Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (18 page)

If they ever were, which Zack
couldn't say for certain.

Merry and Hilda were playing a
videogame, each one hunting others on a split screen. They were playing on the
same side, and had headsets on, calling out helpful tips to the other players.

Hilda laughed, fighting the whole
time, shooting people that weren't there. One of them went down suddenly, under
a hail of bullets.

"No, it is not I, Hilda, who
is the newb. I think that you, instead, need to be taken back to
schooling!"

The shadow of the man that had
spoken was laughing, and didn't seem all that worked up. He was in front of
Hilda, though she couldn't see that part of things.

You don't play like a girl.

There was an affable sense about
the other player, though if the shadow was accurate and they weren't always,
since they showed what a person thought they were, not what they actually
looked like, the man was both young and kind of fat.

Zack ignored him, since he was
trading barbs with Hilda, while his fellows were dying at the barrel point of
Merry. The match went on for about ten minutes, with more trash talk happening
in a concentrated time frame than he'd ever heard in his entire life. There
were fewer death threats however, and less talk of rape than he would have
expected.

After she set the controller down
Merry hopped from the floor to her feet, her little dress flying up a bit.

"Husband! I did not see you
there. Do you require food, or drink?"

That sounded good, but he shook
his head, then shrugged.

"Not at the moment. Hey, um,
that thing you're supposed to do for me, that your king assigned you? What
exactly
did he tell you to do?"

She froze, her face blank for the
moment.

"I'm to... Strike your head
from your neck, when you order me to. Then say 'you are the Gatekeeper', as
your shade rises from your body."

It sounded pretty specific.

Hilda turned on her, looking
baffled, and Claire set her knitting down. She was about to become violent, in
order to protect Zack from the obviously evil Merry. He waved at her to
forestall that, and winked.

"Notice, she said the order
was to do it when I
told
her to. I don't go around saying things like
that on accident. I mean, if I tell anyone to kill me, please do it, just in
case it's important." That was a lot different than just sneaking up on
him and doing it at the right time.

For some reason, while Claire
settled back, she didn't seem all that keen on the idea. It practically
screamed from her beast, who railed against the coming death she most likely
faced.

Zack had to nod at that. After
all, if he died, or so the legend went, she died, too. The other way around was
also suspected, but if he were in the void, that probably wouldn't happen.

Outwardly she was calm, and a bit
still. Vampires did that when they got scared. It wasn't really time for
that
to happen yet. Honestly, there was a lot for him to do first, before it would
be a thing for them to work on. Being afraid would just distract them at the
moment.

Looking at Claire, he shrugged.

"We'll avoid that? If we
have to die, or
I
do, well, I think I might be able to save you now.
Regardless, we need to check that part out. I think I'll need to be gone for a
while for that to work. Three or four days? On the great side, we have a lot of
backup on the line walker side now." He went into that, listing out what
had been happening.

Hilda shook her head.

"So many! It makes it sound
simple, or easy. Until you remember that some of these beings spent hundreds of
years learning the skill. People will forget that, I bet. Ones who would fret
and be maddened inside at being left in a room alone for half a day will assume
that any can do it with ease. I should write a ballad. Maybe..." She
looked away, then got up, muttering to herself. It was adorable.

Even if she was huge for a woman.

Merry looked horrible, so Zack
moved to her, where she stood and bent down to give her a hug. It lingered for
a bit, with her tiny arms wrapped around him. After a while, she whispered into
his ear.

"I have no choice."

It was a plea. One begging for
her life. Zack crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out after standing up.

"Silly. I can think of at
least ten reasons to do
both
of those things. Two of them don't even
involve me dying. I don't think we need to be worried about placing blame just
yet. I mean, we could be faking a beheading? Or... Well, I'm not certain, but
if I was close enough to a node when it happened, it might not even kill
me." That was dicey, since he had a functional range that he would need to
be in for that to work, but he could see how it might. "Also... I don't
think... I mean, I can see that Big Shadow is like me, but... He also
isn't
.
I know for a fact that he's the Gatekeeper. I need to talk to him if I can.
Riley was saying some stuff, but who knows what that was all about? Nothing
against him, but Tricksters aren't
exactly
the most straightforward
people in reality." He smiled at that, since, well, it was true.

The being had been pretty above
board with him in the past, but that didn't mean he wouldn't do whatever he
thought was needed in order to get the universe into line. For instance, maybe
telling
Zack to try and get out of being alone in a void forever would ruin things. He
couldn't see that for himself, but it was possible. Plus, Zack was probably
going to do exactly what he was and fight against his fate.

Hopefully that was the right
thing to do. Otherwise a certain Trickster was probably going to end up kicking
his behind. They didn't play fair after all, so Zack didn't doubt that would be
happening if he wasn't careful. Possibly even if he was.

That line of thought got him to
laugh, out loud, and shake his head. Claire smiled, though it was a worried
thing. Weak around the edges and not matched by the beast inside of her. Merry
just stood there, feeling lost. That got her hugged again, which didn't really
help. After a moment she took a deep breath and started to leave the room.

"I'll make food. It won't be
a moment." Part of the reason for that was to prevent the others from
seeing her cry. Her lot in life was to, as far as she knew, kill her own
husband.

She'd known that for nearly a
decade, the king having told her before she and her brother left for this far
off land, about the prophecy. Yes, it was possible for the interpretations to
make a huge difference in such things, but she'd been
ordered
to do it,
by a man that had been told by a true seer that he
had
to do it.

