest being that looked like a giant pile of rocks covered in weeping moss and waving branches—with a few bright eyeballs rolling on top—came another human. He had on dark green pants tucked into leather boots, a black tunic cinched with a wide gold belt that held many different pouches dangling from it. His skin gleamed dark under the light from the sparkling torches.

Beckett stared, non-plussed, into the mage’s golden eyes. They were literally glowing and the tiny tendrils of his hair was moving a non-existent breeze that Beckett would have given his left nut to feel to cool himself off.

So not a human, even if he looked like one.

“I don’t think blasphemy is necessary, though I have been accused of it by many in my day. Are you ready for answers yet?” His smirk was unmistakable.

Beckett gasped in a sharp breath, the sucker punch of realization socking him in the gut. He was speechless, which was saying something because he always had a bitchy comment, according to Colby. It had gotten him more than one detention.

“You!”

“I told you that you’d come to me.”

“I didn’t know you were here!” Valrinda had explained that humans only came once an age, but those who did were magi. The only humans who could survive the trip through the portals were some form of magic user. It was why he had known that Beckett wasn’t a human despite not showing any magic, and why he wasn’t surprised that Parallax sent him on the quest to find his star.

He didn’t have magic to travel through the portal, since Parallax sent him, so many creatures had been confused until his manifested, but now Beckett had his inner fire and he wasn’t afraid to use it. Lightning crackled between his fingers. “What are you doing here? Did you send that thing to attack Val? Are you trying to steal the star?”

The man laughed. “No, of course not! That would be my brother.”

What. The. Fuck.

 

“Did you get the mages’ help?” Valrinda asked as Beckett trudged out of the city. The guards didn’t pay any attention to him as he left, but he was no threat to them as tired as he was.

Fucking stairs.

Beckett went straight to Valrinda and collapsed against his neck, leaning his whole body against his warm scales. A thin wing came around to cocoon him. “No. Yes, but no.”

“What does that mean?” Valrinda’s voice echoed in Beckett’s head and chest where he leaned into him.

“It means that mage asshole we saw outside the other city who was warning or threatening or trying to help me—I haven’t decided which—was there, and he offered to take me to an active portal.”

Valrinda’s whole body heated as he hissed, the scales turning hard as stone. Damn, he was an impressive beast. Beckett stroked his neck, soothing him. “Did he threaten you?”

“Try the other way around.” Which was probably ridiculous if he was a mage and had been here for an age or eon or whatever. He, and his brother who was the dangerous one, probably had magic oozing out of their pores or something gross like that. Stupid fuckers wouldn’t get away with anything sketch if Beckett had anything to say about it.

Valrinda certainly would shut that shit down.

“He’ll be here at first light. Can we just find somewhere I can lay down? My legs are killing me.” Beckett was whining a bit, but he appreciate the care Valrinda took in urging him to climb up on his neck and flying them to a protected bunch of rocks where they could hide for the night.

The morning was going to come soon, and he needed to make a game plan with Valrinda. He had one mage who said his brother was after the star they desperately needed to get to Parallax, the same mage who promised he would lead Beckett to a portal for no more reason than to thwart said brother and restore the magical balance that had been upset when Parallax had lost his star.

Call him suspicious, but Beckett wasn’t buying it. No one was that fucking altruistic. Sure, maybe the mage did want to stick it to his brother, and maybe the magic did need to be balanced, but there had to be something else in it for him. 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 31

 

“How in the hell would I have an appointment? Do I look like I have an appointment? Or know how to get an appointment?” Everyone else he’d met in this damn place had called him human or gawked at him.

“No one sees the Mages without an appointment,” the golem intoned.

“Make an exception. This is important. I—”

The golem cut him off. “No exceptions.”

There should always be exceptions. People in power were always about isolating themselves from those who had problems and actually needed help. It pissed him off, and the power he’d just learned he had crackled to life inside him. “Make one this time,” he bit off slowly through clenched teeth. “Or get someone here who can.”

“No—”

The lightning crackling off Beckett’s fingers exploded alongside his temper. It blasted against the door behind the golem and blew it to pieces. “And I said get someone down here!” he shouted. Lightning crackled over his skin, making all his hair stand up, but it didn’t hurt. He flexed his hands, ready to unleash his fury again.

