Brothers: Legacy of the Twice-Dead God (10 page)

I went to the kitchen to make breakfast.
Shrank was already there, standing on the side of a large mixing
bowl filled with flour. A large wooden spoon stood in the bowl
beside him.

“I do not understand what this is,” Shrank
said, looking up at me.

“I don’t know what it is supposed to be,” I
said, looking over him into the bowl, “So I’m not going to be much
help until you tell me that much.”

“The box read ‘Pancake Mix’ and it appears to
be an unleavened, slightly sweet bread with other stuff in it,” he
said.

“D’you dump the whole box in?” I asked,
laughing slightly.

“Yes, sir,” he said, looking up, quizzically.
“Too much?”

“Yeah,” I said, grinning broadly. “Where’s
the box?”

Shrank jumped off the bowl and took the air
toward the trash for the box. I pulled out a measuring cup and a
skillet, a frying pan and a few spatulas. Next I went to the
refrigerator and pulled out the flat of eggs, butter, and a pound
of bacon. When I turned around, Shrank was sitting between the
now-empty mixing bowl and the now-full box of pancake mix. I didn’t
ask how he did it; I just smiled and kept going.

Kieran showed up in the doorway. “Would you
like any help?”

“I think we’ve got it in here,” I said,
eyeing the pixie. Shrank seemed to perk up at the “we.” “You could
set the table and check in on Ethan.

“Shrank, what do you eat?” I asked as I
cracked several eggs into a small mixing bowl, whisking them with a
fork.

“Oh, pixies eat seasonally,” he squeaked at
me, reading the back of the box. “Are two cups enough?”

“Yes, that’s plenty,” I answered. “What do
you mean by ‘seasonally’?”

“Flowers, plants, bugs, pollen,” he said
casually, flying to the top of the box. “Whatever is in season.” He
spun in a lazy loop over the open box, then faster than I could
follow, he flew in a circle several times. The powder siphoned out
of the box and into the measuring cup in a tight vortex, stopping
at exactly two cups. Suddenly Shrank was beside the cup eyeing the
two cup line. Then he was flying circles at the top, a blur,
creating another vortex that flew the powder into the mixing bowl.
I added the two eggs I’d mixed and headed to the refrigerator for
milk.

“Nice trick,” I said, “Can you do that with
the liquid?”

“Oh, sure!” he squeaked, grinning back at
me.

“Cool.” I added a half-cup of milk to the mix
and stirred. I set the flat skillet on the stovetop on a low heat
and plopped some butter on it. Then put the other skillet on with
bacon and turned the heat on. Pulling two plates down from the
cupboard, I said to Shrank, “Okay, we’ve never done this so we’re
gonna have to play with it some. What we need is the batter slowly
added to the flattop so it won’t splash the butter. And we need it
about yay big.” I held my hands out in about a five-inch circle.
“Do you need a spoon or anything?”

“Nope,” he said cheerfully, “But we want to
do it before the butter burns, right?”

“Go for it,” I chuckled as I said it, moving
the butter around with the spatula. A thin spout of the batter
flowed out of the bowl through the air onto the flattop creating a
slow forming cake on the griddle.

“That is so awesome,” I said
enthusiastically. He stopped at just about the right size and stood
next to the stove, looking up at me. He was just too cute with the
over-sized eyes and brightly colored wings. I started turning the
bacon before I opened the windows and found bluebirds flying in
with ribbons in their beaks. I flashed on the picture of me with
the cartoon characters and wondered if I was capable of doing
that.

“Is that hard to do?” I asked him.

“No, sir, not at all,” he said. “Is that
acceptable?”

“Oh, yes,” I said, turning his first try.
“You could probably go at half again as fast, if it’s not tiring to
you, if you want.” He went three times as fast, starting two spouts
this time. Yeah, I laughed at it and, yeah, I knew he was showing
off, especially when he started the helix on the second set. I
didn’t care. I was enjoying myself. Shrank was a fun distraction.
And I like my bacon well done sometimes. Clean up was a breeze even
with the grease splatters. Mainly because I didn’t do any of it. I
don’t know how he did it, but every time I moved to clean something
it was already done. How he moved the mixing bowl to the sink and
washed it without me seeing was outside my understanding. I suspect
I could have watched him more carefully as we worked and chatted
idly about what we were doing, I would have caught the tricks, but
I didn’t want to read anything into what he was doing. I’d had
enough of that already. And more to come.

