Vulcan's Kittens (Children of Myth Book 1)

by Cedar Sanderson

  She couldn’t see him in the dark. She stood still, her breath catching in her throat, trying to listen. She could hear the wind hissing through grass... Lowering Lambent, she could see that she was standing in a flat, level steppe type of grassland. She looked up at the moon. It wasn’t Earth’s moon. Rising fast, it was huge and rode low in the sky, lending a pale glow to the land below. She sheathed Lambent and called Blackie again, softly.

  It occurred to her to focus and look for his power. She looked hard... and saw power everywhere. Flickering in patches and flares over the ground in more colors and combinations than she had seen before. Linn gasped and covered her eyes with her hands. She felt dizzy.

  She forced herself to look again... Slowly, she looked for the bright blue that was Blackie. The movement caught her eye. There he was, slowly coming toward her. She started toward him, and then tripped over something yielding, landing in a sticky puddle. She looked back and almost screamed.

  Flickering a little with muddy red power, there was a body lying there. From the power she knew he had to be an immortal, though he certainly looked dead. One of his arms was missing and there was black blood everywhere. Which is what she’d fallen in. She could smell it now.

  Blackie bumped her with his nose. She wrapped her arms around his neck, trying not to cry. “What happened here?” she whispered in his furry ear.

  He didn’t answer, not that she had expected him to. Instead he bumped her face with his nose and turned back in the direction he’d come from. She got to her feet and followed. In the moonlight she could see the sheen on his glossy coat.

  She blinked until the power flickers faded from her sight. Now that she knew each of them was a body lying on the plain, she really didn’t want to see. She wondered what had happened here. Had this been the battle Grampa Heff had been preparing for?

  Suddenly she heard a moan and stopped, looking around. She could hear it again... there... where Blackie was. He looked at her with glowing golden eyes, then lowered his head to where someone lay on the ground. Linn ran forward, dropping to her knees next to the injured immortal.

  Blackie was washing his face clean. Linn nudged him aside and looked down into Bes’s face. She gasped.

  Bess opened his eyes and looked up. “Aduro,” he whispered unseeing, then closed his eyes again. Linn started to cry. He was terribly wounded, his gut open to the moonlight. She didn’t know what an immortal could take, and his power... she focused. Instead of a flare she could barely stand to look at, he flickered faintly with white.

  Linn held her hands over the worst wound and bit her lips. Blackie lowered his nose to touch her crossed hands. A flare of pink mixed with blue erupted from them and arced into Bes’ body. Linn whimpered. Even with Blackie, that had hurt.

  Bes opened his eyes again. This time he was focusing. He stared up at them for a minute. Linn realized it was too dark for him to see her face. She slid Lambent out of her sheath and into her lap. The glow reflected off her face and she leaned over him, trying to smile.

  “Bes?”

  His eyes widened. “What. The. Hell...” he bit out with anger in his tone.

  Linn flinched from the rage. “It’s me,” she told him hesitantly. Blackie licked his cheek, which was uncharacteristically stubbly. “And Blackie.”

  “How did you two get here?” Bes whispered. “Is that really you?”

  Linn could see the pain on his face. She wondered if she could do the power transfer thing again. She wasn’t sure what it did, but it seemed to have been helpful.

  “Blackie brought me. I think it was the high path. We were just about done with...” She hesitated, not knowing who might still be listening “What we were working on,” she finished, feeling lame about that last answer.

  “You ran the high path,” he repeated, looking stunned. He tried to lift a hand. Linn took it in hers. He was cold... she bit her lips in concern.

  “Blackie...” She looked at her companion. “Can we do it again?”

  “Do what again?” Bes asked.

  She ignored him for the moment. Blackie moved around to the other side and extended his head over Bes’ body. Linn leaned over from the other side. They touched foreheads.

  This time the glow of their power lasted a full minute. Twisting strands of blue and pink extended down into Bes until Linn could see his skin move and the wound closing. Then she started to pass out. Throwing herself to the side so she wouldn’t fall on Bes, her world dissolved into gray sparkling nothingness, and then to black.

