Sticks and Stones

by Alexie Aaron

  Ted walked out on the porch and stood beside Murphy. He had Baxter’s charm in his hand. He hoped it would be fast enough.

  A handsome expensive-suited man appeared in front of the house. He looked over at Ted and Murphy, sizing them up.

  “That’s Quazar in his human persona. He’s normally a cat-faced gargoyle,” Murphy told Ted.

  “Ted Martin, I presume,” Quazar said.

  “Quazar,” Ted said curtly. “Mia isn’t here to receive you, but I have a hunch that is why you’re brave enough to set foot on my property.”

  “It took some planning, but between the purebred supremacist and me, we managed to tie your wife up for a while, if not permanently. Just send Brian out and the rest of your children will be left unharmed.”

  “That’s not going to happen. Leave here.”

  “Those angels aren’t going to be of much help. Put tigers in a small box and all they can do is scratch. Send the boy out now or my elementals will eat your babies.”

  A demon guided his dragon into the airspace over Quazar.

  Lazar took aim and drilled the rider between the eyes. The creature fell at Quazar’s feet. Alarmed, Quazar lost his persona and became the cat-faced gargoyle.

  “Leave here,” Ted ordered.

  Lazar aimed at the elemental’s bellows, fired, hitting the elemental. As is its nature, the elemental started to extract the offending bullet. Meanwhile, Lazar managed to clip the dragon’s wing stem with his third shot. The dragon fell and flopped around on the ground.

  Murphy quickly chopped his way through the beast and removed its heart so it could not regenerate.

  Quazar waved the other dragon riders his way. “Get the boy before you set fire to the house,” he instructed.

  Lazar took potshots at the riders. The dragon riders weren’t confused for long. The leader sent two to attack what he saw as a problem on top of the house. The two guided their dragons downward with hopes of ripping the turret off the house. Three angels buzzed by them. The riders lost control of their beasts as the dragons took chase.

  Mia and Altair arrived. Mia sized up the situation quickly. “We have to manage the dragon riders so the gargoyles can get to their target.”

  “Follow my lead, and try not to slice up my wing with that barbaric piece of metal,” Altair said.

  “Everybody’s a critic,” Mia said as they took their first run.

  Ted saw the duo of white feathers speeding through the sky, trimming riders off dragons while pruning dragon wings, and knew his wife had arrived. He looked at Quazar and shook his head. “You may as well surrender. I wouldn’t bet on mercy coming from Mia anytime soon.”

  “She should have died when she was sent back in time. You did. Once again, she’ll have to stand over your broken dead body and mourn you while the elementals digest your children.”

  “You son of a flint!” Ted said. Lazar took a potshot at Quazar, but the bullet bounced off. Murphy took a swing, but stone was stone, and nothing happened. The gargoyle smiled. He dropped a large seed from his magic pouch and shouted an incantation.

  Ted watched in horror as a witch tree grew rapidly out of the ground. It gained its full height in minutes. Once the leaf star appeared, the tree was fully functional. Its branches lunged at Ted.

  Ted disappeared an angel’s breath from the tree having him in its grasp.

  Murphy started chopping at the tree.

  “Concentrate on the top branches!” Sariel shouted, pointing to the vines that headed across the roof towards Lazar’s turret. The veteran kept his cool and continued his assault on the dragon riders, ignoring the threat of the vines until one had wrapped around his leg and pulled back hard.

  Lazar released his prosthesis and took aim at another rider.

  The tree was confused and used the leg to battle Sariel who was close to its leaf star.

  Ted reappeared with a handful of barbs. He tossed them at the tree.

  The trunk exploded. The vines withered, and the roots lost their hold on the ground. As the tree died, its corrupted sap flowed around the surprised Quazar.

  Sariel shook his head as a new force of dragon riders appeared over the farm. He recalled his angels and sent a warning to Altair who grabbed Mia midflight. “We have to draw them out over the empty land of the hollow,” he said.

