by J M Guillen
In that moment, one of the kenku swooped down from above and swung one of those sickles at my head.
I hadn’t seen it coming, distracted by the taxi driver.
The man-crow swirled from my right and threw the entire force of its descent into the strike.
My head snapped to the left, and I heard something crack into my helmet as it ripped it from my head. I tumbled off my bike and fell to the ground, injured shoulder first.
That hurt.
“Holy shit!” Someone, possibly the taxi driver, yelled from what seemed like impossibly far away.
I couldn’t tell. Something had absolutely rung my bell.
Even so, panic and adrenaline burned in my body. An instant after I hit the ground, I scrabbled backward and peered around wildly for what had struck me.
Oh God! Where the hell is it!
I pulled the gun from my jacket while my hands trembled wildly.
Nothing.
Move, Liz. I groggily got to my feet, took a breath, and frantically peered around the sky.
Why hadn’t they finished me off? I stumbled, more than a little bit off kilter.
“Are you okay?” The taxi driver yelled out the passenger side window “What was that?”
“Nothing.” I staggered and peered wildly around. When I still didn’t see any of the kenku, I wobbled drunkenly over to my Valkyrie and picked it up.
“Are you okay?” The man asked again. “You’re sure you should be driving?”
“I’m fine.” I waved at him and did not realize I waved with the gun.
If don’t move, they’ll hit me again.
“Oh God!” the man cried. “Don’t shoot!”
I didn’t answer him, but turned away, intent on sending a message to the murder birds. I needed to act quickly, needed to show them that my strength.
“You think I’m done?!” I yelled into the September night. I glared up into the sky and fired the Beretta. I shot once, then three more times in various directions in the sky.
Everyone. Went. Apeshit.
I hadn’t exactly meant to send everyone running from their cars or diving into businesses.
My somewhat muddy thought process simply wished to keep the kenku at bay. However, in my addled and panicked state, I hadn’t considered what might happen if the citizens of New York saw a woman stand in the middle of the street and scream into an empty sky while she shot a Beretta into the air.
“Reduces innocent bystanders, I suppose.” I bit my lip.
People fled their cars, left doors half opened, in some cases left the cars running. With that one action, I had guaranteed traffic would remain at a standstill.
It might take me two or three times as long to work my way down the street now.
“Okay.” I angled my Valkyrie so I could drive between the cars and the sidewalk. Perhaps not the safest maneuver in the world, but I had little choice.
Anything had to be safer than sitting still.
2
I swerved between the cars and the sidewalk. More than once, I actually pulled the bike up onto the sidewalk just to avoid a place where stalled traffic had grown too dense.
Believe it or not, I actually took a few moments to prepare what I might say when Rehl or Baxter started to light into me about the gunshots.
I didn’t consider it exactly funny that I had been the one to spend her evening shooting up the city, but just as soon as they got hold of me—
Oh.
“Well, damn…” I realized what had happened, what I hadn’t had the attention to notice only a few moments before.
That strike had done more than ripped the helmet off my head; it had pulled the walkie-talkie off as well. Somewhere behind me, on the road, lay my damaged helmet and the headset.
Still, I felt lucky. If I hadn’t left my helmet unfastened, the strike might’ve split my head in two. In fact, that might’ve been the point.
“Fine,” I muttered, and sounded not at all like a crazy person. “Just fine.” In a matter of moments I would join back up with my group and then we wouldn’t need the walkie-talkies anymore.
I sped up. I couldn’t exactly gun the Valkyrie while I shifted back and forth between the sidewalk and the gutter, but I made decent time.
Chester Court lay only minutes away.
I pulled the Valkyrie back onto the street, after wedging it between a blue courier van and a taxi, and hopped back on it.
And heard gunfire in front of me.
“No!” My eyes grew wide, and my pulse began to thunder in my chest. My head realized what had happened approximately half a second after my heart did, and the ramifications made me sweat.
The crows had attacked my friends.
I revved the bike and charged down the street as quickly as I could.
As I drove, my thoughts raced. Had the kenku realized we used the walkie-talkies to communicate? Had that been the whole point of ripping my helmet off?
Mister Lorne had shown he didn’t mind taking the people I cared about. Perhaps I’d proven a little bit too dangerous for his murder birds. He might have considered it far simpler to take my friends and throw them into a cell next to Simon.
It wasn’t a bad play. How many people could I allow to be taken before I gave up?
“I don’t have that many people left,” I muttered.
Somewhere to the north, I heard police sirens wail more loudly for a moment and then stop.
Doubtless the NYPD had made it to the northern end of Flatbush and had begun to set a perimeter.
Even worse, it occurred to me that perhaps the safest place to hide from the vanilla police might be inside Fallen Leaves itself. Was that what Mister Lorne had intended? For the police to drive me into his store?
A gunshot, followed by two more. Shit. I needed to hurry.
Two of the birdbrains were more than a match for my friends, and that assumed the one I’d shot had been taken out of the action.
