Ash Isle was a wide, flat pile of rocks. Ike had determined that it’d been used by a Native American tribe in some sort of burial ritual at one time. The isle was cleared of trees, and he’d discovered fragments of old pottery and even some bone fragments a few feet below the top layer of rocks. I never had asked what caused him to dig in the rocks.
But our favorite island was Doughnut Rock Pool. No, it wasn’t where we made mud pies or rock doughnuts when we were younger. It was a fairly large round island with a warm pool in its center—well, warm in the summer. The pool sat in the middle and the colder lake water couldn’t get to it. The sun would heat it all day, leaving it lukewarm—perfect for swimming. The pool itself couldn’t be seen from the lake, as it was surrounded by large lilac bushes, which added a sweet fragrance to the air. It was always sort of our private hideout, a place where Ike and I could just hang out.
We decided to land on the island of Doughnut Rock Pool. The lilac bushes were totally leafless, and we fought our way through the branches that still provided cover for the pool. The water of the pool was slushy with ice, which made sense since it wasn’t nearly as deep as the lake and the October temperatures had been dropping every day. I teased Ike that we should polar bear swim, but he went into a detailed explanation of the risk of hypothermia and how neither of us would be able to row back from losing the feeling in our limbs. I conceded and we decided to go to Cedar Point Island where we could at least climb up into the tree and look out over the lake.
We made our way past Ash Isle which was on our way to Cedar Point Island. As I rowed by, Ike called for me to change direction and land. He’d seen something shiny on the island.
He leapt from the boat before the bow even touched the rocks. When I reached him he was using his foot to uncover something buried deep in the rocks. It was shiny and had three curves and a base.
“Do you know what this is?” Ike asked.
I shook my head.
“It’s a candelabra.”
“A what?”
“A candle holder,” he clarified. His brows were narrowed and I could tell he was thinking. “It looks oddly like one of the silver candelabras that sits on the mantle in the small library,” he explained.
I shrugged. “You’ve lost me.”
“Well, what is it doing out here?” he asked.
“I don’t know, are you sure it’s from The Pink Hippo?”
“Ninety-nine percent sure, but either way what is a candelabra doing out here?”
“Maybe a miner stole it a long time ago and buried it here so he could come back for it later. Then he got arrested or shot and never made it back,” I said suspiciously. It was fun to say outlandish stories like this to Ike, it usually got him all excited, but this time it didn’t work.
Ike frowned at me. “Good story, but no,” he said and paused. “No this was placed here recently. I’ve been over this island with a metal detector before, and nothing has showed up. This would have definitely shown up.”
I kicked a loose rock at my foot. “OK, so someone brought this out here and dumped it.”
Ike sighed. “Well let’s take it back and see if the one in the library is missing.”
I agreed, and as Ike can be a bit impatient, we headed back for The Pink Hippo immediately.
Ike was right, it matched the candelabras on the fireplace mantle, but the three originals were still there, evenly placed across the mantle. I could tell he wasn’t satisfied, but I decided he could investigate on his own and headed for dinner.
Chapter Six
October 7th—Saturday
A howling wind rattled my window and woke me from my sleep. I slid out from beneath my warm covers; a fire was lit in the hearth at the far side of my room. I rubbed my eyes, but the fire remained. It wasn’t my imagination. Maybe McGarrett had lit it.
Rhythmic breathing was coming from a chair sitting near the fireplace. Who had visited me at this late hour? What time was it?
As if on cue, the clock tower’s bell began to chime.
One. Two.
No more.
Who could possibly be up that late, or early, after the previous morning’s events?
I went to speak, but the words hung on my lips, stuck like peanut butter.
I crept closer to the chair. The breathing increased, a wheeze to every breath.
In an instant the shaggy head of the HowlSage turned to peer around the side of the chair and stared me down. I didn’t even jump at the snarling lips and hairy face, I knew it was Jesse and his fake head again.
But then its lips curled, baring bright white fangs.
It was real!
I backpedaled quickly toward the door.
But it spoke to me, “Taylor, welcome. Come and sit next to me. The seat is empty,” he motioned for the chair opposite him.
I shook my head, but still could not speak. I couldn’t run, or move at all, for that matter.
The beast beckoned me forward with one large, deadly paw.
I stepped closer to it as my mind screamed “No!” But my legs would not obey.
Every step took me nearer, until I could smell the beast’s rancid breath. The HowlSage remained sitting, it didn’t advance on me, nor did it feel like a threat.
I sat in the chair across from it.
“Taylor, you should know something. You are a skilled adversary,” it said, its voice a low growl, yet I clearly understood every word. “Your cousin can not match your abilities; he is far weaker than you.”
Again words moved to my lips, but couldn’t get free.
“You and I could be a strong team; we could rule this city.” The HowlSage laughed. “Heck, we could rule this world, if we wanted. Imagine having anything you wanted the moment you wanted it. That’s what power can get you, and we would be unstoppable.”
I felt something cold on the back of my neck. Suddenly an icy gray mist slid over my shoulders and pooled near my heart.
