by E. A. Copen
Hunter continued calling and I held my breath. After a few long moments, I turned to check on Logan and found he’d already changed into his large bird self. He turned his head and tilted it in a very birdlike way as if to say, “What?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. I swear, if giant, mythical birds could grin, he would have.
The ground beneath my feet suddenly trembled. I shot my attention forward to where Hunter struggled to stay upright. Water foamed up out of the river, sloshing over the land which drank it down. The force of another wave hit Hunter’s shins and pushed him back.
Zara rose from the water, a giant snake with dead weeds in her antlers. Her scales shimmered as water ran over them, falling droplets glittering in the desert sun. Zara’s gaze was focused entirely on Hunter, though I couldn’t read her expression as a snake to gauge whether she meant him harm or not.
Hunter took another step back, staring up at her as more water billowed from the narrow creek. A long, pink tongue darted out of Zara’s mouth, but she was otherwise still. Watching. Waiting.
“Mother?” Hunter said in a small voice.
The serpent’s eyes widened. It opened its massive jaws and hissed out, “My son. Is that you?”
Logan nudged me with his beak and then gestured for me to climb aboard. I was still a little wary about taking off on his back. As soon as we moved from that spot, Zara was likely to spot us and react violently. I wasn’t sure he could fly fast enough to draw her attention away from Hunter, but there was no other way to do it. If we’d been in the sky when she first surfaced, she would have seen us.
I swallowed any objections and slid onto his back. With no way to hold on other than to grab the feathers, I pressed myself against his back and squeezed my eyes closed. Please don’t let me fall off and die.
There was a sudden spring of movement and we lifted off. The added weight slowed our ascension at first, leaving Logan struggling to sweep his giant wings and build up air beneath him. We hovered above the bushes for a long moment, hoping that Zara was too distracted by Hunter to notice.
I cracked open my eye at the wrong time. Zara’s head shifted and her eyes landed right on me. She reared up with a primal scream and brandished fangs. The move sent more water cascading out of the narrow river with enough force that it knocked Hunter backward. His arm shot up out of the water as it carried him away. I watched, helpless, as he slid downriver and struck hard against a large, flat rock before he lay still.
Ice ran through my veins and my heart jumped into my chest. I moved to climb off of Logan’s back to run to pull my son from the water and into safety, but I wasn’t fast enough. Logan shot into the sky with me on his back, the movement so sudden I had to hold on with all my strength to keep from falling back. His quick thinking saved us from being crushed when Zara threw her body at the ground where we’d been just moments ago.
Rainbow coils shifted and slithered, pulling and tearing at the earth beneath. Bushes and trees uprooted as she wound over the area, pulling herself from the water. Zara’s head shot higher. She snapped at us as we circled higher, her fangs so close I could feel the heat of breath on my back.
I scanned the ground for any sign of Hunter and came up empty. The flat rock was visible, but he wasn’t on it. Dammit! Where was he?
Logan let out a thunderous screech and banked to the right, forcing me to turn my focus back on keeping myself alive. He soared a little higher, turned about face and screamed. The sound rattled my bones and deafened me temporarily, leaving behind a ringing sound in my head. It affected Zara differently. Her whole body shook, vibrating like a bell struck. She swayed back and forth, dizzy, but only for a moment. Her recovery was fast enough I might have missed the effect if I’d blinked. And she was angry now. Well, angrier.
Zara darted forward, pulling her massive, snake body from the ground and utilizing her wings. She flew at us and snapped, taking off some of Logan’s tail feathers. He banked a hard left, right, and then sailed higher so that we were above her, a position we would not maintain long if Zara got any more air under her wings.
I was still busy glancing down in search of my son every chance I could, but I hadn’t spotted him yet. I’d have to search the ground, something I couldn’t do until Zara was subdued. If I waited much longer, I’d lose my chance and she’d be on us again.
