Brothers: Legacy of the Twice-Dead God (48 page)

“But what was it?” Ferrin asked. “What did ‘e
crack ‘is shield with?”

“Don’t know. Never seen ‘em before,” said the
man. Grunts of affirmation from the rest of them.

“Four donyeal spheres tied together and
expanding,” answered Kieran over the shoulders of the huddlers.
Startled, the huddle broke up into a semicircle around Ferrin
hurriedly with all five facing off at Kieran defensively. “You
asked,” said Kieran, smiling, crossing his arms on his chest.

“MacNamara, an honor,” said Ferrin, silkily,
his eyes never leaving Kieran.

“We’ve just come to congratulate you on your
spectacular victory, Ferrin,” said MacNamara to the blond man. If
the elf noticed the split attention, he didn’t acknowledge it.
“Your timing was beautiful.”

Ferrin smiled at the elf appreciatively,
saying, “Thank you, MacNamara. That means a lot coming from
you.”

“Actually, it was young Seth who began
singing your praises,” said MacNamara, turning slightly to glance
back at me. “During your first match he predicted your victory, so
I followed your progression throughout. Most enlightening and
unpredictable, I must say. I look forward to your bout with Mr.
Harris eagerly. Your styles are quite opposite and will be most
interesting to witness.”

“McClure praised me?” Ferrin said with mild
surprise. “Last time I saw him he was threatening me with a rather
large shiny sword.” His accent had changed. He was speaking more
distinctly now than when he was talking with his friends.

“I believe you were about to kick an
unconscious friend of mine in the head at the time,” I said calmly.
“And I still have that Sword.” So what if it was an implicit
threat?

Ferrin merely smiled and nodded once to me.
That had me wondering if he was accepting that as a challenge. I
hoped not, because I’d already killed and I wasn’t exactly sure
where my conscience was on that subject just yet. So far, I’d just
buried it under the heading of Monster and that it had needed
doing.

“Sorry, mate, not familiar with what a
donyeal sphere is or what it does,” Ferrin said to Kieran. “Care to
clue us in?”

Kieran shook his head. “Don’t have the time
to take on another apprentice, sorry.” The room broke out in
raucous laughter while Ferrin’s face shined brightly red for a
moment, fading slowly back to its normal paleness.

“Be fair, now, Ehran,” cooed MacNamara. “Even
Masters of the craft can learn new tricks and a donyeal sphere is
hardly a secret.”

“True,” Kieran admitted, “but building the
spell will take longer than he has right now and since he has
already attacked us once, I fail to see why I should give him any
further advantage for the future.”

“I see your point,” agreed MacNamara. Turning
to Ferrin, he said, “He did provide you with the name. Perhaps that
will be enough for you to find information in the future.”

“More than I had, true,” agreed Ferrin
politely, twisting an earring in his right ear. He was extremely
nervous, hiding behind bravado he didn’t feel. His fellows seemed
to be drawing theirs from him though. They definitely had
confidence in him. It glowed out of their auras in rosy warmth but
it never seemed to touch him. He just wouldn’t seem to let it. I…
guess I understood that. Or at least I was guilty of it.

“We were wondering, sir,” I asked him, “If
you would be willing to answer a few questions for us since you
seem to be away from Summer’s influence?”

Ferrin chuckled and asked, “Whot’s in it for
me?”

I shrugged my shoulders back, calling the
Crossbow up from my cave for a show of force. Ferrin knew the Day
already. The distance and precision inherent in the Crossbow should
impress him a little more effectively now.

“While I would never even consider breaking
MacNamara’s peace-bond,” I said calmly, “I would be willing to
rescind my promise to kill you the next time I see you.” I bounced
the Crossbow against my leg nervously. Certainly some of these
fellows had seen our fight and knew what Kieran was capable of
doing. What this Bow was capable of doing. He took a moment to
consider, the time for him to swallow hard.

“What do ya wanna know, mate?” he asked
hoarsely.

“Seth,” said Kieran, cuffing me behind the
ear, “Put that away.”

I thanked the Crossbow as I pulled it back
inside, tucking it back into its safe place. “Primarily, why did
you attack us in the first place?”

