“I think I made everything wet,” Ash said, nodding.
David flashed him a wry, guarded smile. “Here. In case you need anything.” He waved the wet business card as if to dry it off, but also presenting a lure for Ash to come closer.
“Need anything?” Cooper heard an incredulous note in Ash’s voice. “You’re working for him, and he and I don’t see eye to eye right now.”
“He asked me to look something up, and he asked me to come along. I didn’t realize there was gonna be an issue.” David was not apologizing. He was merely stating a fact. Cooper couldn’t stand the thought of Ash facing this unknown force alone. He took those few critical steps, until he and Ash stood side by side. He could still feel the weight of Hank’s proximity, as though Hank was casting a psychic shadow that deadened everything around him.
“I’m Cooper. And, hey... what did he want from you?”
David shook his head. “Can’t tell you that.”
“What knocked him out?” Cooper pursued his curiosity further. There had to be a way to work this out. All of it. And if those guys were talented, if he could convince people to work together, then...
“What,” David snapped his head up, looking both perplexed and intrigued. “I think that’s pretty obvious. Are you telling me you can’t feel it?”
“Not yet,” Cooper said. He slid a glance at Ash. Their eyes met, and Ash nodded.
As one, they walked close enough to David. Ash offered his hand, and David shook it. Cooper stood on the ready, poised to come to Ash’s aid if things went south and David pulled some kind of a trick, but David let go of Ash’s hand and presented a business card. One of the edges was dark with water, but the rest still held up and showed David’s contact information.
Now that Hank was standing further away, Cooper could feel David. He reached out to read him – and cool, glass-smooth shields slammed into place.
“Hey, no need to be rude,” he snapped in Cooper’s direction.
“Sorry.” Cooper shrugged. “I’m new to this, and not very good yet.” He didn’t mind if people underestimated him. “But I’ve been trying to figure something out. Like, for instance, how is your boss Brian, over there, causing so much harm? We’ve been trying to fix it, and then he showed up. Hardly a coincidence, don’t you think?”
David looked Cooper up and down, assessing, and suddenly Cooper felt an alien touch probe his outer defenses gently, as though his fingers were running through Cooper’s hair.
“Hey!” Cooper said indignantly.
“Just checking. Earth, right? And you’re still working on building your shields. That’s tough, doing that as an adult.” David sighed. “You guys sure did a job on that node. That... that was unexpected.” He frowned. “My client here didn’t think it would present an issue.”
“He’s an idiot,” Ash scoffed.
David shrugged. “He pays on time.”
“He was hurting people. He was hurting the land.” The words spilled forth without Cooper thinking about them much. “I don’t know whether you’re the lightning guy or the wind guy, but either way, suppose somebody was dumping massive amounts of raw energy into a ley line which connected to one of your elements, and it was fucking you up? Or hurting everyone with a talent who lived nearby? Would getting paid on time be the first thing on your mind?”
David shook his head, looking torn. “Sorry. I can’t tell you anything. If it matters any, judging from your actions, you’re good enough at figuring out everything that matters by yourselves.” He squinted into the sun that came out in full force. “If it makes you feel any better, whatever he did came back at him, but all at once. Yesterday was not a happy day for my client, let me tell you that. He got knocked out so easily today, because his energy systems are already compromised from that gigantic backlash. We all felt it, to a greater or lesser extent.”
“So he’s sensitive to fluctuations?” Cooper asked with mischief in his voice.
Rhea gave him a cool look. “Keep thinking that, and your brain will get fried. Next time you meet him, and knowing him, there will be a next time, he won’t be a soft target, I can guarantee that.”
“We are standing on my land now,” Ash said with grave determination, giving their exchange a direction of his own choosing. “My team and I are going to clean it up. We’ll clean it up and reclaim it, and make it safe again. And if Brian tries to dump his trash – and I don’t care if it’s physical or other – anywhere in my neighborhood, he will pay.”
David nodded. “Noted. We’ll go now.” He waved the other guy over. One moment they were in a stand-off, and the next the strangers were making their way through the young trees and over the uneven ground.
