Sam thought about all the things he was going to do when the effects of the banshee weapon wore off. He envisioned himself defeating Chase, rescuing Dr. Knox and Dr. Vantana, and fighting off the horde of magical creatures gathered up ahead. It made him feel better to plan his revenge than to simply stand there, helplessly listening to Chase take his victory lap. Tashi looked Sam’s way and he rolled his eyes. It was one of the few times he had seen the Guardian smile. Or at least, try to smile.
“But there are always surprises in life,” Chase added. “You were one for me, your Guardian was another, and Chriscanis—I wasn’t expecting you to make an appearance.”
“I always expect the unexpected,” Chriscanis said. “It’s why I wore banshee blockers.”
It took a second for Chase to not only register what Chriscanis had just said but also process the fact that he could say it. The young cynocephalus seized the moment and attacked with abandon. He launched at Chase, taking him to the ground. The two became a rolling mass of kicks and punches. As they exchanged blows, the claw and the banshee weapon went flying. Sam wanted to shout “Get him!” with all his might, but what came out of his lips was hardly audible. The two cynocephali actually fought like dogs, nipping and growling at each other as they wrestled over the dirt, then went tumbling into the stream. Chriscanis was getting the better of the older and slower Chase. The young cynocephalus hurled his adversary backward, and Chase landed in a heap a few feet from Sam and Tashi.
“Hang in there, mates,” Chriscanis said as he walked toward Chase. “We’re almost done here.” He grabbed the back of Chase’s collar and pulled him up to his knees. Chase was clearly beaten—his hair matted, panting heavily, his eyes glassy. He muttered something with the little breath he could catch. “What did you say, old dog?” Chriscanis asked. “Was that a plea for mercy?”
Chase shook his head and exclaimed “Bête!” with his last ounce of energy. An instant later there was a blur of black fur and Chriscanis was gone. Sam’s eyes scanned the area until he found his friend once more. But he wasn’t alone—he was struggling with a massive beast. It had a thick black coat and glowing red eyes. Its mouth was enormous for its body size, sporting large white fangs the size of Sam’s legs. It roared like a lion, but with a shriek that sounded like it belonged to a T. rex. As the beast tossed Chriscanis around like a rag doll, Chase rose to his feet and collected the claw and the banshee weapon.
“Ça suffit!” Chase called out, and the beast retreated from Chriscanis, who was now lying motionless on the ground. Sam took one look at the creature and knew it was the Beast of Gevaudan. Just as Chase had described, the beast appeared to be part lion, part giant black wolf, and weighed several hundred pounds. Sam also knew that if this was the Beast and the stories were true, Chriscanis was badly wounded. He wanted to race to his side to help him. He struggled against the effect of the weapon…and felt his pinky move. The stiffness was dissipating. Seconds later Sam sprang forward and rushed to Chriscanis. The Beast moved to pounce, but Chase kept the creature still with a wave of his hand.
Tashi gripped her shekchen and crouched into her defensive posture. Chase noticed, but didn’t seem at all intimidated.
“Stand down, Guardian, or I shall have my pet introduce himself to the boy,” Chase warned.
“You will kill us anyway,” Tashi replied. The Beast growled at her, but Tashi stood firm.
“If that is what I wished, I could have had the chupacabras handle it, or even seen to it myself, personally. No…this tale has unfolded much better than I expected. Now I have collected all the pieces I need for the final reveal. And you, Guardian, are a delightful bonus.”
Sam found Chriscanis barely conscious. He checked the cynocephalus’s body for a wound, and when he found it his heart sank. Chriscanis had been clawed by the Beast. Five bloody cuts from the creature’s sharp claws stretched across the cynocephalus’s torso. Sam knew what this meant, but he wasn’t about to give up hope. He looked at Tashi. “Quick!” he exclaimed. “You have to heal him.”
Tashi stood stoically and cast her eyes downward. Chase looked toward Sam.
“If she healed him, it would kill her and not help him much, if at all,” Chase explained. He waved the claw in his hand and Sam realized: Guardians were susceptible to mortal injury when they did not have control of the gryphon’s claw. He looked back at Chriscanis, who was fading in and out of consciousness.
