Agon (3 page)

“
A little? I think she
might have written the book on it. In the few minutes she was here,
I think I might have come to the conclusion she hates me. Not just
me but all people. Is that true?” He nodded and it broke Kala’s
heart to see the sadness bloom on His face. “She doesn’t believe in
You either, does she? Not even a little.”

“
No. She does not believe
in anything, as a matter of record. Not that I blame her much,
because she has good reason not to trust. But she will need to
before this is finished.” He looked at her. “I’ve come to ask you
for your help with her.”

Kala had so much to do now she barely
had time to do it all. But she’d do anything for Boss even if she
had to let things go. She thought of the woman again and told Him
she’d help Him.

“
But I’d like to know what
it is she can do, or as much as you can tell me about her, please.
I know what I’ve been told, but I have a feeling there’s more to it
than that.” He nodded but didn’t say anything. “Okay, I can see
you’re going to be a pain in the ass about this. At least tell me
why she hates people so much. If you want my help, I need yours
too.”

“
When she was but a child,
smaller than the ones you carry now, a man harmed her mother. She
was left in a state that rendered her brain no longer functioning.
Her father, a man of less faith than the daughter, had her mother
held in a state of flux until the babe could survive outside of the
womb. He was going to raise the child on his own and keep her
safe.” Kala wanted to tell him she no longer wanted to know, but he
continued. “After a time, the man knew that his child, Judith, was
not like other children. She could do things with her mind that he
knew would cause him embarrassment if anyone could see it. Moving
pencils and bending objects at first. Then she could see things
that no others could. Things that had not yet happened, as well as
things people had tried to hide from others. Her father, he took
to…hurting young Judith whenever her deformity, as he called it,
would show.”

“
What sort of things can
she do?” He looked at her and Kala pleaded, “Please tell me. I need
to know so that I can help her.”

“
Her mind can process
things faster than a computer. She can read a thick book in
minutes, add equations that would boggle even the most learned man,
and she can see things, small details that other would not.” She
asked Him if that was all, and He shook His head as He finished.
“With a simple thought she can move mountains.”

Kala waited for Him to tell her He was
exaggerating, but He looked out over the field again. She listened
as He told her the rest of her story. It was one she was sure would
haunt her for months, if not years.

“
He was not a man who
should have been given such a gift. I knew that then. But that is
what I had at the time and it was too late when it came to pass for
me to change it. The child he had would have loved him above all
things, yet he destroyed that with his fists and words. There were
times when she would try so hard to please him, doing anything he
asked of her, until he tried to have her cheat for him. She would
not give him the information he so wanted, and he nearly destroyed
her for it.” He looked at her as He continued. “She needs only to
touch someone or something to have it tell her everything about it.
Where it has been, who the person has touched, as well as who might
have killed him. Her father wanted her to touch the dealers on
their street so he could find where deals were going to happen. His
plan was to take the money after the deal by killing the dealer
when it was most convenient for him. Then use it for…well, purposes
that Judith found to be distasteful.”

If Judith could tell what the future
might hold for someone she touched, then the possibilities were
endless in what she could know. “Could she even tell who her father
had murdered? Where the bodies were when he did it? She could…he
wanted her to tell him things that he’d gain from. Like lotto
numbers and such.” He nodded and turned back to the field. “She
could have made him wealthy beyond any dreams he had, I’m thinking,
and she wouldn’t help him because it was wrong. Can she tell…did
she know that he’d die too?”

“
She did. But it did him
little good when it came to it. The man…his own brother,
sadly…killed him right in front of our girl. Murdered him, and she
believes it was her fault. So at the age of thirteen she was alone,
but had by that point gotten better at hiding what she did not want
the others to know about her. The uncle knew, of course, and
now…well, now he has it in his mind that she will help him. Now out
of prison and looking for the child, she will be in grave
danger.”

“
He wants to use her. Use
her just like her father wanted. But she won’t, will she? She’ll
continue to say no until…he’ll kill her, won’t he?” Boss nodded,
and Kala tried to think of all the things a terrible man could and
would use Judith’s talents for. It was depressing as well as
overwhelming.

Kala sat there a long time after Boss
left her. All she could think about was how horribly Judith had
been treated, and how the one person who should have been there for
her had failed her the worst of all. She knew how the girl felt on
that level. Kala looked up when a shadow fell over her. Riss sat
beside her.

“
I have spoken to Boss. He
said that He felt you were upset when He left you. I think He was
very worried and sent me to you.” She nodded and pulled his hand to
cover their babies. “He is active today, is He not?”

Kala smiled. She wanted to tell Riss
that they were having four boys, not just the one, but she wanted
him to be surprised. It was getting harder and harder for her to
hold onto the secret with each week that went by. But when their
child moved under her skin, she knew that they were the luckiest
people in the world. Laying her head on his shoulder, she decided
that she wanted everyone in the world to be as happy as she was at
that very moment.

“
I want to go into town
tomorrow. I have someone I’d like to meet on her grounds. I
think…she might be able to help Lily and me with our projects.”
Riss grinned and she could see the devilment in his eyes. “What do
you know?”

“
That Judith will become a
part of our family, and even though I know not who he is, I know he
will be happy soon, too.” Kala hoped so, but she had a feeling
whoever he was, he might be more upset than anything. None of the
protectors she knew were all that keen on becoming
wedded.

Chapter 2

“
You want me to watch this
person from afar but to only intervene when she is in mortal
danger. I do not understand this.” Agon waited for Tholan to
explain, but all he did was sit there staring at him. “Where is her
protector now? Shouldn’t he be here telling me what he knows about
her?”

