“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Outside she found the Pegasus waiting just as Merlin had promised. The flying horse didn’t seem any happier to see her as before; it pawed the ground and snorted as she approached. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But if we’re lucky you won’t have to do this again for a long time.”
The Pegasus whinnied at this; it probably hoped that would be the case. The new silver boots made it easy enough for Emma to bounce onto the flying horse’s saddle, where she turned to wave goodbye to Merlin and Hephaestus. Then the Pegasus took off into the burning air, which felt far more comfortable inside the armor.
Emma still gripped the flying horse’s neck tightly as it streaked up towards the lava at the top of the volcano. Though she knew that it was an illusion, she still closed her eyes as the Pegasus neared the lava. She stifled a scream as she felt the lava stream around her without actually burning her. The Pegasus whinnied as cool air flowed around Emma. She opened her eyes—
***
She didn’t see the ocean or even Merlin’s island on the astral plane. Instead, she recognized the piles of crates around her and the dented doors of Old Coyote’s trailer. Emma sat up with a groan and wondered yet again if it had been a dream or if that had really happened.
Three things convinced her it had not been a dream. The first was the stench of sulfur in the air, like that of Heph’s volcano. The second was that she wore the tunic and leggings she had worn in Heph’s house. Lastly, she looked as she had on the astral plane with white hair and no fangs.
With these pieces of evidence, she decided she really had gone to the astral plane. She really had met Jim again and made love to him in his cave. She had flown into a volcano to meet an ancient Greek god who looked like Tim Cooper and had made a new set of armor for her so she could confront Isis and get Louise back.
There was an easy way to test the last fact. Emma pushed a few crates aside to give herself some room. Her cheeks warmed again as she thought of the silly “magic” words. “Bah weep granna hi nee ho.” She stumbled a bit as the armor suddenly appeared on her body, mercifully with everything in proper position.
She had just flipped up the visor when something hard smashed into the roof of the trailer. Emma put the visor back down and used the night vision setting to see a human-shaped dent on the roof. Even as she tried to figure out what this meant, the door to the trailer opened. Emma spun around and put a hand to the new Sword of Justice’s hilt, but it was only Akako.
“Emma?”
“Yes, it’s me.” She lifted the visor again so Akako could see her eyes. “I’m back.”
“What is that?”
“It’s a new suit of armor. Merlin and a friend made it for me.” The trailer creaked, followed by the patter of footsteps on the roof. “What’s going on outside?”
“The others are coming.”
“You mean that’s one of you up there?”
“Yes. Don’t worry, it looks worse than it is. But I wouldn’t go outside for a few minutes, not until everyone’s here.”
“What about Tim and Old Coyote?”
“They’re out looking for some clothes. We unhitched the trailer while you were—you know.”
“Dead.”
“Yes.” Akako looked down at her feet. “Are you still—”
“A vampire? No, I don’t think so. I think Merlin’s magic overrode hers.”
Akako sat on a pile of crates while Emma sat down on her makeshift bed to wait until it was safe to come out without fear she might get flattened by a man or woman falling out of the sky. While she waited, Emma thought of brave little Joanna in her hospital bed and remembered what the child had said about how using her power left her as worn out as a hundred year old. “Can you hear Joanna’s thoughts?” Emma asked, though she already knew the answer.
“No. I’m sure she’ll let us know when she’s finished.” Akako cleared her throat. “So what was it like, over there?”
“About like last time. It’s just like the real world, or at least the real world of ancient Britain.” Emma sighed. “Jim was there.”
“He was?”
“Living in a cave and making a carving of me out of a log with a stone knife.”
“That’s so sweet.”
“We spent the night together—in his bed,” Emma said, glad the trailer was dark so Akako couldn’t see her blush.
“Really? How was it?”
“Just like I remembered. Beautiful. Perfect.”
Akako crawled over to put a hand on her shoulder. “Are you going to be all right?”
“I think so. He’s going to wait for me there—for me and Louise. He wants us all to go on to the afterlife as a family.”