“The First Princess was suppose to pay me a
lot of money to find you,” Ferrin said. “She wanted you before the
Yanks got to ya.”

“’Suppose to pay’? What do you mean by that?”
Kieran asked.

“Meaning I haven’t seen her since that
night,” Ferrin said. “’Cept for when she went flyin’ overhead
yesterday. Did enjoy that, mate.” He leered at me for a second,
though I think it was meant to be complimentary and not creepy.
“Wouldn’t be here riskin’ me life if I didn’t owe money out to some
mean buggers on that run, f’r true.”

“Simone stiffed you? How… like Simone,”
Kieran said.

“Who else is after us?” I asked Ferrin.

“If by ‘us’ you mean ‘you,’ pick a corner of
the world,” scoffed the man. “Course, you may have taken care a
that already now.”

I studied him for a moment, watching as the
flow of his internal energies worked with his emotions. He was
hiding something, several somethings, but only one that mattered
here. It was obvious that he’d been around elves long enough to
pick up a few of their tricks, like burying truths in half-truths
and hiding facts and emotions under others hidden for other,
unrelated reasons.

I turned to Kieran and said, “He’s
stonewalling us. It’s not worth our time to be here.”

Kieran nodded agreement, turned to MacNamara
and said, “At your leisure, your Grace. We’ll be waiting at the
door.” He turned and headed for the door with me on his heels. We
were both expecting what happened next.

“Whot’sat mean?” yelled Ferrin. He grabbed me
by the right shoulder and tried to spin me back around to face him.
Really, does it take a bridge to fall on some people?

The Stone flared out first, expanding my
shield out three inches from my body and then sending a strong
electrical charge through Ferrin’s hand on my shoulder, causing him
to fly back several feet to land on the floor in shock. The Day
Sword shot down my arm continuing the momentum of my turn and
making it look like it extended straight out of my arm as I aimed
it at him as he lay on the ground smoldering. The light doubled as
it shone like the sun in the small room, reflecting off of
MacNamara’s silks and glinted off the widening smile on his face.
The four of us were the only people still in the center of the
room. Everyone else had pushed back against the walls.

“You really shouldn’t break the peace,” I
said calmly as Ferrin regained his senses, shifting up onto his
elbows. I relaxed my stance and called for the scabbard. As I
sheathed the Day, I said, “What it means is that I know you’re
lying to me. I don’t have the time for that right now. You want to
play games, do it on your own time. I have more pressing matters to
attend to.” The Stone obligingly created the belt to attach Day to
my side for me and I clicked it into place. Kieran was trying hard
not to laugh at me when I looked up at him.

“You’re enjoying this too much,” I said.

“So’s he,” Kieran said, pointing to MacNamara
and laughing finally. The elf giggled along with him when I looked
over. An elf as old as the hills, literally, giggling. The mind
boggles. I turned for the door. Kieran threw his arm over my
shoulder and walked with me on my left, leaving Day free to move
and jangle on my right hip.

MacNamara said to Ferrin, “We wish you good
fortunes in your final bout, Ferrin. Do not underestimate Clifford
Harris. He is a wily opponent and quite capable, as is young
McClure as you’ve seen.”

The door opened from the outside by
MacNamara’s repeater as we approached. We exited and waited for
MacNamara to take the lead. Harris’ locker room was two doors down
on the right. Another repeater knocked on the door as we
approached. I’d find it uncanny except these guys talked for him
most of the time so I guess them knowing he was coming wasn’t that
big a deal.

A short oriental-looking man with a shaved
head wearing a light orange robe answered the door. He bowed almost
continuously as he ushered us into the room. It was completely
different from Ferrin’s locker room and ours, at least in the
furnishings. There were panels of cloth suspended from the ceiling
somehow, separating the room into parts for privacy. The panels
sported intricate pastoral scenes of Persian and Indian
manufacture. Incense burned in several small plates around the
room, malodorous incense at that. Smelled like a mix of old socks
and polecat to me.

The cloth panels started shifting lazily to
the side, revealing Harris in the center of the room, flanked on
either side by three other men of various ages. He stood in his
black gi-like clothing, beaming at MacNamara graciously. The other
men were arrayed in canted lines so that no one obscured the
other’s view of us. The men wore robes of matching colors across
the rows, making a short rainbow of light to dark across the
ranks.

