Strange Medicine

by Jim Stein

  “They steal the key to our salvation!” he thundered.

  Max growled and rose with head low and hackles up. My dog glowed with a dark aura. I’d never noticed such a thing on an animal, and the fact it was nearly black worried me. The ground shook as Max stepped forward.

  Muuyaw stepped back and raised both hands, gathering power. Fire rose within me as I worried Max would get himself killed—again. Max stalked forward with deliberate steps. The ground lurched as his paw landed, making me stumble. Max continued forward, and the ground continued to heave—but not on every step.

  My dog stopped with the Ant backed to the bitter edge of the steep drop-off. Yet the shaking continued in a slow deliberate cadence. A shadow fell over Muuyaw as a massive head rose above the ridgeline. Muuyaw laughed—not the jolly, boy-am-I-happy kind of chuckle, but the drunk-with-power maniacal howl of a man on the edge of sanity.

  Several more shaking footsteps brought the titan into view. Its bone-white head was an oval that swept back over broad shoulders. The first impression was of a dinosaur skull, something like a stegosaurus or triceratops, but the white plating was scales, not bone. The barrel chest bore similar protection, except these were each the size of a dinner plate and flecked with navy-blue. We’d wondered if whatever chomped on the dead sea creature had walked on two or four legs.

  Five tree-trunk legs supported the monster towering over my still growling dog. But the rearmost one was thinner, studded with spines, and more of a thick tail it used to push its hind end up off the slope. Although the head was the shape of a placid herbivore, the snout ended in a blocky square full of t-rex teeth and dangled down beneath its shoulders giving the impression of a massive spider. I recalled the car-sized chunk of rotting meat we’d passed. Calling up something like this was just over-the-top stupid. I mean, all of us could curl up in the thing’s mouth if we didn’t mind being a little friendly. It’d be like a carnivore clown car in there.

  “Max, come! Now!” I used my best command voice.

  Max slunk back to my side as the creature stepped out onto the plateau, passing right over top a still laughing Muuyaw.

  “That guy’s got some serious issues,” Pete said. “Don’t suppose you can whip up a little hotfoot for this thing?”

  “Sure can.” I hoped it would do some good.

  This would take epic music, so I reached straight for ripping metal guitars and over-modulated power. Fire swirled around “The Vengeful One” by Disturbed. A fitting spell in this dying world.

  I braced myself so I wouldn’t fall as the monster came on, and targeted a forefoot. The thing was simply too massive to go after much else. My only heat sources were the cooling rock and my own body warmth, so there was no way to mount a sustained attack.

  My first fireball splashed between black toenails the size of tortoise shells. The scales ended below the knee, and the lower legs and feet were a dusty brown of folds and creases that flexed as the foot ponderously pulled back from the blast.

  A normal-sized opponent, say like a bull elephant, would have lost its leg to the flames. Even with my energy metered out, the Fire—always alive, always hungry—rolled across the foot and charred the skin.

  An airy roar like the howl of wind whipping through a canyon thundered from its gaping jaws. I hit it again on the right foot, but instead of pulling away, the leg swept forward and past.

  “Pete, get everyone back inside.” I looked to where Dawa helped Larmoth toward the door. “Any chance of a little help?”

  “I have nothing to fight such a creature. It is only vulnerable beneath the tail.”

  Of course it was. Handily, I already stood underneath, though I’d been hoping to rectify that. Instead, I pushed another blast out through my aching fingers. The fire splashed against the base of the tail high above. I didn’t see any vulnerable spot or flashing outline like one of our video games would handily show. But the shot certainly got attention.

  Creaking like trees in a hurricane sounded all around. This time the windy roar came from directly overhead as the monster’s knees bent outward and that gaping mouth descended.

  “Max, go!” I dove to the left, pulling him along.

  The crack of a rifle sounded, followed by another and another. The Ants hadn’t seen fit to return Pete’s and Vance’s guns. The shots came more rapid than my friend’s lever-action rifle, and with the thumping impact of a high-powered weapon.

  Crack…crack…crack!