I gritted my teeth and tightened my grip on the knife as we evened out, a good twenty feet above Zara’s head. My arms trembled as I pushed myself up and stood on shaky legs. The wind at that altitude, however high we were, rushed against me and threatened to push me off. It threw my hair over my head and in my eyes. I traced a finger between the strands, pushing it away. Zara looked up at me.
Now or never.
I leapt off the Thunderbird’s back and into the air, doing my best to aim for Zara’s head.
They say jumping from a high altitude doesn’t feel like falling after a while. Only the first few minutes or so, but even that doesn’t seem right. The wind pushed against me as if it was trying to hold me up. I felt weightless, as if the world was moving and I was standing still.
Without a parachute or any kind of equipment, I didn’t know how to guide myself. Not that a parachute would have helped much since I wasn’t trained to use that either. Mostly, I fought against the force of gravity to angle myself so that when I fell, I could grab onto Zara.
The ground rushed closer, along with the opening jaws of the giant snake. Fangs gleamed and dripped with saliva as she opened her mouth to swallow me.
A loud crack of thunder ripped open the air and lightning rained down on either side of Zara. Suddenly distracted by the bigger threat, she snapped her mouth closed and turned her head, allowing me to fall right where I needed to fall.
I hit maybe five feet from the flat top of her head and continued sliding until I grabbed the sharp end of a scale and held on. It cut into my hand, sending a waterfall of blood down my arm, but I couldn’t afford to focus on that. Zara had busied herself shaking like a dog, trying to throw me off. I had to hold on. More than that, I had to concentrate enough to call up my magick so I could find the scale.
I squeezed my eyes shut, doing my best to block out the pain in my hands, the sinking, spinning feeling in my gut as she wriggled to and fro, the electric static in the air from the lightning Logan was still throwing down. It was impossible. With all of that going on, I might as well have been standing on the ground reaching for the moon.
“Mom!”
My eyes snapped open at the sound of my son’s voice. I looked down and saw him standing near the river, bleeding from a good gash in his forehead. Hurt, but alive.
He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted, “You can do it!”
I looked back at how far I was from my goal. It wasn’t so far, and Logan was keeping her distracted. Even if he wasn’t, what choice did I have? If I didn’t do this, Valentino was going to die and other people would be in danger too. I’d been through worse. Hell, I’d banished demons before breakfast before. I could sure as hell climb five feet and use my magick to find one little scale.
I threw my other arm up with a grunt and grabbed another scale. Even though it cut into my palm, I pulled myself up with a grunt. I grabbed another scale and pulled myself even further.
Zara bucked to the right and shook her head violently to get me off, but I held fast. When she reared back to dive into the ground as she’d done before, Logan swooped down under her and let out another blast of thunder from his beak.
I climbed further.
One more scale and I pulled myself atop Zara’s head where I held on tight gripping scales on either side of her forehead and closed my eyes. You can do it, I told myself as I tried to shut out all that was happening around me. You have to.
And when I opened my eyes, I had. There, directly in front of me, was the blazing white scale that would save everyone. I dug my feet in against her scales until the sharp edges bit into the soles of my shoes and the bottoms of my feet. Then, I let
go of her with the hand that was still grasping the knife and fought to slide the blade under the scale.
It cut like butter until I reached the bottom. Then, it stuck. I had to grip the blade with both hands and give it a hard pull. The scale popped free and I scrambled to grab it.
Zara roared and wriggled back and forth. I lost my hold and went flying into the air, tumbling forward. The ground rushed to meet me.
Instead, Logan caught me, wrapping a set of large talons around my leg. They bit into the muscle and drew blood, and the sudden stop as he yanked me back up cracked my spine from one end to the other, but all of that was preferable to hitting the ground from fifty feet up. From upside down, I watched as the magick that held Zara in her snake form dissipated beginning at her tail and climbing all the way to her head. One by one, the scales turned to dust, dissipating in the sunlight like ash. The only thing that was left behind was her frail looking human body, which plummeted to the Earth.
