The duelist 9, p.10
The Duelist 9, page 10
“How can you be so sure?” he asked me.
“Because I’m not friends with assholes.” I grinned. “And you’re my best friend, remember?”
The falcon-man rubbed the spot on his chest where a knife should have-- had-- pierced his heart. Then he gave me a slightly shaky smile.
“Don’t remind me.”
“Ass,” I laughed and punched his shoulder.
When we arrived back at the Manta, and Ozrid had caught up with us, we immediately went to find Arvid, who was in the kitchens.
The sloth-man made a surprised noise when he turned and noticed his brother, but I had no desire to sit with my thumbs up my ass for an hour while the two Omites greeted one another and chatted about what they’d been up to since they’d last seen one another, so I jumped in quick.
“Arvi, we’re having a party this evening, something to celebrate Jenner, Amaya, and Zoie-- and Anwaar,” I added before Horus could give me a pouty, offended look.
Arvid nodded. “Paaaaarrrteeee.”
“Elder Elmer and a couple other Om officials will be coming, too,” I continued. “This is gonna be a sort of… do-over, since the last one… well, we had bigger things to worry about, so the banquet itself got kind of sidelined.”
I knew ‘sidelined’ was probably a mild description for ‘ended in a double-Duel and the deaths of two extremely dangerous criminals,’ but I had a lot to do and not much time to do it in.
“Can I count on you to handle the food while we get decorations and other stuff sorted? Ozzy can be your sous-chef-- your, uh, assistant cook,” I corrected at the last moment.
They definitely didn’t have French here. In fact, I wondered what it even sounded like to them when I spoke a language that, to me, wasn’t English. Did it translate like the English did, or did it just come out as nonsense-syllables, the way the native Aventoll language once sounded to me?
Arvid and Ozrid both nodded and turned to get down to business, so Horus and I left them to it and headed to the family room of the Manta, where I was sure everyone would be waiting.
No doubt Jenner, encouraged by Shay and Amaya, was responsible for the fact that a veritable nest of pillows had been erected in the center of the room. Zoie was curled up like an actual kitty cat in the middle of a cat bed, surrounded and half-smothered by cushions and blankets. I was surprised she wasn’t sweltering under all that warm plush, but she seemed quite happy, or at least resigned to the fact everyone would be fussing over her until she had the kids, and probably for a good while after, too.
“Husband!” she purred happily when I walked in, but she made no move to escape her nest, and I wasn’t sure if that was because she didn’t want to or because she was swaddled so tight she actually couldn’t get out without shredding everything.
To save her the trouble, I walked over and crouched down to kiss her on the lips, and then I tried to seat myself next to her in the blankets.
“Am I allowed to sit here?” I asked her. “Or is this a sort of ‘mother only’ space?”
“You’re the father, you’re more than allowed,” she promised me, and she nuzzled her nose into the crook of my neck with a content sigh. “You and Shay and Amaya. The kits will be as much yours and theirs as they will be mine.”
“One giant, happy family,” I said with a grin, and she nodded.
“Alex!” Shay and Amaya’s voices said in unison, and they both came into the room from one of the other entrances, with Nova and Anwaar right behind them. My three lovers all positioned themselves in the nest around Zoie and myself, but they were all being careful not to crowd Zoie and make her uncomfortable either physically or emotionally.
Even with the size of the cushion mountain, it was a snug fit, but I didn’t mind.
“How was the pirate ship?” Amaya asked me, and her rain-colored eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“As a matter of fact, we have gifts!” I laughed, and I pulled the ring, the bangle, and the pendant out of my pocket.
Anwaar had practically launched herself at Horus when she’d come into the room, and only now did she let go of him so he could pull trinkets from his own pocket. First the tiara, which he passed to me, then a ring, which he shyly gave to Anwaar.
“I thought you might like it,” he said as his cheeks went very red. “But if you don’t, it’s no worry. You don’t have to--”
“I love it,” Anwaar said firmly, and she slipped it onto the middle finger of her left hand.
I wondered if there was the ‘correct’ finger for a wedding band in Aventoll, because I didn’t see many people wearing rings. I was married three times over, and I still didn’t have any.
