by Dean Floyd
Nehemiah stood precariously in the center of the boat, his staff raised straight overhead. He also produced his .357 Magnum and pointed it at the Sluagh on the right. His staff began to glow. I pointed my shotgun at the Sluagh on the right who was getting too close for comfort. Rob steered the boat as best as he could but his arm was shaking.
Images of the Sluagh ripping me from the boat and plunging me into the water haunted me, but I shook my head, trying to get a grip. I was breathing loudly now.
“Shoot Sean,” said Nehemiah.
I obeyed but my hands were shaky and my shot went wide. “Crap!”
The sound of the shot warned off the Sluagh and they broke formation and circled around us instead of attacking us directly.
Tain was barking mad now, his whole body following the Sluagh’s every move.
“Keep that dog still,” yelled the wizard. “He shouldn’t be able to see through the Glamour anyways. Stupid dog.”
I had to grab Tain to keep him from knocking Nehemiah out of the boat.
As the lead Sluagh came back around and Nehemiah pulled the trigger of his Magnum. One of the monsters talons blew clean off. It screeched and fell into the tall weeds. But there were two more Sluagh right behind it and neither Nehemiah or I reacted fast enough with our guns.
The two Sluagh were within a few feet of us. Their talons were outstretched, ready to grab us by the shoulders. Right when they should have had us they collided with an invisible wall of magic stemming from Nehemiah’s staff.
Both Sluagh were knocked off course and so was our little boat. Though we were safe from the Sluagh, the boat was rocking violently and water was coming over the edge. Cold water seeped through my sneakers and socks. The icy water was more than enough to freeze me. In my mind I saw Anna’s face. Her words from the nightmare echoed in my head You know my death is your fault.
Flashes of purple sparks brought me back to reality. Nehemiah’s staff was sputtering magic sparks that I’m sure he didn’t intend to release.
The Sluagh were all back in the sky, including the one Nehemiah shot. But instead of circling back to attack, they were leaving.
We were short one person in the boat. “Where’s Rob?”
A salmon surfaced in the water next to me. “Why are they leaving?” Rob asked Nehemiah.
The wizard eyed his staff and grunted with frustration. “I was able to shield us in Chaos. They couldn’t detect us or see us.”
“Nice!” said Rob.
“Except the motor couldn’t handle all that Chaos,” said Nehemiah. “We’ll have to row the rest of the way.”
The motor had indeed stopped working. Nehemiah only had one set of oars which he handed to me. “Builds character,” he said.
“This isn’t Calvin and Hobbes! We’re never going to get there in time,” I said.
Rob flopped into the boat. “Beats dying by Sluagh,” he said.
“Which is what is going to happen to Charice if we don’t hurry,” I said.
“Not likely,” said Nehemiah. “I warned you she might be ‘gone’ earlier. I never said she’d be dead.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
Nehemiah remained silent. Then he sighed and said, “Some situations are so traumatic that even if you come out of it alive you’ll be changed. And if trauma doesn’t do it, time will.”
I grunted in agreement as strained at the oars.
"Just like the Shepherd’s Guild,” said Nehemiah. “The key purpose when it was originally founded was to protect humans from anything that comes from the other side. Be they Fomorian, Fae, or even Tuatha de Danann."
"So they don't believe in protecting people anymore?"
Nehemiah spoke slowly. "It’s not of the utmost importance anymore."
I squinted at him. "What could be more important than that?"
"Personal agendas. Gaining followers. Power."
"Oh," I said. "That makes sense I guess."
Nehemiah sighed. "That happens whenever an organization forgets its mission. People start to butt heads, lose focus, get their own grand ideas. But the numbers have been dwindling lately."
"Is that why you got out?" I asked.
Nehemiah narrowed his eyes, "I got out for a lot of reasons. My family, the politics. Lines were being drawn in the sand and I didn't want to find myself on either side fighting my friends so I decided to leave."
"But you're still fighting monsters?"
