Trouble With Horns

81: Securing the Haul

The back gate was still laying discarded on the ground where we’d left it. Not a single person had turned up to fix it, apparently, and that was still true as we escaped through it. Just what in the fuck had we accidentally sparked out the front of the property? World War Four?

Racing away through the ruined gateway, we dashed out into the alley and made for our own manor house. Ten metres out, and horns began to sound in the distance, prompting us to put on more speed. This wasn’t working, though. We needed to make better time than simply following the back alleys would allow.

“Dawn, Kimmy, we need to go up on the rooftops,” I said, already shifting nearer to the slim healer.

“Good idea,” Dawn agreed, and her wings flared into existence, trailing smoke and ash. “We’ll run and glide. Don’t go more than a few metres above the rooftops.”

Grunting in acknowledgement and taking the unspoken meaning in my girlfriend’s look before she leapt upwards, I scooped Kimmy up in my arms. She squeaked in protest and surprise. “Hey! What… I’m not some darn teddy bear you can just carry around!”

“Sorry,” I grinned, and crouched, flexing my thighs in preparation. Electric magic sizzled over my armour, and I pushed off to clear the nearby garden shed rooftop easily.

Kimmy let out an adorable little gasp and wrapped her arms tight around my neck. If it hadn’t been for my neck armour thingy, she’d have choked me out. What was the neck piece called anyway? Something starting with G, I think. Dawn had mentioned it when we bought the set, but the only word that was springing to mind right then was gagging, and that definitely wasn’t it.

I broke our fall with a quick upward partial redirection of our momentum, then pounded feet to slate. A few steps later, and I was sailing through the air over another beautifully kept garden. Twisting and scooping the air with my wings, I took us up onto the main manor house and ran again.

We moved like that for a long while. Sprinting over rooftops, leaping over gaps between buildings, and soaring across gardens and streets. Every time my feet left the ground, Civette gave a little shudder and wrapped herself even tighter around me. Damn, had that Ravensmith girl traumatised her or something?

I made sure to hold her tight, to give her a sense of safety on the rest of the way home. We came down in the chaotic, once beautiful back garden of our manor home with the crunch of gravel underfoot.

Kimmy immediately tumbled out of my arms in a rush, her breathing heavy.

“You okay?” I asked, eyeing her with worry.

She nodded, unable to meet my eyes. “Y-yeah. Sorry.”

Snorting, I moved back into her personal space and took hold of her chin. I was careful not to hurt her, since I was still wearing my magitech powered gauntlets, but I forced her to look up at me nevertheless.

“You look spooked, Kimmy,” I said gently.

Her eyes boggled at the forced contact, and she went hopelessly limp and almost… docile in my grasp. Heat pooled low in my stomach, but I shooed it away. I had a girlfriend, and I was trying to help out a friend who was obviously running through something in her head. I let go of her chin and moved my hand to her shoulder instead, smiling softly and in what I hoped was an encouraging way.

“I… it’s just everything I was raised to think and feel and… it’s all so wrong,” she said helplessly, her blue eyes staring up at me like she was trying to will me into understanding everything going on in her head.

She struggled to put her thoughts into words for a few long moments, then gave up and shrugged helplessly. “My parents made me think that my only reason for even living was to find a man and marry him, then pop out children. That, and to pray to the Two and to God.”

“Kimmy,” I said slowly. “The Second was an asshole, a dictator wannabe, and honestly the best evidence that demonic possession is real. The First, though? Jesus was like the opposite of the Patriot Church. I still don’t understand how y’all can even reconcile his teachings with what is actually practised in this day and age.”

A frown creased her brows, and I cut my little sermon short and gave her a smile. “What I’m saying is, you were taught wrong. If you want to hold onto some form of your faith, you could try learning about the New Episcopalians or the Choir. Personally, I’d go with the Choir of John Brown, ‘cos they were absolute badasses during the war.”

Her face scrunched up at the mention of the last. “The CJB are—”

“A little wild, but pretty justified considering how things have turned out, wouldn’t you say?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Their light mech battalion burned the entire city of Jacksonville to the ground!” she exclaimed, staring at me incredulously.

I snorted and nodded. Learning about that in history class had been so cool. Even though the UN had won the war with swarms of AI controlled drones, it hadn’t started that way. The early war battles between the huge lumbering mechs of the American Republic versus the fast, agile mechs of the north-east had entranced little Tami.

