by Otto Schafer
“Apep, stop!”
Apep’s eyes snapped open, and he whipped his head toward Jack. “You dare to interrupt me in the middle of a cast?”
“Please, I’m trying to tell you! It’s your army!” Jack said, holding his hands out pleadingly. “The nephilbock are under attack!”
Apep stared at Jack for a long moment. “They are here? How many days has it been?” His face puckered up. “Yes, of course! I’ve been so focused I lost track of the days! My army has risen from the center of the earth.”
“Yes. But they are—”
“Yes, I heard you,” Apep said, waving a hand. “Who is attacking them? Who would be powerful enough? The Brazilian military?” His eyes fixed on Jack. “Tell me, Jack, what did you see? Who dares to attack my army? Tell me everything!”
Jack told him everything, and by the time he finished, Queen Azazel and her five remaining elder dragons approached.
“You have some explaining to do, Apep,” Azazel said.
“Look!” Jack said, pointing.
Two small juvenile dragons approached from the opposite ridgeline on foot. The fact they were walking was unusual in itself, but it was the smaller dragon walking in between them that gave Jack pause. Two things were wrong. One, it was too small – there were no juveniles that small, not even ones Apep had hatched as recently as today. And two, it was green. All juveniles were various tones of grey or brown but not green. The color of their scales didn’t come in until they reached adulthood.
“My queen, we found this odd little one just outside the jungle where the mountains meet the forest,” a young grey dragon said in a crackly voice.
The other dragon, a stocky brown one with a husky voice to match, said, “It tried to run when it spotted us, but we caught it easily since it doesn’t appear able to fly. We asked it where it came from, and it said it must speak with the dökkálfar right away.”
If Jack closed his eyes when the brown one spoke, he could almost picture that little chubby kid David talking.
“This is not a dragon!” the queen hissed, as smoke released from her flaring nostrils.
Jack watched as pure Sentheye materialized in Apep’s hands.
“Show yourself or die!” Apep shouted.
The little dragon, only five feet tall, didn’t seem all that menacing to Jack, but after the others’ reaction he prepared himself to attack it with disease anyway, just to be safe.
“I did not come here to fight you, Apep. I came here to deliver a message from my queen,” the little dragon said.
Right in front of Jack’s eyes, the dragon changed. Its scales stretched and twisted and then, for only a second, Jack could have sworn a small tree appeared. Then the little tree was a gone, and a man stood where the dragon had been. Only it was not a man at all, it was a dakkal thing, like Apep, pointy ears and all. Jack blinked in disbelief.
“A shape-shifting tree?” Apep asked. “I had heard of these when last the God Stones were free of the Ark. Why are you taking my form, tree? Are you mocking me?” Apep asked.
“No, dökkálfar, just trying to make you comfortable,” the tree thing said.
“No, I think you are trying to make yourself comfortable. What is your name, tree?” Apep asked.
“Unimportant. What is important is the message I carry. My queen has attacked your army of giants, and we know where you will open the portal. I have come with an offer from my queen.”
“You dare to attack my army and then come here alone?” Apep asked, looking out over the ridge.
Jack looked around too, but he didn’t see anything. Nothing but Pisco Valley’s grey dirt as far as the eye could see.
“My queen wants to offer you the lives of Garrett Turek and those that follow him,” the tree elf said.
Jack straightened. “They have Garrett?”
Apep held up a hand for silence.
“Additionally, we will withdraw our attacks on your nephilbock and leave the path to the portal unhindered.”
Apep narrowed his shadowed eyes. “And what does this queen of yours want in return?”
The elf tree thing dipped his head in a low bow. “One, you leave the portal open only long enough to get your army through as quickly as possible. As you know, opening the portal has proven devastating to this planet, causing both an ice age and a super-flood.”
“And?” Apep asked.
“And two, you use the power of the Sound Eye to imbue an item that gives us the ability to remain unbound after you leave here with the God Stones,” the elf tree said, a smile stretching across his face.
