Astronomers’ Heist

Chapter Seventeen

There were a half-dozen fraisers total. They stopped their chase about three meters from Atlas, considering the black mace in his hand. Three of them appeared to be less than ten years old and of the six, only two didn’t have any blood on them. Only two of them seemed short of breath.

“Give us the kid,” the biggest one said. He was holding a cutlass and a knife and looked to be in his mid-teens.

“No.”

“You stole him.”

“How does one steal that which only belongs to God?”

“Are we gonna have to kill you?” the big one said, stepping forward.

“I don’t die here.” Atlas swung the mace to and fro. “And I dislike killing. I’m thinking you have seen your fair share, hm? Is there a way we can talk through the situation without fighting about it?”

“Give us the kid and nobody dies,” the kid said.

“Let’s start with putting away our weapons.”

“You first.”

Atlas did, to the boy’s surprise.

“Now you?” Atlas said.

The boy jabbed his bloodied cutlass into the dirt. The hilt was easily within reach. He whipped the knife point-first into the dirt as well.

“Step back, everyone,” Atlas said to the Astronomers who kept their eyes on the enemies as they yielded several feet of space.

The boy waved his hand and a few of the fraisers behind him stepped back. Then the one that didn’t move at first finally joined them.

Atlas took a step forward. “My name is Atlas Black. What is yours?”

“Leroy.”

“Leroy, you want Coh. Why?”

“Maybe he wants to join my crew. Maybe I can sell him to a bigger buyer and make a great deal of money. Maybe it’s to get back at the cavs.”

“Do you know why I want him?” Atlas said.

“There’s always a sick motive behind adults wanting kids who don’t belong to them,” Leroy said.

“Almost no exceptions to that statement. But I am bringing Coh where he belongs and I am not doing this for money. It took me time and resources to locate this particular fraiser and now I am able to bring him back. It is imperative that he stays safe.

“Leroy, I have had to take lives to rescue Coh and I don’t want to keep taking lives. I am exhausted, I am wounded, and I am dangerous. I want you to continue living, but if you try to take Coh from me, I will kill you. Do you understand?”

Leroy’s eyes changed from fiery and bloodthirsty to reasonable with a dash of fear. He said, “Yes.”

Atlas nodded. “We’re going to bring Coh where he belongs. You are going to go back to Stablefield. You’ve fought enough today.”

Leroy nodded slowly. Atlas extended an empty right hand. Leroy looked him in the eye and shook. Then he asked. “Are you a fraiser?”

Atlas nodded again. “Prophet.”

They released hands.

Atlas felt a strong sense of apprehension and distrust from one of the fraisers. There were incoherent thoughts probably jumbled by the earlier events of the day, but this particular fraiser was on its own agenda.

“You weren’t kidding about killing all of us even though we probably could take you on?” asked one of the smaller kids with a folding knife in his hand.

Leroy looked over his shoulder and said, “Quiet!” Then he looked back at Atlas with a look of wonder.

“Look,” Leroy said, touching his face like he was having trouble finding the words. “I know what it’s like to be waiting for someone to come back, and worse, I know what it’s like for them to never come back. Get him home; not a lot of us have that.”

“Thank you. I’ve done my best to this point and I’ll continue doing just that.”

“Are you fucking kidding?” one of the kids behind Leroy said. “That kid could be worth a fortune! You’re-“

Leroy picked up the cutlass and threw it, hilt-first, and the butt of the sword hit the outbursting fraiser in the forehead. It knocked him in the head and down to the ground. The kid started crying.

Then Leroy took one more look at the Astronomers and then Atlas, to whom he nodded and then turned around, picking up the knife in the dirt as he left.

Atlas turned his back to Leroy and sensed the apprehensive kid wind up with a knife aimed high. Aiming for the head? Atlas guessed mentally and put his hand in his jacket. As he drew the barterrod, he transformed it into the frying pan and used it to deflect the projectile.

Leroy looked in horror at the fraiser and jumped on her, grabbing her by the collar. “Are you insane? Leave him alone because I said so! All of you!”

The last three stayed unmoving.

The barterrod found its way back into the jacket.

The Astronomers left and without another word Atlas led them, partly-walking partly-jogging, to the Tilted Mansion.

Jewel and Color pattered heavily down the path toward the Tilted Mansion and when they arrived, they walked straight up the steps and into the front rooms.

They stopped here and took in the scene. About thirty mirrors leaned against every wall, from one no bigger than a television screen to some bigger than themselves.

