“And Raven!” the black bird called with a note of warning. “Only the most singular Raven!”
Mrs. Smith nodded pleasantly, charmed by the bird’s behavior. “Yes, Obar told me how important you are.”
“He did?” Raven ruffled his feathers. “Well, of course he did! Obar knows what is important around here.”
Mrs. Smith frowned when she looked at Charlie. “And who is this?”
“Nick’s dog,” Jason answered. “Charlie.”
“Oh, dear. He isn’t in pain or anything?”
“No, ma’am.” Jason looked down at the tail-wagging dog. “Charlie’s as happy as I’ve ever seen him.”
Mrs. Smith made soft tsking noises with her tongue. “Well, maybe there’s some way we can fix poor Charlie up. First, though, you should join us in the clearing ahead. It is just past those trees.”
But she couldn’t go yet! “Mrs. Smith?” Mary Lou called.
The old woman’s smile returned as she looked at Mary Lou. “Yes, dear?”
“There’s someone else that I’d like you to meet.” With that, Mary Lou wished the prince were by her side.
There was a moment of silence, but no prince. Where could he be?
“Oh, so I see,” Mrs. Smith said, as if nothing had gone wrong at all.
“Well, introduce us next time he appears, won’t you?” She waved to the others in the party. “I’ll meet you all in the clearing. These days, I’m afraid, flying seems much easier than walking.” She waved one more time, then popped from existence.
Mary Lou looked at the others and saw Jason staring at her. “Everything here has gotten weird,” her brother said. “Hasn’t it?”
“Just different,” the Oomgosh replied for her. “Everything here is just very different.”
“And Raven,” the black bird announced from the tree man’s shoulder, “is the most different of all.”
The tree man glanced down at Mary Lou’s brother. “And what do you think, Jason?”
“I think that’s all that needs to be said,” Jason replied with a shrug and a grin.
The Oomgosh’s laughter echoed across the forest. “Jason, you learn very quickly indeed. Come, let us meet the rest of your people.”
It was only a moment more before the trail they walked opened into the clearing. Mrs. Smith stood next to the ice cream man from the other night; Obar, Jason had called him. Mary Lou saw Mrs. Blake and Mrs. Jackson. And there, behind them, was her mother.
“Mom!”
“Mary Lou!” Her mother allowed herself the slightest of relieved smiles. “I’m so glad you’re safe! Jason! Come here and let me hug you!”
Jason ran in front of Mary Lou to meet their mother, acting more like a boy of ten than his current aloof fourteen. Mary Lou followed somewhat more hesitantly. Ever since that trouble with her older sister, her mother had seemed to want to keep her distance.
Mary Lou glanced at the others as she crossed the clearing. People looked different than they did back in the neighborhood. Mrs. Smith looked better than she ever had before; positively radiant. The others mostly seemed like they’d been living in the woods for the past couple of days, a smudged cheek here, and a torn sleeve there. Even her mother’s hair was starting to lose its shape.
“Hey, Mary Lou!” a boy’s voice called from farther back in the trees. She looked over and saw Nick. He tried to smile, but the expression didn’t seem to want to stay on his face. He looked a little wild, like he hadn’t slept in the past couple of days. One of his hands played with something at his belt. It looked like the handle of a sword.
“Hey, Nick,” she managed after a moment. She turned back to her mother for the requisite hug and peck upon the cheek.
“Oh, Mary Lou!” her mother gushed suddenly. “I’m so glad both of you are safe.”
“We’re all together now, Mom,” Mary Lou agreed. “Is Dad here?”
Mother frowned and pulled away. “Your father? No, he didn’t come with us. You see, we all escaped from this other fellow, Nunn—a terrible man. But your father, he wasn’t sure what he should do. You know Harold. He can never make a decision. So”—she paused to take a deep breath—“he stayed behind.”
“Dad stayed behind?” Jason cried in disbelief.
“You know your father,” his mother repeated, her tone even more disapproving than before.
