by Otto Schafer
Gabi watched as her mother swam to María, grabbing her flailing arms. She tried to pull the woman close, tried to calm her. But it was a futile effort; María kicked at her and flailed, desperate for air, until finally she broke free. In a strange, emerald-yellow distortion of light cast by the flames from above, Gabi watched in horror as young María swam upward as hard as she could. Oh no, please, María! Please! Don’t!
Gabi slammed her eyes shut, unable to watch.
33
Love Inferno
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Petersburg, Illinois
“Wait, Pete!” Breanne shouted, but Pete didn’t wait. Instead he closed the gap between he and Lilith, his face saying it all. His heart was leading him now, compelling him to her.
Breanne thought, God, after what she’s done!
“Janis. Please, don’t kill him.” Pete held his open palms up, pleading. “If you care about me – if any of our talks, any of the time we spent meant anything, please… stop this!” He turned his palms down, willing Janis to calm down. “Please, Janis, you’re killing him! I beg you, please!”
“Careful, Pete!” Breanne yelled, swinging the tomahawk at a rat’s face but missing. “Paul, can you handle this? I have to help Garrett.”
Paul nodded over his shoulder. “Go! Help the kid. I got this,” he said, spinning as a rat lunged forward. He snatched the rat by the tail and began dragging it. “Come here, big fella!” The rat screeched as two others closed in.
Above them the giant sucked in a long, slow breath, blinked, blinked again, and then set his strange egg-shaped eye on Apep.
Breanne ran for the slab. She had to try and stop Janis.
Then Apep shouted and Breanne gasped.
“Lilith! Finish the boy now!”
“Yes, father.”
As Breanne approached, she watched Lilith hesitate. Something in her eyes was different. For the briefest second, she struggled in thought. Breanne prepared to take the moment and attack but then, atop the slab, the roots fell away, and Garrett collapsed.
“You worthless girl!” Apep shouted at his daughter. “You pathetic human failure!”
“Get him down, Pete!” Breanne said, turning her attention to Lilith. Breanne met the girl’s strange eyes and what she found was a deep sadness. Instead of attacking her she felt compelled to reach for Lilith’s hand.
Lilith narrowed her eyes.
“Lilith, you are not worthless! You have friends! You have Pete! Help us, please!” Breanne begged.
Lilith’s sharp features softened as she took Breanne’s hand in hers and nodded shyly. “Janis. Call me Janis. That’s the name my mother wanted me to have.” She glared back up at Apep. “I hate the name he gave me!”
“Okay… Janis.” Breanne nodded.
On the slab, Apep was speaking triumphantly in an incomprehensible language.
“I don’t know what he’s saying, but it must be bad! Please, Janis. We need your help.”
“He will kill me, and all of you… Petey too,” Janis said, tears building in her golden eyes. Then turning to meet Breanne’s gaze, her face hardened once again. “Unless I kill him first!” Still holding Breanne’s hand, she reached out with her other, placing it atop Breanne’s own as she spoke the words of power, “Mueeshshi esh ak akdoemue.”
Breanne felt a strange tickle in her mind.
Apep spoke in the same incomprehensible language but now something had changed. Breanne could understand. Now the words unscrambled in her mind’s eye, and they made sense.
“Balor, I have awoken you!” Apep said.
Across the chamber, four more eyes opened as the dragon raised both its scaly heads.
Breanne’s eyes sprung wide as the heads looked at each other, then turned to face Apep and the giant. The dragon seemed to take in the scene as it stood and stretched its wings, then pulled them back to its side. Its black-scaled heads stretched up high above, vanishing as they blended into the shadows of the massive chamber. As the dragon rose to its full height, the chamber suddenly seemed very small to Breanne.
“Janis!” Breanne pointed.
“Go! Help the others!” Janis turned away, then turned back. “Thank you, Bre.” She turned away again and this time she didn’t look back as she ran to face the dragon.
