Absolute Heart

by Michael Vance Gurley

  All of Gavin’s dreams seemed crushed to dust. Soon this madman would bring him back to his father and the rest of the crazed, torturous Council. They would put him in their electric device, ask him questions to which he knew no answers, and end him like they had the nude faerie. He felt like screaming. Then he noticed something.

  “Do you know you’re bleeding, sir?”

  Masheck looked down and patted the red spot spreading on his clothes under the leather trench coat. Gavin took the distraction as his moment to escape. He struck the agent in the back of the head with his free fist and writhed. He aimed his legs at Masheck’s midsection to take advantage of whatever wound was hidden there.

  Gavin was nearly dragged to the ground as Masheck hunched over in pain. However, the half-mechanical man’s power kept them from crashing to the ground. The agent grunted as he rubbed the back of his head with his free hand.

  “You need medical attention,” Gavin said.

  “Didn’t take,” Masheck said, getting them upright a bit more forcefully and moving again. “Come along like a good lad.”

  LANDA CHECKED her hand cannon to make sure the parts moved correctly while the others rested in as safe a spot as they could find. They had narrowly escaped the evil-looking black-haired faerie warrior the big one called Kailen. She couldn’t believe all that had happened. All Landa wanted to do was fix things, not kill things. And now she had shot someone. They needed more rest, but it was dark now, so she got them moving again.

  “Stop. Stop here,” Wish called out. They all hunkered down so Wish could lean to the edge of the hangar and listen. She had to admit he had come in handy thus far. Not that she liked him at all. He was a horse’s—

  “Well, what is it? Can we go now?” Lucas asked, the anxiety dripping from his words as clear as crystal.

  “Stop!”

  The whole group froze. Wish gulped loudly. It would have been comical were it not for the faerie warrior before them. Landa quietly raised her hand cannon behind Lucas, hoping to hide it until she could get off a good shot.

  Lucas gazed at the faerie, whose blond hair floated in the wind around his bright-red eyes. His beauty was mesmerizing. Lucas gawked. “Wow.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Wish said.

  “Please, please let us pass.” Lucas noticed Landa’s cannon crawling up his back. He put his hands out to the side, blocking her shot. He was faerie, but something about him felt different to Landa too. Lucas said, “I know you don’t really want to harm us. We’re just kids trying to get away. Kids like you.” The blond creature before them looked as young as they.

  The faerie stood still for what felt an eternity.

  “What’s your name?” Lucas asked. They looked upon one another a long time in silence. The tension was palpable in the air until the warrior lowered his sword.

  “I am Drake of—” He shook his head, seemingly in disbelief. “Why am I telling you? Listen, you three run that way, off this outpost of airships, and go through the brush and be gone.”

  Wish and Landa started off but had to return to retrieve Lucas. He stood stock-still, eyes transfixed. It seemed the faerie had the same problem.

  “Um, all right, lad,” Landa interrupted. “We need to go now, to save Gavin. Remember Gavin?”

  The faerie smiled and nodded toward the bushes. “Go before I change my mind.”

  “WHERE DO you think you’re going, little humans?” Kailen asked through gritted teeth, which startled Gavin. Masheck jerked Gavin behind him while he raised his arm cannon at the same time. He fired a shot at the tall, dark-haired faerie.

  Kailen flashed his shield at an angle and redirected the shot harmlessly away, but the force staggered him backward. The ornate silver shield glowed red as it took the brunt of the cannon fire. It gave a high-pitched ringing that reverberated in the air and made Gavin stumble, looking dizzy.

  “Do you pathetic humans think to escape from me? I am Kailen the Bold, Prince of Tír na nÓg, guardian—”

  Masheck fired another bullet at the grandstanding Kailen. “I wish you’d just shut it, you winged menace.” Kailen barely collected himself in time to block the shot with his shield. Gavin grasped his head to steady himself from the vertigo effect of the shield’s hum, which did not seem to affect the agent in the least.

  “Oh my God!” Lucas shouted when his group rounded the corner to stumble on the fight. “Gavin!”

