Feral Night, page 18
A young ogre woman, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, hurried along the sidewalk. Sienna wondered why she was out so late, and where she was going.
She glanced at her phone. 10:24 pm. In half an hour, she’d be hiding in the attic. From what? That’s if she trusted the Moderators. What if it was a conspiracy and—
An oncoming car on the opposite side of the road spun out of control, heading directly toward them. Maggie slammed on the brakes. Their SUV spun, and tires screeched against the blacktop. Sienna snapped forward, restrained by her seatbelt.
“Are you okay?” Maggie gasped.
“Yes.” Sienna rubbed her arms. “Let’s get out of here!”
The other vehicle slipped past and crashed into a streetlamp. The front driver’s side door banged open. A bearded man staggered forth, growling.
Maggie wound her window down. “Are you okay?”
Sienna tensed. The man lurched toward them, swinging from side to side. “Maggie, he’s walking funny! Let’s go!”
“He’s been in a terrible accident,” Maggie insisted. “We’ll give him a ride to the hospital.”
The man sniffed his hands and stretched. A faint growling laugh rumbled from his lips.
“Are you alright?” Maggie called.
The man sprinted toward them, his footsteps becoming surer.
Sienna twisted in her seat. “Start the car!” she whispered, irritated by her mother’s obliviousness.
Ignoring her daughter, Maggie waited as the stranger neared. His hair dripped with sweat. Spittle ran down his face into his beard, and his glassy eyes stared.
Maggie said: “Get in the back and we can…”
The man stuck his hands through the open window, gripping Maggie by the neck and shoulders. She screamed, attempting to pull away.
Sienna clicked her seat belt off and punched the man in the head with a one-two jab cross combo like Zeran had shown her. The bearded man retreated, growling.
“Go! Go!” Sienna shouted.
Maggie hit the accelerator, and the car careened forward, then stalled. “What was that?” she screeched as she fumbled with the keys again.
“Drive!” Sienna glanced behind her. The feral man ran, chasing the ogre woman.
A blue hatchback stopped behind them. The front passenger door opened.
And Lukie got out, sprinting toward the man and the ogre woman.
Sienna squinted at the driver.
Tamlyn.
He’d been working with Lukie all along.
The SUV started. Maggie gunned the vehicle forward.
“Go back!” Sienna yelled.
“No!” Maggie snapped, speeding and weaving across the road.
Sienna scrunched her eyes shut, trying to block out her mother’s crazy driving. Tamlyn and Lukie. Together. This made so much sense. She regretted trusting the inspector now. What’s their plan? Why did they come for Dad?
She kept her eyes closed until she felt the SUV stop. To her surprise, they had made it safely home, even if Maggie had parked on the garden bed, crushing Zeran’s daisies and helianths.
“Come on!” Maggie cried, pulling on Sienna’s arm.
Mother and daughter streaked inside the house.
Maggie locked the new security door shut and collapsed on the couch, breathing hoarsely. “I’d like to see that drug-infested half-ogre get through that!”
“That man! He had the Snarling Curse!”
“Feldspar’s Syndrome. It has a rational explanation.” Maggie buried her face in her hands. “I’m going to bed. I’m sorry. I can’t deal with this.”
Sienna gripped Maggie tightly. “It’s okay,” she lied. She helped Maggie upstairs and pulled the covers around her.
“Stay with me tonight, baby.” Maggie patted the empty half of the bed.
“No, I can’t sleep. I might be in later. Here, have your sleeping pills.” Sienna got her mother a glass of water. Maggie swallowed her medication and curled up in the bedsheets, cat-like.
Sienna padded outside and sat on the carpet. Was she the only one in danger? Should Maggie hide in the attic with her as well?
Even if she returned to the accident site, Tamlyn and Lukie might be gone, or worse, turn upon her. Her mother had fallen to pieces and Zeran wasn’t here.
Sienna took a deep breath. Control. She had to stay in control.
She made sure the windows were locked shut and checked the news on the television. More reports of ‘gang activity’ all over the district. People screaming, houses burning, and shops broken into. Then, she logged onto Sparkchasers, skimming articles that told of a severe outbreak of the Snarling Curse; the worst one since an entire elven village had been destroyed a century ago.
