Thieves' Race

by Isaac Padgett

  I rolled my eyes at his bumbling and re-shouldered my longbow, "I can handle myself, Tom, but thanks for trying. I didn't really need it, though."

  Tom stammered a bit before getting a clear sentence out, "Well, I just, you know, was trying to help. You're amazing, though. I've never seen anyone move like that before, not even the soldiers. That was just...wow, Aether. Can you...I don't know, can you do more, or is that all you know how to, you know, do?"

  I looked at him for a moment before responding to his blushing face, "I know a lot more—quite a bit. You wanna see some of the moves? I can personally show you if you'd really care to see...or feel."

  His eyes widened out for a moment before he burst out laughing, "No, I think I can live without seeing them that way. That really was quite amazing, though. You moved like a liquid but with the force of rock. How did you even learn how to do something like that. But anyway," he shook his head to clear his thoughts, "I forgot my main purpose for trying to find you. I was mainly coming to see if you wanted to go riding. I know you love horses and all that. Figured it'd be something you'd enjoy, I don't know."

  I looked at Tom and almost laughed at the blush that was spreading across his cheeks and down his neck but didn't want to hurt the poor boy's feelings.

  Deciding to let him suffer a bit for attempting to "rescue me," I waited for a few breathless moments before breaking the silence, "Sure, we can go riding if you'd like. But not today. I have some stuff I need to get done." A shrug of the shoulders shifted my longbow and quiver into sight, bringing the boy's attention to them for the first time.

  "Oh. Oh!" His eyes stayed wide, and it looked almost comical, "You...you shoot things? Like, you kill them and everything?" I could tell that he wasn't used to the idea of a woman doing manly things like hunting and fighting, and it made me happy that I had decided to learn it all after...well, after Jack's death.

  "No, I was gonna go shoot up in the air and try to catch the arrow with my teeth." And with that, I set off at a quick trot, hoping to leave the awkward encounter behind me. Tom, on the other hand, didn't want to drop the conversation yet. I heard his labored breathing behind me.

  "That...that doesn't seem safe. Do...do you think you should even....try something that...dangerous?" He was struggling to run and talk at the same time. Living with horses his whole life led him to be a bigger lad, strong enough to hold up a horse to fix a hoof but not much of a runner.

  I stopped just to put a stop to the hard breathing and waited for him to catch his breath, "I'm not actually going to do that. I was sarcastic." When he continued to look confused, I shook my head and sighed, "I'm going hunting. You know, I'm gonna go shoot and kill some things."

  I don't think I've ever seen anyone blush so often in so short a time. Part of me thought his face was just always red, but even with that, I found it kind of cute. It was a sort of sweet innocence I hadn't seen or experienced in a while. It made me feel bad for giving him so much crap.

  "Look, how about we go riding tomorrow? Noon-ish work for you?" This time when he nodded, and I took off into the woods, he didn't even try to follow. Which I was grateful for, really. A man his size trying to sneak through the woods... well, it wouldn't work out very well, and I was really hoping to get something today.

  The haul was a little disappointing in the end. I only got a few rabbits and some brief sightings of deer that were gone before I even had a chance to take a shot. Luckily, I wasn't trying to survive on them, just trying to get better. I usually brought my kills over to a cook I knew who would make food for the homeless.

  Over the next few weeks, Tom got braver in asking me to walk out with him and, soon enough, I was actually enjoying the time spent with him. I spent more and more time hanging out with people rather than spending all my time alone. But a small part of my mind couldn't help but feel bad as I thought of Jack, no matter what it was I did. Tom was sweet but....he was missing something. Every time he smiled at me, all I could think about was that crooked, half-smile that would always appear and disappear in the span of only a few seconds with Jack, making you wonder if he really smiled at all. It was those brief flashes of happiness that let me know I truly made him smile.

  Tom had no idea about the thoughts in my head, not seeming to notice the lost look I got in my eyes as I looked off to the waterfall and my path. He was love-struck with me, it appeared, content to follow me around and watch me with puppy-like eyes.

