by Otto Schafer
Even through his jacket, Jack felt the power of the God Stones. The energy or whatever the hell it was felt electric – no, not electric – hot, but not hot. It was strange. Part of Jack wanted Apep to hold him there, pouring the power into him, and part of him wanted to scream and pull away.
While Jack teetered on the precipice between magic absolute and his brain exploding into pudding, Apep didn’t even seem to notice. “You will be my general, Jack! You will lead my army on Karelia!”
Jack nodded slowly and blinked slower, his eyes squinting through the pressure in his head and hoping like hell it didn’t pop like a grape. “I understand.”
“Good!” Apep said, lifting his hand. “Now show them why they should follow you, Jack! Let Azazel give you her weakest dragons. Let them set you up to look foolish. But show them how great and powerful you are. Do it in battle!”
Jack’s eyes fixed on Apep’s pulsing crown as he exhaled a breath held too long. A strange combination of relief and desire washed through him. It was as if he had just glimpsed the entire universe and nearly died for looking, but oh how he wanted to look again. “I will! I’ll show them all!”
“Good! Very good! I am nearly finished with my work here. Soon I will return to Mexico to check on the progress of my portal and ensure all preparations are made for the arrival of my army. Do well in this, Jack, and join me there when you finish.”
Jack smiled. That’s what he wanted, what he needed. That’s where Garrett would show himself.
“Oh, and Jack, a word of warning. Don’t trust the elders. They will likely try to kill you on the battlefield. You need to be wary of them, but try not to kill them. Only kill if you must, and if it comes to that, you’d best make sure there are no witnesses. Killing an elder will be a sure way to turn the others against you and give the queen a reason to kill you.”
Great, Jack thought. Don’t die, but don’t kill those trying to kill you either? So many rules. He had heard his father use the term “it’s all bullshit politics” when ranting about crap happening at his work, and he thought this was kind of like that. This was bullshit politics, but these politics had life-or-death outcomes.
By late evening, the hordes were massed in formation, filling the Pisco Valley in a sea of dragons. As he suspected, the elders left Jack with the smallest horde in size, age, and number. His were the ones most recently hatched, the least experienced at flight and fire-breathing, and the most unruly. They pushed and snapped at each other restlessly, and one spit fire up into the air for no reason, drawing foul looks from the other elders. But as Jack gazed over them from atop Cerberus’s mighty shoulders, he thought in a way these were the ones most like him. They were outcasts who didn’t care much for rules or being told what to do. He felt a strange satisfaction that these unruly bastards were his to lead. There were too many for Jack to count, but he figured there must have been a couple thousand, give or take.
“Zudrian, take your horde to the center of the continent and burn a fifty-mile-wide path through the Amazon basin until you hit Central America, then return to me,” Queen Azazel said, turning her long neck to address the other. “Mivras, take your horde and flank the west side of the nephilbock army. Suppress the forest with fire and let no trees bring harm to the nephilbock. Ahi, do the same on the east side. Jymas, take your horde to the rear of their army and protect them from any attacks that come from behind. All of you, take care to keep your fire far enough away that you do not overheat the army. It isn’t enough to burn the trees as they attack – you must not burn the army I am sending you to protect!”
Jack cleared his throat. “What about us?”
“Ah, the great Cerberus and his human,” the queen said sarcastically. “Cerberus, you will go to the center of the continent as well, but you will split from Zudrian and fly south, burning clear a path fifty miles wide until you reach the giants’ army. Then you will accompany them north, burning everything that gets in your way.”
“Yes, my queen,” Cerb said.
“Yes, my queen,” Jack repeated. So, she was sending her weakest horde to the head of the fight. That was just fine with Jack, but the fact she didn’t even address him wasn’t fine, and it didn’t go unnoticed by the elders. Especially that fat-ass Mivras, who stood there laughing like an idiot. In that moment, what Jack missed most was a good old-fashioned fistfight.
“You got something to say, Mivras?” Jack asked.
“Try not to die, little one,” Mivras answered, flapping his great blue wings.
All down the mountainside Mivras’s horde leapt airborne to follow, a chorus of laughter trailing after them.
Let ’em laugh, Cerb. We’ll show them all!
Then let us depart! Cerb said, with a mighty flap of his own midnight wings.
Jack held up a fist as Cerb lifted off the ground. “To war!”
“You are trying to kill him, Azazel,” Apep said, watching the hordes blot out the sky.
“You wanted this human, Apep, not I,” Azazel said.
“He has a natural gift for the Sentheye that I find valuable.”
“Then let him prove himself in the field. As you said, they are just trees.”
“You know it is not the trees I worry about, Azazel. You witnessed how easily he killed your general!”
“And that’s why you desire him, for his gift with the Sentheye?” Azazel asked.
Apep thought about the question for only a moment and decided to do something he seldom did. He was going to tell his enemy the truth. “In part, yes. But it’s more than that, Azazel. He has a hate for Garrett Turek that can only be quenched with the death of Garrett or himself. This coupled with his capabilities makes him useful to me.”
“And when you have spent him, then what?”
