by J. P. Rice
Jonathan asked, “Are you sure you can handle this trip physically? The doctor is still studying the bullets to see if you’ve been infected by anything.”
I shrugged my shoulders and pain trickled down my left side. “There’s only one way to find out if I can handle it. You know how I roll. I didn’t sit back and wait to heal up before I went inside the Larimores’ to help you out.”
Jonathan bowed his head slightly in a gracious manner. “And once again, a thousand thank yous. Pick any painting of mine and its yours. We can go over to the gallery right now if you wish.”
I had a much different plan in order. And I was clutching it in my right hand. Waiting for the right moment to strike. “I’m good on that. You know I’m already late for this rescue mission. Maybe when I come back.”
Jonathan grabbed his drink off the desk and swirled the red liquid around the cocktail glass. “You can count on it. My word is my bond. You know that.”
“I do.” It was true for the most part. And I really wished he hadn’t used that phrase. It was time to strike.
I maneuvered closer to the portal and tossed the rolled-up note in my right hand on top of Jonathan’s desk.
“What’s that?” he asked, stepping toward the desk with his arm extended.
“Just read it.” I tapped my chest and checked my inside pocket to make sure I had the tooth and return potion. I walked into the portal, not wanting to explain any further.
As the portal grabbed and pulled me toward the other world known as Sleepy Willow, I knew the letter could end my friendship with Jonathan. It was a confession telling him exactly where to find Reg’s body so that he could bring him back to life. It was time to come clean.
Even though I’d recently saved Jonathan’s life in a heroic fashion, I’d lied to him repeatedly about a member of his clan. I’d made him look like a fool in front of the rest of his clan, who’d accused me of murdering Reg. Looking weak and unable to protect the clan as a leader was catastrophic.
Jonathan could end up losing his leadership of the clan, or worse. Much, much worse. This could end up with Jonathan trying to kill me. I knew that risk. I took it. Reg deserved it. If Jonathan could raise Reg from his deathly state, then it would all be worth it. All things considered.
It was the first avenue on my road to redemption. The path forked right through the heart of Sleepy Willow.
The pressure of the transfer increased, and I felt like my head was in a vise. A moment later, it relented, and I was standing on the hard, wooden floorboards of the entrance shack for Sleepy Willow.
The werebear, Primero, was in human form this time sitting with his feet up on a desk and a cigarette dangling from his lips. He was wearing biker gear again. An open, sleeveless leather vest exposed his hirsute body and tattooed arms. We made eye contact momentarily and he scrambled to his feet, then ducked behind the desk.
He immediately went into a drawer of the desk, searching frantically for something, tossing papers in the air. He popped back up with the magic scepter in his right hand. “The king told you never to come back here.”
I smirked and took two steps toward the bouncer, my open hands raised in front of me. “That is where you are wrong. The king told me not to come back without the tooth of Cerberus.”
He hit the cigarette hanging from his lips, and as smoke poured out of his mouth he said, “Exactly. Nobody has been able to do that since I’ve been on the job for four-hundred-years.”
I smirked again, unzipped my suit and dug into my inside pocket to rub the tooth for reassurance. I took two steps closer. “Well, prepare your optic senses for the party of the century.”
“Can’t be. I’ll bet you have a fake. There are ways to tell if it’s real, you know,” he warned with a leery look and aimed the scepter at my face.
“Oh, I’m well aware of how to check for authenticity. Are you?” I asked.
“I know how to tell if they are fake. That’s for sure.” Primero pointed to the desk top behind him.
I plucked the nasty fang out of my pocket and held the tiny prize in the air like it was a big ole gold nugget. Primero’s eyes opened wide with a sudden interest, his hairy forehead bunching up in a wrinkled mess. I walked toward him deliberately, holding out the tooth as I neared his desk.
I set the tooth on the desktop and Primero snatched it up with his hairy fingers. He lined it up with a torch on the wall, using the fiery backdrop to inspect Cerberus’s tooth, rubbing it with his pointer finger. A sudden streak of disinterest showed in his eyes and he carelessly tossed the long fang back on the desk.