  Lucas started to rush to Gavin.

  “What the hell is the matter with you, you crazy poof?” Wish yelled. He grabbed Lucas forcefully, which kept him from jumping within Masheck’s reach or that of the mad faerie.

  “You seem wounded, metal man. Good, now this should be fun!” Kailen roared, looking crazed as he charged Masheck, sword swinging wildly.

  The agent dropped Gavin from his grip. He also laid down a string of cursing. He turned back to the warrior charging him.

  “Landa? Lucas?” Gavin asked, excited and confused. He thought he would never see his friends again from the moment he went on the run from his father and his government. He knew this was not the time for a reunion. He surveyed the ragtag group and added, “What the hell are you all doing here?”

  “Looking for you,” Landa shouted.

  Gavin eyed Wish suspiciously. “Um….”

  “I’ll explain later,” Landa said.

  “Oof,” Gavin exclaimed as Lucas threw himself into a deep hug with Gavin, grabbing him in a death grip and squeezing. Gavin could not help himself. He had grown overwhelmed by everything, and to see Lucas, the beautiful boy he… he…. Gavin grabbed Lucas by the back of the head and pulled him tightly against his face and squeezed him back.

  “We… we thought you were…,” Lucas said, his lip quivering.

  “Less hemming, hawing, and pawing, and more running,” Landa commanded as she pulled Lucas off Gavin and forced them to run. “We are definitely going to have a talk later,” Landa aimed at Gavin.

  Gavin glanced over his shoulder to see Kailen parry a blow from Masheck and slash at him. His sword cut the brass cables leading from the arm to a port on his back that carried signals to control his arm functions. Steam spewed forth out of them. Kailen used the moment of confusion to roll away, bounce up, and ran in the path of Gavin and his growing group of survivors.

  “Where do you think you are going, younglings?” His smirk spread wide across his face. His eyes practically glowed with the promise of blood. The group backed against the hangar, trapped there by barrels.

  Masheck charged Kailen and knocked him down. He booted him across the face. Blood from Kailen’s mouth splattered the ground, and his smirk disappeared. He slashed at the agent’s legs, but Masheck jumped quickly to evade the swipe.

  When Masheck landed, he could not avoid the return thrust. Kailen swiped his sword across the already-bloodied midsection. Masheck crumpled to the ground in a ball, clutched at his stomach, and then went limp.

  “Oh no,” Landa muttered as she raised her hand cannon. Its steam buildup hissed ever so quietly behind her, yet still was loud enough to alert the other faeries of impending attack.

  With lightning reflexes, Kailen threw his shield at the group. It slammed into Wish’s stomach and flung him backward, knocking him to the ground. The shield’s harmonics made them all feel slightly sick.

  Kailen laughed. He walked sideways to circle them so they would be trapped between him and the barrels. He taunted as they climbed to their feet again, “You know, I needed very little provocation to start a war with your weak race. It is time to destroy you all, and I shall start with—”

  Crack!

  Kailen collapsed in a heap. The kids looked up into the pulsing red eyes of the faerie most of them knew as Drake. His sword hilt still hung in midair where he had cracked Kailen on the back of the head.

  Gavin, Landa, Wish, and Lucas stood in total shock, unable to believe that a faerie had not only let them leave, but rescued them from another faerie.

  “My brother sure does talk a
lot. I keep telling him he should stop that,” Drake said.

  “Whu… who? Why?” Gavin asked.

  “Leave now.”

  “But…,” Landa stammered, her cannon aimed at the ground.

  “You need not know my reasons, other than if I free someone, they are free. Now. Run. I can’t be here when he comes to. And if he does, you will all be dead.”

  The foursome started slowly but moved around the fallen prince. Gavin hesitated while looking at the outline of the dead agent heaped on the ground. Lucas grabbed Gavin by the hand and pulled him gently away into the dark.