I carried two plates out to the dining room,
surprised at the spread Kieran had managed. I’d only seen him in
the door of the kitchen once and he’d managed marmalade, two
jellies, maple syrup, yesterday’s muffins, and some mixed fruit in
a bowl in the middle of the table. I slipped the plates down onto
the table and went back in the kitchen for three glasses of
water.

“Shrank, would you like something to drink?”
I asked the pixie as he flew in behind me.

“No, thank you,” he piped, “Just watching.
You’re a very curious person, Seth McClure.”

“Really? Why?” I asked, filling the second
glass.

“From your lineage alone, you should be
living like a prince,” he said shrugging his tiny shoulders, making
his wings ruffle prismatically. “Your parents are quite highly
placed within their respective circles, yet they have managed to
keep you sheltered from it and it from you. You recently used three
very powerful weapons with skill without ever having used them
before. The previous owners of which had tried to ransom you
yesterday. If you were my kind, you’d be screaming for more guards
while behind fifty. And you’re in cooking breakfast. Curious,
yes?”

I chuckled as I turned off the tap. “I don’t
see fifty people willing to guard me milling about the yard. And
what do you know of my lineage?”

“I followed Master Kieran and Master Ethan’s
discussions after you retired for the night,” Shrank answered. “You
are an extremely wealthy young man through both of your
parents.”

I shrugged it off, still not caring about
money. I was more interested in getting my parents back than
getting their money. And this man in my office who said he was my
brother was going through my finances right now. I could feel where
he was in the house, if not sense his aura, like I could Shrank.
And the shapeshifter felt even slicker. It felt like he was telling
the truth, but how did I know? My track record in decision-making
wasn’t good right now.

Kieran and Ethan entered the dining room from
the den just as I did from the kitchen. They were both reading
bound ledgers from my office. Getting a head start, I supposed. I
set the glasses on the table and sat down and started eating. I
offered Shrank my bread plate with sliced banana and strawberry on
it. I spread some marmalade on a pancake and offered some of that
as well. He buzzed contentedly as he chased a banana ring around
the small plate.

“Sounded like you two were having a good time
in there this morning,” said Kieran amused as he watched Shrank eat
between his own bites.

“Yes, we did,” I said, smiling, “It was a lot
of fun. Shrank was very helpful. He did most of the work, really.”
That was pretty much it for breakfast conversation. We made short
work of the food and there was little left over, even of the
overdone bacon. We all finished at roughly the same time.

“We need to talk,” I said, leaning back in my
chair and stretching out. I wasn’t looking forward to this
discussion. I saw Ethan start to stand out of the corner of my eye.
“All three of us,” I said. Kieran leaned back and fixed his
attention on me. It made me very nervous but I couldn’t back down
from this. If I backed down now, I’d be cowing to him for the rest
of my life. And if to him, how many others? No, bad decision or
not, I had to own it.

“Last night,” I started, slowly, meeting him
directly in the eyes, “you said that if you let me go with you to
find my parents, you’d have to teach me magic to protect myself.
But you need to realize that, with or without your help, I am going
to look for my parents, both of my parents, not just Dad. To that
end, I will not be treated as an errand boy or the purse strings of
our expedition. I expect and demand to know what’s going on at
least as much as either of you. If you can’t accept that then you
can take the toys you’ve dropped in my head and go your merry way
now. But I won’t be ordered around like a puppet and I won’t be
shunted around like a puppy either. I’m young, not incapable.”

Kieran’s eyes gleamed in the morning sun as I
gave my speech. There wasn’t a trace of anger or aggravation on his
face. He studied me while I spoke and I watched his eyes move.

“I would very much like to meet your mother,”
he said softly. “I have no issue at all with treating you as an
equal, as my brother.”

“Good,” I said, nodding, “’Cause there are
some things that already need explaining.” Sitting up in my chair,
I turned to Ethan. He perked up and met my look.

