by J. A. Pitts
“But there is more,” he said quietly. “Something changed here, something unwholesome.”
I watched him. “When?”
“It was that man, Justin,” he said, the disdain in his voice. “I do not know, as I was banished to the forge for a period of time, but something happened in the spring, some great shift occurred here. Something that has broken Anezka.”
“Wait … I thought Justin had been gone a year or more.”
Bub shook his head. “He returned in the spring; he had something to show Anezka, something powerful.”
“What was it?” Skella asked with a squeak.
He shook his head. “I am ashamed that I do not know. She cast him out, or so she claims. I was free to roam the grounds again, but things were different, tainted.”
Things were pretty volatile around here. If they’d amped up recently, like in the spring, I wondered if they had anything to do with me reforging the sword. Could be a coincidence, but with Nidhogg being out of sorts, and the other dragons agitated, who knows? Whatever it was, things here were chaotic.
“Next time Anezka gets her panties in a twist, she’s gonna succeed in killing herself,” I said as bluntly as I could.
“That must not happen,” Bub said.
I didn’t think he even had tear ducts or anything to allow him to cry, but the thought seemed to make the little mouth breather sad.
“I like Anezka,” I said, trying to sound reassuring. “But you’re not helping her. All this chaos around here is making her more crazy than she’d be otherwise.”
“Losing the baby won’t help,” Skella said.
Oy, she was right. I rubbed the spot on my forehead between my eyes.
“What baby?” Bub asked.
“She had a miscarriage,” I said quietly. “She’s off to the hospital.”
He rushed forward, slamming his clawed hands onto the coffee table, cutting grooves into the wood. “She was not pregnant!”
“But she was bleeding,” I said, looking over to Skella, who nodded in confirmation. “And you said she had something inside her, something that was sick.”
“I would know a child,” he said angrily. “Did I not witness her own birth? Was I not there the night her mother died bringing her into the world?”
What can you say to that, exactly. “Then what happened to her?”
“Perhaps.” He turned and slumped to the floor. For a moment he looked like he did just after I’d crunched his head. “She is a maker, after all.”
“Meaning what?” Skella asked, sliding to the edge of her seat.
“Meaning,” he said, staring into the fireplace, “perhaps she has taken the anger and the hurt, the lost love and the fear and created a child in her womb.” He turned halfway and pointed to the amulet in my hands. “Not a viable child, but something altogether different—using that.”
I dropped the amulet onto the floor, where it rang a hollow sound.
“Is that possible?”
“A powerful maker can do many things,” he said. “The dwarves could take a boar’s skin and create a living creature of gold that could fly and give off light.” He got up and turned to me, his elbow on the table. “I cannot see her die. Please help her.”
“What if I just broke the amulet?” I asked, pushing it across the floor a few inches with my foot.
“No,” he said, leaping to his feet.
I snatched the amulet from the floor, ready to command him to stop if he attacked. Instead, he wrung his head in his hands, scraping off scales under his thick black claws. He began to moan and pace.
What the hell? “Okay,” I said. “I won’t break it.”
He slumped to the floor, and his moaning subsided.
“Would it be so awful to be free of this place, to go home to your hive mates?” I asked him.
He didn’t move for a long time. I looked over to Skella, who just shrugged. “Maybe he’s afraid,” she whispered.
“I love her,” he croaked. “If you break the amulet, I will have no hold in this world.”
That wasn’t awkward. What did this creature know of love? Hell, I barely understood the rudimentary aspects of it myself. On the other hand, he’d been around for roughly five thousand years. Maybe he knew it when he saw it.
“Okay, we find a way to keep Anezka from killing herself, allow Bub to stay around—within parameters.” I glared at him, but he didn’t even flinch.
“What about my people?” Skella asked. “We need a plan to rescue them, right?”
“The dwarves who have captured your people are all smiths, right?”
Skella shrugged. “Most of them have given up many of the old ways, but there are those who work with fire and steel, yes. They are the ones who forged the chains that bind the boy, and the bars that hold my people.”
“Where there are smiths, there is flame.” I looked over at Bub. “I think he may be able to assist us in our little adventure.”
She eyed him dubiously. “I’m not so sure about him.”
“I can help you,” he said quickly. “While you may travel through mirrors, I can travel through flame.”
I gave Skella a smug smile. “See, that’s what I’m talking about.”
She rolled her eyes, but she didn’t argue.
First things first. We needed to get to Black Briar before they sent a search party after me.
“Okay, troops. Here’s what we are going to do. Skella, you go around and batten down the hatches. Lock the doors, windows, et cetera. Hell, water the plants, too. We are going on a road trip.”
“What shall I do?” Bub asked, standing up straight and tall.
“Give me a quick inventory,” I said. “I know about the shotgun, but I don’t understand the carvings on the stock or the carvings on the support beams in the carport.”
“Flora did that work,” he said. “She is an adept craftsperson but could not stand the situation here. It would have been better if she had stayed and that awful man had left, but life is full of missteps and incorrect choices.”
Man, did I know for choices. I could fill a book with second guesses and missed chances. “Tell me about the gun, then. Is there something special about it?”
