by Charley Case
She enlarged the picture and showed it to Penny, who squinted while scrutinizing the image, then smiled and nodded.
“Shir ti.” A smoke ring shot from her nose, a sign Mila was starting to recognize as the equivalent to “yes,” or “correct,” or “positive,” depending on the circumstance.
“Good. There’s a slight problem, however.” Mila bit her lip, trying to figure out how to explain it. “Finn is going to need a passport, and if he’s supposed to be from Canada, it needs to be from there. But I don't know what they look like. Hell, I don’t even know the process to getting one.”
Penny waved a hand as if it were no big deal, then broke into a long explanation that Mila didn’t understand at all, but she felt confident that Penny was not perturbed in the least.
“Let me guess, you can use magic to get around that?”
Penny touched a talon to the tip of her nose and winked.
Mila laughed. “Okay, I’ll leave that to you, then. We will need to buy some plane tickets, but we can do that at the airport. I have a feeling this little trick is going to need to be done in person, right?”
Penny nodded and looked toward the cloaking spell’s edge for a few seconds before Finn came out, seeming to appear from nowhere. He was carrying an overstuffed backpack and wore an irritated look on his face.
“Chi shiri, squee?” Penny asked, flapping into the air and landing on his shoulder.
“It’s not that big a deal, but I couldn’t get the inner airlock hatch to close properly. This old girl is falling apart,” he lamented, dropping the bag in front of Mila and squatting to open it.
Mila gasped when he pulled out four crushed armbands and a perfectly maintained one of the same design. She had never seen so much gold in all her life, especially so intricately detailed and preserved. The scrollwork was beautiful, but the thickness and perfect attention to detail made it breathtaking.
“Is that it? Why would you crush the others?” she asked, not understanding how one could destroy such beautiful pieces of work.
Finn raised an eyebrow. “Because they wouldn’t fit in the bag with all the other stuff. I would have done the same to the original, but it can’t be destroyed—at least, not by anything so mundane as my foot.” He demonstrated this by throwing it on the ground and stomping on it viciously.
She let out a whimpering scream to see such a beautiful artifact treated in such a way, but cocked her head in confusion when nothing happened to the normally soft metal, except to be pounded into the earth a bit with each stomp.
“Holy shit. Can I touch it?” She reached for the band.
“Sure, just don’t put it on, or it will bond to you. Then you won’t be able to get rid of it,” Finn warned.
Mila lifted the band and inspected it. She hadn’t been working with Viking artifacts for long, but she was picking up on their particular quirks and markings quickly. She recognized some of the stylistic flourishes and pointed them out.
“Oh, yeah,” Finn said, pulling a purple, glowing stick of what looked like chalk from the bag. “That was sort of Fafnir’s signature. He put that little frill on everything. There’s even one on Fragar, and that was one of his early works.”
“You keep mentioning him. Who was he?” Mila handed the band to Finn, who stuffed it unceremoniously into the bag, along with the four crushed replicas.
“He was my great-great-great-something uncle,” Finn explained, waving for her to follow as he headed back toward the ship with the glowing chalk in hand. “He was one of the greatest smiths to ever live. Built countless weapons and armor pieces. Was actually a passenger on Earth. I was really hoping to find his workshop, or at least find some of his stuff in storage. If I had to guess, most of the working artifacts here are more than likely his. He really built shit to last.”
They came to the curved edge of the Anthem, and he held the chalk up to the rough stone surface and began to make an intricate set of runes.
“Wait, you don’t mean the Fafnir from Norse legend, do you?” Mila asked, trying to remember what had happened to him.
“Probably. He was big shit and liked to show off. It wouldn’t surprise me if he took over these Norse people.”
He added a few more flourishes, creating a mess of lines and sharp edges. He pressed a hand to the symbol and began to speak in a low voice, just soft enough that Mila couldn’t make any of it out.
