Forever the Road (A Rucksack Universe Fantasy Novel) (47 page)

“Maybe,” Amma said. “Or maybe this was always the destiny that had to unwind eventually. I know only that, regardless of where we go in life, we must do what we can.”

“You are willing to die for me and for the others,” Jigme said to his parents. Something in him blazed up, but it was not anger. “Even if I can’t come back, it doesn’t matter. I will fight for you, for them. I will do all I can to stop the Smiling Fire. Even if it kills me. If by fighting or dying I can stop him, then at least in death I tried to make good for what I did wrong in life.”

Before they could reply, Jigme turned back to looking at the outside world.

The moon began to cover the sun. Far at the edge of the Smiling Fire’s sight, two people approached.

T
HE TAXI PULLED AWAY
and the blackened city crunched under Jay’s feet. He watched the cab disappear. Dust and exhaust trailed up in a large gray plume.

“Before you even start to think it,” said a familiar voice, “this isn’t your fault.”

The plume faded as Rucksack passed through it. In his black clothes, he looked like a walking shadow.

Jay shook his head. “If I had stayed—”

“If you had stayed,” Rucksack said, “maybe you would’ve been killed. Maybe Jade or I would be dead too. Maybe more would have died. I could just as easily say Mum should’ve stayed, but she didn’t and you didn’t. All that mattered is what happened, and all that matters is what happens now.”

“I shouldn’t have abandoned you and Jade. That wasn’t right.”

“You felt betrayed,” Rucksack said. “In some ways, we did betray you.”

“You didn’t let me have a say,” Jay replied. “Maybe I would’ve chosen to stay, even though I had my passport back.”

“I can understand if you’re still angry.”

They stared at each other and said nothing.

Jay stuck out his hand. After a moment, Rucksack shook it.

“There are more important things,” Jay said. “I forgive you, Faddah Rucksack, you evasive gobshite.”

“And I you,” Rucksack said, returning Jay’s grin. “You thick eejit.”

They looked at the sky. The rich midday blue was only just deepening and darkening as the moon covered the sun.

“I suppose we’d best be off then,” Rucksack said.

“I’d hate to be late,” Jay replied. “It could be our own funerals, after all.”

They started walking toward the heart of the city.

“Do you think this could’ve been prevented?” Rucksack asked.

Jay shook his head. “Life has waited a long time for this, Rucksack. All living things versus the Smiling Fire,” Jay said. “The world tolerates a lot, but a moment like this was always in the works. The place for it happened to be here. The time for it happened to be now. And it wound up being up to me. All you did was try to keep me on track.”

“I wish I could take this burden from you, Jay.” Rucksack clenched and unclenched his left hand. “If I were as I once was…”

“You could be all that you were,” Jay replied. “You could be all that you’re going to be, Rucksack, and this still wouldn’t be your responsibility. Remember what you said to me? The other gods weren’t the right gods for this fight. You aren’t a god. You’re far more, really, but this fight is up to the world, to existence itself. Sometimes things have to come down to regular people who find themselves in impossible circumstances. Then we have to learn that far more is possible than we let ourselves imagine before.”

“You would think that it would come down to me, you know?” Rucksack said. “I helped stop this thing before I was even born.”

“Not all things work like that,” Jay replied. “The Smiling Fire doesn’t understand enough of life, enough of us, to have any idea that one is different from another. Maybe he would have recognized Kailash, but I don’t think so. The only thing he might see you as is a juicier, spicier meal than a typical human. You and Kailash played a part then, but times have changed. What’s needed has changed. So have you.”

Jay clapped Rucksack on the shoulder and said, “Long as it is, mate, your story has hardly begun. I don’t know the how and why and where of all that’s ahead for you, but I got a glimpse. You said that helping me do this would put you back on the path to your destiny. It does. I’m glad it does too. I don’t know what’s coming, but I know that when you face what you’re ultimately here to sort out, the Smiling Fire will seem about as big a deal as a stubbed toe.”

