Pears and Perils (14 page)

“I have another question for you; however, it might be unintentionally rude.”

“I’m adequately braced,” Falcon assured her.

“If we do find this pear, or a pear that Clint says is the right one, and we go to the next island and do everything we have to do, what are you hoping will happen?”

“Obviously I hope it works and Kodi is restored to his former glory.”

“Really? I keep going over the possibilities in my head and that actually seems like one of the worst ones.”

“Because we’ll have earned the gratitude of a divine being?”

“Because there is such thing as a divine being: something metaphysical, something beyond science and ration. If a god actually leaps out of Clint’s head, it means everything I’ve studied, everything I’ve planned to build my entire life on, is pointless. Why bother with science when you’re burdened with the knowledge that the world has magic?”

“You know, there is an old quote about magic just being science we don’t understand yet.”

“I’ve heard it. We used to laugh about it in our advanced chemistry classes.”

“Think of it this way then: even if there are gods and magic, that doesn’t mean science doesn’t have its place. Cars, planes, electricity, medicine, computers, and countless other things are all the byproducts of people like you, April. Gods didn’t make them, and they certainly don’t run on wishes or fairy dust. Science still makes our lives better. All that magic does is provide a spark of hope when all the rational options have run out.”

“That does make a certain amount of sense.” April knit her eyebrows together in concentration as she integrated Falcon’s principles into her world view. The hippie smiled to herself. Maybe all those years in law weren’t such a waste if she could use her super arguing powers for good.

Falcon was only able to bask in the satisfaction of a job well done for a few seconds before both women’s attention was torn elsewhere.

A lean local in a Yankees ball cap raced by them, his dexterous arm snapping out and ripping April’s festive new bag right out of her lap.

“Hey!” April leapt to her feet and dashed after him, her long legs trimming the distance almost immediately. April might be a nerd, but she was a biology nerd. As such, she understood the importance of a good diet and cardio, which culminated in her being a practiced runner. Falcon trailed behind them, her own physique not quite on par with the younger woman’s.

The man zigged and zagged between other pedestrians, never shaking his pursuers entirely but not getting out of range of them, either. Later on, April would look back at this and chastise herself for not noticing the careful way he paced his movements. In that moment, however, all she saw was his sprinting form, and she kept after him like she’d popped a GPS in his shoes. Eventually he moved off the main street, ducking onto a side path that wound through the buildings. April took the turn without a second thought, her own heart pumping hard with adrenaline and determination as she rocketed after that thieving asshole.

She’d no sooner gone around the corner than she felt a pair of strong hands seize her neck and drive her to the brick wall. Her own momentum did most of the damage, crashing her torso against the unyielding material and driving the wind from her lungs. Her arms were grabbed and pinned before she could recover.

“Nothing personal, lady,” the voice half growled and half whispered in her ear. She wanted to yell but she still hadn’t gotten her breath back, so it merely came out as ragged gasps. “The boss just noticed you folks were dressed pretty nicely and not being too careful about showing off your money. So we’ll take everything you’ve got and be on our way.”

April might have felt relieved if not for the way his voice thickened on the word “everything.” The adrenaline that had been pumping thanks to rage was now coursing due to fear. Just like that, she’d gone from a sunny bench by a fountain to a shadowed alleyway down a side road.

Falcon’s silhouette appeared in the alley’s entrance, and for a fleeting moment April felt hope. Then she noticed the two figures walking alongside her and realized the older woman was in the same position as she.

“Sorry,” April wheezed out from her minimal air supply.

Falcon smiled at her reassuringly. “We walk with gods, child. Everything will be fine.”

April had never believed in anything that couldn’t be tested and re-tested to prove hypothesis, but she nodded to the vulnerable old hippie anyway. Given how bad things could go, this hardly seemed like the time to be taking away someone else’s hope.

* * *

“You okay?”

Clint shook his head and focused. His mind kept ambling off in its own direction; he couldn’t stay focused. He realized he’d been standing in the same spot for nearly a minute, just staring at the street. No wonder Mano was concerned.