That had been a thing that the
ancient ruler had mentioned to her, according to her glowing shadow self. The
words were confusing at first, but Zack nodded his head, and looked at Claire.

"Interesting. This is a lot
different than I thought. Here I was, getting ready to die and go live forever
in the void. Now I'm not at all certain that's what this will really require.
Well
!
Tomorrow I'll go and see if I can dig up Big Shadow. That will probably tell me
more. I should have done that already. Instead I thought that I was being
noble. Saving the scheme of all reality by myself." It felt a bit over the
top at the moment, thinking that kind of thing. It was the saying it out loud
portion that really did it.

For all he knew the whole thing
might be a trick meant to just push him into doing something else, completely,
like training a lot of line walkers. Which could be good, or bad. He wasn't
certain yet what the fallout would be.

Not really feeling better, Zack
moved over to where Claire still sat and dropped in beside her.

"Homework time then. Say,
just in case, what do you want for Christmas?" It was changing the topic,
but all he had at the moment was a bunch of conflicting facts. Worse, they
weren't that. They were just ideas, and things he'd been told.

Claire smiled an him and leaned
in, her cool shoulder bumping his chest lightly. It was cuddly, and held for a
while. He wasn't fooled however, the woman just didn't need anything that could
be bought, and didn't have a clue what to ask for present wise. She was
stalling.

Getting that, Zack nodded.

"You
do
know that if
you say nothing, what you get are
socks
. It's a tradition. Funny looking
ones, plain white sports ones... Things that look like candy canes..."
Which would look hilarious on her. Unless that was all she was wearing of
course. Then it would be sort of hot.

His teasing got her to nod.

"I understand. I'll come up
with something a bit more appropriate. Perhaps a new coat? I don't truly need one,
but it's better than stockings. We do need to arrange for some things however.
Perhaps we could hire a shopper? Send them to Lesser Shia with a list?" It
was a good idea, but still didn't tell him what she wanted.

He thought for a bit, nudging her
back. Then, trying to distract her, he kissed her on the cheek. It was cold,
but familiar, and smooth. Zack stood up, and stretched, then took a deep
breath. The place smelled like apple tarts. How he could tell the difference
between that and say, pie, he didn't know. There
was
one however. The
only thing there was that Merry would never serve that in the morning. He
always got oats. Like clockwork, that was breakfast. Even when others were
there, eating butter drenched French toast, or maple covered waffles. If he was
still hungry after that, then another, larger, bowl of oats would be served.

He'd never really noticed that
before, but it was true.

Thinking about it he thought he
understood what was going on there. Back before he needed to eat so much he'd
gotten injured a few times, and had to heal up. So he'd gotten oatmeal and
juice. Soft things that even a sore mouth could manage. For some reason Merry
had learned to think of that as his favorite morning food, so served it to him
each day. Zack did like it, since she did a great job with it, but a bowl of
cornflakes could be a nice change now and again. He would have mentioned it,
but then Merry would have had to learn how to make them. Buying a box of the
stuff from Wal-Mart just wouldn't do after all. Not in her world.

So it was a bit of a shock when
Merry came back, holding her hands in front of her.

"I have some things to eat?
It's before the morning meal, I..." Her inner shining seemed upset, but
she hid it pretty well. "I can make oats for you?"

Zack shook his head.

"This early? That doesn't
seem right. I'm sure you made good choices here." He'd keep being certain
of that, he decided. No matter what she served him. Then, in the entire time
they'd known each other, her food had always been good. Not even once had there
been anything even remotely less than perfect about it.

The apple tarts were actually a
spiced roll, which did have that fruit in them, along with lots of gooey
frosting. It was lightly butter flavored, and whipped to a level that reminded him
of the filling of a Twinkie. Only better. Because Merry made it.

"This is great! I mean that,
too. I'm not just being nice to you. We should take some to Don and Kate, if I
don't eat them all. Brit and Blain, too." The blond twins were off at the
same school. Along with Jennifer Stone, who he didn't really know very well at
all. Honestly, he needed to go and kidnap her soon, to see if she could do the
line walker thing. The mages didn't have anyone yet who could do it, but her
people were going to
want
to get in on that kind of thing and Zack only
really knew a few of them on a close personal basis. Lisa Penbroke, who was
probably a person to try that with too, of course, but he wanted to send her in
with Troy, if he'd do it, since Zack didn't need her as a daughter. Not having
already slept with her more than once. That would just be creepy.

Eloise, their leader, his own
grandparents, and Lisa's father George.

None of them were people he
wanted to spend hundreds or thousands of years with. Jelly, which was Jen's
nickname, was kind of a blank to him, but seemed all right, more or less. Her
Uncle, Hiram was a criminal, and
he'd
be learning to be a line walker
about ten years after Zack was dead. Not that he hated the guy, but the man
would
use any power he had to get ahead, even if he didn't need to. As it was he was
the head spy for the Nation of Line Walkers already.

That
wasn't going to end up going
well, but it had been Kaitlyn's choice, and she was kind of in charge of the
thing, it having been her idea in the first place. That sounded fair to him,
since he didn't want to do it himself. Really, they needed to get her a title
soon, so that everyone would know she was the president, or whatever they
called her. Queen came to mind, but he rejected it, not wanting her to get a
big head that way. They also needed some kind of term limit. Otherwise whoever
held the office might have it for hundreds of years, which was fine, unless
they were horrible at it. Then it could lead to problems.