Awen Rising

by O J Barré

  He shook his head. “Lost, no. Misplaced, yes. That’s what happens when you have a messy teenager and a slob of a dog. Speaking of which…”

  “Dog ate my phone?” Emily snickered. And not very nicely. She planted both hands on her hips and waited.

  Lugh laughed uncomfortably. He’d never seen that glint in her eyes before. “Nope. Just…”

  He didn’t know how to say what he knew she needed to hear. But the glint hardened and sparks flew. “I’m, uh, just…” he sputtered.

  The truth was, he’d been terrified of his attraction to her. Especially in light of his mother’s mysterious warning. But worse, the idea of searching for the dragons had reawakened his fear that a dragon-hunt was responsible for his brother Jake’s disappearance.

  The sparks turned chilly. “You’re just what?”

  Lugh knew he was on thin ice. He couldn’t avoid it any longer. Time to fess up.

  “Well, shit. I guess I’ll just say it outright. My mom spooked me, Em. She warned me not to fall in love with you.”

  The corners of Emily’s mouth turned down again and her shoulders slumped inward.

  “I didn’t say I listened,” he hurried to add, but the damage was done. The trees fluttered in a gust of wind and a sigh rippled through the zoo. Emily pivoted toward the Rain Forest.

  “Fine then.” Her tone was icy. “Probably best we keep it casual.”

  Lugh caught her by the arm. She jerked away, then waved off a concerned couple who’d paused.

  Emily’s face settled into a study in serenity. “Just drop it. I’ll be fine. No problem.”

  Lugh did a double take. How’d she do that? He stared and couldn’t help when his lip curled in a sneer. “Just so you know, you suck at receiving confessions.”

  That caught her by surprise. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. Then the mask slipped back into place.

  “You’re the priest,” she said quietly. Crossing her arms over her chest, she propped against the split-rail fence.

  “Yeah. Well. Big fat deal.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. Talking to Emily when she was like this was like trying to talk to someone else he knew. Lugh’s stomach twisted, then dropped to his toes. Holy shit. Mitchell Wainwright.

  “What did you say your birthdate is?”

  “June 21, 2012, same as Willie D. Why do you ask?”

  “Because I know someone else with that same birthdate.”

  “There are lots of someones, I’d imagine.”

  “Yeah, but this someone is…” Lugh paused. He might not be the right one to break it to Emily, but he was tired of keeping secrets. “Mitchell Wainwright, dammit.”

  The Hester heir gasped and put her hand to her mouth. Agony and awareness flickered on her face and her eyes shifted faraway.

  “There’s a picture on his office wall. Of him. As a young boy. In Da’s arms. Holding a mess of fish.” She sagged into the fence and the blood drained from her face. “He’s my brother, isn’t he? Oh god, are we twins?”

  For some reason it sounded worse when Emily said it. Lugh shuddered.

  The wind shivered through the trees, louder and longer. The sun disappeared and a chill fell on the land. People scurried past, on their way to see the gorillas. The odor of eggs wafted to him and Lugh looked up, expecting to see someone eating a sandwich.

  “If it’s any consolation,” though he knew it probably wasn’t, “Mitch used to be one of the good guys.”

  Shock shimmered in her eyes. “Used to be? What happened?”

  “I do not know,” Lugh lamented. “But whatever it was, it was big. During the summer of his junior year, Mitch devolved from stand-up guy and my best friend to the self-righteous, overbearing prick he is now.”

  Lugh glanced at the time on his phone. “We’d better catch up with Brian and Cu. No telling what kind of trouble they’re getting into.”

  Emily let go of the fence. The sun escaped the clouds, making her hair glow like a halo.

  “Just so you know,” she scrunched her nose up at him and shoved the stray curls out of her face, “we’re not done with this conversation. If you want me to believe I have a twin brother who’s the biggest ass-hat I’ve met in years, I need to know more. And I want to hear what your dead mother said.”

  Lugh winced and took her hand. This time, she let him.

  As they walked the last fifty yards to the gorilla compound, Emily looked up at him slyly. “Plus, I have news of my own. But not until we’re home alone. Deal?”

  “Deal.” He bumped her hip with his. “Are we okay?”

