by Otto Schafer
Turning her attention back to the platform, she noticed on one side there was a small pool of water, but other than the pool and this strange woman there was nothing.
“This will be your quarters for the next several days,” Jurupa said.
“You mean our prison?” Breanne asked.
“Call it whatever you want, Breanne Moore. The water is drinkable, food will be provided, and you will be safe from the lesser threats of this world until my queen has her audience with you.”
“When your queen finishes with us, what then?” Breanne asked.
Jurupa glanced back at Breanne and smiled devilishly. “Perhaps she will allow me to kill you.”
23
Better Off Without You
Wednesday, April 20 – God Stones Day 14
The Mississippi River, near Alton, Illinois
All around Garrett, chaos erupted as the sounds of fire crackled on the deck of the ferry, dragons screeched and roared, and Ed’s pained screams filled the night in a torturous miscellany.
Garrett held his sword high and charged Jack.
The small dragon with only one eye hissed and spit fire.
“No, Aiden!” Goch shouted. “I need remains to show Queen Azazel and the dökkálfar.”
But it was too late. Lenny and David dove for cover as fire, thick and wicked, poured onto the deck and right into Garrett. But the fire did not devour him, and it did not pass through him. Instead, the fire deflected off him, consuming a section of the port-side railing before dissipating into the river with a sizzle.
Garrett was standing directly in front of the larger dragon now, and only ten paces from Jack. Both the dragon’s and Jack’s eyes went wide.
“He is blood marked!” Goch’s voice trembled.
Behind him, Paul grunted. A car from the front of the boat sailed over Garrett’s head. Jack dove out of the way. But the young dragon was too slow to react. The car struck the one-eyed dragon full on with bone-crushing force, sending both the car and dragon over the side.
Garrett looked toward where the car had come from to find Paul standing in its place, panting. Paul turned back to Ed, who was on the ground, writhing.
Above them, a dragon dove.
Garrett looked up in time to see the moonlit silhouette of a monster opening its mouth in a roar. Dragon fire rained down on him as the dragon extended its talons. This time, Garrett did not cower from the flame. He met it with eyes open. He swung the sword into the head of the dragon and stepped to the side as the beast smashed against the deck and lay in an unmoving heap.
Goch opened his wings. “Turek is blood marked and wields the dragon slayer!”
Jack was up and moving toward Pete, but Lenny came out of nowhere, cracking Jack three times with the staff before he knew what hit him.
From the front of the boat, he heard Paul call out, “David, help! He’s killing Ed!”
Garrett couldn’t help them. He had to stop Goch. If the big dragon made it into the air, he may douse them all in fire. Get him, Lenny!
He turned his attention to Goch and with it all his focus. He thought about the dirt trails of New Salem, which allowed him to hone his focus and slow time in the area around him, but he knew he needed to do something else. Slowing time wasn’t going to help him.
The dragon flapped its wings, taking to the air.
Garrett closed his eyes and said the only ancient word he knew, a word whispered to him that night in the temple by the God Stones themselves. “Sentheye! I need you!” He realized how stupid that sounded the moment the words left his mouth. He tried to take a calming breath as he closed his eyes and imagined the Sentheye drawing into him. The air pulsed all around him – through him. He looked at the dragon and willed the Sentheye to bring him back down.
To his surprise, the dragon stopped with a sudden jerk, like a dog at the end of a leash. The great beast’s eyes bulged, and he shrieked, beating his wings harder, trying to break the hold.
Garrett strained to hold the ribbon of Sentheye in his clenched fist as though it were tangible. As the strand of magic threatened to slip through his fingers, he narrowed his eyes and with them his focus and jerked the invisible leash with his will. Goch reeled backward, falling from the sky and slamming into the river in an explosion of midnight water.
Garrett blinked, stunned by what he’d done. But this was no time to marvel.
From out of nowhere, Garrett heard Louie shouting again. “I’ll save him, Kong! Just get the boat to land! Look out, Garrett.”
