The Deathless Spell

By Simon J. Cooper

True Names Crush. True Names Control. True Names Kill.

In a world where every person is born with a true name, only the Nameless know them all... except one.

Continuing the Nameless Magician series, 'The Deathless Spell' sees Kyle up against a force even the Nameless can't control.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Holbrook Publishing
• Release date: Jan 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301669325

Simon J. Cooper

Simon J. Cooper grew up on a farm in rural Donegal, Ireland, and spent his time avoiding farm work, digging for dragon skulls, and daydreaming about the kind of characters and worlds he now turns into stories. When his family moved to England, Simon fell in love with County Derbyshire, (you should go there,) and ale! It was there, at age eighteen, that he embarked on a quest for the meaning of life. This led to becoming down and out in both London and Paris, and three years philosophising in Lancashire, and a lot of other unprintable stuff, great and awful. Finally, he found an answer, his own at any rate, and got lucky, and married, in Northern Ireland, which is where he lives now with his wife, two children and a dragon – sorry, dog.

Book preview

The Deathless Spell

(The Nameless, Book 2)

Simon J. Cooper

Copyright Simon J. Cooper 2013

Published by Holbrook Publishing at Smashwords

Cover by ENC

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

So, What's a 100 Page Book?

100 paperback pages. About 30,000 words. Too short for a novel, too long for a short story, so maybe a novella? Yeah, I suppose 100 pages is a novella or a very short novel, but I've never liked the novella tag. Novella hangs heavy, it draws the face downward, making me think of too lofty intentions and naval gazing French authors. A shame, because I like novellas, I like the length, not always, variety is a spice, but there's something about this length of story that gives enough to sink your teeth into and still finish with room for supper later. But...Pages? Pages?

What are pages to an ebook anyway? Well, I still think of the length of a book in terms of pulped trees, and I'm guessing I'm not the only one, so I give you the100 page book. It's a fast read, yet a tasty treat. Enjoy.

The Deathless Spell

1

The two girls were anywhere from thirteen to maybe sixteen, it was hard to tell at midnight, and when they both wore enough eyeliner for three overweight goths. The guys with them, those two were at least twenty one, and they weren't their big brothers. Then again neither was I, and the truth was if I spent my time looking out for every waif and stray in Levan City there would need to be a hundred me's working full time.

The real reason I was following this foursome so closely, using my invisibility to stay five yards behind them in Chartertown, one of the city's dingier suburbs, was that both these girls had magic sign.

Their bodies became a mass of flashing purple stars when I used signsight, my ability to see magic in others, and those purple stars meant the girls could mind link. How much the ability to communicate telepathically would help if their chaperones got heavy, I wasn't sure. I supposed they could call for help, but if they did that, they would also alert the police to their magical abilities, and that would land them both in trouble. Mind linking was reserved for the Nameless, the secretive body of magicians I supposed I was still connected to, no matter how far I ran.

Welcome to the flight centre, The taller of the two guys said.

He slid onto a seat at a deserted bus stop, and stretched out his legs in front. He smiled, his teeth treated with glow paste so that his smile was a neon green grin. With his hair colored bright green, and parted down the middle, he looked like a clown dressed in black denim. Appropriately enough, his nickname was Dizz, and he held hands with the girl called Nicky, who he now pulled towards him.

Nicky did a fair imitation of a seductive smile and sat on his legs sidesaddle, putting her arms around his neck. She said, Official.

Her friend, Rachael, whose hair was a pink beehive, sat beside the other guy, Boyce, a tough looking skinhead, who thumped down on the seat following Dizz's lead. Boyce put his arm around Rachael's neck, as if she was his property.

I stood at the corner of the closest building, using the occasional passing car's humming power wheels to mask any sounds my movements made. Who were the two girls? They were too young to be Nameless on active duty. Their age and appearance also made it unlikely they were rogue magicians using free magic outside of Nameless control. Besides, rogue magicians were rare. All that left was either their magic was spontaneous, an even more unlikely anomaly where magic manifested in non-magicians. Or, they were born with magic, without a true name, but supposedly, no one in the world was like that, except me.