“What is an anchor and what does it mean to
me?” I asked him.

“When my people protected Home,” he
started.

“Home?” I interrupted him.

“My teacher’s realm,” Kieran said, “I’ll
speak more of that in time.”

Ethan went on, “When we protected Home, we
were all interconnected. We surrounded it completely. When the
realm began to dissolve, it took fewer of us and so the connections
were discontinued to the unnecessary. The disconnected, too, began
to dissolve back into the matter of the universe. When Kieran left,
I followed and I began to dissolve as well. I needed the connection
to continue my purpose. I thought that I could connect to this
realm and it would be enough, but something had changed and that
connection was not strong enough to allow me safe transit. In the
few days I was here before Kieran arrived, I attempted several
connections to animals, but they all fell short of a true anchor
and continued to weaken me. When you arrived, I was able to make
that anchor and return to my native form and still feel your world.
I was still very confused, barely more aware than the wild dog you
saw.”

“And what is your native form?” I asked.

“You would have to see it,” said Kieran. “He
lives in the space between worlds so his form is… convoluted.”

“So what does this anchor do to me?” I
asked.

“To you, not much,” said Kieran. “It makes
you his only entryway into the universe without damage to
himself.”

“And he can read my mind,” I said, snapping a
bit.

“More like I read all of your mind, once,”
said Ethan. “It was a result of mapping your mind and body to find
a good place to put the anchor. I will not do that again,
Seth.”

I shuddered. It was creepy. Ethan was creepy.
I didn’t want him to be, but just knowing he knew me more
intimately than I knew myself, just because I could forget stuff.
Creepy.

“Why did you pick that particular form to be
in?” I asked in a quiet voice.

“Kieran and I worked on it last night while
you slept,” he answered, “so I could make the transition back and
forth without disturbing you. Most of the considerations were made
to be either different from you or to draw away from you, to
protect you. If there is anything you don’t like, I can change.” He
said that as if it was as easy as changing a shirt or shoes, but
then, I guess to him it was.

“I thought you were here to protect him,” I
said to Ethan.

“I am,” he answered, nodding, “But until you
can unseal the anchor from the Pact magic, I am bound to you
instead. You are under no obligation to me, Seth. You should know
that. Indeed, I am obliged to you. That doesn’t make me your errand
boy any more than you are Kieran’s, mind you, but I do have
knowledge and abilities to bring to the table.”

Hearing my own Georgia accent and speech
patterns coming at me from another voice and body was still eerie
but I felt a little better about it. I could feel the sympathy from
Kieran, which confused me. Then I figured out it was through the
ward. I was picking up Kieran’s sympathy for both of us through the
ward. That he was sympathetic to Ethan, I found curious and turned
to face him. Apparently, he understood the unasked question.

“Once he had the opportunity,” Kieran said,
almost in a whisper, “while you were still sleeping the first
night, he went through your life to learn, to see the world he was
coming into. In doing that, he saw what he did to you as the same
violation that you do. We both considered withholding the
information but in the end, he decided that compounding the misdeed
with a lie would be far more damning.”

I looked at Ethan across the table. He looked
back. He wasn’t asking for anything, just meeting me. Big blue
eyes, soft round face, blond hair. Cherubic. I had to remember
they’d designed him. I hoped I wasn’t being suckered.

“All right,” I said, nodding. “We can work on
this. It’s a beginning.”

“Ethan,” Kieran said, “Since you’ve already
seen this, would you mind finishing up in here while I show Seth
what we’ve found so far?”

“Sure,” he said, standing to clear the
table.

I followed Kieran back to my office to find
orderly piles everywhere. They had dismembered the records and laid
them out in some order on the floor. I assumed he was going to
explain the order to me and I didn’t wait long.

“Ethan and I went through these last night
after you went to bed,” he said. “There were ten years of records,
ending with January of this year. Quite frankly, it didn’t tell me
very much. No, not what I mean. It didn’t tell me much about what
Father’s been doing lately. If you look at how we have it laid out
on the floor, you can see each year as a column. Each row is a
different aspect or company. The top two rows being household or
transfers to you personally.”