“Wow,” Color said, hands on her knees as she caught her breath. “He… collected all of these?”

Jewel just nodded and straightened the katana on her back. Color thought the dragon patch was an excellent touch.

Marshall’s footsteps tapped up the stairs behind them and he entered the open door. “Where are his mirrors?”

Color gestured first and then said, “Everywhere.”

“Okay, I can’t… sense mirrors… so you’ll have to be my eyes,” Marshall’s breaths were still coming in gasps. “To me, they seem like walls.”

Thirty seconds later, Myles, Atlas and Coh joined the party. Atlas flopped into a sofa in the large living room with the tall ceiling and massive angled chandelier because of the mansion’s tilt. Myles sat back in a loveseat and was soon accompanied by Color who sat back as well, eyes closed. Marshall unclipped his swords and dropped them to the floor, and sat in a large chair with thick arms and peeling leather ears. Jewel removed her sword and fell onto a sofa stomach-first. Coh lowered himself to the ground and laid his head on his hands.

Atlas Black put his feet up on the small table in the room and situated himself so he wasn’t in pain with his ribs. The cuts on his face weren’t that deep or large, but they bled significantly and the streaks of blackened red still stuck out on his face.

Marshall Baker, the Guru, folded his arms and fell to one side of the chair like he was trying to sleep.

Jewel, the Walker, had closed her eyes as her face looked out from the couch, her short hair pressing against her left cheek. Her right arm fell to the ground and her breathing steadied.

Myles Willis, the Sage, slouched heavily and put his feet up as the breaths still came quickly, like an assembly line he couldn’t quite keep up with.

Color, the Star, was next to Myles taking deep controlled breaths through the nose and out the mouth. She then put her hand in Myles’s limp one next to hers.

Myles let go of her hand and put both his arms around her, drawing her head alongside his. She hugged him back.

“That was scary,” he said.

“Yeah, that was scary,” she agreed.

They separated and Myles said, “We should move now.”

“Wait,” Atlas said, only moving his hand up. “Let me see if I can reach out to Eve and let her know we’re coming.”

“How long will that take?”

“Ten minutes, but you need to put me to sleep,” Atlas said.

“How?”

“Put your fingertips on my head and close your eyes. Find the blue bubble and break it with your mind. That’s the alert consciousness; it’s what stays on while you’re awake. And then wake me up in ten minutes; it shouldn’t take me longer than that to make contact, and if I don’t that’s too bad. It will only feel like a few seconds to me, but that’s fine.”

As Atlas spoke, Myles heaved himself up, walked over, and did just that. He didn’t feel anything special about touching Atlas’s head aside from awkwardness.

“What am I doing again?”

“Close your eyes and focus on my mind, similar to how you listen to others’ thoughts. This time you need to almost invade. You’ll know what I mean; part of it you’ll want to…” here he caught his breath and then continued answering. “You’ll find the bubble. And if you’re having trouble finding it, it’s because it’s all around you. Think outside of the mind. There isn’t a way to describe it.”

Myles had closed his eyes when Atlas told him to and once he was told to think about it in mind-listening terms, his dark vision changed. He flowed through his fingers and went straight into Atlas’s mind. There was a lot going on, but it was hard to navigate, like his thoughts and memories were either rock-solid or constantly changing. That blue tint… there was a blue tint to everything. Maybe I’ve gone too far, Myles thought and mentally, indescribably backed away inside of Atlas’s mind. There was the blueness, moving like Jell-O that hadn’t quite hardened yet.

The breaking part came naturally; Atlas’s body went limp on the sofa.

Myles removed his hand with a small gasp and then studied Atlas. Yep, he was asleep, not dead. The Sage went back to his seat next to Color. Once he sat, Color leaned onto him and he put an arm around her. The nervous energy in their blood barred them from relaxing, so they just held each other in that enveloping silent terror.

Jewel stood up and walked to the door. Opened it and looked out. Nobody was there.

“What’re you looking for?” Marshall asked.

“The cavs would have chased their most valuable asset, no matter how many people they lost,” Jewel said. “They’ll be here soon if they know about this place. Maybe even other fraisers. Its’ not smart, sleeping here right now.”

“I agree,” Coh said, raising one hand up high and then letting it drop.

“I keep forgetting you can speak,” Jewel said.

“I… have no response to that,” Coh said.

Jewel looked out the door again and listened intently. Not a sound, nothing out of the ordinary.