“It is very powerful,” he said. “Flora had a way of collecting the energy here, focusing it and enhancing the items she worked. The protections on this house are a large part of her work. She channeled the power of the amulet into her work, and she didn’t even know it.”
Interesting. “Can I use that shotgun?”
He shrugged. “It is a weapon. There is no implied ownership. It will work for whomever wields it.”
Maybe I’d take it with me to Vancouver. Couldn’t hurt to have something besides the sword. Deidre used a shotgun in the battle with the giants—for a while anyway, before it failed with all the magic around. I bet this one was different.
I bundled the shotgun in a blanket and laid it in the trunk of my car. I transferred my dirty clothes into a garbage bag and added those in with the shotgun.
It was well after dark by the time I had the kids in the car. Bub called shotgun, ironically, so I made him ride in the trunk. Skella thought it was pretty hilarious.
I just didn’t want to explain to anyone who he was.
Before I pulled the door to, I picked up the amulet and slipped it into my pocket. I felt like I was betraying Anezka, but I needed to find a way to fix all this. What I needed was some expert advice on this little wonder.
Forty-five
We drove down to Evergreen Hospital. I had the radio on, letting the tired DJs over at the metal station prattle into the silence. Skella watched the traffic go by the window, and Bub seemed to be singing a lullaby of some sort. I could hear him when the DJs fell silent.
His song was sad and unnerving; I turned the radio down. Skella cocked her head to the side, listening, and we rode into the night serenaded by the lovesick eating machine in the trunk of my car.
It started raining before we cleared the pass, an
d the rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers and the hum of the tires on wet pavement accompanied Bub’s surprisingly sweet voice.
When we pulled into the parking garage at Evergreen, I turned the car off but did not get out.
“Gletts is with Katie and Julie,” I said, looking at Skella. “I don’t think Katie’s forgiven you, and I wouldn’t push it tonight, okay?
“Sure,” she said, continuing to look out the window. It took me a moment to realize she’d been watching the wing mirror all this time.
“Who are you watching?” I asked quietly.
“My grandmother,” she said. “She is an old woman, not used to the rough treatment of the dwarves.”
I patted her on the knee. “We’ll rescue them. I promise.”
“I know,” she said, turning to face me. “You killed the dragon that killed my parents. You wield the black blade. Your blood sings of battle and vengeance.”
I watched her, cautious. “What do you see?”
“There are those among my people who have a gift,” she said, turning to glance at the backseat and, by extension, Bub. “They have a way with animals and birds. One—an old man—older than my grandmother, he can call the fish from the sea.” She looked back at me, her face filled with awe and wonder. “But you can control fire, bend metal, such as the mightiest of the dwarves I have seen.” She paused, collecting a stray thought. “You will like my grandmother,” she said finally. “If she lives long enough for us to find them again.”
I watched her face, but she was lost in thought. I couldn’t reassure her any more than I already had, so I turned to face the back of the car.
“Bub, can you hear me?”
“Yes,” came his muffled reply.
“Please stay here. I’d rather no one saw you, if you understand.”
“Of course,” he called back.
I opened the door. “Come on, Skella. Let’s go see what’s going on.”
The closing of the car doors echoed through the chilly parking structure. The rain muffled the sounds of traffic out on the main road, and it seemed as if we were in a separate world—a world of secrets and pain.
We dashed across the open space and ran along the side of the hospital to the emergency entrance.
Katie and Julie were sitting inside, huddled together, and Gletts sat several seats away watching the fish in a very large aquarium.
“Katie?”
God, she looked great. I hoped I never grew tired of being surprised by her—how someone like her would be with someone like me.
She turned. Relief and worry warred on her face the second she saw me. She rose, walked hurriedly toward me, casting an ugly eye toward Skella.
“Hey,” I said, stepping close to her.
She leaned into me. “Hey, yourself.”
I put my hand on the back of her neck and she tilted her face up toward mine. I fell into her kiss. It was cautious at first, then for a second I forgot anyone else was there and pulled her to me, relishing the taste of her, breathing in her scent. We kissed until I forgot to breathe and we pulled apart with effort.
“I’ve missed you, too,” she said breathlessly.
I hugged her for a long time, letting our hearts align, feeling her energy wash over me.
“Get a room,” Julie called, laughing.
I turned with my arm over Katie’s shoulder and waved my left hand. “Hey, boss.”
“Glad to see you finally made it,” she said, nodding at the clock. It was well after eight. I’d taken about two hours longer than I’d promised.
“I was giving you ’til eight thirty,” Katie said, snuggling her arm around my waist. “Then I was calling out the troops.”
“Sorry,” I said, slipping out of her grasp and pulling her down into seats beside Julie, holding her hands in my lap. “How’s Anezka?”
Katie looked down at our hands before answering. “She’ll live,” she said quietly. “Melanie was out a minute ago, said they had the bleeding stopped and that she was sleeping.”
“Good. She needs to sleep.”
“There was no baby,” she said. “Something was wrong for sure, but no baby. Melanie said they were doing an emergency hysterectomy. Only real chance to save her.”