  Mia didn’t question him. She and Altair drew up short in front of the new riders, turned, and raced away. Soon the dragon riders were in formation, heading to overtake Mia and Altair.

  Sariel reached for the sky. He gathered a large ball of blue energy. He accessed the half-veil, reached out for the quarry and brought the stones.

  Mia and Altair shot straight up, dodging rocks as it rained boulders. The stones knocked riders off their beasts and stunned the dragons, bringing them to the ground. Sariel and his warrior angels descended upon the grounded beasts and made short work of them.

  Quazar saw that this battle was lost, and he moved to disappear. But nothing happened. His magic was not working. He looked around and saw three winged gargoyles standing a perfect distance away from him. Their triangle of power held him, robbing him of his magic. He soon lost the ability to move. He solidified and became the limestone from which he was born. The three then screeched, and the sculpted stone shattered. One scooped it all into three bags.

  “We will disperse this over the Atlantic on our way to Rome,” the leader told Ted.

  “Thank you,” Ted said. “Have a good journey.”

  The three nodded and took off.

  Mia and Altair landed. Mia ran over to Ted. “You took out a witch tree!”

  Ted looked down at his wife. “I did, didn’t I?”

  Altair picked up Lazar’s prosthesis and handed it to Ted. Ted pulled out a few tools, straightened a few things, and adjusted the foot before he handed it to Altair. “Would you mind tossing that up to Lazar? It’s got to be a bitch to climb down a ladder one-legged.”

  Altair left.

  “How did this happen?” Ted asked. “I was under the assumption that the Brotherhood didn’t consort with wizards. Is there any group that hasn’t been corrupted?”

  “Evil seeps under doors, around corners, and moves in silence,” Mia said. “We have what we think is just a disturbing thought, and it takes hold. There was no way we would have known this was brewing. Evil is everywhere. Angels lie on beds of white quartz to pull away any evil that may have attached to them as they have gone about their daily rounds. It’s a constant battle.”

  “I saw a similar bed in Baxter’s lab,” Ted said.

  “Good to know,” Mia said.

  “Before you ask, Jake has the battle recorded.”

  “Send it to Orion. I should go personally and thank Dis Pater. I hope our freezer’s stocked.”

  “Why?”

  “Warrior Flock is headed this way, and they’re going to be hungry.”

  “Cid’s wet dream of a situation.”

  “Ew, just ew,” Mia said, shaking her head as she headed for the woods.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Mia tried to focus on the good things that happened. She left the bad in a box and shoved it onto a shelf until she had time to sort it and deal with each piece. She scratched on a tree and was overjoyed when she heard Rom scratching back. She looked at the di inferi with the double-lidded eyes and the coarse tattooed skin. Mia regretting the loss of the claws Sariel had made for her. Instead, she took off her glove and held out her hand.

  Rom looked at it and took it gently.

  “I am once again in your debt.”

  “We are neighbors, there is no debt, just goodwill. Come, your family is waiting.”

  Mia followed him to the large hole into the underworld he had dug. Mia laughed as she surfed down the incline and fell into the arms of a Tartarian. Mia was too tired to complain about being carried. She just enjoyed the ride.

  Mia waited in the throne room. She knelt, placing her head on the floor
when Dis Pater entered. “Rise, Mia.”

  Mia did.

  “We have heard of your victory and have alerted your family. They will be brought here soon. But first I would like to converse with you.”

  Mia nodded.

  “Walk with me.”

  Mia fell into step beside him.

  “I feel an unrest inside you.”

  “I admit to being very angry and a bit pessimistic.”

  “I was in your shoes once,” Dis Pater said. “My kingdom had been taken away, and I had the choice but to move on and try to make a difference somewhere else or sit and wallow. I chose to build a new kingdom. I wrote a different future for me and my di inferi. You came along and gave us a way to be honorable.”

  “You were always honorable.”

  “But we never showed it to the living,” Dis Pater qualified. “Thank you, for reaching out and asking us for help.”