Not that he meant to blow up the door, but the golem would be next if it said no exceptions again. A living being was going to speak with him, today, if he had to blast the tower down one part at a time.  

Well, he heard something or someone coming from inside so clearly blowing up doors got him an appointment or something.

The large frog that hopped down the steps he could see through the open doorway was the last thing he expected.

“Who are you?” it asked.

Beckett had a hard time making out the words through its odd throat burble, the green dotted skin bulging and fluttering.

“My name is Beckett, and I came to speak to the Mage Council.”

“Do you—”

“I don’t have a damn appointment.” The lightning zapped the ground around him, cracking the stones of the courtyard. Beckett took a deep breath to calm down. “I was sent here on a mission by Parallax to find the star that was stolen from him. I need help getting back to him. Now can someone here help me or not?”

The frog hopped in a small circle. “Follow me.”

“Fucking finally,” Beckett said under his breath. The lightning died to a crackle that danced over his knuckles and lit his fingertips with sharp sparkles of power. He liked the feeling, so he didn’t try to push it down. Besides, there was no telling if he’d need to make another show of power or not.

Maybe Mr. Frog was not who he needed to impress to get some help.

 

They climbed circular steps going up the inside of the stone building for what felt like fifty stories. Beckett’s legs ached, and the stitch in his side made them have to stop several times to rest. Sweat dripped down his forehead. No matter how much lightning he had, he was not going to look like anything but an exhausted mess, so he let it go to conserve his energy.

By the time they stopped, all he wanted was water and to rest. Thankfully he had his flask. He fumbled it from his belt and drank deeply, glancing around. He almost dropped it when he realized the frog must have taken him directly to what made up the council.

They sat in chairs above him in a triangle. None human, and all stared with curiosity, anger, wonder, fear, boredom, confusion and more he wasn’t sure he could name without human facial features to pair up to them. Maybe that scaly being’s lips always curled up like that, or that short dude’s eyebrows were always drawn together in a unibrow hanging over tiny eyes paired with a slash of a mouth hidden in a scraggly purple beard flowing over black robes.

Beckett spluttered, choking on his water. He coughed, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. “Sorry. You guys should put in an elevator or something.” Maybe that was why they had people make appointments, so they didn’t have to wait while everyone trekked up those damn steps.

“Why are you here?” squeaked a high-pitched voice. It belonged to a thin creature whose face was buried in a cowl too dark to see inside. It sat at the apex of the triangle to Beckett’s right.  It did point a nearly skeletal hand at him covered with gray curved claws.

“The golem or Mr. Frog didn’t magically share that with you? I figured that’s how I got the audience.”

“Only fools interrupt a council session, or those with a death wish. Which are you?” The snort following the question that came from a being that resembled an orc from one of those classic dice game cards so closely Beckett wanted to laugh. She even had a bone in her high ponytail.

Well, at least these elitist jocks weren’t an all-boys club. “Neither. I told your golem and Mr. Frog that I’m on a mission for Parallax.” His name had evoked awe and help from many creatures, but I wasn’t sure about these council members so I left it at that. “The portal he sent me here through is broken, but I need to get back to him in the human world. My guide told me I needed your help.”

“Your… guide?”

“You are here alone. What guide?”

A being that was either a set of twins occupying the same chair or a being with two heads spoke at the same time, but Beckett was able to figure out what they both said. “He stayed outside of the city. Val is a dragon.”

The council member in the dark cowl hissed. “Dragon.”

Beckett narrowed his eyes. “He has saved my life, and I have saved his. Watch what you say.” His magic sprung to life.”

“You are not a human!” 

Wednesday Briefs: Broken Path, Starless Tail Chapter 30

 

Thanks for your patience. I was really sick for a really long time, but I'm better now!

“To rest you need to sleep. If you want me to sleep now, you need to wake me up so I can take a turn,” Beckett argued stubbornly.

“We are pretty far from the city. Unless they also have a dragon, I doubt they could catch up before midday tomorrow, and we won’t sleep past dawn.”