Logan flew into a dive at a pace that made my chest hurt and my eyes water. The ground tilted and got bigger as he raced to save her, catching her at the last minute before I touched the ground. She hit his back with enough force that he uncoiled his talons and let me fall the last three feet. The impact, combined with the strange, upside down flying, made me vomit and then roll over, clutching my stomach as the dizziness subsided.
Hunter ran to my side. “Mom! Mom, are you okay?”
My voice was strained as I answered, “I think I just remembered why I don’t like roller coasters.”
A big grin spread across his strange face. Even though the boy looking down at me did not look like my son, I saw him in that smile and knew my boy was alive and well.
Logan lowered Zara to the ground. She was naked, and bore new bruises, but most notably a large patch of skin on her forehead was now red, raw, and bleeding. Once she was down, Logan changed back to man and dog and ran to her side, turning her over gently.
Her eyes fluttered open. “Father. Why?”
He placed two fingers on her chin and tipped it up. “Because, my daughter, your grief has driven you mad. It is time for us to go.”
Zara’s eyes refocused on Hunter and she reached for him. “But I’ve found him. I’ve finally found my Gawonii, my son. He’s alive. You see? I didn’t kill him after all.”
Logan closed his eyes and his forehead wrinkled. “Magick has made him look that way. It was necessary to bring you to me.”
She searched his face with big, wet eyes. “I don’t understand. Father, I don’t understand. Where is Gawonii? Where is my son?”
He turned away and swallowed as she began to sob.
I pushed up, doing my best to ignore the nausea that still clouded my head. “Logan, you can’t just take her back to Galunlati. Look what it’s done to her.”
His face hardened and he clenched his jaw, speaking through his teeth. “What else would you have me do? There is no place for the undying legends we chose to become. We traded eternity for a moment of power. This is the consequence of our choice.”
I walked over to him and placed a hand on his bare shoulder. “No,” I offered gently, “this is the consequence of your failure to grieve and not allowing her to go on to be with the ones she loved and lost. Zara can’t grieve and move on because you didn’t let her.”
“What choice did I have? Our people were mad with their desire for revenge. And when it didn’t work...” He turned back to his daughter, his expression pained. “It didn’t seem fair, that I should give up everything forever for a failure. We challenged God and failed. We must pay for that crime.”
“Don’t you think you’ve paid enough?” I gestured to Zara who had curled up, weeping. “Don’t you think she’s paid enough? Logan, you bound her to something beyond this world, just as you bound yourself to stop her. Those bindings can be undone.”
He was silent for a moment, watching Zara sob, and then whispered, “But I will have to watch her die. How does a parent choose to let his child die?”
“When she’s ready to go and keeping her here would only prolong her pain.”
Logan closed his eyes and his shoulders sagged. “Oh, my little Zara. What have I done?” He reached out to place a trembling, wrinkled hand on his daughter’s arm. She lowered her hands from her face, revealing red, bloodshot eyes. “Is she right? Is death what you want?”
She blinked back tears and wiped a hand over her forehead, smearing the blood. “You taught me that death wasn’t the end. If that’s true, if we are all reborn, then you must let me go. Even if that isn’t what’s waiting for us, how can you expect me to live in a place of darkness, tending the dead? Especially now that I have seen life again?” Zara shifted her head to look up at the gray clouds in the sky. “I miss the sun.”
Logan nodded once and moved his hand to her forehead. “Then sleep, daughter mine, and dream only of sunny summer days, of running through tall grass, of the laughter of children. Go and live in the light.”
A bright light emanated from under his hand. Zara’s body stiffened, and then quickly relaxed. When Logan removed his hand, Zara was no longer breathing.
He pushed to one knee and then stood before walking a short distance to retrieve the scale I had pried free from where it had fallen among the dead bushes. It had turned snowy white.
