Chocolate and wine? Alright, maybe I could get behind this…
“Please, feel free to come up as you like and enjoy the communal gifts,” said Rion. “Thank you all for being patient with your salvation, today.”
That seemed to be the cue for the congregation to loosen up. People began chatting with one another, some staying in their seats, others standing and forming small cliques on the side of the room. Malcolm slid down a little lower in his bench and glanced down at his shadow.
“Rose,” he whispered, hiding his mouth with his hand. “I think we’re good.”
“Distract the priestess lady,” said Rose. “And walk by one of the shadows in the corner on your way there. I’ll slip away from you and see if I can find my sister.”
Malcolm nodded.
He took his time heading down the aisle, moving through several shadowed spots that Rose could use. He wasn’t sure which one she ended up picking, and tried not to look back over his shoulder as he reached the food cart and helped himself to chocolate and wine. Rion was standing nearby, and she smiled when Malcolm’s eyes met hers.
“I appreciate the fact that you were so polite and respectful during the sermon,” said Rion. “Oftentimes the walk-ins we get tend to… make distracting comments.”
Malcolm chuckled.
“Well, it was… certainly something.” He scratched his head. “So… the Illuminati?”
He didn’t know if there was a polite way to ask someone if they really took what sounded like a crazy conspiracy theory to be their religious gospel. Rion’s smile didn’t falter, and she gave an encouraging nod.
“I’m sure if you looked closely, you would see the effect they have on your life,” said Rion. “It’s tragic that society, as a whole, refuses to open its eyes.”
“Do you mean that in the sense of like… a metaphor?” asked Malcolm. “Like maybe, evil has many faces, and it’s represented in your religion by… well…the legend of the Illuminati?”
Rion’s eyes narrowed a little bit. Malcolm felt like he was bending over backwards to have her philosophy explained to him in a way that didn’t sound crazy.
“This was just an introductory message,” said Rion. “I am sure if you continued to listen to our teachings, you would slowly begin to understand the truth of them.”
“Oh, yeah, of course,” said Malcolm.
“We are still a small movement,” said Rion. “The truth we carry with us will, undeniably, change the world. Mister Malcolm, you should know that you are a prime candidate for awakening.”
“Thank you,” he said. “I think? I didn’t realize I was asleep. Usually there are more signs, missing pants, monsters chasing me, that kind of thing.”
Rion let out a small, amused laugh.
I’ll give her one thing. She’s as patient as a saint. Or a priestess, I guess.
“We currently do not have many men within the Awakened Children,” said Rion, nodding to the congregation. Malcolm glanced at the room, noticing for the first time that the female to male ratio was probably about four to one.
“Does the gender of believers make much of a difference?” asked Malcolm.
“Of course,” said Rion. “We have many beliefs concerning worship between a man and a woman.”
Malcolm had no idea how to respond to that. Luckily, he was saved having to need to. One of the women in the main congregation let out an audible gasp. Malcolm heard Rose’s voice in response. He turned around again, and his heart skipped a beat at what he saw.
Rose was standing in the main aisle, her hood down and her pale purple face exposed. All around her, the Awakened Children had fallen to their knees, foreheads pressed into the polished wooden floor. Rose was trying to pull one of them to her feet, presumably her sister.
“A star touched…” whispered Rion. “By the Sun!”
She moved fast, splitting off from Malcolm and practically sprinting into the church’s back room. Malcolm made a halfhearted attempt to grab her arm before scowling and giving up. He walked toward Rose, who looked deeply uncomfortable with the sudden surge of attention.
“A star touched!” said Malcolm, in a mocking voice. He dropped to his knees and pretended to bow several times.
“Shut up,” said Rose. “Leah recognized me, but she’s caught up in this stupid cult. She thinks I’m someone worth worshipping.”
Malcolm shrugged.
“What are we supposed to do?” he asked. “Carry her out of here forcibly?”