“That’s beautiful. I wish I’d gotten to know him better.”
“So do I.” She sighed again. “The next morning I had to leave.” She told Akako about how she’d gone to the volcano and met Hephaestus, though she left out about his resemblance to Tim and Merlin’s insinuation that she was a very distant descendant of the goddess Athena. “What do you think? Do you like it?” There wasn’t enough room in the trailer for her to spin around like a fashion model, but she could stand up to give Akako a better look.
“It’s really nice. A little more feminine than the last one.”
Emma touched the wings on the side of the helmet. “You don’t think this is a little ostentatious, do you?”
“No, of course not. It suits you.”
“Thanks.” Emma took the Sword of Justice out of its sheath so Akako could admire the silver blade with its swan-shaped hilt.
“That’s gorgeous. Much nicer than your old sword.”
“I just hope it works as well.”
Akako straightened and put a hand to her temple. “We’d better get outside.”
Akako went first and opened the doors for Emma. Outside it was mid-afternoon, though the skies were dark enough that it was almost like evening. She looked up to see a naked man about her age on the roof of the trailer. She tried not to stare at his privates, which he made no attempt to cover. From the red hair that covered much of the man’s body, she knew he was one of the Reds.
“Stay there,” Emma called up to him. “I’ll come get you.”
She used the boots to bounce onto the trailer; she teetered for a moment before the man caught her arm to keep her from falling over. “Thanks. These boots are new.”
“So you must be the Scarlet Knight,” the man said.
“That’s right.” She was about to ask how the man knew this, but then she remembered the memories of the Reds were linked together. Inside the armor, she blushed to think this man probably knew about her sleeping with Jim on the astral plane. “I’ll help you down.”
She put an arm around his chest and tried not to feel self-conscious to have a strange, naked man pressed against her. From her vantage on the trailer, she could see dozens of other men and women milling around, all of them just as naked as the man she held. That explained why Tim and Old Coyote had gone off to look for clothes.
Instead of trying to land on her feet, Emma dropped straight onto her back. The armor protected her from any harm other than to her pride at being seen on the ground with a naked man on top of her. He was enough of a gentleman to roll off of her and then offer a hand to help her up. “Thanks,” he said. “My name’s Bart Redman.”
“Dr. Emma Earl,” she said, though he probably knew this already.
“The famous girl genius,” he said.
“I’m not really famous. Not like a movie star or anything.”
“You’re practically a movie star to us. Akako sings your praises all the time. I’ve been hoping to meet you, though not like this.”
“It’s all right. My friends should be here soon with some clothes—I hope.”
While Emma talked to Bart Redman, she saw Akako ministering to the others. They gathered by the fire pit; some of the more modest ones attempted to cover themselves with tree branches. Emma counted forty-nine in
all; they ranged in age from teens to sixties. They were of both sexes and every nationality. Not all spoke English, but this didn’t seem to matter, probably because their psychic bond allowed them to see each other’s thoughts.
“This isn’t as many as I’d hoped,” Akako whispered to Emma. “We were hoping for closer to two hundred at least.”
Emma gulped at this as she wondered if the low number meant Joanna had become too weak to open more doorways. She might even be dead by now. There was no way to know this, not unless Joanna contacted them. Please let her be all right, Emma thought.
As if in response there came a clap of thunder and a flash of white light like lightning through the dark clouds. Emma looked up to see two bodies fall from the sky: one an adult woman and the other a little girl. She was about to run forward to try to catch at least the girl, but Akako put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t bother. They’ll be fine,” she said.
When the woman and child landed face first on the ground and lay unmoving, Emma questioned this. Then she saw the woman stir. Emma ran a few steps towards her before she recognized the woman’s face, that slightly older version of her own. She sprinted over to Dr. Reed’s side to help the woman to sit up. Emma shivered to essentially see herself naked, though Dr. Reed’s body didn’t sport the scars that hers did, just one on her abdomen, probably from when her appendix had been taken out.
