Dragon Horn Read online

  I sat up and scanned the area. Uh oh.

  Three elephant trunks had protruded from the soil and were moving around like old TV antennae trying to catch some reception. Before we could even run, the dirt around the trunks fissured and three sets of curved tusks popped out of the ground, followed by three pachydermatous heads with huge ears.

  We all jumped to our feet and moved closer together.

  The enormous primordial cryptoids known as grootslangs emerged from their respective tunnels. A grootslang was a creature as old as time. They were a mistaken invention by a group of Gods who’d later tried to destroy their creation, but failed. The South African animal resided in holes near lakes, so this appearance wasn’t out of the ordinary.

  Although I was intrigued that Sleepy Willow had mythical creatures from all over the world, this didn’t look like a welcoming party.

  The grootslangs all looked the same. They stood upright on two thick legs with enormous elephant heads, jagged yellow fangs and ivory tusks drenched in dried blood and crusted with dirt. The creatures had the body of a fat man covered in elephant skin. A hissing sound caused me to notice that the tails were live black snakes covered in yellow spotting. The only differing characteristic was the color of their eyes.

  Legend said they either took their pay in gold or blood.

  The grootslang with sapphire eyes spoke in a husky tone, “Trespassers.” He turned to his friends. “Which one do you want to kill?”

  I was shocked that they spoke English. Dipping into my magic reservoir, I prepared for the worst.

  “All a themses,” said the one with haunting amethyst eyes. He tilted his head and his floppy ear folded over one of his eyes and covered half of his face. “Gold is what we wants, and these fools appears to has none.”

  I said, “We have some gold to barter with.” I’d stuffed the fake gold coins into my skintight suit, but I wasn’t sure if they were still in there. I unzipped the front of my suit. “What’s your price?”

  “All thats you gots,” responded the third grootslang with eyes as ruby red as Dorothy’s slippers. He guffawed and his two friends joined in.

  The one with sapphire eyes, who seemed to be the leader, rubbed the sharpened end of his tusk, and pronounced, “Four ounces. Gold.”

  His friend, ruby eyes objected, “That’s not enough. ‘Sides, how do we make an even moiety for three of us out of four ounces?”

  The leader, sapphire eyes said, “Why must you perpetually abstain from common sense? You understand moiety, yet you can barely speak the language properly. ‘Sides, you know damn well the Warden gets his cut. He is our fourth.”

  I had to dig way down inside the suit, but I pried two of the final three coins from my thigh and pulled them out. I extended my hand and the last rays of the dying sun sent a shaft of golden light to bring a devious shine to the fake coins.

  The grootslangs smiled. At least, I thought they were smiling.

  The leader’s tail snake moved with the speed of a whip and snatched the two-ounce coins from my open hand. I checked my palm to see if it had bit me. All clear. The snake returned to its master and dropped the coins into his three-fingered hand.

  The leader said, “You haven’t a parsimonious bone in your body, have you?”

  “Excuse me?” I asked.

  “Most of the lost souls we find out here try to haggle and lower the cost of passage.” Sapphire eyes bit down on the coin and I began to worry. Was he biting into the coin? My angst faded when his ugly smile returned.

  The leader continued, “But fine words butter no carrots, I can assure you of that. These do.” He tapped the coins together, creating a clanking sound that echoed and died suddenly. “We are easily appeased by our favorite metal, but I shall warn you of this. We will test this coin for content as soon as we get back to our caves.”

  I tried to sound confident, “Go for it. She’s all good.”

  Sapphire eyes leered at me for several moments, tossing the coins up and down in his hand. “It’s in your best interest to be veracious with me. We are under the protection of the Warden of the East. If these are fake, he will send an army of sidhe and supernatural creatures to kill you. The Warden always gets his cut.”

  I expected these wild beasts to attack at any moment and attempt to take everything we had. On the other hand, the grootslangs probably hadn’t expected us to have anything of value, so they could strike a fair deal and move on.