“I have a ring for you, too, Shay,” I then told the phoenix-woman and handed her the emerald. She cooed when she saw it.
“It’s the same color as your eyes!” Zoie purred, and Shay slipped the ring onto the same finger as Anwaar had.
“No, this is far more beautiful,” Shay laughed, though her cheeks had flushed even redder than Horus’.
“I thought you might like this, Amaya,” I said to the oryx-woman. “And this looked like it would suit you, Nova.”
I passed them the pendant and the tiara respectively, and Amaya giggled when Nova put the tiara on her head and gave a delighted squeal.
“Princess!” she said. “Princess of the Lake!”
“More like a queen, really,” Zoie said with a laugh. “Alex is… similar to a king, don’t you think?”
“Only because the four of you are queens.” I grinned and kissed them each in turn. “And I got this for you, Zoie. It’s Varthan-made, I think.”
I showed her the bangle, and her blue eyes widened.
“Oh, it’s beautiful!” she gasped and slipped it onto her wrist. “Oh, Alex, thank you!”
“Don’t thank me,” I said with a smile. “You’re giving me the most incredible gift. This is just some tiny, tiny payment.”
“There’s no payment needed, husband. We all love you. We’re a family.” My cat-wife smiled up at me, and she was radiant as Shay when the phoenix-woman used her Incarnate powers.
“We are,” I agreed, and I kissed the tip of her nose, which made her giggle. “I’m glad everyone liked their little presents. I imagine there will be a lot more once we shift all the treasure off the Midnight-- the pirate ship. Councilman Sha-Kane is going to use the ship to take the pirates to Alem for trial.”
Something firm crossed over my phoenix-wife’s face.
“Good,” she said sternly, and I nodded.
Luhrmann and Aiken had died quickly, but they’d had to die fast so they wouldn’t cause more harm. They deserved a lot worse, but we would have to settle for seeing the pirate crew that had aided them brought to proper justice.
“Sha-Kane is an honorable man, Shay,” Horus said in an encouraging voice. “He’ll see justice is done.”
Shay’s green eyes snapped over to her brother when he spoke, and something sad flickered in her expression.
“Alex, my love. Horus, brother… I have something I would like to ask you. And I think here, with the seven of us, is the best place to ask.”
“What is it?” Anwaar asked as concern began to cloud her own normally-serene expression. “Are you alright?”
“I feel fine,” Shay told her. “Physically, anyway. But… when Horus and Alex were on the Soaring Light… brother… I felt you die.”
“I felt it, too.” Amaya swallowed uncomfortably, and she looked over at her older sister. I wasn’t sure if the apology in Amaya’s expression was because Anwaar was Horus’ sweetheart, or because Amaya, an augur, could sense what Anwaar, as a mage, could not. “There was a third death. Not just Luhrmann and Aiken. Something in the order of the world shifted.”
Horus and myself exchanged a glance that none of the five women missed. Nova made a concerned, curious trilling noise, but it was Shay who asked the question.
“What happened on the Soaring Light?”
Chapter 8
I sighed and dragged one hand down my face as my other arm cradled around Shay’s shoulders. I could see now that she’d been dying to ask this question since she’d come onto the deck of the Soaring Light, but just hadn’t found the right time.
“Do you want to explain?” I asked as I looked over at Horus, and the falcon-man shrugged.
“Honestly, I’m not sure how I could go about explaining,” he answered. “I think you had a… clearer view.”
I had. I’d had a very clear view of the dagger that buried itself in my best friend’s heart.
“Horus and I challenged Luhrmann and Aiken to a… double-Duel,” I told the others.
I saw Zoie tense, and her ears flattened back against her head. Shay clasped her hands to her chest, and if she’d been wearing pearls, I was sure she would have been clutching them.
“But Aiken wasn’t a Duelist,” Amaya said. “He was a mage-- a Rogue mage.”
“I know,” Horus said. “But we needed him gone as much as Luhrmann. So, I claimed he insulted me and challenged him on those grounds.”