“Let us in,” the HowlSage whispered. “We can change you.”
A bright light flashed across the room. Lightning. A storm was moving in.
My voice found itself. “You would change me to evil,” I said.
The HowlSage’s laugh rumbled with the thunder. “What is evil?”
The gray mist swirled around me, enveloping my head.
I tried to think. What was evil? Who decided what evil was?
Lighting flashed again. The thunder shook the windows.
The HowlSage’s eyes flashed, its fangs gleamed with saliva. “Join us, Taylor. Bring us the belt.”
“The belt?”
The demon nodded.
My legs found strength and I was again in control of them. “I’ll get it for you.”
Another flash of light, and for the shortest moment my father’s face appeared before me, a sword in his hand. His lips moved but I couldn’t hear what he said.
“What is it, Dad?” I asked, my voice a fraction of its usual volume.
The HowlSage snarled and then appeared to smile. “Yes, your father. We can bring you to him. We have him. He is…”
I never heard the next words the HowlSage spoke—the room swirled about me in a shining white light.
My head ached as my eyes truly opened. I was sitting on the floor. My bedroom door was closed before me.
What had happened? Was that for real?
I looked around the room; the fireplace was black. The early morning sun glowed behind heavy curtains. There was no storm and there was no HowlSage.
I ran my fingers through my hair and pushed myself up. A dream, a nightmare perhaps?
I’d heard about this side of the battle, but I had yet to experience it.
I remembered something the demon had said: “Yes, your father. We can bring you to him.” Was there any truth to that?
I gathered a change of clothes and went to wash up. The bathroom was already filled with steam when I entered, and I heard Jesse singing. He stopped when I let the door slam shut.
“Go
od morning, cuz,” he said from one of the shower stalls. His voice sounded guilty—he’d been caught singing.
“Morning,” I said, and stepped into the other shower.
What would it hurt to ask Jesse about the dream, or at least see if he’d ever experienced anything like that?
Before I could ask, his water turned off.
“Don’t take too long, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “I went for a jog this morning and McGarrett was already at work on the car. Ike was busy working on something as well. You’re the last awake.”
I frowned. Weren’t any of them as tired as I?
When I reached the breakfast table everyone was long gone, but there was still a covered plate waiting for me. Lukewarm but still tasting good. Mrs. Riley was nowhere in sight, and I ate alone for the first time in I can’t remember how long.
Outside The Pink Hippo everyone was busy. McGarrett was pounding a piece of sheet metal across the roof of the Rolls. Ike had the J-Pak out. Actually, he had two J-Paks out. Mrs. Riley had Jesse’s tin foil suit laid out across her lap, and she was stitching the torn sections back together with some weird looking tool. Jesse was sharpening his sword and I saw mine lying next to him on a crimson cloth.
“Aye, Taylor, glad you could join us,” McGarrett called.
I nodded. “What can I help with?”
“You can help me with the windshield. That’s my next project.”
I did so, and the rest of the morning, noontime, and afternoon were filled with repairs and preparation. We took only one break for a short lunch, and then didn’t finish until four. There was only an hour before sunset, and it was time to locate the HowlSage.
The new tactic was to wait for it to awaken and watch for its movements. Generally this would be considered dangerous, as it was always best to reach the HowlSage in its first hour of awakening. That was when its senses were not to their full strength, or so we’d been told. The truth was we actually knew very little about HowlSages that lived past a couple of days. Sure, the society had tracked many of them in the past, but few made it past their first day and the ones that had were long ago, before good records were kept. Nearly one hundred percent of HowlSages were banished back through an Etherpit on their first day of life, if you could call it that. So my failure posed a significant threat—with each day it would grow stronger and we could only assume what it may do or try.
McGarrett assured Jesse and I that he was confident we could overcome it together.
Another reason for the new tactic was to be sure the HowlSage was as far from the mines—and the gray mist—as possible.
Jesse and I were fitted with the J-Paks that Ike had been tweaking. The boy scientist had taken a myriad of spare parts, and literally in only a few hours duplicated my J-Pak.
I made sure to take the original pack. I wasn’t about to be the first one to test out Ike’s copy, which probably included some “improvements.” Jesse was oblivious and had no reservations about strapping the newly-built contraption to his back. He didn’t know Ike’s history with modifications.
McGarrett gave us a few quick pointers. He told us the last location of the HowlSage and the direction it had been heading.
Right for town.
The residents of Ashley Meadows were about to sit down to dinner, spend time as a family, and then tuck themselves in. Likely front doors would remain unlocked, and even some windows would remain open to allow the cool autumn breeze into their houses.
If only they knew what lurked in the shadows of the streets.
As had happened the previous nights, our ability to communicate was disabled at sundown. Even the tracking software had failed tonight. We were totally blind, and would be out of touch once we left The Pink Hippo.
Jesse and I had no choice but to start the hunt; McGarrett and Ike would work on the communications issue. If we didn’t hear from Mr. Riley, which meant he hadn’t fixed it yet, we were to meet him in the park at 3 a.m., where he would be waiting.