Although…
The kenku had only taken me on one at a time. A poor strategy, for sure. I often teased Baxter when he ran a game because his creatures behaved in a similar fashion.
So they’d… toyed with me? I’d been so surprised one of them seemed eager to slice my heart out of my chest. However, the moment I had been knocked off my bike would have been the perfect time to go for the killing blow.
They hadn’t even tried.
And now, after they had destroyed my head protection, they’d stopped attacking me altogether.
And that meant…
“We’re being played.” I bit my lip in frustration as I zipped along the median.
The Gaunt Man had known when we arrived. However, even though we hadn’t had much of a plan, he undoubtedly had several contingency plans in place.
He had attacked me. He had scared me, caused me to fire a weapon that had summoned the authorities. He had cut me off from my friends and now attacked them.
The only safe place from the cops lay inside his creepy little store.
I felt herded, like a cow down a chute.
I needed to change the game, do something he couldn’t possibly expect. I needed a plan that would throw him off balance.
Dammit. Jax had warned me of Lorne’s extreme cleverness. What had he said exactly? I furrowed my brow in thought, and spoke the words to myself as I swerved past cars. “He bears a mastery of yearnings of the human heart.”
That hadn’t been it, not exactly, but I remembered close enough. He’d said more though, something about a second weapon I could use against him.
It will come to you under great duress…
I shook my head at the memory. I felt plenty of duress right about now.
Overhead, a police helicopter buzzed by the neighborhood, likely trying to get a fix on any shooters.
“MAKE YOUR WAY INTO A BUILDING!” A voice boomed from the helicopter loudspeaker. “SEEK COVER UNTIL THE INCIDENT HAS BEEN BROUGHT UNDER CONTROL.”
The helicopter then veered away, headed back
toward the north side of the street.
“Worse and worse,” I muttered.
I pulled my bike past the spot where the accident had originally happened; a moving van that had plowed into a VW Bug. Their owners were nowhere in sight; it seemed like they had crashed into each other while they tried to escape some kind of rampage up the street.
Rampage? Eh, this had been more of a spree, tops.
Beyond this point, the road cleared considerably. I could easily peer down the way my vision unobstructed by a line of stopped cars. Once I did—
“There you are,” I snarled.
One of the kenku had perched on a nearby building.
I watched as it swooped down out of sight and veered toward another street branching off to the west.
If I’d been close enough, I would bet my lucky dice the street sign on the corner read ‘Chester Court.’
Not that I owned any lucky dice.
“Just that moment, Liz came up with her brilliant idea,” I desperately narrated. As guns fired again, I winced instead.
I had nothing. Nothing.
I swore to myself and practically cried. This had all gone wrong. I had no doubt if I hit the gas and tore over to Chester Court, I might be the difference between my friend’s lives and their deaths.
I also had no doubt the entire set-up had been laid out as a gargantuan trap.
“This is where the character needs a favor from the game master.” I eased my bike forward to get a better view. Perhaps I should just bolt in there. If that stopped my friends from getting slaughtered by evil crow people—
Wait. Something nagged in the back of my mind. Something about a favor from the game master…
“A favor…” I chewed the thought over for a moment before I realized, in full Technicolor, what piece of memory poked me.
My chest tingled, just as it had when I recalled Jax’s riddle.
“Your second weapon will come to you under great duress….” Jax’s voice faded, drifted. “You’ll come to understand the value of one who asks of you a boon.”
“Not that someone owes me a favor…” I muttered to myself, and my heart pounded with terror. “But someone who wants a favor of me.”
That—
“Oh God.” I shook my head, almost unconsciously.
For an eternal moment, the implication sank its icy fingers into my heart.
I thought about every possible variation of the idea, and what it all meant. A burning flash of inspiration, of reckless insanity dripping with stupidity, dawned in my mind.
Suicide. Ridiculous.
In the distance, I heard Rehl yell. I couldn’t tell if it was in fury or pain, but I didn’t like it, either way. I needed to kick it into high gear, take control of the situation.
The plan I’d half-crazily conceived felt like foolhardy perfection. We’d either go out in a glorious burst of gory insanity or we’d make Blake Runner look like a kids’ cartoon.
I smiled, chuckling just a little at the idea.
Game on.
3
In the distance thundered two more gunshots.
Someone cried out in pain and in horror, and I recognized it as Baxter.
Now. It had to be now.
I closed my eyes and relaxed into the uncanny power that surged inside my blood. It ran cold and sharp, yet it tasted like red wine, like desire. It capered and twirled and gamboled through me.
Mine. Primal glee burned in my heart. Everything I was, everything I had ever been, exploded into a tempest around me.
The autumn leaves shot away from me, hurled by a fierce and sudden zephyr. My dark hair danced in it, tousled and teased.
More. I delved deeply into my heart and felt the breath of eternity there. I inhaled deeply and delighted in sweet susurrus, in savage cyclones.
I drifted within it, and my mind surfed and cavorted. I tuned out the world, and delighted in the swirling, savage dance of the Wind.
I waited for one sound in particular, one sound that meant things were about to get… irrational.
