Pears and Perils (16 page)

“Yeah, it’s why I showed up. I kept getting these bursts of terror about someone being hurt. I ran back to the fountain and then-”

Falcon’s phone began chirping an awful tune, interrupting Clint’s explanation. She pulled it from her purse and saw it was Clint’s number, which meant Mano was calling. She popped it open immediately.

“Hello, Mano… Yes, yes he told me… Uh-huh… Oh dear, you’re sure? No, I believe you… We’re taking Thunder to the hospital right now… Yes… We think he’s fine. It’s a long story… Okay, we’ll go to that one and meet you there.” She flipped the phone shut briskly and stowed it back in her pocket. “That was Mano; he is going to meet us at the hospital.”

“What about the cat?” Clint asked.

“That was why he called. A few minutes ago it stopped walking. It looked around for a bit, then sat on its haunches and stared at him. He thinks it lost the trail.”

“
Uh-oh.”

“What uh-oh?”

“
I did tell you there were risks.”

“Why would my thing affect the cat?”

“
We dropped a mystical depth charge on the area. The trail of the pear has been weak from the beginning; that much power probably blasted away all the residual energy there was to follow
.”

“So, what now?”

“Now we get Thunder some help,” April interrupted. “It sounds like our current lead has gone cold anyway, so let’s use the time to regroup and think of something.”

“
You’re a curiously apt woman.”

“Flattery later, lifting now.”

The four progressed as such down the road, drawing many curious glances from passers-by. Elsewhere on the island, five rogue youths continued to sprint with a fervor that would have made Kenyan Olympians jealous.

* * *

Kaia almost made it out of her hotel safely. She dashed there from the library, books clutched in hand and breath panting from her mouth, to grab a few pieces of jewelry she’d been wearing last night and had known Alendola well enough to lock in the room safe this morning. She reasoned that she would be fine. They didn’t know where she was staying, and even if they did, there was no way they could slip away fast enough to intercept her. The islanders might put up with a lot, but their compassion for people who came after their women was legendarily nonexistent.

That’s probably why she was more concerned with determining her next move instead of scanning for familiar presences as she bounded out the lobby after checking out. She was so absorbed in the implication of what it could all mean if this pear really did hold the abilities of a god that she didn’t see the figure stealthily creeping up behind her.

She did, however, feel the sharp prick of a blade being pressed between her shoulders at the same time as a rough hand found rest upon her shoulder.

“Walk to the bathroom.” There was no room for argument in Justin’s voice; he clearly hadn’t taken the pepper spray thing so well.

Kaia obliged, altering her course toward the nearest lavatory. She wanted to go to the men’s and pray some strapping fellow with knife-breaking magic was conveniently taking a piss, but Justin steered her toward the ladies. As soon as they were through, Kaia felt him rip her bag from her shoulder and shove her forward. She landed hard, the audible crack from her wrist informing her she was injured before the pain could travel up the nervous system.

“I’m amazed you got away so quickly.”

“Dustin has his issues, but he is malleable. He dealt with the crowd while I slipped away.”

“You ran out on your own brother. I knew you guys were creepy but I thought you’d at least be loyal.”

“I am exceptionally loyal,” Justin said as he rooted though the bag, “which is why I never lose sight of the job. Especially the one that will pay for all of our busted equipment from your damn ceremony.” He pulled out the pear triumphantly then threw her bag over a stall door.

“How did you even know about the pear? I didn’t know what it was until an hour ago.”

“I might be more inclined to tell you had you not maced Dustin and me earlier. As it is, just be thankful I don’t have time to return the favor.”

Kaia sneered up at him with all the defiance she could muster. “I don’t know what you think you know, but it doesn’t matter who finishes the ceremony. There’s no reward to it for anyone besides Kodiwandae.”

“Finish the ceremony? Dear girl, you are mistaken. We’ve been contracted to ensure this little adventure goes uncompleted for as long as possible.” With that, Justin exited slowly, his eyes never leaving the fallen woman’s form.