"Of course," he said. "I still have a responsibility as a man. I don't need a badge or a stamp of approval."
"You're a real Han Solo,” I said. “Are you sure you don't like Star Wars?"
The conversation was helping me keep my mind off of the water and calming my nerves. I guess it was building character.
My phone started buzzing and I reached into my pocket to see who it was. The screen read my brother's name.
Chapter 18
Bad Timing
"Gavin?"
My brother began yelling into my ear, "Dude why didn't you pick up your phone? I've been trying to call you all evening."
Nehemiah groaned in frustration and motioned for me to move so that he could take the oars. "Hold on a sec Gavin," I said. "Okay dude, what happened?"
Gavin sighed on the other end. "I don’t know how to start, but this has to do with why I didn’t come down for the barbeque last week."
"Are you in trouble?" I asked.
"Yeah man... things have turned South,” he said.
"How long?"
"A while now."
"Is it serious?" I asked.
"For sure,” said Gavin. “I don't want to scare you but yeah, it's crazy."
"I feel you bro. I've been going through some crazy stuff myself but it would be hard to explain on the phone."
"That's exactly how I feel too."
"So you didn't really take off work because you're sick?"
"Oh I really took work off, but I wasn't sick," said Gavin.
"Were you in hiding? Someone after you?"
He sighed on the other end.
“I wish we could talk in person,” I said to fill the silence. “It’d be easier if you didn’t live so far away.”
“Well that’s why I’m on—” but Gavin’s voice got cut off by bad reception.
“Wait,” I said. “Repeat that. I didn’t hear you.”
“I said, I’ll — soon to — person. I just wanted to give you—before I —.”
That was all I made out before we rode into the mist and my phone lost service.
Chapter 19
Through the Threshold
“Oh my gosh! Tell me I didn't just lose service." I tried to recall Gavin back several times but my phone was completely unable to operate.
"Actually works out perfectly," said Nehemiah. "We need to be as quiet as possible now. We're close to the crossing point."
He was right. That strange feeling I had felt before when I walked into the mist following the Banshee came over me again. If I was irritated and frustrated at the dropped phone call and not knowing what was happening to Gavin, I was no longer feeling that way.
As we rode through the mist I lost sense of time and direction. When had we gotten into the mist? We had always been in the mist and we would always be rowing on the waters forever. Out of the water came the oars dripping, only to plunge back in again. Nehemiah kept a steady pace and all of us were silent, even Rob. We all must've been feeling the same way, because none of us said anything to each other. And suddenly the boat was scraping along the mud bed of a wetland shore of what was Skaggs Island.
Nehemiah was the first to get out of the boat and step into the dark water. "Come on," he said in a hushed voice. His command broke my stupor and I got out of the boat to help him.
Which was a mistake. As soon as the water seeped through my shoes socks and jeans and the cold sent a shock through my system, which in turn shocked my core. Water, so much water everywhere. If I fell right now I'd fall forever beneath its murky
depths.
I stood there for who knew how long before Nehemiah slapped me upside the head. "Get it together Sean," I heard him say.
I wasn't even standing in the water anymore I was laying down on a muddy shore with uncomfortably sharp rocks poking me in the back. Nehemiah gave me no time to reflect on what happened. Instead he handed me my shotgun and my katana which I strapped to myself.
"Here's the game plan," said Nehemiah as we all huddled together. "We let the dog lead the way followed by Sean then me. The leprechaun takes up last. We should reach the threshold soon."
"I'm not a leprechaun!" yelled Rob.
Nehemiah held up his staff point to Rob's throat. "You best keep quiet shortstop otherwise they’ll get us all. Now, we don't have a lot of time. I'm suspecting that Sean's Keening will alert them to our presence. I'll do what I can with my Chaos magic to mask it, but I can't make any promises."
“But wait,” I said, “Didn’t you say that Tain shouldn’t be able to see the Sluagh?”
