Authors: Joe Ducie
Coras did a double take and looked
me up and down. His mouth opened and closed a few times like a floundering
goldfish. Tia seemed to enjoy his dumbfounded expression.
“Hi, Sheriff,” I said. “Er, nice
hat.”
Coras recovered and rested a hand on
the hilt of his service weapon. I felt Annie tense at my side. “Why isn’t he
cuffed?” Coras asked. “And he’s armed, Tia!”
“Last I checked, it wasn’t a crime
to be armed in Meadow Gate, Harry,” Tia said, with a slight frown. “And he
hasn’t broken any laws. Misdemeanor, at the very most. What’s the matter?”
“Don’t you know who he is? What he’s
done? He’s exiled!”
Ace cleared his throat. “Was him
what set the sensors off, Sheriff. We found him and his friend in the western
fields, just below Amberwell Rise.”
Coras wagged a finger at Tia as if
that proved something. “What are you doing here, Hale?”
Keeping my temper in check, I folded
my arms. “Wondering that myself. How long’s this going to take, Tia?”
“Not long. Just a few formalities
and a report for the Mayor’s Office—”
The sheriff adjusted his gun belt
and matched my stance, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’ll ask again,” he
said, “why’ve you come to Meadow Gate? This is a peaceful place.”
“And he’s not broken that peace,”
Tia said.
“Now, Tia—”
“What, Harry?”
Coras welled up, spots of color high
in his cheeks, and then exhaled a sigh that suggested long suffering. “I’ll
want a full report before you leave tonight.” He hefted himself up from his chair,
coffee mug in hand, and stomped through the back of the office.
“Sorry about him,” Tia said. “He’s
good at what he does, but he can be a bit suspicious of newcomers.
Particularly... ex-Knights.”
“He hired you,” I pointed out.
Tia chuckled and pulled over a
wooden chair from one of the other desks so both Annie and I could sit. “Yeah
well, he has his reasons. Shall we get this over with before you two duel to
the death or some such nonsense?”
“We shall,” I said and took a seat.
Night had fallen when we emerged
from the sheriff’s office. I rolled my shoulders a few times, working out an
ache that had settled just below my neck. In the end, and after a slew of
pointless paperwork, I’d gotten off with a warning and a promise not to create
any sort of Will-related ruckus, which wouldn’t be too hard, thanks to
Emissary’s damned brand.
The streets of Meadow Gate were busy
at night as the restaurants and little bars along the main, meandering strip
did a roaring trade. My stomach grumbled at the smell of hot, greasy food from
a dozen different street vendors set up behind carts and small stalls.
“Where we headed, Tia?” I asked.
“Question for the ages, Declan. But
tonight, back to my place,” she said. “I own a tiny bar a few streets over.
Nothing fancy—just a stretch of timber and a few tables, but it’s home, and we
can get that drink I promised you earlier. I’ve got a spare room, too, so you
and Annie can flip a coin for that or one of the couches.”
I perked up a bit at the mention of
a bar, although I was looking forward to a stretch of sleep more than anything,
even food and drink. Time was a-wastin’, but meeting Tia in this way, after so
long, and given that I was in dire need of allies against Emissary and his dreary
masters... Unexpected fortune is something to be wary of and yet grasped—hard,
in this case. “I’m going to grab something to eat from one of these stalls.
Annie?”
“It all smells good. What’s that?”
She pointed at a large wok of sizzling meat and vegetables. The vendor spooned
a heavy helping onto a thick piece of pita bread, drenched it in some exotic,
heavenly-scented sauce, and rolled it up tight. “I’ll take one of those.”
“I think I’ll join you. Tia?” My old
long-dead-not-dead friend nodded. “And how about you, Ace?”
The big man shook his head. I had
the feeling he thought Sheriff Harry should have stuffed me in a cell for the
night or run me out of town. “Three it is.” I shifted my sword and retrieved
the dwindling pouch of gems from my pocket.