  I twisted away as the stone to my right shattered against yard-long teeth. Charles strode to me, an assault rifle cradled in both hands, pumping shot after shot. Flashes and sparks along its right eye ridge showed his grouping was tight, but the rounds weren’t doing anything aside from really pissing it off.

  “Under the tail!” I screamed as he paused to help me to my feet.

  We stumbled toward the rear end, scanning for a weak spot. My arms ached with cold. The Earth element might be better suited to take on something this large. But the shield still fed off that magic, and using a spell in such close proximity could have disastrous results.

  I readied another fireball, juggling the shield under my arm as I tried to line up a shot at what looked like a massive flying saucer, but was actually the creature’s butt. The absurdity of trying to fight something that could kill me if it decided to take a crap had me giggling and cursing so hard I nearly dropped my bundle.

  “Give that to Anna.” Charles flipped his head behind us.

  The girl stood close—too close. Spirit flowed from Anna in the tightly controlled pattern we’d practiced a hundred times. The tornado she sent out wasn’t the fierce spell she’d unconsciously unleashed in the past. Inertia and mass remained our enemy. The titan snarled and snapped blindly at the dust and debris buffeting its head, which gave us a short respite. But Anna needed to get to safety.

  “Take Max and this!” I shoved the jacket-wrapped shield at her as the spell faded. “Keep it safe.” She looked about to argue, but I grabbed her shoulders and pushed her toward the entrance. “Go!”

  “I’ll distract the bastard. Go for the tail.” Charles grinned as if we were actually making progress.

  We stumbled off in opposite directions. The tail slammed down to my left, knocking me to the ground. Chunks of rock whizzed over my head as the spiked tip withdrew and poised for another strike.

  The reports from Charles’s weapon trailed off as he worked toward the front of the titan. I rolled to my feet, narrowly avoiding another tail strike and launched a fireball straight up the thing’s butt. Direct hit! The hissing whumph of my fireball was followed by a ground-shaking roar that ended in a high-pitched wheeze.

  My next shot tore power from an empty well, and I dropped to my knees. The attack earned me another wet explosion overhead and a shriek from the creature, but I’d hit the wall. The stone was frigid and slick with ice. Drawing on more Fire would send me into hypothermia. The assault rifle fell silent, so Charles was down or out of ammo.

  An engine’s whine cut through the fog clogging my thoughts. A faded red ATV cut around the titan’s front leg and shot toward me. The slippery surface had the four-wheeler sliding sideways as the wheels locked up.

  “Son of a bitch!” Pete cursed, skidded to a stop, and held out his hand. “Rest later, we’ve got us a monster to wrangle.

  “What do you have in mind, hayseed?” I grinned around blue lips and scrambled up behind my friend.

  Pete shot off none too soon. The deadly tail full of spikes punched a hole in the center of the icy patch I’d created. The battering ram actually skidded sideways as it hit, making me wish I could make the whole area a skating rink. But using Fire to form ice was about as inefficient as it got. I’d be frozen solid before I laid down enough to put the monster off balance.

  We wove around the craters left by tail strikes and stomping feet. The titan turned to follow as Pete gunned the throttle. Our engine made tons of noise, but the winding path took too long.

  “First we get his at
tention.” Pete laughed at whatever expression crossed my face as I realized he was letting the monster catch up.

  Terror if I had to guess, because he steered for a rear foot and zoomed underneath just as it lifted. I was sure it would stomp down and make a Pete-butter and Ed-jelly sandwich out of us, but the farm boy knew what he was doing. The titan roared and tried to snap at us, but momentum was on our side and the flashing teeth never got close.

  “You’re baiting it?”

  “Get it mad enough and it’ll follow you anywhere.” Pete nodded over his shoulder and cocked a thumb at the far side of the plateau.

  The slope we’d ridden in on was steep, maybe twenty degrees. Enough of an incline that I’d been worried about flipping over backward. But Pete pointed to the far end, where the last set of towers had broken off completely and plunged into the deep ravine running along the cliffs to the north. The river far below meandered out to feed the finger-lake where we’d first found the titan’s footprints.

