Page 57 of Outside the Veil
The whisper-splash of the little stream by the side of the house had just edged into his hearing when he tripped on something in the grass. Instinctively, he turned, felt around and picked it up.
“God! Oh, shit!”
The dismembered hand fell from his numb fingers as he staggered back a step. Finn’s hand confronted him like an accusation in the grass, the long fingers that had caressed him the night before contorted and blood spattered.
“No, oh, no… Finn!” Diego searched frantically through the high grass near the stream. Blood dotted the vegetation, darker than human.He said he could put himself back together, said it would take a lot more than—
His boot hit the body before he spotted it. He flung himself to his knees, hope draining from him when he gathered what was left of Finn up in his arms. His right leg lay twisted, bone protruding from the thigh, his right arm ended in a mangledstump, his left eye socket stared, black and empty, and a chunk of flesh had been ripped from his side.
A distant part of Diego told him he should be horrified and nauseated but his grief drowned out everything else.
“Cariño…querido…” he whispered. “Why did I let you go?Dios…oh…fuck… Why didn’t I tell you I loved you when I could?” He held Finn’s maimed body close and rocked him. The tight bands around his heart snapped and a sob escaped, followed by a torrent of tears.
Ants had crawled onto Finn’s hip. He brushed them away. A fly buzzed nearby and he shooed that off as well. A sparrow-sized black bird, probably a scavenger, sat in the grass nearby.
“Go away!” Diego shouted at it through heaving breaths. “Leave him alone!”
The little bird fluffed its feathers and opened its beak. “Honestly, my love, you do confound me, weeping over me with one breath and ordering me off with the next.”
Diego blinked back his tears. “Finn?”
The bird gave a tired cheep. “No substitutions and all of that. Yes, it’s me. I have been forced into a smaller vessel for the moment. I believe you can see the wisdom in that.”
“You bastard.” Diego wiped his sleeve over his eyes. “You let me sit here and bawl over you. I thought you were dead, damn it.”
“I most humbly beg pardon. I had some difficulty gathering myself together this much to speak to you.” The absurdity of Finn’s deep voice issuing from such a tiny bird should have been hilarious, but the gray weariness of his tone ruined any possibility of humor.
Diego leaned over to pick Bird-Finn up in his palm, where he huddled, shivering. “Caro, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snarled.”
“Not to worry, my hero. I’m so pleased you’re here that you could heap curses on me if you liked.”
“Are you— Never mind. Of course you’re not all right. Is this…” Diego trailed off, struggling for words. “Fixable?”
“One hopes.” The tiny bird cheeped again, in obvious pain. “Given a number of weeks I could manage on my own, perhaps. I would rather not take the time, though, so your help would be much appreciated.”
“What can I do?”
Finn rubbed his feathered head against Diego’s thumb. “I need you to play the part of a particular goddess for me. Ah, now, you must know the story, m’boy. The wife of that southern god, the one whose brother hacked him to pieces and scattered him across the land.”
“Osiris?”
“The very one. Yes. So you must play lovely, grieving Isis for me and gather up the scattered bits.”
“Oh.” Diego took a deep breath, a bit of nausea creeping in. “You can’t just spell yourself back together?”
“Now if I could have done it, do you think I would have let you find me in such a state? Sweet gods of water, Diego, think a moment.”
“Sorry. And what do I do when I, um, have you in one place?”
“If you would place all the pieces in the streamlet over there, I will manage the rest. I don’t require much water if it’s clean.”
Diego tucked the tiny body into the front of his jacket. “You know, if I had to go in legendary drag, I would’ve preferred someone else.” He rose to retrieve the severed hand. “Penelope, maybe. Her man comes home safe and sound.”
“My apologies for the necessity, my love,” Finn murmured.
“Joke. That was a joke.”
“Ah.”