“All right, are you ready?” Jesse asked, grasping the small controls to his jet pack. I nodded, and he pressed the ignition. I clenched my teeth waiting for the pack to explode, but it didn’t. Instead Jesse lifted into the air and suddenly throttled it, shooting off like a rocket into the midnight sky.
I pulled my night vision goggles up, smiled at Ike, then pursued Jesse.
We rose over the woods and turned for Ashley Meadows. The ground zipped past below, and I noticed that Jesse was slowly pulling ahead of me.
A sign of Ike’s modifications working?
Jesse signaled for me to stay high, while he went lower.
It would be hard to spot the beast in the dark shadows of the town. It was hard enough when we had sensors delivering us real-time data, but now we were flying blind.
We’d been scouting for fifteen minutes with not a hint of the HowlSage. It was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.
Then something caught my eye, and I turned for a better look.
A creature was running through a yard, hairy yes, large no. Just someone’s dog. The fifth I’d spotted tonight. Another sign of a lax small town—animal control didn’t exist.
But wait! I throttled down my J-Pak to see better, and to my horror I watched the dog lift into the air and fly twenty feet across the road and into the hedge of the neighbor’s house. I twisted my night vision goggles to zoom in, and there in the yard was the HowlSage.
It scanned the yard before it, and then stepped around the corner of the house.
I sped up and dropped altitude to reach Jesse. I signaled that I had spotted the beast and we turned to head back.
Through some choppy, on-the-fly hand motions, I signaled that I would land on the roof and he should land in the front yard.
Jesse nodded and in the next moment he went invisible; even the J-Pak disappeared—a sign Ike had thought of everything.
I touched down in near silence on the shingled roof and made for the side where the HowlSage was last seen. As I neared one of the eaves, I heard something whispering, but in song. I crouched and peered over the side of the roof like a gargoyle on a cathedral.
The HowlSage was standing near a window, its head bowed.
I started at the sight of a hand reaching from the window and holding out a locket of sorts. Who would be working with a demon? The HowlSage took the red jeweled locket in its paw, bowed lower, and slowly crept backward. I heard the window shut and its lock click.
My sword slid slowly from its sheath at the pull of my hand. I was about to launch myself down on to the demon, when a set of claws grabbed me from the back and yanked me into the air. Instinctively I swept the sword over my head in an arc.
I glimpsed the HowlSage out of the corner of my eye, running away. Where was Jesse?
I felt a claw dig into my shoulder, a hot searing pain. My sword nearly dropped from my grip; I switched hands; a claw dug into my other shoulder. What had me in its grasp?
Twisting my neck, I couldn’t get a clear look at the creature. It screeched as it lifted me higher into the air. My arms were succumbing to numbness and I could barely hold the sword, much less use it for defense.
Below I could see houses moving past. We were headed east—no, north. I realized that in our flying around town tonight, I’d not kept track of our location. Without our communications and tracking devices, we were literally blind.
I slid my sword back in its sheath seconds before I lost the remaining feeling in my arms. There was nothing I could…
My entire body jerked left, as did the beast holding me. Something had plowed into the creature.
Over the rushing wind, I could hear Jesse’s voice. “Are you OK?”
“Does it look like it?” I yelled.
I heard him laugh, and then my body dropped out of the beast’s clutches. I was free-falling to the ground.
I looked up to see a silhouette of the largest flying creature I had ever seen. It wasn’t a bird, or a plane, and it certainly wasn’
t Superman. This thing looked more like a dragon, but without fire blazing from its lips.
I was still falling. My arms were numb, but some feeling was returning. It took all of my will, but I forced my right hand to the J-Pak controls. The wings spread wide and the engine fired up. I slowly started to rise again.
We were over the mines now, miles from town.
My muscles tingled in my arms. I looked for Jesse and the flying thing. They had disappeared into the dark sky.
“Eeeeeeekawe,” screamed the creature from above. I looked up, but a layer of wispy clouds blocked my view. My heart sank as I remembered the eerie gray mist. But these clouds were light and airy, not like the thick heavy mist of my dream or described by McGarrett.
I broke through the clouds and saw Jesse. He was visible and the winged thing was gone. He came lower to me.
“I didn’t kill it!” he shouted as we hovered a thousand feet in the air.
“What was it?”
“I don’t know. Any sign of the HowlSage?”
I had totally forgotten about the hairy demon. “No.”
“Let’s go, we need to find it,” Jesse reminded me.
“Sure,” I said, and remembered what I had seen and heard. The hand. The song. “When I saw it at that house, someone was giving it something.”
His eyebrows narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Someone was singing to it, and gave it a locket or something.”
He looked shocked. “Someone gave this thing a necklace, and it didn’t try to bite the hand?”
I shook my head. “Do you remember where the house was?”
We looked toward the town a few miles away. The chase had taken us away from the house, and without our tracking program there was no way to know where we’d been.
“Did you see who the person was?” I asked Jesse.
“No, I never made it around the side of the house. I was distracted when a car stopped in the middle of the road to help some poor dog that was limping across.”
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