Apep nodded slowly. “Change into your natural form. Seeing a nameless beggar take on the form of a dökkálfar makes me sick.”
The smile slipped from the elf tree’s face. “Do you accept my queen’s generous offer?”
“Does your queen know I am allied with the dragons and have grown over ten thousand of the beasts?” Apep asked.
The elf tree looked to Azazel and then back to Apep.
“No need to answer. Your ignorance is written all over your pathetically fake face,” Apep said, stepping close to the elf tree with steel in his voice. “Tell your queen I am about to rain hell down on Amazonia and she will quickly come to regret the day she interfered with the wants of a dökkálfar god! Further, not only do I not agree to her pathetic last-ditch effort to remain unbound, but I will intentionally leave the gate open until Earth is pulled apart at its very fabric.” Apep’s lip curled into a sneer. “I hate this planet and every living thing on it. Tell your pathetic queen I have the answer to Garrett Turek, and you met him and his three-headed beast in the flesh!”
Cerberus’s three heads roared, and Jack felt his own heart race as his fists clenched.
Now it was Apep who smiled in the imposter’s face. “I fear nothing from this planet! Least of all trees! Tell her now!”
The elf tree thing seemed to squirm under its skin. But when a large black ant crawled out from beneath the collar of its earth-toned tunic, followed by another and still another, Jack realized it wasn’t the elf tree squirming, it was the large ants beneath its clothes.
“Tell her!”
“I cannot. We are in one of few places in the world I cannot contact my queen.”
“You knew this and still you came. You came with the hope I would let you carry the message back to your queen, no matter my decision?” Apep shook his head. “You underestimate my power. I don’t care what your queen knows or does not know. Does a bird care what the worm knows before he devours it?” Apep said.
“Before you kill me, I want you to know that I do have a name, Apep.” The elf tree began to change shape. “My name is Duroia Hirsuta.”
Apep frowned as if trying to place it.
Jack frowned too –not because he recognized the name, but because Duroia looked odd. Now in its tree form, it wasn’t the oddity of the green foliage, dark and almost wet looking, or the fact that it only stood about ten feet high and no bigger around than Jack’s upper arm. No, those things seemed normal enough for a tree. It was all those damn ants. The tree was covered in them. This wasn’t right. Something wasn’t right! Jack opened his mouth to shout as he backpedaled away from the tree.
But it was too late! Duroia twisted like a washrag being wrung, flinging ants along with thick splashes of liquid onto the two juveniles standing on either side and directly at Apep. “Maybe you know my other name – the Devil’s Garden!”
“Shiak!” Apep yelled.
Jack fell onto his ass just as an ant hit his chest. He barked out a shout and slapped it away, knocking it into the soil. The ant tumbled, spraying steaming mist, no doubt intended for him, onto the rocks.
The liquid meant for the dark elf slammed into something invisible and fell to the ground, where it sizzled and bubbled in the dirt.
But whatever Apep cast to protect himself didn’t protect the two juvenile dragons. Both juveniles screamed as the liquid melted into their scales.
Acid! “It’s acid!�
� Jack shouted, stomping down on the ant with a bony crunch.
The spinning tree changed into something like a cheetah and bolted down the cliff side.
“Seize it!” Azazel shouted.
The dragon elders, Apep, and the queen all ran to the edge of the ridge. The tree cheetah was already far down the mountainside, and then… it was gone.
“Where did it go?” Jack shouted.
“Clever!” Apep said.
“It didn’t go anywhere! It has simply changed its color to match the ground,” Azazel said.
“Leave it,” Apep said. “Let it carry the message back to its queen. Let her learn of her doom.”
Azazel turned on Apep. “Explain this, Apep! The nephilbock army that you refused to disclose the location of has surfaced on this continent, and near to this very location. I could send my entire army of juvenile dragons to annihilate them before the sun sets to the ocean!” Her tone was icy cold.
“Are you a fool, Azazel?” Apep asked.