“Why, Jay of the road,” Rucksack said. “When did you get all wise and profound?”

“Your mother gave me a crash course,” Jay replied. “I intend to honor her sacrifice.”

For a moment the men said nothing. Rucksack’s eyes dimmed. “I always figured Mum would want to go only when it meant exchanging her mortal life for the good o’ another,” Rucksack said. “Bittersweet as it is that she’s gone, at least I got to see her again.”

“Is she dead?” Jay asked.

“Her mortal self is,” Rucksack replied. “But I think she’d been ready a long time to let that go. She is the mountain now, Jay. The world mountain. We get through this, I bet we’ll be seeing her again.”

“That’s comforting.”

Up ahead stood a dark figure, tall and thin like a flame made of shadow.

“Aye,” Rucksack said. “Though I suppose that’ll be the last comfort we have for a while.”

Jay set down his backpack and checked that the daypack was still fastened to it. With a sigh and a pat, he left his backpack behind.

As they walked on, Jay tried to grin, but fear surged up too. “If I make it out alive, I’m going to be thirsty,” he said. “If we both survive this, how about we grab a pint later?”

Rucksack chuckled, but fear shone in his eyes too. “You’re on.”

“Just in case we don’t get another chance,” Jay said, “it’s been a pleasure. Faddah Rucksack, I’m glad I met you. I’m glad to call you my friend.”

“Likewise,” Rucksack replied. “There’s many the time I’ve despaired, Jay, but meeting you… earning and losing and regaining your friendship… it gives me a lot to look forward to in the world again.”

Silent as they continued, Jay and Rucksack now could see the red gleam of the Smiling Fire’s face. They stopped a few yards away.

The Smiling Fire stepped to one side. Jade was tied to the obsidian block.

“A damsel in distress?” Rucksack said. “I wouldn’t have thought that was your style.”

Jade strained to look at them. “Who the hell are you calling a damsel?” She saw Jay. “Oh. You came back.”

“I came to say I’m sorry.”

“Save the world,” she replied, “and I’ll consider that apology accepted.”

The Smiling Fire looked back and forth between them. His eyes flickered.

Jay said, “Rucksack and I are going for a pint later. Will you join us?”

“Sure.” Jade laughed. “But you and I have to have a serious discussion after. God or not, you’ve got some explaining to do, backpack boy.”

“It’s a date.”

“You’ll bloody well wait until I tell you what it is.”

The Smiling Fire raised an arm. “Enough.”

“The dia ubh!” Rucksack said.

The crack in the dia ubh had gotten wider and longer. Silver and gold glinted inside.

“When will it break open?” Jay asked.

“When the eclipse is total,” Rucksack answered.

The moon now covered most of the sun.

The Smiling Fire let the dia ubh go.

Instead of falling, it ascended. The dia ubh floated until it was directly above them, just far enough away to remain out of reach, yet so close it seemed they could leap up and grab it. As the dia ubh rose, the sky darkened. The moon continued eating the sun.

“At last,” the Smiling Fire said. He reached into the shadows of his chest. The slanted edges of a piece of obsidian, as long as Jay’s forearm, tapered to a sharp point that glinted even in the dying light.

The Smiling Fire held the knife high over his head. “Now, you all die,” he said. Flames spilled from his grin as it widened. “Beginning with her.”

The knife plunged.

J
AY DIDN’T KNOW
if he was going to scream or speak or find he could not voice a word. He stepped forward, but the air had turned to treacle. His leg must have been moving, but everything about his body was happening way too slowly.

The only thing clear was the absent space next to him where Rucksack had been standing. As the knife began its downward arc to Jade’s heart, a blur shimmered in a line all the way to where the Smiling Fire stood. Moonlight—or was it sunlight?—glinted off the black point of the obsidian blade.

She’s going to die,
Jay thought. S
he’s going to die
.

The blade pierced the last shreds of air between it and Jade’s chest.