  A shyness crept into Emily’s smile. “Yeah. It’s just…”

  “I know.” Lugh stopped to tuck a curl behind her ear and pulled her to him.

  “Hey, no PDA’s!” She pushed him away and stole a furtive glance around.

  He grazed her chin with his knuckle. “After this, I will take you anywhere you want. Just you and me. I promise.”

  Her smile was on the side of wry as she peered up at the quivering bamboo. The silver-bellied leaves flailed in the breeze. An older couple strolled past, holding hands and sharing an animated exchange about the gorillas.

  Pointing to herself, then Lugh, Emily sighed. “What if this is not meant to be? The zoo was supposed to be my anywhere. Look how it’s turned out.”

  Lugh rolled his eyes and leaned in close. “You got me on that. But we’re not ruling this out.” His finger mimicked her previous motion. “This, we are doing again. Alone. And often.” She pulled away with a pout.

  “Then let’s not tell them where we’re going next time.”

  A gaggle of people passed in each direction, arriving in a hurry and leaving with awe-struck smiles.

  Lugh held out his hand. “Works for me. Shall we?”

  Emily looked beyond the canopy, where cumulus clouds skimmed playfully over the sun. She let go a pent-up breath and intoned in a low voice, “Dear God, God-dess, please make the four of us inconspicuous.” Then she slipped her hand into Lugh’s and they strolled the last few yards side by side.

  Last Chance

  T alav hurried through the dark, granite tunnels beneath the zoo. A change in air pressure hinted of Tienu’s side shaft. Talav turned to follow the narrowing course until the ceiling loomed as close as the floor. She sat back on her haunches in the tight space to catch her breath and gather her wits. She needed them to get through to the thick-headed Awen, whose energy signature was stronger and closer than ever. It was now or never.

  With a mighty heave, Talav slapped her tail back and forth, up and down, assaulting the walls. Tienu told her they would be thinner here. Soon, the ceiling rained dirt and gravel. She continued her gyrations, twisting and bucking, snorting and bellowing, throwing her whole body into her efforts. The earth groaned and trembled.

  Talav stopped to sniff the dust-disturbed air and caught a whiff of something that smelled suspiciously like—uh oh. Sulfur. Talav roared. The wily fire dragon Tienu had tricked her into releasing a pocket of magma. She should have suspected as much. The once-powerful dragon king had resorted to worse in the past. Being trapped in a lizard’s body must’ve driven him to the edge. But at least he was awake. That meant one more Keeper to help reach the Awen.

  The temperature rose quickly, and the fetid odor filled the small chamber. Talav couldn’t stop it now. Tienu had best be ready to squelch any volcanic eruption, otherwise they would both be in trouble.

  Of course, a little lava was nothing compared to what would happen if they failed to reach the Awen. Every moment delayed was one step closer to Earth’s demise.

  Gorilla Surprise

  B rian zipped his coat to keep out the biting wind. The others were behind them on the path somewhere. Cu lay on the grass licking his privates, after sniffing every available inch of the general vicinity. Brian watched a band of male gorillas retreat up the hillside and couldn’t help feeling sorry for them. It would drive him ape-shit crazy to be on display twenty-four-seven.

  Giggling at his
pun, he thought of Pindar and Ruby, the girls from school they’d seen earlier. He had hoped they would run into them again. Pindar was pretty, but when Ruby batted those big, chocolate eyes, things happened to Brian that he couldn’t explain. Things that left him tongue-tied and out of breath—so much so, that he hadn’t been able to introduce them to Lugh and Emily. It had been that way since his first day at Druid Hills Middle School, when Brian sat down beside Ruby in homeroom.

  Kicking at a shrub, he stubbed his toe and hopped on the other foot. He searched for the grown-ups and spied them through the crowd, holding hands and smiling. Which was good because his uncle hadn’t smiled much since Brian had come to visit. But the two were moving snail-slow. By the time they reached him, the gorillas had all but disappeared, hidden by an outcrop of stone.

  “Where are they?” Lugh appeared and bumped shoulders with Brian.

  He turned his uncle to the correct angle and pointed up the slope. “If you stand just right, you can still see them.”

  “Look!” Emily squealed.