“Why didn’t any hushes chase us?” Marshall said.

“Fatigue,” was Jewel’s answer. “They can only fly for so long; it uses as much energy as a fast jog for them. And if they were making sharp banking turns and carrying people and they weren’t killed, they wouldn’t have any energy to chase us, and even if they did, hangars aren’t much for fighting. It takes a while to become precise at flying.”

Marshall nodded. Langley seemed pretty good at it.

A tense five minutes passed in which Coh had clearly fallen asleep. Myles and Colors’ eyes were open and stretched with trauma: tired, wishing they could rest, but barricaded by a barbed fence of adrenaline. Jewel was watching Marshall and the door, trying to figure out if Marshall was asleep when she heard something in the woods.

Jewel’s eyes darted around the woods and caught the movement of metal. A helmet. Under the helmet, a cavalier, but by his movement he was wandering, looking. He was alone.

Jewel whisked into the living room and shook Atlas awake. He was back in a second and said, “Nothing. Eve wasn’t there.”

Color and Myles rose while Jewel was at Atlas’s side.

“Cavs,” Jewel whispered. “In the woods. I’m guessing they’ll be here next.”

Atlas rose and took two silent steps toward the door as Jewel woke Coh next with a finger on her lips. “Cavs in the woods.”

That woke him up.

Atlas walked past the group and up the huge leaning double-staircase. “Follow me.”

They followed him up the stairs and down a hallway and turned left into another bedroom with all the furniture bunched up on the tilted side of the room. The wallpaper was green like Atlas’s jacket, but wrinkled and sad. There was a huge, uncovered mirror as tall as Marshall and as wide as a queen-sized bed.

Myles felt a need to touch the mirror and when he did, the mirror’s history ran into him like he knew it all along, like he was remembering rather than discovering: it was used in a large bathroom in a classy restaurant, securely fixed, but after the Rise it was still undamaged. As he left his hand on the mirror, a different thing happened. He was able to see things elapsing in the mirror. He could see previous reflections: the mirror’s memory. His hand darted away. Most of the time, nobody was in front of the mirror, but once someone came into view, Myles knew what was happening.

The weakened Coh walked in with Marshall.

“Think this one will do?” Atlas asked to nobody.

Myles had his hands on his knees. “Yeah.”

Atlas said, “Cavs’ll be in here any second. We’ll all have to take a running start if we want to do this properly.”

Myles felt his fear leave for just a second as the next steps became clear; being unafraid was a rare feeling in these times. “What? Get it flat on the floor with the reflection facing up and jump into it holding hands.”

Atlas made a face of realization. “That’s clever.”

“I still don’t know shit about jumps, so you’ll have to lead us, Atlas,” Myles said.

“First let’s get this flat on the floor.”

Everyone moved for the mirror and eased it to the floor.

It sounded like there was someone walking into the house now and intense whispers on the first level.

“Grab each others’ hands and form a circle around it,” Myles said. His right hand was in Color’s and his left he put in Coh’s.

Atlas knelt near the mirror and put his hand on it. Then he started whistling a certain note. Then he adjusted it, like he was listening as well as making the sound. Then he stopped and stood up.

Coh’s took Atlas’s hand and Atlas’s other hand went to Marshall’s who went to Jewel’s who went to Color’s.

Myles was in no mood to ask what Atlas just did, but it must have been important. He was thinking heavily in this moment, like time shifted to first gear on the highway of thinking. Then he moved his eyes and realized his thinking was inconceivably fast, like he was in-between the mirrors again. This time he understood the time passing and knew what Atlas meant about navigating the time-period between mirrors.

“We jump on three,” Atlas said. “Don’t worry about the timing; just go with whatever flow you feel.”

“Here we go again,” Marshall said, squeezing both of the hands he was holding.

“One, two, three,”

Jumped.

All of their feet stomped onto the mirror which should have simply broken underfoot against the floor, but instead they fell through it like ice and again they fell right into that system of tubes. This time Myles looked behind him and saw the planet. Then he felt his arm being jerked and their direction changed. Atlas had hooked the wall and was pulling them back toward the same planet through a different route. This time, the connections on the world were fixed; they were no longer moving around or shuffling. Time didn’t feel like it was flying; this must be what a good jump feels like. Maybe that’s what the whistling was about? They’d whisked back to the planet by now and

the group fell through and flopped heavily like cramming into a door too small for them and heard the glass, like an orchestra of chimes in a strong breeze.