“What you’re supposed to do…” came a new voice, deep and slow. “Is listen, learn, and open yourself to the possibilities.”
Two figures strode out of the church’s backroom, both immediately catching Malcolm’s attention. A man and a woman, or rather, a demon and a spryte, stood side by side.
The demon was tall and broad shouldered. His skin was mottled, the original color a deep brown, but now with patches and spots of both true black and white. He had shoulder length dreadlocks with horned spikes protruding upward in between them, making him look almost like an African king with a crown made of bone.
The spryte was almost the inverse of her demon partner. She was a small woman, with unnatural pink hair. Her skin was a fascinating mixture of colors, not the full spectrum of a rainbow, but rather, the types of pinks and blues and purples common to the surface of a soap bubble, or a puddle of oil.
“Please, relax my friends,” said the woman. “My name is Shield Maiden. This is Rain Dancer. You need not be afraid of us.”
Her words were not nearly enough to dissipate the tension in the room. Rose stood close to Malcolm, slowly moving herself away from the kneeling crowd in case the situation progressed in a violent direction.
“Nice to meet you,” he said. “I’m Malcolm. This is Rose.”
What the hell are we supposed to do now?
“Awakened Children,” said Rain Dancer. His voice had a slight Caribbean accent to it. “You may go about your own business for the day. You heard?”
The entire congregation, including Rose’s sister, stood and headed out the door. Malcolm half expected Rose to grab Leah’s arm, but she didn’t as much as glance at her. It was a smart move on her part, he realized. The more information she gave about herself and her family connections, the more vulnerable she was.
“Well,” said Rose. “It appears that you think you have business with us. Should we get straight to it, then?”
CHAPTER 14
Malcolm felt a little intimidated, and not just by Shield Maiden and Rain Dancer. Rose had an intense look in her eyes, and she’d already summoned her shadow tendrils. They swirled around her body like thick, dark snakes, coiled and ready to strike.
“There is no need for that,” said Rain Dancer. “You’ve heard the sermon from our priestess already, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, about that,” said Malcolm. “It was a little convoluted.”
“We are the star touched,” said Rain Dancer. “Surely you can see that much just from your gifts, can’t you?”
He spoked to Rose, not Malcolm, which boded well. It meant that they still hadn’t recognized him as a threat, and gave them at least one extra card to play if it came to a fight.
“What is it that you want?” asked Rose.
“We just wish to speak with you more,” said Rain Dancer. “We have much to offer, more than you can see.”
Rose lifted an arm. Malcolm could tell that she was preparing to lash out with her shadows, or at least make the threat of doing so. He set his hand over hers and slowly lowered it down.
“You can go ahead and speak,” said Malcolm. “But I’m not really sure that your, uh, church… is right for us.”
“You have questions about our teachings, do you?”
Wow. Where do I even begin?
Malcolm couldn’t keep a smile from spreading across his face.
“I mean, a couple of things are interesting,” he said. “The priestess said that demons and sprytes were ’heroes of the Zodiac’, or some
thing.”
“Exactly,” said Rain Dancer. “We are touched by the stars, and given power from our astrological signs.”
“That’s honestly what you think?” asked Malcolm. “That somehow, astrology and superpowers just… go hand in hand? One mystery complimenting another?”
“You act like it couldn’t be true,” said Rain Dancer.
“And you make up bullshit like a Capricorn,” said Malcolm. “No, wait… definitely a Virgo.”
Rain Dancer broke into a deep, booming laugh.
“Oh, you are a funny one,” he said. “You’re quite right. Capricorn, you know?”
“Rain,” said Shield Maiden. “Let’s get to the point. There’s no need for us to keep them on guard unnecessarily.”
“Of course, my dear,” said Rain Dancer. “I’ll let you do the honors.”
Shield Maiden nodded.
“The two of you aren’t from Halter City, are you?” she asked.
Rose didn’t offer up an answer, so after a couple of seconds, Malcolm shook his head.
“No, we aren’t,” he said. “How did you guess?”
