Brothers: Legacy of the Twice-Dead God (5 page)

“…In the middle of the night, yes,” I said,
“Along with Pitch and Billy. That’s pretty much why I don’t want to
talk to them again. If those guys are my friends, I pretty much
don’t need enemies.”

“Yeah, I can understand that,” he agreed, “So
how did you get out of the woods? Are you home?”

“No, I had to call on my brother for help,” I
said, fudging the truth a little. “He had to come a long way and
it’s taking me a little time to get back to normal.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” he
asked. “The stories those boys were telling—”

“Mr. Morgan,” I interrupted him, not seeing
how the two related and not caring, “I really don’t know what they
told you and I really don’t care. The simple facts are they started
a fireworks war and when I reciprocated, they left me for dead. And
that could have actually happened out there. It was pure freakin’
luck that I got out the way I did, a one in a million shot. Just
keep Jimmy away from me and I’ll be happy.” I hung up. I wasn’t
mad—didn’t have the emotional energy for that, right now.

My phone chirped to tell me I had messages,
fifty-seven of them. Snapping the earpiece off the phone, I
motioned for Kieran and I-not-I to grab a cart each and moved into
the store, becoming one of those people I hate: a cell phone
zombie. I pointed to a sign announcing “Men’s Wear” near the
ceiling, put a hand on Kieran’s buggy, and started through the
voicemail. Most of it I deleted without hearing more than a few
words since it was Jimmy and crew or their parents. I’ll let Mr.
Morgan deal with them; I was done. The few that remained were
police and sheriffs. Those, I figured I’d have to talk to.

Kieran had stopped, so I looked up. We were
directly underneath the sign and they both stood there just looking
around idly, waiting for me.

“All right,” I said, “This place is not a
palace of quality and style. We’re just here for a few necessities.
For you, Kieran, we just need some clothes better than a tank top
and shorts. Shoes, pants, underwear, shirts, just enough to get us
into other places. Try everything on. Just because it says it’s
says it’s a thirty-six inch waist doesn’t mean it really is.
Changing room is over there. I’ll be back for you in about twenty
minutes. Okay?” Kieran nodded and pushed the cart deeper into the
men’s wear department. I took the buggy I-not-I was pushing and
shooed him after Kieran.

Orienting myself by the signs overhead, I
headed towards the pharmaceuticals section and keyed the phone to
call the first of the unknown numbers I hadn’t deleted. I really
don’t know how people drive and talk on cells at the same time. I
clipped a few displays as I explained to my local sheriff’s office
who I was and why I was calling and I was lazily walking, not
driving a ton of steel. The woman I talked to actually sounded
relieved and happy that I was safe and sound. She actually made me
feel a bit better. She said she’d take care of the other calls for
me saying that I’d been through enough. She was really nice about
it.

I started shopping in earnest. I rarely
shopped in this kind of store since I didn’t need to buy in bulk
before. Now I had to replenish for myself and buy completely new
stuff for Kieran and possibly for I-not-I. He really needed a name.
By the time I left that area, the buggy was three quarters full
with enough to stock two bathrooms and have backups for just about
everything. I could feel that plastic melting in my wallet
already.

As I headed back to men’s wear, my phone
rang. “Hello?”

“Seth McClure?” I didn’t know the man’s voice
on the other end. It was kind of high and whiny.

“Yes,” I confirmed, then asked, “And you
are?”

“This is Deputy Harris. We just received word
from the Madison County Sheriff’s Office that you made it out of
Bankhead Forest safely. I just needed to confirm that,” he
said.

“Yes, sir, I’m quite all right,” I answered,
spotting Kieran exactly where I left him with my double standing
beside him. I headed for them, angling through the clothes racks. I
caught Kieran’s eye and motioned for them to follow me to the
front.

“Well, that is good news,” Deputy Harris
said, “But if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to send another deputy
out to stay with you for a while. Make sure nothing else untoward
happens to you.”

Now that sounded odd. “I don’t think that’ll
be necessary,” I said, “It’s not like I’ll be go out with those
guys ever again.”

He chuckled and said, “I believe that, but
you’re a teenager all alone and the circumstances around this
situation were a little strange. It would make us all feel a lot
better if someone was around to watch over you for a while.”

