Spear Through Time

[Aiden Finnegan]

Six hours later…
On the road to Suzdal…




Dimitri Alexeev 
 

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“It makes me uneasy,” Dimitri mumbled as he glanced over his shoulder and through the partition. His employer, Aiden Finnegan was stretched out on the black leather of the limo’s long back seat. He was cradling an eerie black spear with his arms crossed over his chest. The thing seemed to have its own aura and that feeling alone was enough to give Dimitri the shivers. It was a powerful enough feeling to make Dimitri almost forget to worry about Aiden slicing open his face with the blade resting so close to his skull.

Cooper shrugged for the third time, as Dimitri found himself repeating the same words he had first said when Aiden nodded off. The driver always had a smile on his face, but even Dimitri could see that he was trying Cooper’s patience. How could the man not get the same sense of foreboding when he looked at it? Dimitri felt his skin turn to gooseflesh at the mere thought of the spear.

Where had Aiden even gotten it from? Dimitri had not for one second believed the tale of antique shopping with Sage. Aiden hated antiques unless they were held in a glass case and adorned with a bronze placard proclaiming their incredible historical significance. And Sage? Dimitri did not completely know the boy yet, but he would have bet his last coin on the idea that Sage did not like shopping for antiques. Where had Aiden gotten it?

Dimitri was beginning to suspect that Aiden had fallen in with black marketeers during his trip to Ireland. He had gone off on an inspiration retreat, supposedly to see the ancient sites of the ‘Isles.’ No doubt Aiden had looked like an easy and wealthy mark to some back-alley scum. Perhaps they had sold him that thing, with promises that it had been an authentic treasure from one of the ancient kings of Ireland? Such sort had certainly taken advantage of well to do men during the height of the Egyptian tomb excavations at the turn of the twentieth century.

“I think you’re thinking about it too much, Dimitri,” Cooper offered up, snapping Dimitri’s thoughts back to the present.

“Of course I am! That thing is giving off… oh what word does Aiden always use… vibes!” Dimitri spluttered out as he made a concerted effort not to look back at his employeer.

Cooper chuckled with a good natured air, “Have you tried to stop… feeling the vibes?”

“Of course not. How does one not feel that? How do you not feel that?” Dimitri asked with a cocked eyebrow as he turned to look at the driver, “I mean it, Cooper. I feel it.”

“Are you a God? Y’know. Like Aiden?” Cooper asked seriously, his eyes darting to the side and connecting with Dimitri’s for an instant.

“I think if I was, I would have known by now,” Dimitri replied flatly.

Cooper shrugged his shoulders again and the smile faded from his face. His eyes went back to the road and he said simply, “Aiden didn’t know until he hit his thirties.”

Dimitri paused.

“How old did you say you were again?” Cooper asked.

“Younger than you,” Dimitri shot back acerbically.

“No need to be rude, young man,” Cooper replied evenly.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m no God, Cooper. If I were, I doubt I’d be the assistant to one,” Dimitri said as he turned his head to look out the side window. Oh, he had fantasized constantly about what his life could have been if he had been born under different circumstances. As it was, he was an effective assistant – especially to Aiden Finnegan. It was a surprisingly easy job and it paid a better salary than any he could have hoped for after graduating from Moscow University.

Cooper shrugged again, “You haven’t read through your world mythologies then, have you?”

“I was never particularly taken with the subject, no. I know what I know because of my work for Aiden, and that has all been focused on the Tuatha De, the Aos Si, and the ever-changing mythos of the ‘Emerald Isles,’” Dimitri mumbled. He did not deign to move his head from the crook in his palm, his eyes still sightlessly staring out the fast-changing scenery outside the passenger side window.

“Really? They didn’t even teach you about the Olympians in school?” Cooper asked with an honest air of astonishment.

“No – and from what Aiden has told me, that seems to be a Western thing. The schools of Russia rarely touched on things that would’ve been common in American schools – save for the obvious,” Dimitri said.

“Well, maybe you should look at some of those old tales. The idea of a God serving another God is an old trope,” Cooper said seriously, his eyes all but glancing back to check Dimitri’s reaction.

“I don’t doubt you, Cooper – I just can’t understand why you won’t let this idea go?” Dimitri replied as he finally turned his head back to look at Cooper.

The driver had both eyes fixed on the road, but there was a seriousness in his eyes that Dimitri had rarely witnessed. The man coughed softly before going on, “Do you really feel something coming off of that spear?”

Dimitri nodded without thought.

“Well, I don’t. If you’ve ever paid attention to the way Aiden describes his ‘powers,’ well, I just think you might want to take another look in the mirror, Dimitri. There might be something there, deep down inside yourself that you haven’t acknowledged yet,” Cooper said in a no-bullshit tone. He then surprised Dimitri further and pulled a cigar out from the breast pocket of his driving coat.

“Cooper…”

“I know. Aiden would be beside himself if he knew how many cigars I have tasted in this limo. Let’s not tell him. The wife already says he’s a bad influence…”