36

Bad Actors

XAVIER

“Will you take those ridiculous things off?” Lilli glowered, walking backward along the sunlit street to scowl at me with hands on her hips. “Is this how you wish to be seen in front of this doctor we’re trying to visit?”

I adjusted the blackened glasses Octavius had lent me. He said they were called ‘sunglasses’. Rather useful things. They not only blocked out some of that blistering sunlight, but also hid my heterochromia from Lilli—which I needed greatly, since Alexander hadn’t yet woken. Damn her annoying soul-sight…

“If Maveric cared,” I said dully, “he wouldn’t have agreed to meet with us at all. If he’s willing to give us information, he’d give it if I wore a jester’s uniform, pied stripes, bells and all.”

Beside me, Jaq peeled off a layer of snakeskin and mumbled. “If nothin’ else, give me a turn, will ya? My eyes are stingin’ just the same.”

“I, er…” I frowned at him. “Would they even fit over your eyeglasses?”

Jaq blinked, fingering the black frames of his rectangular glasses, then dripped depressively. “Aw, damn it… Maybe they got bigger ones somewhere?”

Lilli rolled her eyes and gave an indignant snort, turning forward. “You both wish to look like fools? Fine. See if this doctor gives you your information looking like that.”

“You realize these ‘sunglasses’ are being worn by most of these surface-dwellers?” I pointed out, gesturing to the crowd around us. “I hardly think we’ll be judged for wearing something so commonplace. What say you, Vendy? Henry?”

“They’re normal,” the two answered in unison, striding some paces behind us.

Lilli flushed over her shoulder, scowling angrily as her grey fox ears sprouted. She hadn’t a retort to that.

I had a suspicion my appearance wasn’t the problem. Her surreptitious glances made it more likely she hated how the glasses blocked my eyes from her. Is she having trouble remembering ‘Alexander’ is behind her? I wondered.

Beside her, Octavius rubbed his neck, offering Lilli a nervous smile. “S-so, um, Lilli…” he began, flicking his gaze away bashfully. “I guess that, um, Infeciovoker friend you mentioned was, um…”

“Her Highness Willow,” Lilli confirmed. She bit her lip. “I, er… expect you’d like to ask her of her infection Hallows, don’t you?”

“W-well, I’ve never met another one other than my dad, and…” He kicked at a loose stone in the street. “I don’t know. I guess it sounds kinda dumb…”

“Not at all,” Lilli disagreed cheerfully. “I’m sure Her Highness would be most interested to meet a true Infeciovoker. She and the royal family may have your Hallows, but as I’ve said, they don’t have that element alone. Most shifters are born with one element—at rare times, two—but none have more than this. None save for the Relic Bloodlines. All who carry the immediate Bloodline are blessed with all three of their home-realm’s Hallows… though even among Relicbloods, Her Highness Willow is a unique case, as she has six elements, being the first child born of two Relic Bloodlines.”

Octavius scratched his chin, where sparse, black hairs had begun to sprout over the week. “I kinda remember hearing about that.”

“Yes, it was quite the popular news topic,” she grimaced, sounding irked. “I still have to bat away the reporters from Her Highness when they come snooping into the palace. They always want to see how her powers are progressing. Though I don’t see how it’s any of their business…”

“How are they progressing?” Octavius asked. “I mean, I don’t want to pry, I’m just curious, since she’s an Infeciovoker and… and what else?”

She began counting on her fingers. “On her Death side, Her Highness is a Necrovoker, Pyrovoker, and Infeciovoker… and on her Dream side, she is a Somniovoker, Decepiovoker and Seer. She’s most practiced with the first set, however. Being the heiress of Death comes with certain priorities and expectations, you see.”

Octavius rubbed his neck. “That’s a lot of elements… I can’t even imagine how I’d go about training with it all.”

She laughed. “I’m sure she couldn’t imagine how a real Infeciovoker ended up on the surface. Wait until I show her you, she’ll be so curious.”

She started asking Octavius about his life, now. He spoke of his siblings, his mother and father…

I stopped listening after the father. I had no desire to hear any falsely endearing stories about my killer. The picture he’d shown us was like being face to face with the man himself. I felt sick, remembering that we might have to face him again soon…

“Bloody dirt crawlers,” a woman hissed from the crowd as we walked by, catching my ear. “What do they think they’re doing, coming back here like nothing happened? The nerve of it.”

It was a waitress from a nearby café outside, whispering to a co-worker. They snapped their heads away after meeting my gaze. The women hurried inside, but I could still see them glaring at us through the small window.