“I’m fine, I think. Just can’t shake this nagging worry.”

Worry?

“Worry?”

“Yeah, like something bad is going to happen. It’s strange; I’m not usually the pessimistic type, but today the feeling keeps hounding me.”

“Given the last day or so you’ve had, I can see being a little worried about bad things happening,” Mano said, patting him on the shoulder reassuringly. “If we don’t keep up with the king that prediction might come true, though.”

“You’re right. Let’s go.” The two men began jogging after Sprinkles, who hadn’t even entertained the idea of breaking his gait for the humans following him.

When did you first get this feeling?

“Back when we were splitting up. I’m probably just feeling weird because we’ve been clustered together since this first happened.”

Would that be a normal experience for you?

“Well… no. Then again, who knows what normal is anymore. Why?”

Just curious. Trying to get a better understanding of you mortals while I’ve got the opportunity.

Clint accepted the lie and continued the feline pursuit. Kodiwandae, on the other hand, was left with something of a puzzle. His host seemed to be experiencing slight premonitions of upcoming events. Very few humans had this gift, and of those who did, most dismissed it as exceptional intuition. Clint clearly didn’t have it; Kodiwandae had scoured his memories when they first met and not come across any previous instances of such a thing. Mortals didn’t just develop such skills all of a sudden, either; it was the sort of thing you were born with or you weren’t. Gods were different. Every god could feel the way events would begin to pull one way or another. This didn’t apply to their own circumstances, but it was as dependable as a sunrise when looking at the lives of mortals.

This left one completely implausible explanation: Kodiwandae’s power, the power he didn’t even have, was beginning to leak into Clint. It didn’t make a lick of sense, though. Then again, Kodiwandae had found very little about his host that made sense. Mortals were, in his experience, defined by their Wants. Not by mere necessities, but by the big desires that filled them up and drove them forward. It was their Wants that let them persevere through impossible odds and achieve greatness.

The Wants of mortals were what defined gods, too; after all, they were what the humans prayed for. Those were the things that gods could grant to increase someone’s Belief. Or, if the wrong Want was granted, destroy it. It was the reason Kodiwandae had planted that damn pear tree: the people had Wanted a new source of fruit on the island that didn’t taste like three-day-old goat. Wants gave shape and power to many things, yet for the first time, Kodiwandae had found someone without any. Clint’s brain was empty of such things, suffocated and smothered under a half-assed philosophy and a memory of bloody greasepaint. It was like Kodiwandae was a cup of water dropped into the ground; without any desires to give him shape he was formless, running all over the place.

Clint huffed along as they left the merchant district and entered a more upscale area. The buildings were larger and some of them even had signs designating them as legitimate businesses. Kodiwandae saw all the sights secondhand, watching them filter through Clint’s eyes and into the storage section of his brain. Maybe the formlessness was why Clint was getting a premonition; without distinct lines between the two of them, it was easy for the edges to get a bit blurry. No, that still didn’t make sense. Kodiwandae didn’t have any power without the pear; Nature had been quite thorough in separating him from his realm. Even if Clint was getting some of Kodiwandae’s essence, he shouldn’t be able to use it; it wasn’t like there was some free-floating power source out there for him to… to…

I’m a fucking idiot.

“Why do you say that?”

If Kodiwandae could have blinked, he would have. He didn’t mean to say that last part out loud, or whatever qualified as “out loud” in this situation. He really was losing a grip on himself.

Nothing, just remembered something I’d forgotten.

“Anything that will-” Clint’s words died off as a new wave of terror washed over him. He couldn’t even move; he doubled over and fought to keep standing. This wasn’t normal. This wasn’t just some nagging doubt. Clint felt like he was stuck in a horror movie, every sound a new monster coming to tear the flesh from his bones. In that moment he knew, He Knew, something awful either had or was about to happen.

“What… is this?”