“There aren’t many so called ‘monsters’ left around here,” said Shield Maiden. “The Champion Authority does thorough sweeps of most large population centers in the United States.”
“It’s a crying shame,” said Rain Dancer.
Malcolm gave a small shrug. Shield Maiden glanced back and forth between him and Rose.
“Are the two of you… together?” asked Shield Maiden. “As a man and a woman?”
“Don’t answer that,” said Rose.
“I’ve been instructed not to answer that,” said Malcolm, rolling his eyes. “Which, I’m sure can be interpreted as an answer on its own.”
Shield Maiden smirked.
“I appreciate your sense of humor,” she said.
“Get to the point,” snapped Rose. “We aren’t here to make small talk.”
Shield Maiden nodded slowly, giving Rose a wary look.
“Of course,” she said. “The Awakened Children, above all, believe in pushing for peace between sprytes, demons, and human civilization. We’re always looking for allies in our cause.”
Malcolm looked over at Rose. She hadn’t relaxed in the slightest, and still appeared ready to attack.
“That’s a noble goal,” said Malcolm. “Lofty, but very noble. Uh… we only came here out of curiosity. It wasn’t really our intention to sign onto a movement today.”
Shield Maiden nodded. Her eyes flicked to the side, and Malcolm realized that Rain Dancer was circling around behind them.
“You’re already part of a movement, Malcolm,” said Shield Maiden. “Or should I call you Wind Runner?”
Fuck. They know I’m a champion…
Rain Dancer was standing in front of the church’s entrance. Malcolm swore under his breath for not trusting his instincts.
“Whatever it is that you intend,” said Rose. “You’ll have to go through me to carry it out.”
“There is no need for hostility,” said Shield Maiden. “We don’t wish for violence. All we wish is for the two of you to come with us and allow us to present our movement to you in full.”
“And what if we refuse?” asked Malcolm.
Shield Maiden smiled sadly.
“Your friend, the shadow spryte, is more than welcome to decide as she pleases,” said Shield Maiden. “You, however, are a champion. I’m afraid we can’t trust you, yet. It would be… unfortunate, if the Champion Authority were to discover our presence.”
Malcolm looked over at Rose. A half second of eye contact was all it took for both of them to confirm that they were on the same page. Rose dodged to the side, shooting shadow tendrils out at Rain Dancer. Malcolm shot up through the air, double teaming the demon with a flying kick aimed directly at his head.
Rain Dancer’s eyes widened, and he reacted instantly. He extended one hand outward toward Malcolm. Little arcs of electricity formed between his fingers, filling the air with crackling noises. Malcolm knew what that meant before he saw the flash, and felt the bolt of electricity hit him.
Electricity is my weakness. This… is not good.
The electric surge knocked back, striking with a force somewhere above a taser, but below a bolt of real lighting. Malcolm’s wind manipulation went dry as though someone had turned off the faucet that supplied his powers. He fell to church’s wooden floor in a heavy pile, and groaned as he forced himself back up to his knees.
His shirt was smoldering. He could feel small burns on his skin, but still had Tapestry’s regeneration power, which immediately went to work on healing them over. Rose had slipped into shadow at some point, hiding herself to prepare for a sneak attack.
“The Wind Runner,” called Rain Dancer. “Beaten that easily? After all the attention the press gave you? That’s a little sad, you know.”
“You can cry about it if you want,” said Malcolm. “Me? I prefer the more practical approach.”
Malcolm threw his hand to the side, striking one of the church’s beautiful, expensive, and probably irreplaceable stained-glass windows with a burst of wind. It shattered, and he collected the shards in a gust as they fell, pulling them into the church and swirling them in a defensive circle around his body.
Rain Dancer’s face twisted into a snarl. He let out a roar and threw his hands forward. Malcolm dove behind one of the wooden benches. Lightning struck, turning the bench into shards of smoldering wood and making Malcolm’s eardrums ring from the noise.