Primero raised his huge hand above his head, clenched his fist and came down on the tooth with a Hulk smash. A crunch hit my ears and Primero left his hand hovering just above the busted tooth. Even though I had pulled it from Cerberus’s mouth personally, the suspense was killing me as blood tainted with doubt pulsed through my body.
At a tortuously slow speed, he moved his hand and I looked at a shattered tooth and a stain of blood on the desk. I smiled and said, “I’d like to go inside, my good man.”
Primero stared at the busted tooth that could only have come from Cerberus. He pointed at the tooth, then me and spoke in disbelief, “No. How did you? Even with that, I can’t just let you in.”
I knew I had him. The fool just hadn’t realized it yet. I told him, “Oh, but you have to. I’m not telling you to follow my order, but you do have to obey the direct orders of King Ballistar. He ordered you to let me back in if I showed up with the tooth of Cerberus. You just verified it. There was blood inside that tooth. Everyone knows Cerberus is the only creature that carries that anomaly. Now, let me inside.”
Primero lowered his head in disgust and dragged his big black boots across the wooden floor boards toward the entrance. He opened the door, and as I went to walk on by, he planted his sweaty palm on my chest, and warned, “I hope you don’t have any stupid plans like going after the king. As soon as you pass through this door, I will alert everyone to be on the lookout for you. Don’t try to be a hero.”
The gigantic man removed his tobacco scented fingers from my chest and moved aside. As I stepped through the doorjamb, the wicked odors of Sleepy Willow were already attacking my olfactory senses.
The foul stink of suffering, death and decay mixed with the sour stench of aged urine offended my nostrils as I walked down the dirt path, headed for the city. Since it was dark out, I had to be careful and called my magic to the surface. You never knew what could happen in Sleepy Willow.
My entire body pulsed as waves of magic collided with each other, desperate to be released from inside. It helped quell the pain in my left side but not the son-of-a-bitchin’ itch in my neck. I strolled down the hill along the main entrance into the city as my fingernails traced left and right over my windpipe. I felt like a damn crackhead. A real-life Tyrone Biggums.
I peered down over the city. Some houses and establishments were lit by fire and fewer by electricity, but most were dark and at the mercy of the pale moon and stars.
As I descended further into the valley and neared the city, the stench intensified, taking on a sour stank because the sidhe used the sides of the streets as communal toilets. It was as if they were trying to bring back the plague.
I walked past the Kaffeeklatsch and remembered the encounter with Fencester the Faun. The strobe lights pulsed from within, appearing in flashes through the windows and giving the impression that the building was going to blow up.
The pain in my left arm began to return, so I conjured a fireball and let it sit in my right palm to make sure nobody thought I was a vulnerable target. Some of the sidhe were noble warriors, but the vast majority of them were cowards who preferred easy prey. Once you let them know that it wouldn’t be an easy win, they normally lost interest.
With that said, it would be stupid to let my guard down until I made it to the Sphinx’s cage. Citizens were hanging out on both sides of the road, shooting sideways glances at me as I passed. I wished I had
Darkwing with me to scare everyone away. But alas, I walked alone on this eve.
Every one hundred feet or so, I spun around to make sure I wasn’t being followed by a posse of angry sidhe warriors. I hoped the fluorescent orange ball glowing in my right hand was enough to keep the murderous beings at bay.
My left arm hung listlessly at my side. I tried to fight the pain and hoped the locals wouldn’t notice. Perhaps I should have brought someone with me. If I could just make it to the Sphinx, I thought, when a terrible pang struck me.
What if something had happened to Knelly Knell? What if she wasn’t inside that enormous glass cage anymore? The entire success of this mission hinged on the Sphinx’s well-being and magical skills. Panic crashed down like a tidal wave, dampening my palms and raising the hair on the back of my neck.