The dragon’s nostrils flared as the dirt beneath her stirred. “Trees are attacking your precious nephilbock army, Apep. Now they have sent an assassin and killed two of my dragons! No doubt this stems from your hasty decision to assemble the God Stones into the Sound Eye. Yet you call me the fool!”
“They would have uprooted themselves regardless of whether or not I assembled the Sound Eye,” Apep said.
“Eventually, but how can you possibly plan to contend with an army as vast as the trees of this planet!”
“Queen Azazel, there is one thing trees fear above all else.”
“Fire, yes, I know,” Azazel said. “This is your plan? To use us to fight the tree battle you created?”
“You will do as I ask. No! You will do as you’re told! Remember, dear queen, I created this army!” Apep said, jutting a thumb into his chest. Apep pulled in a deep breath, pinched the bridge of his nose, and closed his eyes. Then, wearily, he added, “We are so close. I am already working through the final ridge of dragon eggs. In less than a week, I will have fulfilled my word of creating an army of dragons in mere days.”
“Yes, but at what expense?” the queen asked, appraising him.
Jack appraised him too. He might not know much about book smarts, but Jack had something even more valuable, street smarts, and even he knew better than to let yourself appear a rabbit in front of lions – or in this case, dragons.
Apep seemed to notice too and straightened. “I am still quite strong, Azazel. And besides, if I hadn’t assembled the stones into the Sound Eye, I could not have done this so quickly! Now, after all my efforts, you have the audacity to stand here and question my methods! And why? Because trees became conscious a bit sooner than they would have? Azazel, you’re either stupid or a coward, maybe both, but judging from your stench, you’re at least the latter. You reek of fear!”
Jack’s eyebrows went up, and he looked to his queen. Her eyebrows went up too, and she looked mad enough to breathe fire.
“Careful, dökkálfar! You will not speak to me in this manner and live to tell of it!”
Apep sighed in what Jack thought was genuine exhaustion. “If the trade-off for growing us a dragon army is that trees can walk, then I would make the same decision every time. The sooner we get off this planet, the better. We saw what happened the last time I left this to the nephilbock – and to you, I might add!”
“Us? What is this accusation?”
“You know the accusation! You ran off and started a war with humans when you should have been helping us. We were defeated because we were separated. We should have stuck together back then, and under my leadership we will stick together now! I will not be a slave to past mistakes, Azazel, and unless you want to be defeated again, you won’t either. I am making the decisions this time around. Not you, and not the nephilbock! Are we clear?”
Azazel stared down at Apep, and Jack knew then and there that what his queen desired more than anything was to watch this elf die. “We were defeated because of your brother, Apep. But remember, there is no dragon master on this world now!”
Apep stared up at Azazel. “Just remember why that is, Azazel. Syldan is gone because I killed him.”
All eyes lifted to Azazel. After a weighty silence, she said, “You still must deal with the trees. They are blocking your nephilbock for a reason, Apep.”
Jack let out a breath, and he was pretty sure the elders did too. For a moment he’d thought he might have to choose a side and either break his oath or go against the dark elf. He wasn’t ready to make that choice.
“Of course, they must be dealt with. Now that I denied their queen, they will want the portal to stay closed so they can try to take the Sound Eye for themselves.”
“Are you sure this is their plan, Apep? They know where you are. At least now they do – why not just attack you right here?”
“Your insecure delusions tire me, Azazel. Their plan to stop the gate from opening couldn’t be more obvious! Now I ask you – trees can walk, but can they not burn? We have an army of fire-breathers at our disposal. How are trees a problem? I grew you an army, queen of queens! Now set your petty differences with the nephilbock aside and use the army I created to burn a path through the jungle all the way to Mexico if that’s what it takes!”
“As you wish, dökkálfar Apep – as you wish.” Azazel looked to her elders. “Go, my elders. Divide our forces into five hordes. Today… we war against the trees.”