He countered, launching the largest of his stained-glass shards at Rain Dancer. It was about the size of baking sheet, but with jagged edges and a deadly point. Rain Dancer saw it coming and hit it with a bolt of lightning.
It didn’t work out as the demon had planned. The glass turned orange from heat and lost its shape, but it did not shatter. It hit Rain Dancer’s shoulder and he immediately let out a deep, horrible sounding scream.
“Damn, hot glass,” said Malcolm, chuckling. “I can’t even imagine how that feels, dude.”
He stood up. Rain Dancer was moving around wildly, alternating between patting his shoulder and trying to tear his shirt off. Malcolm readied another shard, but before he could launch it, Rain Dancer blasted more lightning in his direction, this time enough to branch outward into several bright white lines.
One of them hit Malcolm in the hand, and he felt every hair on his body stand up straight, along with a burst of heat and extreme pain. His powers failed again, the glass dropping from the air to the ground, useless to him for the moment.
“You’ll pay for that!” shouted Rain Dancer. “I was going easy on you, fool!”
“Yeah, likewise,” said Rose. She materialized from the shadows of the nearest corner to Rain Dancer, striking out at him with tendrils of darkness.
Rain Dancer dodged back, shooting lightning to meet Rose’s attack. Malcolm realized what was about to happen a split second before it was played out. While the lightning couldn’t interact with the shadows directly, the bright, unfiltered light it gave off was as much Rose’s weakness as electricity was his.
Rose’s face grew serious as her tendrils dissipated. She took a step back. Malcolm moved to intercept Rain Dancer before he could follow up with more lighting. He took a single step forward, and then saw Shield Maiden point at him out of the corner of his eye.
A bubble appeared at the tip of her finger. It was like her skin, colored with pink and purple and blue, and it flew through the air and collided with Malcolm’s arm. He swore under his breath, losing his concentration, though also a little amused by how impractical her power seemed to be.
She can make bubbles. Real scary.
Malcolm swept up his fallen window shards with the wind and hurled them at Rain Dancer. They made it across about half the space in between them before Shield Maiden pointed again. More of the bubble shields burst into existence, this time surrounding each of the shards and arresting their momentum.
“Hey!”
said Malcolm.
“Enough,” said Shield Maiden. “No more violence.”
Malcolm was already preparing another attack when she pointed at him. Suddenly, the room disappeared, the walls replaced by a multicolored, curving sphere just big enough for him to stand up in. He pushed out against it. The sphere gave under the touch of his hand, but not by much. It felt like rubber, but with less give.
“Rose!” shouted Malcolm. “Get out of here!”
“She got me too,” came Rose’s reply, along with an annoyed sigh. “I’m trapped in a bubble.”
Malcolm couldn’t see anything outside of the sphere beyond vague shapes, almost like looking through a multicolored shower curtain. He turned toward what he thought was Shield Maiden and waved his hand.
“Come on,” he said. “What’s the point of this? Are you going to force us to join up with you?”
“No,” said Shield Maiden, her voice muted slightly by the bubble. “Just to listen.”
CHAPTER 15
On top of being able to hold them within the bubble spheres, Shield Maiden was also able to move them with her mind. Malcolm was sitting down, but could feel the motion of the bubble in relation to the rest of his surroundings.
As far as he could tell, he was in the church’s back room. Rose’s bubble was visible next to him for a few seconds, and then someone switched the light off and closed the door, leaving them in darkness. Malcolm groaned and fought off a growing sense of claustrophobia.
“Well,” said Rose. “That went well.”
“Hey, don’t blame me,” said Malcolm. “I wasn’t expecting ebony and ivory out there to get the drop on us.”
“I’m not blaming you,” said Rose. “I blame myself, to be honest. We should have focused on approaching my sister in a more indirect manner.”
“This isn’t anything we could have predicted,” said Malcolm.
Rose was silent for a couple of seconds.
Wind Runner: The Complete Collection Page 24