Because of the barriers between the Gold and Indigo Worlds, tomorrow people would wake up and blame everything on a mythical disease. Sienna turned off the computer. Nearly eleven p.m. Time for her to hide in the attic. And yet, did she want to take cover? What if Lukie was coming for her?
Sienna had spent the day trusting Tamlyn to sort things out. Now she was ready to confront her undead sister and her detective lackey instead.
At 11:04, footsteps crunched on the gravel drive.
Sienna peered out the window. A man stood outside, wearing a long, black leather coat despite the summer heat. Black hair fell past his shoulders, and he wore dark goggles.
Someone completely different? Fear bloomed through her and her heart raced. Time to get to the attic.
As she slipped away, the newcomer spoke in a soft voice that carried through the window: “Come with me if you want to save your father.”
Chapter 25
Restoration
Lukie nearly crushed her phone to pieces at the smooth sound of Meven’s voice. “You’ve kidnapped her!” How had Meven known about Sienna? Okay, he’d been paying attention during those initial conversations with the Steward. But had he taken her from the hospital? Had he gone to her house?
“Not at all. She’s helping me rescue your father. Willingly.” She easily visualized the smirk on his face. “Took very little persuading. Doesn’t trust you, especially as you’re in the pocket of the ghost lord of Stonerise—”
Ouch. She was. “Listen, if we talk, we can come to a—”
“What did you promise the Blood Queen so that she would release you to the living lands?” Meven’s voice was accusing, insistent.
“I—”
“It was Rook, wasn’t it? You’re going to consign an innocent man to torment and death—”
“You’ve kidnapped my sister!”
“Once she uses the dagger, she can go free,” Meven explained. “I’m Rook’s sworn champion, and I’ll defend him to the end.”
“Why did you have to hurt the Steward?” Lukie demanded. “They were ready to perform the ritual.”
“Ask me again when you’ve spent fifty years enslaved to your best friend from high school.”
Keep focused, Lukie instructed herself. “How’s Sienna going to use the dagger without dying? That thing killed Anneth. And the Steward was horribly ill after attuning to it.”
“Both of us know this ends when the Blood Queen dies,” Meven explained. “We need to perform the ritual. I’ve got the name and the relic. You have the urn. Bring it to me at Stonefell Cemetery. We destroy Anneth, and everyone goes their separate ways. Come alone, and nothing tricky. Rook can smell those ashes. Don’t wait too long. After midnight, the barriers between the worlds will strengthen and you’ll lose your father forever.” He hung up.
Lukie screamed.
It took a few minutes for Tamlyn to grab her attention. “Sit. Tell me everything he said.”
After she had updated him, Lukie sank into a chair and wrung her hands together. Why would Sienna have gone with him? “Why didn’t I try to make friends with her? She doesn’t trust me at all, and now she’ll die trying to save Dad. There’s no way she can use that dagger safely. It killed Anneth, it hurt the Steward…”
Tamlyn sat on the edge of the ruined desk. Thinking, not accusatory. “Let’s work this through.” He steepled his fingers together. “Option one. You give the ashes to Meven. Sienna performs the ritual. She dies, but so does Anneth.”
“Then her ghost realm will disintegrate, and all the souls held hostage will fall into Tenebra and be devoured by hungry shades. And that means Dad!” Lukie jumped to her feet.
“Can you negotiate with Anneth?” Tamlyn said. “That’s the best solution. What does she want?”
“To get revenge. She hates everyone for taking her baby. Not only Rook but the citizens of the ward. I don’t think she’ll ever stop. And Rook loathes her equally for imprisoning him. He saved her child, but she doesn’t believe him.” Lukie paced around the room. “Meven is desperate for a poem written by Rook, and Rook will only give it to him if Anneth is destroyed. Everyone is set in their ways. They’re undead, and it’s hard for them to change.”
Something bright skittered away from her foot. The Mystic Dodecahedron. She bent to collect the item. A discordant buzz, like an untuned grade school orchestra, jangled her ears. She winced and returned the relic to the floor. “There’s no way we can win.”