  Despite my exhausted body, I kept my magic at the surface in case anything broke out.

  I didn’t know if the grootslangs harnessed magic. In my physically barren state, I didn’t want to find out, that was certain. Hopefully, they weren’t as ruthless as they’d been rumored to be. They seemed rather civilized for popping out of a tunnel in the ground.

  “I hope you have more gold or you are going to get more gold because we might bump into each other again.” Sapphire eyes looked out over the calm waters, sighed and turned around. He pointed at the forest. “You need to see the Rosendales next. And we have a rather robust sense of the geography around here. Who knows where we might pop up,” he said in an ominous tone. The leader added a ‘muahahahahaha’ evil laugh.

  The two other grootslangs burst out laughing to support their leader.

  And on that note, the three mythical monsters turned reptilian tail and dove back into the holes that they’d emerged from. Thank the Gods they hadn’t attacked our energy stripped crew.

  Alayna announced abruptly, “I know where we need to go. We need to move inland and set up camp for the night. It will probably take about two days to get to the dullahans’ place.”

  “Dullahans?” Burn asked as we headed for the woods.

  Alayna explained, “A dullahan is a headless horseman or horsewoman. However, they normally carry their own decapitated heads, which still speak and think as though they were still attached. This couple is different in that they carry each other’s head.”

  This place got wilder by the second. I wanted to probe this topic so much more and understand how something could live without a head attached. However, I stuck to the important stuff. “What do you think they are going to ask for? I only have one gold coin left.”

  “You aren’t using fake coins are you?” Alayna pressed me.

  “No, they are real as far as I know. Jonathan gave them to me.” I hated lying directly to my mentor, but it was better than battling a group of deadly grootslangs. I hoped the part about Jonathan added some authenticity.

  Alayna warned, “Because they weren’t lying about that. The Warden has many a posse at his behest. He provides food to all the creatures beyond Lake Geopold.”

  Burn said, “What about that apple tree we saw about a hundred yards back when we first entered the forest? Those babies looked nice and juicy. Did they break your curse?”

  Alayna shook her head. “No. Food can still grow and appear delicious, but it will kill you. The Sphinx’s greenhouse is the only place in this world that can grow non-poisonous food. I didn’t curse Knelly Knell’s crops because she was my friend and a vegetarian. She was the only one I wanted to enjoy the food of the land.”

  Felix limped away to a tree stump as he favored his right knee and sat down. “It’s still killing me. I think I might have torn some ligaments. I hate to do it, but I’m going to have to bow out.”

  I thought for a minute. He was just limping on his other leg before. The mage chomped nervously on his fingernails, and I said, “If you have to go, you have to go. Why don’t you give us the rest of your supplies, especially the food and water pills?”

  “I can do that.” He unzipped his suit and started extracting various items.

  I broke the defense ward on the vial of return potion and moved closer to the mage. “Are you sure you don’t want to wait until morning? We are just going to find a camp spot and go to sleep tonight.”

  He closed his eyes and waited a few moments. “I wish. I tore my meniscus once, and this feels exactly like that. I kn
ow this isn’t just going away without treatment.”

  I told him, “Alayna knows a variety of healing spells.”

  “I still won’t be one hundred percent.” He stood up and rubbed around his knee. He bit his bottom lip in pain. “That’s a recipe for disaster around here considering I could die at any time at full strength.” He sat back down, breathing heavy.

  He had a fair point.

  Burn said dismissively, “If he wants to go, let him. I’m sure we will be fine without him.”

  “You’re right.” I unscrewed the top of the vial and held it over Felix. “You sure? Are you ready for a magic carpet ride?”

  “I have to.” He nodded in agreeance.

  I warned him, “This is going to send you to my lab. I know you’re hobbled but you need to get downstairs and out of my house to get treatment. I just ask that you lock my door on the way out. I have wards set so that no one can come in the house, but leaving shouldn’t be a problem. Just a heads up.”

  “Thanks, bro.” He looked at the girls. “Sorry about how this worked out.”

