Brothers: Legacy of the Twice-Dead God (7 page)

“Pixie, we are about to cross a ward,” said
Kieran, holding out his hand for the pixie. I didn’t understand the
exchange, but apparently, the pixie did, flitting down from the
dashboard onto Kieran’s palm making as small a package as he could.
Kieran cupped his other hand tightly over the pixie as I made the
slight turn in the road just before the turn to my drive. I felt
the pull of the ward as we passed over its boundary, not exactly
for the first time. Just that distinctly for the first time. And I
could feel the presence of Kieran and the pixie. Ethan was less
sharp but still there. Kieran released his prisoner.

“Wow!” squealed the pixie, shooting up to
almost bounce off the ceiling. “Was that your ward? That hurt even
with your protection!”

“Not mine. His,” said Kieran, his crooked
smile gleaming as the garage door rose and the light kicked on.
“Just remember that you are under the Rules of Hospitality in his
home while you and he decide your fate. You’ve seen what Ethan and
I can do first hand. Just imagine what we will do should you break
Hospitality.”

“Yes, sir,” said the pixie so high he barely
registered in my hearing. I didn’t see the look on his face as I
was idling the car into the garage. It wasn’t difficult, but this
was my baby and I was particular about her. She didn’t have a
scratch on her smooth, sleek black body and I intended to keep it
that way, especially in my own garage. I waited as Kieran and Ethan
gathered the weapons I wasn’t to touch and moved them into the
house, then started unloading the car. The pixie was too small to
help cart things around, so he flew around the house from room to
room. It was then that I noticed I could feel what rooms Kieran and
Ethan were in as well, though not as sharply.

“How is it that I know where y’all are now,
in the house?” I asked Kieran when he came into the kitchen. I set
the oven to preheat while I unpacked the bags and put the groceries
away.

“The see in truth spell attuned you to the
ward more strongly,” he said, flipping one of the pizza boxes over
to read the back. “You’ve been living under it for a while, even if
you didn’t know it was there. You should be able to tell if anyone
or anything is within the confines of the ward. It extends quite
far onto the property.”

I paused, then asked, “Did you translate that
phrase or did I?”

“You did,” he answered, turning to look at me
grinning. He did that a lot. “Try to say it.”

“See in truth,” I said.

“Good. Now try Kir du’Ahn and Eth’anok’avel,”
he said.

“Kir du’Ahn,” I got out without too much
trouble. The universe pulled its weird little shudder and the whole
of my attention centered onto Kieran again. Briefer this time and
less shocking to me than when Ethan said it. “Eth-, Eth-, no, that
one still giving me problems.”

“It is a deeply conceptual language,” he said
calmly. “Ethan is very high in the hierarchy of ideas, though
‘hierarchy’ is not quite the right word. I don’t recognize most of
these ingredients. Have people discovered new foods since I’ve been
gone? What does a hydrogenated soy plant look like?”

I laughed. It came out like a bark, really,
sending the now-tasteless gum I was chewing into the back of the
refrigerator somewhere. I explained about food preservatives and
other additives while I hunted through the back for the lost wad.
That led to a discussion of various food allergies that I didn’t
know enough about to offer an opinion on. By that time, the gum was
in the garbage and I was sliding two pizzas in the oven and setting
a timer.

Kieran and I made our way into the den were
the shopping bags were piled up. I grabbed the stereo remote off
the coffee table and started some light jazz playing. Not my normal
choice, but I needed something calming and anthem rock wasn’t gonna
fit the bill. Ethan had the elven weapons laid out in front of him
in the floor neatly. He was kneeling with the rock almost touching
his knees, staring intently at it. The pixie sat on the coffee
table, watching. I couldn’t tell he was doing anything at all, even
with my newly enhanced vision. The ward, though, showed him more
sharply than I’d seen him in a miasma of colorful power. This was
the first hint of the Fires of Creation he was named for. And the
weapons and the rock glowed an unearthly pink. They hadn’t done
that in the garage earlier.

I started unloading the bags and removing
tags from clothes and sorting them into piles to wash. Kieran
helped, but a few moments into the task, there was a small pop in
the room that felt like an air pressure change. I looked up to see
Ethan picking up the rock with a small smile on his face.