“If you go to the right, there’s an opening in the fence,” Ash called after him.
“Thanks!” David’s voice drifted through the trees like the last remnants of fog which they had all helped create.
Once they were gone, Ash waved at Hank. “I need you to step to the side so we can feel what’s going on. Let’s see if there’s anything left of that node.”
ASH COULD FEEL... something. Something very different from the tangled mess of wild and ravenous energies that had raged against the confines of the earth before. There was a strange familiarity to the presence, yet he couldn’t pinpoint exactly where he had encountered the same power signature before.
A hand squeezed his shoulder.
Ash turned. Cooper’s eyes were wide, and his mouth was half-open, as though he was trying not to gasp for breath.
“You feel it?” Ash whispered.
Cooper only nodded. Then he let go and broke into a run.
“Cooper, wait!” Ash ran after him. Multiple footfalls, the snap of a broken twig, and the heavy breath of exertion followed behind him as his team hurried to keep up. They didn’t want to leave him alone, just like he didn’t want to leave Cooper to face an unknown force all by himself.
An entity that was both unknown and of an uncertain origin.
Ash only knew that whatever was out there was strong, perhaps stronger than both of them combined.
Ash caught up with Cooper as they both came upon the place that used to mark the node. What used to be a basaltic flow, covered with just a thin shell of solid rock and filled with still-hot magma underneath, was now a crater in the ground. Sharp shards of black, brittle stone were spread around like shrapnel, stuck in the tufts of grass and weeds and waiting to impale the unwary. The edge of the crater was hard, like a lava flow, yet cool to touch.
“I feel the ley lines, and I feel the node,” Ash said after a careful examination. “They feel a lot weaker, though.”
“Same here,” Cooper said. “I guess we didn’t kill it anymore than you can kill a lake which is being fed by two rivers. But it’s not overflowing anymore. And I can feel the shield.”
They stood there quietly as the team formed around them, except for Hank, who stayed at a distance far enough as not to interfere with their investigation. Cooper looked in his direction. “Hank, would you come closer, please?”
Hank did. The ebb and flow of gentle, glowing power faded. Ash nodded. “All right. I can’t feel it anymore. Can anyone else?” He looked around, including not just Cooper, but Mark, Paul, and Ellen as well.
“No,” Ellen said, sounding disappointed. “I guess it wasn’t us, then. It had been Hank all along.”
“Not just me, though,” Hank said. “Remember, before yesterday, you all could feel it even with me around. That explosion must’ve released a lot of power.”
Ash nodded, but deep within his mind, he wondered where did some of that power go. The node had been strong enough to worry Cooper with the possibility of an earthquake that could level the whole town. That explosion released something, certainly, but had it released the whole node’s worth of turmoil, they’d be dead now, and the neighborhood would have been leveled for blocks in each direction.
Yet it wasn’t.
“Where did that power go?” Ash mused, once
he explained his concern.
“The blast was pretty good, though,” Hank objected. “I mean, look at the trees!”
Ash gave the trees a second look. The young saplings nearby looked undamaged, but further in, two of the tall, older trees were down. “The choke cherries are snapped in two! They break easily, though.” He set out to inspect the damage. Of all the trees on the property, he cared about the sturdy maples and sycamores for the shade and privacy they offered. He also wanted to know how well did the old orchard survive. The trees were further away, true, but old apple wood had a tendency to break.
“I’ll plant new trees for you,” Cooper said behind him, as though he could read his thoughts. “Cherries or apples, whatever you’d like.”
Ash couldn’t help but smile. “Okay. But only if we need more.”
They didn’t need more. The orchard did fine.
A glint of steel caught Ash’s attention. “What’s that on the maple tree?”
He pointed, and Cooper joined him as Ash headed over to investigate.
His katana, his prized Japanese antique sword with which he controlled his water talent, was buried in its sturdy trunk.
CHAPTER 20
The morning dawned upon an upset, distraught Ash who would not be consoled. Cooper made them coffee, scrambled four eggs, and pulled half a cantaloupe out of the refrigerator. “Sit down,” he told Ash, and set his coffee mug on the kitchen table. “Do you want toast with your eggs?”