  She woke staring up at the moon, Blackie licking her face. She tried to sit up and fell back, too dizzy to manage. She turned her head and could see that she was inches from Bes. He was looking at her with a funny expression on his face. Still flat on his back, but the pain and tension had eased. She grayed out again. Bes said something, but she couldn’t make it out.

  After a minute... or more, Linn couldn’t tell, she started to feel again. She hadn’t been completely out that time. It was more like she’d stepped away from her body for a minute. She took a deep breath, feeling her head spin. She gagged. The smell on the battlefield was bad and getting worse.

  “Linn! Linn...” Bes’s urgent whisper got through to her. She opened her eyes and saw him trying to sit up.

  “No!” She pushed herself up.

  He slumped back. “Look...” He tried to point, his hand shaking.

  She looked across his body at Blackie, who was standing, his face contorted into a silent snarl and his back hair standing on end. Linn staggered to her feet, Lambent in hand. Advancing toward them were three beings, black power boiling off them like a fog.

  She faced them, Lambent in hand, feeling a snarl on her face as well. As they came closer, she could see that they walked on all fours, with a curious, limping gait. They stopped as they saw her, whining a little like dogs. One of them lifted his heavy head and sniffed the air.

  He laughed, a long, high pitched chattering howl that set Linn’s teeth on edge.

  “How... delicious,” he said in that high voice. “Look, my dears, a halfling and a kitten stand to protect our greatest enemy.”

  All three of the hyenas started to laugh as they walked toward Linn and Blackie. Bes was still helpless on the ground. Linn cried out in fear. The miasma that surrounded them stank like long-dead flesh.

  “Stop!” she screamed. “Go away from here!”

  They stopped and whined, slinking low to the ground. “Hehe...the child wants us to be gone,” one said.

  “Wants us to let her be...” another hissed.

  “But we are so hungry...” the leader whimpered. “We want their juicy flesh.”

  “Come closer and I’ll kill you,” Linn stated grimly, her jaw set.

  “Oh, oooh...” moaned one, sinking to the ground and covering his face with his paws. Then he looked up, laughing. Linn could see the flash of his teeth in his open jaws.

  “We are already dead...” he choked out.

  Next to her, Blackie snarled a warning. The other two were trying to flank them.

  “Zombie hyenas. What next?” Linn muttered. “At least I can hurt you.” she lunged, slashing with Lambent like she was swinging an axe. The glowing sword bit into the back of the leader’s neck with a meaty thunk.

  He screamed a howl, hurling himself backward.

  Linn, who had twisted the sword as she struck, rocked back on the balls or her feet. Another lunged at her, but Blackie leapt and bit deep in his throat, rolling him across the bloody plain. She let them go and pivoted toward the third hyena. He was slinking toward her. She shrieked and ran at him, swinging Lambent high over her head and then down at his skull. He tried to roll out of the way, but she slashed his throat open and one of his forelegs off entirely.

  His high scream was almost human. Then he turned tail and ran across the plain.

  Linn didn’t chase him, spinning instead to see the hyena Blackie had bitten break free and run away, too. The leader was nowhere in sight. Linn held Lambent high,
flaring bright with power, and walked around Bes’ prone body, making sure they were really gone. The sword, covered in blood and bone bits, crackled and hissed.

  Satisfied, she knelt and wiped the blade as clean as she could with a tuft of dry grass. She didn’t want that nasty stuff on her sword. Breathing deeply and trying to let the rage that had been coursing through her flow out again, she went to Bes.

  Bending over him, she touched his forehead. His eyes were closed again. They fluttered open at her touch. He was warmer. She pulled her trembling hand back.

  He gave her a little smile. “You are magnificent.”

  Linn raised an eyebrow. “You’re delusional.”

  He chuffed out a breath that might have been a laugh. “They won’t come back. Much easier prey than us out there tonight.”

  Linn felt her shoulders relax. She had been so tense it hurt. “All right.”

  She pulled off her jacket, shivering a little in the wind. She hadn’t brought her pack. She made a mental not to never leave it again. Twice, now, she had been caught without it. Spreading the thin windbreaker over Bes’ torso, she patted her pockets.