37
Pando the Trembling Giant
Friday, April 29 – God Stones Day 23
Fishlake National Forest, Utah
The ground beneath Garrett shook, and his head spun. He’d caught only a glimpse of the wooden cages behind him before being snatched up by the tree limbs and bound by the vines. Craning his neck back, he tried desperately to see Bre and the others, but he couldn’t.
“Breanne!” he shouted. “Let me down, Governess! We did what you asked! We didn’t resist you! Why are you—”
“Silence!” Governess said, walking toward the center of the clearing. The other incredibly tall woman, dressed in traditional clothing, walked beside her. When they reached the center, they spread out and turned back to face him. The white trees with their golden foliage shuddered, and soon the ground shook once again. In between the two tree women, the ground bulged and then broke as thousands of black snakes pressed upward in a heap. The rising mass spilled down the sides of itself as more and more snakes boiled up from the middle of the ever-growing pile. A constant chorus of hisses filled the clearing as the serpents multiplied by the hundreds. Five feet high, ten feet, fifteen feet and rising.
Too scared to feel anything in the moment, Garrett felt his breath come in short rasps as the writhing mass started to take shape. As suddenly as it started, the ground stopped shaking and the giant glob no longer erupted upward. Now the mass of snakes moved with purpose. Garrett’s face screwed up as he squinted into the thing, unable to look away or even to blink. He stared into it, trying to figure out what the hell he was seeing. The snakes knotted together, twisting and bending in quite un–snake-like configurations, until finally the silhouette of a woman formed.
As the snakes continued to twist, the hisses stopped. Garrett blinked. The snakes were no longer snakes but black branches wrenching tight until they formed bone and muscle. Then, right before Garrett’s eyes, the woman formed a layer of ebony skin, dark as night and smooth as glass. Yet the woman’s skin seemed to sparkle somehow, as if dusted in a fine golden glitter. If the bindings suspending him up in the air weren’t so painful, Garrett would certainly have blushed at the nude woman. He only looked upon her for a moment before a thin silver gown trimmed in gold grew downward from her chest and over her hips to spill into a pool at her feet. Thin black roots sprouted like plants from her head, growing into a kinky Afro of tree branches. From around the brim of her head grew leaves of gold bound together by silver vines that threaded between the leaves to form a crown.
The branches holdi
ng Garrett’s wrists lowered him closer to the ground as the woman shrank in size, becoming smaller and smaller until she was no taller than Garrett. Garrett’s toes touched down, and the branches released his wrist as the woman lifted her head to meet his eyes. She was absolutely stunning, like a woman from another time. A woman who was a ruler – like Nefertiti or something. But it was her emerald eyes that held his stare. He couldn’t look away from them as they radiated rich light, like two precious jewels. There was a depth to them that seemed bottomless. Somehow, they could see him, see through him, as if they knew him and everything he was.
The woman walked toward him, moving as if floating, her gown dragging softly through the leaves. “Garrett Turek, descendant of Turek the creator of man,” she said, a soft smile stretching perfect lips and lighting her face with a welcoming warmth.
She sounds… nice, Garrett thought. Part of him wanted to grasp the sliver of hope offered by her kind voice and the freeing of his wrists. But a bigger part of him feared this was a trick.
“Bow before your queen!” Governess said, pointing.
Garrett rubbed his wrists and blinked, trying to think. He had been so lost in the woman’s transformation he’d forgotten all about the other two. Think, Garrett. Despite how nice she seemed, he knew he couldn’t appear as scared as he felt, and he didn’t want to look weak either. Besides, she wasn’t really his queen, now was she? No. He decided he didn’t owe her a bow. “Why did you bring me here?” he asked sharply.
The queen stopped six feet in front of him.
“Bow!” Jurupa ordered.
“No. I don’t think I will.”
A branch from the tree behind Garrett drove downward into the back of his neck and forced him onto his hands and knees. He grunted as his face hit the ground, pinned down by the tree branch.
“Let us not start this way, little mage,” the queen said. “Please rise to your feet.”
The branch lifted and Garrett pushed himself up, wiped a hand across his face, and spit dirt from his mouth.