“Let’s work on the least worst victory condition,” Tamlyn suggested. “I hate to say it, but let’s assume Zeran’s gone. If he was here, he’d want his girl safe, which means she shouldn’t be doing the ritual. Perhaps I can substitute for her.” Tamlyn studied the Mystic Dodecahedron. “I’ve got no idea how to use these things.” He rolled the crystal, which clattered across the floor. Tamlyn frowned at the cryptic symbols on the uppermost face.
“Can you sense anything?” Lukie asked.
He shook his head.
Lukie fished a few objects from the ground: a compass, a copper ring green stained with verdigris, and a shot glass. Tamlyn handled each of them, squinting and frowning.
“Well?” Lukie prodded.
“I don’t think I’ve got the gift,” he admitted. “Now what?”
“Rira!” Lukie jumped. “The woman I fed from. She was an occultist and the Steward’s apprentice. She might help. At the very least, she could use the wand or the Dodecahedron.”
“Rira,” Lukie whispered in a low voice. The psychiatric ward was a series of beds, half of them empty. The ogre sprawled on a massive bed at the end of the room, staring at the ceiling.
“Rira!” Lukie repeated, hoping that she hadn’t been drugged. “Do you remember me?” Lukie said.
“Yeah.” Rira turned her head slightly. “You were with the Steward.”
Lukie spread her hands forth, pleading. “I need help.”
Rira closed her eyes. “Sorry. I can’t do anything for anyone.”
Lukie nearly yelled. She’d hoped her feeding would help Rira, but it had made the woman worse. I do this all the time. Try to do the right thing, mess up, and hurt everyone instead. If only I could heal her.
Wait—
“Hey!” she screamed at her patron, squeezing her vestige for all it was worth.
On a regular night, it may have been impossible for her to reach Tenebra from here, but the Veil was especially soft tonight on the last day of New Year’s Eve. And while this was a hospital, it also collected spectral energy, being a place of death and grief as well as healing.
A faint response pricked her. Yeah?
“I need another power!”
Gah, that’s all you kids want these days, the Detective drawled. More magic! Yeah, probably. I’ve recovered somewhat. What do you want?
“I have to heal her!”
This is as good as you’ll get.
Rather than the rush of energy she’d received when learning to travel the Lanes of the Dead, a new ability unfolded within her like a night-blooming flower, subtle and gentle. Only how did it work?
She lightly touched Rira’s arm, tasting her soul. Pop music beat faintly under a single, overwhelming bass note of despair. “Leave me be,” the ogre woman said.
The power thrummed in her hands. Rira’s soul was clay that Lukie could mold to her own wishes. An idea came. “I want to show you something.” Lukie injected a vision into the ogre woman’s consciousness with a faint wail of an electric guitar. A column of light appeared, and a young boy stood within.
“Mom!” Lilan whispered. “I’m fine. I’m in a good place. Don’t wait around for me. You’ve got important things to do in the world before we meet again.”
“Baby, no—” Rira’s heart snapped. To have him so close, and to be told it would be longer until they were reunited… She couldn’t bear it.
“It’s okay, Mom. Please, promise me you’ll live! Have a full life, and we’ll see each other when it’s time. You will do great deeds.”
“What do they want me to do?”
Lukie had no idea. She had a horrible sense that if she said the wrong thing, Rira would reject the fake memory. What if she threw it back at the woman?
“I don’t know, Mom, but it’ll be important. Promise…”
“Yes, baby. I understand. I miss you so much—”
“I love you—”
Lukie released the vision, drained. She ended her communion with Rira’s soul. What a stupid, cheesy scene—straight from one of those corny Winterdark movies where everyone forgave or proposed to each other by the end. A gnawing hunger raged in her undead stomach. All the energy she’d received from devouring feral ghosts was gone. Eating souls was easy—patching them was harder. Was that the right thing to do? I have no idea.
Rira coughed, and then sat, her eyes gleamed. “Was that real?” she whispered.
“Yes,” Lukie lied. “How do you feel?”