The potbellied man was running right at him with his bloodshot eyes wide and his arm straight, like a football player preparing to stiff-arm a blocker.
High above, dragons screeched.
Garrett frowned. “Louie, what are you—” But before Louie made it to him, one of the young dragons swooped down, its talons extended, and struck him head on, knocking Louie to the ground.
“Louie!” Garrett shouted.
Louie lay on his back, pinned to the ground and shouting. “You sons-a-bitch!”
The dragon opened its mouth to bite Louie’s face, but Garrett was there, swinging his sword from low to high.
The young dragon’s head toppled to the deck.
“Here, take my hand,” Garrett said, reaching down.
“Look out!” Louie shouted.
A dragon hit Garrett from behind, knocking him onto his hands and knees. Without even looking, Garrett knew it must have been the last smaller one and not the red dragon, or surely he would be dead. Then he heard rapid footfalls and looked over to find that Lenny had abandoned Jack and was running right at him. Garrett locked his arms and smiled.
Lenny smiled back as he stepped up onto Garrett’s back, launching himself into the air. Garrett whipped his head in the other direction just in time to see Lenny’s staff come down hard across the young dragon’s snout with a loud crack.
The dragon hissed and drew its long neck back like a snake preparing to strike.
Garrett got to his feet. “Lenny!” he shouted, throwing his sword.
Lenny spun and caught Garrett’s sword in his left hand.
The dragon barreled forward.
Lenny held the staff near the top and planted the other end onto the deck so the staff was vertical. Then he stepped onto the staff near the middle. The staff tipped outward, but it didn’t tip over – it balanced. With one foot on the staff and one hand holding it at the top, he kicked off with the other foot, placed it too on the staff, and went into a spin. The staff was now the only thing touching the deck.
When the dragon lunged in to strike, Lenny was already in a full spin. The dragon missed.
Garrett stared in amazement as Lenny continued to hold perfect balance, spinning around the wooden rod and completing the three-hundred-and-sixty-degree spin with a horizontal sword strike.
As the young dragon’s head toppled, the staff tipped downward, and Lenny landed back on the ferry deck. He looked at Garrett, nodded, and tossed him the bloody sword.
Garrett nodded back, snatching the sword out of the air.
Louie was up, mumbling and pulling something from his boot.
Realization dawned on Garrett when Louie pulled back the hammer of a small revolver. He hadn’t even known the man was packing.
Louie pointed the little black gun at Jack and pulled the trigger. Clack! Clack!
Before Louie could fire a third shot, the ferry lurched starboard with a sudden crash. Garrett fell, seeing everyone around him fall too. Something had rammed them. It had to be another boat or maybe a river barge, but he couldn’t see anything.
Jack scrambled to his feet. “You almost shot me, you old geezer!”
Louie tried to stand.
Jack pointed at Louie, and the man’s eyes bulged like a cartoon character’s.
Louie threw his hands over both ears and screamed.
“Leave him alone, Jack! You’re killing him!” Garrett shouted, charging forward.
Lenny charged from the other side.
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Jack held out both hands and grinned. “Now you pay!”
Pain unlike anything Garrett had ever felt twisted his guts. He dropped like a brick, dead in his tracks. His vision instantly blurred and from the corner of his eye he saw Lenny fall facedown onto the deck. “Len – ny!” he shouted, somehow forcing his eyes to stay open as his insides felt like they were being run through a blender. The pain he felt now was far worse than when he had originally been exposed to the God Stones back at the dojo.
Farther away, Pete sat on his knees, in a broken heap.
Farther still, David and Paul were trying to help Ed.
Jack walked up to Garrett from behind and bent down close to his ear. “I am going to take everything from you, Garrett! Everything!”
Jack must have stood back up because the next thing Garrett felt was a kick to his rib cage and the crunch of breaking bone. Pain, white hot, racked his body. He gripped his sword and willed his arm to lift. Then he felt Jack’s boot come down on his sword hand and more bones breaking. He screamed.