  “Thank you for coming once again to the aid of my children.”

  “Mia, I would like you to look at the attack on your family not as a betrayal of the community of birdmen but as the actions of a few scared old men. They were used to having power. Times are changing, and instead of embracing the future, they clung to the past. All will be sorted. Keep your family close, but don’t live behind barricades. Your children need to be, as your Cid put it, good citizens of the universe.”

  Mia nodded. “You have given me good advice, sire.”

  Dis Pater stopped and smiled. “I understand that Altair is going to take on your education.”

  “He has set out on an arduous task,” Mia said.

  “May Romulus listen in on some of your lessons?”

  “I’ll ask Altair, but I don’t see why not? Maybe I can copy off his homework.”

  Dis Pater laughed. “You always bring laughter with you. This is part of your power. Laughter, acceptance, and love.”

  They had made their way back to the throne room.

  “Mommy!” Varden called as he ran into the room. He stopped dead and bowed quickly to Dis Pater before he jumped into his mother’s arms. Brian walked beside Cid who was carrying Genevieve. Dieter followed with Maeve. Nanny trailed them, enjoying that she was having a conversation with a Tartarian.

  Brian nodded his head to the king and walked quickly to hug Mia. “I did as I was asked. I protected the children, Mom.”

  “You certainly are showing some Excelsior qualities. Angelo will be very proud. I am. Your Dad killed a witch tree. It took Murphy, Angelo, Burt, Mike, and me to kill our first witch tree, and your dad did it all by himself.”

  Brian shook his head, “There will be no living with him then.”

  Cid chuckled.

  Mia looked over at her friend, her words were blocked by gratitude and love. “You…” She barely kept her emotions in check. “Oh my, you have a flock of Warriors on the way, and they are going to be hungry.”

  Cid grinned. “Don’t worry, I have a secret stash of ribs.”

  “I’ll help,” Mia promised.

  “Please don’t.”

  “But I want to help,” Mia persisted.

  Nanny put her hand on Mia’s back and said, “Don’t torture the man.”

  ~

  Mia walked over to the group. “I heard you wanted to see me.”

  “Ah, the little general,” Marius Ungar said.

  “Retired.”

  “Come sit with us, we have much to discuss,” he said, making room.

  Mia walked through the outer ring of warriors, glad she was wearing respectable clothing. Brushing up against the moving muscle was a bit daunting. She sat down next to Marius whom she remembered from the raid on the Cynosura Nurseries, and more recently, her trial.

  “Thank you for being here,” Mia said. “You have honored my family with your presence. Extend my thanks to your families who are missing you tonight.”

  “We will just tell them we’re sleeping over at Little Bird’s,” Marius teased.

  “There goes my reputation,” Mia countered.

  “It’s about your rumored reputation that we are most concerned,” Aleron Sauvageau told her.

  “Which rumor?” Mia asked, preparing herself for the worst.

  “You have no flock.”

  “My grandfather is Orion Stavros. I fall under his protection.”

  “That is more of a House. Flock is what you do, who you are, where your loyalties lay,” Aleron explained.

  “We want you to stay in Warrior flock,” Marius said.

  “As a healer?”

  “No, as a warrior,” Marius interjected. “You are one of us, Mia. It doesn’t matter if your blood is tainted with this and that, you earned the right to be one of us. You achieved the death spiral three times. Killed three beast Nephilim and separated one from his beast. Dozens of elemental dragons and their riders have fallen at your feet. You have killed Aosoth and would have sawn your own leg off to protect Varden Martin whom you carried inside. We still want you, even though you consort with angels, demons, and worse.”

  “Worse?”

  “Wizards.”

  “Ah, wizards. They are tricky fellows,” Mia commiserated. “I’ve been told I turn warriors into lapdogs. I’d like that rumor to stop.”

  The group laughed.

  “When word got around that you quit, we were unhappy,” Marius said.

