Excerpt

EXCERPT FROM THE TRIUMPH OF FELIX
COPYRIGHT © TAYLEN CARVER 2020
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I moved into the parkade and down to the level where I’d parked the Aston Martin. When I reached the end of the ramp, I saw three youths standing with their heads together close by the boot of the Aston Martin. The three were all human, which was a relief.  I didn’t like to confront the old races. It felt disloyal. Yet more and more, the human gangs and street kids were learning that the old races could be useful allies.

I moved toward to the Aston Martin and unlocked it with the key fob. The solid thud of the doors unlocking made the three of them jump. They spun to spot me, already pushing at each other, encouraging each other to run.  But they didn’t quite break into a run.

I though I knew why.

They watched me approach the car warily.

“I hope you didn’t try to touch it,” I told them. My Spanish was getting better every day.

They didn’t answer straight away.  The taller one standing just in front of them said hesitatently, “I know you.”  He frowned. “You’re that doctor guy who works with the freaks.”

I shut down the spurt of irritation the epithet always gave me. “Jones,” I said. “And they’re called the old races.”

“Whatever,” the spokesman replied. “You learn how to do magic from them?”

“No, I learned it from a wizard. You did try to approach the car, then.” I bent and slid the double fist-sized rock out from under the back wheel and hefted it.

“He magicked it!” one of the others whispered.

“I didn’t do this magic,” I assured them. “This is wizard-level stuff.”

“It’s just a freaking rock.” The spokesman sounded braver than he looked.

“Is it?”  I moved toward them, holding the rock out.

The other two cringed backward.  The spokesman held his ground.  I put the rock on my hand and held it out to him.  “If it’s just a rock, take it,” I told him.

He frowned, his thick black brows scrunched together.  He could see I held the thing and that it weighed about what it should for an unremarkable piece of limestone.

“Don’t touch it, Ricky!” one of the others whispered.  “You’ll get warts.”

“You might,” I said, my tone judicious.  “Or maybe you’ll get a disease that makes your penis drop off.  That’s the problem with wizards. You just don’t know what they might come back at you with.”  I hefted the rock.  “Take it,” I repeated.

“I couldn’t move it, before,” Ricky said sullenly.  “Not even shoving with my boot.”  The Aston Martin was a prime target for car thieves.  It was exotic, for Spain, and had caught their eye.

“You can see I’m moving the rock just fine.”  I bent and put the rock on the oil-stained concrete of the parkade and stepped back out of the way, making myself appear to be less of a threat.  “Go ahead.”

Ricky was mildly smarter than the other two.  He shook his head.

One of the smaller two stepped around him.  “It’s just rock.” He sounded disgusted.  Then he kicked it.

Bad mistake.

He’d put effort into the kick, intending to send the rock rolling across the floor.  His toe, inside his Nikes, rammed with full weight against the sharp angles of the rock.

The rock didn’t move.

The boy did.  He howled and hopped about, trying to reach for his toe and stay away from me at the same time.

The other lad, the one who had warned Ricky about warts, bent and shoved at the rock.  It didn’t move, of course.  It wouldn’t move for anyone but Magorian or me.

“You should go to the clinic to have your toe looked at,” I told the hopping one.  “It’s probably broken.”  I’m pretty sure he hadn’t heard me, but Ricky had.

Ricky stared at me with narrowed eyes.  “The problem with magic, right?” he said, suddenly sounding a lot older than he appeared to me.

“That’s right.”  I bent and picked up the rock once more.  “Best not mess with the stuff unless you know what you’re doing.”

Ricky rounded up his crew, shoving the limping boy into moving.  “I know you now!” he called back over his shoulder.

“And my car!” I shot back.  “Stay away from it in the future.  And warn your friends.”

He didn’t answer, but I know he’d heard me.

Satisfied, I moved back to the car, tossed the rock onto the passenger seat and climbed in.  The boys were nowhere in sight as I drove out of the parkade but I knew they were watching me leave.