Ash shook his head. He gave the coffee a wary eye. When Cooper set a plate with cantaloupe slices in the middle of the table, he poked at the nearest crescent of juicy, pale orange flesh with his index finger.
Not saying anything, Cooper toasted two slices of whole grain bread, put both of them on his plate, and divided the eggs. He slid Ash’s eggs before him, and sat down to eat. “Bon appétit,” he said with a touch of irony in his voice, but as soon as Ash lifted his grief-stricken, miserable eyes to meet his wry gaze, Cooper felt like shit for not tiptoeing around him for a while longer. “Eat, love,” he amended, infusing his words with all the feeling he could muster.
Ash leaned back in his chair as though he was avoiding toxic fumes that allegedly emanated from the eggs. Cooper saw his Adam’s apple bob as he gave a dry swallow.
“Thank you for making breakfast,” he said.
“You can thank me by actually eating it,” Cooper said, and this time his voice was mellow and cajoling. He wished he could help, but hell, with all that had been going on, it was a miracle only Jared had died.
“But my sword!” Cooper had never thought somebody could wail quietly, but Ash certainly managed. His sorrow permeated every syllable.
Cooper forked more eggs and ate them with his toast. Today would be a hard day, a hot day. Cutting a big, strong tree down was no joke, and he knew to eat while the temperature was still cool outside. “Darling,” he said after he drank more of his coffee, “Mark and Paul are out there, buying a chain saw right now. We can handle this. I may not be much when it comes to energy control, but I’ve been felling trees since I was twelve.”
Ash watched him eat a slice of cantaloupe. “Really?” he asked. “How come?”
“We had lots of trees. We had cabins to build, and we always needed firewood. It gets cold up by Lake Michigan.”
Tentatively, as though trying to touch an unknown creature for the first time, Ash reached out for a slice of cantaloupe. “Did you ever live in a city?” he asked.
Cooper didn’t answer right away. He didn’t want his usual torrent of words to interfere with Ash’s digestion. Only once Ash ate half his slice, Cooper broke his silence. “We lived in a small college town. That way, my folks could get out into the woods easily. Because, you know...” He winked. “And the town still had good schools.”
“I wish my mom hadn’t died young. I wonder what she would’ve thought about the sword. And the node.”
Cooper wondered not only that, but he also wanted to know more about Ash’s family. “So... how about your dad?”
“Normal. As it is, he’s pretty artistic despite his cubicle job, but I have never felt a touch of talent in him at all. I don’t think he even believed in the sort of stuff we can do. He thought it was some kind of a New Age spiritual practice, and he tried hard not to roll his eyes.” He paused, finished his slice, and drank some coffee.
Which was a blessing, because Ash was a bear without his caffeine fix.
“How about other family?”
Ash shrugged. “I don’t know. Mom was on her second marriage, but we weren’t close to her family. Well, one of her uncles helped me with some dowsing techniques and water-whispering, but his power level wasn’t near where we are right now. He had good control, though.” Ash looked at the cold eggs wistfully. “I should probably get in touch again. Uncle Phil was a pretty good guy.”
Just as Cooper made a mental note to remind Ash to contact his uncle Phil, somebody banged a rude, familiar rhythm on the door.
A scream of a running chainsaw engine split the air.
Ash jumped as Paul sauntered into the kitchen.
“We got the saw! Except Mark won’t let me use it. He’s afraid I’ll explode the gas tank.”
FOUR HOURS LATER, Cooper cut off the stump of fresh maple that contained Ash’s katana. Paul and Ash caught the stump in a cargo net, careful not to let it fall on the ground and stab their feet with a piece of metal, or crush their toes with the wood itself.
His sword was in there.
His baby.
Even though Ash could see it, he couldn’t feel its presence, not even with Hank being miles away, picking up groceries. Ash used to fancy himself for being able to feel the energies of the katana’s previous bearers. That was the legend, wasn’t it? Every swordsman who wielded the sword, and practiced with it, infused the blade with some of his own energy. To him, it seemed as though the blade had several different moods. During the last two years, after a lot of focused practice, Ash began to feel a frisson of energy every time he drew the blade from its lacquered wooden sheath.