He can never make a decision. Mary Lou knew what that meant. The only one in her family who could really make a decision—who was allowed to make a decision—was Mom. And if anyone disagreed, or put the family in a bad light, her mother turned away. After her older sister, Susan, got pregnant, it was like she no longer existed. Would the same sort of thing happen to her father, to Jason and Mary Lou, as her mother shut them off one by one? Mary Lou was surprised how clearly she saw this now.
“Charlie!” another voice yelled.
There was terrible pain in that voice: the sort of hurt and anger she felt deep inside but couldn’t express. She looked away from her mother. It was Nick. He had seen what had happened to his dog.
“Oh, dear,” Obar murmured. “This comes from that light-creature.
I’m afraid there’s been a—well—a bit of an infection.”
That didn’t calm Nick at all. “A bit of an infection?” he yelled. “Look at him! He’s turning into some sort of monster!”
Charlie barked for joy, happy to see his master.
“Hey, Nick,” Jason called. “Charlie’s all right! No matter what he looks like! He helped save my life!”
Obar nodded at that. “Inside, I think he’s still your dog.”
Nick turned away from the others to study the prancing Charlie. The tiniest smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. “C’mere, boy.” He waved the dog forward. “You and I can be monsters together.”
Charlie bumped his rough head against Nick’s knee. Nick scratched his dog behind the ear.
Monsters together? Mary Lou wondered what that meant. “Things sometimes change in this place,” the Oomgosh offered, “in order to survive.”
“I won’t let it!” Mary Lou’s mother burst out suddenly. “Nothing’s going to happen to my perfect daughter. Or my fine son!”
“Yes, Mother.” Even as she said it, Mary Lou knew that her words—and her mother’s words—weren’t true. And not just the part about the perfect daughter. Didn’t her mother realize that everything had changed already?
“So, did all the rest of the neighbors stay behind?” Jason asked.
This time Mrs. Smith answered. “Some of them did. They’re still back with Nunn. Your father, Mrs. Furlong, Mr. Jackson. And I think that a couple of the others are dead. But we’re still expecting Todd to join us.”
Todd was still all right? That made Mary Lou feel even better. She shouldn’t care about Todd at all with the way he treated her. Well, she didn’t care about him, really, especially when there was someone as fascinating as the prince around. But she could never quite shake the feeling that, under that rough exterior, Todd had a sensitive side that might really be worth getting to know.
“And we’re going to take back some of our own, too,” Mrs. Smith continued, “beginning with Bobby.”
“Bobby?” Jason asked.
“Nunn’s got him,” Obar explained. “Not a good situation, oh, no.” He looked to Mrs. Smith. “If we’re going to try and save him as you suggested, we should go as soon as possible.”
“Before Nunn does something really horrible to the boy?” Mrs. Smith asked.
“Both that,” Obar confessed, “and I would rather go before I lose my courage. Nunn and I have had fights before, you see.” Mrs. Smith shook her head at that. “But now you have the aid of a second dragon’s eye.”
“Yes, I do.” Obar smiled and shrugged. “Maybe this time will be different. Maybe this time we can do something to Nunn.” Mrs. Smith turned to the Oomgosh and Raven on his shoulder. “Thank you for joining us,” she said.
“It was our privilege,” the Oomgosh replied. “We
don’t often meet folk as pleasant as Jason and Mary Lou.”
“Or as important!” Raven squawked. “We are all very important now, though perhaps none are so important as Raven.”
“Obar has told me a lot about the both of you,” Mrs. Smith continued before the bird could grow any more full of himself. “Although I am sure it is but one small fraction of the glorious stories either of you could tell. So we know a small piece of your history.” She quickly introduced Raven and the Oomgosh to the others in their small circle of neighbors.
“I am very glad you’re here,” Mrs. Smith continued to the bird and tree man. Mary Lou was impressed with the way the older woman was handling everyone. You might think she was the one with years of magic knowledge, rather than the somewhat distracted man by her side. “Obar and I need to leave here as soon as possible,” the old woman explained. “I would consider it a great favor if you were to stay here and watch over the others while we are gone.”
The Oomgosh nodded his leaf-strewn head. “It would be our pleasure.”
