Dragon Horn Page 14

  “But what about all the dead bodies, ripped to shreds?” I pointed in the direction of the pile.

  Knelly Knell explained, “I don’t eat them. I just rip them up with my claws so that the master thinks that I’m eating them. Do you smell those crops from the other side of this dome?”

  “I thought I had earlier.”

  “This is the only place where non-poisonous food grows in Sleepy Willow. The little vegetable farm is big enough that I can take a little here and there and the master is none the wiser,” she said, looking around as if she had said something too loud.

  I smiled and remembered the Sphinx’s fresh breath. “Do they have mint plants by any chance?”

  Knelly Knell smiled and lifted her paw in front of her mouth. She exhaled and sniffed her fresh breath. “You noticed that, huh?”

  Despite the lovely conversation, I still couldn’t come up with an answer to the riddle. I closed my eyes to concentrate.

  After a minute of blank thoughts, I opened my eyes and little spots of streaking light attacked my vision. “You wouldn’t happen to have another riddle, would you?” I smiled, aiming for sympathy.

  The Sphinx stood her ground. “No. I gave you the easiest one I could come up with. I assumed this was widely known. You have to solve it or...”

  I understood the part she was leaving out. I didn’t want to hear it and she didn’t want to say it. How could two women give birth to each other? It didn’t sound biologically logical. Hmmm.

  After several minutes of silence I started to make peace with death. Knelly Knell had a job to do. She’d tried to make it easy on me, but I guess I was too stupid. Anger swelled in my chest as I thought about how my guardianship of Pittsburgh had prevented me from learning more history.

  I barely even knew about my supposed ancestor Merlin. The genius wizard who’d given me all this ability. I hadn’t learned as much Celtic and druidic history as I wanted. I didn’t even know about my own history. Alayna always seemed to put it off when I’d asked. Who was I really? I still didn’t know.

  If I’d had more time to study instead of fighting away dark magic in Pittsburgh, I knew I could solve this riddle. Was it time to make peace with death? My neck jerked around, searching for the Morrigan.

  Knelly Knell was picking the dead scraps from under her nails. She raised her head slowly. “I’m afraid time is up. What is your answer?”

  “I don’t know the riddle. I suppose death is the wage.” I tried to sound as pathetic as possible.

  Knelly Knell sauntered closer to me, tears building in her eyes. “I don’t want to do this. I have to do this.”

  I stood completely still. I imagined I would be terrified, but I’d accepted my fate. I played a dangerous game where the stakes were normally life or death. It had to happen sometime. Right?

  She raised her right paw and the fur gleamed with the gold of sunshine. The paw sprang forward, three claws racing toward my face. In a blur, her paw flashed in front of my eyes. I waited for the pain and blood to follow. I’d experienced a few deep cuts before and it had always taken a few seconds for the blood to start gushing out.

  I ran my fingers over both cheeks and checked for blood. Clean. Huh. I raised my head and locked eyes with Knelly Knell. “Why didn’t you...?”

  “I kill awful beings, not benign ones. Most people want to get across Lake Geopold to get the infamous Dragon Horn. Same as you.” She added a wink, as if to let me know that I couldn’t keep secrets from her. “They differ, however, in motive. They want to use it to summon the dragons and use them for malice and harm in a shameless power grab.”

  “I can see that,” I agreed and added, “anything made to be good will eventually be corrupted and changed to fit sinister motives.”

  “The young boy is wise beyond his years. I know you are trying to find them to counter the black dragons of the sidhe. Nobody more than myself knows how evil they are. I’m not going to kill you because I want to live vicariously through your actions.”

  “Okay.” I sank down to one knee and pledged, “I promise I’ll do my best for you.”

  She looked down at me with a lopsided smirk for a few moments. “Don’t do it for me, although I will rejoice in the defeat of those awful beings. I want you to succeed. And I want you to be true to your word and return for me some day. If possible, of course.”

  It appeared my carcass wasn’t headed for the scrap heap after all. And I’d gained a friend. “That’s so nice of you. If only people knew what you are truly like.”

