The Bones of Makaidos

by Bryan Davis

  Listener let out a shrill whistle and slapped Albatross on his flank. As the two dragons beat their wings, she yelled, “I’ll be waiting at the radio station. We’ll be praying for you!”

  “Thank you!” Billy shouted. As they rose, he gazed down at the little girl. Well, not so little anymore. Although not much taller than when he first met her, she had definitely blossomed into a young lady, filled with love and laughter and no hint of the terrible wound she had suffered at the hands of the spear-wielding Vacant.

  As expected, the dragons’ heated scales helped immensely, making the flight through the snowy skies bearable. It would be a long journey. Flying north, they planned to stay well west of Adam’s Marsh and the Valley of Shadows before circling east to the northern border of the valley, again wishing to avoid being sighted from within Abraham’s wall. That would put the enemy on alert, and Goliath would see to it that every guard around the perimeter kept close watch, especially at the river entry.

  With Twin Falls River in sight, they landed in a woodlands clearing about a mile from the valley’s northwest border. Several years ago a landslide had flattened a section of the protective mountain range, so a thick blanket of snow would make that slope into the valley passable for someone on a snowboard.

  After dismounting, Billy watched the dragons fly away in the same direction they had come. Since they had no idea when this mission would be accomplished, they planned to use Ashley’s transmitter to call Listener at the village’s radio station, and she would send the dragons back for them.

  Walter joined Billy at his side. “Checking out the weather?” Walter asked.

  “Just watching the dragons and thinking about the return plan.”

  “You do that. I’m still trying to figure out the meteorology here.” Walter nodded toward the protective barrier, easily visible as its flames rocketed skyward. At the point the cloudbank collided with the wall, the fire seemed to absorb the vapor. “How do the clouds get inside? Shouldn’t the heat evaporate them?”

  Billy shrugged. “Beats me. It was dark when we went in there, so I couldn’t see the sky, but the snow wasn’t as deep in there as it is out here. Maybe the clouds redevelop inside.”

  When they had strapped into their snowboards, Billy and Walter each carrying a bag on his back, Ashley raised her hood and tied it closed. “Do you remember wearing those cloaks that protected us during portal jumps in the Circles of Seven?”

  “Yep,” Walter said. “The ones with the microchips.”

  “Same principle. When we get to the fire, keep your head low, and try to cover up as much as you can.”

  Billy raised his own hood and checked his gloves. Every article of clothing smelled of the freshly applied flame retardant. The odor wasn’t strong enough to detect beyond a few inches, so the shadow people probably wouldn’t notice, at least that’s what he hoped.

  With a little jump, they started down an easy slope that would lead them to the wall. As they dodged trees, some toppled from decay and heavy snow, Billy traced the course in his mind. The slope’s angle would increase, allowing them to pick up speed for their plunge through the wall. Then, if they survived and stayed on their feet, they would use their momentum to slide as far up the valley’s protective ridge as they could. From that point, they would hike to the lowest summit, the point where many of the rocky peaks had broken off and contributed to the landslide.

  Whizzing past stumps and boulders, Billy led the way. Of course, Walter would want to stay at the rear where he could keep an eye on his fiancée. That worked out fine. Billy would cut through the powder and make an easier trail for both of them, and Ashley could save her energy for probing the forest in search of Gabriel’s thoughts. And since Walter had been busy with Dorian’s transformation, he couldn’t have gotten much sleep. There was no use taxing his body further.

  As they closed in on the flames, the snow thinned. According to Valiant’s scouts, there was a slight rise within several feet of the wall that spanned a thirty-foot-wide section. The slope protected the side facing away from the fire, so it should be snow-covered, but the strip of land between it and the wall would be bare. They would have to slide up the rise at full speed, curl their bodies, and fly through the wall.

  Billy scanned the forest. The rise had to be close by. If he didn’t find it in the next few seconds, they wouldn’t have a decent launch pad, and they would have to turn back and try again.

  Ah! There it was, a short, sharp incline. Perfect. But would Abraham and Angel see him? Would they thin out the wall for his entry? Would he land in snow on the other side or crash onto bare ground?

