The Ballad Nocturne (The Midnight Defenders Book 3)

by Joey Ruff

  I nodded.

  “Your friends are waiting for you outside.”

  I turned and looked back down the tunnel that led out to the pond, and when I turned back around, Crestmohr the man was gone. In his place, was a giant, majestic Thunderbird. The first and the last of its kind.

  42

  Swyftt

  The church sanctuary was virtually empty.

  As I came through the door at the back of the room, I was a bit startled not to find it overrun with Alfar foot soldiers. So much the better.

  At the front of the room, on the platform, Huxley’s golem was down on one knee. An old, white-headed woman was in front of him. Ezra had aged even further from when I’d seen her only twenty minutes before. She seemed to be telling Huxley something.

  I walked up the middle aisle toward the front. I hadn’t made it halfway when I heard Nadia’s harsh whisper from behind me. Stopping, I turned to find her standing in the doorway. DeNobb was just over her shoulder standing on the front stairs. She waved me over.

  “What?” I said, when I was close enough for her to hear me. “What happened?”

  “We fought them off as best we could, Jono. There were too many. One of them got her.” She looked like she was about to cry, or maybe had been crying, I wasn’t sure.

  “What are they doing up there?”

  Nadia shrugged. “She asked for a minute alone with her golem.”

  I looked past her to DeNobb. He met my eyes for a fleeting moment. “You didn’t tell her?” I asked.

  “Things got crazy fast,” he answered.

  “Tell me what?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” I said.

  “Where did you disappear to?”

  “I followed the Tree man, who incidentally, masterminded this entire situation.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  I shook my head. “He was a satyr, love. Looks like we missed the boat entirely on this one. The Alfar weren’t the point. They only served as a distraction. Guess it fucking worked.”

  “Distraction for what?”

  “Not sure. Something or someone else to sneak through from the world of Fairy.”

  “Sounds like a jailbreak,” DeNobb said.

  Motion behind DeNobb caught my eye. Across the street, just in front of the bakery, a tall black man in a tall hat and trench coat was walking slowly down the walk.

  I looked down at my wrist, but I wasn’t wearing a watch. I looked around. “Shit. It’s after sunrise.”

  They both looked at me like I was crazy. I looked beyond them to Samedi. He stood there, leaning against the side of the building, staring directly at me. He lifted a skeletal hand and waved at me.

  “Fuck.” I felt the panic rise up inside of me. Samedi threatened to do bad things to me if I didn’t deliver. I had no reason to think that he was just being poetic.

  “Jono, what’s wrong?” Nadia asked.

  I looked at DeNobb. “Where’s the fucking doll?”

  He shrugged. “In the car. Why?”

  “I need it. I need it now. I need you to get it.”

  “Okay…?”

  Behind me, I heard the heavy footfalls and turned to see the golem approaching. Despite the fact that the golem’s face was completely expressionless, his head was bowed and projected an air of sadness.

  “What the hell was all that about?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?” Huxley asked.

  “What do you think I bloody mean, Hux? You and Ezra? Requesting a private moment…?”

  He didn’t say anything right away. When he did speak, he said, “She was dying, Swyftt. She was just saying goodbye.”

  “Uh huh.”

  I looked over at Nadia, who was just staring wide-eyed at me. “What do you mean, ‘Hux’?”

  I swallowed. Hard. “Nadia,” I said. “I’d, uh…like you to meet your father.”

  She fainted.

  “Guess the giant golem was too much for her,” I said.

  “Now you know why I didn’t want to tell her,” DeNobb said.

  “What the fuck are you still doing here? I thought you went for the doll…?” I looked back at the golem. “On second thought, see if you can find me a cart of some kind. Or a dolly.”

  “There was a wheelie cart in the back room when we came in,” DeNobb said, moving past me. He broke into a dead sprint down the main aisle.

  “You made a deal with Samedi, didn’t you?” Hux said.

  “You see him there, then?”

  “See him and sense him. A presence like his is hard to ignore.”