I tried to shake out the nerves in my arms and winced as I had foolishly forgotten about my injury. That was not a good sign moving forward. How was I supposed to battle the king and all his supporters with only one arm?
The sounds of Burn lecturing me to be careful rang in my head like a church bell that wouldn’t stop. Slowly. Loudly. Annoyingly. Over and over again. But just as the church bell didn’t lie and told the correct time, Burn’s words also rang true. I had to stop jumping into these types of events without thinking. After I saved Alayna, though.
Chapter 24
I stared into distorted darkness, peering through a thick glass pane of the Shinx’s cage. I couldn’t see her anywhere in the huge domed enclosure that had been constructed of a golden frame with thick glass window panels between the braces. I couldn’t bust through the glass or get in through the door and was unsure of what to do. Perhaps I should have planned this out on the trip over here.
Great ideas weren’t exactly funneling into my brain as I hung out suspiciously by the door of her cage. The time for pussyfooting around was over. I walked up to the entrance door and pounded on it with my right fist. A dull thud barely resonated so I hit it again with my entire forearm.
I moved to the right and glanced through the glass pane. A flash of silver light nearly blinded me, so I turned away instinctually. My eyes stung and watered as I rubbed them with my clenched hands. When my vision corrected itself, I took a quick peek over my shoulder at the cage. The glaring light was gone.
I rounded back to the cage and saw the Sphinx standing just a few steps away, smiling gleefully. She was surrounded by a silver enchantment that acted as a spotlight on her. I noticed her delicately thin lips moving, but I couldn’t hear her through the glass.
She gestured with her head to the entrance door and I took a few steps to my left. She pressed a button on the door with her dainty nose and the giant wooden structure opened toward me. I fought off the stench of dead bodies mixed with fresh vegetation and entered the cage. My feet were barely inside when I dropped down to one knee and heard the door slam shut behind me.
I looked up at the Sphinx and swept my shaggy hair across my forehead so my eyes were visible. “My lady. I made a promise to you that I intend to uphold. Are you ready to get out of this place?”
Knelly Knell stared at me in awe, her mouth agape. The winged andro-sphinx had the golden body of a lion and the head of a blond woman. Her golden hair—a few shades lighter than her mane—was braided and hung down past her shoulders. Her angelic white wings pulsed with her breathing as she said, “I can’t believe you came back. But I can’t leave this cage.”
As I rose to my feet, I asked, “Why not? You can fit through the door.”
The Sphinx shook her head and her platinum blond braids swung from side to side. “The master said that if I try to go out through that door, I will get electrocuted.”
I walked up to her and wrapped my arms around her neck, my elbows resting on her lion’s torso. I leaned my head in and gently touched foreheads with her. I smelled mint as her warm breath danced in my nostrils. I moved my head to the side and gave her a loving kiss on the cheek. “How do you know it’s true?”
Her long golden eyelashes batted with excitement and a she blushed. It took her a few seconds to respond to my question. “I don’t. The problem is that I don’t know if it isn’t true.”
I broke the hug, traced my palm over her soft cheek, my thumb rubbing the area that I had kissed. “Have you ever tried to just stick your leg out there?”
Her green eyes widened and she looked away as if she was embarrassed that she’d never thought about trying it. “No. Scared, I guess. Even if I were to escape, where would I go? They would just hunt me down and kill me, if for nothing other than the sport of it.”
Sometimes all it took was someone else to point something out to make it seem obvious. Alayna had done that with me when she discovered I had special abilities. “Look. I’m on a mission to free Queen Al from the dastardly clutches of King Ballistar. I need your help.”
The Sphinx’s mouth widened, creating a perfect circular opening. “My goodness. How did he get ahold of Queen Al? I thought she was dead.”
I tried to ignore the pile of mangled bodies to my right, especially when thinking about Alayna. “It’s not important how the queen ended up in the position she is in right now. What’s important is that we can save her if we work together.”
She tossed her head from side to side, her braids serpentining on her shoulders. “Well I won’t be much good if this thing fries me on the way out.”
