Broken Quill [2] (23 page)

“I am aware, yes. The accords still
stand, as far as I know. You’ll forgive me if I missed anything over the last
few years. I haven’t really been kept apprised of Forgetful politics.”

“Well, as it may,” Stormborn said.
“This is a place of peace, of harmony. You can understand that a man with a
past as...” Here he sighed and dabbed at his brow with a silk handkerchief.

“Bloodstained?” I offered idly,
picking crumbs from my waistcoat.

“Notorious,” the mayor said. “A past
as notorious as yours may cause concern among the people already here. For some
of them, like Tia here, the war wasn’t that long ago. We also had a flood of
refugees from the devastation in Reach City and Voraskel six years ago. Two
battles, I’ve been told, you had a direct hand in.”

“If you’re asking me to leave, just
ask,” I said. “Given my status as exile, the Ragnarok Accords most likely do not
extend the protection of this place to me. I’m sure there’s a loophole to
exploit.”

“Now hold on.” The mayor held up his
hands for peace. “I, like many others, think some of things you did were
heroic, lad. You were—you are—a war hero, and I’d want no harm to come to you
or yours.” He glanced at Annie. “Which is why I’m suggesting, just suggesting
mind, that perhaps you do move on sooner rather than later. Meadow Gate would
take you if that’s what you want, but you might not be happy here.”

Tia scoffed. “Who’s leaning on you,
Augustus? The Merchant Council? No, it’s Harry and the Nightwatch, isn’t it?”
She cursed. “Sweet mercy, that jealous idiot.”

“Now, Tia, I didn’t come here to
stir up trouble. I came here out of respect for you and for Commander Hale.
We’d still be at war and our sons and daughters would still be dying by the
thousands if he had not acted... but a lot of people still see the faces of the
children we did lose. Five years is a long time, but really, is it a long time
at all when it comes to such terrible memories?”

“I won’t be staying more than a day,
Lord Mayor,” I said. “I didn’t intend to come here at all, but it was somewhat
unavoidable.” Weapons of celestial illusion could be volatile.

Stormborn sighed. “Understand, I
don’t like doing this, lad, but the tension in the city this morning, the calls
to my office alone... Casting you out goes against everything Meadow Gate was
built for, why this place even exists. But you’re too well known, you
understand? Someone will be hurt if you stay. Maybe even worse than hurt.”

“As I said, give me the day, and
I’ll be gone tonight.”

The mayor stood and offered me his
hand. I took it and felt his soft skin under mine and reasoned this man didn’t
spend a lot of time in the honeyberry fields or doing much work at all. I
wasn’t so sure I liked the fool, however kind or genuine his words. Still, I
didn’t want to stay here. But I needed the morning to try to convince Tia to
come with me and to see if I could get Myth to cut through to Ascension City.

“I’ll spread the word that you
intend to depart then,” Stormborn said. “Thank you. Please understand that I’m
looking out for the greater good here, and—”

“You said your bit. I’m leaving.
Let’s have done with it, Lord Mayor.” I let a touch of command enter my tone
and was pleased to see a bit of the color drain from his face. “Have a nice
day.”

“And you,” he said, clearing his
throat. “Tia. Miss Annie.” He doffed his hat, and Tia saw him out.

Once he was gone, she turned back to
me, her lips pursed and tears swimming in her eyes. “How dare he!” she
whispered. “How... I don’t believe that just happened.”

Annie was staring at me strangely.
“You’re not well liked, are you?”

“Not really, no.”

Smoky light flowed from Tia’s
clenched fists as she stomped back and forth in the kitchen. Annie gasped.

I chuckled. “Tia, you’re glowing.”

My old friend caught herself and
dispelled the Will before she broke one of the laws here in Meadow Gate and had
to arrest herself. She took a deep breath and sat back at the table.

“Okay, so I knew you weren’t
staying, but to be told to leave...” Tia shuddered. “I never thought that of
these people. Broken quill, we’ve got Renegade commanders here, and they get a
pass. But, no, not you—not the Shadowless Arbiter...”