  Not that I was complaining, though. It was kind of nice to have an admirer, though he wasn't really my kind of guy. Something about him seemed...off. Like he was holding a part of himself back whenever he was around me. I wondered what it was he was hiding. I still fell asleep with the same name on my lips and always the same person on my mind. Jack...

  Jack

  "Do you think he'll live? You did hit him pretty hard, Nick. I think you might have cracked his skull. Oooh, if he's dead, what are we gonna do with him? I don't wanna eat him… will we have to eat him? I wonder what he tastes like."

  A small, girlish voice woke me up, causing me to groan. "Oooh, look, he's awake. I guess we won't have to eat him. Now we'll never know what he tastes like." I swear that she said the last part with a slight hint of regret.

  A gruff voice, presumably the Nick she was talking to, broke in, "Shush Olive. Go get the water and try to be quiet, his head is probably still pounding. Now, boy," he said to me softly, "I have to say, I am sorry that I hit you so hard, but I had to make sure. We saw you running towards us, and I couldn't be sure who or what you were. You can understand that, right? But when you cried out and bled all over my shirt, I knew you to be a human. Why are you here? What are you looking for?"

  I groaned out again, shaking my head and trying to process what he was saying to me, "What? I don't even know where I am…I need to get back to Aether… she needs me to be there for her, with her. At least… I think she does." My head was pounding, but the pain was slowly easing away. I could feel the knot on my forehead from the club begin to fade away. Which boggled my mind, for the knife wound in my side was still oozing blood. I opened my eyes slowly, squinting against the harsh red light that seemed to make the sky glow. Everything in this place had that red tint to it, making it seem even more dead than it already did.

  Nick was a large man, with scars decorating his massive arms and a look on his face that told me that he would kill me to protect those he loved. The girl, who was now rushing back with a bowl of water, looked like a young blonde girl, eager to help her loved papa, but there was something in her eyes that told me she was something much more. Not just a little girl, but something with the...potential to be evil.

  The man looked at me strangely, "Aether? Who or what is an Aether? And boy, if you don't find her soon, she'll be lost. Trust me; you don't want her soul lost… that's an almost impossible thing to get back."

  "Soul?" I asked, my mind not really processing it all, thoughts still muddled from the new surroundings and the blow to the head, "What are you talking about? I need to find her…she needs me alive and with her. I can't die." I grabbed his sleeve and looked into his eyes but was unable to pierce the gray I saw there, "Please don't let me die here. I need to find my way back."

  Nick looked at me sadly, standing up slowly while disentangling my hand from his shirt, "Boy…I don't know how to say this to you any other way, so I'll just say it flat out. You're already dead." He reached down and helped me to my feet. Pushing aside some leaves, he gestured out to an almost barren wasteland. "Welcome to the afterlife." I looked at the man like he was crazy for a moment before the memory of the hounds that had chased me for so long re-surfaced, and everything I had seen started to sink in.

  "The…the underworld? You mean…those dogs were" He cut me off with a sharp retort, roaring loud enough that the leaves shook, "Dogs? You saw the dogs? How far away were they? What were they doing? Did you lead them here, boy?!?!? I swear, I'll kill you if you did!!!" By the end, he was yelling, his hands snaking out to grab me by t
he collar and shaking me with each word. I could scarcely breathe, let alone speak, and the young girl had to step in and put a hand on his arm. "Nick, stop. He couldn't have known, and so far, there hasn't been an attack, so they most likely didn't follow him. They don't know where we are. Everything is still okay."

  He looked at her, still holding onto me, though it didn't seem like he realized that he had lifted me off of the ground before nodding and lowering me. Once my feet touched the floor, and I was stable, he backed up, blushing, hands brushing against his shorts, "I'm sorry about that… it's just… we've survived for a long time now. And something like this…those dogs…they could be the end of us. You know?" He looked at me almost pleadingly.