  He crouched low. They would all find out soon enough.

  Giving his body an upward jerk, he launched over the rise and flew through the air. As the flames zoomed toward him, searing heat chafed his face. He ducked low. Unable to watch the collision, he tightened his muscles and prayed for balance.

  The sound came first, the now familiar whoosh of flames, then heat, scorching heat that sent a shock wave straight to his bones. He bit his lip. No screaming. Just … get … through it!

  The whoosh faded. Coolness freshened his skin. He opened his eyes just as his board pounded down on snow-coated grass. Bending his knees, he absorbed the impact and continued hurtling down the slope.

  With clear sailing ahead, Billy looked back. Ashley burst through the flames, then Walter a split second behind her. With twin swishes, they landed and followed his trail.

  Ashley’s hair had blown loose, and one section was on fire. Since the burning ends flew behind her, she likely didn’t even know it. Needing to stay quiet, he couldn’t yell, and Walter couldn’t catch up, even if he was able to see the problem.

  Leaning over, Billy scooped up a handful of snow and threw it at her. He missed the flaming hair but caught her attention. She bent her brow and mouthed, “What’s wrong?”

  He jerked down his hood, pointed at his own hair, and formed the word, “Fire!” with an exaggerated alarm in his eyes.

  An annoyed huff blew from her lips. She batted the flames away with her gloved hands, as if her hair catching fire was an everyday occurrence.

  The terrain, a grass field speckled with tall pines and dead deciduous trees, flattened out and then rose in elevation. Soon, they came to a stop and unfastened their boards. The rocky ridge lay ahead, a short hike, and not too strenuous. The slope was fairly steep, but with only a little snow covering the ground, the rocky projections would make for an easy climb.

  As they pushed silently against the incline, Billy looked up. The air rushing through the fiery wall at cloud level quickly transformed into white vapor and formed billowing clouds that joined into a thick dark blanket drifting away from the fire.

  When they reached the top of the ridge, Billy peered into the bowl-shaped valley. Several hundred feet below, the river carved the floor into two halves and spilled out through a narrow divide at the southern end. On either side, trees filled the landscape. The evergreens seemed healthier here, perhaps a result of less snow and proximity to the surrounding wall’s warmth. Even the deciduous trees seemed alive. Although none carried any leaves, only a very few had fallen prey to rot and the domino tumbling that had plagued the higher elevations outside the wall.

  Walter and Ashley joined him, one on each side. Ashley let her hair flow in the stiff breeze, only a few ends showing signs of the earlier scorching. “I don’t sense anything,” she whispered. “At least nothing as intelligent as Gabriel. Just a mass of senseless beasts, hungry, craving, violent. Zane was different. These feel more like a pack of wild dogs than anything.”

  With the wind blowing the treetops, the shadows on the valley’s snow-covered floor shifted back and forth, creating a hypnotizing dance of black on white. It wasn’t hard to imagine those flat beasts lurking within the splotches of black.

  Billy sat on the top of the ridge, set his feet on the valley side, and strapped into his snowboard again. Of course, these boards weren’t as fancy as those on
Earth. With leather straps, unvarnished boot braces, and no steel on the edge, they looked rough and primitive, but a special wax for the base made them tough and fast. When they first discovered it, Walter joked about bottling the wax and selling it to the snowboarders on Earth, but as the months and years passed, his jokes about what he would do at home diminished. He had settled into life here as if he would never return home.

  As soon as all three were ready, Billy touched Ashley’s back and whispered, “Your turn to lead.”

  She nodded and pushed off. Walter followed, and Billy trailed. On the valley slope, the new alignment made the most sense. Ashley would probe for Gabriel’s presence and steer toward him, while Billy would watch for shadow people. Even if Ashley slid right over them, they likely wouldn’t be able to react in time to hurt her, so Billy and Walter would be the ones to quell any uprising.