Then there was no blade.

The Smiling Fire staggered backward, falling and tumbling across the rubble.

Rucksack turned around. He spun the knife in his right hand so the blade pointed out like a fencer’s sword.

“Stay out o’ this as best you can,” he said to Jay.

The ferocity in Rucksack’s eyes blazed brighter than full sun. “All we have to do is hold the bastard off until the dia ubh opens,” he said. “You keep yourself alive and out o’ his way. Position yourself so the moment that light shines, it shines on you.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Whatever it takes.” Rucksack glanced down. “All right then, Jade?” he said. Rucksack sliced through the tethers that tied her to the block. He went around to the other side and sliced the ties there too.

Jade sat up and swung off the block, rubbing her wrists.

“Jay,” she said. “Whatever you do when the time comes, don’t kill him.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Jay replied. “That’s been the whole point of my destiny. I have to kill him, Jade.”

“There’s something you don’t know.”

“The only thing I know is I don’t have a choice anymore,” Jay said. “This is how it has to be. It’s him or the world. I choose the world. The moment I become the god, I’m going to kill him.”

The Smiling Fire stood. “You cannot kill me,” he said, moving toward Jay. “But I will have your blood.”

“Not yet,” Jay replied. He threw a rock. The Smiling Fire halted for a moment then continued forward.

Jade ran toward them. She leaped through the air, and her knees knocked into the Smiling Fire’s back.

He stumbled but righted himself and turned. Jade regained her own balance. They circled each other and locked eyes.

Jay ran toward the obsidian block, stopping when he stood beneath the dia ubh.

“Where is it, then?” Jade asked through the sharp scythe of her smile, her hands balled in fists near her face. “You’ve spent weeks leveling the city. Flames used to spring up wherever you so much as walked or looked. Surely you can barbecue a former bartender.”

The Smiling Fire lunged forward, but Jade was ready. Her right hook caught him in the face. He spun around but stayed standing.

She shook her hand, which reddened under the deep brown of her skin. “I’ve gotten worse touching a hotplate,” she said.

“You will burn.”

“Then bring the fire, smiley,” Jade replied. “Or do you even have it in you anymore?”

The Smiling Fire took a step back.

She laughed. “You greedy bastard. You overdid it, didn’t you? All these fires, all this death and destruction. You spent most of your power,” Jade said. “You could’ve burned us like ants under a magnifying glass on a sunny day, but now you couldn’t char a dung patty.”

“That… That will not matter soon.”

Jade glanced at the sky. Only a sliver of sun remained. The sky was black but for a dim light, a ruddy mix of red and gold that turned the broken city around them into bloody shadows.

The glance was enough.

The Smiling Fire grabbed Jade and thrust her backward.

Jay winced at the flat, wet sound her body made when she hit the obsidian block.

She fell to her knees, slumped over, and was still.

“Jade!” he shouted, taking a step.

“Stay where you are, Jay!” Rucksack leaped so that he stood between them and the Smiling Fire. Again, Rucksack spun the knife in his hand. He pointed the blade down then angled it back toward his forearm.

“Do you bleed fire or shadow?” he asked, slowly waving the knife in front of him. “Let’s find out.”

They met in a blur. Jay had never thought Rucksack could move so quickly.
Hero of old,
he thought,
and hero of now.

The two dodged each other’s blows first by millimeters, then by spaces no bigger than a crack in the sidewalk, then by atoms. Neither shadow nor blade could connect. They spun around each other, leaping from side to side, limbs blazing forward, then back or aside as the other blocked or countered. All the while, the last sliver of sun faded.

Just when Jay thought it would never end, the Smiling Fire’s arm thrust out. Rucksack bent his knees, ducked, and swept underneath, all the while moving forward, his knife arm held close to his body. He slashed the obsidian blade across the Smiling Fire’s torso and side, raking the knife forward with him as he stepped through, as nonchalantly as he would have passed by someone in a crowded pub.