“So, sleep here together?” Beckett wasn’t against that. It was clear, the actual stars shining over them in a thick blanket in the dark sky. He would probably stay awake from shivering if he wasn’t curled up under Valrinda’s wing in a cozy pocket of body warmth. His dragon was better than a heater, if a little lumpy.

“We might as well.”

“Don’t you dare try to stay awake.” Beckett wasn’t sure what he’d do. “Don’t make me zap you.” He’d figure out how. “Sleep so you can heal.”

“I will,” Valrinda promised.

Satisfied, Beckett shifted onto his side. They were curled in the sand under the shelter of a batch of rocks off the side of the road, so he made a small divot for his hip and leaned against his warm dragon. Each long breath Valrinda took shifted him up and down, rocking him naturally to sleep.

 

The next morning, Beckett was plastered to Valrinda’s back as they flew through the sky above stormy rain clouds. “Where are we going?” he shouted.

“South.” Valrinda stretched out a scaly arm tipped with a deadly claw. Most of the scratches and small chunks taken out of him had healed overnight, but the bite taken out of his back spine was still filling back in.

“Wait… weren’t we already going south? Why aren’t we headed back to the portal?”

“No, that doesn’t work anymore. It’s broken.”

Beckett leveraged himself up. “What?” he screeched.

“The portal is broken,” Valrinda said loud and slow, like he hearing him had been the problem.

“Then how in the hell am I supposed to get this star back to Parallax?”

“I’m not sure. But I was thinking, with your magic, it would be best to consult the Mage Council. They’ll talk to you now.”

“Now? Like they wouldn’t before?”

“No, they only take on petitions from their own kind.”

Wow, they sounded great. Like the jock bastards who thought they were all hot shit and only cool enough to hang out with each other, but on magical steroids. “Do we have to talk to them?”

“Do you have another idea?”

“Of fucking course not.” Magical jocks it was.

 

And… of course they had their very own city, with their very own guard, and those assholes wouldn’t let Valrinda into the city.

“No, I’m not going without you.” Beckett crossed his arms over his chest. They’d gone back down the road a good ways so the stupid guards in their gold, purple, and black uniforms wouldn’t hear them.

“We don’t have a choice. This is what you have to do so we can figure out how to find a portal that will take you home.”

Beckett leaned against Valrinda’s chest. “You’re my home.”

“I love being your guide, but you have a destiny.” Beckett was starting to hate that word. His arms dropped to his sides. “I won’t stand in the way of that. You need to go speak to the mages and find out if there’s a way to portal you home.”

“Fine. But you don’t move from here. If you’re still my guide, I need to be able to find you.”

Valrinda ducked his head and leaned it over Beckett’s shoulder, pressing them together in his version of a hug. “I will stay here.”

“Promise?” Beckett’s stomach was churning. He really didn’t want to go into another city on his own. It didn’t go well last time, even if he’d found Valrinda in the end.

“I swear by my scales.”

Beckett took a deep breath. “Okay, then.” He turned and marched toward the guards blocking the gate. When one tried to halt him, lightning crackled off Beckett’s fingertips. He curled his lip in a sneer until the spear blocking his path moved hastily.

“Damn right,” he muttered. All he had to do was out elite the elitist mages. He could do that.

Once he figured out where to go. Then again, where would the top brass be other than at the top? He headed up hill, looking for the biggest building on the tallest hill. The buildings on the side of the road nearest the wall blocked his view, but as soon as he got a few streets in, they started to thin.

And he saw it. “Oh yeah, that’s a dick stroke.” A big building with a huge spire topping it towered above everything. He couldn’t walk straight to it, but even as he zigzagged through the city streets he was able to keep it in view at all times.

He repeated his lightning trick on the four guards protecting the bridge to the grounds the building stood on, but he was stalled at the door to the entrance. No guards blocked his way, but there was a large stone golem. It was three times the size of the ones he’d blown up and felt like it was made of something much stronger. He shivered.

“I am here to speak to the mage council,” Beckett announced in his strongest voice.

“Do you have an appointment?”

Beckett’s mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”