“I’m trying not to feel too
disheartened, but I did make a lot of enemies and scare a lot of people back in
the day. I don’t want to bring any trouble down on this town from within it or
without.”

She unclenched her fists and let her
shoulders slump. “Okay, so you were telling me what you’re up to—why you’re
back in Forget at all?”

I nodded and looked at Annie. She
shrugged and said, “There’s a monster terrorizing our home back on Earth, Tia.
A creature called Emissary.”

Tia looked at me to gauge just how
concerned she should be.

I winked, found a smile, and ran a
hand back through my scruffy hair. “A servant of the Everlasting.”

Tia set us to making honeyberry pies
while we explained the unfortunate situation shrouding Perth. Apparently her
bar was famous in Meadow Gate for two things—dessert pies and, for those that
could afford it, the sapphire liquor we’d drunk ourselves stupid with the
previous night.

“So it sounds like this creature, whatever
he truly is, was sent to entice you in particular,” Tia said, frowning as she
folded pastry. Her oven already held a good half-dozen pies, and the scent of
baking made me want to catch a mid-morning nap. “Never mind what was going
through Faraday’s head when he recalled the legions from True Earth,
Emissary—or whatever’s pulling the strings—wanted you to come out and play.”

“Aye, I’ve been thinking the same.”

Annie sipped at a glass of water and
leaned against the countertop. “Scion, do you think? Like in Emissary’s last
message?”

“I do think...”

“How can you beat a god?” Tia asked.
“I mean, they are supposed to be gods, aren’t they?”

“Creatures with a lot of power,” I
said, thinking of Tal and Lord Oblivion. “But they’re not omnipresent or
omnipotent.”
But Oblivion was close...
“Which kind of excludes them from
godhood, don’t you think?” I shook my head, not quite convinced. “Tia, I want
you to come with me when I leave.”

She squeezed my shoulder, leaving a
handprint in flour on my waistcoat. “I know.”

“Will you come with me?”

She wrapped her tiny little arms
around me and squeezed me tight. My chin rested on the top of her head. “Let me
think about it. I’ve spent a good six, nearly seven, years here building a
life. Also, and I’m not being cruel, but people tend to die around you, Declan.
You know?”

I rubbed at the back of my neck.
“Well, when you’re right... Mind if I use your bathroom to freshen up?”

“Of course. Towels under the sink.”

I spent a good half hour in the shower
washing away the fatigue and sweat of the last day or so and came back down to
the kitchen feeling refreshed and somewhat ready to face the trials of the day.

But first—pie.

*~*~*~*

“So this has been nice, Tia,” I
said. “But we need to be hitting the dusty trail.”

“I’m not coming with you, Declan,”
she replied, as mid-afternoon faded toward a coppery dusk. “I’m far too old and
far too young to get involved in any more of your nonsense.”

I laughed, and Annie smiled
tentatively. We sat at the bar once again, sipping dark ales. Tia had delayed
opening the place until we’d made tracks. To be honest, I was hesitating to get
underway. My time in Meadow Gate, only a day, despite Ace, Sheriff Coras, and
the mayor’s visit, found the place redeeming and...
fresh
. Not quite the
right word, but we make do.

The air was clear and the town
quiet, and I’d found a childhood friend long thought dead. I could move my shop
here, sit amongst the books and sip honeyberry juice instead of scotch. Or,
mayhap, a mix of the two—with a splash of rum or tequila, shaken not stirred,
call it something laidback like a Meadow Breeze. Hell, the honeyberry juice may
even offset the hangover...

“Off track,” I muttered, taking a
sip of ale. Have to survive Emissary first. Broken quill, I have to survive
Ascension City first! “But it’s a nice thought...”

“What are you talking about?” Annie
asked.

“Nothing. We should get going, yeah?
Meadow Gate is a nice distraction, but I want to try to be in and out of
Ascension City tonight and back to Perth tomorrow, hopefully at the head of a
cadre of Arbiter Knights.”