Behind Breanne, Balor spoke in the same odd dialect as Apep. The chamber rumbled at the sound of his voice. “How long have I slept?”
Apep answered, “Thousands of years too long, but I’ve kept my promise.”
The dragon spoke now, their voice coming in a strange hiss, each word emerging from one head then the other, but the speech was fluid, as if one mind controlled the thought. “Dökkálfar Apep and nephilbock Balor! What is the trickery that brings us to this place… This place of our enemies?” The dragon didn’t wait for an answer as both heads began to roar, loud at first, but rising to ear-piercing volume within seconds.
Inside the stone prison, David woke to a large rat licking his face. He screamed, scrambling backward on his butt, trying to put distance between himself and the massive rat. Quickly he found himself trapped between the rat and the chamber wall. David would have given anything for a different magical power in that moment.
There was nowhere to go. He closed his eyes tightly, turning his face away as he thrust out his arms to stop the rat’s advance. For the second time in his life he was so frightened his bladder released. The rat’s open jowls came close to his face, clamping down hard with a loud Snap! as hot rancid breath washed over David’s face. He gasped in the rank air, his fingers sinking into the rat’s coarse hair as he squeezed it in fistfuls, trying desperately to hold back its pressing weight. The rat was strong and heavy. David’s arms shook as they began to fold, the rat’s teeth coming so close. He couldn’t hold it back.
“Help! Please, someone help me!” he croaked. But no one came.
As the rat inched ever forward, David’s hand slipped further down its neck and into something wet.
The rat shrieked from the pain of David’s hand sinking into the deep wound. The rat hissed in rage, pressing harder than ever. It opened its jaw and prepared to lunge again at David’s face. David jerked his head back so hard it bounced off the chamber wall. He didn’t think about what happened next. It just happened.
David began to glow.
Breanne got to Garrett right as Pete dragged him off the slab, and both tumbled down onto the temple floor. Balor rolled his giant frame off the stone slab too, landing hard, shaking the chamber.
Pete sprang into action, scooping up Garrett’s sword from the floor. “We have to kill the giant now before he gets up!”
Garrett lay on the ground, holding his head in one hand and his throat with the other, still coughing and gasping for breath. “No, Pete… Wait!” he rasped, reaching for his friend, but it was no use – Pete was heading straight for Balor.
Breanne pulled Garrett to his feet. “Jesus, look at her, I think she’s controlling it! She’s talking to it. Can you hear her in your mind, Garrett?”
“Hear her?” he asked, brows furrowing as he searched for Pete.
Janis closed both her hands, and the dragon closed both its mouths. “That’s right, Sylanth, good dragon. You don’t really want to burn me, do you? No, you want to make the one who put you here pay,” she said in a soothing voice as she slowly walked toward the calming beast.
Sylanth settled their focus on her. “Where are we, child? How have we come to this place?” The dragon’s questions were no longer angry but curious.
Breanne turned to see the giant was starting to push himself upright as Pete appeared behind the slab next to the giant’s head, Garrett’s sword cocked and ready to strike.
“Pete!” Garrett shouted.
Apep shouted a warning to the giant.
Pete swung the sword.
Balor must have caught the movement of flashing steel in the firelight because he flinched away, the sword missing his neck and instead cutting a de
ep gash along his jawbone. The razor-sharp blade continued its severing of flesh across his entire face, just missing the oval eye before glancing off his forehead.
“Oh, father!” Janis shouted from across the chamber. “I guess my worthless human side takes after uncle Syldan after all.” A sly smile stretching across her face, she pointed at Apep. “He imprisoned you here, my dear Sylanth! Kill him!”
Sylanth’s two toothy mouths opened, each saying one word, “Dökkálfar Apep!”
Apep’s eyes darted to the dragon then to Pete as he shouted ancient words of power, “Shirayshi, Esh akoz, oz akdoe!” Ribbons of Sentheye yanked Pete from the floor and several feet into the air. Apep held him there suspended between himself and the dragon. The squeeze of shadows forced Pete to drop the sword as he struggled just to breathe. The shadowy tangles of Sentheye began drawing the life from him.
