by J. P. Rice
As my neck tingled, I tried to piece together the recent events. I was still shaken from the near-death experience in the lake and pissed that Felix had gone back home. I wondered how he’d like it if I told his personal paparazzi about him bowing out.
So we’d made it across the lake, by the skin of our teeth, which is a phrase I’d never understood, but it seemed apt in this situation. Alayna knew how to get to our next destination, I hoped. Considering she hadn’t been in this land in five centuries, I wondered if everything was still the same. Not to mention the creatures we could encounter.
The rest of the trip would be substantially more difficult with only three people. But we weren’t going back, only forging ahead into the danger.
Chapter 23
The rickety wooden bridge held together by fraying yellow ropes swayed unevenly as I put my foot on the walkway. Taking a few nips of Jameson earlier seemed like a bad idea now. The rushing river beneath had jagged rocks poking out of the whitewater rapids. The moving tide whooshed and crashed against the boulders, giving us a reprieve from the normal sounds of the woods.
The two-day walk to get to the bridge had mostly featured annoying insects, shrieking animals and growling sounds from unseen creatures. On the bright side of the treacherous excursion, Alayna and Burn had buried the proverbial hatchet. Their communal bathroom breaks had forged some sort of female bond.
With solid ground about ten feet behind me and twenty feet in front of me, my knees knocked together. Burn had already made it to the other side, so I knew it was worthy of holding her weight. However, I weighed about twice as much as her.
The Jameson in my stomach swirled as I tracked my steps, trying not to focus on the missing and broken planks of wood. I hopped over a compromised weather-beaten rectangle of wood, took two more steps and jumped for solid land. Upon impact with firm soil, a huge sigh of relief rushed out of my lungs.
Alayna started making her way across. Knowing the bridge could easily hold her weight, Burn and I checked out the woods ahead. It was still full of redwoods and dark soil, but Jagger bushes and stinging nettles infested the area, so we needed to remain alert. I turned back for Alayna and she was standing in the middle of the bridge, gazing down into the river.
“You all right?” I asked.
She peered over in a slight daze, “Sorry, this is a special place for me. This was where I met King Ballistar. I was standing right here, watching my young dragons fly over the water. At that time, it was only Pembrooke and Salias.”
She remained on the bridge facing us and continued, “I hadn’t a clue that his first wife, Queen Zelega, had passed. Upon revision, I should have scrutinized her death at the hands of a random fever a bit more. But I was just a faerie. The King was quite striking at the time too.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I should have known he just wanted my dragons.”
She started to get emotional, sniffled, and said, “I fell for his story that he was randomly traveling the land, trying to forget about Zelega. Of course, now I know it wasn’t random. Stories of my power and dragons had reached his ears. Once the first one hundred years of marriage passed without incident, he lulled me into a false sense of security.”
Alayna walked toward us. “I didn’t think he would play a long game, letting me raise the dragons into a powerful force. The dragons would only obey my commands and it really burned up the King. He couldn’t understand why the ‘stupid animals’ wouldn’t listen to their King. I suppose that was when he started plotting my death. He must’ve assumed I would unleash the dragons against him.”
I shook my head in disgust. “And the coward had the Warden carry out your punishment?”
She raised and lowered her chin in confirmation. “Indeed. And the Warden obeyed the command, but not before I clawed out one of his eyes.”
“How come you didn’t use your magic?” Burn asked.
Alayna gazed out over the splashing waters. “They seized me when I was napping outdoors. Before I knew what was happening and gained full consciousness, the murder was in progress. The Wardens set spells to weaken my magic too. There was a big conspiracy to oust me. It was no spur of the moment event.”
“Such a shame. I want to go back a little bit, though. How did you find the dragons originally?” Burn asked.
Alayna explained, “Being a nixie, my swimming skills are quite exemplary, and I can hold my breath for a very long time.”
I remembered how Alayna had pulled me from the undertow in the river after we had first met. It made perfect sense that she was a nixie.