“Sam…,” Chriscanis murmured. “You have to get away….I can buy you some time….” Sam tried to smile at the cynocephalus’s bravery in the face of such overwhelming odds, but he was too devastated by the circumstances.
“I’m not leaving your side,” he promised. Chase’s shadow suddenly loomed over the two.
“Come along, boy,” Chase ordered. “We have much to do.”
Sam clutched Chriscanis’s paw and looked up at Chase. “Help him! Please,” he pleaded. “I’ll do whatever you ask.”
“That is beyond my power. He made his choice.”
When Sam looked back down at his friend, something on Chriscanis’s wrist caught his eye. There was a small, colorless spot in his fur…a spot Sam had seen before—on another cynocephalus.
“Your arm…your wrist,” Sam said to Chase. “Show it to me.” Chase eyed the boy for a moment, then pulled his sleeve up to expose his wrist. Sure enough, there was the same colorless spot in Chase’s fur.
“I never thought my family birthmark was that interesting,” Chase said, before pulling his sleeve back down. He noticed Sam eyeing Chriscanis’s birthmark and the realization washed over Chase’s face. Chriscanis was not entirely aware of what was going on, but he could tell that something was amiss.
“What is it, Sam?” he asked in a whispery voice. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Sam answered. Then he turned his eyes to Chase. “I was just thinking how proud your father and mother would be of your bravery, your courage.”
“My mother would be upset at me for this, I imagine…but my father…you think…?” Chriscanis’s voice trailed off, his eyes closing. Sam shook him and the cynocephalus managed to open his eyes again, if just barely.
“I know,” Sam said in a comforting tone, meeting his gaze. “I’m proud of you. And we’re family too, remember? We always will be.” Chriscanis nodded, then coughed, a loud, agonizing hack that caused Sam to cringe and start to cry.
“I’m sorry…,” Sam said, holding on to his friend with all his strength.
“Just promise me…,” Chriscanis began. “Promise me you’ll never forget that it is not who you are that makes you special, Sam, it’s what you do. It’s what you do.” Sam saw one final, peaceful smile before Chriscanis of the Agency for the Welfare of Mythical Beasts succumbed to his wounds.
“No!” Sam exclaimed. All the anger and sadness and helplessness was too much. He just wanted to break down, but before he knew it, he was being yanked to his feet. It was Tashi. As soon as he saw her, he pulled her into an embrace and sobbed.
“He will be okay, Sam. He will return to Gaia,” the Guardian said, trying to console him.
“I don’t want him to. I want him to be here with us.”
Chase grabbed Sam’s wrist and dragged him forward. “Enough of this.”
“He was your son!” Sam declared with equal parts shock and disgust. “How could you do that to him?”
“We do not fret about familial relations,” Chase explained. “I am saddened by this loss because he was a fellow cynocephalus. A comrade. But he chose the wrong side. He stood in the way of our progress as a species destined for greater things.”
“He was greater than you’ll ever be,” Sam said.
“We’ll see about that in a few hours.”
Sam watched through his tears as Tashi said a blessing over their fallen friend. The Beast growled at her and she turned to follow Chase. Sam’s eyes didn’t leave Chriscanis’s body. He watched as the cynocephalus slowly disappeared. But it wasn’t that he vanished; rather, he transformed
. The spot where his body was lying became a grassy mound covered in sunflowers. One moment, Chriscanis was there, and the next, there was a beautiful new addition to the pristine landscape. It stood out amid its surroundings. There was something in particular about this spot that made it more colorful, more tranquil, more beautiful than everything around it. Sam’s friend had returned to Gaia.
* * *
Classification 470 (Personnel Records)
Vantana, Vance
Activation Date: ********
“It’s comin’ up a cloud,” Virginia Vantana would often say. The grandmother to Dr. Vance Vantana lived until her ninety-seventh year. And she lived all of those ninety-seven years in the same small town and the same quaint farmhouse. Virginia got to know her home so well she could always tell when something wasn’t quite right. She would step outside on her porch, feel the breeze or glance at the horizon, and instinctively know if trouble was on its way. It didn’t matter if it was weather-related or family-related, old Virginia had a sixth sense when it came to all sorts of unpleasantness. Whenever she did feel that trouble was just around the corner, she’d pull her grandson in close and whisper, “It’s comin’ up a cloud.”