Everyone shut their eyes and gasped as some of them fell on top; Atlas happened to be on the bottom along with Marshall and Color.

“Made it,” Myles said rolling off of his friends.

Atlas rolled to his knees, rose with a wince, and said, “Welcome aboard the Stone Compass.”

The Shepherd’s neck straightened and he tightened his grip on Auric. “Someone new aboard the Compass. Again?” He scowled at Eve. “You know anything about this?”

Eve shut her eyes in defeat and shook her head like a robot. What a terrible feeling, to lie. Hopefully he would believe it.

The Shepherd only rose and whooshed to the back door of the Great Room into the field.

Eve stood up, dejected, and started following.

When they came outside, they saw nothing. Then between two of the mansions appeared one figure, then four, then six.

One was a man, the rest were fraisers.

Eve sensed the Shepherd feel relief and started running toward the group. One word, possible a name, ran through the older man’s head: Coh, Coh, Coh, it’s Coh, thank heaven, Coh…

The man leading the newcomers continued a slow walk toward the Shepherd. One of the fraisers had a blindfold on, but seemed to know where he was going anyway. Eve predicted he was likely a hush.

Once the two groups were within several yards, the man in the green jacket stopped.

Atlas Black, Eve thought. His face had a chinstrap of fresh and drying blood on the right side. Eve sensed he had some internal wounds as well, and that the barterrod he had mentioned earlier was in his hand.

“Whoever you are, you have something I need.”

“’Need’ being a subjective term,” Atlas said. “I perceive you are referring to the human, Coh?”

“That’s him.” The Shepherd pointed Auric at the shaved-headed and shirtless boy. “Why did you come here? Surely there is something you would like in return?”

Keep the offer open-ended, Atlas thought under his shifting mind. “There is something on this boat that we need. Two fraisers, hidden away somewhere, probably locked up?”

“I have many fraisers on the boat, but none of them are locked up,” the Shepherd answered.

Atlas held out the barterrod and let it transform into a staff as tall as he was. “Recently, two fraisers landed on your boat via mirror, the same way we did just a few seconds ago. They go by the names of ‘Pretty’ and ‘Blink’. Ring any bells?” He leaned on the barterrrod’s new staff form.

“Perhaps. You’re expecting me to trade two fraisers for one?”

“I’m expecting you’ll consider that trade,” Atlas said.

“Wait, Atlas, TRADE?” Color asked. Jewel had a similar look of confusion.

“That wasn’t part of the plan,” Marshall agreed.

“If I told you that necessary part, you would have disagreed,” Atlas said. He addressed the Shepherd now: “Unless you think that an unfair trade, we can leave the way we came.”

“It may be fair,” the Shepherd said.

“How about showing us the fraisers in question to inspect the damage you’ve done to them?” Atlas said. Then he seemed distracted for only a second, his gaze jumped to Eve,

(In that second, Eve had quietly let a few words slip into the front of her mind: They were put into mansions.)

then his gaze returned to the Shepherd. Now Atlas’s eyes were blazing with suspicion; the Shepherd’s eyes began burning with suspicion as well, only because he was dealing with a prophet. Goodness knows what he already knew.

The Shepherd looked to his right side at Eve and then back at Atlas who had risen from his leaning pose. Myles hadn’t caught the message that had been on the front of Eve’s mind.

“Where are they?” Atlas said. The barterrod turned into a regular, straight stick. He pointed at the Great House. “In there? Or maybe your goorang put them somewhere else?…”

The Shepherd’s face began scowling. “They’re alive if that’s what you were wondering.”

Atlas took an inhale and had a confused face for a second; the Shepherd was telling the truth.

Behind Atlas, Myles let out the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding.

“So take us to them!” Marshall said. “We’ve had a long fucking day and we’re tired of waiting!”

From the sides of the ship, three hangars zwooped into view and made a few swinging arcs before landing just behind the Shepherd. Their landings and flying was even neater than the Stablefield-fraisers.

“Even if some of you were hangars, you are outnumbered and outmatched. Even with the barterrod, Atlas, you’re no match for me.”

“You know who I am then?” Atlas said.

“Atlas Black, an overrated jumper and credit-stealing half-measure of an adventurer. I know all of the staff-bearers and I’m sure you know them too. I believe I have a house in the same neighborhood as yours.”

“You haven’t been home for a long while,” Atlas said. “Your lawn could use some love.”

“Give me a reason to visit and I will. And it seems like all of you, save Coh, have no reason to visit The Stone Compass.”