“What happened? You sick?” Mano jogged back over to him.

It’s a premonition.

“What?”

A sense of something that is going to come before it does.

“But how?”

I’ve got a theory, but it might take a while to explain.

“You’re getting pale.” Mano slipped his arm around Clint’s shoulders and began moving him out of the street. “Let’s get you into a place with air conditioning. There’s a library a few blocks up the road.”

“Wait, what should I do? What’s going to happen?”

No idea. That’s the bitch of premonitions; they’re usually just feelings without any instructions. All you can do is sit back and hope you’re in the right place to make a difference when it happens.

“That kind of sucks.”

“Talk to Kodi inside,” Mano urged him. “Right now we need to get you off the street.”

Clint bit back his questions and tried to rise above his sense of fear. He managed to make it four steps before leaning against the side of a building and dry-heaving. Mano was right; they couldn’t stay here. Clint set his resolve and began lumbering forward with all the speed he could muster.

14.

April was surprised at how organized the gang was. Two others had appeared from the either side of the alley, bringing the total to five. April thought one of them looked a touch familiar then realized he’d been near the stall where she bought the purse. That sort of explained it; she hadn’t been as covert as she should have been about all the extra cash she was carrying around, cash she’d brought for incidentals on what was supposed to be her nice, relaxing vacation. Likely they hung out looking for people with more money than safety sense and struck when the targets were vulnerable. April would have never been so careless in normal circumstances. All this… this stupid nonsense had gotten her addled. How was a girl supposed to keep real dangers in mind when she was struggling with the possibility of discovering her entire view of the universe was askew?

Falcon, for her part, didn’t bother blaming herself or their muddled circumstances. She blamed the people who were currently robbing them. If she were a few years younger, she might show them exactly what Valerie Quinn did to people who wronged her. That was a big ‘if’, though, since she wasn’t a few years younger and Valerie Quinn wasn’t here. No, there was only Falcon Rainwater, and Falcon Rainwater had only one real avenue of recourse in this situation: she prayed. There was no head bowing or mumbled words; Falcon simply cast her hope into the universe like an avian enthusiast tossing seeds to the wind. She recognized the odds of them being answered were slender, but that was the point: a spark of hope when all rational options had run out.

“So what do we do with them now?” One of the smaller ones was talking to the man they thought of as Runner, the thief who’d snatched April’s purse.

“We don’t need the old one anymore.” Well, that was going to do wonders for Falcon’s already-waning self-confidence. “As for the dark one, I think we can-”

“Thundeeeeer PUNCH!”

All eyes turned to the blur of pink polo that was barreling down the alley, intention clearly set on Runner. Thunder’s arm was cocked back and he didn’t even try to slow down as he drew near. Instead he incorporated the momentum into the assault, putting every last bit of power he could muster in the right hook he hurled at Runner.

Of course, given that he had announced his presence and telegraphed his attack, it should hardly come as a surprise that Runner moved fluidly to the side of Thunder’s punch, grabbing the newcomer by the back of his frosted-haired head and slamming it into the brick wall. Thunder collapsed like a rag doll, a trickle of blood running down from his forehead behind the aviator glasses.

“Thunder!” April yelled, struggling to get free and run over to him. He might be, well, okay, he obviously
was
an idiot, but he’d rushed in to help without a second thought. The idea that he could be seriously injured was something April found herself suddenly unable to tolerate. Sadly, her captor didn’t share such sentiments, so all April succeeded in doing was injuring her arm as she fought against his superior muscle and leverage.

“Young man, I don’t know if you’re the religious type, but I have a piece of advice for you. You should pray very hard that our friend is not badly hurt.” Falcon’s voice was calm, but everyone in an audible range felt a prickle run up the back of his or her spine. Lawrence would have been both impressed and supremely attracted to her in that moment.

“Sorry, old lady, I’m not afraid of your little friend or of some withered old gods.” Runner flashed a smirk that Falcon would have traded half her remaining years to smack off of him.