  He made a beeline for the cliff, but a leg swept past on the left and smashed down ahead. I risked a glance back. The gaping maw lunged from above, a cavern of teeth surrounding a purple-pink tongue the size of a school bus. I pulled hard on Pete’s right arm, forcing us to angle away, but knew we weren’t going to outrun those jaws.

  A second engine sputtered and revved. I thought I heard gunshots, but they were just the abused engine backfiring. Vance ran his silver and blue police ATV straight at us, swung wide, and shot off a few more deliberate backfires. The commotion confused our pursuer. The lunge turned into a half-hearted snap that missed Vance, but earned the titan a mouth full of stony pavement.

  The next thirty seconds was a heart-pounding game of chicken as the four-wheelers darted together and apart, keeping the creature following, but confused enough that it never focused on one rider for long. A low wall of rubble marked the edge of the plateau. Despite Pete’s skillful swerving, the mounting debris forced us to slow to a dangerous pace. Of course, we couldn’t go much farther anyway unless the ATV had a winged mode I wasn’t aware of. It was a long way to the bottom of that ravine.

  “You dog!” I punched Pete on the shoulder. “The bigger they are…”

  “The harder they fall,” he finished. “Classic video game strategy. If you can’t beat ‘em, kick ‘em off the screen.”

  Most games gave you a knockback move that didn’t deal damage, but pushed your opponent away. If you’d maneuvered the unbeatable boss to the edge of the arena, using the attack brought an abrupt end to the fight. Unfortunately we didn’t have a move like that. Anna’s whirlwind at full strength might do the trick, but we’d been unable to get her focused and back up to that level. Plus, she was back in the pictograph room with the shield. I might be able to dredge up enough Fire to make a slippery patch, but the chances of the monster stepping right on that were slim, not to mention I’d be at the center of the ice.

  “Hang on,” Pete said. “Time to put the bull in the barn.”

  We shot through an opening in the wall of rubble and skirted the cliff edge. My stomach lurched into my throat, and I leaned away from the sheer drop. Pete—the maniac—stood on the floorboards as we danced along the precipice. Vance did the same on the other side of the line of broken rocks. Both men whooped and hollered, keeping the titan stomping in a tight circle to focus on one and then the other. I leant my voice to their efforts. Screaming at the top of my lungs gave the panic an outlet.

  The plan worked fine, except the titan proved much more nimble than Pete had bargained for. It matched the ATV dance step for step, seeming to know by sheer instinct where its feet were in relation to the edge of the cliff.

  We ran out of maneuvering room, our back tire caught a chunk of stone, and we flew over the wall. The machine smacked down hard just below that monstrous face, and the engine quit. If the rock had kicked up the other tire, we would have been thrown into thin air. But our current predicament seemed little better. Pete thumbed the starter, but the engine refused to catch.

  I felt the magic before it hit, a tingling red energy streaming in from the entrance to the ruins. A blast of fire hit the titan square in the face, driving it back a step amid snarling and sheets of saliva. The flames didn’t have the eager hunger of my elemental spells, but the monster certainly didn’t like them. Manny strode forward, his right arm held high and fire steaming from his black knife.

  “Someone has their mojo back,” Pete said. “I still think he needs the knife.”

  “If you two hens are done gossiping, you might want to get the hell out of there. I can’t keep this up forever.”

  The power ebbed and Manny’s flames dimmed. The creature shook its head and took a step forward. The hind foot pivoted, slipped toward the drop off, but stopped just short of the edge—we’d failed.

  Harassing it with the ATVs had been a good ploy, but we were out of options. Pete tried to pull me into a run. I shook him off, closed my eyes, and called up one of the new songs from the album Anna gave me. My tattoo flared into searing agony as I reached for Earth magic. I ignored the warning and pushed on. There was no other way.

  Bass, guitar, and drums opened in synchronized solidarity. I let the music build, tasted the words I had so recently learned. The sentiment fit our situation perfectly and goosebumps rose along my arms. The titan might be huge, he might be more powerful than anything I’d faced before, but it was just one being—same as me. I held my ground as the flames died and the thing noticed me standing close enough to smell its fishy breath.