“That was after they heard that the AR had just executed every single one of their captured friends, Kimmy,” I said, smoothing out the amusement on my face. “I think you’d fit in more with the Choir, personally. You’re not enough of a bible nerd to join the Episcopalians—“ Her answering pout was criminally adorable. “No, Kimmy, do some research. It’s likely everything you’ve heard about them is based on Patriot Church lies. Keep an open mind, okay?”

“I’ll try,” she sighed, giving me a wan smile.

Tilting my head, I glanced at her, then up into the sky, absently looking for Dawn. “Why are we talking about churches again?”

“Oh, yeah… uh, it’s because being flown around by you and Ethie is like… this weird mix of me being appropriately damsely for my parents, but the fact it’s girls carrying me like a porcelain princess would give them fits,” she explained, licking her wind-chapped lips anxiously.

“Fuck them,” I said, a vehemence I hadn’t anticipated bleeding into my voice. “They abused you, moulded you into something twisted and unnatural. They don’t deserve even an ounce of your headspace.”

“Unnatural?” she asked. Her expression and bearing had grown meek and small at my little outburst, and I did my best to calm down.

“Hate like what the church believes isn’t in our nature, it’s taught,” I explained. I swear I’d already told her this. “You aren’t born with it.”

Her expression was unreadable, and she shrugged. “I guess. Uh… should we take the money inside now? Where’s Dawn anyway?”

“That…” I frowned, glancing up at the sky, then inside the house. “Is a good question.”

Concentrating, I called up party-sense and felt around for her. My stomach dropped. She was way back in the city, and her hp felt like it was taking hits.

Immediately, I began to dump gold onto the ground, allowing it to pour out of my inventory. “Make sure this gold is safe, Kimmy, then get the staff ready.”

She gaped at the gold for a second. “Ready for what?”

“I have no idea, but Dawn is still back there and she’s taking damage of some kind,” I told her quickly as the last of the gold fell to the floor. “Be ready to heal her if that’s needed. I’m going to fly back and find her. Are you comfortable following on foot once the gold is secure?”

“Yes,” she agreed, finally bending to store the gold in her inventory. “Oof, that’s heavy. Hurry to her and figure out what’s going on. I’ll be right behind you.”

“Yes ma’am,” I smiled, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder before I launched back into the air.

** Dawn **

The Pags were fighting someone, but I had no idea who. One side, the imperialist spies, wore red armbands. The other side was harder to discern, except that they all used bastard swords with two deep fullers running in parallel down the centre of the blades. The uniformity of their weapons suggested that they weren’t just a rag-tag group of criminals like their clothing was trying very hard to imply.

Rather unfortunately for me, both sides seemed to consider me an enemy. How very lovely.

I covered behind a small chimney, trying to avoid getting hit by the mages down in the street battle. The fighting had spread to several blocks around the manor we’d hit, and I had gotten my wing clipped by some sort of pinpoint accurate magic beam. Damn thing hurt like a bitch.

At least Tami and Civette had gotten away. That was most of the gold we’d stolen safely stashed, even if I didn’t get my load back there. Tami had been the literal heavy lifter anyway.

Tentatively, I peeked out from behind the stone brick of my hiding place and tried to get a look at the mage who was taking shots at me. I was fairly certain it was a Pag, so I scanned their ranks with a careful eye.

A beam of sizzling scab-red energy licked my shoulder, causing me to stumble back behind my meagre cover with a curse. Christ, that hurt. At least I could see where the bastard was. He was back along the road towards the merchant manor we’d raided, taking cover behind an overturned cart. I felt a stab of pity for the horse, which lay dead and partially melted to the cobblestone road.

My next foray out of cover was with a raised sword. I pointed it at the shithead and poured mana into a spell. Fire licked once down the enchanted steel, then it roared like a flare of solar plasma and reached out across the intervening distance.

The mage screamed in fear, and with a desperate gesture he summoned an active cast shield of magical energy. It lasted all of two seconds before he ran out of mana and my spell seared a hole right through his chest.

Okay, that was one down, now I needed to deal with— Pain burst across my consciousness, and I was flung back to scrape across the slate roof.

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