The symbol glowed purple and rapidly grew in intensity with each word. There was a flash, and the symbol disappeared, leaving nothing behind but a wisp of purplish smoke that dissipated on the wind. A strong smell of pine trees filled the air.
“That’s done. Okay, let’s get back to town. I’m starving.”
“What the hell was that?” Mila pointed to where the symbol had been a few seconds ago.
Finn hiked a thumb at the asteroid. “It’s a tracking spell in case it gets discovered and taken. Might as well be careful, with these Kashgar and the Dark Star moping about.”
“That’s…actually smart. Do you think the chances of that are pretty high?” Mila asked, looking back up the valley to where Danica’s car was parked, and dreading the hike.
Finn shouldered the backpack and started back up the hill. “Not sure, but better safe than sorry. So, is there a way we can convert this gold into your money? Or do I need to just cut pieces off and use it by weight?”
Mila laughed. “I would love to see you try to pay for a beer with a gold nugget. There are ways to do it, but if we want to exchange it fast, I know a place. They’re not going to give you a great rate, but it’ll be enough. Plus, if that thing drops more every nine days, a bad rate won’t hurt anything.”
“What is this exchange place called?”
“Cash For Gold.” She smiled at him.
Finn cocked a smile of his own. “Straightforward. I like it.”
Chapter Fifteen
They made their way down the mountain and into the city proper in just over an hour. Traffic was picking up for the lunch rush, so they found themselves parked on 70, inching along at a crawl.
“Why do you all use vehicles? Is there no public transportation?” Finn asked, waving to a small boy who was staring at him from his car seat in the sedan they were slowly passing.
“We have public transport, but it’s not the best. I use it for some things, but mostly, I have to go places the train doesn’t stop.”
Mila hit her left turn signal and accelerated into the next lane, gaining them about twenty feet.
“I understand that, but what about the rest of these people?” he asked. “Surely, a lot of them can take a train.”
Finn was used to worlds where living and working was usually done in the same building, or at least within walking distance. This mass of confusion and angry drivers was an odd system to him.
“I’m sure they can, but people are stubborn.” She waited as her phone told her to take the next exit, then changed lanes again, moving to the right. “Plus, we get it stuck in our heads that driving is more convenient.”
“Sounds like you Peabrains have forgotten more than just your magic.” He smiled at her. “You forgot your ability to reason as well.”
“You have no idea, Finn,” she said seriously, turning onto the exit ramp and gunning it.
Ten minutes later, they were at a place that had a garish sign that said Cash For Gold in flashing neon.
“I think they need to take your info if you want to make an exchange. You don’t have an ID, though,” Mila said, unbuckling her seatbelt and holding out her hand. “I’ll go do this one, but we need to find a way to get you some identification. And I have a feeling we will need to set up some kind of business where gold is not going to raise much suspicion.”
Finn felt like he should be a part of the transaction, but he didn’t know well enough how this world worked that he could contradict her, so he pulled one of the pancaked bands from his bag and handed it to her.
“Geez, this thing is heavier than it looks.” She stare
d in wonder at the hunk of metal for a few seconds, then nodded and opened the door. “Okay, wish me luck.”
“Good luck.” Finn was sincere, but wondered why she was going to need luck.
“Chi, chi!” Penny chuffed, a smoke ring rising slowly from the corner of her mouth.
He watched Mila go into the establishment, and was able to see her walk up to the counter through the large front windows. Penny sat on his knee, observing with rapt interest.
The clerk greeted Mila, and they talked for a few seconds before she placed the flattened metal on the counter. The clerk’s eyes widened and he slowly picked it up, giving Mila a shocked stare. He weighed the thing with an electronic scale, then took it into the back.
Mila turned and shrugged, giving Finn a slightly confused thumbs-up through the window.
Finn and Penny snickered at her reaction. She was obviously out of her element, but the interaction was so unlike what Finn was used to, he agreed she had made the right call to go in alone.
