The Battle of Iron Gulch

by R. G. Thomas

  His mother widened her eyes as she looked at Astrid. “This? This grown-up young woman is Astrid?”

  Astrid smiled and blushed. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Cane.”

  Thaddeus felt his mother’s grip tighten on his hand, and her open expression seemed to collapse in on itself. Her eyes lost their sparkle and went nearly lifeless. Thaddeus felt his hand growing warm in hers and looked over at the red marks on his father’s neck.

  “That’s not my name,” Claire said, the tone of her voice low and dangerous. “Don’t call me that.”

  “Oh, I’m… I’m sorry,” Astrid said and took a couple of steps back. “I thought….” She looked between Thaddeus and Nathan. “I mean, I was just being polite. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

  “Claire, it’s okay,” Thaddeus’s father whispered. “You won’t ever have to see Lucian again, I promise. It’s just us from now on. Just you and me and Thaddeus.”

  “Mom?” Thaddeus eased his hand free and flexed his fingers. The skin of his palm was red from the heat she had generated, and he wondered if that was something new she’d developed from her years as a dragon. Thaddeus approached Astrid and turned her around to face town again, then started them walking along the street, Dulindir keeping up on Astrid’s other side.

  “What did I say?” Astrid asked.

  “You didn’t do anything wrong,” Thaddeus replied in a low voice. “Remember what Isadora said in the mine? My mom was married to my uncle, and he was abusive and cruel to her.”

  Astrid turned her big blue eyes up to him. Tears trembled on her lashes. “I’m sorry. I forgot all about that part. There’s been so much going on, and it just came out. I didn’t mean to upset her.”

  “I know, don’t worry about it,” Thaddeus said. “A lot has happened and it’s going to take some time for her to adjust. For now, just call her Claire.”

  Astrid nodded. “I will.”

  “As will I,” Dulindir added.

  “Good. How are things down here? Are the fires under control?”

  Astrid looked back at Nathan and Claire walking slowly after them. “Where’s Leopold?”

  Thaddeus took a deep breath and shook his head as he fought back tears. “He…. He didn’t make it.”

  “What?” Astrid put her hand over her mouth. “Oh, no. Teofil will be…. Oh, how awful.”

  “He was very brave,” Thaddeus said. “And he made sure we’d be able to turn my mother back before he…. Well, before.”

  “Come on, we have to let Teofil know,” Astrid said, grabbing his hand. “He’s near the movie theater, helping with the fires.”

  “What about the Bearagon?” Thaddeus asked.

  “No sign of it,” Dulindir replied. “It appears to have escaped.”

  “Dammit,” Thaddeus said. “Well, at least we got rid of Isadora.”

  “She’s dead?” Dulindir asked. “You’re certain?”

  Thaddeus nodded. “I am. My mom…. Well, the dragon knocked her off the cliff. We’ll need to search for her body later to be sure.”

  “Yes, we’ll definitely want to be certain as to her fate,” Dulindir said.

  “Thaddeus!”

  He turned at his father’s call and found him leading his mother up onto the sidewalk. “I’m going to take your mother inside to get her cleaned up and dressed.”

  Thaddeus had not realized they’d walked far enough up the street to be standing in front of the Iron Gulch Inn. He waved and nodded. “I’m going to find Teofil and see if I can help at all.”

  “Be careful,” his father said.

  “I will.” He hesitated a moment, then jogged back to them. As he stood before them, he realized that for the first time in his life he was saying good-bye to both of his parents, and his eyes welled with fresh tears.

  “I love you guys,” he said.

  They both smiled, and his father wiped away tears of his own. Thaddeus was glad to see his mother’s expression was much more relaxed and open now. It was going to take some time for her to adjust, not only to being human again, but to being with the two of them and the rest of their group.

  “We love you too,” his father said. His mother nodded in agreement, and then his father added, “You be careful.”

  Thaddeus turned and wiped away his tears as he hurried back to Astrid and Dulindir. “Come on, let’s go.”