* * *
For Dr. Vance Vantana, Virginia’s old saying couldn’t have been more perfect for describing the events of late. Like his grandmother, Vance could feel it in his bones that something was not quite right. He’d had this nagging sense since Henry Knox disappeared, and it had only grown in intensity in the months that followed. It was as if there were a storm cloud looming on the horizon that was becoming darker and more ominous by the moment. It hadn’t reached him yet, but Vance knew it eventually would. He just didn’t know how devastating a storm it might be.
Dr. Knox and Vantana had left the Guardian village of Kustos and hitched a ride on a dvergen subway to the Philippines, an island nation in Southeast Asia that was situated to the east of Vietnam in the western Pacific Ocean. The subway left them off at the Aliwagwag Falls in the southern part of the country. They were a series of eighty-four cascading waterfalls that many dubbed the “stairway to heaven.” Vance couldn’t have imagined a more magnificent way to begin such a dangerous journey.
From the Aliwagwag Falls, the two headed for the Visayan Islands, a mountainous island group that was the purported home of the aswang. Vance had studied the creatures during his schooling, though he never expected to meet one. They had been a main feature of Filipino folklore for ages, the country’s version of a werewolf and vampire melded together. It always surprised Vance that Phylassos had allowed the creatures to coexist with humans, but the gryphon was the protector of all magical creatures. He couldn’t choose favorites. Of course, Phylassos wasn’t going to allow the aswangs to perpetrate their evil on unsuspecting victims, so he placed several restrictions on their behavior. Much like the yetis, the aswang were prohibited from traveling beyond their home. Phylassos also believed he could curb their horrific dietary habits with a little magic. After a spate of aswang attacks in the sixteenth century, Phylassos enchanted the creatures to reject their unusual hunger. But there were recent rumors the attacks had started up again, and that could mean one of two things: the creatures no longer feared the gryphon and his punishment, or the gryphon’s magic was waning, which was a sign that would encourage other creatures to challenge the curse. If there was truth in either of those possibilities, Vance knew this trip would prove especially perilous.
The weather in the Philippines was a wet, searing heat that made Vance feel like he was trapped in a steam bath with a space heater on full blast. Vance couldn’t help but chuckle at the irony that he had practically been fighting off frostbite just hours earlier, wishing for this kind of warmth. And now that he was deep within this hot tropical bisque, he yearned for the chilly temperatures.
As the two doctors made their way to the aswang home, they passed through Kuapnit Balinsasayao National Park and checked in with Ranger Torotao, a sarangay who ran a tight ship. These creatures were well-known in Filipino mythology and reminded Vance of the cynocephali, although instead of being a race of dog-men, sarangays were half bull. They were an exceedingly disciplined species who prized precision and hard work. Like the cynocephali, sarangays were seen as humans to those without the sight, but for those who could see their true form, they were a very intimidating lot.
Ranger Torotao was particularly excited to see Dr. Knox. He had heard about the doctor’s disappearance and had been concerned for his safety. He was also enthusiastic for the chance to show off the work he had done in the park. Unfortunately for Torotao, Knox was not interested in a tour. He and Vance questioned the ranger about the aswangs and revealed the creatures’ recent attempts to steal the claw. Torotao was shocked to hear of such brazen disobedience of the gryphon’s law but could offer little insight into what might have triggered their seditious behavior.
“Once an aswang, always an aswang,” Torotao said in his thick Filipino accent.
The ranger volunteered to accompany the duo, but Knox declined the offer. Vance was disappointed in his mentor’s decision, as sarangay were fierce fighters. He would likely have been of great assistance if they encountered trouble. Later, Knox explained that he was still not entirely sure which creatures could be trusted, so he didn’t want to take the risk. His explanation was followed by a series of questions regarding the gargoyles and the meeting with Chase. He would often bring the topic up, then drop it, then bring it up again. On the final ferry ride to the Visayan Islands, Knox took up his questioning once more.