  Her facial features contorted, achieving a visage of seriousness. “This secret stays between us. I have an evil reputation to uphold. If that should slip, I’m not sure what my master would do. It’s enough that you and I know this. Here, take this.” Using her paw, she lobbed a glittering silver object at me.

  I snatched it out of the air, and without looking at it, immediately tucked it into my pocket. “Would it be possible to get directions to the lake from you?” After the clemency I’d just been granted, I hated to even ask. “We have someone guiding us, and he’s been great so far, but I’m not sure the sidhe are to be trusted.”

  “They most certainly are not as evidenced by the treachery of our King. I will happily give you directions to the lake.”

  The Sphinx laid out an easy route to the lake that I couldn’t forget. She led me to the front door and stopped. “Before you journey on, I must warn you of several things and what better way to do it than with some apt quotes?”

  I turned and faced her. She said, “’As you shall sow, so shall you reap.’ ‘The truth cannot be hidden forever.’ ‘Things that worked once are not destined for longevity.’”

  I wasn’t sure exactly what the cryptic quotes meant. “Thank you.”

  “I have one more crafted by yours truly.” Knelly Knell fought back a smile, apparently proud of her work. “‘Whether it’s five hundred years or five minutes, your past decisions can always come back to haunt you.’”

  I nodded, trying to absorb the knowledge even though I didn’t understand it fully. I knew we were here because Alayna’s past from five hundred years ago had reared its ugly head. I tucked it into my proverbial cap and asked, “Can I hug you?”

  A beam of electricity sparkled in her eyes and she nodded slowly. “Yes, please.”

  Despite her being taller than me and half lion, the hug wasn’t awkward. I wrapped my arms around her torso and my fingers got entwined in her thick but soft mane. She buried her head into my shoulder. “Thank you,” she uttered, “It’s been over a thousand years since I shared a caring embrace with someone.”

  Knelly Knell, the immortal Sphinx known as a legendary killer, turned her face into my neck. I felt her warm tears on my flesh and the intimacy of her vulnerability.

  Once her mask fell off, she was just as precious as could be. A creature with a heart that beat to the same drum as mine. She felt the same desires and wants as any normal person. She had just fallen into a terrible situation. It reminded me not to judge people or creatures based off reputation like I had with Burn being a demon.

  The Sphinx reluctantly picked her flushed face up and our noses scraped. She smiled through the continuing emotional outpouring.

  I took a step back and dropped to my knee. I bowed and promised her, “My lady, I will come back for you. Even if it kills me. I pledge to set you free or die trying.” Rising to my feet, I nodded affirmatively and we made eye contact. I moved forward and pulled her in for a power hug. I felt bad that she couldn’t hug back for fear that her claws would shred me.

  We broke the embrace after several minutes and said our final good byes. Knelly Knell lay her hand on the door. Once it recognized her prints, the door slowly opened. I took one last peek at my new friend, smiled reassuringly, exited through the door of her cage, and prepared to continue the adventure.

  I felt like I was inflated with pride as I walked on air. I’d done something that thousands of people died trying to accomplish. And I’d made a new frie
nd out of the deal. I fully intended to come back and help Knelly Knell bust loose.

  Our group still needed to navigate through a treacherous city to get to the lake. I walked around a bush and my friends were sitting in the grass waiting for me. Holding the coin out for them to see, I said excitedly, “Time to get a move on to that lake because I’ve got the motherfucking coin.”

  Chapter 19

  I shielded my eyes against the blinding rays coming from the cloudless sky. The unrelenting sun beat down on us as we trekked away from the city toward Lake Geopold. Vagrants lined the sides of the streets, shooting leering gazes our way as we passed.

  I said, “So Alayna, how come only little sections of the city have electricity? And why’s it so run down? They’re immortals. They’re going to live here forever.”

  Alayna explained, “What you see in this city is the result of everyone working against each other. Instead of installing a proper electrical grid, they work off generators. The greedy don’t want the rest of the citizens to enjoy what they consider a luxury. This city was built after I left and it has already fallen into disrepair.”