“We have discussed this. You can have him for whatever you desire. Kill him, enslave him. I don’t care. So long as he kills Garrett first. But hear me, Azazel, if he dies in this campaign against the trees, I will have no choice but to suspect your elders are behind it and will demand retribution.”
“Do not threaten me, dökkálfar!” Azazel said, lifting her sleek onyx tail and slapping it into the dirt like a cat becoming annoyed. “Besides, I gave no such order.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I do not care what you believe. Jack has completed the ritual of binding. He is bound to us and us to him.”
Apep rubbed his hands together. He could barely feel them. His fingernails had fallen off as if they had been smashed, and new ones weren’t growing in. The painful tingling had moved up through his forearms and settled into his shoulders, and his head pounded almost constantly. He was glad to be nearly finished with growing dragons. He needed a rest from the Sentheye. “Am I to believe dragons never betray each other for their own gain? Am I to believe your generals wouldn’t kill Jack if they could blame it on trees?”
“I gave no such order, but as we both know, battle is a dangerous thing, dökkálfar. On the battlefield, life is lost en masse for all to see. But war itself hides the truths of its greatest atrocities. The ones not meant to be seen.”
“Indeed. Let us hope your generals make it back safely.”
Azazel hissed and lowered her head. “You have no business interfering, elf! I said I gave no such order!”
Apep held up his hands. “It is not me you should be concerned with, Azazel – my work is here.” Apep grinned. “Now, if you will excuse me, I’ve your dragons to grow.”
“Yes! Do that! Go, channel the darkness. Maybe your gluttonous use of Sentheye will destroy you and we will all be the better for it. Though I doubt the universe could be so fortunate.” The queen flapped her wings.
The grin slipped from Apep’s face. He looked at his hands and lifted them to his face, dragging them down his cheeks as if he were wiping away the exhaustion. No. He would not succumb. Not today. Right now, he lived to see the look on his father’s face when he crushed Osonian. He lived to watch his father die at his hands. He lived to
rule. He lived to force the universe itself to bend the knee.
No, dear dragon queen, he would not die until every living thing either bowed at his feet or broke beneath them!
39
Call Your God
Friday, April 29 – God Stones Day 23
Fishlake National Forest, Utah
Breanne and Gabi kicked at the wood bars of their cage over and over, but it was useless. “Paul, can you use your strength to break them?”
“No. It’s no use – even when I focus, they won’t budge,” he whispered.
Outside their cage, Queen Pando was shouting, “Call forth your god, Garrett Turek! Do it now or the world dies!”
“I can’t make him appear!” Garrett pleaded.
Through the bars, Breanne watched as Governess handed Garrett’s sword to Pando.
“Is this your sword, young mage?” Pando asked, inspecting the Damascus steel blade.
“Yes… but—”
“You possess the Dragon Slayer of old. The very sword said to have cut down a thousand dragons – Turek’s own sword. Yet you claim he doesn’t hear you?”
“Yes… but—”
“Call your god, Garrett Turek. I have my army surrounding every city, every town, every village on this entire planet awaiting my orders. Call forth your god, or I will start leveling your world from the largest cities to the smallest hut.” Pando leaned into Garrett’s face and screamed, “Now call him!”
“I can’t make him come!” Garrett shouted back, showing his teeth.
Pando went still.
Gabi gasped. Oh no, Bre.
What? She grabbed Gabi’s hand and her breath hitched. The order to destroy cities was being called out by name.
Pando spoke again. “Tokyo, Japan. Delhi, India. Shanghai, China. Los Angeles, United States of America.” She held her arms out wide. “And so, so many more are now being reduced to rubble because you refused to call your god!”
“Stop! Don’t you understand? He isn’t a god! He is one of seven… I don’t know… beings god created to help her spread life through the universe!”
“How, little mage, would you know that?” Pando asked.
“He told me. He told me he wasn’t god!” Garrett said, pleadingly.
“So, you have spoken to him,” Pando said, her eyes widening. “You are a liar!” She shouted. “Bring forth the other sages.”
Breanne squeezed Gabi’s hand. It’s going to be okay, Gabi!
Pando’s head snapped toward the girls. “No, Gabi De Leon! No! It will not be okay!”
Their wooden cage began to change shape, splitting into two, each half taking on the shape of a full-size stick figure complete with stick arms, stick legs, stick torso, and a stick head. They had stick hands too, hands that gripped the girls hard by the napes of their necks. The stick figures pushed them unrelentingly forward, toward the queen. Breanne managed to grab a glance of the other cages in mid-transformation.
Soon Breanne and the others were lined up, three on each side of Garrett. The stick figures each grew to match the size of the one holding Breanne. Then, wrapping their stick arms around Breanne and the others from behind, they bound their arms to their chests and rooted their stick legs into the ground. Breanne struggled against the branches binding her, but she might as well have been tied to a tree. She had to crane her head back to see Garrett, suspended high off the ground and held eye-to-eye with Pando, the tree queen poised high atop her dais.
Garrett moaned in pain.
“Call your god!” the queen shouted again.
Garrett’s eyes closed, and his lips moved silently.
Pando watched too, her face searching his angrily. “Call him out loud! Call him for all to hear!” she demanded.