Whatever the reason, I would keep these girls in sight at all times, even if it meant using magic gifted to me by the Nameless. Before I left our society's designated protectors, they told me if I ever used any magic again they would lock me up. I was in no hurry to return to the Vein.

So, will your friend sign us straight up? Nicky asked Dizz.

Like I said, Princess, Dizz said, stroking Nicky's cheek, while his lip curled. You two are gonna be famous.

I wanted to snort. This was what the last half hour's conversation amounted to — the two creeps telling the two naive girls that they would make them famous. I had almost tuned out, unable to believe anyone would buy that crap, especially from those two half wits. But here we all were, Waiting for paradise, as Dizz put it.

Dizz nodded down the street. Ride on.

Paradise turned out to be a sleek black limo cutting through the balmy desert air, its silver power wheels like glowing spider webs sliding it along the leyway. If the girls got into that car there was no way I could help them afterwards. Using air magic I could give any greyhound a race, but this car would leave me standing if they headed beyond the city speed limits. I had stupidly believed Dizz's paradise would be a bus, us being at a bus stop. Suddenly, the car was beside the bus stop.

Wow, Nicky said. Liked that.

Dizz was nodding. Boyce, the strong silent type, was already leading Rachael to the back door. I moved. The car's sudden acceleration had caught me off guard, but now there was only one thing to do, either let them all leave or stop them.

Stay out of that car, I said, and turned visible. Maybe I couldn't save every waif and stray, but no way were those two girls getting into that car.

2

Dizz's glowing green smile faded as his lips tightened together, and he jerkily shifted his body to face me. Boyce did the same, but his movement was slow and easy. He was a trained fighter, maybe martial arts, or boxing, but some kind of training. Boyce was the one to watch, Dizz was the street fighter, but Dizz was the one with the gun.

Though I doubted it fired anything stronger than a stun spell, I also doubted I could stop a stun spell. Air magic might push me out of its way in time, or affect it, but if it hit me I was in trouble. That was why I would hit them first.

Who's the dork? Rachael asked.

Dork? She wore a Phantom Reverbs t-shirt, and I could have told her why their latest secret gig in front of less than three hundred die-hard fans was monumental, but to a girl with a pink beehive hairdo even that might not have saved me. Instead, I broke Dizz's wrist as he went for the stun gun inside his summer jacket. Except, that's what should have happened, but then I found myself lying on the ground, looking at the stars.

You must be my long lost brother, Nicky said.

She stared down at me with a weird look in her eye, a, whatever you're playing at get lost yesterday, kind of look. She must have got in my way, and blocked, then tripped me. She must have used air magic, because I used air magic to move too fast for anyone but a magician to stop me. Who was this girl?

A stun gun's flat rectangular barrel appeared, and then Dizz appeared. He looked confused. He's your brother?

Nicky looked amused. I think not.

She winked at me. She was practicing hard on flirting. Probably she was at least fourteen. The stun gun shook in Dizz's hand with the kind of nervous energy that led to killing for the thrill, not from fear.

How'd you move so quick? Dizz asked. Then he smiled a neon smile. You a sidewinder, boy?

We're ready here, Rachael said, her voice surprisingly steady.

The limo's rear side was open space with a red leather coach built interior. Rachael was poised to enter, her hand on Boyce's arm, like a debutante.

Stay out of the car, both of you, I said, speaking loud but calm, hoping they would listen.

Answer up, Dizz shouted. You a sidewinder?

A sidewinder — an illegal magic user, a free magician, a rogue. That had been my life before the Nameless got hold of me. It was still the only life I could choose, outside of the Nameless. Dizz's hand was shaking like his gun was electric.

I used air magic and pushed the gun sideways. Dizz's arm was easier to move off target than my entire body. Simultaneously, I turned invisible, giving him no new target. His gun made a sound like plastic cracking and a heat spell hit the corner wall where I had stood minutes earlier. Fire erupted along its length like napalm. So, this was more than a stun gun.

I ignored the thought, and the fire, and used