“No one’s shown up here since the last time you were here.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never been here before.”
The old man looked up at the sky. “Why me? What did I do to deserve this?”
“So where are we? Is this Heaven or some kind of Purgatory?”
“Purgatory is closer to the truth. This is my master’s realm.”
“Your master being—?”
“Merlin the wizard, of course. Are you sure you don’t remember anything?”
“Why do you keep asking me that? How could I have been here before? It’s not like I’ve died before.”
“Right, of course, you’ve never died before. You’ve never been here before,” the old man said. His voice dripped with sarcasm.
“If you’re not going to be helpful then could you please get out of my way?”
“Fine. I’m sick of trying to deprogram you every time you go bonkers. You can think you’re some older married woman or little girl or whatever you want. It’s none of my business.”
The old man turned to go, but Dr. Reed grabbed his arm. “What little girl?”
“The one who said her name was Joanna. Mouthy little thing—” he stopped as Dr. Reed slapped him across the face. “What in blazes was that for?”
“Don’t you talk about my daughter like that.”
“Your daughter?”
“That’s right. My beautiful, sweet little girl.” Dr. Reed wanted to say more, but she broke into tears.
The old man patted her back. “I’m sorry, lass. I didn’t mean to step on your toes.” He sighed and then said. “Come along, I’ll take you to camp and we’ll get you something to eat.”
She followed the old man along the dirt path; her heart sunk as she began to realize it was unlikely she would find Red here. Wherever she was, it wasn’t Heaven. She couldn’t imagine any kind of Heaven that would allow such a thoughtless, tactless man like this old man.
The path ended at the edge of a clearing, where three people sat around a fire. One was a husky blond woman clad in only a sheep pelt. Another was a burly older man who also wore sheepskins. The third was a younger man, his face obscured by wild hair, who wore some other kind of animal skins; apparently PETA hadn’t come across this place yet.
The younger man stood up and ran over to her. She nearly gagged to death at the smell of him; his body reeked of centuries old garbage. He wrapped her in a hug and said, “You back too soon.” She returned his hug tentatively, at least until she heard him sniff at her neck. To her surprise, he pulled back a moment later and brushed hair from his face so she could see into his red-brown eyes. “You not her.”
“Who?”
“Emma. You not have her smell.”
“I am Emma. Dr. Emma Reed. Who are you?”
He didn’t answer her; he turned and stomped off into the forest. Dr. Reed watched him go and then turned to the others. “What’s going on here? Why does everyone keep acting like I’m someone else?”
“Because you look like someone else,” the blond woman said.
“You mean Dr. Earl, don’t you? She’s been here before?”
“Twice. The last time was about ten hours ago by your reckoning.”
“I see. And that man is a friend of hers?”
“More than a friend,” the older man by the fire said. “Much more.”
“Oh. Well, I guess I’ll have to apologize to him later.”
The older man by the fire patted a rock beside him. “Have a seat, lass. Dinner will be ready soon. Or is it breakfast? So hard to tell these days.” She decided to accept his generous offer and found the rock more comfortable than she would have thought. The man held out a hand for her to shake. “My name is Percival Graves. I’m also a friend of Dr. Earl. This here is Beaux; she’s been here longer than any of us. And that ghastly old coot you had the misfortune of meeting is named Marlin.”
“You call me ghastly? I’m not the one who looks like the Missing Link.”
“Ignore him, lass. He’s always got a bug up his arse about something. Too bad Emma didn’t take you with her when she left.”
Dr. Reed ignored most of this exchange. “So is anyone else here?”
Mr. Graves shrugged. “There’s an old chap named Belt who lives back up the road a piece. Don’t really see much of him. Then of course there’s Merlin.”
“So he’s real?”
“Of course he’s real,” Marlin snapped. “You think everything in stories is made up?”