“My brother will be staying with me for a
while, Deputy Harris,” I said, picking the shortest of the long
lines I saw. “I doubt I’ll be alone for a long time.”

“Your brother? I thought you were an only
child?” Curious, I wonder why he knew that? The line we were in
progressed rapidly.

“No, I have a large extended family,” I said,
not offering details. “So really Deputy, I am quite safe and I have
enough to deal with without throwing another person into the
mix.”

“If you’re sure,” he said, hesitantly. “You
have my number if anything changes. Call me, day or night.”

“I’ll do that,” I said, unloading my buggy
onto the conveyor. “Thank you, Deputy.”

I hung up and looked back down the line.
There’s no way we got through that line that fast. Kieran just
smiled. He’d done something, I knew it, but it was better than
standing in line for half an hour. Nobody seemed angry with us
either, so I went with it.

Four hundred dollars later and we were in the
parking lot tearing off tags and opening packages for Kieran to
change into more acceptable clothing. I just tossed the shorts he
was wearing—the elastic was shot now and I wondered about the
circulation in his legs from wearing them so long but he didn’t
complain. He’d picked simple colors complimenting him nicely and
not obviously cheap. He looked good. I was mildly impressed.

The next step was the mall. There, I went
from mildly to massively impressed. Shopping with Kieran was like
shopping with my mom on a double dose of Speed. He rifled through
racks at the speed of sound and everything he picked up looked good
and fit when he tried it on. Midway through the first store he
started handing me shirts to try on, mumbling, “I’ve seen your
closet.” I started to protest, but I had left most of my dress
clothes in Savannah and the shirts he’d handed me looked really
good. My attitude melted a bit, then, and I started having a better
time. We made one trip out to the car and half filled the trunk. It
was getting late in the day and we still had groceries to get so
the second trip had to be more targeted. Kieran did pretty well at
spreading purchases out across various social needs: dress, casual,
athletic. Shoes were the only obvious necessity missing and I hated
shoe shopping. The three of us went back in.

Two hours later, we came back out laden with
bags and boxes, heading for the car. It was early evening and the
sun was just starting to set in the sky when we entered the parking
garage. We were chatting idly about how things worked, like credit
cards and cell phones and such. Small talk about things he’d missed
and I took for granted. I-not-I followed robotically behind us the
whole time, silent.

When we got to the first concrete traffic
barrier in the garage, Kieran slowed, then stopped, peering into
the darkened parking garage oddly. I stopped too and looked. It did
look gloomier than it should, even after dusk. The section of the
parking lot was fairly empty compared to earlier when we walked
through it, only five cars now. My car was on the other side of a
load-bearing wall, out of sight from here but not far. I-not-I came
up on the other side of Kieran, tossing its bags against the
barrier. Kieran tossed his there, too.

“I count four,” said Kieran softly.

“I see five,” said I-not-I, just as
softly.

I was confused. “There are five cars,” I
said, “We can get the Count from Sesame Street here, if you want.”
I-not-I actually grinned for a brief second. Score one for me.

Kieran took a half step over and stood behind
me, putting both arms over my shoulders, pointing at the white
Toyota straight ahead of us. “Time for a little magic,” he
whispered in my right ear. “Focus on the white car there.” I saw
it. It was an early model Toyota. Nothing special about it.

Then Kieran said something else. I don’t know
what it was but it was just two words. I know what it meant,
somehow: see in truth. As soon as he said the words, the world went
haywire for me, like it was projected on a sheet of tin and
somebody hit it with a ball peen hammer several times in several
places. It took around three seconds for the ripples to die
down.

When they did, I saw what they were talking
about. On top of the Toyota, there was a fuzziness. Kind of like
you could tell when someone had doctored a picture but you had to
look really close to see it. Looking around there were two more on
either side of the roadway to the car near the wall and one big one
near the stairs to the upper level. There was a fifth one. It was
smaller and moved a lot around the one on the Toyota.

“I see five, too,” I whispered softly. “What
are they?”

“Hmm. I thought that one an echo,” he
muttered. He straightened and moved to the front of the group.
“Let’s find out what they are, shall we? You two stay here.”