  All three zoomed down the steep wall. Pointed rocks jutted out here and there, but they were easy enough to see in the treeless span. Ashley rode her board expertly, digging in for sharp turns and dipping and rising while riding over bumps and ridges. With her cloak flapping around a sword at her belt and her hair flowing back, she looked like a snowboarding elf straight out of a Tolkien story.

  As the slope began to level out, she straightened and looked left toward the river, her stare fixed on something, though nothing seemed apparent in that direction other than the water tumbling from the top of the valley wall.

  Digging in again, she turned that way. Now that they were near the floor, trees dotted the area, and shadows waved back and forth on the snow. Ashley glided past a tree and across the first shadow without harm and stopped in front of a tall pine. With her eyes wide and her mouth open, she slowly swiveled her head, like an antennae searching for a signal.

  In a spray of snow, Walter and Billy slid to a stop next to her, listening. The waterfall roared in the distance, more of a background hum than a dominating thunder. Wind buzzed through the trees. A hawk let out a shrill call and flew from the highest branch of a pine to a perch at the top of a nearby deadwood tree.

  Finally, without breathing a word, she took off again, this time slowly as she wound past trees and rocks on her way to the river. Billy kept glancing at the ground. Still no sign of life. Maybe the shadow people congregated in the denser woods during the day.

  When they arrived at the beach, Ashley unfastened her straps, kicked out of her board, and marched across the sand. Billy and Walter did the same. Unable to figure out what Ashley was doing, they gave each other a shrug and hurried to catch up.

  As soon as they reached the edge of the swiftly flowing water, Ashley allowed her voice to rise above a whisper. “I sensed something in the direction of the waterfall, but there were too many trees that way, so I thought we’d come down here and walk back upstream.”

  “Good thinking,” Billy said, glad to uncork his throat.

  Walter hustled back, retrieved the snowboards, and quietly set them next to the river. Ashley began a slow march, her head turning from side to side. Every ten paces or so, she stopped and listened, then continued, but since each step brought them closer to the waterfall, all other sounds surrendered to the tumult ahead.

  When they drew close enough to feel the spray, she halted and turned in a full circle twice, her brow bent in confusion.

  “What’s up?” Walter asked.

  She pointed at the ground. “I sense a powerful presence, right here, right now.”

  Billy searched the area. No shadows. Just sand and small patches of snow. He looked at Ashley and Walter in turn and gave each a nod. They were definitely on the same wavelength. Gabriel was here in his light energy form. Leaving Hades had caused him to lose his physical body.

  Ashley withdrew her ion box from her cloak’s inner pocket and opened a lid on top. “Gabriel, if you’re here, would you please enter this box? I’m not sure how small you can squeeze yourself, but this indicates the presence of light energy, and it will allow us to carry you out of here.”

  Holding the box in her palm at chest level, she waited. After a few seconds, a glow emanated from the mirrors on each side.

  Walter pumped a fist. “We got him!”

  Smiling broadly, Ashley spoke into the opening. “Hello, dear brother. The circumstances could be better, but I’m glad to be with you again. I’m going to close you in. It’s the only way to keep you safe when we jump through the wall of fire.”

  She began pushing the lid down but stopped. Her brow furrowed deeply. “What? I don’t understand.”

  Billy looked at Walter. Obviously she was talking to Gabriel. Her ability to pick up words had been increasing all the time.

  Ashley glanced back and forth between Walter and Billy. “If you stay in Second Eden, you’ll just be light energy.” Between every response, she paused, listening while the box’s glow pulsed, as if energized by Gabriel’s words. “Theory? What theory? … So how would you find the way? There was no trace of Shiloh. … I see. Did you hear that Acacia went with her? … But how would Flint know? He’s stuck behind the wall. … Oh. So we’re not the only ones using the river that way. … Who?”

  Her eyes grew wide as she riveted her gaze on Billy. “Gabriel’s been listening in on Flint’s conversations with Goliath. Apparently someone is getting messages through the wall, but they haven’t said who’s doing it. Flint and Goliath talked about what happened to Shiloh and Acacia, so Gabriel wants us to get him out from behind the wall so he can find them.”