Jack picked up Garrett’s sword and chucked it over the rail. He didn’t see it go into the water, but he heard it splash.
“Now I’m going to kill your best friend while you watch,” Jack said, from somewhere behind him.
Tears stung Garrett’s eyes, and for the first time he begged for Turek. If you can hear me, please help us! Don’t let him get Lenny! Please!
There was no answer. There was no one. Turek either wasn’t listening or didn’t care. Or maybe he wasn’t there at all. Maybe he couldn’t even hear Garrett’s cries for help. Maybe he was wasting wishes on a deaf night.
Then he saw Pete.
Garrett watched from his helpless facedown position as Pete lifted his head, tears glistening on his cheeks. The boy pushed himself up onto his feet and stared at Jack with a look Garrett had never seen.
Pete balled both his fists and narrowed his eyes. “Jack! You forgot about me!”
Garrett couldn’t turn his head to look at Jack, but he could hear him laughing.
Light, electric and remarkable, crackled through Pete’s eyes.
Garrett heard a guttural umph from the direction of Jack, followed by a splash in the distance.
For a single breath everything went still, and Garrett knew Jack was no longer behind him.
Garrett pulled another hitched breath.
Pete dropped to his knees.
A third breath, and the world erupted in a horrific crunch of steel raking concrete as the ferry struck the boat launch, sending the snack truck through the front railing and everyone else reeling.
The ferry pitched up as Garrett rolled across the deck, feeling every broken bone shift. As the night grew still once again, he lay there clenching his jaw in an effort not to scream. Out in the river, he heard something explode from the water and let out an angry roar.
Garrett lay facedown, waiting for the dragon to come – for death to come. And all he could think was, At least the pain will stop.
But after a moment it was clear Goch wasn’t coming back to finish him.
Lenny sat up, shaking his head back and forth as if tossing water from his ears. “Everyone okay?”
Garrett cried out involuntarily as he struggled to his feet, careful not to look at the hand that felt completely wrong. He noticed it was hard to pull in a breath and the harder he tried the louder he wheezed, but despite the wrong sound coming from his chest, he nodded to his friend. “Not… dead.” Then he turned his attention to Louie, who lay unmoving, “Oh no. Oh, Louie.”
The drunkard lay lifeless, his hands now loose on his ears and his face slack.
Garrett knelt, his shifting broken ribs causing him to gasp at the electric pang of white-hot agony that shot through him. Reaching over, he pressed Louie’s eyes closed. “Sorry, Louie,” he whispered. He stood again and nearly blacked out. “Pete, you okay?”
Pete got to his feet, but he didn’t answer. At first his shoulders were quaking as he sobbed silently, then the sob broke in a pained moan. The sound broke Garrett’s heart and despite his own pain he grabbed Pete and hugged him with his good arm. Lenny piled on too, and again Garrett thought he might black out, but he held on. Then they heard Paul shouting, “Can you help him, David!”
Garrett squeezed Pete’s shoulder, and Pete nodded. They turned, Lenny and Pete supporting him, and shuffled to the front of the boat.
“What’s wrong with him?” Garrett asked.
“That Jack did something to him!” Paul said.
Ed was on his side in a fetal position. Blood ran from his eyes and purple veins webbed his arms and face.
“Help… him, David,” Garrett grunted through gritted teeth.
“If I do, I won’t be able to heal you until I wake up,” David said, appraising Garrett with concern.
Lenny looked at Garrett. “Jesus, you going to be able to hold on, Garrett?”
Garrett nodded. “I’ll be fine. Jesus, he’s dying, David. Do the glow!”
“I don’t know, guys, it’s still spreading!” David said, placing both hands on Ed’s back as blood began leaking from the injured man’s ears and nose. “I only get one shot at this!”
Ed looked up at Garrett. “Just heal Garrett, David. I heal fast… I just need a minute.”
Garrett shook his head at David. Ed needed more than a minute – he needed immediate help or he was going to die.