“I don’t know. I just never thought of him as a real person.” Of course given all the other strange things she’d seen lately, she supposed it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
“I think you’re going to see how real he is very soon,” Beaux said. She gestured with a leg of lamb to the sky. Dr. Reed’s mouth fell open. It was a flying horse, a Pegasus just like in the old stories she’d read to Joanna when she was three.
The winged horse came to a stop neatly in front of her. The Pegasus bent its head and to her surprise, it nuzzled her face. Then it raised its head and tossed its mane back. “I think he wants you to go with him,” Mr. Graves said.
“I think you’re right.”
***
Like most little girls, including Joanna, she had loved horses. Her greatest thrill came when she was ten and her parents took her to a ranch outside of Salt Lake City, where she got to ride a pony for three whole days. She had wanted a horse of her own, but her parents couldn’t afford it, nor did they have room for it in the backyard. Joanna had similarly asked for a horse when she was six, but Dr. Reed wasn’t much richer and didn’t have much more room than her parents for an animal.
In her wildest dreams, Dr. Reed never imagined she would actually get to ride a Pegasus and soar over the green hills of this strange land. By all rights a Pegasus could not exist and even if you could somehow breed a horse with bird wings, it would still weigh too much to fly. Yet this horse clearly flew through the air as if it weighed nothing—as if she weighed nothing.
Maybe in the scheme of things that was true. She was dead, her body in a gutter in Rampart City, teeth knocked out, patches of skin peeled away, and a bullet through her brain. So in a sense this wasn’t real and thus it could operate under rules that did not follow those of the real world.
She pushed these thoughts aside to bask in the simple joy of sitting atop the horse as it flew higher and higher into the air. For its part the Pegasus seemed to have taken a shine to her; it kept its body so steady that she could probably ride without the reins or saddle. The flying horse avoided any turbulence to make it the easiest flight she had ever experienced.
Dr. Reed couldn’t resist a girlish squeal as the Pegasus climbed into the clouds. She reached out with one hand to feel the clouds, but her hand passed right through them. In a way she felt disappointed by this; while she knew clouds were nothing more than condensed water vapor, the child in her wanted them to feel as fluffy as they looked.
Once they emerged from the clouds, Dr. Reed saw the top of the mountain and a wooden cabin, like the one where she and Joanna had stayed at in Michigan. That had been her first—and last—attempt to rough it with Joanna; the little girl had been so afraid of the spiders in the outhouse she had refused to go in there alone. Dr. Reed hoped the trip to this cabin would go better.
The Pegasus touched down with hardly a bump. The horse bent down to make it easier for her to dismount from the golden saddle. She patted the Pegasus’s neck. “Where are we, girl?” she asked. The horse whinnied to her and then motioned towards the cabin.
“Right. I guess I’ll find out.”
She was about to knock on the frame around the leather flap being used for a door when the flap pulled aside to reveal a man. He looked about her age with a black beard far shorter and better trimmed than Marlin’s. The man smiled at her and then bowed slightly. “Greetings, Dr. Reed. My name is Merlin.”
“You’re Merlin?”
“Yo
u were expecting someone older? With a long beard and pointed hat? They all do at first.”
“Well, yes, I suppose that’s what I was thinking. Kind of silly I guess.”
“Not at all. You’re battling against millennia of misinformation.” He stood aside and motioned for her to come inside. She saw not much in the way of furniture, just two stools, a table, and a bearskin rug beside the fire. She sat on one stool while Merlin took the other. With a wave of his hand, two mugs appeared on the table. “Care for some tea, Doctor?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“I see you don’t have your daughter’s reservations about accepting drinks from strangers.”
“Well, I’m already dead, so what’s the worst you could do to me?”
“Excellent point.”
She took a sip of the tea and found it was the way she liked it, with just one lump of sugar. This didn’t really surprise her, as if Merlin was the real Merlin of course he should be able to get her tea right. “That’s a very nice horse you have.”
“She’s not my horse.”
“She’s not?”
“No, she’s yours.”
“Mine?”