“
From what I have been
told, she has none.” Agon wasn’t sure he’d heard him right so he
asked him to repeat it. “I said she has none, and when she does
have one, she is…let us just say that she has none. There was
someone who watched over her for a while, but something happened.
And before you bully me into telling you what it was, I do not
know. I have been told she has fallen through the
walls.”

“
Walls?” It took Agon a
second to understand. “You mean cracks? She has fallen through the
cracks and no one noticed before today?” Tholan nodded and Agon
felt himself grow madder.

“
It will not be long,
Agon, just a few…she will only need you to watch her for a little
while. I’m to understand that she will have someone permanent in a
few days. A week at the most.” Agon was shaking his head. “I know
that you are in need of your time off, Agon, but I have no one
else. They are all working around the clock as it is.”

“
I’m exhausted.” He was,
too. His charge had died two days ago from a horrific accident.
He’d only been thirty-two years old. “I’m not…I don’t know if I can
do this right now. I really enjoyed that man and was…he left behind
five children and a wife.” And a hole in Agon’s heart, though he
didn’t mention that. He knew that each of them lost a part of their
heart when their charge died like this.

“
I know. I’m terribly
sorry. But this woman, you will not have to get close to her. In
fact, I was warned that the more distance you put between the two
of you the better. She can see us.” Agon felt his body turn to ice.
To see them was something no one was supposed to be able to do.
Before Agon could ask him, Tholan raised his hand. “I know nothing
save she can see us and does not like to have anyone near her. I
have…there was another protector as of yesterday, but he came to me
and said he would quit now if he had to stay with her a moment
longer. He told me she was not nice. I could not get him to tell me
how she had mistreated him; he would only say that she is not
nice.”

“
Most humans now are not
nice sometimes, but that is no reason for him to leave her
unattended.” Agon started to pace back and forth when the door to
Tholan’s office burst open. Michael stood there with his sword
drawn and a look of fear on his face. Agon reached for his own
weapon before remembering that he’d given his up decades
ago.

“
You will come with me
now.”

Agon took a step toward Michael only
to be brought up short. The room they were now in was not Tholan’s
office, and the amount of blood all over the place had him wishing
he’d taken the time to arm himself. He saw the woman seconds before
she looked right at him.

“
Before you go all
medieval on me, I didn’t kill him. When I got here, he was already
dead. The police have been called, and Benny is on his way.” Agon
looked behind him and realized she was speaking to him. “I think
someone broke into my shop while I was gone. David here was picking
up his order, but he had the code to get in. He’s been coming and
going here for years and had never had a problem. And now this. As
I said, I’ve called the police already.”

“
David is the man there?”
She nodded and took a step back when he moved toward her. “I am
only going to see if you are wounded as well. My name is Agon, in
the event you wish to know.”

“
I don’t, but whatever.
And I’m not hurt, you moron. I just told you he was here when I got
here. What the hell are you doing here anyway?” Agon looked for
Michael to have him explain because, to be honest, he had no idea
where here was. “What’s the matter with you? Who are you looking
for? I asked you a question. What are you doing here?”

“
I do not know, to be
perfectly honest.” Agon noticed that not only was Michael not with
him, but he was reasonably sure that this was the woman he was
supposed to care for over the next week. “What’s your
name?”

“
As if I would share that
information with a total stranger.” She looked at the phone, then
back at him. “Did that other man…I don’t remember his name, the
idiot from the other day…did he send you? The other protector? I
swear to you that you guys get dumber daily.”

“
I do not have a clue who
you might mean.” He had a feeling she meant the protector who
refused to watch her, and just knew that Michael had set him up. “I
have been assigned to watch over you until someone permanent can
come in and keep an eye on you. Can you tell me your
name?”

“
No, I will not. You’re
supposed to know that, aren’t you? And that’s supposed to make me
feel better how, that you’re coming to protect me without a clue as
to who I am?” He shrugged and watched her for any sign that she’d
try to harm herself. “I don’t want you here. In fact, I think you
should go back to wherever you came from and tell them if they send
another person here with plans of watching me, I might buy a gun
and shoot the lot of you.”

“
It will do you little
good. We are immortal.” He had no idea why he found her to be
funny, but he did. And he wanted to bait her more. Her anger showed
on her face like a shield, and he wanted to see it crumble. “You
could shoot me, I suppose, but it would do you little good. It may,
more than likely, go through me and into the wall, but it will not
kill me. There will be pain, of course. What sort of gun were you
hoping to purchase? In my life, I have seen many guns
that—”

“
Stop.”

He’d been moving toward her and found
the fact that she’d noticed his movements funny as well. Laughing
heartily, he moved another step toward her, only to be brought up
short when she pulled out a gun. He’d been telling the truth when
he told her she couldn’t kill him, but it would hurt.

“
I’m not shitting you.
Stay the hell away from me. I’ve told that other guy several
hundred times I wish to be left alone.”

“
Are you afraid of me?”
Agon watched her face and saw that while she was angry, it wasn’t
necessarily directed fully at him. “As I am only going to be here
for a little while, why do you not tell me your name?”

“
You don’t have that
little file on me? The other guy did. He was always quoting things
from it for me as if I hadn’t lived it. He was a class-A dumbass.”
Agon lifted his hands to show her they were empty. “That doesn’t
mean you don’t have it somewhere. I think he is off his noodle a
bit. And you are, too, if you think that I don’t notice that you’re
still moving in my direction.”