The scorching heat of Samhuinn hit me like a ton of bricks to the face.
“Dude, it’s hot here!” Chad exclaimed, demonstrating that he had a good grasp of the obvious.
“Yeah, no shit.”
I smiled slightly as I gently inhaled, drawing in a bit of Isabelle’s magica to soothe the pain of the heat as it radiated off my skin. “Doesn’t bother me too much, though.”
“What did you do just there?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your eyes. They started to glow a little.”
I shrugged. “None of your business.”
“Dude, come on.”
“First, I’m not a dude. Second, why does it matter? You’re going to be dead in a few hours anyway.” I regretted the words almost the moment I’d said them. The last thing I needed was for Chad to start having second thoughts.
“That was cold.”
“Well you were complaining that it’s too hot, so…”
“You know what I mean. You don’t think I’m afraid to die?”
“Could have fooled me,” I said as I surveyed our surroundings. As far as I could see there was nothing—barren tundra spanning miles of wasteland. Nothing so much as a shrub to be seen.
“I act this way because I’m scared shitless. Acting like a moron—well, besides the fact that it comes naturally and is aided by some good smoke—is just my way of coping with it.”
I pressed my lips together and nodded. For the first time, Chad was showing some semblance of being a human and not a Neanderthal. I’d hold my tongue and let him have his peace. This time, anyway.
“My life hasn’t been worth much. Never amounted to anything, really. Would you believe that my parents were both lawyers?”
I chuckled. “At least you had parents. Mine were invalids most of my life.”
“Trust me, that might actually be better than having two lawyers raise you.”
“I can imagine.” I cracked a grin.
“The way I see it is if my life didn’t mean much, then maybe my death can. Like do you sign that organ donor thing on the back of your license?”
I cringed a little. I’d always meant to. I knew the importance of it but just never got around to it. “No, but I meant to. I’ll have to do that when I get back.”
“I always sign mine. Figured if all my parts could be divided up, who knows how many lives I could save, ya know? Maybe I’ll save the guy who cures cancer even… a little too late for me, but maybe for someone else it would make a difference.”
“That’s actually really cool,” I said.
“I squandered away my life. But now my death can mean something. This Legba dude… seems like he’s pretty important.”
“He might be the key to saving the world, actually,” I said.
Chad grinned widely. “That’s pretty badass.”
“I agree,” I said.
“Hey, sorry about that earlier. I was being an ass. I get that way when I’m afraid.”
“I get it,” I said. “Doesn’t excuse it. But I get it.”
Chad nodded. “So, I guess we walk?”
“Hell no,” I said, smiling widely. “Beli!” I shouted.
“You calling forth a blade, like Marie?”
I shook my head. “If we were on earth, that’s exactly what would happen.”
I heard a loud shriek from the distance and looked up to see Beli’s massive form gliding toward us.
“Holy shit!” Chad exclaimed.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “Beli is a friend.”
Dust went flying as Beli’s large talons crashed into the ground. With a single flap of his wings, the air cleared. I’d forgotten how majestic he was. Not as large as the sea wyrm I’d ridden in Fomoria, but a glorious creature in his own right.
“Great to see you, Beli!”
“Likewise,” the dragon responded.
Chad stared at Beli wide-eyed and dumbfounded. “Dude… all I can say… is dude.”
“Yeah,” I said, playing it coy. “I can summon dragons… well, a dragon, anyway.”
“And it talked… the dragon talked.”
“He’s quite articulate, actually.”
“Why wouldn’t I talk?” the dragon asked. “But this one seems to be struggling with his words. Is this what you humans call babies?”
I snickered. The dragon was talking smack with Chad. I mean, dragons don’t really need to talk smack. Their very presence accomplishes anything that smack-talking ever might—bravado, intimidation, badassery, etcetera. You get the idea.
He’s actually like forty, Isabelle said.