“You must have noticed how taken she is with you.” Merlin paused to sip from his mug. He nodded towards where the Pegasus waited outside. “Every horse has a rider who fits it perfectly. Sort of like a soul mate if you will.”
“Like Roy Rogers and Trigger?”
“Yes. There are many other examples in history of this as well. Stardust is your Trigger.”
“Stardust?”
“That’s her name.”
“Are you sure? That was the name I was going to give my horse if I had one.”
“Well, now you have one. How convenient.”
“Did you make her for me? Did you know I was coming here?”
“I made her for Emma Earl. Though Stardust seemed far less taken with the other Emma or your daughter.”
Dr. Reed thought of the way Emma’s friend—her lover if she understood Mr. Graves correctly—had smelled her and known she wasn’t his Emma. Maybe Stardust could sense the same when she smelled Dr. Earl or Joanna. “So if she’s my horse, what do I do with her?”
“Take her back with you.”
“Back? Back where?”
“To Rampart City.”
“But I’m dead.”
Merlin only shrugged at this. “In the grand scheme of things, death is only temporary.”
“I thought it was permanent.”
“As a scientist you must know about the cycle of life. People die, they decompose, and become food for worms, bugs, and flowers. So it goes.”
“How does it work? You say a spell or give me a potion and I spring back to life?”
“Nothing so dramatic. You merely go back the way you came, just like the other Emma when she was here.”
“And she died?”
“Twice. The second time wasn’t very long, just a few minutes.”
“What about Joanna?”
“You were there.”
“She was clinically dead for a minute,” Dr. Reed said with a shiver. “So that’s it? I just hop on Stardust and fly back and I’ll be back in my body? What about that bullet in my brain?”
“You needn’t worry about such morbid details, young lady. Just have faith.” Merlin set his mug aside and then stood up. “And above all, remember that you are Emma Earl at heart.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’ll find out when the time comes.”
“That’s not very comforting.”
“I’m afraid there’s not much comfort to be had in these dark times.”
“I guess not.” Dr. Reed stood up and set her mug aside as well. “Thanks for the tea.”
“You’re very welcome. I have to say I can see where Joanna gets it from. Such a delightful little girl.”
“She is.” And maybe now Joanna wouldn’t have to be an orphan. This thought drove Dr. Reed as she climbed onto Stardust’s back. “Let’s go home, girl.”
The horse nodded and flapped her wings as she galloped forward. As Stardust rose into the air, Dr. Reed looked back to wave to Merlin. As she replayed the conversation in her mind, it didn’t make a lot of sense. With any luck she would figure it out later.
Stardust glided over the field of tulips, beyond which Dr. Reed saw nothing but an empty horizon. The Pegasus charged towards this, unbothered by it. Dr. Reed put her head against Stardust’s neck and closed her eyes—
***
When she opened her eyes she looked up at a black sky. The ground beneath her felt cold and hard. She realized she sat in an alley like the one where she and Akako had found the motorcycle shop earlier. She spun around when someone touched her shoulder. “Oh, it’s you,” she said.
Akako smiled slightly and nodded. “You’re back in the land of the living.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
Dr. Reed tried to sit up, but Akako kept her from doing so. “Just take it easy,” Akako said. “You’ve had a big shock.”
“I’d say so.” Dr. Reed examined her body, but didn’t see any sign of the road rash from her fall. All her teeth were where they were supposed to be. Merlin had told her to have faith, that things would work out. And so they had.
She slid back against a wall and stared at one hand just to make sure it wasn’t wrinkled or tiny or anything else to indicate she had somehow changed while being dead. From what she could tell she was exactly the same as before the accident. “What happened to everyone else? Did they make it?”
“Thanks to you. Some of the others helped get them out of the city. It shouldn’t be long before they’re back at the camp.”
“Agnes, and your daughter too?”
“Yes. Agnes didn’t want to go, but she’s still too weak to fight. It’s going to take time for their powers to come back.”