My mentor walked toward us, and continued, “I was swimming in the Snake’s Bend River down there and went to the bottom. I found two enormous eggs. One emerald and the other with a ruby shine. I took the eggs to the surface and set them on dry land. Within ten minutes, two dragons cracked the shells and emerged into Sleepy Willow. I raised them like they were my children. Perhaps that’s where the attachment came from.”
“So Pembrooke was a boy and Salias was a girl?” I wanted to know.
“Exactly.” A flash of silver sparked in her eyes. “They were my original love birds. Their population rose over the years until they had an enormous family.”
Burn said, “This is captivating, but I really have to go to the bathroom. Alayna, do you want to come with me?”
What? I wanted to hear more dragon stories. Maybe later.
“Sure, dear. There’s a little clearing up here we can use.” Alayna looked up at me. “Be right back.”
As soon as the girls disappeared into the bushes, I plucked a small silver flask out of my suit. It was almost stuck to my belly as I gently pried it away. I opened the top and took a few sips. Aahhh that was the good stuff. Shaking the flask around, I determined there were only a few shots left so I killed the rest.
Wiping my mouth with my left forearm, I tossed the cheap flask into the river. It wasn’t a fountain in a shopping mall, but I made a wish. I wish to avenge Alayna’s vendetta and reclaim Pittsburgh from the sidhe.
My mouth felt dry as cotton so I took one of the water pills and waited for the ladies to return. The booze tickled my brain in pleasure. That was what I needed. And I had ditched an uncomfortable flask. Now I only had two small, metal flasks and a skin of booze inside my skintight suit.
I heard Alayna’s voice, “We’re coming back. I hope you’re done with your secret drinking.”
I couldn’t see, but my face likely turned beet purple in embarrassment. “What? What are you talking about?” I tried to play it off casually.
Burn answered, “Yeah, we’re onto your frequent trips to the bar. Don’t act like you don’t know what we’re talking about.”
I felt cornered and normally didn’t react well in these situations. Words started coming out of my mouth without the approval of my brain, “Do you two have any idea why I am doing this?” I asked in a hostile tone.
“Because you’re still being a crybaby about breaking up with your ex-girlfriend,” Alayna said, and cackled like a witch.
That burned me up. These two bitches were teaming up against me now. I growled, “It is the only thing that makes me forget about her. I’ll tell you what the booze doesn’t do. It doesn’t bitch at me like you two are doing right now.”
Alayna softened her tone. “We’re worried about you. You could drink a thousand bottles of Jameson and do you think the alcohol would think twice about killing you? No. You’re using it as a crutch.”
“Like with the hot-and-cold way you handle me,” Burn said, and I wondered if this was a mini intervention. “Every morning you look at me like I have ten heads. I touch you and you jump away, saying we should just be friends. Then you start drinking, and all of a sudden, yes I said that on purpose, then you want to snuggle up with me. By the end of the night you can’t keep your hands from my body. And then the next day, it’s the same exact thing. Like you have no memory.”
I couldn’t believe the person I’d just met was so quick to judge me. It wasn�
��t like we were having sex in front of Alayna. Here I’d thought I was just being playful and fun at night and focused during the day.
Alayna continued berating me, “And did you really think we couldn’t see the small army of flasks and animal skins that you had stuffed in your suit? Stevie Wonder could have seen that shit. And now you seem to be shedding flasks as we go. You don’t need that poison. Eventually you will need to be at full faculties just to stay alive around here. Then you will be sorry.”
I’d heard enough. “Why don’t we stop wasting time arguing and get a move on,” I suggested, but my tone was in the form of an order as I walked away from the river crossing and toward the forest.
The Sphinx’s words were reverberating around my skull. My past seemed on trial here, and a jury of my peers had already deemed me guilty. I tried to remain calm, but the girls were dancing on the fault line. They followed me as we continued toward the dullahans.