“Sounds like a very important task!” Raven agreed.
“Oh,” Mrs. Smith added, almost as an afterthought. “Four Volunteers will be coming with Todd. Please let them join us.”
“We know the Volunteers,” the Oomgosh said.
“Raven knows everyone!”
“I am not always certain that is an advantage,” the tree man commented. “We will be wary of all other visitors.”
“Good,” Mrs. Smith said as she glanced over at Obar. The wizard nodded back to her. “We will be going.”
And they were gone.
There was a moment of silence. What did one say, Mary Lou wondered, when someone popped out of existence right in front of you?
“What was that?” Jason asked, looking up at the trees.
So he had heard it, too? Mary Lou was hoping it was just her imagination. Only a few seconds after the wizards had disappeared, Mary Lou thought she had heard faint but all-too-familiar voices, high in the trees.
Thirty-Nine
“Good boy, Bobby. If you’ll—” The voice started to cough. Nunn frowned. He was having trouble with Leo Furlong.
“Come on, now, Bobby,” he said, using Leo’s voice to speak to his son. “Don’t you see how much easier it will be if you just work with— “
The voice stopped abruptly for the second time, almost as if Leo was fighting him. That was ridiculous! When Nunn consumed his victims, he kept their personalities, but only for his own use, one small part of the original, which he employed for his own purposes. They were like ghosts that the wizard stored in the back of his mind, pale shades he could call forward and use whenever he felt it was appropriate. They were really little more than memories of the people once alive before they met with Nunn. Memories! How could a memory fight back?
Perhaps, Nunn thought, this was further evidence of his fatigue. He smiled at Bobby, his features rearranging themselves to the countenance he generally employed as a wizard. Furlong would be stored for use another day.
“Forgive me, Bobby,” he said quietly. “My timing seems to be off. But don’t you think it would be better to work with me than against me?”
The boy said nothing. He stared sullenly into another part of the room.
“You know, of course, that I could make life quite unpleasant for you,” Nunn mentioned.
“Keep away from me!” Bobby demanded. “I won’t talk to you. I want to see my father, my real father!”
Oh, dear, Nunn thought. It appeared that young Bobby would need to be taught a lesson. Nunn had to be careful about dispensing pain. He found he enjoyed it far too much. Sometimes it was very difficult to stop.
“Now, Bobby,” he said with the most charming of smiles, “I will teach you how very bad it is for you not to agree—”
His own voice stopped, as if, for an instant, he had forgotten how to speak. The smile fell from his face. Something was very wrong.
He took a deep breath. Perhaps he’d been holding himself back too much. He’d had other moments of fatigue, even moments when he’d lost the conviction that his plan would succeed. Perhaps he should give in to it, after all. He always felt much better once he’d caused somebody pain.
“Bobby,” he said simply, trying not to sound too excited. He reached for the boy’s shoulder. “I’m going to punish—”
The lapse came again, as if the sentence he was speaking flew from his head. The hand that had reached toward Bobby tightened into a fist. This was too much, a true warning of his exhaustion. The punishment would have to wait. He’d have to put the boy out of the way and collect himself somehow. Perhaps he’d have to look at those spirits inside him to find out if they weren’t quite as dead as he thought. Perhaps he’d have to kill Leo Furlong all over again.
Unless the difficulty didn’t come from Leo. Nunn had swallowed Zachs as well, preferring to keep the light-demon inside rather than put up with the creature’s ever-more-unpredictable behavior. Nunn could not contain everything. At least not yet.
And another of those damned neighbors had thrown himself at Nunn and was consumed before Nunn was truly ready. In fact, the wizard had been a bit surprised that he had devoured the last human’s energy so effortlessly. Perhaps, he realized, the effort was yet to come. He’d need to deposit the boy with his mother and give this matter a bit of an examination.
A door formed in the wall of his study, a door he didn’t recall making himself.
“Who?” he demanded. He turned to stare at the boy. Could Bobby have any of the wizard skills? If so, Nunn would have to show him that he wasn’t to use them without permission.
