needs some work

[unknownfate]

Vince and Shay were halfway home when they were stopped by another earthquake. An overpass had collapsed and they were trapped in the traffic until the emergency crew cleared the way. Every one was getting out of their cars and talking to each other as they waited. Shay was sitting the side of Vince’s truck bed, swinging her legs. Vince leaned against the driver side door.

They had eaten all the remaining brownies and snacks Vince had left with. They were just passing the time until they could move on again when Vince spotted something coming. He didn’t know if Rustle had alerted him or if it was some other sense, but the sight of it had him on high alert.

It was man-shaped and walking over to them with something like grim determination. He wasn’t as tall as Vince, just barely taller than Shay, but there was something hard and strong about him. He had focused on Shay first and was heading straight for her. Vince couldn’t tell if he was dark or just dirty. He wore biker boots and blue jeans and a t-shirt with a deaths head moth outline on it. He wore an overcoat that was just as dark or filthy. You almost expected clouds of dust or clumps of dirt to come off him at every step. His hair was no better. It might’ve been in terrible dreadlocks left to rot. His eyes glittered as black and murky as swamp water.

Vince got up to head him off before he reached Shay. And those alligator eyes flicked over him twice before deciding he was more of a threat than he looked and slowing down. Shay was only just then noticing him. She looked from him to Vince in confusion. Behind the man-shaped thing there was a little girl. She looked almost as bad. She was caked in what could be dried dirt or blood. The bags under her eyes were dark enough to be bruises and she followed the man (maybe) with the graceless

The stranger held up a phone with a picture on it. He showed it to Vince first who shook his head, not understanding. The stranger then held it to show Shay.

“You know that that is?” he asked her in a voice like wet gravel. Vince wasn’t hearing anything from his own voice so he didn’t interrupt. Shay took a step closer to peer at the photo. It could’ve been a lot of things, but it looked most like the business end of an old fashioned skeleton key. There were three of them at different angles and it wasn’t until she wondered if they would fit together that she knew what it was.

“It’s a sword,” she said. “In pieces. The one Grandpa keeps is all together.”

“Your grandpa has one of these?” the stranger asked, brow knitting. “Have you ever touched it?”

“No, it’s in a case,” Shay says. “It’s been passed down from the old days.”

“Older than you know,” the stranger said. “Do you think you could touch it if I showed where it was?”

“Why?” Vince asked, before Shay could agree.

“Because I can’t touch it,” the stranger said. He put the phone away. “And I need to know what will happen when it is removed.”

“Removed from what?”

“From where it is stuck.”

“What happens when you touch it?”

“It burns me to the bone.” Mius said. He held up his hands, scarred under the filth. “In return, I’ll give you this girl. She has suffered enough and much more than she deserves.” He motioned Helena forward. The girl was bug-eyed, looking from Shay to Vince and back again. She was thin and haunted looking. Her clothes and hair were very dirty. She had dark circles under her eyes and old bruises beginning to fade.

“Sweetie, what’s going on?” Shay asked her at once. “Are you ok?”

“I’m a hostage,” Helena said. “He says I can go with you and he won’t take me back if you help him with the sword.”

“What do you want with a thing you can’t touch?” Vince asked.

“I don’t want it,” Mius said. “You can have it too, if you want. The girl and the sword. All I want.” His voice dropped low and intense. He gestured as if he was doing it. “Is the sword. Pulled. Out.”

“Where is it?” Shay asked. She was already holding Helena’s hand.

“Canada.”

“I can’t go to Canada!” Shay’s voice rose a little. “My mom will combust! I’m supposed to be home right now!”

“I’ll go,” Vince said. “You and the girl take my truck. I’ll come find you when this is done.”

“Oh!” Shay’s face fell at the thought of Vince leaving. “Are, are you sure? You know my address?”

“You told me,” Vince said. He handed her the keys. “Look out for coyotes.”

“This’ll do, this’ll do,” Mius said, rubbing his palms together. “Faster we go, the faster we’ll get back. Come on, come on.”

“It’ll be all right,” Vince said to Shay. He touched Helena’s head gently. “Do what she says and you’ll be all right too.”

“Ok,” Helena said. Mius was dancing in haste and Vince walked like he had all the time in the world. They walked back into the rows of cars to Mius’ junker and got in. Mius seemed to wait for Vince to be disgusted and be a little disappointed that he didn’t react at all. They pulled out into the median and shot off in the other direction. Vince had already been leery of what Mius might be under his skin, but what was obvious was that he drove like a maniac and no one outside the car seemed to notice.

Vince had patched up his own truck so many times that he couldn’t help but glance over the old car. It only took a minute for him to realize that nothing worked. Mius didn’t use the pedals or the steering will. None of the meters were functioning. It was like the car propelled itself along at insane speeds on its own power. There might not even be an engine underneath the hood. The trip should’ve taken all day, but it only seemed a few hours before they were nearing the Canadian border.

“I don’t have a passport,” Vince said after a minute. He was feeling the strain of the speeds they were traveling at.

“I know a back way in,” Mius was pulled tight in anticipatory glee. That meant he tore through the border security like it wasn’t there and no one seemed to mind. No one chased them. Vince was wondering if Mius was a match for a skin walker or vice versa. They started out human though, and he had his doubts about Mius.