They weren’t the only ones whispering such bile. The more attention I paid the people around us, the more sneers I heard, of the worst sort.

Something is not right.

The city was crowded, yet the roads became empty wherever I walked. Many hissed ‘dirt crawlers’ when we passed and spat at the ground. Some even shoved into Jaq and grumbled ‘traitor’ or ‘Grim lover’ at him, staring at his blond hair and scoffing at the greyness of his scales.

Lilli and Octavius didn’t seem to notice the whispers. They were watching a theater troupe performing a small play for the crowd up ahead.

“Xavier,” Jaq hissed under his breath, walking at a stiffer pace. The sneers around us grew more fervent. “I don’t think I like this town…”

“The sentiment seems mutual,” I muttered.

We hurried to Lilli and Octavius, whose eyes were glued to the play.

“Vile monster!” one of the gold-robed actors shouted, a wooden sword raised threateningly at the pretend-villain before him. “You dare stain my palace with the blood of innocents? Your treachery ends here!”

The brunet villain hmphed, rapier waving in a gesture to the ‘dead’ kings and queens who cluttered the street. “These others were no match for me, Land King Adam! And you’ll be no different! I was trained well within the honored knighthood you trusted so dearly—and that trust will be your demise!”

They clashed swords, wood clunking as the accompanying accordion player puffed frantic notes. The villain stabbed for the king, who leapt back and drew a startled gasp from the crowd nearest him. The rogue knight charged, wood meeting again as the two pushed against each other, glares sharp with false hate.

“You planned this all along…!” the king sneered. “When I swore you into my honorguard, you meant to kill me from the start, didn’t you? I knew your skill with the sword was too great for a lowly farmer—you were a warrior, to the bone! An assassin! I should have seen the signs!”

The assassin laughed. “A shame that your fellow Relicbloods were just as blind! And now they’ve paid the price! As will you!”

With a deft swivel of the villain’s rapier, the king’s sword flew from his hands, landing on the street with wooden clunks. Opportunity open, the assassin thrust his blade under the king’s armpit—and the bearded actor pretended to cry in agony, crumpling to the floor.

The assassin spat in his face, towering over the ‘dead’ king. “And thus ends your Bloodline, Your Majesty Land! I’ve already done away with your wife, and the child she carried. You’ve no heir to take after you. My master will be most pleased. Send the Death Goddess my regards…!”

The actors transitioned into the story of how the current king’s ancestor took the throne. How the treacherous Arborvokers and their queen split the land in two. How the strength and hope their new king sewed the Everlanders together once again, after such a terrible loss…

I found Lilli frozen at the edge of the audience.

She stared at the actor playing the Death King. His black robe was covered in fake blood as he lay slumped in feigned stillness, his skull-crown toppled next to him on the street, scythe broken in two at his side.

Outrage smoldered her onyx eyes.

I stepped beside her. “Lilli, come. We haven’t time to watch this drivel.”

“They’re wrong.” Lilli’s fox ears grew fully. “The Death King was the only survivor of that assassination. The Death King and… King Dream…”

A child actor, wearing a gaudy blue wig and an orange robe far too large for him, stepped onto the wooden platform.

“Tank yew, King Seffick,” the gap-toothed child said to the actor playing King Setthick, shaking his hand in a giggle, his blue wig falling over his eyes. “Wiffout yew, the kingdum wud be in… in…”

The director hissed the child’s line from the side.

“In wu-in!” the child finished, his confidence rekindled. “I giff yew my bwessing! I know that Ev’rland is in good hands, as I haff Seen so wiff my Thurd Aye! May I…”

“May I…?” A man’s voice hushed in my memory.

My head throbbed, images flitting. I remembered a chilled night in Grim, a palace ball, a garden with a trickling fountain… a man on the fountain’s wall, crouching to me and asking to see my hand, the man staring at the Crest of black diamonds under my knuckles…

In the present time, I stared at the little actor’s blue wig; at the child’s round, bronze face.

It’s wrong. The man’s face blurred in my memory, but his azure hair and eyes burned as clear as breath. Dream wasn’t a child. He was… What had he been? A teenager? How long ago had that been…?

Lilli snorted beside me, ripping me from my distraction.

“You’re quite right, Alexander,” she huffed and strut away from the acting troupe. “We oughtn’t waste our time on these simpletons. If they think that passes as an accurate representation of His Majesty Dream, they’ll find no admirers here.”

“Yes…” I murmured absently, following her alongside the others. Vendy whined why she couldn’t see the rest of it, but Henry hushed her and dragged the girl along. I turned back to Lilli, hesitating. “Wasn’t Dream… older? Not a child?”

