Spanners - The Fountain of Youth (31 page)

Adam nodded and then smelled the cognac one more time deeply and sipped it, savoring the taste.

“Do you recognize the vintage?” she asked.

“Precisely one hundred years old,” he responded.

“Correct,” said Giselle with a smile. “Where were you at the time?”

“Working a vineyard a few farms over from this one,” said Adam. “I believe the
vigneron
of this bottle was a man named
M
é
tivier.
”

“Where was Phoe at the time?”

“Falling in love with M
é
tivier’s son,” said Adam.

Adam took another sip o
f the cognac and smiled at Giselle. He was still suspicious; beautiful strangers had knocked on his door seventy-eight times before, and most of the times ended badly.

“How do you know about me?” asked Adam.

“Every spanner knows of you,” said Giselle.

“How do you know about Phoe?” asked Adam. “I’ve largely kept her hidden.”

Giselle smiled and the candlelight fell on her skin perfectly. Adam felt an odd kinship with her, as if he’d know her for years instead of moments.

“You’re a phoenix-
class spanner, aren’t you?” asked Adam.

“I am,” said Giselle. “Only Santos has taken away my weakness; I can still fall in love, I just don’t die afterwards.”

“Did they send you to—”

“I sent myself,” said Giselle, placing her finger on Adam’s lips. “I came to talk to you about Phoe, and tell you that in
this
lifespan she’s headed towards her own destiny. I don’t know what it is, but I know that she’s going to play a great role in the upcoming battle. When that time comes you shouldn’t protect her, no matter how much you want to; in other lifetimes part of her belongs to you, but in this one she belongs only to herself. So when the time comes you must let her go, even if it means her death—can you do that?”

“I can,” said Adam.

“Good,” said Giselle, sipping the cognac. “The sun will soon rise, and then we’ll all be speaking of legends and battles.”

Giselle put down her c
ognac, smiled at Adam and got up to leave.

“Stay,” said Adam.

Giselle turned around and smiled slightly.

“Stay, please,” said Adam. “Not to do anything untoward; I won’t take advantage of your class
’s emotions. Just stay here with me, just to talk and keep each other company until tomorrow, when life becomes real.”

“Ok
ay,” said Giselle, sitting down and opening up the cognac again.

“Thank you,” said Adam. “I just want to talk, that’s all.”

“This is unlike everything they’ve said about you,” said Giselle. “They say you’re quiet, and you hide from the world.”

“They were right, but I’ve changed,” said Adam.

“What made you change?”

Adam took a sip of the cognac and thought about that for a moment.

“I realized that so much in life brings loss, but we should celebrate what we have now rather than mourn it when it’s gone,” said Adam. “For all we know, the upcoming battle might end our world, perhaps the whole world, but it won’t end it today.”

“It’s still night,” said Giselle.

“Then we have even more time,” said Adam, drinking his cognac, “and whatever time we have, I’d like to spend it with you, talking about anything, as long as it’s not legends or battles.” 

/***/

The next morning Phoe sat with Trey on top of the compound’s eastern wall and watched the sun rise dimly over the distant forest. The walls were easy to climb from the inside but dropped steeply on the outside.
No one could survive a fall from the wall,
thought Phoe,
not even Adam.
Since the wall angled outwards, the fall looked endless and though the parapet was broad and built for walking, they proceeded cautiously.

She had heard the tales of Trey’s sacrifices for the group and sat with him as his second body underwent surgery. Trey’s healthy body next to her felt the pain
as his second body died, and though he screamed she couldn’t do anything but hold his hand and cry with him.

Phoe admired his resolve in the face of adversity; he seemed to
do what needed to be done
, regardless of his own state of mind. His second body was dying and Trey had immediately asked to donate the heart to Mayfly, a boy he had just met a few weeks ago.
We all have a part to play in the upcoming war,
Trey had said,
and Mayfly is no exception. If he dies, then the battle has been lost before it begins.

Trey had wanted to stay near his second body during the surgery, but Phoe asked him to walk with her. She could tell that he was scared, and being apart from the surgery would help him forget about what he was about to lose. He wasn
’t one for self-pity, but she could tell that the deaths of his two bodies had disturbed him deeply. He seemed lost in thought, and as they traveled along the wall he walked close to the edge.
He’s not being fearless,
thought Phoe.
He doesn’t care.

Phoe stopped walking, pulled him in and together they looked out at the frozen forest in the distance.

“It’s beautiful up here,” he said. “The mist and everything.”

“It is,” said Phoe.

“Santos developed the trees to exhale the fog,” said Trey. “It acts as an atmosphere to keep everything warm inside and to keep it hidden from the outside. If Juan wasn’t coming here, no one would find this place, not for a thousand years.”

They looked through the mist and saw a speck in the distance. It seemed to move
, and they waited for a moment and saw that it was approaching them, and that it was on foot and alone. Phoe squinted and saw that it was a rotund blond man, huffing and puffing as he trudged through the snow.

“It’s one of the Vikings,” said Trey with a smile. “The first wave of our reinforcements is here.”

“It’s going to be a fight all right,” said Phoe. “But I’ve been in fights before, as have you.”

Trey looked down, defeated. Phoe noticed that Trey had a tear in his eye and she wiped it away.

“What?” she asked.

“I’m just a normal human now,” said Trey. “That’s what most spanners want, but not me. I was special before; I could do things. I can’t do anything now, and I won’t be able to help this fight.”

“You will,” said Phoe.