  “What’s the story between you two, then? He said you owed him but died before he could collect.”

  “There was a particular game of cards where I just couldn’t get a good hand.”

  “You’re a fucking terrible liar, mate.”

  DeNobb came around the side of the building pushing a large, flat cart with big rubbery wheels. He stopped it at the bottom of the steps.

  “Come on,” I told Huxley. “I need you to take a seat.”

  “What did you promise Samedi?”

  “I promised him Ezra’s poppet.”

  “Jono, how could…”

  “Don’t get your panties in a wad. It was before I knew you could use it, okay? I’m not giving it to him, anyway.”

  “He will kill you if you go back on the deal.”

  “Who says I’m going back on it? I’m giving him a fucking doll. Just…one that doesn’t fit on an airplane so well.”

  “I was beginning to like this body.”

  “Boo hoo. We’ll make you another one.” It was an empty promise, and he knew it. We didn’t have the material needed. Still, there wasn’t a better option.

  He walked down the stairs and sat down on the cart. I took the amulet off and handed it to DeNobb. “Go get the car,” I said. “Then get Nadia inside of it and be ready to go.”

  He nodded, then he jogged off toward where we had left the rental.

  With some difficulty, I pushed the heavy cart across the street to where Samedi was waiting. He smiled around his cigar as I neared. “You are late, fuck-man,” he said.

  “You saw me, didn’t you. It’s not like I was trying to hide. I was just getting this fucking thing loaded up for you.”

  He looked down at the golem. A skeletal hand reached for his glasses, tipping the edge down. The swirling white pools of his eyes stared over the rim. He pushed the glasses back up his nose and said, “This is not the poppet we agreed upon, fuck-man. You try to skip out on my fucking deal, I squash your little head.”

  “First of all, I wouldn’t dream of skipping out on the deal. You’re too powerful for that.” That seemed to calm him down a little. “Second, the deal we made was a doll for information. There were no specifics mentioned. You can play the tape back. I promised you a fucking doll, and I brought you one. Take it or not. It’ll be you that broke the deal.”

  He took another drag of his cigar. “Fucking stupid human.” He laughed to himself. “I accept this.”

  Behind me, DeNobb bounced into the parking lot in the rental car. As I turned to go, Samedi said, “Did you find your knight of Hell?”

  “Is that what you call that horny fucker?”

  He laughed. “I did not call him such. The preacher named him this, if I recall.”

  “So you knew who it was? You could have given me a fucking name.”

  “I did.”

  “No, you said…” I thought back. I asked him if he knew who was behind it. His answer sounded like “silence.” “You said Silen is.”

  He nodded.

  I looked across the street to see DeNobb dragging Nadia across to the car. The rear door was waiting open as he set her inside.

  “Well, I guess that’s my ride.” I started to walk away.

  “I did not recognize you at first,” Samedi said. “John Swyftt.”

  I stopped at my name. I didn’t remember giving it to him. But then again, he knew Anna, too. “What do you mean, reco
gnize me?”

  “I think you know, fuck-man. I think you were told something about yourself many years ago. Something you didn’t want to believe.”

  I shook my head. No. He couldn’t know that.

  “It took a minute to see. Aegir’s stink hangs heavy on you. But it only masks so much. Your time is coming due, fuck-man.”

  “How in the fuck do you know any of this? Why should I even believe you?”

  He took a drag of the cigar.

  “You’ve been running for a very long time, John. Maybe it’s time to come home.”

  “You’re a fucking loa of death. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Not everything is as it appears.” As I turned, he added, “Be careful out there, John. Next time you make a deal, make sure you know the cost before you pay the price.”

  I walked across the street and opened the driver’s door. DeNobb was sitting there. “Move,” I said. “I’m driving.”

  “We heading to the airport?” he asked.

  Nadia moaned in the backseat and said, “Stop by Ezra’s first.”

  “I’m just ready to get the fuck out of town,” I said. Then I drove off.