  “But how?” Billy felt a twinge in his belly. Was it danger? He gave the sky and ground a quick scan but saw nothing. “There’s no portal out there for him to go through.”

  “Not that we know of, but in his energy form he can sense a portal, and maybe he’ll be able to go through it.”

  Billy nodded. That would be worth a try. He might even be able to locate a way to find Bonnie and Sapphira. “Sounds good. So let’s pay my mom a visit and let her know what’s going on, and then we’ll—”

  “Incoming!” Walter grabbed his sword and pointed it toward the sky. “Two dragons!”

  Chapter 5

  Return to Earth

  Billy pulled Excalibur from its scabbard and looked up. The dragons, both bearing red scales, flew over the mountain boundary. The larger of the two was clearly Goliath, and the smaller one had to be the dragon they saw at the side of the river. “Think they’ve seen us?” Billy asked.

  Ashley snapped the box’s lid closed. “I sense anger in their minds, but nothing violent.”

  “Stay still or run for cover?” Walter asked.

  She nodded toward a tree that stood about thirty paces away. “Slowly. Very slowly.”

  As they crept along the river’s beach, Billy kept his stare trained on the dragons. The smaller one had its eyebeams turned on and was sweeping them across the valley floor.

  The moment Billy set foot on the snow-covered turf, the beams brushed over his body. A loud screech rode the wind. Goliath’s roar followed, and the two dragons dove toward them.

  “Get under the tree!” Billy lit up Excalibur’s beam and sliced the air, barely missing the smaller dragon. The dragons broke from their dive and separated. Goliath sped to the right, and the smaller one wheeled around one of the tallest trees to Billy’s left.

  Walter ran with Ashley to the tree before returning in a sprint to Billy’s side. “Back to back!” Walter said. “Just like Sir Barlow taught us.”

  They pressed their backs together. Billy swiped the beam at the smaller dragon but missed again. “He’s quick!”

  “Turn it off and wait till he gets closer. He’ll shoot fire, and then you can nail him. But if you miss, watch out for his tail.”

  Billy let the beam die away but kept the blade glowing bright. The dragon zoomed down, its mouth wide and its teeth bared. “He’s coming! Cloaks up!”

  Walter ducked low. “Goliath’s coming, too!”

  Both men let their cloaks cover their exposed skin. Torrents of fire lit up Billy�
�s darkened vision, and heat blistered his face. The moment it passed, he leaped up and shot the beam from Excalibur’s blade. The smaller dragon zoomed toward him, only two seconds away. He reared back and swung, but something smacked his head and knocked him to the ground, dousing Excalibur.

  As he sprawled, still clutching the hilt, he covered himself again. Was it a tail? Goliath’s tail?

  A sudden pull jerked him to his feet and set him upright. A beige dragon sat next to him, spewing fire into the air. When the flames died away, she growled, “I will protect you from my mate, but I cannot allow you to use that weapon to kill my son.”

  “Roxil?” Billy rubbed his head. “I’m just trying to save my own skin.”

  Walter jumped to his feet and stood next to Billy. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Better check on Ashley.”

  Walter ran to the tree where Ashley stood, her sword drawn. She seemed fine.

  Goliath landed on the other side of the river, and the smaller dragon joined him. “Roxil!” Goliath called. “You are not allowed to fight with the humans. Your vow is to stay at my side.”

  Roxil shot her eyebeams toward Goliath. “At your side? I stopped him from slaying our son. Even now he has the power in his sword to slay you, but he stays his hand because of my presence at his side. Do you really want me to leave him and allow him to disintegrate you?”

  Goliath growled but added no words.

  “Then be off,” she continued, “and I will lead them out of this place.”

  “Only to return with that sword,” the smaller dragon said.

  Goliath’s ears rotated toward him. “An excellent point, Karrick. If your mother were really on my side, she would kill that cockroach now and be done with it.”

  Billy pushed Excalibur’s tip against Roxil’s underbelly and shouted, “If she tried to kill me, she would be dead before you could blink. Just do as she says, and I’ll let all of you live.” He whispered out of the side of his mouth. “No offense, Roxil.”