Perhaps it was time for a little pain, after all. What would it hurt for the wizard to allow himself one simple pleasure?
Nunn licked his upper lip in anticipation. He sent out a bit of discomfort, a simple spell that would make Bobby’s muscles twist inside.
The wizard screamed as the pain hit him instead.
At first, Evan Mills thought he had no idea what he was doing. But his actions all seemed to bring results. Therefore, he decided, his ignorance lay in exactly how these things were really happening.
It began when he had followed Leo Furlong, although he couldn’t even say, exactly, how he had done that. Certainly not by anything as mundane as walking. It was more like he thought himself from one place to another, like his whole self had been transformed into energy, and could flash anywhere as quick as he could think.
Leo had entered what seemed to be a long corridor, with endless doors to either side. Mills had followed, feeling a bit like he used to as a kid, when he snuck into movie theaters through the back door. Whatever this hallway was, and whoever had made it, Mills felt he was someplace he wasn’t supposed to be. He traveled down the hall, with no sensation of his feet touching the floor, or even that there was a floor to be touched. He wondered how long he could go before he was discovered.
A door flew open before him, as if someone else had read his thoughts.
“What are you doing?” a high voice screeched. “No one should be here! No one but Zachs!”
A monkey made of light cartwheeled out into the corridor. Its glowing face grimaced as it came to rest inches in front of Mills.
“Is that so?” Mills replied. He figured he had nothing to lose by drawing this creature out. Nothing, that is, that he could do anything about. “But I am here,” he continued. “And I have no plans to leave.”
The glowing monkey smiled at that.
“Bold human! Zachs is surprised. Humans are afraid of Zachs.” It threw its shoulders back and its hands forward, as if it was about to attack.
Mills made no move to leave, or even to defend himself.
“We’re not always afraid,” he said. “But then maybe I’m a little different.”
The bright face stared intently at Mills.
“Human’s something new. Zachs didn’t expect something new.”
Apparently, Mills thought, this Zachs creature wasn�
�t going to attack him, after all. Maybe Mills could get rid of this thing before Leo disappeared completely.
“I’m not just something new,” he said gently. “I have to go and look for someone.”
“You look for Nunn?” Zachs cried in sudden agitation.
Mills guessed that, in a way, he was. He nodded warily.
“Nunn, and someone else.”
The whole creature pulsed with furious light.
“Nunn causes Zachs pain.” The glow shifted from a dull red to an angry yellow. “Nunn is so unfair—won’t let Zachs eat his full! Wants all the newcomers for himself! Zachs hates Nunn.” Yellow slid to a glaring white that made Mills look away.
“Nunn should have pain.”
“Perhaps he should,” Mills replied. He looked past Zachs. He could no longer see Leo in the hallway. “But if I lose my friend, I might lose Nunn, too.”
“You look for Nunn?” Zachs nodded its head vigorously. “Zachs looks for Nunn, too! Shows Nunn what pain means!”
He supposed, if this creature would stay truly angry with the wizard, it might work to his advantage.
“I am going,” he called as he darted past the light-creature and continued down the hall. “Come if you want.”
“Zachs comes!” the light-creature called from close behind. “Zachs will not be closed in! Zachs will not be trapped! Zachs does what Zachs wants. Nunn will know! Nunn will pay!”
Mills tried to ignore the flaring creature behind him to determine where Leo had gone. The doors to either side remained closed, and Mills had the feeling that Leo wasn’t behind any of those that they passed. Somehow his neighbor’s destination was farther along.
The light-creature was suddenly at Mills’ side. “Zachs knows Nunn.
Zachs knows your friend. So clear to Zachs now!”
“So you can find my friend?” Mills asked.
“Find friend!” The creature, already far from being calm, seemed to grow wilder with every word. “Zachs once had friends! Nunn took them all away! Find friend! Go now!”
With that, the creature of light sped down the hallway so quickly that its form blurred as it streaked along, then was nothing more than a dim glow in the distance.
Dragon Sleeping (The Dragon Circle Trilogy Book 1) Page 28