  The Roar of the Cannon

  THE AIRSHIPS all burned. Gavin’s original plan had been to steal one and let it spirit him away. Now there would be no getaway that way. He had to face facts that even if he had taken to the air, it wouldn’t have turned out well. Not without armaments, guns, and maybe some incendiary devices. Unless they stole a battle cruiser, he’d have to think of some other method of escape. He paused when he remembered it wasn’t just himself who needed saving, but his whole group.

  And what of Lucas, who kept grasping his hands as they ran across the field. He knew Landa must have seen it. And Wish? What if that big goon noticed? Gavin had enough to worry about without having to fight him off. He shook his head, physically trying to drive the thoughts from his head, to focus on the task at hand. Exactly like when flying, first things first.

  Ahead Gavin saw the steamwalker bay still intact. Somehow the faeries had not swarmed it. They must not have considered them as much a threat as the airships.

  “Come on, in here,” he said, running into the bay.

  “What are you looking for in here?” Wish asked, his voice thick with accusation.

  Landa’s face lit up when her eyes landed on the remaining walkers. “Oh yes, I think this one will do very nice and proper,” she said, her joy propelling her forward.

  Landa had already climbed up the ladder to a six-legged steamwalker with full battle armor, four forward and two rear cannons, and a pivoting top compartment. To Gavin she looked the same as she had when they were kids and her father brought home Turkish delight.

  “Wait! That thing is dangerous,” Wish warned and raced after her. The other boys tried and failed to catch up with the much more athletic Wish.

  Landa turned the crank several times to get the charge to fire up the steam engine that powered the behemoth. She pushed in the piston and pulled the starter. Nothing happened. She grimaced, determined to get it going. She repeated the process, and again nothing happened.

  Wish stepped into the main cabin to see Landa root around in her bag. “What’s the problem?”

  “Ugh, it isn’t cranking. We need to check the….” She went quiet, thinking.

  “What’s the problem?” Gavin shouted from the ground.

  Wish popped his head up from the cabin. “She can’t get this contraption to start!” he yelled.

  “I can too!” she roared from the belly of the beast. “I just need some time to assess the state of the steam tanks, the wiring assembly, and ascertain whether—”

  “Landa,” Gavin said, cutting her off. “We do not have time for all of that tinkering. There’s another one right here. Come down. And can we all be a little more discreet?”

  Landa poked out too and looked to the smaller walker behind them. She shook her head and complained about needing a few more ticks to figure it out.

  “We don’t have time for that,” Wish said. Landa stared him down, and Gavin feared she might strike him with a wrench.

  “I can fix it.”

  “Landa, I know you can,” Gavin said. “You are the best artificer I know. I trust no one more than I do you, but as much as I dislike agreeing with… him… we need to leave.”

  “That faerie prince with the black armor, long hair, and intensely piercing blue eyes will wake up soon.” Everyone turned to stare at Lucas. “What?” he asked.

  “Do you think with an attack like this going on, the soldiers would have left this monster sitting here if it worked?” Gavin asked. Landa took a deep breath and nodded in agreement that they had better take the other steamwalker.

  After a few moments Landa had the four-legged walker’s steam engine building pressure and humming. She surveyed the walker’s cabin. “Let’s see what else we have to work with here.” The main cabin was smaller than the one she had left. In fact, there was barely room for a gunner to stand up and operate the one big cannon, which swiveled to cover 360 degrees.

  She guided Wish to stand in the cannon well. The small space forced him to stoop and bend his knees a little. She tried to show him how to operate it should they run into trouble.

  “I know, I know. Go back to driving this hunk of junk, woman!”

  She huffed at him and pushed the seated Lucas out of her way as she returned to the driver’s seat. Lucas fell into Gavin but made no effort to move away. The cabin’s closeness had the four of them squeezed in tightly.

  Gavin liked the comfort he felt from the heat of Lucas’s body as he pressed up against him. He wanted to hug him back. He wanted to do more than that, but Wish and Landa were there. What would they think? He gently nudged Lucas back into an upright position.

  “What’s the gauge read on the steam tanks, Gav?” Landa asked, her goggles on her eyes.