“Are you all right?” Emma asked.
“I’m fine. Joanna—”
Emma looked over at the little girl, who still hadn’t moved. She scrambled over to Joanna’s side to pull the child out of the crater she’d made. Joanna’s face looked paler than usual; the purple tinge to her skin reminded Emma of Megan’s face during an asthma attack. She knew Joanna wasn’t asthmatic—the little girl was dying.
Dr. Reed knelt down beside her daughter and shook her gently. “Come on, baby, wake up. Mommy’s here.” Dr. Reed put her head to Joanna’s chest. “She’s not breathing.”
Since she had the armor on, Emma didn’t dare try to give Joanna CPR. She could do nothing but watch and pray while Dr. Reed attempted to revive her daughter. After each push on Joanna’s chest and breath into her mouth, Dr. Reed whispered, “Come on, baby. Come back to Mommy. Please.”
Joanna’s face turned blue while the rest of her little body remained motionless. Emma felt helpless; the armor didn’t give her any power to bring Joanna back. She stared at her gloves, which could climb walls and pick locks—
“Wait! Let me try something,” she said. She put one of her gloves on Joanna’s chest, right over her silent heart.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to give her a little shock.” Emma hadn’t really used this new feature of the gloves before, so she had no idea how well it would work. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate—
Her right arm tingled for a moment, accompanied by the smell of ozone. A few seconds later, she heard a tiny cough, followed by a gasp from Dr. Reed. Emma saw it was Joanna who had coughed. She did so again and then doubled over into her mother’s arms. Dr. Reed patted the girl on the back and whispered, “It’s all right, baby. You did it.”
Joanna’s eyes opened; she looked up at Emma and whispered, “I told you I’d see you soon.” Then she collapsed into her mother’s arms, only this time she continued to breathe.
“It’s all right, baby,” Dr. Reed whispered again. “You’ve done enough for one day. Take a nap now.”
Emma led mother and child to the trailer, where Dr. Reed set the little girl on the makeshift bed. There wasn’t a blanket, so Emma took off her cape to lay it over Joanna. “Thank you,” Dr. Reed said. “You saved her life.”
“I guess now we’re even,” Emma said with a smile. Dr. Reed nodded to her and then pulled up a crate so she could sit beside her sleeping daughter.
Emma had just closed the doors to the trailer when she heard the sound of a truck horn. Old Coyote’s truck rumbled across the rough terrain, over to the trailer. The old trucker hopped down, a smile on his face. “Well, looks like someone’s throwing a mighty fine shindig,” he said.
“Did you guys find anything?” Akako asked.
“Oh sure, we drove back to Warrensburg and hit up the Salvation Army,” Tim said. He took some bags from the back of the truck. “I just hope we have enough for everyone.”
“We’ll make do,” Akako said. With that they got to work.
***
Joanna didn’t want to sleep. She knew Isis would be waiting for her and that she would be too weak to resist the wicked goddess. But after she had opened so many gateways, fallen through her sandbox into Emma’s world, and almost died, she couldn’t resist the urge to sleep.
She was almost right, except that it wasn’t Isis who waited for her. Joanna found herself on a rug in the nursery where Emma had been. A half-white, half-Asian woman dressed all in black squatted beside her. The woman touched Joanna’s head and smiled. “Don’t try to get up too quickly. You’re still very weak.”
She wasn’t too weak to raise her hand and make sure she hadn’t turned into a baby yet. It would only be a matter of time, she supposed. The woman must have sensed what she was thinking—or maybe she could read minds too. “Don’t worry, Joanna. I don’t want to hurt you. I want to be your friend.”
Joanna nodded to the necklace around the woman’s neck. “You work for Isis.”
“Isis is my master. She’s the one who showed me the true path. She can show you too.”
“I’ve seen your true path. I know what you did to Emma.”
“Those who don’t accept Isis’s wisdom must be punished, to learn the error of their ways.”
“Just like all the babies in here?”
“We restore their innocence to open their minds to Isis.”