Tia held up her glass. “Be careful,
you two, and once you’ve sorted out this mess, come back and see me, okay?”

“Now that I know where to find you,
Tia, the gods themselves won’t be able to keep me away.”

Tia squeezed my knee. “Well, you’ve
outlived most everyone who ever doubted you, so I’ll look forward to it—”

Something shattered across the bar,
along the front of Tia’s pub. I whipped my head around, hand to the hilt of my
sword, in time to see a small silver sphere about the size of a tennis ball
bounce off one of the tables and roll onto the floor toward us.

Someone had thrown it through the
window.

And it was something I hadn’t seen
since the Tome Wars.

“Bouncer!
Down!
” I screamed,
and tackled Annie off her stool as Tia leaped over the bar. Old instincts died
hard.

The sphere ruptured, cracked as if
it were an egg, and a cacophony of hot, vicious sparks, of razor-sharp light,
exploded from the device. The sparks shot every which way like a firework
spinning out of control, smashing through chairs, tables, and bottles of booze
and leaving a trail of greasy, liquid flame.

I turned at just the wrong moment,
and one of the sparks of energy slammed into my left eye. As if I’d been
electrocuted, I jerked up off Annie and roared in pain. White-hot fire tore
into my eye socket, and I saw nothing but a blinding light that bled from
stellar-yellow to ruby-red.

Annie was shaking me as another
bouncer shattered another of Tia’s windowpanes, but I was only just aware of
it—my face was on fire but felt painfully cold. Cold was bad. I touched my
cheek and wasn’t sure if it was blood or melted flesh my fingers slipped
against.

“Declan,
stay down!
” Tia
cried, and I was surprised to find myself on my feet.

At some point in the last few
seconds, I’d drawn my weak imitation of an Infernal blade and stood up,
snarling at the crowds beyond the walls of the pub. My vision was hazy at best,
but I wanted to hurt, to wound, to
attack
.

Then I was on one knee, glaring at
the bouncer that had rolled under the far booths and was heating up fast.
Thick, cloying smoke billowed into the air from the burning bar, and more of
the bottles erupted. Tia leaped back over the bar, through the flames, and
pulled Annie aside. She cast a quick shield of pure Will, stretching it out to
envelop me just as the second bomb erupted in starlight.

A hundred sparks of vicious energy
peppered Tia’s shield, pebbles hurled on still water, and a wave of smoky light
knocked me onto my back. The world stank of burned liquor and tasted of blood.

“Not so immortal, after all...” I
chuckled, sword in one hand and Myth, my celestial knife, in the other. For all
the good my damned weapons did me.

A large
bang
echoed
throughout the pub from the front, and a sharp slant of flickering streetlight
cut across the floor. Through the smoke and the pain, I saw a large figure
burst through the door, a dark silhouette against the fire, and then another
bouncer went off, and the windows exploded in a shower of light. A shockwave of
hot air sent me spinning across the floor and into the bar. I cracked my head
against one of the stools, and all hopes faded to black.

When I awoke, it was under a sky
strewn with about a billion stars twinkling softly. The alien constellations
spun in spiral arms, caught in bands of galaxy cloud, and I felt very, very
small, staring at one sky above just one world. I was lying on something soft
and spongy, and I could smell... remnants of smoke, but more
alluring—honeyberries.

I sat up with a gasp as memory
flooded through my mind as if it were a surge over the walls of a dam.

“Easy, Declan,” Tia said on my left.
She held her glowing hands over Annie’s forearm, and my young detective was grimacing.
“We’re safe for now. Ace got us out of the bar.”

The giant man sat on his haunches, a
large cudgel resting on his knees and a sleek, silver revolver in his free
hand. He nodded at me once and then continued to glare out at the field of
honeyberries surrounding us on all sides.

“I grabbed these,” Annie said,
pointing at my sword and the knife of celestial illusion resting in the dirt
below the vines. “Thought we might need them. Thank you for... for healing my
arm, Tia.”