I watched him as he strode deeper into the
garage. I wasn’t sure what he’d done to my sight but everything was
brighter, clearer, even in the magic-enforced gloom. I could even
see that it was magically enforced gloom. He walked past the
largest blob but not directly in the center of the trap and
stopped. He stood there for about three seconds then raised his
hands to show a pale blue ball of solid energy the size of a
basketball. Kieran tossed it lightly at the center and took two
steps back. It floated slowly to the ground.

When it hit the ground, everything started
moving very fast. It exploded in shades of blue throughout the
garage, coating the fuzzy shapes in a miasma of light that
destroyed whatever magic was hiding them. The first to attack was
the biggest and closest of fuzzies. I guess it was a troll since it
was almost as big as a car. Kieran jumped over the sweep of its
club, almost hitting his head on the ceiling. He reared back to
punch the troll with a sphere of deep burgundy surrounding his
fist. The troll roared when he connected with its chin, but the
roar cut off, barely heard as the burgundy magic engulfed it. Then
ate it. Like a squirrel with a pinecone, just ate it right up,
outside in. A rock the size of my fist dropped to the ground as I
watched.

Kieran was still moving. This was good
because all three fuzzies had decided to attack instead of going
one on one. They were elves, I guess, tall and arrogant-looking,
dressed in black tight-fitting clothing. Their pale skin shone in
deep contrast to their clothing, but their most striking feature
was their eyes: in the dark, their eyes almost glowed with double
serpentine irises of color, two a fiery red and the other a deep,
icy blue. The three of them exuded deadliness. The two by the road
were advancing with swords drawn, held out before them as they
went. One held a sword of ebony and white, the other silver and
gold. Ornate scabbards hung at their waists. The one on the car
held a crossbow to his shoulder casually. Kieran said something to
them that made Mister Crossbow cock an eyebrow and answer back.
They went back and forth a few times speaking in this singsong
language. Then Kieran laughed loudly and said something. All three
of them stiffened.

Mister Crossbow fired so casually it looked
like it never occurred to him that he could miss. Technically, I
guess he didn’t. Kieran caught the bolt with his bare hand, inches
from his chest, and tossed it to the ground, still laughing. The
swordsmen started running then. They had another fifteen feet or so
to go. I jumped forward, wanting to help him and not knowing how,
but I-not-I held his arm out against my chest, saying calmly, “He
can do this.”

Mister Crossbow was a blur of motion after
the shock of Kieran catching his first bolt, firing and reloading
from the quiver on his back. I’d see movies that weren’t this hard
to believe as Kieran danced around the flying bolts and directed
them down into the asphalt. A tiny forest of short dark green bolts
erupted at his feet as he moved in impossible ways with
unimaginable quickness. The rain stopped but Kieran continued
bending backward to avoid a perfectly timed sweep by the swordsmen
intent on scissoring him in half while his attention was elsewhere.
He was upright again before either elf had time to adjust for the
unexpected follow through. He grabbed the left elf’s sword hilt,
the gold sword, with one hand and with the other, struck the elf in
the jaw with the heel of his open palm. The burgundy energy that
got the troll engulfed the elf, too, but ate him much faster. I
guess size does matter. The scabbard clattered to the ground.
Kieran dropped the sword and turned to the other elf.

I thought the elf took an odd stance, his
sword too low to the ground. It seemed to me that he would have to
go upward to do damage, making a more difficult swing. But what did
I know. I could see Kieran’s face from this position—he was
grinning. He was in a fight for his life and he was having fun. I
was too scared for him and for me to think about that, though. I’d
read about adrenaline rushes and endorphin releases so I suppose
this was what was going on here. Otherwise I had a nut-job for a
brother. Would be just my luck this week.

The elf grinned, too, and dropped the sword
point to the ground. Green and red sparks shot out from the sword
and arcs of power in red, like lightning, flew out around the
garage. It hit everything within fifty feet, except a six-foot
circle around I-not-I, for which I was thankful since I stood in
that circle. I didn’t want to know what the energy felt like.
Kieran didn’t seem to notice it at all. Apparently, whatever the
elf was doing took concentration because he didn’t notice Kieran
step within reach. When the elf raised the sword and looked up,
Kieran grasped the naked blade between thumb and forefinger and
backhanded the elf. The sword stayed with Kieran but the elf flew.
And flew until he hit the back concrete wall, sliding down the
wall, leaving a long, bloody smear.