After about fifteen minutes, the guy came back with an older man at his side. They spoke with Mila for a few minutes, then each of them shook her hand, and he pulled out several banded stacks of cash, and started counting them out. He got to thirty, then put it all in a paper sack. She gave them a wave and walked out the door, glancing left and right before quickly jumping into the driver’s seat.
“Okay, I have to say, that went better than I thought it was going to.”
She tossed the bag into Finn’s lap and started the car, backing out of the parking lot and pulling onto the road. She glanced into the rearview mirror, seeming rather distracted to Finn.
Penny opened the bag, pulled out one of the bound stacks of money, and began counting the bills, her taloned fingers flying. Finn followed her movements and saw that there were twenty-five hundred-dollar bills. He double-checked and confirmed that there were indeed thirty stacks of them. A quick calculation told him a total of seventy-five thousand dollars was in the bag.
Finn frowned at Mila’s jittery behavior. “Is this a lot of money?”
Mila barked a laugh that made her eyes go wide with surprise. “Uh, yeah. That’s more than most people make in a year. I’m not going to lie, I feel a little odd having that in the car.” She eyed the paper bag for a second before turning down Colorado Street.
“Should we store it somewhere?”
Finn wasn’t sure how these people dealt with their currency, but he was picking up that it was a little dangerous to have this much on him at once.
“We’ll head to my place and put most of it in my safe. I’m assuming we want to head out as soon as possible to find the helm?”
Finn and Penny exchanged a glance, and Penny gave a short nod.
“Yeah, the sooner, the better,” Finn translated. “I don’t like having the Anthem sitting out in the open with only a cloaking spell to hide her.”
Mila nodded, stopping at a red light, and glanced in the rearview mirror again, this time squinting and leaning in.
“Do you recognize that van behind us?” she asked.
Finn turned and looked over his shoulder. He saw a white cargo van behind them, and while he didn’t recognize the vehicle or the driver, he recognized what it looked like when he was being followed.
“How long have they been following us?”
“Not sure,” Mila confessed. “It’s a pretty common make and model, but I swear they were behind us on the freeway when we were coming back from the ship.”
The guy in the van’s driver seat was doing his best to not make eye contact with Finn, but there was movement from behind the driver, and Finn made out at least one more guy in the back.
Finn turned to the front and scanned the area. There was a park a block up that had a couple of buildings that looked like restrooms or some kind of storage. The area was pretty dead, and the park was empty at this time of day.
He pointed out the park. “Pull in there, and head for the buildings at the back.”
“Do you think it’s more Kashgar?” she asked, stepping on the gas and flipping on the turn signal.
“Not sure, but I think we’re about to find out.” He cracked his knuckles and put the bag of money on the floor beside his backpack.
Penny cleared her throat, puffing a few flames in preparation.
“Man, I wish I had my bat,” Mila lamented, checking the mirror again. “They’re pulling in behind us.”
“Park behind the brick building there on the left.” He pointed. “Don’t want to be seen, if I’m going to be slinging spells around.”
Mila hit the gas and sped through the park’s winding drive, turning into the parking lot by the restrooms fast enough that the Forester’s tires squealed a bit. She slipped into a space, threw the car into park, and unbuckled her seatbelt. To Finn’s surprise, she climbed over the seat and started rummaging in the back.
“I’ll be right behind you, I think there’s something I can use back here.” She tossed a pair of shoes and a rolled-up sleeping mat over her shoulder.
Finn stepped out of the car and walked a few paces away, reaching behind his back and wrapping his hand around Fragar’s handle, but not pulling it out.
The van squealed into the lot a second later, and the back doors were open before it fully stopped. Four tall guys in jeans and t-shirts piled out, forming a half-circle. They each had a weapon. Finn counted two bats and a knife, and one had a full-on short sword. The driver climbed out slower than the rest, a look of supreme confidence on his face.