  43

  Ape

  I walked out of the cave to find Omri sitting by the pond. His knees were up, and his arms rested on them. He stared off across the pond like a sailor watching his ship disappear on the horizon. He stood to meet me as I approached.

  He had a look on his face like he had been crying and was ready to punch someone just for mentioning it. He’d been consistently hostile towards me, I didn’t know what to expect.

  “Good to see you up. How are you feeling?” I asked.

  He nodded. “I do not know how, but I feel whole again.”

  Across the pond, I saw two others moving around. I knew the one to be Levi. The other, I wasn’t sure. Avim, possibly? They were tending to their fallen brothers.

  “Did you find your other man?” I asked.

  Omri nodded. “We found him floating in the water.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “Even though I’m pissed about a lot of things, like you guys invading my house and setting it on fire, trying to kill me, that whole thing about being a chosen one of Dusares, or Moloch or whatever you want to call him.” I took a breath. “I’m truly sorry for your lost men. Nobody deserves that.”

  Omri’s expression changed. He didn’t smile, so much, as just let the tension of his anger fade away. We stood there, eye to eye and toe to toe for a minute. Then he did the last thing I expected him to do. He hugged me. Then he started crying. His tears were warm and soaked into my neck.

  I’d seen my share of battle. I’d seen good men lose their lives around me. It was hard. I also knew that sometimes, even the hardest men grieved the deepest.

  “You spared my life,” he said, pulling away from me. “I hated you for that. Yet you continued to show compassion. This is something my people have never known.” He ran his hands over his eyes to wipe the tears and took a breath to steady himself. “We are a damned people. All we have to cling to is each other. The only outsiders we meet are the ones we are hired to kill.” He slapped a hand on my shoulder. “It is hard for me to admit that you are a good man, when I have been raised to believe that any who partake of our trees uninvited are an abomination. My culture says that I should kill you on the spot, but my experience says you do not deserve such a fate. I do not mean to show weakness, yet I am conflicted.”

  I put a hand on his shoulder, returning the gesture. I didn’t say anything, but I sympathized with him. On one hand, I hated him for coming into my house and jumpstarting a night of terror and pain. On the other, he was manipulated and lied to, as victimized as anyone.

  “Levi advised me that the man in the portrait is your kin,” Omri said. “Is this true?”

  I thought back to the study, to the painting of Uncle Arthur. I remembered the story that Levi had told. About the woman who had taken Arthur in and given him the piece of fruit. I nodded. “He was my uncle.”

  “I hardly remember him, but I know his face well from the pictures that my mother left me.”

  “Your mother?” My heart skipped a beat. “Sarah?”

  He nodded.

  “My uncle was…your father?”

  He shook his head. “No. Though a child was conceived.” He was quiet for a minute. “One thing you must know, Terry, about my people. We take pride in family. The child was born as an intruder. An abomination. Had it been allowed to live, it would have been my brother.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “My aluf declared that it would not stand to have a bastard in the bet’ab. I know Levi told you that my father was killed in battle. My mother was left with no husband, and she was allowed to remain with my father’s bet’ab as a charity, more than not. The same could not be said about the child that would have been my brother. After the child was dealt with, my mother lost her will to live. It destroyed her. She took her own life. I was left in my father’s bet’ab, raised by my grandfather, Josiah, and his brother, Boaz. As an orphan, I was treated as the charity. I grew to despise outsiders and everything they represented. Even more than the rest of my kin because a single outsider destroyed my entire life.”

  “You don’t owe me any of this,” I said.

  “You and I are kin,” Omri said. “And I find you worthy. It is no wonder Dusares did, as well. It would seem you are not so much an outsider as we had believed. Perhaps your turn as aluf will not be met with such hostility after all.”

  I shook my head. “Omri, I don’t… I told you. I’m not your aluf.”

  “You bested me in combat. By tribal law, you are now the aluf.”

  “No,” I said simply. “That’s still your job.”