Not now, though. Now, the sword seemed dead. Only its finely honed, razor-sharp blade was stuck halfway in a stump of gorgeous, healthy maple.
With outmost care, Cooper set the stump upon another stump, revved up the chainsaw again, and began clearing chunks of wood away from the blade.
Ash wanted to tell him to be careful. He wanted him to preserve the blade, to keep from nicking it. Most of all, however, Ash wanted Cooper to be careful and not hurt himself with the powerful chainsaw, so he stayed his tongue, and waited with what passed for patience.
A wedge and a hammer split what was left of the wood. A moment later, Cooper motioned Ash forward. “Go ahead. It’s free!”
He took the few steps forward, and bent to pick up the blade. The wood, sharkskin, and silk cord grip of the sword was charred and falling apart in sad, blackened bits of debris. Ash hefted it carefully, tipped the sharp end toward his left palm, and raised the sword above his head. He then bowed, greeting it. “Thank you. You have done me a great service.”
Yet the blade remained inert.
Ash angled it in the air to examine its surface, peering down the ridge that gave it its diamond cross-section, and hissing with distressed little noises over the “water line,” where centuries ago, its spine had been covered in clay and only its sharp edge had been tempered to adamantine hardness.
Oh. Oh! But the blade was not all shiny steel anymore. Halfway down, from the middle to the tip, the steel was dull with a blue, oily sheen.
“What is it?” Cooper appeared by his side. “Is the sword okay?”
Ash shook his head. “No.” He swallowed in an effort to clear his throat. “See, over there? Where it’s turned from silver to blue-black?”
“Yeah.” Cooper nodded. “I’m so sorry. You stuck it into the lava, and the heat made it lose its temper.”
COOPER WAS SHOCKED when Ash offered the blade to him in a manner befitting a high ceremony. “I ha
ve lost a blade,” Ash said, “but you’ve lost Jared. Your kinsman, and your favorite cousin.”
Their eyes met. They were no longer the eyes of lovers. They were the eyes of warriors, the steely, determined gazes of men who had seen too much, and who were now mourning a great loss.
“I want you to have it, Cooper. Not because it’s lost its temper, or because it’s no good. I want you to have it because this sword has been my companion through so much... so much learning, and it helped me whenever I called upon it. I know it’s dead to my touch now, but I hope you’ll be able to learn at least physical techniques with it.”
Gazes locked, shoulders straight, and lips unsmiling, Cooper bowed to Ash, and accepted his most precious possession. “It will be my honor to guard your blade for you.” His fingers wrapped around the ruined handle. He could fix that – he knew old swords were fitted with new handles and silk cord and silver decorations, called furniture, on a regular basis. Ruined blades were sometimes cut down to size, too. From the size of this one, if it got recut and repolished, maybe it could become a wakizashi...
A strong objection filled his mind, as though from nowhere.
Cooper startled, eyes wide and lips pressed together.
“What is it?” Ash asked with eager hope obvious in his voice.
“I don’t know yet,” Cooper said carefully, not wanting to give Ash false hope of any kind. “It’s just, I don’t think he wants to be cut and reground into a short blade.”
“The sword’s a she,” Ash said.
“Not anymore. It’s a guy now, and he thinks that size matters.”
CHAPTER 21
For seven whole, sad, and uninterrupted days after the “node event,” Cooper mourned Jared terribly. He tried to focus on moving out of his apartment on Mary Street. While he was juggling his and Ash’s boxes, he had his headset on so he could use his phone. Cooper had talked to just about every family member about Jared’s passing, and with a select few, he discussed his unexplained dematerialization. He had heard just about every theory under the sun about how that had happened, and why. He’d heard everything from Jared becoming an angel or a boddhisattva, to a quantum physics tirade that had a lot of E=mc2 and the theory of relativity peppered through it, plus everything in-between.
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