  Back in Hawaii... however far away that was, now... she’d put a Mylar wrap in her cargo pocket, in case it got cold enough that night to need it against the damp conditions. She’d been hypothermic once and that was enough. She stretched it out, now, knowing the thin layer of plastic would help keep him from losing anymore body heat, at least.

  She tucked it around him, ignoring his murmured protestations. Blackie reappeared and stretched out next to Bes, his tongue lolling out. She nodded at him.

  “You OK?” she asked.

  He nodded, then put his big head on Bes’s shoulder. Linn realized that he was as long as the short man, stretched out like this. She stood up and looked around again. The moon was high overhead, thin clouds racing across the surface. She could see dark shapes huddled on the ground here and there.

  There was no sign of the hyenas. She refocused, drawing upon her Sight. She sucked in a quick breath. Off to one side, far enough away she couldn’t make out details, there was a flare of golden power. She drew Lambent again and stood over Bes, remembering not to lock her knees.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. Just... a lot of power.”

  Now there was another flare, near where the first one had been, but this one was a pale blue. Linn swore, tensing. Bes, below her, chuckled hoarsely.

  “Better not let anyone else hear you say things like that.”

  She glanced down at him, seeing the smile on his face. “Glad you’re feeling better. At least down there validates your low sense of humor.”

  He tried to suppress the laughter this time, as it obviously hurt. She was pleased that he was laughing, though, and closer to normal.

  The flares happened again, closer. Linn could see people walking, now, and... She squinted. A horse-drawn wagon?

  “Bes?” she asked quietly, not looking at him. She didn’t dare look away from the approaching group.

  “Yes, Linn?” He had an odd note to his voice.

  “Who is the enemy here, and how do I tell?”

  “Ah...” He sighed. “There is a question I could spend years on.”

  “A quick answer would be good,” she shot back dryly.

  “Try shouting ‘Aduro’ when they draw near.” He sounded better, she noted absently. Whatever she and Blackie had done, it must have worked. Blackie...

  Linn looked down. Blackie was asleep, his paws twitching in a dream. Fat lot of help he was. “Blackie!” she hissed urgently at him. He sat up, yawning. His ears twitched toward the approaching group of people. They stopped, and there was another flare of golden power.

  Blackie jumped to his feet and took off.

  “Dammit, cat!” Linn shouted hoarsely after him. She looked back down at Bes, torn. Did she leave him, when he still couldn’t move, or go after the idiot kitten?

  She stayed where she was. The group bunched up when Blackie bounded into them, and then started to move toward her, fast. In the moonlight she still couldn’t make out details. There were, she thought, six of them coming toward her. The rest were staying with the wagon, which had stopped.

  She had been holding Lambent loosely at her side, and now she swung her up, power flaring off the tip as she did so. Bracing herself over Bes, she screamed defiantly. “Aduro!”

  Bes shouted weakly beneath her. Linn bared her teeth and prepared to die. She had no illusions about her chances against immortals. They had started to run, now, and suddenly they shouted back to her.

  “Aduro! Aduro!”

  The power flared from all of them... Red, green, gold, blue, iridescent, and the pure yellow that was Sekhmet. Sobbing, Linn dropped Lambent and ran to meet them. She cried out as she recognized the golden woman.

  “Mama! Mama...” She fell into Theta’s arms. Sobbing wildly, she couldn’t have stopped crying if she had wanted to. Burying her face in her mother’s embrace, Linn clung to her for a second.

  Her face wet with tears, she looked up at her mother. “Bes... Bes is hurt.”

  Her mother was crying too, Linn realized. She just nodded and let Linn go, hurrying toward Bes. Her Grandfather caught hold of her now, kissing her forehead.

  “How the hell did you get here?!” he demanded, squeezing her.

  Linn gurgled a little laugh. “Bes asked me that, too. Blackie brought me.”

  Sekhmet squeezed her shoulder. “You looked ready for trouble there. Anything we should know?”

  Linn shook her head, suddenly very tired. “There were zombie hyenas. I think they are gone, now.”