Chapter 24
“Stop right there or we’ll take your heads clean off,” cried out an unseen man with a sharp English accent.
Alayna altered her voice and said, “Good morrow to you, kind sir. We travel in peace, making our way to the Rosendales.”
A collection of voices called out, “Hail Rosendales.”
We’d been traveling for days without interruption. If Alayna was correct, we were within close proximity of the dullahans who resided in the middle of the Blood Forest. Redwood trees dominated the landscape along with the bramble and dark, loose soil.
The sunrays fought a losing battle to break through the dense canopy above, leaving us in a constant dusky atmosphere. One by one, different beings emerged from the shadowy woods and onto the beaten path in front of us.
I saw horsemen, elves, winged faeries, a centaur aiming his drawn bow at us and a dullahan. The dullahan rode a mesmerizing burgundy horse. He held the black leather reins in one hand and presumably his own head in the other. His fingers were hooked through the long, greasy black hair, and the detached head hung at the horse’s side. The neck of the body still had sinew and veins coming from it and the wound appeared fresh, as if it had happened recently.
The dullahan’s mustache movee up and down as words came from the head, “What business have you with the Rosendales?”
“Hail Rosendales,” screamed the rest of his crew in unison.
Alayna spoke for us, “We are just passing through and we wanted to pay our respects and a passage fee.”
The man twisted his wrist and his head now faced the opposite direction, “Osfrey. Holster your aggression.” The centaur reluctantly obeyed and tucked his arrow back into a satchel attached to the horseman’s body.
The head with lively brown eyes turned to us again. “A thousand pardons, ladies and the gentleman alike. We venture toward our master, same as you. Trail us if you shall prefer.”
We humbly accepted and followed about twenty feet behind the supernatural posse. I looked down at Alayna, and asked quietly, “They called the Rosendales their master. I thought the Warden of the East was the only master in this area.”
Alayna spoke softly enough so that Burn and I could hear her without the group listening in, “The way it works as far as I know is that the Warden gets the food for the entire region. They distribute it through a select few people. The Rosendales get bulk orders of food and then distribute it to their area. That makes the couple the direct master of these beings.”
I whispered, “So the stops we have to make on the way to the Great Expanse will be the masters, so to speak.”
“Exactly.” Alayna unzipped her leather mask about halfway, revealing a bright red cheek. “You saw how that group was ready to kill us for setting foot in this land. Had I not been able to name the Rosendales, we wouldn’t be walking right now.”
I jumped to the side to avoid a fresh pile of horse dung. “How many more stops do we have to make to get to the great expanse?”
Alayna fanned the side of her flushed face with her hand. “Not many if I remember correctly. There should only be one or two after the Rosendales. We should be there in no time.”
A rumbling sound erupted out of nowhere and the ground started to shake. Perhaps Artoise had found a way to get into Sleepy Willow. As the quaking continued, I realized that it was not my guardian angel.
The small posse in front of me couldn’t block my view of an oncoming horde of ogres and ogresses. The group of dullahans, faeries and elves prepared for battle, drawing longbows and assorted weapons. The ogres looked like giant people made out of mud and baked to perfection in a kiln. They had the features of professional bodybuilders with dark brown skin and yellow eyes.
The closest comparison to the naked ogres would be The Thing from the early comic books sans the awesome blue shorts and Fantastic Four belt.
As far as I could tell, there were three ogres and one ogress. Suddenly, the biggest snakes I’d ever seen appeared behind them. The snakes looked like pythons, but with the girth of a telephone pole, as they stood at attention behind the group of giants.
One ogre led the pack with a club the size of a full-grown tree trunk. The wooden club studded with silver spikes and deadly shards of dragon glass could take off my head with one accurate swipe.
The dullahan leading the posse screamed, “Hail Rosendales. Protect them we must.”