“Good point. Just stick your little toe out. You do have toes, right?” I asked, fighting back a chuckle.
The Sphinx didn’t get offended and smirked at me. “Little ones. For Queen Al and your valiant effort, I will give it a try.” She walked hesitantly up to the door, gathered in some nerve, and pressed the button with her nose again.
Knelly Knell’s pale face flushed with nervousness as she took a few baby steps forward to test the validity of her master’s claims. She looked back to me for reassurance and I gave her a slow nod to boost her confidence.
“You got this,” I told her.
The Sphinx leaned to the right and lifted her front left foot. Then millimeter by millimeter, she moved it toward the doorjamb. As her toes approached the opening, I prayed that she wouldn’t get zapped. Hell, I’d practically talked her into it.
Knelly Knell leaned forward and her extended paw landed on the grass outside the cage. She peered over her shoulder at me, her eyes wide with excitement. She sashayed right out the door and took a deep breath. “Ewww. It smells like dung out here. I wanted to inhale some nice fresh air.”
I scurried out of the cage before the door could shut and trap me inside. “Yeah, it’s like this until you cross Lake Geopold. Then it fades away the further you get toward the Great Expanse. Bet it feels good to get out of that cage, huh?”
“It does,” she said, spinning freely in a circle and staring at the stars above. “So what’s the plan for saving Queen Al? Ooohhh, I can’t wait to talk to her.”
The plan was still a work in progress. “Last time I was here I made a few new associates on our journey to get the Dragon Horn. I want to stop at the Rosendales and at the Red Cap’s castle to see if they want to join us on this journey. I feel confident that I can get into the castle and get Queen Al out of there, but I can’t defeat an entire army.”
The Sphinx pondered the situation for a moment and said, “So you are going to see if the Rosendales or the Red Cap will give you some of their fighting men?”
“Sort of. I’m going to make sure they know the stakes. Nobody likes King Ballistar. This might be an opportunity for regime change.”
“We should keep moving before someone alerts the Master that I’ve escaped.” She gestured with her head and started moving down the dirt road that led to Lake Geopold. She turned to me. “Where to first?”
“We should go to the Rosendales’ castle first. We could wait outside until morning and then see if they are sympathetic to our cause.”
Blazing torches were stationed on the sides of the road like street lamps, illuminat
ing the way as we continued toward Lake Geopold. It gave me a better look at the Sphinx and I could see fear in her eyes. She was now a wanted creature in Sleepy Willow, just like me.
“Sounds good to me. Why don’t you hop on and navigate us to the Rosendales?” She looked at me and did a double take. “What happened to you?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, wondering what she was talking about.
The Sphinx leaned in for a closer look. “Your face is pale and sweaty, your eyes are bloodshot red and you look like you are half dead. You look like you’re turning into a werewolf.”
“It’s nothing. I got into a little trouble on my last job and took a few gunshots to the arm. I’ll be fine,” I said as I lifted my shaky left arm.
“You’re in pain. Let me see if I can help you with that.” The Sphinx sauntered up and nestled up next to me. She leaned in to get a close look at my injuries and I felt a warm, soft kiss just above my elbow. Knelly Knell stood up straight and touched my nose with her forehead. “Boop. All better now.”
A rush of anger swelled in my chest when I realized she was only fooling around. I’d thought she was really going to do something to help with the pain. Not something you did to six year old kids to get them to stop crying. I still had to figure out how I could make this happen without an operable left arm.
“Get on,” instructed Knelly Knell.
She leaned down and I slid gently onto her back. I hooked my arms around her neck and prayed that I had enough strength in my left side so I didn’t fall off.
Another problem: Could I remember where the Rosendales’ castle was located? I was sort of coddiwompling on this one.
Her angelic wings extended out at her sides and began to beat slowly, then gradually increased in speed. The joint of the wing rubbed against my thigh as we lifted into the air. With a couple of powerful wing beats, we streaked across the nights sky of Sleepy Willow on our way to the Rosendales.