Brothers: Legacy of the Twice-Dead God by Scott Duff Read Free Book Online Page B

the
sidewalk after a moment and stopped, his glow dimmed near
nothingness. I passed the bags and quietly approached him. The
sidewalk and street in front of the mall had an oppressive “Go
Away” feel to them I hadn’t felt before. I guess the elves had done
something to the garage to keep people out.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked the pixie, sitting
down on the sidewalk a few feet away, trying not to invoke his
flight instinct.
    He shot into the air on a red column of dust.
Apparently he hadn’t heard me approach. “I’m sorry!” he squeaked.
“I’m just trying to decide where to go. I’ll leave now.” He looked
totally heartbroken, but started to turn and leave again.
    “Why?” I asked, “Can’t you just go home?”
    “No, sir,” he stopped and squeaked at me. “I
accepted a contract through the assassins’ guild. If I come back
and they don’t, I’m a dead pixie. And they will root out my entire
family for generations, if they can. My whole family is doomed
because I am stupid.”
    “I don’t understand why,” I said, “You said
your job was to keep me busy. What part do you play with the
assassins’ guild?” Like I knew what the hell an assassins’ guild
actually was and what rules it followed. Outside a few novels I’d
read, I had no idea how such a guild would work. Or what elves
looked like. Or pixies, for that matter. Or any Fae, as if they
existed at all!
    “None, directly,” he said. “But they will
think I betrayed my team to get away or I will spread the fact that
the Black Hand failed in its job throughout the Courts of the Fae.
They are the elite of the guild. They do not fail, and yet they
did. Either way, I am doomed.” He sunk back down to the
sidewalk.
    “You can’t just stay here?” I asked.
    “I wouldn’t survive for long outside of a
community,” he said. I was getting used to the high pitch. “There
are too many predators, too many things to watch for by myself.” I
sighed heavily. Looking down on this little thing, this pixie, the
likes of which I’ve never seen before, knowing it was going to die…
It was like leaving a puppy on the side of the road. Like leaving
me in the middle of a forest. I stood up.
    “Come on,” I said, patting my shoulder,
“We’ll figure something out.” I went back into the garage and
grabbed the bags. As I went deeper, I noticed the weapons and bolts
had disappeared along with the bodies and blood smear on the wall.
I kept going toward the car to see Kieran and I-not-I waiting
there. I hit the remote to pop the trunk and unlock the doors.
Kieran looked at me askew.
    “So you have a name now,” I said to my
double, “’Brother in the Fires of Creation’ seems a bit long,
though.” I smiled crookedly, ignoring Kieran’s question for a
moment while I packed the bags in the trunk.
    That shocked Kieran. “You translated that?”
He tossed both swords and scabbards on top of the bags, and added,
“Don’t touch those,” as I slammed the trunk. I got in the driver’s
seat, Kieran beside me and my double in the back seat. The rock,
crossbow and quiver went into the floorboard behind me. “Don’t
touch those either,” said Kieran.
    “He means the weapons are enchanted and will
kill you if you touch them,” piped the pixie from my shoulder,
dodging the seat belt as I pulled it around me. Kieran nodded when
I looked at him with raised eyebrows.
    “Good to know, thanks,” I said quietly to the
pixie.
    “Why is the pixie still here, with us?”
Kieran asked.
    “Because he doesn’t have anywhere else to
go,” I said and started the car.
    “How did that become your problem?” Kieran
asked me. I could feel the coy smile on his face as he watched me
navigate the car out of the garage.
    “The same way that Eth…” I stopped. I knew
the phrase, Eth’anok’avel. I knew what it meant. It rattled around
in my mind like the steel ball in a pinball machine with no tilt,
banging on bumpers and bells like crazy. My tongue just