It didn’t take long.
When it came, it began with an otherworldly crackling followed by three separate loud POPs.
I opened my eyes. There, on the east side of the street, three scarlet bursts of light shone, wicked and threatening. In the dark of night, their radiance flickered menacingly on the face of the buildings and cars.
They had exploded into existence, a trio of shimmering, warbling gateways that sang a soft and eldritch song.
Shadowed creatures walked through those gates. Creatures who wore dark suits and carried oversized guns. Creatures with indescribable tech that hovered around their heads or hung from their sides.
One of them, a huge, bearded man, had a large mechanical device on his back, and carried a weapon that looked more like an old-timey rivet gun.
And yes. I smiled as I saw her.
They brought a witch.
Five of the Ass-hats came through in all, but I noted the gates remained open and active. I didn’t know what lay on the other side of them, but I guessed the Facility had the ability to send quite a few more of their Silent Gentlemen if they wanted.
After our last encounter, they apparently believed I was worth a little more attention.
It only took me a moment to recognize Garret even from so far away. This seemed odd to me, in that many of the Ass-hats wore similar clothing, but I recognized more than just his attire. I remembered the way the cocky little shit walked, could tell him from even across the street.
Garret had wanted a favor of me—a boon. Probably not the way he’d define our relationship, however, that was likely the closest metaphor that Jax could come up with for it.
Hopefully, I was about to understand his value.
“Liz!” He raised one hand to me, as a friend might wave to another. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’ve been thinking,” I half whispered, half thought, and the Wind caught the words. Like a leaf in a storm, it carried them to him.
I registered the shock on his face when he heard my whisper. They all paused in place for a moment, and I had no doubt Garret had used some kind of Facility walkie-talkie to communicate what I’d said.
The effect of five Silent Gentlemen halting in unison without speaking, spooked me just a bit.
The witch twitched and wove her fingers as she stared at me. Then the slightest hint of surprise registered on her face. Her head slowly turned as she gazed down the street.
Straight at Chester Court.
“I have something I want you to see.” The Wind rose around me and made my hair dance. It carried my words not because I commanded it, but because it knew me and knew my desires.
“You do.” Even though the friendly smile remained on his face, I couldn’t help but notice that his witch stepped up beside him, her fingers already twitching maddeningly. “What is it?”
“Follow me, Garret.” Again, the Wind caught and carried my whispered word. “Let me show you.”
Without another word, I threw the hammer down on the Valkyrie.
I charged the Gaunt Man’s stronghold.
I didn’t look back.
4
The Valkyrie thundered between my legs as I threw the bike into the highest gear possible, stormed around the corner, and hurled down the road.
Chester Court had been designed as a dead end, with a wall that bordered Prospect Park. The street held two neat rows of well-tended brick homes and townhouses. On each side of the street, trees blossomed with brilliant oranges and yellows.
Also, two horrific raven-beasts hovered above the street to engage my best friends in a life or death struggle.
“Sneak attack, assholes.” I revved the bike again and charged forward.
One of the kenku glanced up at my approach, its eyes wide with fury and dark glee.
I pulled my pistol and steered with my left hand only. As I charged the avians, I pointed the gun’s muzzle in the air and fired, over and over.
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One of them, the creature whose back had been to me, cawed in pain and dismay. It flapped twice and spun around in mid-air to face me.
“Liz!” Rehl called out as he spun sideways and drew down on the remaining bird. “We couldn’t raise you! Then these two just came out of—”
The buildings along Chester Court exploded with raven-men.
They burst from the windows, tore their way from behind doors. A couple of them even burst up through manholes in the street to land less than ten feet away from us.
“More corbies!” Baxter cried as he stepped up next to Rehl and Alicia. In one hand, he spun Simon’s cane in rapid circles.
“I thought they were more like kenku.” I grinned at him as I roared up.
Wait, I thought. Simon’s cane? Simon hadn’t taken it?
Weird.
Alicia stepped up next to me, and that ember of white-silver light burned above her head. Her hazel eyes had gone completely blank, and an expression of intense concentration furrowed her brow.
“There! Liz!” The moment she got close enough for the light to fall across my face, she pointed.
I watched as one of the townhouses, the only red one, faded into nothingness. I saw an alleyway that snaked off between the houses. In those shadows I could just make out an odd little storefront with a handmade, wooden sign hung next to the door.
Fallen Leaves.
The ramifications of the situation made me frown. If Alicia had to reveal the alleyway to me, it would still remain hidden to the Ass-hats.
One thing at a time.
“Rehl, I need you to knock at the front doo—”
One of the kenku dropped right in front of me. Its eyes gleamed merrily, and I recognized the robes of patchwork leather. It hovered there, black wings beating menacingly. Each hand gripped one of those wicked little sickles.
“Elissabeth.” If the kenku could gloat, somehow grin through that beak, I thought it probably would. “Thiss iss the end of your road.”
I dropped the Beretta to my side and didn’t say a word. Instead I called to mind the complex shapes that wove together to create the Seal of A’grimm.