  They found Teofil at the corner of Main Street, standing in a long line of people who had formed a bucket brigade to battle a fire at the movie theater. The ceiling had fallen in and thick black smoke billowed into the steadily brightening sky, but the flames were mostly out. Fire trucks were parked haphazardly throughout the business district, and fire hoses crisscrossed the street. Almost every storefront had burned—including Ruby’s Realty, Thaddeus was happy to see, and he wondered how many homes had been lost as well.

  “You’re back!” Teofil shouted when he saw Thaddeus. He pulled Dulindir over to take his place in line and grabbed him in a strong hug. “I was worried about you.”

  “I was worried about you too,” Thaddeus said, savoring the feel of Teofil’s arms around him.

  “I’m going to find Aisha,” Astrid said. “She was helping some of the injured down the street.”

  Teofil released Thaddeus and they both shouted, “Be careful!”

  “I’m older than you!” Astrid shouted back.

  Teofil smiled at Thaddeus. “So, did it work? Did you change your mom back?”

  Thaddeus nodded. “It’s a long story, but, yeah, we did. She’s back at the inn with my dad.” He looked around at the crowd of people. “Is everyone down here okay? Your mom and dad? Vivienne?”

  “They’re just down the street helping out,” Teofil said, then frowned. “What’s wrong? I can tell by your expression that something’s wrong. Did Isadora get away again?”

  Thaddeus offered his hand. “Let’s walk for a bit.”

  Teofil looked down at Thaddeus’s hand as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to take it. Thaddeus could understand his hesitation, had felt it himself several times in the last few months. And now he knew how it felt to be the one to deliver bad news.

  When Teofil finally took hold of his hand, Thaddeus led him down the street, away from the crowd. They stood on the corner near a streetlight that had been knocked over, and Thaddeus took both of Teofil’s hands as they stood facing each other.

  “Leopold didn’t make it,” Thaddeus said.

  Teofil looked confused a moment. “Didn’t make it?” Then his eyes widened. “Leo? He’s… gone?”

  “Yeah, he’s gone. He was really brave, and he saved the mixture that made it possible for us to change my mom back.”

  Teofil dropped his gaze, and Thaddeus wondered what to say next, finally settling for, “If it helps at all, Isadora is dead too.”

  The anger in Teofil’s gaze when he looked back up made Thaddeus take a step back.

  “Good,” Teofil said, his voice cold and flat. “I’m glad she’s dead. She deserved it.”

  Thaddeus nodded. “I know. And she got what she deserved. My mother was still in dragon form and used her tail to knock her off the mountain. We’ll have to hike around the base of the mountain at some point and look for her body.”

  “I definitely want to be part of that group,” Teofil said. He blew out a breath and looked at the sky. “I can’t believe Leo’s gone.”

  “He raised you,” Thaddeus said, pulling him in for a hug. “It’s okay to feel sad.”

  “He’s really gone?” Teofil pulled out of the hug, but held on to Thaddeus’s hands. “Did he… was it bad?”

  Thaddeus tried to keep his expression neutral as he said, “Isadora turned the dragon against them near the end of it all. He was burned pretty bad.”

  “Oh.” Teofil sat on the curb and Thaddeus joined him.

  “Leopold really loved you, Teofil. You made him so proud. You were like a son to him.”

  “Yeah.” Teofil nodded and stared at the ground. Then he turned his head to l
ook at Thaddeus for a long moment before leaning over to give him a soft, tender kiss. “I’m very glad you’re okay. And Isadora is gone.”

  “Me too. But I’m disappointed about the Bearagon.”

  Teofil’s smile faded to a scowl. “We’ll find him. We know who he is and what he turns into.”

  “We will find him,” Thaddeus said. “But for now, let’s get back to helping the town.”

  “Just one more thing,” Teofil said.

  “What’s that?”

  Teofil leaned in for another, lingering kiss that sent shivers through Thaddeus and shut out the crackling of the fires and the shouts of the townspeople and fire crews. When Teofil pulled back and smiled at him, Thaddeus could see firelight reflected in his eyes.

  “I love you,” Teofil said.

  “I love you too.”

  Teofil got to his feet and tugged Thaddeus up beside him. “Let’s get to work.”