  “That’s a shame,” Burn commented.

  Alayna had sweat running down her neck and she kept tugging at her leather mask. “I suppose. The city sidhe are much different than their counterparts across the lake. At least that’s how I remember it. These ones in the city are polyglot swindlers. The ones who lived off the land used to be a noble people, but a large body of stories leads me to believe that is no longer the case.”

  The sun didn’t seem to bother Burn, who was looking directly at it. “We are all going to find out together,” she added dreamily. The girl had a great wanderlust, just like me.

  “Yes, indeed.” I felt some bad juju in the area. “I’m sensing something behind us.”

  I turned around and didn’t see a thing out of the ordinary, but I heard heavy footsteps. About ten seconds later, a herd of shirtless sidhe warriors with weapons drawn appeared over the horizon. The golden glow from above blurred my vision as I tried to identify their weapons.

  Longbows, short swords, axes, spears and war hammers. Oh shit.

  Alayna instructed, “Quick. Everyone draw on your magic. We need to let them know this won’t be an easy win. The city sidhe don’t like a fair fight and they will likely not confront us if we flash our skills.”

  Burn asked, “Why don’t we just use the iron?”

  “Because we might not be able to defeat them all with just iron. Besides, we need to send a stronger message than that.” Alayna closed her eyes in concentration as she continued, “If they see or sense we are going to use the iron, they will attack us remotely. We need to show that our attack can stretch wide and far.”

  I still couldn’t see the whites of the eyes of the thundering herd, but I conjured a fireball into my hand. I manipulated the flames into molten lava and crafted an invisible outer shell that would break upon impact sending deadly shrapnel in all directions.

  I looked around at my friends. Felix had pulses of purple electricity tracing around the frame of his body. I supposed this was his mean face with crazed eyes wide open and twisted facial features making him appear demonic.

  Alayna had cut a bigger hole in the mask so that she could breathe through her nose and a golden dust shot out of her flared nostrils every time she exhaled like an angry bull. The glittery sparkles floated around and formed a protective shield about ten feet in front of us.

  Burn’s hair turned into fire, I shit you not. I had no idea how she did it, and to top it off, the flames climbed above her head and took the shape of a dragon. After learning about her parents, I knew this girl probably had more magical talent than I did.

  The angry mob, which was closing in quickly, came to a sudden halt when the men saw the magical freaks. Two men drew their longbows from their backs and nocked arrows. A mohawked sidhe warrior on the side of the street screamed at the men in an unknown language.

  The bowmen disregarded his heeding and loosed arrows toward us. The missiles crashed into Alayna’s protective shield and the wooden shafts shattered into splinters, raining down on the dirt road. Two dragon glass arrowheads stuck in the invisible shield, appearing to hang in mid-air.

  Several of the sidhe posse fell over each other trying to hightail it out of there. I tossed my spheroid of lava from palm to palm. Burn’s flaming dragon roared and spit hot fire into the sky as the sidhe backed up a few more steps.

  Felix busted out in a strange, hypnotic dance set to some unknown beat. The electrical amethyst surges moved with him and he raised his right hand. While still shaking his hips, he extended a pointer finger and looked like Elvis.

  A blast of purple energy burst from his raised digit and raced toward the heavens. Amethyst Lightning (Sweet stage name, right?) replicated the gyrating King of Rock and Roll for a few moments and seamlessly shifted to some disco dancing. Was the robot up next?

  I feared the mage’s flamboyant moves might embolden the sidhe at first, but Alayna was correct. The small gang ran away, disappearing into the horizon as quickly as the angry posse had appeared. Apparently, the sidhe wanted some easy money or a quick kill.

  I tossed my lava ball into the dirt road and the liquid fire burrowed into the ground, leaving a smoking hole. I kicked the warm dirt into the small crater and covered it completely before we continued on our way. I always replaced my divots.

  Everyone returned to his or her normal state and I wondered why the posse was so scared of our magic. The books Jonathan had given me had mentioned that most of the supernatural beings knew magic. I concluded that the posse had a basic understanding of magic, but our demonstration scared the shit out of them.