  Quetzalcoatl kissed her cheek tenderly and she felt a jump of power from him. “Brave little girl,” was all he said.

  Coyote strolled up. He hugged her and led her to meet the member of the party she hadn’t met. The blue lady was a tall, dark-haired woman with a prominent nose and a broad smile.

  “I am Panacea.” She held out her hands and Linn took them, feeling warm, soft skin.

  “The Greek goddess of healing,” Linn said softly, wondering why she was with Grandpa Heff. She was an old one, and shouldn’t be on his side.

  Panacea nodded. “After battles, I roam the field helping the fallen ones recover.”

  “Bes is hurt,” Linn told her, looking over to where her mother was kneeling at Bes’ side. Panacea walked over and knelt on the other side of him. They had stopped talking when she came near. “What?” Linn asked.

  “Bes was just telling me how you and Blackie were trying to heal him.” Her mother had a little quiver in her voice.

  Linn looked at her numbly. “Did I do it wrong?" she asked, suddenly alarmed.

  “No, no...” Theta bit her lip.

  Linn recognized that. She did it herself when worried. “What is wrong?” Her voice squeaked a little.

  “Hey, there,” Bes spoke, lifting a hand to her. She took it automatically, squeezing it a little. He did it to calm her, and it worked.

  “It’s just that it was very dangerous for you to do,” her mother told her. “Healing is a huge power drain. I’m tapping into all the power I’ve drained from volcanoes over the course of months, Panacea has been charging herself for years...”

  “Oh.” Linn looked down at Bes. He had that look on his face again. “I didn’t think about it, Mom. I just...” She fluttered her hands, trying to put into words the way she’d felt when she looked down and saw him lying there broken and split open.

  Bes grunted and tried to push himself up. Both Linn and Theta grabbed him by the shoulders. Theta looked at Linn. “Do. Not. Try. To. Help,” she snapped. Then she flared.

  Linn felt like she was wrapped in golden flames. Warmth slid through her skin, into her bones. She looked into Bes’ face, seeing his eyes closed and a tear sliding down his cheek. The world slowed to a crawl and the expression on his face was of agony and joy all at once. The flames snapped out and he sat up, wrapping his arms around her.


  Linn was crying again, into Bes’ solid shoulder. She was sitting awry on the cold, hard ground, her arms wrapped around him. He was petting her hair. “Shhh. Shhh... let it out now.”

  She hiccupped.

  He chuckled. “Can we get up now?” he asked, a mixture of laughter and tenderness in his voice.

  She scrambled to her feet, sniffing and looking for her handkerchief. That, at least, she hadn’t left behind.

  Her grandfather, smiling, extended a hand to Bes. They clasped forearms and the burly smith pulled the shorter immortal to his feet.

  Bes stretched and groaned. “Thank you, Theta.” He hugged her briefly.

  Coyote handed Lambent to Linn. She smiled at him. Her face felt stiff with fatigue and dried tears. She was covered in blood and mud from the run throughout the field and her fight. But everything was all right.

  Blackie bumped her hand with his head. She cupped his skull in her fingers. “Can we go home now?” she asked softly.

  “Yes, you can. Which home to you want to go to?” her mother asked her very gently.

  Chapter 31

  Linn blinked at her mother. She realized this was a choice... the apartment in Seattle, or the Sanctuary. Suddenly she knew that if she chose the apartment, she wouldn’t remember all this. She could go back to the shallow girl she had been on the plane that summer, just killing time, waiting for life to go back to normal. None of this would seem real, just a bad dream she’d awakened from.

  Linn drew a deep breath and squared her shoulders. There was something she still needed to do before she could be safely at home, wherever that was. “I left the Coblyns at the bunker in Hawaii. I need to get back there and help them get home.”

  Theta blinked at her, then slowly smiled. She looked at Heff without speaking.

  He grinned broadly. Then he looked at Bes. “Feel up to taking her?”

  “Not babysitting this time,” the Egyptian growled.

  “No, not any more,” Heff agreed with a chuckle.

  Bes looked at Linn, his eyes clear and dark. No power shone there to conceal his soul. “Want me to come along?” he asked.