Mius drove until he stopped on the shoulder of a rural road. It wasn’t that different from where Vince had grown up, if he was honest. Mius sprang up through the trees like a mountain goat and Vince had to work hard to keep up. Mius didn’t tire or get out of breath. He led a long winding way into the wilderness, down a crag and into a boulder-strewn valley. It had to be miles. Mius knew the way through the rocks to an opening that widened into a cave.

It was a chamber below the rocks. Light found its way in around the rocks so he could see fine. Floods had probably washed it out underneath, Vince thought, looking around. It seemed stable enough right now, but if it fell, he would certainly be killed. Mius was waving him over. There was the sword in three pieces, just like in the picture. It was what it was sticking in that was shocking.

There was a creature there, bigger than a bear. Maybe as big as an elephant. Maybe it was two creatures. There were several pairs of wings. It might’ve been white under the dirt and moss. It wasn’t whatever Mius was. He hung back now that Vince could see it. Whatever it was, it had been pinned like a butterfly. The swords pierced through its back and shoulder and neck. The stabbed creature was still alive even though it had clearly been there a long, long time.The swords vibrated with its heartbeat.

“Olo,” Mius called softly. “See what I’ve brought you?”

No answer came from whatever Olo was. Vince edged closer to look at the sword. It was three separate ones that could be combined into one. He wasn’t sure they could be pulled out one at a time but he was afraid he would hurt the creature worse if he pulled them all out at once. It was like a puzzle and Vince wasn’t sure that he could even touch the blades.

Only one way to find out and that was to reach out and touch one. He felt the tremor of power in the sword but it didn’t burn him. Mius was quiet, sinking into a crouch and watching every move. Vince was having trouble finding a place to stand without putting his weight on the creature. He tried to be careful, sliding his food under one wing to give himself some leverage. He got a glimpse of lion-like paws.

He took hold of the two swords on each end, leaving the middle one be. He had to shift his other leg to anchor against the other side, and then lifted both up and outward. They pulled free and then could be folded back into the middle with a twist and the whole thing pulled free of the creature’s back.

Nothing happened. Vince stood there with the sword in his hand. Olo didn’t move and Mius came creeping back over the rocks.

“Olo,” he said again. “Oloviel of the Wasteland Dreams. Time to get up. Time to heal.” He didn’t try to touch it, Vince noticed. Maybe it would burn him like the swords had. It was bleeding gold. He set the sword down and the sound it made on the rocks made both Mius and Olo flinch. Olo gathered itself a little, pulling the wings inward and then its legs.

“There, beauty,” Mius breathed. “There, glory. Rise again.”

“Oh, shut up,” Olo moaned. It was a female voice or several, overlaid with the sound of wind and snowfall. She raised a head out of the lump she had collapsed in and Vince felt a thrill of wonder. She was beautiful in a terrifying way. She had a face like a barn owl, soft and white, but with six vivid blue eye in a v formation. Vince had a feeling that she could see through much more than that.

Her owl head flowed perfectly into a lion body, but there were too many legs and not all of them matched. She had two sets of lion front paws, white dusted with gold and then slender gazelle like back haunches.

She had six wings and like her eyes, there was a definite impression that there were more than he could see, just out of sight. she had a tail or two, long and slim like a lion’s again, but tipped with two blade like feathers, each with an eye mark. Vince was pretty sure one of them blinked in the weak light.

“How’s it feel to be free finally?” Mius asked. He was shaking and Vince couldn’t tell why. If he was so afraid of Oloviel why has he wanted her set free. And what had happened to her that she had been attacked with a weapon he couldn’t even touch?

“It still hurts,” she complained.

“You’re an angel,” Vince said and her head swiveled. “Like the one’s Shay knows about. Hers is buried in a coal mine.”

“A Sleeper,” she said. Her eyes squinted, but she didn’t have much more of a face so he didn’t know what that expression meant. “I never blamed them. I received no orders against what they did. They shouldn’t have been punished the way they were.”

“Why were you betrayed then?” Mius asked and Vince knew he had guessed right about the sword. Only other angels could wield something like this. Or apparently, their distant kin.

“Why were you so faithful?” she asked back. Mius seemed to take that as a genuine insult.

“Never!” he growled. “I wanted your pain and your power and fed on it for time out of mind.”

“No one has tended me so gently in all my time,” Oloviel said, clearly baiting him. “Feeding from me has made you kind and heroic.”

An outraged yowl tore out of Mius and he lunged at her. Even though she had been trapped for millennia, she dodged him lightly and they spun around each other like paint and milk. They’ve done this before, Vince realized. He reached for the sword and when it was in his hand, he had both their attention.

“I see you,” Oloviel said. All those unseen eyes were staring holes through him. “I know who you are descended from. What do you mean to do with that?”

“I was promised it as a reward,” Vince said. “This and the life of a child to come here and pull it free. I have my own battle waiting.”

Comments

[lemon_badgeress]

that is a good and satisfying sequence of events! can’t wait to find out what shay and helena got up to.

...a bath might be good. poor helena