A ray of sunlight fought through the clouds and settled on the water not far from where we stood. The clouds didn’t clear, but no rain fell the rest of the day or for many, many days after.
Chapter Fifteen
I drove back to Chanter’s, but only after pulling the first aid kit from the truck to patch Hunter up. He’d taken a good knock to the head, but other than a few cuts and bruises, he was just fine. I hugged him a little tighter than usual after and didn’t even mind when he rolled his eyes.
Logan had loaded Zara’s remains into the bed of the truck and we used the emergency blanket from the first aid kit to cover her.
By the time I got back to Chanter’s, Logan was already there, standing outside and handing Chanter the scale. Chanter tossed it in the fire inside the circle outside his sweat lodge and burned it to ash. He collected the ash and took inside where he stayed for several hours.
I waited anxiously on the back stoop with Hunter. After a time, Logan went inside and came back out with two beers, one of which he offered to me. I gladly took it and sipped at it, watching the sun sink.
“So what will you do now?” I asked him.
“I expect there isn’t much left for me in this world now that Zara has gone.” He stole a glance back at the truck parked in the driveway. “I will take her back to where our village stood and bury her with her children. Once that is done, I too will move on.”
Bolt looked up at him and whined.
Logan smiled down at Bolt and patted her on the head. “Yes, you too. We’ve grown old, Bolt. Old and tired and it’s made us very grumpy. A good, long sleep will do us both good.”
I turned the bottle in my hands and stared at the ground before I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry if I was disrespectful. I suppose I should’ve been a little nicer.”
“You gave my daughter shelter when she was cold and food when she was hungry. And you helped a man blinded by duty and loss to know that there was nothing to fear in death. Death is a sunset. We don’t mourn the rising of the stars or the bright shining light of the moon. When the morning comes, it’s only that much sweeter because we’ve had to wait for it.”
Logan turned and patted my shoulder twice. “You will tell Chanter that I appreciated his hospitality.”
“You’re going?” I asked, turning to face him. “Now? You don’t want to say goodbye to Chanter yourself?”
He smiled at me. “I’ve never been very good at goodbyes, Judah Black. Besides, I believe he and I will be seeing each other again soon enough.”
The old man took his daughter’s body and placed it in the back seat of his Thunderbird. Then, he held the passenger door for Bolt, who hopped in, circled once and
then curled up on the seat. Logan nodded to me and I nodded back, saluting him with my bottle. He drove off against the distant roar of thunder and clearing skies.
Dusk settled in. Hunter and I sat on the back stoop, picking out stars from the sky as the clouds cleared and naming them after the people we’d known.
The door to the lodge flapped open and Chanter emerged, holding the flap aside. I got to my feet, thinking this must mean there was news. A figure appeared in the doorway. Valentino ducked out into the moonlight, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the brightness of the moon. A big smile spread across my face as he limped forward, sweaty, but otherwise right as rain.
Sal ducked out of the lodge next, his long hair sticking to the sweat on his neck and shoulders. He paused outside to converse with Chanter before removing the bag from around his neck and offering it to Chanter. Chanter took it with a smile and a nod and placed it back around his neck where it belonged.
“Hey, gringa,” Valentino called as he limped closer. He nodded to the bottle in my hand. “Got any more of those?”
I handed him the rest of mine.
He grabbed the beer from my hands and chugged it down before letting out a long sigh. His eyes settled on Hunter, who was beside me. “What the hell you two lookin’ at, huh?”
I smiled and laughed. “I’m glad to see you’re back to your old self. I can’t imagine Paint Rock without you.”
“I don’t know what the big deal is,” Valentino grumbled, his cheeks flushing. “I’m just a mechanic, Judah. I ain’t nobody special.”
Another car pulled up and we all turned to see Nina get out of the car. She exclaimed something in Spanish before pulling Leo out of the car seat and putting him down. Leo took off running and screeching. You’d never have known that just the day before, he had several broken ribs with the way he carried on until his daddy bent down to pick him up.