  "Yeah…yeah, it's fine," my voice cracked a little, and I coughed to cover it up, "So, uh, what are the dogs? Why are you guys so…so scared of them? I mean, yeah, they scared the living shit out of me, but what's the worst that can happen? They died pretty easily enough from an arrow. I figure if you get a big enough group, it would be a piece of cake."

  The girl looked at me with wide eyes and asked softly, "You killed one? How... it's practically impossible to kill them. Unless you have something special, you have to literally rip them to pieces in order to kill them."

  I shrugged and shifted, moving so that the bow and quiver came into my hand, "I actually killed two of them, one right after the other. It was all I could manage before I fell out of the tree. But just one of these arrows, and they fell over. I did hit them in a fatal spot, so I suppose it was just luck."

  The girl held out a hand for an arrow while Nick looked at me and sighed, "I forget what it's like to be new. Those hell hounds don't have fatal spots. The only way to kill them is to either hack them apart or hit them with celestial weapons. Which must be what those are. Though, how you got them is a mystery to me and more than a blessing for you. A miracle, really. Look, boy, what's your name? We gotta call you something; otherwise, we'll just keep calling boy out all day, and that will get old fast."

  I struggled to remember and couldn't piece anything together. The only thing I remembered from before the dogs was the name Aether, but I knew that wasn't mine. I didn't know whose it was, but I wouldn't stop trying to figure it out. "Call me…" I fished around for a suitable name, "Call me Ayden. It should do well enough. And what do you mean, celestial weapons? Like, weapons that angels or something use?"

  Nick nodded and continued, "Well, Ayden, as I said, this is the underworld. And if you die here, your soul is just…gone. But if the hounds get you… you ever hear of Hell, Ayden?" He waited until I nodded before continuing, "If the hounds get you, you go to Hell. And it isn't a pretty place by anyone's account. Every once in a while, a sort of rift opens up, and we can see into Hell from here. It's a horrible place from what we've been able to see. And the weapons...well, we'll talk about them in just a moment."

  "So…what is it you do here? Just scrape by and hope to live under the radar?" I couldn't remember much, but I knew that there had to be more to life, or un-life, than that.

  "Well, from what we've been able to gather if you're here in Purgatory, it's for one of two reasons. One, your life wasn't lived… I guess good enough to get into heaven, but not so bad that you deserve Hell, so you're stuck here until you've suffered enough to earn your way into heaven. On the other hand, we've seen people who have done something so noble that they are put here to humble themselves for a tad. At least, that's what And the weapons...well, we'll talk about them in just a moment."

  "So…what is it you do here? Just scrape by and hope to live under the radar?" I couldn't remember much, but I knew that there had to be more to life, or un-life, than that.

  "Well, from what we've been able to gather if you're here in Purgatory, it's for one of two reasons. One, your life wasn't lived… I guess good enough to get into Heaven, but not so bad that you deserve Hell, so you're stuck here until you've suffered enough to earn your way into Heaven. On the other hand, we've seen people who have done something so noble that they are put here to humble themselves for a tad. At least, that's what we figure. No one sticks around once the man comes a-callin'. However, we do have a plan to storm the gates. Clear out the hounds if we can get the manpower. Makes sense? Now, how did you see the hounds, how many were there, and how did you get away? By the way you spoke, there was more than just the two you shot."

  I looked around and shuddered a little, "I woke up surrounded by at least a dozen of them and this fat annoying guy. He told me to run, and I didn't really feel the need to argue. Not with those dogs there, at least. He chased me….so far, I don't even know how far or long, but I was about to pass out by the end. At one point, I jumped up into a tree, trying to find a place to hide, and ended up finding the bow and arrows with a note. That's when I took out two of the hounds. He ended up catching up with me, the dogs surrounding me, and they were about to kill me. Then it kind of seemed like he got orders; he was talking to a "master" and then vanished along with the…I guess they were hell hounds," I gulped air as I finally finished speaking, trying to forget those beasts and what they could have done to me.