Dinner was hot and delicious,
bursting with striking, spicy flavor. Easy to forget, back on True Earth, just
how varied and even alien some of the sights, sounds, smell, and tastes of
Forget could be. I think I’d missed the food, more than the place itself, during
my exile.
Tia’s place was down a busy little
cobblestone alleyway, set in the bend of the lane and overlooking a valley full
of honeyberry fields below. A simple two-story cottage leaned as though it were
a windblown fencepost against the side of the hill, charming in an old-world
sort of way. A few soft, glowing torches lined the lane, and a steady stream of
people, their voices of merriment ringing out in the dull light, wandered up
and down the alley.
Tia let us into her cottage bar and
flicked a switch just on the inner wall. Light flared from two crystal
chandeliers overhead, casting the bar and a small lounge area, dotted with oak
tables and leather couches, in a dim but warm ambience. Twin window alcoves
overlooked the streets, some of the panes plastered with band posters and
dinner menus.
“Well, here we are. It’s not much,
but it’s mine,” Tia said. “I spend most of my time in the kitchen when we’re
open, and Ace tends bar.”
“It’s lovely,” Annie said. “Very
inviting. Look at that old fireplace!”
“Tiana,” Ace said, avoiding my gaze,
“he’ll bring down a whole world of trouble we don’t need. He shouldn’t be
here.”
“We’re not opening tonight, Ace,”
Tia said. “Take a paid night off, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Ace huffed and blood rushed crimson
to his cheeks. He clenched and unclenched his fists, staring from me to Tia,
once to Annie, and back again. Without another word, he turned on his heel and
stomped out of the little bar. Tables, chairs, and charming old fixtures
trembled in his wake.
“Sorry to be so much trouble,” I
said.
Tia rolled her eyes and stuck her
tongue out at me. “No, no you’re not. You never were. But don’t mind Ace. His
heart’s in the right place. He thinks you’re bad news for a sweet girl like me.
And who’s to say he’s wrong, hmm?”
Annie tried to stifle a yawn and
failed. “Sorry,” she said. “Long day yesterday and an even longer night last
night. Tia, you mentioned something about a spare room?”
“Of course. Just up the stairs and second
on the left. Would you like to join us for a nightcap, Annie? Help you sleep.”
“No, thank you. I can see you two
need to catch up. Thank you for the bed. I’ll see you both tomorrow. Goodnight,
Declan.”
I waved twice, slowly back and
forth. “Goodnight, Annie.”
My young detective disappeared up
the stairs and was gone. I could hear her footsteps on the wooden floors above
us and then the faint sound of a heavy door clicking shut.
Tia stared at me. “You like her,”
she said.
“What?” I chuckled. “You’re the
second woman to tell me that in as many days. She’s nice, but she’s just a
friend. And she’s engaged.”
“Aye, I saw the ring.” Tia rubbed
her hands together and walked behind her bar.
I stood on the other side, arms
resting on the polished mahogany. “So what do you call this place?”
Tia hesitated and then smiled
somewhat wistfully. “The Reminiscence.”
“You named your bar after the ship
you crashed into the Void?”
Tia shrugged and licked her red
lips. “What of it, my sweet exile?”
“I thought you were trying hard to
forget—”
“Some things,” she said, squeezing
my arm over the bar while pouring two shots of sapphire liquor from a
gourd-shaped bottle. “Some things, like the three thousand soldiers I lost
aboard the
Reminiscence
that day,
deserve
to be remembered. You
understand?” She handed me one of the shot glasses, filled to the brim, and
raised the other. “To old friends.”
“To returning from the dead,” I said
with a smile, and we tossed back the shots with the ease of long practice.
The liquid rushed down the back of
my throat as if it were antifreeze and burning oil all at once. I choked,
gasped, and coughed in the same breath as Tia laughed and patted me on the
shoulder.
“Good gravy, Tia,” I rasped. “What
is this stuff?”
She laughed. “You’ve been living on
Earth for too long, buddy. This is something new—from a world written up just
before the Tome Wars ended and you degraded the Story Thread. Elysian Dragon’s
Breath. Costs your weight in gems and more than a few favors, but I always keep
a bottle or two on hand... in case old friends drop in unexpectedly.”