  I spoke for the group, “It could have been much worse. Take care of yourself and I’ll talk to you as soon as we return, my friend.” I spilled a couple of drops from the potion onto his chest.

  Felix smiled and his body started to disappear. It worked the same way as it had with Jonathan, bodily evaporation starting at the outer regions and moving toward his core. About a minute later, the mage was gone. And then there were three.

  Chapter 22

  I hoped Felix’s departure would be the last subtraction from the team. I announced confidently, “We can still be the Fearsome Threesome.”

  “My leg would have to fall off for me to leave this mission,” Burn announced. “I can’t believe he just walked away.”

  I believed her. She’d already proven more valuable than the experienced mage. The demon was true to her word too.

  I said, “I think our friend was a bit overwhelmed by Sleepy Willow. He’d been acting strange since we got here. When I first met him, he was nervous and always biting his nails. After a while, he comes out of that shell. Big time. This trip, he reverted to that nervous dude. He was probably scared of what lies ahead.”

  We got moving again, and Alayna said, “He’s not stupid. We are going into unchartered territory for most humans. And demons, I guess. Maybe the grootslangs spooked him.”

  The sun meshed into the jacinth horizon. We moved further inland, through a plain of olivaceous high grass. It was unnerving to walk through an area that could be camouflaging a bunch of deadly creatures.

  The uneven beating of my heart returned to normal as we entered a dense forest. Alayna shot a beam of light from her palm and took the lead. About fifteen minutes later, we found a small clearing and gathered kindling and wood for a fire. Without any camp supplies, we were at the mercy of the elements, although Sleepy Willow seemed to be in its late-spring/early-summer season. At least we wouldn’t freeze.

  We all started to take stock of our possessions and found that we hadn’t lost much to the lake. We had lost our sidhe kryptonite, also known as our iron reserves. That sucked. Although I wasn’t sure what my cheap flask was made of. In this region, the unknown creatures scared me more than the supernatural sidhe.

  We settled in as best we could while remaining alert for intruders. On second thought, we were the intruders in this scenario. Being completely exhausted, I thought I would nod off quickly, but the uncomfortable ground and intermittent wild wailing coming from the forest wouldn’t acquiesce.

  “Mike, tell me about your mom,” said Burn.

  I smiled. I finally knew what to say in this situation. “You both know she died when I was ten and I miss her like nothing else. But that doesn’t really tell you anything about her.”

  I paused for a minute, trying to remember my exact spiel, and then continued, “Alayna asked me about this once and I fumbled. At first, I just listed a series of physical descriptions. Then I remembered her more as a person, but that still doesn’t accurately portray my mother. After some careful reflection, I realized who my mother really was.”

  “And who might that be?” Alayna smiled wryly with a slight twinkle in her eyes.

  I told them, “She’s a wind dancer. First, you need to close your eyes.” Burn narrowed her eyes, but before the girls could question it, I said, “Seriously. I know it sounds strange, but just close them.”

  I waited until both girls shut their eyes. I spoke in a gentle, comforting tone, letting the words roll off my tongue, “She travels with the wind. Relax. Take a few deep breaths. Feel the tingling on your neck as the gentle breeze sways by, lifting the little hairs to stand at attention. Feel the buzzing sensation as it spreads up to your ears. Feel the tingles as they dance on your soul, letting you know that they are there for you. That they will always be there for you. She travels with the wind.”

  My head, neck and shoulders were buzzing with excitement. Stopping for a moment, I moved my jaw around and made sure the ladies weren’t peeking. “Feel that great sensation as it circulates through your head, tingling all the while. You sit up straighter as that buzzing rides down your spine, infusing confidence in you. Feel the spirit as it circulates through your chest, neck and back to your head. Now your ears feel light, like they are going to lift off your head and fly away. And now the tingling returns to your neck. It jumps under your scalp and pleasantly massages your brain.” I whispered, “She travels with the wind.”