  “I may have been hasty. But let me lay my cards out on the table. Angelo from Excelsior flock was willing to risk his reputation and career to protect my family. If I return to a flock, shouldn’t it be his?”

  Marius stroked his chin. “He was most noble to do that, but all birdmen are required to be selfless.”

  “Wait you can’t be required to be selfless. You either are or you’re not,” Mia argued.

  “You are, and we are. It proves you are one of us,” Aleron said. “We will not use you for political gain. We promise to come when needed, as you will come when we need you. We miss your voice.”

  Mia’s eyes watered. “There is much to discuss, and I have a husband to consult.”

  “Another wizard,” Marius teased. “We are willing to wait until your babies are grown, but we want to be able to brag that Mia Moth Martin is Warrior flock.”

  “Mia Moth Martin?”

  “You are attracted to the light. You are Moth,” Marius said.

  “You’re making a lot of sense. I will think seriously on this. I thank you for approaching me with this honor,” Mia said and stood up. She took the time to touch each birdman with her bare hand and thank them before she left.

  Mia headed for the patio to see if there was any food left. Lazar fell into step beside her. She looked over at him and stopped. “Well, if it isn’t Dead Eye Popov.”

  “You been spending too much time with the riffraff.”

  “Indeed I have. What can I do for you, cousin?”

  “I don’t want anything but your company. I miss bossing you around.”

  Mia laughed. “Stand in line. Order of bossing Mia goes as follows: Ralph, Altair…” Mia stopped.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’ve forgotten to ask him something important.”

  “If you must do it now, he’s in the aerie. Too many birdmen for his comfort.”

  “Walk me there and you can boss me around all the way up the hill.”

  “As much as I would like that, I’m tired.”

  “Then let me walk you home first.” Mia reached her hand out to assist him.

  “Don’t hold my hand. I’m not a child,” Lazar warned.

  “Let me get this straight, you’re going to boss me around on level ground but…”

  “Shut up and take me home.”

  Mia texted Ted to tell him her plans. He sent back an emoji of a moth. “I see word has gotten around.”

  “What word?”

  “I have a nickname and a job offer.”

  “Mia Moth Martin. More like Mia Mouth Mart
in.”

  “I can still carry and dump you in the stream, Dead Eye.”

  Ted looked up from his phone. Cid was conversing with Victor, and he was bored. He excused himself and wandered over to the office and his lab. He wouldn’t normally start on a project, but Mike mentioned that Gates was having trouble stopping on the skates she was practicing on in order to infiltrate the flat-course roller derby team. He was sure he could create a device for her to control with a toe. He would have Mia help demo them when he got a prototype made.

  Murphy was coming up from his workshop. Ted waved him over. “I see you’ve had too many birdmen too.”

  “Just too much company. They will fly off at dawn, and we’ll have the place to ourselves,” Murphy said. “What are you working on?”

  Ted told him.

  “We’re not finished with Ms. Carter’s house, are we?”

  “There is still constant activity. It could go on for weeks. Mia and I will have to spell the others until Burt decides this investigation is toast. Meanwhile, I’ve got roller derby skates to fine-tune for Gates.”

  “I’d like to shadow Mia for a while,” Murphy said.

  “That would be kind of you, Stephen,” Ted said. “She’s getting a neck ache from constantly looking over her shoulder.”

  “I think Altair plans on staying,” Murphy said.

  Ted sighed. “Better he than Nicholai.”

  “Who would win in a battle? Altair or Nicholai?” Murphy asked.

  “You’ve been spending too much time with Cid.”

  “Well?”

  “I fear it would be a draw.”

  “Unless whiskey was drunk,” Murphy said.

  Ted smiled. “Stephen, we’ve never seen Nicholai drink whiskey. If you are going to play Who would beat who? and you handicap one, let’s say with booze or a broken sword, you have to handicap the other with the same.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s a math thing. What you do on one side you do on the other.”

  “That’s not how Cid plays.”