“So what else have I missed? Isis still around?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“What about Dr. Earl?”
“I think she and Tim are there now. There’ve been a lot of disturbances going on around Robinson Tower.”
Dr. Reed got to her feet. “That’s where we need to be.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“I know, but we still need to be there. Or at least I do. You can go back to your family.”
“Emma—”
Dr. Reed put a hand on Akako’s shoulder. “You’ve done enough. I owe you.”
“Let’s just call it even.”
“All right.” As they started out, Dr. Reed leaned against Akako for support. Her legs still felt weak and her head spacey. She hoped by the time they got to Robinson Tower she would be recovered. If they got to Robinson Tower. She didn’t really know how they would do that.
The answer literally dropped out of the sky. Stardust swooped down from the sky to skid to a halt in front of them on the road. Dr. Reed ran forward and threw her arms around the horse’s neck; the Pegasus whinnied at her. “You came!” she said. “I don’t believe it.”
“Is that—?”
“Her name is Stardust. Don’t worry, she’s a very smooth flier.”
Akako looked skeptical but accepted Dr. Reed’s help to swing onto the saddle behind her. Stardust showed no reaction to this added weight. The horse pawed at the pavement, anxious to get going. Dr. Reed took the reins and said, “Let’s go, girl.”
As Stardust rose into the air, Dr. Reed stared at the black shape of Robinson Tower. As Akako had said, black clouds surrounded its top; the clouds lit up from lightning discharges. They were headed straight into those clouds, into the belly of the beast.
Chapter 38
He made it up to the tenth floor with plenty of time to spare. Sylvia didn’t seem in any hurry to catch up to him. She probably savored the wait, the thrill of the hunt. That gave him more than enough time to do what needed done.
The directory he had found indicated that Global Inv
estment Corp would soon move into the suite on the tenth floor. Tim played his hunch and was rewarded to see the suite was still under construction. The contractors had left their equipment; from the look of it they’d had to leave the place in a hurry. Tim found wrenches, hammers, and most important of all: saws.
Isis could have easily made the equipment vanish, along with the suite or even the building. She probably didn’t see it as enough of a threat to bother with. A saw or hammer could do nothing against a goddess or the armor of the Black Dragoon. At least not a saw with a blade from this world.
The most difficult part of his plan was to take off the armor around his right leg. He didn’t know if this would leave him vulnerable to Isis’s magic or if he had to be entirely uncovered for it to work. Then again Sylvia came from another dimension and she had fallen victim to Isis, something he still couldn’t explain.
Once he managed to get the armor apart, he used some of the equipment to take apart the booster on that leg. He took out the fan blade for the turbine and set it aside. The fan blade was not sharp enough on its own to do any good. For that he needed a sharpener, which some carpenter had graciously left in his tool belt. Between that and some sandpaper, he sharpened the blades of the fan to his satisfaction. Then he needed only to swap out the blade of a circular saw with his sharpened fan. The result was primitive and probably not very sturdy, but it might be the edge he needed.
By the time he finished, he could hear Sylvia smash into the suite next door. It wouldn’t be long now until she was upon him. He scrambled to get the piece of armor back on his leg; he left the remains of the booster behind. They wouldn’t do him much good now.
For the next step he needed to find a place to hide. The future home of Global Investments was too unfinished to provide him with any sort of hiding place. For that he had to break through the wall and stomp into the next suite for a sports marketing firm. The glass-walled offices wouldn’t be of much help to him, but the lunchroom would suffice. He positioned himself just inside the door and settled in to wait.
It didn’t surprise him when Sylvia ducked in through the hole he’d made into the suite five minutes later. Her eyes glowed green in the darkness while her hair writhed in all directions as if it really were alive. He took a deep breath and held up his saw. He would only get one shot at this; if he blew it, he would probably end up in a glass case like one of the autographed footballs in this suite.
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Wrath of Isis Page 181