She waited until she was sure he was gone then tested her wrist. Definite sprain, possibly a break. She’d have to go to a doctor. Kaia was experienced enough to know that a good setting would take care of the injury in a few weeks. The hole she was feeling in her gut, though, the pear-shaped one that had briefly held the ember of excitement over discovering something beyond her, that would take substantially longer to heal.

16.

April and Thunder were in the small doctor’s office, Thunder sitting on the table with an icepack held to his head and April pacing the room while chewing on a strand of her hair.

“What is taking so long? He already got the X-rays, reading them shouldn’t be this hard.”

“Chillax, el cabesa de Thunder has taken hits way más awesome than that.”

“I can’t just ’chillax’; you could be seriously injured.”

“Nah, my gooey thought lump is just a little extra gooey.”

“You can’t possibly know that. You were out for several minutes. There could be brain damage, or a concussion, or a subdural hematoma, or a hundred other things wrong!”

“Just a noggin bump and eventually a bitchin’ scar.”

“How can you be so unconcerned? This is your brain we’re talking about.”

“You’ve got a good rile of worry on. That making you more soothed?” Thunder adjusted the ice pack to a different section of his throbbing skull.

“Well… no.”

“My way’s got me hanging on a smooth chill. Why fix what ain’t broke? Like my bro Squishins used to say, ‘Worry is the nemesis of productive thought. One must first decide that the tasks before them can be surmounted, and then the mind’s only preoccupation should be with devising the methodology to accomplish such a task’. Or something like that.”

April stared at him, his polo and shorts now dirty from lying in the street, half the side of his frosted tips matted with blood, and an unflappable smile slapped across his face. “One of your bros said all that?”

“Yeah, Squishins could go off the deep end when he had the right mix of Jäger and Kahlua running through him.”

“Uh-huh.” April didn’t quite believe him; however, she didn’t see any productive result in arguing the point. Instead, she quit pacing and hopped onto the table next to him. “I, um, I don’t know if I’ve said it yet, but thank you.”

“For getting a classic lesson in ass-stompage? No worries.”

“For running in the way you did to help us. Even you had to have noticed there were more people than you could have possibly handled, but you still ran in full force. That was sweet.”

“Nah, you’re my girl-bros. They go for you, they gotta deal with the Thunder.”

April snorted a laugh in spite of herself. “I keep meaning to ask: the first day you said we could call you Thunder for short. What’s your full name?”

“Fuckin’ Sexual Thunder.”

“I… okay, I actually meant your full real name, not your nickname, but wow, now I want to know the story behind that.”

Thunder shifted his icepack again. “Well, the realio dealio nameio is buried in the brain vault, but I would be glad to tell you the story of how Fuckin’ Sexual Thunder shattered onto the world and began to wreck it with awesomeness.”

April started to object then realized it was either this or going back to pacing the floors. Though Thunder might be a strange and curious person, he was able to take her mind off the worrying. That was something very few things had ever done for April and she wasn’t inclined to get off this odd ride just yet.

“I’d like that. Go ahead.”

* * *

The mood in the waiting room was considerably less cheerful. Sprinkles sat on a green plastic seat, licking his paws to try and get the foreign dirt out of his fur. He’d been making solid progress toward his target: in fact, he was almost positive he’d nearly reached it, but the ripple that spread through the city had purged the ethereal trail into nothingness, leaving nothing to rely on but sheer intuition. Sprinkles’ gut had told him it was time to regroup, so he’d forsaken the search and waited for the humans to come back together. They hadn’t taken long; his subject used the hand phone to call the others, and they met in a place that smelled of disinfectant and fear. Sprinkles was not partial to either of these scents; however, he waited patiently while the loud one was ushered behind some doors and the dark one went with him. These people had incurred wounds while on a grand quest for the Kingdom of Kenowai; Sprinkles could show such injuries the proper deference while they were treated.

“That sounds pretty amazing; I wish I could have seen it,” Mano said. Falcon had just described the bit of magic Clint had pulled in the alleyway, perhaps adding some additional flair for story-telling purposes.