  The MacBrayer men wheeled in unison. A large silverback scooted down the bank of the adjacent enclosure, knuckle-walking toward them at a brisk pace. Several females followed him, one carrying an infant and two leading youngsters by the hand.

  “Hey, look!” Brian yelled as Cu shoved past. Thrown off-balance, Brian grabbed the dog’s tail to keep from falling. Cu yelped and swiveled to nip at him.

  “Hey, don’t bite me. You’re the klutz!”

  The dog snarled, teeth bared, and scurried to join Emily by the fence.

  “My God,” she was saying when Brian snatched up the leash. “Aren’t they magnificent?”

  The gorillas had assembled along the top of a deep trench, the females and their young forming a line on either side of the silverback.

  Eyeing Emily with growing respect, Brian crowed, “Shit-a-mighty, Emmy, the gorillas are doing it, too.”

  “Shit-a-mighty, they are,” Lugh agreed, flicking the back of Brian’s head. “Don’t say ‘shit’!”

  “OW!” Brian whined, rubbing his head.

  Beside him, Emily bounced on her toes. “Look, it’s Willie D, my birthday-twin. Look, oh look!”

  The silverback toed the wide trench, careful to stay behind the electric fence. The others inched forward, tightening the semi-circle around the patriarch. The crowd moved quickly in their direction.

  “People are coming,” Brian warned quietly.

  A deep voice boomed inside his head, “Greetings, Awen.” It was the silverback, standing tall on hind legs, as did the others. All except the baby clasped in its mother’s arms.

  Brian could hear Emily’s answer in his head, too. “Thank you, Willie D. I am honored to finally meet you.” She bowed and straightened. “And your family, too.”

  “Hurry,” someone yelled. The crowd was nearly on top of them.

  “All hail Awen, Queen of the Druids,” the deep voice guttered.

  “Hail Awen,” the gorillas echoed. Breaking rank, they danced about the hillside and burst into a chorus of grunts, hoots, and whimpers.

  A wall of people rammed into Brian, shoving and clamoring to view the gorillas up close. He lost his footing and fell on top of Cu, who yelped and scrambled from the melee, then turned to lunge back into the crowd, parting it with his frenzied onslaught.

  On the other end of the leash, Brian used his elbows and shoulders to keep from being trampled, then tripped and pitched into an especially-nasty fellow, only to be pulled to the side by Lugh. Emily gave them a quick once-over and declared Brian and Cu okay.

  “Ahh-wen,” came an eerie cry, as if from under the earth.

  Emily’s head shot up. There it was again. Her heart pounded.

  Then all hell broke loose.

  A rumble emanated from the bowels of the earth and built in ferocity until a crackling explosion shook the compound. The gorillas squealed and ran for higher ground. For a breathless second, the crowd remained still. Then screams erupted over the earth’s thunder and the people disbursed helter-skelter like ants. The roar grew louder and the ground shook.

  “Earthquake!” Brian yelled, and the crowd picked up the cry.

  Heart pounding and fearing for his life, Brian clutched the frantically-barking Cu’s leash and reached for Lugh’s hand. But the ground heaved from side to side, throwing him to his uncle’s sneakered feet.

  As he landed with a grunt, Brian thought of how he’d once bragged to his friends that an earthquake would be fun. Using his uncle’s pant leg, Brian dragged himself up with skinned hands, vowing never again to say anything that stupid. Assuming they got through this.

  Over the din of the tortured earth, Emily yelled what sounded like, “Hold on. Stick together.”

  But another tremor flung them shrieking to the ground. Hysterical now, the crowd climbed over one another to bolt down the paths leading away from the African Rain Forest. The frightened squawk of wild birds filled the air as they fled the disturbance. Panicked, Brian pointed to the retreating stampede.

  “Shouldn’t we follow?”

  The earth rolled back and forth in an odd, wave-like motion that made him want to puke. Cu danced and strained at his leash. Legs splayed wide, Brian managed to stay upright, but heard the scariest thing yet—a booming, splintering crack somewhere in the vicinity of the Scaly Slimy Spectacular Reptile House. Horror paralyzed him as the jagged line traveled, lickety-split, toward the gorilla compound.

  The three druids and Cu clung together with their backs to the chain-link fence, as the fissure ripped through the rainforest, cutting off escape and isolating them from the rest of the zoo.