“Turek! Please! Please, if you… if you can hear me, help us!”
“Paris, France! London, England! Cairo, Egypt! Istanbul, Turkey! Chicago, United States of America!” she spat. “We will destroy them all because you refuse to make your coward of a god show himself! Turek must answer for the crimes against my trees.” Now Queen Pando’s face shook with rage and all the golden leaves of the surrounding forest trembled, lending credence to her name. Pando tipped her head back to the sky and screamed. Her scream was inhuman, forcing Breanne to squint against the piercing sound. The horrid noise reminded her of countless trees being bent too far, bent to the brink of destruction.
Next to Breanne, blood dripped from Garrett’s ankles and wrists as the vines and branches squeezed. She thought he was screaming too, but the earsplitting sound of Pando drowned everything else out.
Finally, everything went silent, and the leaves went still. Pando’s head dropped back to meet Garrett’s eyes. Bright emerald fire burned bright and hateful as she gave the order. “Destroy everything ever built by human hands!”
“No! Please!” Garrett shouted.
“Make your god appear. And I will order my armies to stop!”
“I can’t! Don’t you understand? I don’t know how to make him appear!” Garrett begged.
Pando lifted her hands toward Bre and the others. “Then I will kill your sages!”
The ground below them churned. “Bre! What’s happening?” Gabi cried.
Next to her, Gabi and David sank to their knees, then their waists, then their shoulders. “Please! Stop!” Breanne shouted, struggling against the stick man’s arms as it sank too. Tears spilled down her cheeks. “Stop!”
“No!” Garrett pleaded.
“God, not under the dirt!” David shouted. “Please don’t take me down there!” he begged.
Everyone was shouting.
Pando sneered at Garrett. “You can make this stop, little mage. Just talk to him like you did before. Just call him like you did before!”
“I never called him! He came to me in my dreams! He came to me when I died!”
“Ah! Now we get to the crux of it,” Pando said, holding up a clenched fist. “It is you who has to die!”
As Breanne and the others stopped sinking, Garrett’s tree started a slow plunge into earth as dark as a tar pit.
“No! Don’t kill him! Please don’t!” This is it, Gabi! This is what I saw!
“Garrett Turek! When you die, tell your god to come or all the humans of this planet will perish!”
The ground continued to swallow Garrett as he tried to fight against the branches holding his arms, but it was no use – he and the tree holding him descended into the ground. Then, as if in a moment of clarity, Breanne watched Garrett close his eyes. He was using his focus! Breanne’s heart lifted as Garrett stopped sinking.
“You think you can break my will over the Sentheye, little mage?” Pando laughed. “Tell your god I’m waiting!”
Breanne watched in horror as the queen of trees, Pando the Trembling Giant, lifted a hand, closed it into a tight fist, and dropped it.
As Pando’s fist dropped, whatever focus Garrett was holding on to fell away. He gasped a last breath and slipped beneath the ground.
“That’s my best friend, you bitch!” Lenny shouted.
“Lennard Wade, you too shall die, and I shall watch!” she said, casting her gaze across all of them. “I shall watch all of you die. Now silence your mouths while we wait for the descendant of Turek to do his part.”
Green light appeared over Breanne and the others’ mouths as thick bands of foliage stifled their screams.
Breanne wept. Wept because she had seen this. Wept because she had seen the weight of dirt crushing the air from his chest – crushing the life from his soul. She had seen Garrett screaming her name as he exhaled his last breath and died.
40
Nightshade the Taker
Friday, April 29 – God Stones Day 23
State of Amazonas, Brazil
Jack looked back over his shoulder at two thousand unruly juvenile dragons, following in a loose formation. At least there had been that many, but he was fairly sure he’d lost at least five hundred when Zudrian the Old split off to the north. Why any
of Jack’s dragons would choose to follow some crusty orange dragon with faded patches that made him look like an overgrown calico cat with rotting teeth, rather than a young, magnificent beast like Cerb, was beyond Jack. But if Jack had it his way, he would kill the lot of them for ditching him. After his talk with Apep, he knew that wasn’t the way, so he brushed it off. Let it go, Cerb. If they want to punk out and follow some weak-ass old dragon away from the action, let them. More glory for us!
A high-pitched voice answered with a sharp screech that startled Jack. More glory if we don’t die!
We won’t die – we are dragons! We are invincible! another voice said.
Then still another, deeper and slower. We follow Cerberus – son of Typhon and his human!
An argument broke out in Jack’s mind. Dozens of voices, all speaking over each other.
Not his slave!
Yes, he is!
No, the human created him!
The human is in command.
Say that again and I will kill you!
Go on and try! I will rip your wings from your body.
What are you talking about? The human is a slave to the mighty Cerberus!
No, you fool, they are bonded as brothers! Weren’t you listening at the ritual?
I hatched only three days ago!
Cerberus! What is happening? Jack yelled through the voices. He felt like his head was about to burst.
When you lead a horde, you are connected mentally to everyone under your leadership. Command them to silence, Cerberus said.
Everyone be quiet, Jack said. But the voices continued.
Command them like you mean it, Jack. Do not be weak! Cerberus said.