A swarm of elves with wooden weapons rushed the lead ogre. The ogre waited patiently until the elves neared him. With a simple flick of the wrist, his club whipped around and headed for the elves. The whooshing sound coming from the club ended with a thud and screams as the ogre made contact.
The club drove through several of the elves. A trail of blood fountained into the air and random elven body parts flew in all directions. The other elves were bloodied and battered, dead from the blunt force trauma.
The faeries attacked the ogre on behalf of their fallen friends as the remaining elves ran into the woods.
The faeries buzzed like bees around the ogre and he swung wildly, trying to swat them away. The faeries worked together in small units. They baited the ogre to turn around and face his friends. The ogre flailed away, hitting a tiny faerie occasionally with his club, but the winged creatures remained resolute.
A swarm of faeries flew onto the nose of another ogre and buzzed louder than all the rest, catching the attention of the man with the club. The confused ogre took a heavy swing at the perched faeries. At the last second, the faeries zipped away right before the club crunched into the unsuspecting ogre’s jaw.
The follow through spun the ogre’s face around and the strained neck gave way under the enormous force. The club took the ogre’s head clean off, and it fell to the ground rotating and landing with a thud. Black blood sprayed out of the neck and the ogre spun around, headless. He ran in a small circle, showering the path and his fellow ogres in blood. The ogre darted off into the woods like a chicken with its head cut off. About five seconds later, the body crashed thunderously to the ground, shaking our footing and making my knees buckle.
The tormenting faeries pulled the same trick with the ogress, but they landed on her belly. With a left-handed swing that would have made Babe Ruth proud, the ogre split his female counterpart in two messy pieces. The obsidian shards allowed the club to act as a sword. The bottom half of the female, still standing, ran into the woods like the decapitated ogre.
The two remaining ogres without weapons attacked the one with the club. Apparently, they didn’t want to be next on the chopping block.
The faeries, dullahan and the centaur sat back and watched the attacking ogres overpower the first one and seize the club. They bashed in the leader’s head and kept hammering away until they shattered the skull into a thousand pieces and a river of black blood stained the dirt path.
The two ogres, drenched in their comrade’s blood, turned their focus on the faeries. The small army of faeries went to work again, but these ogres weren’t taking the bait. One ogre uttered something to his comrade in a language I wasn’
t familiar with.
Suddenly, the huge snakes struck from the high grass on the side of the path. Their mouths opened wider than a great white shark’s, and they sucked in the surrounding faeries. The snakes didn’t get all the flying supernaturals, but they killed enough to render the faeries useless as a serviceable fighting force.
I’d brought my magic out to play when I’d first noticed the ogres. I hadn’t expected the group of tiny individuals to take the lead.
The two heavily breathing ogres stalked toward us. Us comprised of me, Alayna, Burn, a dullahan not carrying a weapon and a centaur with a long bow and arrow. The faeries had flown away and the other horsemen had bolted after the snake attack.
We stood on a blood-stained trail in the middle of a forest in an unknown land. Alayna pushed me aside. “I know how to handle these rascals. Distract the snakes.”
Distract the snakes? What did Alayna expect me to do? Puzzled, I said, “I don’t have Fencester’s panpipes here and I’m not doing a hypnotic dance like Felix.” Burn and I tried to wave our hands around to catch the reptiles’ attention as Alayna snuck into the high grass.
The centaur fired a few arrows that hit the ogres’ rock-hard bodies and bounced off harmlessly. The dullahan just sat back in his saddle and took in all the action. I half expected him to throw his detached head at the enemy.
Alayna emerged from the grass with the tail of a snake in both hands. The snake thrashed around, but Alayna sunk her fingers into the tail. With a quick motion of her wrist, she whipped the snake around her head like a lasso.
The head of the snake darted toward Alayna, mouth open and venom dripping from its fangs. Alayna simply snapped her hand back and the snake bit down. I didn’t know how she had done it, but the snake bit down onto its own body. I couldn’t believe the smallest person I knew had that much strength.