“Kill the beast, girl! Kill them or he dies!”
“Oh, no! Pete!” Breanne yelled.
Pete looked down at her, his terror-stricken eyes pleading for help.
Balor screamed in rage, pressing one of his huge six-fingered hands against his wounded face before turning his attention to Pete.
“I’m coming, Pete!” Garrett shouted, but Balor swung out with the back of his hand, connecting with Garrett’s side and sending him tumbling in a backward roll toward the chamber wall.
Breanne scanned the area around her for something to throw. She saw Lenny coming to his senses after hitting his head during his fight with Janis. He pushed himself to his feet, rubbing the back of his head with a look of confusion. When he finally looked up, his face swiveled from the giant to the dragon realizing with horror both were awake.
“Lenny, help Pete!” Breanne yelled.
Lenny hardened his face with determination, set his jaw tight, and ran toward Apep.
Breanne picked up a chunk of small stone from the broken column and hurled it at the giant. The throw flew true and cracked the giant on the back of the head.
Balor rolled to his hands and knees and pushed himself up, his one bulbous eye searching until he located the source of this new pain.
Breanne stood in front of the giant, weaponless.
Garrett got to his feet. “I’m coming, Bre!”
Apep spotted Lenny before he could get to him.
Lenny shouted a war cry that sounded a lot to Breanne like, “Baaaaaaallllllsss!”
Reaching out with his other hand, Apep grabbed Lenny with shadows, lifting him off his feet too.
Flames built in the dragon’s throat.
“No! Sylanth, wait!” Janis ordered.
Garrett got to Breanne just as the giant was picking up his foot, intent on stomping her down. There was nowhere to run. They were trapped between a giant and the wall. We’re going to die.
Just then Paul came skidding toward them from between the giant’s legs. In a smooth motion, he turned, facing the giant and reaching above his head just in time to catch the giant’s foot in both hands as it stomped down.
Paul wrestled with the giant’s foot as the beast fought for balance. He shouted up at the giant as he gave the foot a final shove, “Not today!”
The giant launched airborne, both upward and backward, his other foot coming off the ground.
“Holy shit!” Garrett cheered.
The giant fell back, landing awkwardly across the stone slab.
“Thanks, Paul,” Breanne started, but a different rumble pulled her attention away from the giant. She turned to find Janis staring down Apep in a now too familiar mumbling chant. With tears cutting wet trails down her face, she screamed the last of her chant. A violent eruption of roots burst from the floor beneath Apep, consuming his feet, then quickly spreading over the rest of his body. In the same instant, more roots came from the shadowed ceiling far above, tangling around his neck and wrists. Then the roots began receding, but they didn’t let go. Apep’s body was pulled taut as if he were on a medieval rack.
“What is this?!” Apep gagged out as his eyes ignited with rage.
Pete dropped to the floor, and Lenny dropped to his knees, gasping hungrily for air.
Behind Janis the false veil of confusion cleared from Sylanth’s mind like smoke on a windy day, and his voice echoed in Breanne’s mind. “Treachery!” both heads of the dragon gasped in unison as they sucked in long angry breaths of air. Their necks began to glow.
“Janis!” Pete croaked as he limped toward her, holding his side.
But she could no more hear Pete than she could the dragon behind her. Breanne screamed too and so did Lenny and Garrett, but it was no use.
Janis began to turn deep blueish red as she focused all her rage and power on her father. The roots wrapped Apep from head to toe, then came the thorns.
Breanne’s relief for the falling giant turned to terror as she watched Pete break into a staggering run across the chamber.
Garrett shouted, “No! Oh god, Pete! No! Doesn’t he see the dragon?!”
Breanne knew he only saw one thing – Janis.
Lenny began to run. “Pete!”
“Janis!” Pete shouted again.