  Nick looked thoughtful for a moment, tapping his chin slowly, "We figure that the fat man is the second-in-command in Hell. It explains his ability to roam around as much as he does now, though, of course, we can't be sure of anything. Now, the intervening orders...that is interesting enough to warrant thought, though. If Satan himself intervened…he knows something that we don't. And then the fact that a divine being obviously left you a weapon to fight back, maybe they know of our plan and support it. But they can't be too obvious about it; what can you remember about your life, Ayden? What is it that you did that makes you so special?"

  "That's the thing," I shook my head, "all I can remember from before I woke up is a name. Aether. I don't know who I am, or who they are, or why they are so damned important to me. Right now, they are just a name," I kicked the ground angrily, and Nick seemed to sense my mood, backing off a bit and just looking at me curiously.

  We sat around a small campfire for a while, Nick musing aloud, something about how my bow might make the difference he had been hoping for. Olive, the strange girl who wasn't a girl, sat, giggling every once in a while and staring at me with a strange look in her eye.

  Finally, the girl chimed in again, "Well, I'm going to bed. You guys need to shush, so I get my beauty sleep." Shooting a quick glance at the both of us to be sure we understood, she flounced off to a small, camouflaged tent, set up almost in the tree line. I hadn't even noticed it until she pulled back the flap to enter.

  I looked after her, watching her walk away before asking Nick softly, "So, what is she? And don't say a normal girl, because I know that's a lie. So who or what is she, and why is she here?"

  Nick looked at me with interest in his eyes, "Not many would have been able to tell she wasn't normal...but you're right. She's not human." He got a sad look in his eyes as he remembered the past, "She's part demon. A demon got through from Hell somehow and raped her mother. She had been a wandering soul like you and me. Of course, he abandoned them both, thinking it funnier to leave them to suffer rather than kill them himself. The mother died in a raid by hellhounds a few years later....and I raised Olive as my own. She barely remembers her mother, and it's best that way. She has some interesting qualities, such as the fact that she can take on a hellhound and win. That's why..." He looked over to where her still form was sleeping before continuing, "But anyways. That bow. You wanted to know about it?"

  I nodded, bringing it back around in front of me. The wood was a silvery color, seeming as if it glowed in the faint light. I could feel some sort of power resonating from within it.

  "Legend has it that, in the beginning, a war broke out between God and some of his followers. They broke away and started to use us, mortals, to achieve their will. And as mortals, there was little to nothing we could do. So, God crafted three weapons of power and handed them down to faithful followers. I suppose he felt that more
would be too much power, too much corruption."

  I listened with rapt attention as Nick talked of the history of the weapons, starting to worry about the amount of power I held in my hand. How was I supposed to contain that much without changing because of it? "So, this is one of three weapons?"

  Nick nodded, "I can't tell you which one you wield, but they are all reputed to have certain powers. De'strath, De'vrand, and De'resh are the three most common names, believed to be the ones given to them by God himself."

  "Does anyone know what the names mean? Maybe that can give some sort of clue to what they do or why we were given them." I leaned forward, fingers tracing the names out in the dirt.

  "Aye, those names are an old tongue, but not one that has been lost. They translate to 'The Savior,' 'The Changer,' and 'The Redeemer.' But which is yours, and what it can do, I know not. I just know it's here for a reason."

  We fell silent; the fire's crackling whisper the only sound to be heard in the trees. The silence stretched to its breaking point before I spoke, "Whatever it is, it has the power to kill these hounds. We know that much. And maybe it can do a lot more to make life easier on the inhabitants of this place."

  "That's why I thought that with you and that bow alongside Olive, we might be able to drive out the hellhounds. I know Olive can take them on; it's just a numbers thing. Now that we have someone to guard her back, it'll be easier to kill the damned things. And once they are gone, the fat man can be taken care of. Shove him back, maybe. Make this place a little safer."