“You Dueled a Rogue mage?” Shay cried out, and her green eyes went wide with horror. “What did he do to you? What did I feel?”
“Technically, he didn’t do anything to Horus,” I said carefully. “But… technically… he did.”
“Please, my love.” Shay looked at me with a pleading expression. “Don’t speak in riddles. Not about my brother. Not about the only blood family I have left.”
I tried my best to suppress my wince. She didn’t know, either. About Archus Doler. About Councilman Sha-Kane. My heart ached with the desire to tell my phoenix-wife and my best friend the truth, but again, I had sworn to keep Sha-Kane’s secret. And I was a man of my word.
Shay misread my wince.
“Oh, no!” she said quickly. “No, Alex. I don’t mean-- you are my family, too. You and Zoie are the truest loves of my heart. I just meant… I didn’t grow up with you two--”
“It’s alright, Shay,” I said gently, and I managed a smile for her, because the last thing I wanted to do was worry her more. “I know what you meant. I just… I hadn’t considered it like that. Just how much you would lose if something happened to Horus.”
“I admit to being a little confused,” Zoie interjected as she looked between me, Shay, and Horus. “Did something happen or not?”
Nova nodded firmly and had a similarly baffled expression on her face. I was becoming more and more aware she was just as sharp as the others, despite her occasionally childish impulses, and it was simply her lack of experience with verbal language that made things confusing. I could see the intelligence in her eyes, similar to the quiet shrewdness in Amaya and Anwaar’s expressions. Nova was just less able to communicate it, less able to turn it into words, because for the longest time, she hadn’t had to.
“In my Duel against Luhrmann, I killed him,” I told the others. “I strangled him. And when I turned to see how Horus was doing against Aiken… I… I saw Aiken throw a dagger at Horus. And it hit. It hit him in the heart.”
Shay made a muffled sort of wailing noise, and Zoie reached up to hug her tight. Shay looked on the verge of bursting into tears, even though her brother was standing before her, alive and unharmed.
“Then… how?” Amaya asked me with a confused frown. “I understand that, I felt Horus die. But how is he here? Now? Alive?”
I swallowed. I knew I’d tapped into something huge and dangerous. Part of me wanted to keep it a secret, so the others would be safe, so they wouldn’t be involved in whatever shit something like this stirred up.
But a bigger part of me knew that secrets only ever hurt the people you were trying to protect.
“I used my time-trance ability,” I said. “I slowed and then stopped time just as the… just as the dagger pierced Horus’ heart. And… I don’t know how I managed it exactly, I think I just willed it, but I somehow managed to… to reverse time by a few seconds. The dagger came out of his chest, clean, and I redirected it to Aiken, so it hit and killed him instead.”
Horus rubbed at the center of his chest, like he could feel the phantom echo of a knife sinking into him. Maybe he could.
Anwaar and Amaya were both staring at me with dropped jaws and wide eyes. I’d never seen either of them display such raw emotion before.
“You… reversed time?” Anwaar whispered as she looked from me to Horus and back again. “You… undid a death?”
“I didn’t mean to,” I said. “Well, I did. I didn’t want my friend to die. But I had no intention of… screwing up some kind of balance. I know life and death aren’t to be messed with.”
“Mercedes is either very fond of you, or she has turned her gaze away from you,” Anwaar said sagely. “Power like this… even the Prophetess of the Order is beholden to the whims of Mercedes.”
“Perhaps Alex is yet more so,” Amaya suggested, and she gave me a small, hesitant smile. “It’s obvious you have been blessed, Alex. You consumed the Knowledge of the Ocean. You are an Asher. You are the husband of the Incarnate. Mercedes has always had her eyes on you, and she likely has a large role for you in her grand design.”
I’d never been very religious, but something about that little speech comforted me. Maybe it was the quiet affirmation that I hadn’t done anything horrifying and wrong in wanting to save my friend. I knew those sorts of stories, people who would break the world for the ones they loved.
I loved my family fiercely, and I knew I would do anything in my power to keep them safe. The fact this loyalty didn’t corrupt me in Amaya’s eyes, and thereby in Mercedes’ eyes, was a relief.