“It was pretty spectacular,” Falcon agreed. “I just wish it hadn’t come with such a hefty price.”

“It is strange to think we’ve come so far in the past day only to lose the trail completely. Now what do we do?” Mano seemed to be losing his accent more and more the longer he hung out with the group.

“I don’t know. Hopefully Clint and Kodi will come up with something,” Falcon said.

The duo that was a solo had been sitting off in a corner by themselves for the past several minutes. Clint didn’t seem to be talking much, his face remaining uncharacteristically pinched in concern. Whether it was worry over Thunder or fear that he had lost his only path to freedom, Falcon could have never guessed. In fact, both were weighing on his mind, but there was something more prevalent causing his facial anomaly.

“I don’t know how to explain it, something just feels different,” Clint muttered under his breath. He realized anyone looking at him would assume he had arrived (too late) for mental treatment. He didn’t really care at this particular moment. “Like, if the entirety of who I am was a written paragraph, and someone took that paragraph and ran it through an Internet translator into Russian, then ran it through again to make it English. Things would more or less still add up, but there would be parts that were off, not the same as they used to be.”

I warned you there would be risks.

“I know. Just, can you help me understand why I suddenly feel like, I don’t know, like bits of me are askew?”

It was impossible to put into words no matter how he tried. Physically, Clint felt the same; mentally, he was still intact; and emotionally, he seemed about as stable as always. Yet somewhere in the core of his being he knew some part of him had shifted a bit in one direction: a single hair out of place on the head of his metaphorical soul.

Humans aren’t meant to touch that kind of power; they have their own sources for magic. There’s a reason only those with divine heritage can utilize it. I don’t really know what the side effects are, or what they might be long term. No one has ever done this before.
Kodiwandae was actually surprised that Clint had noticed such a subtle difference so quickly. This guy had a very strong sense of self.

“So it might be nothing?”

Right. Maybe it’s just a metaphysical electrical shock. Instead of feeling all twitchy you feel like this.

“I think I’m going to choose to believe that.” It was the best approach, really. Why worry about some nagging feeling that even a god couldn’t explain when he had no way of fixing it? Besides, even if it was something that would unravel his very being, it was on him. Kodi had adamantly warned him that something like this was dangerous, but he’d accepted that responsibility to help the others. He’d do it again, too.

Probably for the best.

“Right. So, now that that’s been put aside, what do we do about you?”

No idea.

“Still set against calling on another god for help?”

Kodi hesitated before answering. The longer he spent in this brain, the more he was beginning to care about the person connected to it. He didn’t know if he could just flippantly write off the fact that he’d be robbing this young man of privacy for the rest of his years, to say nothing of what prolonged exposure to the divine energies could do to him.

I don’t think it would help. Nature might listen to their calls, but she might not. The only reason she’ll come to me is because of the deal. Constants aren’t exactly at our beck and whim.

“We could keep looking around. We know it’s on the island.”

We know it was on the island. Anything beyond that is pure speculation.

“Maybe I’ll get another premonition?”

I doubt it; those things are unreliable even on the best day. They’re like a mote of dust in the corner of your eye: the minute you begin looking for them, they disappear.

“So we’re just screwed?”

Unless Fate or someone else up there intervenes, yeah, I don’t see any shot of us finding that pear today.

“Clint? What are you doing here?”

Clint looked up to see Dr. Kaia Hale standing over him, a small length of cloth wrapped around her wrist. She looked disheveled to say the least: a night of drinking, a day of studying, and an afternoon of assault can take its toll on a girl. “I see Falcon over there, too. Shouldn’t you all still be vacationing on Kenowai?”

Clint stared up at the woman’s pleasant curved face. He had to fight back a series of insane giggles. It was just so bizarre to see someone who had existed before all this, before the gods talking to him and the cats that were kings and the wild chase for a pear. She had existed when this was all just fluff and ceremony in a world completely alien from one he currently occupied. She looked down with confusion and concern as his mouth twisted between a chuckle, a smile, and a sob.