“You’re a businessman and a murdered, but a businessman first!” Atlas barked. Myles sensed fear in that sentence. “You make trades; you’re no pirate. Every trade is an investment in trust on this planet, no?”

“You’re not from this planet and your small troupe won’t be missed,” the Shepherd said.

“Our village will!” Color shouted. “And they’ll hunt this boat down and destroy it! You know how the cavaliers hate these kinds of deals!”

“Have you taken a step back and looked at your group? You have the similarity of a charcuterie board; you didn’t come from the same village. You,” the Shepherd pointed at Myles, “have the same attitude as the boys who landed here. You…” the Shepherd looked at Jewel. “…You’ve lived decades, yet haven’t been on your menstrual cycle for more than two.”

“Why the fuck would you put it like that?” Marshall said.

“You’re too well-adjusted!” the Shepherd interjected, indicating to Marshall and finally pointing to Color. “And you are simply too imbalanced with these others to have been with them for long. And I seem to remember a message from the cavaliers not too long ago saying there were only three other villages that thrived on the Great Hook and that they were planning on hunting them down. Now, that was a few months ago; I’m sure they’ve finished the job by now, yes?”

Color swallowed hard.

“What about him?” Jewel pointed to Coh.

The Shepherd scoffed like an old man. “Trust me, Coh would not have survived with any of you for long. It’s a miracle you’re still alive. That’s the price of a high legacy bond.”

“We’re here for the boys, unless you’ve killed them and are stalling with these useless readings.”

“He hasn’t killed them,” Myles said. “I would have known if he was telling a lie.”

“There’s more than one way of killing someone; some of them leave you alive for much longer,” Atlas said.

“What are you implying?” the Shepherd said.

Come to my side as I transform Altis, Atlas thought aloud to Eve.

“I’m implying,” Atlas said as his weapon slid into a broadsword. Eve started taking a few steps forward and Atlas finished with, “that you resigned them to their deaths in a couple of these mansions.”

Eve scurried over and stabilized her footing behind Atlas.

“Eve, what are you doing?” the Shepherd said it with such stern confusion that Myles found himself genuinely wondering what she was doing by leaving the Shepherd’s side.

“I don’t want to live with you anymore,” Eve said, tears welling up in her eyes. Her voice was frightfully steady. “I want to leave here. Leave this planet. Stand on solid ground somewhere else.”

The Shepherd shook his head and waved his hands. “What?! When did we decide on this? You are a part of me, and I, you. You’ll lack the thriving portion of life out there without me. You and I are a team, Eve; two halves to the leadership of The Stone Compass.

Eve had tears streaming down her face now, but her voice, as steady as a tree in a tempest, said, “I know! And I’ve made up my mind. I’ve considered it for too long and this is what I would like. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for leaving this guy?” Marshall said.

“Shut up!” Eve said.

“Atlas,” the Shepherd said quietly. “You now have one thing that I want and one thing that I need.”

“And you apparently have nothing we want or need,” Atlas returned. “We can leave and you can go fuck yourself, you nerveless cur. You murderous pedophile, you twisted and sick, manipulative devil! An inanimate and soulless… incubus like yourself does not deserve to carry that staff!”

“I’ve decided I’ll kill you,” the Shepherd said.

“You plan on fighting me?” Atlas spat, recalling just how battle-worn he was: blood splatters from multiple enemies, broken ribs, a bleeding face.

The Shepherd dropped his outer-layer of robe and stood before Atlas and the Astronomers. “We all will.”

“No,” Atlas said. “Just you and me. Keep these children out of it. Don’t you remember your own childhood? The peace that came with being a kid?”

“I,” the Shepherd started twirling his staff and then slammed it, bottom-first, into the ground. “…know what it is to be abused. Regardless of my childhood, I’m not here to be clever, I’m here to win. One doesn’t gamble a deal like this in a one-on-one match.”

“Coward. You have no sense of adventure,” Atlas said. The barterrod was still in the broadsword form at his side.

“And you are a fool! And you have no sense of strategy,” the Shepherd returned.

“Strategy is what you get when you have no options,” Atlas said and ground his feet into the ground. “Are we just going to sit here gossiping?”

The Shepherd first turned and yelled, “Pet! FASS! FASS!” at the Great House. Then he faced Atlas and charged without another noise. The hangars behind him, however, soared into the sky with a battlecry and all of the Astronomers aside from Coh and Eve recalled that sound all too well from the recent battle in Stablefield.