“MacNamara, your Lordship, what a pleasure,”
said Harris, stepping forward and bowing slightly. “What can I do
for you today?”

“I merely wished to congratulate you on your
victory, Clifford,” said MacNamara, stepping forward into the ranks
of Harris’ guards. Kieran stayed out of those ranks and I stayed a
half step behind him on his right. The elf went on, “It was an
impressive display of misdirection and power.”

“The compliment is much appreciated, sir
Lord,” said Harris. MacNamara quirked his head slightly and I
realized that Harris had changed languages. That’s why his comment
sounded a little strange to me. Somehow, I’d made the translation
without knowing that I’d done it. It was the current Elven tongue,
the Summer court dialect, to be exact, though Winter’s differed
only in inflections.

“My guests,” said MacNamara still in the
Elven tongue, “have requested to speak to you regarding certain
events in your home realm. I have acquiesced providing you don’t
object and it doesn’t break the peace-bond. And I must admit they
have brought forward the most interesting piece of information in
that regard that I, myself, would like to ask about at the end of
the interview. Would you mind?”

Harris looked uneasily around the room. “You
understand, sir Lord, that my position in my realm puts me at a
certain… sensitivity. These two are not the responsible people that
they claim to be. The elder has been in hiding for over forty years
and has eluded government officials and the younger has been quite
destructive to that same government. If it were not for the
peace-bond, I would be apprehending them now.”

“Trying to,” interjected Kieran in
English.

Harris looked at him, confused.

“You mean ‘trying to apprehend them now,’” he
said. “If you’d like, I can have Seth say it for you in the
language you were just speaking. We both know it. Or in fourteen
other Elven dialects.”

“And I thought we’d put the idea of you
arresting any of us to rest already,” I said with agitation in my
voice. “It is rather tiresome. Come to think of it, Ehran, I’m not
sure I want to rescind that promise. Let’s just leave now so I can
kill him tomorrow.” The Day Sword hummed loudly at my side at that
statement. I swear it had a sense of humor, because it had to know
I was bluffing. I was bluffing.

“I told you he had it,” Harris whispered
hoarsely to MacNamara.

“Yes, you did,” said MacNamara brightly. “I
do apologize for not believing you but you must admit a human boy
having all of the Black Hand’s weapons does sound a bit
preposterous.”

“All of them?” said Harris, the shock showing
on his face. Apparently, he hadn’t seen the contest with St. Croix
and either hadn’t heard or didn’t believe any reports about it,
either.

“Yeah,” I said. “People keep forgettin’ to
tell any of us that some things are supposed to be impossible, so
we keep doin’ ‘em.”

“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,
yes,” agreed Kieran. He crossed his arms on his chest and took one
step forward, crossing the imaginary line of the ranks of Harris’
men. His feet were both immediately encased in arcing blue-white
energy coming from the first man on either side. It was laced
through the rug on the floor. It was rather nicely done, too,
almost invisible in the rich and homogenous background that the
Arena provided. Kieran glanced down at his feet, unconcerned.

“Oh how nice,” he said as he looked back at
me. He acted bored. “Do be careful, little brother. There are some
lethal craftings in the rug. They might… tickle a little.”

That was just for show, though. He broke each
spell on every rug between us and Harris. Silently and without
touching any ambient power, each one was snapped in half and sent
flailing back at the casters on both sides. The only evidence of
existence was the initial flair of energy and the collapse of the
men at that rank. It was like they were marionettes and someone cut
their strings. By the time I walked through, it was just a rug and
six passed-out men.

“Ehran?” I called, turning in to lead with my
left and calling once again for the Crossbow. It was amazing how
easy this was becoming to me, just falling into the position I
wanted and there the weapon would be as graceful as if I was moving
it the entire time. Even the weight felt like it was moving with
me.

“Yes, little brother?” said Kieran, just a
couple of steps away from a thoroughly flabbergasted Harris.

“Wouldn’t what you just walked through be
considered breaking the peace-bond?” I asked, bringing the Crossbow
into my shoulder and leaning back on my right foot. “Those were
lethal spells, after all.”