David nodded, closed his eyes, and began to glow. The glow lasted for what felt like a full minute, way longer than that night in the temple to be sure. The entire ferry lit up in the warmth of David’s golden shine. Forced to turn away, Garrett saw something in the water. At first, he thought it was one of the smaller dragons, but then he realized it wasn’t a dragon at all.
David’s glow illuminated the slick skin of the Mekong catfish whose entire back was protruding out of the water. “Lenny… look!” Garrett managed as he pointed with his good hand.
“You got to be shitting me! Old Louie was telling the truth! Look at that thing.”
Kong was at least a dozen feet long, with dark spotted skin on top and silverish sides. As it swam by, the glow lit up the thing’s face, revealing big bulbous eyes and long, pencil-thick whiskers protruding from each side of its face. Its unblinking eyes stared straight ahead as the dancing whiskers accented an underbite reminiscent of a bulldog, but it was the object clenched firmly in the catfish’s mouth that stole what little breath Garrett had.
“Garrett! Is that your… your sword?” Lenny pointed.
Kong’s head lifted out of the water fully as he reached shore a few yards from the boat ramp. The sword clattered against the rocks. Twisting and flopping its tail, the giant catfish turned back to the river. The boys continued to watch, eyes fixed on the water, as the shine of David’s glow faded and the catfish vanished from sight.
David lay passed out across Ed.
“David’s going to be so pissed he missed this,” Lenny said.
“Ed? You okay?” Paul asked, then turned to the others. “Help me with David.”
They laid David down gently next to Ed. Ed’s eyes looked clear now, and the purple-looking poison under his skin had faded.
“How do you feel?” Lenny asked.
“Better, but still sick,” Ed said, turning to retch. He coughed and spit. “I just need to get up and start moving.”
Paul waved his brother off. “Maybe you should lie still for a bit, Ed. You’ve been up all night and now you’re sick. Besides, David is out cold, and Garrett doesn’t look so good either.”
Ed climbed to his knees. “I should have never let a kid talk me into taking that ferry downriver. We should have just crossed and got to cover. We’re lucky we aren’t all dead.”
“Are you kidding me?” Lenny started in, and from there an argument broke out.
Pain consumed Garrett’s chest and hand, but he didn’t focus on it and didn’t focus on the arguing either. He only half listened as his own emotions consumed him. Had he made
the wrong decision leaving his family to get Bre? Was he doing the right thing, or was Ed right? Was he just a punk kid who’d never even left Illinois and had no business trying to lead them?
Yes, he was a punk kid. Was! But not anymore. Not after what he had seen and done. Not after the death of Mr. B, Coach, and… and his dad. Not after the lies. No, he wasn’t a kid anymore, and no matter how much he wished he could be, that was gone, and it wasn’t coming back. There was no back.
Something Lenny had said to him that night after Garrett’s house burned and his dad died floated into his mind. Something like, I don’t think we will ever come back. Garrett couldn’t, or maybe he just wouldn’t, believe it at the time, but Lenny had been right all along. He was never going back to Petersburg. The Petersburg he knew was a memory, like the memories adults have of being a kid. You don’t get to go to back, and even if you did, it wouldn’t be the same. It would never be the same.
He understood it now, and that’s what it was alright. Now he knew the worst of it. Petersburg was where being a kid got left behind. Petersburg was gone! He had to stop acting like a kid and waiting for adults to tell him what to do! He had to take control! He had to grow up and lead!
“Garrett!” Pete said.
“Huh, what?” Garrett said, blinking.
Lenny crossed his arms. “You got anything you want to say, Garrett?”
Everyone was staring at him, all looking pissed for their own reasons.
Garrett swallowed back the pain. “Yeah, I… um…”
Ed shook his head and sighed. Then with a grunt he stood on wobbly legs. “Here’s the plan. This isn’t a safe place, so we’re moving—”
“Wait.” Garrett held up a hand. “Just… just wait.”
“Now you have something to say?” Ed asked.