“Generally anyone that’s crossed over to the other side should be able to see through Glamour,” said Rob.
I thought of the Sluagh fight at the abandoned mill and how Tain had acted on the boat. “But Tain already sees through the Glamour,” I said.
Nehemiah shrugged. “I don’t know how it works man. He’s a dog. Perhaps the rules aren’t the same for animals. Either way, once we get through he’ll be able to see them for sure.”
I pulled out Charice’s phone and held it out for Tain to smell.
"You smell that boy? We need to find the girl that smells like that," I said to Tain.
"Are we sure we can trust a dog to help us find her?" asked Rob. Tain moved from my hand into the mud, trying to find a trail. He began moving back and forth almost randomly, but I knew that he was probably confused with the unearthly smells that were invading his nostrils. There were so many interesting things for him to smell here. "He's just wandering aimlessly. He's a stupid beast !" said Rob.
"Stop complaining," said Nehemiah.
Right then Tain picked up on the trail then took off.
"Let's go," Said Nehemiah. "Don't lose him."
And we were off.
The ground underfoot was rocky in some places and muck in others. One could lose their footing if they weren’t careful. The smell of the marsh still clung to my nostrils, but a foreign smell was creeping in now. Before long we came to a large stone structure. Four flat slabs of stone were fixed upright in the ground like massive tombstones, but they held a fifth slab on top of them like a stone table.
“That shouldn’t be here,” I said. I was pretty sure we were still in California.
“It’s neither here nor there,” said Rob.
I furrowed my eyebrows. “What is this Stonehenge?”
“It’s in between places,” said Rob. “It’s a dolmen.”
When I gave Rob and Nehemiah a blank stare Nehemiah said, “Historians would tell you that a dolmen is an ancient European burial marker. But it’s actually—”
“—A gateway,” said Rob.
As we got closer I could make out stone skulls of bas relief. While the upright slabs were only two feet thick, the open space between was very wide, and very dark like a massive maw open to the living. Goosebumps ran up my spine as I experienced deja vu.
My depth perception was going haywire as I clearly saw that there was nothing but more wetlands behind the slabs on the outsides, but in the space between a dark hall went on for some distance.
Nehemiah stepped around the gateway and Tain finished sniffing it and began to growl.
“It’s wide enough for the Sluagh to get through,” said the wizard holding up a feather for us to see.
I couldn’t place where I had seen this dolmen before. How could I have seen it before? Then it hit me. Anna. My dream. It wasn’t exactly like my dream, but the similarities were too close for comfort. My mouth became very dry and if it weren’t for Charice I would have turned back right then and there. “What? No guards? No sentries to keep us out,” I asked.
“Traps don’t need hindrances,” said Nehemiah. “I’ll lead the way.” Again the wizard produced his staff seemingly from nowhere and the tip of it began to glow a strong shade of amethyst.
As the four of us walked through the archway and took several steps into the black, my spacial awareness was off. To our left and our right there should have been walls that our steps echoed off of, but the sounds of our footsteps barely returned to us as if the black went on forever in every direction. Even though the marshes behind us were under a starlit night none of the star or moonlight penetrated past the archway. Even Nehemiah’s magical illumination did barely anything to lead us forward. Instinctively we huddled closer together.
We walked for a time and distance immeasurable. There was no Time here, because Here was nothing, relative, irrelevant. We were specks of nothing ourselves in sea of blacker darkness.
At some point an opening formed ahead and we found ourselves exiting the Between and stepping through another dolmen into different place entirely.
It was dark and overcast but neither night nor day.
The sound of steady waves crashing again and again against a seashore behind us was all that I heard besides our own breathing and the rocks crunching underneath our feet. We moved at a steady pace up a rocky path that Tain managed to find. There was no plant life anywhere, only rocks and boulders and huge cliff faces on either side of us. The trail passed through a massive rock that had been cut by thousands of years of waves crashing into it moment after moment. Because of the mist in the air the rocks were slick with condensation and even Tain had to make sure to take cautious steps. And that’s when we heard the squawking.