“Confused. Hungry.” Rira scratched her head. “I don’t understand. What am I supposed to do? What are you here for, anyway? The Steward should have everything under control. I’m useless.”
“No, you’re not,” Lukie said. “The Steward’s hurt. They may not recover. And Meven has kidnapped a little girl. She’s going to be forced to use a terrible, ancient artifact that will kill her. Please! She’s my sister. She can’t die yet. Can you look at some artifacts?”
“Suppose so.” Rira’s stomach growled audibly.
Lukie led Rira through the white, sterile corridors, avoiding the staff. Professionals ran past in their scrubs, arguing, worn and harrowed from dealing with the chaos that Anneth’s Phantasmal Hunt had unleashed upon the world.
Rira paused in front of a vending machine, rubbing her growling belly.
Lukie fumbled through her pocket change and bought a small mound of candy bars and potato chips. When they arrived at the Steward’s office, Rira had already consumed half of them. She wiped chocolate-stained lips and drew her fingers through her lank hair. “What happened?” Energy sparked in her eyes.
“Meven,” Lukie said and explained events as best she could. Tamlyn, now armed with a coffee, interjected occasionally to clarify matters.
“Meven? I thought he was an okay guy.” Rira shook her head. “Kidnapping. That’s not right.” She collected the Mystic Dodecahedron, concentrated for a few minutes, and then rolled it with a clatter on the floor, squinting at the rune on top.
Lukie couldn’t make sense of the cryptic symbols. “What do you see?”
“Someone’s going to die, no matter what. Or cease to exist, I guess, if they’re undead.” Rira poked at the Dodecahedron again. “And that girl’s in terrible danger if we don’t intervene.”
“No!” Lukie bit her fingers. How could she face Dad knowing that she’d endangered his other daughter?
“Do you know about the black crystal dagger?” Tamlyn asked.
“Yeah.” Rira stuck her lip out. “We had a fight about it. The thing radiated evil, and yet the Steward kept insisting that they would use it for a good purpose.”
“How does it kill ghosts?” Tamlyn asked.
“You stab them!” Lukie mimed.
“No. Attack one of their anchors. The objects that resonate with the ghost in the living lands.” Rira dug into a packet of chips, nervously shoveling handfuls into her mouth.
“The ashes,” Lukie said.
“Yeah.” Rira nodded.
“Do we need the dagger?” Tamlyn slurped the last of his coffee. “We could scatter them in the river.”
“I don’t think so. In the lore I studied, no one stops ghosts by smashing their anchors. Instead, they’re something you use powers on to affect the undead.” Rira rustled deep in her chip packet. “I hate how everything in that vending machine was made for human-sized hands.”
“Trouble is, if Anneth dies, her realm collapses, and all those she’s captured will fall into Tenebra’s void. They’ll be prey for the hungry shades,” Lukie explained. “Including Dad. We can’t let the ashes get stabbed, but if we show up with nothing, Meven could hurt Sienna.”
Tamlyn pursed his lips. “What if we split them?”
Rira ate a chip thoughtfully. “Might work, except you’d have to perceive and move the spectral energy about. None of these artifacts do that.”
“I can!” Lukie clapped her hands. Spectral energy was the stuff that leaked from Tenebra, the substance that animated her undead form. She could instinctively sense it but hadn’t tried manipulating it directly. There was always a first time.
“We can divide the ashes. If one part gets stabbed, the other half will protect Anneth from destruction. And if it weakens her, we’ll negotiate. We’ve got a plan.” Lukie slumped with relief. Now for everything to follow perfectly. “Tam, where did you hide the urn?”
“The Blitz Burgers restroom,” Tamlyn said. “In the toilet tank.”
“That’s gross.”
“And is mundane as they come.” Tamlyn grinned and headed for the door.
“I’ll go with you.” Rira held a Butternut Caramel Crunch bar. “I’ll do the ritual, not the little girl.” She looked at Lukie with grim acceptance. “Let me finish what might be my last meal.” She paused. “Although if we’re going to Blitz Burgers, you can shout me a Triple Cloud Combo.”
