They Who from the Heavens Came (The Wisdom, #1)

‘My people are almost here,’ Quetzal announced as they watched the shadow devour the moon. ‘Soon, they will be near enough for us to leave. Itzel Loveguard,’ he said with a small smile at his own wit, ‘you are about to ascend.’

* * *

A new sound drowned out the screeching. It was like a ghostly choir of angels singing. In Seth’s mind, he saw light rise up before him and he wondered if maybe he was in Heaven.

Except when he opened his eyes, he found he was still on the street. And Horace was still there. There was no way someone like Horace would be in Heaven, Seth decided.

The bat had fallen to the ground, lurching in its own agonies. It seemed unable to handle the sound of the singing.

Seth picked himself up from the road and rose slowly to his feet. Slow was about all he could manage, now. All around him, the spectators did the same. They wore uniform expressions of bliss.

A girl came to Seth’s side. And not just any girl:

Melody.

Thank God, he thought. There are more of us. Maybe we can win this, after all. Because Lord knows we can’t do it on our own.

She turned her head slightly and met his eyes. He wanted to thank her, but he couldn’t get out the words. The music in his head was too strong for him to speak.

Then the music stopped, releasing them all from the spell. Seth forced himself to move and made his way as quickly as he could to Oz’s body in the road. He shook his friend into consciousness and wiped his hands over him, erasing the silver that coated Oz’s body. More caresses applied to the air inches above Oz made his wounds heal, and soon he was coughing himself up into a sitting position.

Unfortunately, Loki wasn’t finished with them. He was already rearing toward them for more, now in his giant’s form.

‘What does it take to kill him?’ Seth seethed.

‘Technically,’ Oz said, ‘he’s already dead.’ Then he coughed again.

Melody hurried over to them, and her hair-faced brother appeared from the side. Seth quickly boxed them all in so they could talk without their imminent deaths hanging over their heads.

Loki surged against the box. Melody and Verdi shielded themselves with their arms. They winced, just as he struck the box and vanished. He reappeared on the other side, looking most displeased. He stormed back through the box and hurtled himself angrily in the direction of Horace.

The newcomers looked at Seth in awe.

‘What happened?’ asked the Melody.

‘I’ve made us invisible,’ Seth explained. ‘They can’t touch us until I let them.’

Melody’s eyes grew large.

‘How did you know to come here?’ Oz asked them.

Amazingly, even after his brush with the afterlife, Oz had already recovered his usual composure. He brushed off his hands on his clothes. One of them was still coated in black mutant spider blood, and he grimaced at the sight of it. Seth waved at him and erased it without thought.

‘They came through the Green Belt,’ Verdi explained from behind his overgrown dyed-black hair. ‘They terrorised our neighbourhood, and then headed west. We’ve been following them all day.’

Seth shook his head at this information. Suddenly, all he wanted was a strong drink. He could make one appear, too, except he didn’t think it would help anyone if they just got drunk. But it might make the end more painless.

‘You work with plants, don’t you?’ Oz asked the boy.

Verdi nodded. ‘Don’t you remember? I made the corn –’

‘I remember,’ Oz interrupted before they could relive that fond memory. ‘Think you can choke that monster with a tree trunk?’ It was remarkable how easily he said this.

‘I don’t know,’ Verdi answered. ‘I already tried something like that earlier. With a giant,’ he added. He sounded proud, like he’d fought a giant and lived to tell the tale.

‘Nice,’ Seth said appreciatively.

‘Have either of you spoken to Aidan today?’ Oz changed tracks.

Some undefined emotion briefly passed over Melody’s face. ‘Maybe a half-hour ago. I think he was going to see your sister.’

Oz went still. Then he turned on Seth. ‘Try Itzy again,’ he said. It came out like an order.

Seth took out his phone and rang her number. After five rings, he heard her voicemail greeting:

Hi, this is Itzy. I’m probably asleep, or in class, or both, so leave a message.

He snorted at the incongruous teenageness of the message, in light of their current circumstances.

‘No answer,’ Seth told her brother.

Oz hung his head under the weight of this information. It seemed the subject of his sister was the only thing that dented his armour of calm.

Melody swept her hair up behind her head and twisted it around in a nervous gesture. Then she let it drop back down over her neck and asked, ‘What’s wrong?’

Seth angled his head at Oz, waiting for him to explain.

‘We think Bird Man out there might be an Ancient,’ Oz said, sounding worse than Seth had heard him in a long, long time. ‘And they might have come for Aidan. If Itzy’s with him….’ He let them fill in the rest from their imaginations.

Melody’s face was a picture of horror. ‘Why would they want Aidan?’

‘Itzy thinks he has the Wisdom,’ Oz explained.

‘That old legend Aidan was obsessed with?’ Verdi said in surprise. ‘That’s real? I thought it was just a story our dad told us to get us to believe in God. I wouldn’t have bothered helping Aidan with it, even, if I hadn’t known he could kill me just by thinking about it.’

Oz chose to ignore Verdi’s startling confession. ‘I can’t verify its truth,’ he said, ‘but it’s sounding more plausible by the minute.’

‘So that’s what they are?’ asked Melody. She pointed at Horace and Loki. ‘Those are Ancients?’ She said this like it was a sentence she’d never expected to have to utter.

Oz nodded.

‘And you think they’re after Aidan?’ Melody persisted.

‘I don’t know,’ said Oz. ‘Horace mentioned a companion going after a…girl….’ He trailed off, horrified at this recollection.

‘So you’re on first-name bases with these people,’ Verdi said.

‘Well, we’re not about to invite them round for tea,’ Seth snapped at him.

Verdi winced and said, ‘Sorry. I’m just a little freaked out, here.’

Melody dug around in the pocket of the black denim jacket she wore and pulled out her own phone. She punched some buttons and held the phone out on loud speaker, so they could hear.

Aidan’s voicemail greeting was more succinct than his girlfriend’s:

I’m not here, leave a message.

Melody angrily shoved the phone back in her pocket. She looked worried.

Then Seth looked up at the sky. The moon was mostly gone, now. A dark shape concealed it.

‘So here’s a riddle for you,’ he said to the others, as they followed his eyes upward. ‘What’s worse than bat-man and Horace out there?’