“Yeah! What the hell is wrong with your eyes? You some kind of freak?”
Darron put the glassed back on. “By the laws of this country, if you attack me, I get to–”
The man slapped the glasses from his hand and a jolt of anger tore through Darron. “Not if I’m defending a little girl.”
The dark elf couldn’t really argue the specifics, having only learned so much, but he didn’t much care. It was obviously time to go. There would be no additional scrutiny of Jack’s apartment today. He was dying to teach this man a lesson and struggling to contain the power in him.
He asked, “Are you hoping to impress this girl so you can do what you want with her, or perhaps her mother?” It was a fair question. He’d seen humans do that very thing, and goblins, ogres, and even his own kind, but from the fury that appeared on the man’s face, he immediately knew that was not as neutral a question as he had intended it to be.
And then the man swung a fist.
“Kunia,” Darron said instinctively, magic power filling him stronger than he had done on Earth so far. And the man flew backwards ten feet, colliding with several other people, including little kids, before they landed in a heap together. Cries of pain, fear, shock, and anger suddenly surrounded him. Darron dropped all pretenses and warily glanced around, quickly seeing the very thing he now worried about. He spoke another word and the gun in a man’s hand burst into flames. No one else seemed to have another one as people backed away, but he had another problem. He cast a spell to emit an energy burst in all directions and heard the shattering of glass as the phones pointed at him overloaded and fried all footage of this encounter. Zoran would not be pleased any of this had happened, but at least Darron could destroy the evidence.
He strode farther onto the lawn as people scrambled to get out of his way. A line of trees beckoned and was the place from where he had emerged before. Now it offered escape as he left the mob. To his surprise, they followed, and he thought seriously about just killing all of them. Instead, he took off at a run, swallowing pride at the implication that they were a threat to him. They quickened their pace as well, but it would not matter. He disappeared into the trees, which was a thin line of them, and once out of sight spoke another word to turn himself into a raven that was already flying away. He circled above for a minute, watching everyone milling about in confusion as they tried to figure out where he had gone. One little boy seemed to know from the way he pointed at Darron, but maybe no one took him seriously.
Before long, the wizard landed on the balcony of a hotel room, changed back into a dark elf, and went inside. Fear of Zoran’s reaction dominated his thoughts. By now he’d learned that news of such events spread quickly here, far faster than on any other world, and so he turned on the TV and sat waiting. Within an hour, the first reports of it were broadcast, with people he recognized claiming that he had struck the little girl. Humans were cunning with lies to cover their own destructive behavior. It was true on every world he had visited. Then security camera footage from a nearby eatery contradicted that account as they broadcast it. Darron frowned. He hadn’t thought of that. The distance between him and the camera wasn’t enough to hide that three separate moments happened, each best explained by magic. Reports of similar incidents from around the world were growing common. Would that make this incident less noteworthy to people? Would Zoran agree with that?
Darron didn’t have long to find out. With a brief flicker of white light, his master appeared before him, the severed head of a dwarf dangling upside down from its beard in one hand. The dark elf rose and bowed.
“I hope your trip was fruitful, master. More than for just a head.”
Zoran chuckled, the evil laugh pleasing Darron when it would have chilled any other. “This head confirms a door is open.”
The apprentice did not know the significance. “I have news.”
“Some of it I know,” replied Zoran, voice hard.
Darron knew better than to ever play dumb with this man, who always seemed to already know what he wanted to say. It was a wonder he ever used the Mind Trust spell at all. He hardly seemed to need it. “Yes, I attempted to destroy the gathered footage but–”
“You did not think of the security cameras.”
“Yes. Forgive me. There are fortunately many reports from around the world of similar moments and–”
“This may be considered one, yes. Why were you there? What have you learned?”
“The Stonehenge Four are dwelling with Jack and the middle-aged woman in Jack’s apartment. The girl is of course still with the healers.” He quickly related the success of his following Jack, hoping to bolster any punishment coming his way, but Zoran’s next words crushed his hopes.
“So this incident happened across the street from the people we are hoping to ambush.”
Darron went cold. Before he could reply, Zoran asked for the address. The elf gave it. Then one hand gripped his shoulder and words of magic he recognized paralyzed his mind. Horror. Desperation. Anger. Futility. Resignation. There was no besting the master wizard whose familiar words caused an expected burning sensation to rise from within. Darron had cast the spell before, never really imagining he would one day learn what it felt like.
“You have left enough evidence.”
These were the last words Darron heard before he turned to black ash.
Chapter 13 – A Tale of Three Kings
As the priest left, Anna watched him go and still felt unsure what to think. She hadn’t really expected solid answers, and yet she was still