  Both women still had their eyes closed. I asked, “Do you feel that wind dancer?”

  Alayna opened her eyes, and said reservedly, “I feel more intoxicated than ever before.”

  Burn was still blinking as the corners of her lips curled up. “My head and neck feel wonderful with all that tingling. I sort of scoffed when you first started, but I’m impressed.”

  I smiled. “That’s my mom. When you are having a bad day, just think about her and she will tickle the back of your neck to let you know that you aren’t alone. She’ll always be there for you. She travels with the wind, dancing with you when you need it the most. And that’s who my mother is. She was always there for me when she was alive.”

  I swallowed the developing lump in my throat and continued, “And she’s always there for me now that she’s dead.” A few tears escaped from their ducts and I swept them off my cheeks.

  Alayna said, “That’s wonderful, Mike. She’s there for all of us.”

  I nodded quickly. “That’s how I know that my mom is special. I’ve always known that she would be there for me, but it wasn’t until I recently realized that she is there to provide hope to anyone, that proves how great she really is. Reg told me he could feel her spirit too.” I directed the last comment to Alayna because Burn didn’t know Reg. I was still worried about my best friend. I’d told him to call me and then disappeared off the face of the earth. But I couldn’t worry about that now.

  Alayna pushed a pile of kindling together. “I can’t speak for Burn, but I can feel her spirit loud and clear. I think this is a much better way to remember your mother than from a picture or an old keepsake. I still have the chills from that. So much for going to sleep as my heart is still racing.” A gentle flame sparked from Alayna’s pointer finger and she held it to the pile of brush.

  The kindling caught instantly, and a reflection of the flames danced the rhumba in Burn’s glossy eyes. “My body feels like it is floating. Maybe your mother is lifting my soul right now. What is her name?”

  That was a beautiful sentiment. Burn seemed more human than demon from an emotional standpoint. I stated proudly, “Brighid Parker Boyle Merlino.”

  Burn smiled. “Kind of like my grandmother.”

  “Same exact spelling,” I confirmed. “I’m pretty positive she might have been named after your grandmother.”

  “I would say it’s a small world, but we all know of so many different worlds that this seems like more than just coincidence.” Burn twirled her auburn locks
around her middle finger. She seemed like the kind of girl my mother would like.

  As my neck tingled, I tried to piece together the recent events. I was still a bit shaken from the near-death experience in the lake and pissed that Felix had gone back home. I wondered how he’d like it if I told his personal paparazzi about him bowing out.

  So we’d made it across the lake, by the skin of our teeth, which is a phrase I’d never understood, but it seemed apt in this situation. Alayna knew how to get to our next destination, I hoped. Considering she hadn’t been in this land in five centuries, I wondered if everything was still the same. Not to mention the creatures we could encounter.

  The rest of the trip was going to be substantially more difficult with only three people. But we weren’t going back, only forging ahead into the danger.

  Chapter 23

  The rickety wooden bridge held together by fraying yellow ropes swayed unevenly as I put my foot on the walkway. Taking a few nips of Jameson earlier seemed like a bad idea now. The rushing river beneath had jagged rocks poking out of the whitewater rapids. The moving tide whooshed and crashed against the boulders, giving us a reprieve from the normal sounds of the woods.

  The two-day walk to get to the bridge had mostly featured annoying insects, shrieking animals and growling sounds from unseen creatures. On the bright side of the treacherous excursion, Alayna and Burn seemed to be getting along well. Their communal bathroom breaks had forged some sort of female bond.

  With solid ground about ten feet behind me and twenty feet in front of me, my knees knocked together. Burn had already made it to the other side so I knew it was worthy of holding her weight. However, I weighed about twice as much as her.

  The Jameson in my stomach swirled as I tracked my steps, trying not to focus on the missing and broken planks of wood. I hopped over a weather-beaten rectangle of wood that appeared to be compromised, took two more steps and jumped for solid land. Upon impact with firm soil, a huge sigh of relief rushed out of my lungs.