  Chapter TWENTY-THREE

  IN THE early evening, once most of the fires were under control, Thaddeus, Teofil, Vivienne, Rudyard, and Dulindir hiked up the trail with sheets and the aluminum Army cot Thaddeus had slept on. With the legs folded up beneath it, the cot proved to be a suitable stand-in for a handheld stretcher on which they could retrieve Leopold’s body. After a moment of respectful silence, and more than a few tears, they loaded him onto the cot and carried him back to the Iron Gulch Inn, where they set him in the basement. Under cover of night, they removed the ghoul Hannah had killed with her shotgun and left it in the weeds near the hot springs trailhead. Thaddeus wondered what the police thought once they had discovered the ghouls and goblins that had been killed during the attack in the gym. He’d watched quite a few conspiracy shows over the years and assumed there would be some kind of cover-up.

  The entire group had a long discussion about what to do with Leopold’s body. At the end, a plan had come together that would keep them all out of trouble. Nathan and Vivienne left Leopold’s body in a pool in the backyard of a vacant house down the street that had sustained fire damage. Nathan turned in a description of Leopold to the authorities and said he’d been missing since the night of the fires. During the official house-to-house searches, Leopold’s body was discovered and Nathan was contacted. He then made arrangements to have the body cremated and Leopold’s ashes shipped back to Superstition.

  The total loss of life and property would take weeks to calculate, but Thaddeus knew both numbers would be high. The National Guard had been called in to assist, and police and detectives were interviewing members of the town and trying to make sense of the crazy stories they were hearing. At some point right after the attack on the town, the bodies of every ghoul and goblin had vanished, leaving the residents with no evidence. Vivienne suggested any surviving ghouls had come during the night and removed the bodies to keep their existence secret. When the police accompanied by the FBI stopped by the Iron Gulch Inn, Thaddeus and the rest of the group stuck to their agreed upon cover story that they had not seen a dragon and weren’t sure what they had witnessed at the school and in the mine. Once the authorities had departed, Thaddeus and Teofil checked on the ghoul’s body they had left in the weeds near the trail and found it was gone with no sign it had been there at all.

  Before sunrise the following morning, Thaddeus, Teofil, Vivienne, Rudyard, and Dulindir set out with shovels and a pick from Hannah’s shed. They hiked around the base of the mountain for hours, making their way through thick undergrowth and around outcroppings of rock as they searched for Isadora’s body.

  Thaddeus had some questions for Dulindir but hadn’t had the chance to ask him up until now. He’d wondered if he should talk with him one on one, then decided it would be best for Teofil to hear it as well.

  “Dulindir, Isadora greeted you like she knew you at the Well of Tears, and again when we were in the mine.”

  Dulindir looked over his shoulder at Thaddeus and gave a single nod. “She did.”

  “Did you know each other before all of this?” Thaddeus asked.

  “I told you before that I had only left the Lost Forest once in my life,” Dulindir replied. “Decades after I had been cast out of my village, I met up with Isadora in the Lost Forest. I did not realize it at the time, but she was there to convince the trolls and any other creatures of the dark she could to join with herself and Lucian in attacking the village. She did not tell me any of this when we crossed paths, and I had been alone for many years and eager for company. I believe she took advantage of that fact and convinced me to accompany her on what I believed to be a rescue mission.

  “Instead, it turned out to be the attack on the village. When I realized what was happening, I ran. I could have stayed and fought against her and those she had brought along to the battle, but I was afraid and ashamed and instead… I ran. All the way back to the Lost Forest.”

  Silence followed his explanation, and then Teofil said, “That must have been pretty awful to realize.”

  Thaddeus let out a breath. “I’m sorry, Dulindir. I just… I just had to know.”

  “I understand,” Dulindir said. “And I hope it will not change your opinion of me.” He stopped and looked right at Teofil. “Any of you.”

  Teofil looked him in the eye, then smirked and said, “It’s not going to change how I feel about you one bit.”

  Thaddeus, Vivienne, and Rudyard all laughed, and soon Dulindir and Teofil were laughing along with them.

  “Come along now,” Rudyard finally said. “We don’t want to lose the light.”