This time Janis heard him, and all the rage fell from her face as Pete reached her. Breanne watched in horror as they opened their arms to each other, colliding in a hard embrace. Pete lifted her, spinning her in a circle. “I love you, Janis… I love you so goddamn much!”
Fire built in Sylanth’s throats.
She smiled back at him, hugging him just as tight. “I love you too, Petey!”
Breanne blinked slowly. In this moment no one else existed. There were no evil dark elf wizards, giants, or dragons. There was only Petey and Janis. As the same strange light began to build in both the dragons’ throats, Breanne knew no one could get to them in time. They might as well have been on the other side of the planet.
But then Pete’s face changed as he finally saw what Breanne saw. He saw the nightmare of glowing dragon throats and mouths stretched open. He saw the reason Garrett was screaming and why Lenny was frantically waving his arms. He saw dragon fire.
With her back to Sylanth, Janis couldn’t see dragon fire, but she didn’t need to. She saw the look on Pete’s face. In a second so impossibly brief she must have understood – she no longer held command over Sylanth. Janis forced a smile at Pete, one for him to remember her by. With a hard shove she pushed him back, creating enough space for what came next.
“No! Janis!” he shouted as he lunged for her, but she kicked him in the midsection, sending him careening backward several feet and onto his ass to slide even further away from her.
From both heads Sylanth’s open mouths exhaled out something far worse than hellfire, engulfing Janis in a concentrated torrent of brilliantly colored dragon fire.
Pete screamed.
Breanne dropped to her knees. “Oh, Janis. Oh, god no.”
34
Don’t Look Back
Wednesday, April 6 – God Stones Day 1
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
Gabi wanted to scream but knew she would be just as dead as María if she did. Instead she floated in horrified weightlessness as María’s body drifted somewhere in the distance, sinking slowly into the shadows below.
Then her mother and father were beside her. Her mother’s eyes spoke to her, saying so much without ever saying anything. Don’t breathe, Gabi – no matter what, don’t breathe. It had only been thirty seconds, maybe forty-five, and she could hold her breath for several minutes, at least three. But her heart was beating so fast now.
The glow above them dissipated and once again they were in darkness. They waited as long as they could stand it before swimming up. Her father went first, breaking the surface and motioning Gabi and her mom up. They sucked in air, gasping for breath. The air smelled like rotting eggs and tasted even worse, but they drank it in greedily and they didn’t die.
A few meters away near the walkway, Fredy and Sarah treaded water, pulling long breaths.
Gabi startled
as her mother choked out a sob. “María, she’s dead! I saw her die! Why wouldn’t she listen to me!? I tried – I swear I tried, but she wouldn’t listen!”
“Oh no, god, Itzel, no!” Sarah said.
Gabi felt her father’s strong, callused hand take hers as he led her and her mother toward the path. “You couldn’t do anything, Itzel. It isn’t your fault.” He turned to the others. “Everyone, swim to the footpath near the wall and let’s try to find cover.”
With the elevated platform and the walkway leading to the wall blocking her view, Gabi couldn’t see anything. Then her father pulled her onto the walkway. She stared, unable to look away as her eyes found the giant, who now stood motionless against the wall as if waiting for something. Waiting for something else Gabi had seen on the wall painting.
No sooner did they get their footing then the source of the fire showed itself. Gabi’s legs buckled at the sight of it and she collapsed, skinning her knees on the stone. A creature that looked like a giant dinosaur with wings burst through the opening, screeching in a voice that sounded both intelligent and completely incomprehensible. The thing was monstrous and just as tall as the giant, which leapt from behind the wall, swinging what looked like an enormous axe at the creature.
Everyone jolted into motion when Sarah screamed a word as impossible as the creatures standing before them, “Dragon!”
They ran for the wall, Gabi’s father dragging her like a limp sack of potatoes. “Get your feet under you, Gabi! We have to move!”
The dragon ducked its head under the swing of the giant’s axe, before belching out a roar of flame.