  When the heaving stopped, dust and debris filled the eerily-quiet air. Lugh laughed nervously, and pulled Brian close with one arm and Emily with the other. Cu whimpered, glued to their legs.

  The relative calm was unnerving. From around the zoo, squawking birds and shrieking animals sounded injury and alarm. A large blue heron swooshed over their heads and gained altitude. Brian sagged against his uncle, legs trembling and nostrils burning from the thick, pungent air.

  Cu whined and nuzzled Emily. “Foreshock? Main event?”

  “Possibly either.” She swiped at her face, smearing the grime into a mask. “If that was a foreshock, it was a big one.”

  “How about trying one of those spells?” Hamilton urged.

  Confused, Emily hesitated. Then understanding dawned. “To calm the earth! Of course! Form the circle!”

  When she reached for his hand, Brian did a double-take. Emily was different. All doubt was gone. All hesitation. Confidence sizzled through the filth on her face. She tilted it to the heavens and the fingers of terror constricting Brian’s throat let go just a little.

  “Hands everyone.” Hamilton stood on Cu’s spindly back legs to complete the circle. Brian gripped a hairy paw and Emily’s soft, cool one. “Do it, Em, speak the spell,” Cu barked.

  A grating shriek erupted beneath them, like a saw shearing through rusty metal. It built in intensity, filling Brian’s ears until the zoo disappeared and the world exploded in a gut-wrenching screech. Emily’s lips moved, but the wailing earth swallowed the grand druid’s words and filled Brian with renewed terror.

  And rightly so. A spider-crack snaked away from the main rift, releasing pent-up energy. With a resounding explosion, it shattered and raced toward them. Emily shrieked as the ground in front of them ripped asunder.

  On the opposite slope, greening poplars lashed from side to side and disappeared, as the chasm groaned and continued on through the gorilla compound. The earth shook violently. Brian heard another scream and realized it was his own.

  Terror trumping shame, he clung to the fence. The gorillas ran further up the hill, but the fissure claimed a lagging female. Brian sobbed and hid his face under his arm.

  The earth bucked, pitching and yawing like a seesaw gone wild. It slammed Brian against the fence like a ragdoll, wrenching his fingers free. He slid backward toward the chasm, sucki
ng in dirt instead of air. Catching hold of a bush, he retched and scrabbled to his knees and belly. When he was close enough, Lugh caught hold of his sleeve and yanked Brian to the fence, where his frantic fingers locked around the steel wire.

  Grunting and huffing, he dragged himself up to cling to the only thing keeping the group alive. If the fence gave way, they would all be slung into the widening abyss. Blood flowed from his uncle’s forehead. Emily’s legs dangled as she struggled to find a foothold. Her nose was bleeding, and a welt bisected one scrunched-up cheek. Cu was glued to the fence, legs intertwined with Lugh’s.

  Brian held tight and tried to yell to them, but nothing came out. His throat was raw and full of grit.

  Then the quaking stopped.

  Eyeing one other, they remained still until Cu untangled his long forelegs and shook his body. Chunks of dirt flew through the air. Then gravity took over, dragging Cu backward toward the maw. Brian yanked the leash, and Lugh leaned forward to grab the harness just in time.

  Underlying Fault

  E mily’s backside dug into the fence, her senses as sharp as they’d ever been. She was in her element, surrounded on all sides by a natural disaster. This was what she did, and who she was deep down inside.

  She assessed the situation, brushing dirt and debris from her clothes with one hand and clinging to the chain-link fence with the other. Emily and her friends were marooned on a tiny island of asphalt, anchored by the sagging fence and a prayer.

  The earth had calmed for the time being, but the reek of sulfur wafted to her and a chill ran up Emily’s spine. Worse was coming. Much worse. No wonder Cu and the animals had been anxious. She should have listened.

  Untangling a twig from her matting curls, Emily tossed it in the air and watched it somersault toward the narrow chasm. Zoo employees appeared along the trail, shouting instructions and encouragement as they pulled people from the rubble.

  She noted with a rush of gratitude that one searched for a way to reach her group. Zoo and civil defense sirens blared. A news helicopter buzzed overhead.