Up overhead in the alien night sky I could see hundreds of wings flapping, too many to count. They were circling around our location. My Keening began to burn.
“They’re honing in on me,” I said to Nehemiah.
“Keep moving,” he said.
We kept on the steep uphill path. It was wide enough for three grown men to walk side by side. On the left side there was now a sheer drop to jagged rocks far below and beyond that waves crashing, but the view was shrouded by mist.
The Sluagh kept circling closer and closer however.
“Guys,” said Rob, “The enemy is approaching.”
“No duh,” I said.
“Not the birds. A headless horseman,” he said.
“Not funny,” said Nehemiah.
Hoofbeats thundered in the distance from the path up ahead. We began looking around frantically for a place to hide but there was none. We were exposed.
“Quick,” said Nehemiah, beckoning us into a huddle. “Not a sound,” he said to us. We all knelt down and pressed against the rocks. He held up his staff and a purple orb formed around the group. The hoofbeats grew louder. I could feel the ground shaking. Nehemiah’s eyes were wide but glazed over as he focused. Sweat formed on his forehead. I kept Tain under my arm and buried my fingers in his fur. Rob turned into a little cat and hid in Nehemiah’s trench coat.
The horse exhaled and I felt it’s breath on my neck. The rider was right on top of us.
“Shhhhhhhh,” whispered Nehemiah.
Turning my head ever so slowly I stole a glance at the rider. He sat atop a massive black horse. I almost let out a yelp for as I turned I found myself staring into the eyeless sockets of a skull. The teeth grinned at me. The skull was tucked under the arm of the rider and when I looked up to see his face, I realized Rob was right. He was indeed headless and I was already looking right at him.
The rider’s horse became impatient, stepping in a circle. It almost clipped me and I stumbled out of the way. Nehemiah had his staff in a death grip. I heard the wood crackle and pop slightly, like a log on a fire. Purple sparks shot out of the staff. I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes, and hugged my dog. Please don’t notice, please don’t notice.
The horses ears twitched trying to discern where we were and the
rider turned his head in his palm, sweeping side to side.
The rider turned his horse back towards the way we had come and left us there. Only after we could no longer hear the hoofbeats did Nehemiah relinquish his magic shroud.
I gasped for air. I’d been holding my breath. “How’d you do that?” I asked, laying on back.
“I distorted our appearance with the surroundings,” he said, gasping as well.
Rob came out of the trenchcoat and returned to his normal Hobby self. “Let’s go before he comes back.”
“What was that thing?” I asked.
“The Dullahan,” whispered Rob.
“Morgan Freeman!” cursed Nehemiah, running his hand over his staff.
“What?” I asked.
Nehemiah shook his head and handed me his staff. I ran my hand over the smooth wood. “It’s cracked,” I said.
“Yeah... happened recently. It’s getting worse. Not good,” he said.
Chapter 20
The Fortress
We made our way up the steep path. The Sluagh kept circling overhead but Nehemiah’s Chaos cloaking seemed to have a lasting effect. The path was always winding to the right and to the left was the steep drop off to rocks and water below giving me the impression that we were on some sort of island or at least a peninsula.
Soon we walked around a bend through an ancient crumbled wall and I saw an ebony stone fortress cut into the heart of the mountain. The fortress reached skyward touting its lofty excellence as if standing tall against the very island it was built on. A colonnade with perfectly smooth surfaces made vertical lines running up to the low clouds. The entrance was a massive opening. There was no door between the columns, inviting friend and foe alike to step into the dark like an open grave. At the top of the colonnade high above perched hundreds of Sluagh like a row of crows on telephone wire.
I shuddered. “Holy crow!”
Tain growled.
“Yep,” said Nehemiah. “This is the point of origin alright. Let’s hurry in and find the girl and get out of here. I didn’t sign up for this Lord of the Rings crap. This place gives me the creeps.”
