Devil Ash Days (Devil Ash Saga) (20 page)

Stryd’s fist never reached Ash’s face, as Shiva intercepted it with an open-palm. Ash didn’t even realize what had happened until it was over.

“You’ve lost, Stryd,” Shiva said. “Now let’s go have a little
chat
, shall we?”

A couple minutes later, everyone was cooled down and ready for a nice civil discussion. Shiva, Ash, and Aura all sat at a table in the barracks with Commander Stryd and Captain Pace. The rest of the Royal Guards were ordered to return to duty.

“Let’s start with what you know about the break-in,” Shiva said.

“My men have been up all night searching the en
tire castle and they’ve found no point of entry,” Stryd said. “Whoever it was had access to the castle.”

“We had a theory that it could have been one of your men,” she
said.

“Imp
ossible. I searched all my men’s personal effects and found nothing. Furthermore, my men are loyal to a fault. They would never risk something as stupid as theft from the Royal Family. We’re currently holding interrogations with the castle servants and maids.”

“Very well then, did anyone in the castle see anything?” Shiva asked.

“One of the chambermaids we spoke to claims to have actually saw the thief.”

“Was she able to identify the thief?” Shiva asked, amazed at the piece of information.

“She says she only saw him from behind, as he leapt out the window of the fourth floor storeroom,” Stryd said. “She could do nothing but report it to us.”

“Were there any defining traits?”

“He had a crippled wing.”

Ash remembered what he’d read in his book. If your wings were ever cut o
ff, they would grow back but they’d never be as good as your original. The wing could only regrow as a shriveled, useless appendage. So the thief must have lost a wing at some point in his life.

“So we find our guy with a shriveled wing, and that’s the thief?” Aura asked.

“It’s a good start. Is there anything else we should know?” Shiva said.

“
That is all,” Stryd said. “Now all you have to do is investigate every person in Hell and make them show you their wings!” He got a good laugh out of his suggestion, and Captain Pace was quick to join in on the laughter as well.

“We’ll take our leave now,” Shiva
said, tired of talking with the Commander. Ash couldn’t be happier to be out of there as well. The three of them stood and made for the exit.

“Hey you
; human!” Commander Stryd called to Ash.

Ash turned around
but said nothing.

“What is your name?” Stryd asked.

“Ash,” he replied. “Ash Kaplan.”

“Well Ash
, let me make one thing perfectly clear; it took two of you to beat me at sparring, with no weapons, no armor, and no flames. But make no mistake about it. If you ever step out of line, you’ll have to deal with me. And it
won’t
be another sparring match.”

Ash did his best to ignore the comment and not make a reaction of any sort. He instead turned and walked out the door. He made sure to securely shut the door behind him before speaking to his team again.

“What an ass,” he said.

Chapter Sixteen: With a Little Help From My Friends

Leaving the basement where the Royal Guards barracks were located, the team moved upward at Shiva’s suggestion to find an empty conference room. On the way, Aura teased Ash about Commander Stryd’s threatening comment.

“Better watch out, or Commander
Snide
will cut you down!”

Even though he found Aura’s nickname for the Commander funny, there was a certain scary truth to his comment that wore heavily on Ash’s mind. Ultimately, he figured it would be best to put it out of his head and keep his distance from
Sepultura Stryd.

It had been a long, tiring morning so far and it wasn’t over yet. Now
began their search for the devil with the crippled wing. Ash found that having something to do, a goal to focus on, helped to take his mind off of his terrible predicament. Hanging out with Shiva and Aura also helped him feel less lonely. The hope that this ‘God’s Blessing’ they were searching for could also provide a way home for him made the boy all the more excited to be working.

The group passed the exit for the main level of the castle and moved up another flo
or, to where they’d usually go to meet with Goddard. Shiva pushed open the first door they encountered and finding it empty, motioned for the guys to follow her inside. The room was very similar to the conference room they met with Goddard in. A long table took up most of the room. The furniture and even the chandelier were made out of a mixture of wood and bones. The curtains were closed, until Shiva drew them open, letting the afternoon light shine in on the dusty table.

“This will do for now,” Shiva said. “If nobody else uses this room, maybe we can see about turning it into our permanent base.” As she spoke, Aura and Ash took their seats at the table. Shiva claimed the seat at the end of the table, where Goddard would normally be sitting. “Now then…” She cast a curious glance in Aura’s direction.

“What’s that look for?” Aura asked, thinking it had something to do with his stunning features.

“Well, don’t you know who our crippl
ed-wing bandit is?” Shiva asked.