“I think my heart stopped for a
second there.”
“So another then?”
“Please.”
Tia and I lassoed two stools on the
patrons’ side of the bar and sat next to each other, hip to hip, sipping her fancy
booze and catching up on old times. My sword dangled between the stools, hiding
the celestial knife, Myth, flat against my leg. I’d almost forgotten how good
it was, thinking about the past. Usually I wallowed in mistakes and regret, but
Tia had been happy times. Happy times before the war kicked off for us and we
began our service fresh out of the Academy. Even then, the war had thrust us
together more often than not.
I think certain people resonate in
our lives, and no matter how much time or how many worlds stand between us, we
often gravitate back to those same people. Call it a weak sort of fate, magnets
at the right polarity, but years, distance—even death—were no match to whatever
near-inconceivable force I felt at that moment, sitting with Tia at her bar and
sipping rocket fuel.
“Why didn’t you come here after your
exile?” she asked. “We could have caught up long before now even if you didn’t
know I was alive. You always enjoyed a drink, so I imagined you would’ve ended
up here one lonely night. You could’ve worked for me, been a bartender. Meadow
Gate’s got to be more interesting than whatever you do on dull, Will-less True
Earth.”
“I own a bookshop, actually,” I
said, and watched Tia’s eyebrows climb up into her fringe. I smiled softly.
“Yeah, rubbing salt in the wound, I know. I actually considered coming here,
Tia. I did. Or one of the other accorded territories. But there was a whole lot
of... anger in me after the Tome Wars. I needed to get away from anything and
anyone who knew who I was and what I’d done. And I... well, shit, I lost
someone very special.”
Tia licked her lips. “Tal Levy.”
“Yes. How did you...?” I shook my
head. “Suppose a lot of people know, don’t they? How it all went down? The
Degradation, the Renegade armies scattered or destroyed. How I held the
Roseblade at their throats in Reach City and let it burn anyway. Damn, you see,
we’ve both been trying to forget Forget, no? Only difference was that I got
out, well and truly, on True Earth. No one I met there knew who I was or what
I’d done.”
“They forgive the past here, Declan.
This is a safe place—a neutral place. Honestly, I didn’t care who won the Tome
Wars once I’d heard it was all over. Meadow Gate gets to exist either way, so
say the Ragnarok Accords.”
I scoffed. “Come now, you hated the
Renegades as much as anyone. That, more than anything, was drilled into us from
day one back at the Academy. You weren’t a little happy when old King Morpheus
practically surrendered to the Lords’ Council?”
“About as happy as I imagine you were
when Jon Faraday claimed the Dragon Throne. Lot of rumors, even here, that it
should have been you, Declan. You earned it.”
“If the cost of that throne was an
ocean of blood then yeah, I did.” I rubbed at my eyelids and forced the scowl
from my face. “But let’s not talk about that, eh? Tell me what you’ve been
doing with yourself. I honestly can’t tell you how pleased I am to find you
alive.”
“Missed me, did you?”
“Yes. We all did. Marcus, Sophie,
Aaron, Clare—”
Tia’s eyes lit up. “Oh, Clare
Valentine. Sweet Clare with her ever-changing eyes. She and I had some fun
times chasing you fool boys around Ascension and Farvale back in the Academy
days. Have you seen much of her since your exile?”
I stroked the back of Tia’s warm
hand. “She was killed, Tia. About three months back. The Renegades broke the
ceasefire on the Plains of Perdition surrounding Atlantis, and she... Damn it
all. She gave her life to save me. I never deserved her.”
Tia’s face fell, and she swatted at
her eyes, wiping away new tears shed in the same old ways. “Broken quill, Hale,
is there anyone left alive, save you?”
“Faraday, Creed, and his whole gang
of lords and ladies. King Renegade’s queen, more than a handful of the old
enemies, Renegade disciples and the like. The whole ruling class of the Knights
Infernal.” I took another sip of sapphire fire. “New enemies, too, but I’m
working on that...”