“Forty!” Beli exclaimed. He was as much Isabelle’s elemental dragon as he was mine—it was the elements that both of us together drew that constituted Beli’s makeup.
“And he reads minds. How does he know how old I am? Everyone thinks I’m still in my twenties…”
I looked at Chad incredulously. “You might think that when you look in the mirror, but trust me, no one else does.”
“Come on. I look good for my age!”
I opened my mouth to talk and then thought better of it. If he wanted to leave this world thinking he was hot stuff, I wasn’t going to get in his way. Not to mention, after he’d opened up to me—albeit very briefly—I felt a little bad about how I’d been speaking to him. Death is a crazy thing, and when it stares us in the face, we are all likely to act a bit strange. Who was I to judge? Aside from his little game of grab ass, he hadn’t acted that offensively—mostly he was behaving like a moron. Annoying and immature. But mostly harmless.
I grabbed onto Beli’s wing and pulled myself up his body, flinging my legs around until I was straddling his back. “What you waiting for?” I asked Stoner Chad. “You coming, or are you planning to walk?”
“I…” Chad stopped talking. Probably a good thing—when he opened his mouth, nothing good ever came out of it. He charged Beli, tried to grab onto his wing like I’d done, then fell flat on his ass, forcing a cloud of dust to billow beneath him.
I laughed so hard I had to hold on tightly to Beli’s scales to prevent myself from rolling over. “Oh my God! That might have been the most epic fail I’ve seen I a while.”
Chad stood up. Based on the rouge that flashed across his cheeks, he was clearly embarrassed. He dusted off his jeans.
“Your parkour needs some work,” I said, still laughing through my words.
“I guess it’s time I give up my dreams of auditioning for American Ninja Warrior.”
“I’d say it’s probably time!”
“You know, since I’m going to be dead before the next auditions.”
I quickly muffled my giggles—that wasn’t the sort of comment you laugh through. “Really, we were just having a good laugh. Come on, now…”
“Sorry… I’ve always been a mood killer.”
“Look, try to get a running start. Use your momentum to throw your legs over the top. You don’t have to lift your whole weight with your arms.”
Chad took a step back.
He lunged back into a runner’s pose—totally unnecessary, but I wasn’t going to tell him that—and charged toward Beli. This time he gripped the wing and managed to get one leg over Beli’s back before I grabbed him by the waist of his pants and pulled him over the rest of the way.
“Hey! Wedgie!”
I giggled. “That’s payback for grabbing my butt earlier. Deal with it.”
“Tooshie,” Chad said.
“I really hope you meant touché, because what you said is just another word for butt.”
“Um yeah. Touché!”
“Though I guess in the context of this discussion, it is your tooshie that is suffering.”
“My butt is fine. My underwear on the other hand… I think I’ll need another pair.”
“Papa Legba would probably appreciate that. Poor Loa’s going to have to deal with it, I suppose.”
“I’m giving him my body. He can deal with my ripped drawers.”
&nb
sp; I smiled. “I suppose that’s true. Hold on to Beli’s scales.”
“How do I…”
“Look at my hands. Just slide your hands under the scales like so, grip the scale underneath. It’s the only way to really hold on.”
“Other than holding on to your waist.”
I turned over my shoulder and glared at Chad.
“I’m kidding. Chill out. I’m not going to touch you again. I want to keep all my appendages, at least for the next several hours while I still have a body.”
I nodded. “Hold on tight. This is going to be fun.”
Go easy on him, Beli. We need to get him to Legba in one piece, Isabelle said.
Beli grunted. Clearly “going easy” on him wasn’t what he’d had in mind. Not that I blamed him. If I were the one determining our flight path, we’d be hitting as many loop-de-loops and corkscrews as possible. Not only because I’d relish the thrill of the flight, but because I’d get a kick out of Chad’s terrified reaction. Of course, if he peed his pants, he was sitting just behind me… and when Legba took the host, he was already going to have to deal with ripped undies. Pee pee pants were just too much.