“And is that what you’re going to do to me?”
“Of course not, Joanna. So long as you decide to be my friend.” The woman took Joanna’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “My name’s Renee Chiostro. I was like you not long ago. I was a baby on the outside, but inside I had great power, just waiting to be used. Isis saw that and she helped me see how I could use it so I could become like this.”
Renee helped Joanna sit up and then put a hand on her back to stroke Joanna’s hair. “You’re not a little girl, Joanna. You know that. You’re so much smarter than everyone else, than even your mommy or Dr. Earl. Why are you limiting yourself by remaining like this?”
“I like who I am.”
“Oh, come now, Joanna. Haven’t you ever dreamed of more than reading books and playing in your sandbox? If you join Isis, there’s no limit to what you can do—to who you can be. Once she convinces the entire world to see the error of its ways, she’ll need the help of people like you and I—special people. We’ll be like queens, Joanna. You’ll have billions of people catering to your every desire. Can’t you see it?”
“I’d never become like you or Isis.”
“Think very carefully, Joanna. I know you think Dr. Earl and your mommy and the others can stop Isis, but you’re wrong. Join with Isis now and she’ll spare your mother and Dr. Earl. She’ll let you make a new home here with your mommy. You can even have the baby sister you always wanted.”
Joanna tore herself away from Renee and managed to run a few feet before her legs tired and she collapsed again. As she lay on the floor, she saw Renee now had a baby on her a lap. The baby looked almost like Joanna, except her hair was darker red. She sucked peacefully on a pacifier as she slept. Renee tickled the baby’s tummy and smiled. “This is my aunt, Sylvia. Isn’t she adorable? I gave her the same opportunity I’m giving you. As you can see, she didn’t accept it.”
“You did that to your own aunt? You’re a monster!”
“Careful, Joanna. You don’t want to make me upset, do you?”
Even without the menace in Renee’s voice the message would have been clear: join Isis or wind up in the nursery with the others. Still, better to be a dumb little baby sucking on a pacifier than to
be a pawn of Isis, to be a monster like Renee. “Mommy and Emma are going to stop you.”
“Nothing can stop Isis, not this time.” Renee’s smile returned, which prompted Joanna to shiver. “I know this is a lot to think about. Take my card. When you’re ready, come and find me. Or just go back to sleep and I’ll find you.” A business card appeared in Joanna’s hand for the New Beginnings Day Care Center. Joanna studied the number and address and committed it to memory.
She could feel herself slip away then, coming back to consciousness. Renee took Sylvia’s arm, to wave it at her. “Say bye-bye,” Renee said. She smiled evilly again and added, “If you come here, bring my mother. I have a place for her.”
Joanna sat up and put a hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t scream. She knew if she did, Mommy would run to her and baby her endlessly. She had learned after the first time Isis visited her nightmares to keep her fear from Mommy. Mommy had a difficult time enough to provide for them all by herself since Daddy had gone to Heaven.
Despite that she didn’t scream, Mommy was still there to baby her. “Oh thank God!” Mommy said. Tears came to her eyes. “I thought you’d never wake up.”
“I was just sleeping, Mommy,” she said.
“Of course, baby. Of course you were.” Mommy held out a paper cup with water in it. Joanna took this and drained the cup. “How are you feeling?”
“Better.”
“Good. Are you hungry? There’s lots of baked beans. You remember how much you liked baked beans when we went to Boston?”
“Mommy, that was three years ago.”
“I know, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still like them, does it?”
“I’m not hungry. Maybe later.”
“OK, baby, whatever you want.” Mommy stroked Joanna’s hair, which reminded her of that awful woman Renee. “I wish we could have brought some books along for you. All we have around here is an owner’s manual for this truck and some inventory manifests.”
“It’s all right. We’ve got too much to do anyway.”
“Oh no, you’re not going anywhere, young lady. You’re going to lie right here and get some rest. You’ve exerted yourself far too much already.”
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Wrath of Isis Page 174