  “I cannot,” he said. “It is not like you are expected to lead the entire tribe. That is the job of the grand aluf. You are simply to lead the bet’ab and command the men in the bet’ab in battle.”

  “Like a general?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  “I told you. It was a move I made to save my own life.” I thought about it for a second. “I relinquish the title of aluf back to you.”

  He studied me for a minute, searching my face, my eyes. He had obtained his position by bloodshed and death. Apparently, the Edomites were strangers to the concepts of Grace and Mercy. Perhaps because they hadn’t received such things themselves.

  “Truly?” he said.

  “What’s the alternative? Return with you to… I don’t even know where you call home.”

  “New Samaria.”

  “New Samaria,” I said. “My place is here, Omri. I have responsibilities here that I wasn’t even aware of until today.”

  He seemed saddened, but he appeared to understand. He nodded and said, “Meeting you was unexpected. But it was not as unpleasant as it should have been.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “You’re welcome to stick around.”

  “Such things would not be permitted. We were hired to do a job. The job has been completed. We are bound to return home.”

  “Well, anytime you want to come back, you’re welcome.” I looked around, back at the other Edomites. “Do you need help here? With the bodies and…?”

  “No. Dealing with the dead is a tribal matter. It would be best if you left it to us.”

  “I understand.” I pointed to the Rhino that still sat by the tree line. “I’ll leave that for you. Take your time. If you need anything, just let me know.”

  “You continue to grant us hospitality we do not deserve. We are intruders here.”

  “I think you’re more than that.” While I didn’t elaborate on the point, I think he understood. I was hesitant to consider him family, even if there was a strained blood connection. And a visible resemblance.

  Omri turned and walked back to his brothers, and I stood there, not sure entirely what I was feeling. It was a weird blend of emotions – violation, relief, sorrow, joy, betrayal, confusion, exhaustion – one I’d
probably be sorting through for a while. Yet, at the heart of it all, I felt…good. There was a contentedness that under-rode every other emotion that ticked through my heart and mind. Since Arthur’s death, I had lived with a sense of foreboding. I’d been outcast by strangers and family members alike and the one person in my family that had accepted me unconditionally had ended his life as a monster. I’d walked in a sort of mild depression since then. Until today.

  I wasn’t sure to what I could attribute this new vigor. Maybe it was what Crestmohr said. My family was part of a great legacy of caretakers for an angelic being. Whether we had been chosen for the task or somehow stumbled into it, it didn’t seem to matter. It was something that gave me purpose, something no money-grubbing cousin could take from me or belittle me for. Maybe it was revelation, knowing why I was the way that I was, that I had family, as distant and off-putting as they currently were, that wouldn’t reject me simply because I looked different from them. Mainly because I didn’t look different from them. They didn’t fully accept me for different reasons, but those reasons were legitimate. Maybe it was just that I had survived the night. It had been some time since my mettle was tested in a way that didn’t involve Swyftt. It felt good to stand on my own.

  I waited until Omri was far enough away before I pulled out the vial and turned to find London. The Edomites had finally decided not to kill me, and I didn’t want to strain that by letting them know I had something that could potentially revive their fallen brothers.

  London was lying near the pond. With the Edomites already gathering their own, London lay by himself. I walked up to him, knelt over his body, and pulled out the syringe. I didn’t know if it mattered where I injected it, but since it came from the head, I found it only fitting that it should be injected there as well. I felt along the ridge of his nose, up along his brow line, and when I was convinced I’d found the spot, I brought the needle near. Yet, something inside of me told me that it was wrong. London wasn’t a very smart guy, not by conventional standards, anyway. The head felt wrong. London, as raw as he came across, was a ball of emotion. He was all heart.

  I brought the needle down to his chest, judging where his heart should be, and I held the syringe. This felt right. Slowly, I stuck the needle in and depressed the plunger on the back, injecting the entire vial. When it was empty, I slid the needle out and tossed the syringe into the pond. I wasn’t sure why I did that. It seemed to be littering, but at the same time, it felt like the right place for it.