Finn sized up each of the men, rating them by threat. The driver, while unarmed, was at the top of the list. Finn had seen his type before—a mage trained in combat spells if his lack of a weapon and surplus of cocksure manner were any indication.
“Finnegan Dragonbender, I presume,” the mage sneered, oozing contempt as he flipped his blond hair out of his face. “You have something my lord requires.”
“An attitude adjustment?” Finn guessed, causing Penny to chuckle, a roiling flame escaping from the side of her mouth.
The look of rage that flashed over the mage’s face was all Finn needed to know exactly what kind of people he was dealing with.
Zealots.
He hated zealots, the irrational bastards.
“The Dark Star suffers no fools,” the man growled, taking a step forward, his left hand glowing gold and crackling with energy.
“Suffers you, though? Seems like a conflict of conviction to me.”
Finn readied a spell of his own, but he was a lot less obvious about it, keeping his left hand clenched to hide the telltale purple glow of his dwarvish magic. “Before we get to the main event, maybe you could fill me in on who you guys are exactly, and why you follow someone who has the audacity to call themselves ‘The Dark Star’—one of the most ridiculous names I’ve ever heard, by the way.”
“We are Her Lady’s knights. You have the honor of speaking with Lithor, her First Knight.” He took a mock bow. “Her vision is one far too long in the making. She will free us all from this life of secrecy, and establish a nation where those of us who have not forgotten the true arts of magic may live free and out in the open. We will be unstoppable. Finally, an age of—”
“Okay, I get it,” Finn interrupted, waving his hands to make the mage stop his monologue. “Fucking zealots,” he mumbled to himself, getting an eye roll from Penny. “So, what is it she wants from me?”
Lithor chuckled. “Isn’t it obvious? You have the only working ship on this broken-down planet. With such a ship, we would be able to move our plans forward by decades. A magical ship such as yours would let us dominate the skies against the Peabrains’ machines of war.”
Finn frowned and gave Penny a sidelong look. Penny shrugged, knowing what he was thinking.
“You know the Anthem isn’t a warship, right? And she’s not exactly flightworthy at the moment.”
Lithor waved a hand in dismissal. “It matters not. The ship can be outfitted with weapons, but the core of the
ship is something we cannot make with the primitive tools left on this planet. Do yourself a favor, dwarf, and just hand it over. No one needs to get hurt today.”
The back door to the Forester opened, and Mila came out, an aluminum walking stick in her hands. She held it like a short spear, and her face was all determination. Finn nearly groaned; he had been hoping she’d stay in the car. If they were looking at a physical fight, she would have been a welcome addition, but with Lithor in the mix, she was now a liability. He would need to protect her.
“Well, well. Look who joined the party,” Lithor said, a wicked smile on his face. “It seems a Peabrain has decided to meddle in things she does not understand.”
The four Kashgar with weapons began to move, circling around Finn and Mila in careful side steps. They kept their distance, but Finn was sure they could be within striking distance in a flash when they wanted to be.
“What’s it going to be, Dragonbender? Hand over the ship, or do we take you and your little friend here and torture it out of you? Better yet, we torture her and make you watch. I’m betting that would get you talking.”
Lithor flicked his wrist, and a stream of golden light shot out of his fingertips to wrap around Mila, pinning her arms to her side. A stream of bubbles flowed down the light and began to cling to her. When a bubble popped, she let out a small cry of pain. Lithor turned his grinning face toward Finn, daring him to do anything.
Finn got angry, and not the rational kind of angry, but the berserker kind of angry. A lot of things happened all at once then. In one motion, he pulled Fragar from its holster, whispered the power word, and threw the still unfolding axe at the string of golden light. Penny shot off his shoulder like a bullet, her wings barely flapping. Instead, her magic propelled her right at Lithor’s face.
The mage’s eyes widened, and he raised a hand to block the little dragon. The four Kashgar charged Finn, their weapons raised and murder in their eyes.