“Seth, catch,” he said and tossed the rock to
me. Dropping the clothes I held, I caught the rock with both hands
without thinking. It wasn’t until the pixie’s scream of “No!” did
it occur to me that this was supposed to kill me if I touched it.
Instead, my hands closed and I felt its weight and texture. Then it
was gone. Just “phpht” gone. I stared at my empty hands while the
pixie flew figure eight’s around them and my head, squealing with
concern.

“Good,” Kieran said smiling and continued to
unload the bags.

“What just happened?” I asked, confused.

“Ethan is changing the enchantment on the
weapons so that you can have the protection and use of them,”
Kieran said, as if this happened every day. I suppose it could in
his world. I wouldn’t know an enchantment if it kissed me on the
mouth and bought dinner. “We will show you how to use them later,
when he is done.”

Great, he was gonna show me how to throw
rocks at somebody. I picked up a pile of clothes and made way to
the washer through the kitchen. The timer chimed as I came back
through, so I pulled plates out of the cupboard and yelled for
help. I felt another air pressure pop then Ethan appeared with the
gold and silver sword in one hand, the scabbard in the other.

He shoved the sword into my right hand and,
just like the rock, it disappeared. I watched this time knowing
what to expect. Well, thinking I knew what to expect. The sword
seemed to fold itself up lengthwise into a line and then a point
and I felt its weight move up my arm into my head. Ethan did the
same with the scabbard and I watched again as it folded itself up
and traveled up my arm. This time I saw where it went in my head:
it shined brightly with its own light in that cavern to the right
side of the Pact sigil. Below it underneath the sigil sat the rock.
And it had changed. Before it was just an everyday looking rock
about the size of my fist. Here, it looked like a huge slab of cut
marble with flowing script emblazoned on the sides in burnt amber.
The Pact and sigil sat on top of it like it was its foundation and
always had been. The gold and silver sword tilted slightly to the
right of the marble slab in its scabbard, its colors accentuated in
the Pact above it.

Ethan grabbed the plates off the counter and
some napkins and left me alone in the kitchen with a chuckle. That
brought me out of my reverie, tossing another pizza in the oven and
following him into the den with the two plates of hot ones in
either hand. Kieran was on the last bag of clothes when I came in.
There were at least six loads of laundry piled against the wall,
but they’d have to learn to do laundry sooner or later, so I
decided on sooner, as in the next load.

The pixie landed on my shoulder and said, “He
shouldn’t be able to do that.”

“Do what?” I asked, moving slices of steaming
pizza to a plate for me.

“Change the magic. That’s very old magic,
very strong. Even the Queens would have difficulty with that,” he
said. His voice was very low in pitch as he talked to me then. I
guess that was what passed for awe in a pixie.

I shrugged. “He’s Eth’anok’avel. He can do
things.” Huh. I said it. I wonder if it has to do with seeing him
under the wards. Kieran looked at me, smiling.

“You should be dead!” he shouted, as much as
a pixie can anyway. He jumped down to the coffee table and stared
at me wide-eyed. “Where are they going?”

“They’re tucked away in a safe place,” I
said, not wanting to say that I didn’t really know the whole truth.
“Do you have a name?”

“Yes, sir,” he squeaked, more moderately.
“Shrank, sir.”

“Well, Shrank,” I said, thinking he had
definitely been shrank in somebody’s washer, “we have to figure out
what to do with you. Something at the very least not harmful to
anyone, if not beneficial.”

“So I can serf on your land?” he asked,
brightening and rising from the tabletop.

“No,” said Kieran, quickly, taking me by
surprise. “There are implications to the word he doesn’t
understand, Shrank.”

“Like what?” I asked, “Isn’t it like
share-cropping?”

He thought about it for a moment, then said,
“Yes and no. There are oaths of fealty involved that would bind you
to this land. For instance, you could not leave here once the oaths
were made because you could not guarantee his safety beyond your
presence. It’s nothing against you, Seth, just your current
position. Perhaps in a few years…”

The air pressure changed again and Ethan
stood up holding the black and ebony sword in its scabbard. “What
about simply employing him?” he asked, taking a slice of pizza and
swinging the elegantly embossed sword on my left side.