  In defense of the men who had fled, our tetrad was a major force to mess with. We all had an extremely advanced knowledge of magic. With the exception of Burn, I knew that at least three of us had been battle tested too.

  Once I was convinced we were safe, I gently slid the hypothetical can of Supernatural Whoopass into my back pocket.

  We passed a man wearing a knife belt that must have held fifty knives. The handles banged into each other even though the man walked with smooth steps. It sounded like someone opening and slamming a cluttered silverware drawer. I joked, “That’s the kind of belt I need.”

  Alayna said, “You still need to get that knife back from the demons of the Red Cavern.”

  “Don’t I know it?” I smiled at Burn. “I thought I was going to make a deal with them, but they wanted me to do something monstrous.”

  Felix bit his nails as he asked, “Well, what are you going to do?”

  I shrugged and frowned. “Not much I can do. At this point, it is bust down the stone door covering, take a ride through the portal and hope for the best.”

  Burn offered, “I’ll help you get the knife back.”

  “Excuse me?” I wasn’t sure if I’d heard that correctly.

  Burn said, “I have a hunch that if you brought me back to them, the demons would give you back your knife.”

  “Yeah but...but then you have to go back to the demons.” They weren’t exactly known for their mercy. The Jersey Devil and Aka Manah had already said she would be punished.

  “I’ll go back, take my punishment and escape again somehow.” She lowered her voice, “Unless...”

  I knew what the unless meant. “But, what if? Is that a chance you are willing to take?”

  She thought about it for a few moments as she stared at the sun. “I will. They have no idea how powerful I am, so I’m hoping to stun them and make a break for it.”

  The idea of a lifetime struck me. “Holy shit, I have it.”

  Alayna cupped the sides of her mouth and announced, “You’re going to give her some of the return potion.”

  She had to steal my thunder.

  “Exactly. Then, as soon as I leave the Red Cavern, you can use the potion and get sent back to my house.” I was touched that Burn was willing to do this before having the assurance
of the potion.

  “That makes it much easier,” she agreed, still staring at the fire in the sky, but also walking a perfectly straight line down the dirt road. “Just don’t kick me out and forget about me since you will probably be rich by then.”

  Oh shit. I laughed heartily, trying to end the conversation there.

  Felix’s thick eyebrows scrunched up and the bridge of his nose wrinkled. He asked in a husky tone, “What do you mean he will be rich?”

  I tried to send mental messages to Burn. Don’t do it. Don’t tell him.

  Burn’s lips started moving and I braced myself. She said, “The Mayor of Pittsburgh promised Mike two million dollars if he could take back the city from the sidhe.”

  Felix stopped walking and erupted, “What the fuck is that shit?” His hands flailed around as he continued, “I’m risking my life for a measly twenty grand.”

  Damnit. How would I dig myself out of this one? “Relax. Relax. Relax.” The words I’d hoped would appear magically stayed hidden from my mind. “First off, I was going to split that money four ways upon completion of our mission.” Yeah, that sounded good.

  “Bullshit.” Felix planted his feet in the ground and didn’t seem like he was going to move until this was settled.

  “Bullshit. Really?” I had it. “Considering I’ve donated most of my earnings up to this point, you know that money isn’t that important to me. There is one other thing too. Can I trust the mayor to pay up? He’s supposedly a good guy, but he’s a politician. I didn’t want to make promises and trust a politician who might screw me over. If I said something and didn’t deliver...”

  Felix cut me off, “I’m not sure I’m buying this.”

  I started walking again, hoping the girls would follow. My heart missed a beat until I heard the skipping steps of Burn and Alayna. I turned my head and raised my voice, “That’s fine because I’m not selling it. It’s a fact. Furthermore, I would never ask you for money to help you out on a case.”

  Felix began to follow us reluctantly. “That’s different. You’re getting paid two mil and my pittance is twenty grand. You could have at least doubled that originally. That’s why I’m mad.”