“And the gargoyles just dropped Sam?” Knox asked.
“Yes,” Vance answered. “He told me he squirmed a bit and the creatures lost their grip.”
“Lost their grip…right above a pool?”
Vance confirmed the details repeatedly until he began to question his own understanding of the incident. He told Knox that at the time he chalked it up to the luck of the gryphon, which Sam certainly showed signs of exhibiting at the hospital in Bakersfield.
“Yes, I could see how that might have been a natural conclusion,” the doctor replied. “And maybe you’re right. Maybe it was simply luck.”
Vance didn’t think Knox believed that, but he also wasn’t sure what it meant if it wasn’t chance. Could Chase have had a hand in these recent events?
When they finally reached their destination, Vance took the lead, but Dr. Knox kept close behind. Vance was continuously surprised by the man’s spryness. Even at eighty-something—he never divulged his age—the doctor always kept pace with a man several decades his junior. Though Penelope denied it, Vance wondered if she had fashioned Knox a secret concoction that enhanced his vitality. Maybe he could coax her into giving him some when he reached Knox’s age.
As soon as they set foot in the thick, humid jungle, Vance could smell trouble…literally. It was a musky, rotting scent that filled his nostrils and made it impossible to discern the presence of any creatures. Of course, if this was what aswangs smelled like, the two doctors were surrounded. Vance hoped it was simply the stench of this jungle and not aswangs. He had armed himself with two items he knew would prove invaluable in a fight with aswangs, should their conversation with the creatures suddenly go south. The first was the simpler: a canister of salt. Unfortunately, Vance hadn’t had time for Penelope to build one of her famous weapons, which would have likely shot sodium chloride–filled projectiles at the creatures. Instead, Vance would be relying on an old-fashioned saltshaker he’d “borrowed” from a restaurant they’d stopped at along the way. He left an extra-large tip to pay for the rental.
The second weapon he brought along was the most peculiar he had ever employed in his duties as a ranger for the Department of Mythical Wildlife. It was a picture of Virginia Vantana, his sweet late grandmother. The folklore behind the aswang mentioned photos of grandmothers as being effective in warding them off. If Virginia had been there with him, she likely could have warded them off by hand—she was a feisty one. He had slipped th
e photo of Virginia into his back pocket, prepared to use it when the time was right.
That time came quicker than Vance had expected. The odor he hoped might just be the jungle turned out to indeed be the stench of the aswangs. He and Dr. Knox were surrounded. They were lightning-fast and well organized, and they descended in droves. He didn’t have much time to strategize a defense, so he went for the only weapon he could wield quickly: Virginia Vantana. He unleashed the photograph and held it aloft. He could almost hear his grandmother say, “Oh, Vancey, it is most definitely comin’ up a cloud.”
—
Sam London had never known sadness like the kind he knew that day. Until this moment, he had not experienced the loss of a friend or relative and had no understanding of what grief truly felt like. There was a hole in his chest, as if it had caved in on itself and created an emptiness that all the happy thoughts in the world could not fill. In the shadow of Chriscanis’s death, Sam wondered how much time he had left and what would become of Tashi, Vance, and Dr. Knox. Would they all share the young cynocephalus’s fate?
Chase led Sam and Tashi through the thicket of forest, the monstrous Beast of Gevaudan following on their heels—ready to pounce at the slightest misstep. They wove their way through the rocky terrain until descending into a steep embankment. The path narrowed and darted through a heavy curtain of foliage, which had formed from the closely packed tree line. Chase guided them through the vegetation, and they emerged on the edge of an expanse that lay deep inside the gorge, surrounded by cliffs. As soon as they reached the other side, Sam could hear a chorus of bellowing jeers that reminded him of his time in Cernunnos’s lair. But this wasn’t an ornately carved cave; rather, they were now standing amid the ruins of an ancient stone amphitheater.
Hundreds of mythical creatures covered the moss-coated seating area. Some of the creatures Sam recognized immediately. There were gargoyles, yetis, aswangs, cynocephali, harpies, and chupacabras. Others in the audience were a mystery to Sam. Tashi pointed as they walked.
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