“Hey
, I’ve heard stories about devils losing wings before but I never knew any of them personally. The crew I run with isn’t so careless as to lose a wing. We’re a much higher grade of professionals.”

“What about you?” s
he said, turning to Ash. “Got any bright ideas?”

Ash mulled it over in his mind for a moment.
If this devil lost a wing, he probably would have had to go to a hospital to get it looked at. Hospitals keep registries of all their patients. They’d have to do a lot of research, but it could be a good start.

“Maybe we could check in with the hospital and see if they had any patients with missing wings recently?” Ash
said. Shiva and Aura returned his suggestion with blank stares.

“
Hospital?
” Aura repeated.

“
Patience?”
Shiva echoed.

A couple seconds passed in which no one said anything. Ash once again passed the idea around in his mind of explaining the terms “hospital” and “patients” to them, but decided against it. Their responses seemed to signal that such things didn’t exist in Hell.

“Never mind.”

“What about your friends?” Shiva
asked Aura.

“Who? The guys you beat up?”

“They started it,” Ash said.

“Actually, I started it,”
said Shiva. It was true; she did throw the first
table
. “But that’s irrelevant. Do you think they’d know anything?”

Aura’s mood changed abruptly. His air of confidence and swagger were thrown off-kilter. Now he just looked depressed. He tried to hide this by saying, “Let me think…” but he couldn’t fool Ash. Something was off about him.  There was something that he wasn’t sharing with the class. Ash wanted to broach the subject, but didn’t know how. He didn’t feel like he knew Aura well enough to pry into his matters, or even how to comfort him if he did get an answer. For
the moment, he made note of it and remained quiet.

“I suppose they might know something,” Aura said half-heartedly, almost hesitant to admit it.

“How do we know that one of your buddies isn’t the thief?” Shiva asked.

“Two reasons,” Aura
said. “First: as I already stated, I don’t know anyone with a crippled wing. That includes my friends. Second: they’re not stupid. They know better than to do anything to draw the attention of the Royal Guard, or the Royal Family. This may surprise you, but they’re not the most adept fighters-” Shiva snorted a bit here, “-and like most people, they fear the crap out of Prince Darko.”

“I don’t blame them,” Shiva said. She, along with everyone else in Hell, thought very highly of Prince Darko. Even Ash could see why, and he’d barely been a devil for a week.

“Do you think they would help us?” Ash asked. The two groups hadn’t gotten off on the best foot, but with Aura acting as ambassador, he was certain they could make amends.

“I can talk to them,” Aura said. When Ash gave him a questioning look, he flashed a large fake smile and said, more confidently, “Of course t
hey would! They’re my friends!”

“Then we should go now,” Shiva
said, standing up. “Do you know where they’ll be?”

“I have a pretty good idea.”

They headed straight outside and up, up, and away! Ash was beginning to get the hang of his wings, as all the airtime helped to strengthen them. Staying airborne wasn’t as much of a struggle as it had
once been. He was surprised at how quickly his wings bulked up, considering they had never been used just days ago. Now he had no trouble keeping up with Shiva and Aura, and even zooming past other people sharing the airspace with them. Flying was a lot more fun when there weren’t demon dragons in the sky!

“Over there!” Aura
said. “This way!” His voice sounded distant because of the wind at their high altitude, even though he was only a few feet away. He started to circle their destination, and they followed his lead in descending.

Ash’s landings were getting better as well. It helped to watch Shiva and Aura land first. They simply reduced altitude until they were mere inches off the ground, and would then stop flapping their wings completely. Once on the ground, their wings would
shoot back inside of them subconsciously. Ash copied every single movement they made.  They dropped down to the ground outside of a familiar building: The Missing Piece bar.

“You’re kidding…” Shiva said
in disbelief.

“Just a guess, but I think we m
ight find them here,” Aura said.

“Alright,”
said Shiva, “let’s go.” She stepped forward toward the bar but Aura shot forward to block her.

“Wait a minute,” Aura
said. “You shouldn’t go in!”

“Yo
u don’t give the orders,” Shiva said, her brow furrowed with agitation. “I do!”

“But they trust me –
not
you,” said Aura. “If you go in, it’s just going to lead to more trouble.”

Shiva made an enraged face, but before she could shout her angry rebuttal Ash stepped in attempting to quell the situation. “He has a point,”
the boy said. “They don’t really respond well to us.”

Shiva allowed herself to calm down before answering. Here she was, losing her grasp on her leadership pos
ition again. Unfortunately, under their current circumstances, the boys were right. Those people were their best leads, and Aura was the sole person who stood a chance at getting the information they needed from the gang. For the time being, Shiva knew she had to let the matter go.