“Even if she doesn’t, she’s the one who gave me this power,” I said. “I didn’t have it before I Traveled to Aventoll. Maybe she knew I would need it to save Horus.”
I looked over at the falcon-man, who had gone from having one arm around Anwaar’s shoulders to having one of her hands clutched tightly in his.
“Mercedes made you an Asher,” I said to him. “Your sister is the Incarnate. She must have a role for you, too, in all this.”
“I’ve never put much stock in grand destinies,” Horus admitted. “But if Mercedes wills it, I am her servant.”
His free hand reached up to brush over the Duelist stone around his neck. The chain it hung on was the perfect length that it rested directly over his heart, directly over the spot Aiken’s dagger had pierced. It was only because Horus had been moving, fighting, that the dagger had reached his flesh and hadn’t bounced off the stone itself.
Shay still looked very shaken but a little less horrified, and she extracted herself from Zoie to go and hug her brother.
“Thank Mercedes,” she murmured. “I was too far away-- I wouldn’t have been able to heal you--”
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Horus promised her, and he hugged her back just as tightly. “I’m here, I’m alive. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You better not,” Shay sniffed.
Zoie looked over at Amaya.
“How were you able to sense that Horus… should have died?” the cat-woman asked in a tone that made it clear she wanted to be delicate, but wasn’t really sure how to actually go about it.
“Being an augur, I have a heightened sense of the world, and the energies within it,” the oryx-woman replied. “And Shay, of course, is the Incarnate. And Horus is her brother. I imagine she feels a similar connection to our lives, as we are also part of her family.”
At that, I briefly wondered if Shay would feel a connection to Sha-Kane, too, but a second later, I rationalized she probably wouldn’t, because Zoie, Amaya, and myself weren’t her blood relatives. Emotions were clearly what mattered here.
As they said back on Earth, the blood of the covenant was thicker than the water of the womb.
When Shay parted from Horus, she came over to me, and her hug was desperate and terrified. She was shaking like a leaf, and I held her close and rested my head on her shoulder.
“Thank you,” she whispered to me. “For keeping him safe. For keeping him alive.”
“Of course,” I murmured. “He’s my best friend. And you’re my wife.”
“I think a spot of tea is in order,” Amaya suddenly announced, and she rose from the pile of pillows to take Shay by the hand. “Come on. Let’s find someplace quiet for you to sit down.”
She led Shay toward the door, with Horus and Anwaar following closely behind them. I half-wanted to join, but I knew right now, no one could be better for my phoenix-wife than the augur-mage pair who had also sensed Horus’ death, and Horus himself, so for now I was alright to leave them to it. The last thing I wanted to do was make Shay feel crowded, and I knew if she wanted something from me, she would come and ask for it.
That left me in the family room with Zoie and Nova.
For a few seconds, anyway. Because less than a minute after Shay and the others had left, the doors burst open, and Rylan rushed in.
“Dad!” he said. “You’re back!”
“That I am!” I smiled, and Rylan sped over to half-tackle me in a hug. If I hadn’t planted myself, he might have knocked me over onto the pillow nest. “Is Jenner still doing okay?”
“Yeah, he’s back to his usual self,” my son promised me with a grin as he stepped back. “How was the pirate ship?”
“Oh, it was very cool,” I told him. “Full of weird pirate stuff, and loads of treasure. You’ll see it once we get it all out of the hold.”
“Can I steer the ship once you do?” Rylan asked me, and his eyes were wide with hope and excitement.
“Not right now,” I said with a laugh. “Councilman Sha-Kane is going to borrow the ship to take the pirate crew to Alem, so they can be tried. Plus, I’m pretty sure there’s a rule that says under-sixteens can’t drive.”
Of course, that referred to cars and not boats, but since this world didn’t really have cars, I had to extrapolate. Besides, as much as I loved my son, he was still a little too reckless and excitable to be trusted with something as enormous as the Midnight.
Rylan pouted, but a moment later he straightened and stepped back from me. He looked me dead in the eye, and I got the sense this was going to be something Very Important to him, and he wanted me to treat it as such.