“Of course.” Lilli spun on her heels to walk backward, putting fists on her sides. “Oh, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten him as well? I know he only visited so often, but he always made sure to see you and Xavier when he did.”

I rubbed my chin. “That’s right… Dream is Willow’s grandfather, isn’t he?”

“Yes. Ooh, perhaps we shall tell Dream of that rendition, when next we see him?” She giggled and clasped her hands mischievously. “Do you remember when we would call him the “Little Blue King”? Oh, how he hated it! I even made his ears grow once.”

“Little Blue King…” I stared at my hand; at the Crest. The memory of Dream’s face dissipated, falling away like a Fallen Light dimming into inexistence. “Yes, I… vaguely recall the name…”

She sighed and turned forward, wafting a dismissive hand at me. “Honestly, Alex, between you and Xavier, I’m beginning to worry your memory loss is a collective effort.”

I chuckled, a grin tugging my lips. “I suppose it does seem that way, doesn’t it?”

She paused, twisting to me. Her brow furrowed suspiciously.

“You’re awfully pleasant today…” she murmured. “I expected a less polite reply…” She reached for the sunglasses on my face. “I’ve decided I want a turn with those things after all. Could you take them off for a moment—?”

“I-I think not!” I sidestepped round her and hastened my pace, my laugh nervous. “You denied the chance when you had it! Khmm-hmm! Now. Let’s not dally. We’ve a doctor to meet.”

MACARIUS

I watched the theater troupe with stale amusement.

This was what became of that day? This was all that was left? The turning point of history, the disaster that triggered everything…

Watered down to a laughable tale of an unnamed ‘rogue knight’ and his evil plot?

Disgusting. Strange, that Land King Adam was seen as a marvelous idol. Strange and infuriating.

Adam had been a dimwitted brute, arguably the worst king Everland had seen. And here they thought this ‘rogue knight’ was the villain, instead of the victim?

Absolutely disgusting.

Woefully, it seemed no one from this era would know the tale of the heartbroken surgeon who sought retribution for his murdered wife. His love who was slaughtered by Adam himself, after the surgeon failed to save the queen during her fruitless delivery of their unborn son…

I turned away from the horrible acting, seeing that the Grimlings were leaving. I took care to follow close behind. My quarry, the twin boy, glanced over his shoulder, meeting my eyes. He noticed naught and continued on his path.

A grin peeled across my scales. Good… my ‘imposter’ Evocation is working. After so long, my skill with illusions still amazed even myself. It mattered little who I was posing as, I simply picked a bystander at random; taking his image, memorizing his features and clothing, replicating the man’s visage and created an illusion of him to use as a full-body cloak around me.

To most with my Hallows, the ‘imposter’ Evocation was tricky. Creating authentic, believable illusions took a great amount of skill and memory. Both of which, I prided myself, I had a great deal of. Centuries worth of practice didn’t hurt, either.

Curious, though. I hadn’t stopped to consider this, but now, with so much experience behind me, I dared say I was the greatest Decepiovoker of this era. Perhaps of all time, if I excluded my old friend, Dream.

I chuckled at the thought and strolled through the streets after the Reapers, observing their little group, unnoticed. Decepiovoking may not have any physical use, but illusions could certainly help one gather well-needed information. And the information I currently sought was that of this boy with heterochromia.

The viper called him ‘Xavier’ a moment ago. I was sure the boy introduced himself to me as ‘Alexander’ in Nulani.

Could this perhaps be the missing twin? The one Kael assured me had been killed years before?

I would have words with Kael. The half I’d thought was already dead is still alive after all? It seemed Kael had been too incompetent to do what was needed, the fool. His slip up may well be the death of us.

Though, if this ‘Xavier’ was the missing half, where has the other gone? My arms folded. And why does the girl call him ‘Alexander’? Were they deceiving her?

In any case, I couldn’t afford to make the same mistake as Kael. I’d have to wait until both halves were together and take care to witness their deaths myself.

I let out a gruff breath and strode away from the crowd, heading back to where I knew Cilia and Lucrine awaited.

I must speak with Kael, I decided. The twins were an unexpected part of the plan’s first stage. I cannot let our deaths run free.

But Kael still waited within Everland’s capital, and I had to watch over Cilia as well, to be sure she stayed away from him at all costs. She and Kael must never meet. Everything relied on their ignorance. No, I’d have to create a copy to watch Cilia here while I went to see Kael myself. Even if the twins were not dealt with now, I had to be sure we could proceed as planned.

I will tolerate no more mistakes. Venom dripped from the fangs folded in my mouth. Not from Kael, and certainly not from Cilia.