“Shit.” I leaned back against the hard plastic of the chair and covered my face with my hands. “That’ll send her over the edge.”
“Is she unstable?” Julie asked.
I lowered my hands, glanced at Katie first, and then looked at Julie. “Depression for sure, maybe bipolar.”
“Treatable,” she said, settling her hands on the head of her cane. “She’s one of ours, you know. Blacksmith guild will look after her. Besides, she’s in on the secret.”
Katie kinda shrugged with her face—raising her eyebrows, tilting her head. She wasn’t surprised.
“And what about those two?” Julie asked, pointing to where Skella and Gletts sat huddled together.
“Couple of scared kids way in over their heads,” I said. “Long story that I’d rather tell with the Black Briar gang in tow.”
“Okay,” Katie said. She took out her cell phone and began punching numbers. “I need to let Jimmy know you’re okay anyway.”
“Not tonight,” I said quickly, waving my hand at her. “I’d really rather wait for the light of day.”
She nodded as she got up, cupped her hand over one ear, and spoke softly into the phone. I laid my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. Man, I hated hospitals.
“Smell drives me bat-shit,” Julie said.
I cracked my eyes open and glanced at her.
“Hospitals are the suck,” she said.
I laughed. “I was just thinking how much I hate these places.”
She patted me on the shoulder and stood up, only leaning on her cane a little. “I’m going down to the cantina to get a soda. You want something?”
“Water, maybe?” I asked. “No caffeine; I’ll have a hard enough time sleeping tonight.”
She motioned over to Katie. “I’m sure she can think of something that would help you sleep.”
I grinned at her. “Has your mind always been in the gutter?” I asked as she turned and walked away.
“Noneya,” she said, waving one hand at me over her shoulder.
Yeah, yeah … noneya damn business. I shook my head and leaned forward, hands on my knees.
Just being here with Katie and Julie, even with the uneasy vibe from the hospital, made me more comfortable than I’d been in days. But I needed to settle one thing.
I walked over to where Skella was wringing her hands and chattering at Gletts in a language I didn’t recognize. She wasn’t happy.
“Everything okay here?”
Gletts turned his languid gaze at me and smiled. “You got a nice apartment,” he said.
Skella looked over at me, a frown turning her mouth down. “He will not listen to reason.”
I squatted down, putting myself more on their seated level. “What’s the problem now?”
Gletts rolled his eyes. “She wants to go home, back to Vancouver and scout around, try and find out where those bastard dwarves took our family.”
“Seems reasonable to me,” I agreed.
Skella gave him a smug smile.
“I think, however, that we should just stay with you a few days, let things settle down.”
Oh, great. Two angsty goth elves in my apartment along with Julie and the cabbage smell from Mrs. Sorenson. Fun times.
“He just wants to rummage through your things,” Skella said, punching him in the shoulder.
“Not a good choice,” I said, giving him a stern look. “You did a fair enough job rifling my things in Vancouver.”
“Whatever,” he said, standing up. “Fine, let’s blow this place.”
Skella stood hurriedly and gave me a guilty smile before crossing to her brother. “I’ll contact you when we find out where they have taken them,” she promised. “You’ll have a plan, yes?”
“Sure,
” I said. “When you call me, I’ll come up and kick some ass.”
This seemed to reassure her, and she took Gletts’s arm.
“Besides,” Gletts said, “this place, this whole city, smells like death.”
“And dragon,” Skella said in a whisper.
Nidhogg stank over the whole city. Nice.
The two of them walked around behind the aquarium to a floor-to-ceiling mirror that ran along one wall.
One second they were there, the next they were gone, vanished back into the wilds of Stanley Park.
Gletts was a particular brand of teen I disliked, but Skella seemed sweet and earnest. I hope they stayed out of trouble. I watched the mirror, wondering when I’d stopped being the angry teenager. This made me laugh. Julie and Katie would totally disagree, but I thought my issues were beyond those I had ten years ago. Not really fair to Gletts and Skella I supposed. They’d spent their entire lives under the violent rule of a right sadistic bastard who happened to be a dragon. Not saying any of them were particularly lovely, but Jean-Paul liked to play with his food too much.
I made a warding sign and spit over my shoulder. May he rot in hell.
Katie, Julie, and I spent another hour in the emergency room waiting for Melanie to give us the lowdown. Anezka had indeed been rushed into emergency surgery. Once she was stable, she’d be in here for three or four days. I started to give the charge nurse my cell-phone number, but as I’d lost the phone, Katie stepped up and gave hers.
Later, we stood in the lobby, deciding our next moves. We were all exhausted.
“Why don’t you come to my place tonight?” Katie asked. “Then we can go out to Black Briar in the morning together.”
“Okay,” I said, smiling. “I’d love to.”
She kissed me quickly and went back over to the nurses’ station to get some things straightened out with Melanie.
“Told you,” Julie said, drinking the last dregs of her coffee. “I’ll get a hold of Frank in the morning, let him know what happened and that she’ll be okay.”
“Good thinking,” I agreed.
“One of you will have to take me home first,” she said, grinning. “Think you can keep your clothes on long enough for that?”