“How do you know?”

“Because you said it yourself. You said ‘
we all have a part to play in the upcoming war.
’ That includes both me and you.”

“How?” asked Trey.

Phoe reached up and kissed Trey’s lips. They lingered for a moment on the misty wall, and then she kissed him once more.

“I don’t know,” said Phoe. “But I know you’re going to be an important piece, perhaps the most important piece of all, so stay away from this ledge. It’s a long way down.”

Trey smiled at her, looked over the wall and stepped back. They kissed some more and then she pulled back but kept her hand in his.

“Be careful with me,” said Phoe with a smile. “You know my class is vulnerable.”

“You’re not vulnerable,” said Trey. “At least not from what I’ve seen.”

“I am vulnerable, so stay by my side,” said Phoe, coming in close to Trey. “We have a part to play in the days to come, and we’ll play it together.”

/***/

Giselle and Adam stood outside the operating room, watching Mayfly breath
e as the Surgeon operated on him. Next to Mayfly laid the dead body of Trey, his rib cage splayed open. In the other window they saw both Cattaga and Mayfly’s two elderly handlers.

Santos de León, the Surgeon, closed up Mayfly’s chest and then walked over to Adam and gave a nod, but no smile.
He hasn’t changed one bit in the five hundred years since we parted ways,
thought Adam.
For all the legend surrounding him, he is today just as he was then: a grey-faced man with a permanent scowl.

“He’ll live,” said the Surgeon dr
yly. “He’s a lucky one, your Mayfly.”

Adam looked at Mayfly, scarred in the chest but breathing calmly.
Mayfly makes his own luck
, thought Adam,
but not this time.

“Adam, our first warrior has come in, and he brings some dark tidings,” said Santos. “We need to speak with him now.”

/***/

Adam, Giselle and Santos faced the round, red-faced man at the other end of the table. Adam recognized him as Harald Forkbeard, a cohort of Leif’s and a feared Viking in his own right. Back in his day Harald’s legend had spread throughout Europe, but now he was wheezing in front of them, tired from the journey
, with his legendary beard now shaved.
He hasn’t aged, though modern life has found a way to levy its toll,
thought Adam.
Yet still he’s come to fight for us, and
we’ll need more of his kind, even if they come wheezing and red-faced.

“I passed Juan’s army en route up here,” said Harald with a European businessman’s English.

“How many are in his company?” asked Adam.

“A thousand? Maybe more,” said Harald. “They had a bunch of different types with them, and some looked half-dead.”

“How far away are they?”

“I can’t tell for sure,” said Harald. “They move slowly but
they’re traveling in vehicles, so I’d guess about three days.”

“What kind of vehicles?” asked Adam.

“Some lorries with caged beds to transport the half-dead ones, and some equipment; I’m not an engineer, but it looks like cranes used to dig.”

Adam thought about it for a moment and then nodded.

“Santos, do we have our own water supply here?” asked Adam.

“Food and water both,” said Santos. “The water comes from a well underground, and the food will be provided by the plants that make the mist.”

“Good,” said Adam. “It looks like Juan might not just attack us; he might surround us and make a siege.”

/***/

Santos had prepared a cell for Harald and soon the Viking was inside, snoring loudly.

“He laid down his sword centuries ago because the world demanded businessmen in lieu of warriors,” said Santos, closing Harald’s cell. “But my brother Juan will be coming with rough men, and we need rough men to fight back.”

“They’re not as rough as they once were,” said Adam, “but they know what’s at stake and they’ll fight for it. When the battle begins, they’ll be ready.”

“Indeed,” said Santos.

“The Viking warrior who sent us here was named Leif; do you know him?”

“I know of him, and
he of me.”

“He told me that
we’ll need an
edge
to defeat Juan,” said Adam, “and that the warriors that come now can only provide
time
for us to gain that edge.”

“I know of what he speaks,” said Santos. “We have the edge in the Fountain, and her power will take time to come to fruition.”

“We’ll use the power of the Fountain against his army?” asked Adam.

“Not directly,” said Santos. “If we were to place her amongst the battlefield, even with her full powers unleashed, my brother would find a way to capture her and all would be lost.”

“What will you do then?” asked Adam.

Santos looked at Giselle and then
back at Adam.

“They say I grant power to spanners, but I do no such thing,” said Santos. “All I do is take away a spanner’s weakness,
such as extending Mayfly’s lifespan or perhaps allowing Brogg to speak normally, if I were given the time. But after I separate the Fountain into her two selves, I’ll be able to increase a spanner’s power a hundredfold, maybe more. We’ll use
this
power against my brother, and
this
will be our edge.”

“When will you do this?” asked Adam.

“Once I have the Fountain’s power of life and death in my hands, I need time to implement it; it could take hours, or perhaps days,” said Santos. “But I can separate her powers soon. I’m going to try tonight.”

/***/

Adam and Giselle stood atop one of the towers that evening and watched the endless stream of warriors come to their side. Some brought trucks and some came on foot; the majority were Arawak but Vikings came too, and not all were as rotund as Harald.

“They haven’t fought for centuries,” said Adam.

“Our fortress is built to withstand attacks,” said Giselle. “They’ll have some time to remember their old skills.”

Adam realized she was right; the warriors looked rusty as they joked and swung swords at each other in the courtyard, but this castle was built for punishment. Juan would have all the time in the world once he surrounded the castle, but the Vikings and Arawaks had lived a long time. They weren’t ready now, but they would be soon.