  “Let’s see who’s going down.” I honestly didn’t know.

  I also didn’t know the consequences of unleashing the Earth element so close to the shield. But still I blasted out my forbidden magic with the Sick Puppies’ song “You’re Going Down.”

  Of course, I didn’t target the beast. The element flowed smoothly into the ground. I’d missed using this kind of spell, missed feeling my way through stone, mineral, and metal as I did now. Dense deposits ran deep under the lip of stone supporting the edge. The last twenty yards of rock cantilevered out over the chasm, supported by a vein of gneiss with a fatal flaw. I slipped energy into the fractures, widening and encouraging the fault line to take the course of action that would occur naturally in the coming years.

  A high, brittle snap rang out, followed by deep grinding. The titan’s tail spikes and left hind foot sank out of sight. The ponderous beast canted backward as the stone shifted. With three feet still on solid ground it humped itself forward. Another snap like the crack of a gun sounded, and the entire ledge gave way.

  The titan scrabbled with its front feet like a dog trying to get out of a pool, but had no claws to dig in. As its bulk tipped over the edge, the front legs lifted off the ground, overbalanced by the mass plunging over the side.

  “Ahhhhyyyii.” Muuyaw’s cry sounded above the thunderous avalanche.

  The Ant leader clawed the air, as if trying to stay upright himself. Power surged off him in great waves. His creature’s roar of outrage turned to a mewl of despair. With only one shoulder and the head still visible the monster’s fall abruptly halted, its momentum frozen for an impossible instant. Muuyaw’s power flared like a cracked lightbulb, the spell winked out, and the titan plunged out of sight as the Ant collapsed.

  “You okay?” Pete rushed to my side.

  I didn’t remember falling. Worse than that, I didn’t recall grounding the spell. I braced for the backlash, even as I reached for the trace of power that had sheared the stone. But there was little to grab hold of—too little. The Earth element coiled back on itself, roiling and twisting like a basket of snakes and acting more like Fire than Earth. I made one more mental lunge, but it slipped away and surged through the rock beneath us.

  “Come on!” I pushed to my feet and lurched forward on uncooperative legs. “The shield’s drawing my magic back inside, back toward Anna and the others.”

  29. A Shell

  “B

  UT WE’RE supposed to be bac
k in the story chamber.” Anna was going to trip if Charles kept racing downhill.

  “Ed told me to keep you and that shield safe.” Charles tugged her around a boulder dislodged by the fight above. “We can head back when things settle down.”

  He needed to stop pulling her along by the hand like a child. At this rate, she was bound to drop the medicine shield Ed entrusted to her. The drummer’s protectiveness had been endearing as they hurried away from the monster. But he’d continued past the city entrance, taking them onto the far slope and away from the others.

  Running to safety while her friends faced the evil Ant leader and his monster twisted a knife of guilt in her stomach. At first, the logic of getting the shield as far away from Muuyaw as possible made perfect sense, but now she wasn’t so sure.

  “Dwain can’t fix the shield if we carry it away.” Anna tried to stop, but huffed out a breath when Charles jerked her back into motion. “Doesn’t it make more sense to have him with us?”

  “We’ll take the shield back when all’s clear.”

  “It could already be safe.” They had to be a mile down the steep slope by now, and hadn’t heard much since those two sharp explosions that sounded like underground dynamite. “Listen, I’m serious. We need to head back.”

  Anna planted her feet and jerked her hand free. She hated to be mean, but the man was being stupid overprotective. He turned with a slow, heavy sigh that told her he was going to launch into a lecture. Charles had done a lot for her. He’d gotten them past the sand demons, tracked Ed’s group, and even kept Rhonda from interfering when she’d made a grab for the shield in the confusion. But they had to get the magic straightened out, and there just wasn’t time to hide out and play it safe.

  But when Charles faced her, it wasn’t to lecture. He leveled a wand charged with magic as dark and wild as its shiny black surface.