  “Full power, Captain,” he replied, some humor returned to his voice.

  “Good. Watch the gauges and make sure we don’t redline and blow up. Ready the gun in case we have to blast our way out of here.” Landa released a long lever and the walker lurched forward. “Braking mechanism released. And away we go. Now where are we going?”

  “To my house. My father—” Wish began before Gavin cut him off.

  “To the country. Away from the city. We need to get far away from this war so we don’t all get killed. And I….” He thought about what he could even do once they were safely away from the faeries. His father was still out to get him because he somehow had magick. He worried about his friends ever finding out.

  “Why can’t we go to my house? You know my father is a powerful man. He will surely have protection,” Wish tried again.

  “Okay, hold on to your hats. Here we go,” Landa said, ignoring him. She pushed down on the accelerator, and the machine lumbered forward before it picked up some speed and leveled itself out. The walker’s four legs alternated, the cabin bounced slightly, and its self-adjusting gears worked to stabilize them, puffs of smoke ejecting out the side ports.

  The walker exited the bay at a trot. The sky had grown dark and stormy, which would help their escape. Now all they needed was some luck to make it across the rest of the airfield and into the surrounding wooded park.

  “Oh shit. We have company,” Wish exclaimed.

  “Dammit. So fast?” Gavin asked. “I knew we’d never—”

  “Stow that!” Wish shouted.

  “How many?” Landa asked.

  “Um… it looks like two, maybe. Flying toward us.”

  “Is it two or more?”

  “Two.”

  “Well, shoot them!” Lucas screamed.

  “I have things well in hand,” Wish bragged. He toggled the firing mechanism to the on position. He flipped his long brown hair from his eyes and winked at Landa. “Now we’re ready.”

  “We don’t know how many shells we have, so make it count,” Landa said.

  Wish looked through the magnifier and found his target. They swung back and forth in their flight. He timed the shot, pulled the trigger, and waited for the giant boom to deafen them all.

  Nothing happened.

  “Well, come on and fire already,” Lucas said.

  “I did!”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Hey, cut the Punch-and-Judy act and get another shell in there,” Landa shouted.

  “Where are they? I’ll get it,” Lucas offered.

  “I don’t know. There must be a trunk with them or something. Look a
round.”

  Lucas and Gavin both looked as Wish held out his hand for a shell to be passed to him. Lucas spotted a box and crawled over Gavin, who fell backward and got pinned to the floor. Lucas’s shirt rode up as he reached across for the box in the corner, his bare stomach pressed into Gavin’s face.

  Gavin definitely liked the way Lucas’s body felt as it pulled across him. The little hairs on Lucas’s stomach tickled his lips before Lucas reached farther and grabbed the box. As he pulled over, his crotch ended up in Gavin’s face. The bouncing of the walker knocked them together over and over.

  Lucas looked under him, made eye contact with Gavin, and smiled. Gavin looked back with panicked eyes. He jerked his head toward the box so Lucas would carry on. Lucas lifted open the trunk, pulled out a shell, and handed it up to Wish’s outstretched hand.

  Gavin moved to the forward window to see where they were going. “Are you just going in a straight line?” he asked with judgment.

  “I’m heading away,” she replied defensively.

  “Switch.”

  “What?”

  “We’re switching. I should be piloting anyway.” He pulled on his brass goggles as he slid his butt into the chair before she could completely move out of the way.

  When the cannon shot fired, the sound ricocheted around the cabin in a thunderous roar, and the windows rattled. Landa, stunned, slipped into Gavin, which caused him to push the left directional lever all the way down. The walker jolted to the left and they all fell over in a heap.

  Gavin jumped back into the driver’s seat and gently corrected the walker’s path. He called back to Wish, asking if they were still being followed. Wish popped back up and looked all around the walker through the window until he found the lone faerie behind them giving chase.

  “I need a shell right now.”

  Lucas pulled one more from the trunk and thrust it into Wish’s grasp. Landa checked the pressure gauge on the steam tanks and grimaced.