“You have ten minutes,” s
he told him, still trying to hold on to some authority.

“I won’t even need five minutes,” Aura
said with a weak smile. He left Ash and Shiva behind and trotted up the stairs to the bar. With one last reassuring half-smile, he disappeared inside.

“He better not try to run off,” Shiva muttered just loud enough for Ash to hear.

* * *

On the inside, Aura wasted no time finding his friends. They sat in the rear, as they usually did. He even spotted Dunger sitting in the opposite corner, alone. His burns were healing up nicely but he looked pensive, lost in thought. The bar was in a sorry state still, and as Aura walked towards the back booths the various patrons took notice of him. Most of them had been there when the brawl occurred; their opinions of him now had altered drastically. The barkeep, a man Aura considered an old friend, stood behind a patched-up countertop cleaning a glass.
Aura passed by him flashing his trademark smile, only to be met with a disapproving headshake.

The bar was still trashed; windows missing, chairs and tables broken, and cracks in the walls. Despite this, whatever tables and chairs weren’t broken had been arranged as they were before, with people still using them. It would take more than a little brawl and some broken furniture to actually close the bar. Eventually the owner would replace all the broken stuff, piece by piece. But as the bar was rarely ever closed to its regulars, it wasn’t convenient to find time to shut down and properly make repairs.

As Aura moved towards the back, his friends came into sight. Sars, Vadnais, and Fry all sat at their usual booth. The table was littered with empty bottles and the women were long-gone.

Figures
, Aura thought.
They weren’t very good with women by themselves.
He was always the main attraction. Sars was the first one to spot Aura gliding towards them. He alerted the rest of the table and motioned his head towards Aura. Everyone became silent as Aura approached.

“Hi guys,” he said
. “Care if I take a seat?”

“Do whatever you want,” Sars
said, cold as ice. “Oh wait, you already do anyway.”

Frowning, but not giving up, Aura took a seat with them. “I wanted to talk about what happened the other day.”

“The other day?” Fry spoke up now. “Oh, you mean when you bailed on us?”

“That’s not what I did.”

“Sure seemed like it to us,” Vadnais said, monotone.

“You guys are looking at it all wrong,” Aura
said. “I’m still with you!”

“No you’re not,” Sars
replied. “You’re with
them
now. And quite frankly, we don’t want you with us anymore anyway.”

“How can you say that?
We’re a team!”

“We took a vote,” Sars
said. “We all decided that the moment you walked out on us, we were done. You’re out.”

“I didn’t want to walk out on you! The Royal Family has taken notice of me, it’s not my fault!”

“Actually, it
is
kind of your fault,” Sars said. “You were the one who had to go around spreading your death touch rumors, trying to make yourself sound so mysterious and dangerous. Of course it was only a matter of time until the Royal Family got wind of it and came looking for you.”

Aura bit his tongue. That part was definitely true, and there was no denying it. Had he been foolish in trying to build a reputation for himself? It sure seemed like it at the moment.

“So what, you just want to be done with me now?” His heart started to ache. He’d spent his whole life trying to avoid confrontation and drama, and not since he was a small child had he encountered a situation that made him feel this hurt.

“I think that would be best,”
said Sars, acting as the group’s new leader. “Please, just leave us alone now.”

Aura felt like crying
but held it in. No way he would spare tears for these guys. Dejected, he stood up, wanting nothing more than to get out of there. Then he remembered his mission to find out the information they needed. He turned to face them once more, and with a little humility to his voice, he asked, “One last thing guys, do you know anyone with a crippled wing?”

No one spoke, as his question was met with blank stares. “That some kind of homework assignment? You rooting out our people now?” Sars
asked.

“No, I just-”

“Go,” Sars said, cutting him off.

A wave of emotions that Aura hadn’t felt since childhood washed over him, reintroducing him to sorrow, pain, betrayal, and rejection. He wasn’t the most experienced at handling these long-forgotten feelings, and did what seemed most appropriate: he walked away. Leaving his ex-gang behind, he headed for the door. He avoided the glances of the bar’s various patrons. He knew they’d been listening to every word the gang had said, and were probably laughing at him. He kept his eyes to the floor as he made his way out.

He burst through the door so fast that he almost knocked Shiva over. They were both momentarily surprised, and Aura quickly went about hiding his hurt feelings.

“Oh, Shiva…” h
e said, rubbing some ‘dust’ from his eyes. “I told you I wouldn’t need the full ten minutes.”