“Nothing crazy, Beli,” I said, echoing Isabelle’s sentiment. “We need to find Papa Legba. Can you take us to him?”
Beli snorted. “I can, but…”
“But what?” I asked.
“But the domain of the Loa is on the other side of Samhuinn, not in Samhuinn itself.”
“And not in Guinee’s Garden Groves?” I asked.
“No, the other side…”
“I didn’t know there was an other side.”
“Of course there is. Samhuinn doesn’t go on forever.”
“Then where is it we’re going?”
“Into the void, the place from where I was born—the chaos of what once was before the Earth, before even this domain, ever was.”
“That sounds like a bad part of town… but Marie Laveau has been there. She’s brought many Loa from that place.”
“No,” Beli said. “She traveled on the back of my brother, and I should know. She only went there once. Every time thereafter, it was Legba who brought the Loa out of the void, and she who brought hosts to Legba.”
That doesn’t sound like what she described…
I sighed. Isabelle was right. “Maybe she was afraid if I knew in advance I wouldn’t go?”
Maybe…
I took a deep breath and released it. “Well, what choice do we have? The song takes on new meaning now. You ready, Chad?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Beli,” I said before bursting into my pitchy rendition of Elsa’s girl-power anthem. “Into the unknooooooooooowwwwn!”
Chapter Eleven
“Waaahoooo!” Chad screamed as we flew through the skies. Flying on Beli was what I’d imagined it must’ve felt like when Bastian got to ride Falkor at the end of The NeverEnding Story. I echoed Chad’s hoot with a holler of my own.
“Now this is living!” Chad exclaimed.
I laughed out loud. It really was. Even though we were flying through Samhuinn and into the primordial void, it really did feel like living—in spite of the awful heat that beat down on us. I had Isabelle to thank for keeping a steady course of magica flowing into my skin to keep me cool. I wasn’t sure how Chad was handling it. I suppose he still had enough of a buzz going on that he didn’t mind it as much as he would have normally. The wind against the skin did cut the sensation of the heat somewhat—but it was a biting wind, no less. Still, the thrill of the flight was undeniable.
I spotted another creature on the skylines. “Beli, is that…”
“A chimera,” Beli said. “Part dragon, part lion, part a lot of things. Has three heads. Not especially friendly.”
Well, this is fantastic. Can we avoid it? Isabelle asked.
“Not likely,” Beli remarked. Chad would probably be confused since he didn’t hear or even know about Isabelle. Still, I really didn’t care. Confusion was Chad’s typical state of mind.
As we drew nearer, I had to confess I was confused as well. The chimera did, indeed, have three heads. One was like Beli’s—the head of a dragon—only smaller. Its wings were remarkably dragon-like, too. Vast and expansive, crimson red in color. The creature’s torso resembled that of a lion, and one of its heads, the lowest one on the body, matched its torso with a full mane. A third head emerged from the middle of its back. It had horns and looked something like a goat. The creature’s tail seemed to move as if it were a separate creature entirely, like a snake.
“That thing is hideous!” I declared. In truth, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. It looked like when God was making the animals, he accidentally dropped his bucket of animal parts and a toddler put them together however he saw fit. Nothing really matched. The thing was… unnatural.
“Chimeras have quite the temper,” Beli said.
“You would, too, if you shared a body with a lion and a goat.”
“Undoubtedly,” Beli said. “Let me do the talking. I’ve dealt with these creatures before. They fashion themselves the protectors of Samhuinn’s skies.”
The chimera, spotting us from afar, began circling around us, staring at us primarily with its goatlike head. It was sizing us up.
Beli continued flying—probably hoping the thing would realize it was outmatched and move on. The plan didn’t seem to be working, as the chimera flew in closer.
“Beli! Draig of Creation. Emissary of the All-father! State your purpose here and why you bring living humans into our domain.” It was the lion head—the one right up front—that was doing the talking.