“Is there a reason for the left side?” I
asked him as I wiped my hand and took hold of the scabbard. It
folded itself like the others and traveled up my arm, settling
beside its kin. It made an interesting contrast to the gold and
silver sword, but it was no less beautiful for the lack of precious
metals.

“Only that you’re holding another sword in
your right,” said Ethan, biting into the pizza, nodding
appreciatively. “’S good.” He took the last piece and slid it on a
plate and returned to the crossbow and bolts. Kieran must have been
packing it away as I hadn’t eaten that much of it. The timer chimed
in the kitchen, so I went to fetch the last pizza. Shrank flew with
me into the kitchen, glowing a bright green as he went. When I
pulled the oven open to remove the pizza, he started lazy loops in
the air through the rising heat with gleeful little whoops. I left
the oven cracked while I cut the pizza, letting him play in the
updrafts. It was cute. He landed on the counter a few moments
later, his face bright red from the heat, giggling.

“Why can’t I hear some of the words you say
sometimes?” he asked, lazily fanning his wings to cool his body as
he leaned back on the counter.

“I don’t know,” I said, “Are there breaks in
the range of your hearing? Can you tell which words?”

“Pixies hear as well as humans,” he said, “A
little higher usually. And the words seem to be those referring to
Masters Kieran and Ethan. Perhaps their True Names, which I
understand keeping from me as names have power, but the method of
concealment is interesting. It feels as though the entirety of my
being is vibrating against it. It is most peculiar.”

“I’m afraid I don’t have a very good answer
for that question,” I said, picking up the pizza and heading for
the den.

“Are you really as young as you seem?” Shrank
asked me, flying backward before me.

“I’m seventeen,” I answered, shrugging,
putting the pizza on the coffee table. Ethan jumped for another
slice, then laid the bolts out evenly in front of him. “In American
terms, I’d be in my last year of High School or first year of
college.”

Kieran added, “Two hundred years ago, he’d be
having his third child and languishing in a field plowing, or
fulfilling his journeyman requirements to some master of a
craft.”

“Even at his power level?” Shrank asked
Kieran, who nodded and took another slice off the plate.

“My power level?” I repeated, questioning the
pixie.

“Yes, sir,” the pixie answered eagerly,
swirling around in the air. “Your aura is quite bright.” Huh.
Kieran said that earlier.

A slight breeze wafted through the den and
Ethan started dropping the bolts back into the quiver. I watched as
he snapped the crossbow across the top, encasing the bolts. It made
a neat carrying case in dark wood and forest green. Shoveling pizza
in his mouth, Ethan handed me the quiver by the strap and motioned
for me to throw it over my shoulder like a backpack.

“So much for you not eating,” I said,
grinning and taking the offered strap, slinging it over my
shoulder. I felt its weight hit my back and slide into my chest and
up my neck. Looking into the cavern, I could see the crossbow
leaning against the front of the marble slab as if placed there
quite casually. The quiver sat open beside it, the bolts easily
seen and made of various things. Some shone green like saplings,
others white as bone, one bolt was black so deep I wanted to fall
into it. A crimson flash of fire announced a Sword desired my
attention, the white and ebony on my left. It was in my left hand,
physically thrumming and glowing red. It was telling me
something.

I turned to Ethan for help. He was finishing
his pizza, watching me fumble with the Sword. “Do you tell me
what’s going on or do I start swinging this thing at you?”

“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said,
licking his fingers. “That is the Sword of the Night. The Twin of
Magic. Born of the bone of Dragon and the concept of pure ebony
Night. It can cleave through the mightiest of defenses and absorb
to re-cast countless and powerful spells.” He stopped and cleaned
up with a napkin, still watching me keenly. “At least, that’s its
reputation,” he continued, grinning, nodding in Kieran’s direction,
“you saw how easily he got past it.”

The Sword dimmed its light while I stared at
it dumbly. It was telling me something. I felt different now and it
had stopped making noise. I was looking at the Bolts when it
started. The Sword absorbs spells. So, look at the Bolts again.
There, I caught it this time. The black one was a spelled Bolt.
There were several spelled Bolts in the Quiver I could see now
though I couldn’t tell what they did. The Sword was telling me that
magic was being cast on me. That could be very useful. I wondered
how sensitive it would be.