  Finally, just when they were about to give up for the day, they found her crumpled form bent at an unnatural angle over a line of stones. They dug a grave and buried her without ceremony or a kind word. When they had thrown the final shovel of dirt on top of her, Teofil stood glaring down at the grave.

  “We’ll never know what she did with Fetter,” he said. “Whether he’s alive or dead.”

  Thaddeus ran a hand up and down the sweat-soaked back of Teofil’s T-shirt. “I’m so sorry. Not knowing must be terrible.”

  “It’s the worst possible thing,” Rudyard said. “Not knowing where your child might be. Whether he’s alive or dead.”

  “We will find out,” Dulindir stated. “Now that Isadora is gone, we can focus on finding Fetter.”

  “She took his whereabouts with her.” Rudyard’s voice was low, and Thaddeus had to strain to hear him. “It’s eating Miriam up not knowing.”

  “Astrid too,” Dulindir said.

  Teofil spat on the fresh mound of dirt. “I hope Isadora finds no rest, wherever she ended up.”

  They hiked back, tired, dirty, and silent, reaching the inn just before midnight. Thaddeus didn’t know what to say to Teofil. He’d never had a boyfriend before, let alone one who had lost a parental figure and, for all intents and purposes, a sibling. If he’d lost his father, he would have been devastated, which was why they’d gone in search of the Well of Tears. Just thinking about the possibility of his father dying caused an ache in his chest.

  He felt like he needed to do something, though, and when Teofil was about to step inside the back door to the kitchen, Thaddeus grabbed his hand and held him back. Vivienne, Rudyard, and Dulindir all went inside to clean up and go to bed, but Thaddeus led Teofil out into the yard, where they stood in the bright white light of the full moon.

  “How are you?” Thaddeus asked. “How are you feeling?”

  Teofil shrugged and looked away but still held his hand. “I don’t know how I feel. I’m glad Isadora is dead, but it doesn’t bring Leopold back.” He looked up at the moon and sighed before meeting Thaddeus’s gaze. “I’ve been taught to respect all life, be it a person, an animal, or a plant. All living things require respect and love. But someone as dark and evil as Isadora rejected all of that. She was the complete opposite of it, in fact. She wanted to kill your mother and father a long time ago and was so determined to do it, she lived in disguise with my family for all those years.”

  “She was, truly, a wicked
witch,” Thaddeus said.

  “Right, so I should feel glad she’s dead, shouldn’t I?” Teofil asked, then continued before Thaddeus could answer. “I mean, I should at least feel some kind of satisfaction or… or….”

  “Closure?” Thaddeus offered.

  “Yes, or closure.” He shrugged and dropped his chin to his chest. “But I don’t. All I feel is like there’s a big, empty space inside me. I keep thinking about all of the stuff Leopold and I talked about, all the stupid arguments about me wanting to see the world outside the tall wooden fence.” He looked up at Thaddeus with a sad smile. “Well, I got my wish all right. And look what it got me.”

  Thaddeus squeezed his hand. “You still have me.”

  Teofil smiled and squeezed back. “I do. And I’m very thankful for that.”

  They kissed beneath the moon, and when they parted, Thaddeus caught movement from the corner of his eye. He turned his head and gasped at the sight of a small yellow light zipping through the yard.

  “Look!” he said, and nodded to the light. “Is that a fairy?”

  Teofil smiled, and his eyes gleamed with tears in the moonlight as he watched the tiny yellow light flit around the yard. “It is. I was hoping they might return now that the nacht macabre is being uprooted and the ghouls and goblins are gone.”

  “Do you think the fairies hid in the woods around the mountain?” Thaddeus asked.

  “Most likely,” Teofil replied, and turned to him again. “I’m looking forward to returning home.”

  Thaddeus smiled. “Me too.”

  “I just don’t know where I’m going to live,” Teofil said with a sigh.

  “What do you mean? You’ll live next door…. Oh, right. That was Leopold’s house.” Uncertainty wriggled inside Thaddeus’s belly, but he managed a smile and kissed Teofil again. “We’ll make it work, no matter where you live. Come on, let’s go get cleaned up.”

  Another fairy zipped past as they held hands and walked toward the house, and Thaddeus found he was more than ready to get back to Superstition himself.