“We seek to redeem a Loa from the void,” Beli declared.
“We cannot allow any creature, even you—and much less these humans—to enter the void.”
“We’re going there, whether you move aside or not,” Beli said. “You cannot stop me, chimera.”
Chapter Twelve
Beli reared back, almost throwing Chad and me from his back. I clung on tightly, and Chad shrieked like a terrified child. Beli released a barrage of flames toward the chimera, narrowly missing the creature—probably more a demonstration of power than an actual attempt to harm it.
Then almost out of thin air, three more chimeras appeared. They were not all the same. The torso of one was like a horse, rather than a lion. Another had what looked like a llama’s head rather than a goat’s protruding from its back. The third was by far the creepiest—it looked like an oversized opossum up front with a hyena’s head in the back. All of them, though, had the characteristic dragon-like heads in the middle and the same serpentine tails.
Beli flapped his wings hard, backing away from the growing crowd of chimeras.
“Can you take them?” I asked.
“Not all of them. We only have two options. The first is to retreat. We might be able to try again later, but chances are they’ll be on the lookout. There’s no telling how long we might have to wait until they’re sufficiently satisfied we’d given up.”
I bit my lip. “Not doing that. Even here, Chad has something of an expiration date. What’s the second option?”
“I create a portal that will take us directly into the void.”
“Sounds like a great idea! Why exactly didn’t we do that to start?”
“Because we were only going to enter the fringes of the void. If I take us there through a portal, I cannot guarantee how deep into the void we might go. Too deep and we’ll have no orientation, no way to know which way is up or down.”
“Can’t you just cast another portal out of there?”
“I require the elements—those that constitute my nature—wind, fire, and earth. Without access to those elements, I am powerless. And in the void, there are no elements.”
“Hence why it’s a void…”
“Indeed.”
“Only if the Almighty deems your cause worthy might he deliver you from the void. Make your choice quickly. These chimeras are growing impatie
nt.”
I grabbed my crucifix again—I was glad I had it back. “I’m going to trust God—whoever he might be. We’re doing this. Isabelle, Chad, you agree?”
I’m in. Let’s do this…
“Who’s Isabelle?” Chad asked. “I knew you had an imaginary friend!”
“No time to explain. I just need you to agree. Or disagree. I’m not forcing anyone to do this who is unwilling.”
“I’m dead soon either way, so I’m with you, Annabelle!”
I nodded. “All right, Beli. We’re in. Let’s do this!”
I felt my thighs expand as Beli inhaled. A cloud of smoke billowed around his massive nostrils. With a roar, Beli released a torrent of magical flames, all forming into a massive, circular gateway in front of us. The energies around it were bright and vibrant greens, reds, and whites. The middle of the gateway was completely black.
The chimeras recoiled at the sight before circling back around and attempting to charge our position. Beli was quick. Elongating his body, he flapped his wings hard and we torpedoed into the gate, into the darkness… into the void.
* * * * *
Silence.
Beli intermittently flapped his wings—probably more out of instinct than a need to actually keep us aflight here—and it was the only sound I could hear aside from the dragon’s deep breaths. And Chad’s puppy dog whimpering. I clenched my fist and elbowed him in the gut.
“Sorry… I’m afraid of the dark.”
“A forty-year-old afraid of the dark?” I looked back at him in disbelief. Still I couldn’t see him—in the void there’s no light, nothing to illuminate the surroundings.
I reached out into the darkness with my hand—a darkness so deep there was something alluring and also terrifying about it. I didn’t expect to feel anything there, I suppose. But there was something about the mystery of the void that tempted me.
“Can you sense anything, Isabelle?”
Nothing at all… just… nothing…
“Who… is… Isabelle?” Chad asked again.
“I’m possessed. Sort of. It’s another girl inside of me.”
“Inside of you?” Chad giggled.
“Not inside of my vagina, you perv. Her soul is fused to mine.”
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