“Skip!” She hugged him right away, and he blushed.
“Hey, Jennifer. Hey, Mr. Scales. Thanks for covering my cab fare.”
After the taxi was paid and gone, they walked back to the cabin. Many bees swirled around Skip at first, but sensing the presence of an escort, they soon left him alone. He looked uncomfortable anyway.
“Skip, what are you doing here?”
“All in good time, Jennifer.” Her father gave her a serious look. “We can talk it all out before our friends arrive from Crescent Valley for your grandfather.”
“I’m sorry about your grandpa, Jennifer,” Skip whispered in her ear. “Your dad told me some of what happened. I wish I could have been here to help.”
She smiled at him and grasped the hand he was offering. “Thanks. I don’t know what you could have done, though. This thing was…horrible. I didn’t even have time to change into a dragon, really. Even that might not have been enough.”
He gave a slightly indignant look. “Maybe I could have helped! My aunt says I’m pretty close to—”
Jonathan raised a hand to stop the conversation. “I’m fairly certain that even both of you together would have had your hands full. And once you hear what this thing may be, you may not be so quick to attack it.”
“What does that mean?” Jennifer murmured to Skip, but he only shrugged.
After lunch—Jennifer caught and prepared a few sheep from the pasture, thinking wistfully of her grandfather and his love for hunting—Elizabeth and Jonathan finally sat Jennifer and Skip down and answered their questions. Jennifer nervously stroked Geddy, who was still curled up on her left shoulder.
“First things first,” Jonathan began. “Last year, I told you two that Dianna Wilson and I were good friends.”
They both nodded.
“Well,” he went on awkwardly, “we were actually more than that. Much more. In fact, Jennifer, before I met your mother, Dianna Wilson and I were married.”
“Married!” Jennifer nearly fell off the sitting room couch, and she felt her pet gecko leap for the safety of the throw pillows. “You were married to someone else before Mom?” She stood up and turned to her mother. “Mom, did you know about this?”
Despite herself, Elizabeth actually chuckled. “Yes, I knew, honey. You don’t have to be outraged on my behalf. Your father told me everything he’s about to say, soon after I met him. When you were born, we agreed we would tell you in time.”
“In time?” The anger Jennifer felt toward her father bled over to include her mother as well. “Like the way you agreed to tell me about Pinegrove? Or how you agreed to tell me about my being a weredragon?”
“You’re getting a bit off track—”
“No, this is the track!” She was embarrassed that this was all coming out in front of a boy she liked, but there was no helping that now. “It never ends with you two! The secrets, the lies, the long and tortured explanations after something traumatic happens. I thought family members were supposed to trust each other! That means sharing, and telling the truth! You guys are always so big on honesty and integrity, but you can’t practice what you preach!”
“Jennifer, I’m sorry.” Her father sounded both apologetic and irritated at once. “Perhaps when you become a parent yourself, you will earn the qualifications necessary to critique our own performance. In the meantime, if you sit down and listen, you’ll learn all you need to know.”
Partly mollified, partly chastened, and completely red-faced, Jennifer sat back down without looking at Skip. Geddy slowly worked his way back to her shoulder.
“As I was saying, we were married,” Jonathan continued. “Over twenty years ago, and secretly, of course. Love doesn’t hold well to social boundaries, and we both knew the dangers involved. Skip, you may already be aware what your people do to those who consort with their enemies. Whatever you are going through now for associating with my daughter, it would have been worse for your mother, years ago.”
Jennifer turned to Skip, who didn’t show any emotion. Despite all the trouble she was having with the other weredragons and beaststalkers for her own identity and friends, she never thought about what it must be like for Skip. Was Aunt Tavia really as pleasant and understanding as she seemed at the fund-raiser?
Jonathan continued. “Our plan was to be married for several years, and gradually bring around friends and family so we could forge a loyal core receptive to the truth. For a year or so, we kept our secret. But then disaster struck one day—Dianna informed me she was pregnant.”
Jennifer froze. She didn’t like at all where she guessed this story was heading.
“We were surprised. And terrified. We couldn’t reveal the baby without revealing our marriage, of course. Despite my urging, Dianna wouldn’t even go to a doctor, for fear that word would get out.
“But she was a brilliant woman, and she soon had a plan. She arranged to take an extended trip abroad—places far away from Minnesota like Africa, South America, and so on—so no one would see her condition. During that time, she undertook research she assured me would solve our problem, with no harm to anyone.
“As you know, some of the more powerful werachnids have a gift for sorcery, and for seeing across space and time. Dianna was one such woman, and her specialty was exploring other dimensions.”
“Other dimensions?” Jennifer felt her ears prick at the idea. “You mean, like different worlds, where trees grow upside down, or rabbits are twenty feet tall?”
“Sort of,” interrupted Skip. Jennifer knew that he was even better with mathematics than she was. “I’ve been going over this with Mr. Slider during independent study. He says the easiest way to think about it is this: If we were all flat shapes, like squares and circles, we’d only live in two dimensions, right?”
“Length and width,” Jennifer agreed. “Like living in a piece of paper.”
“Exactly. But if one of us discovered a third dimension—height—then that would freak us out. A ball bouncing across the paper would look like a circle that disappeared and reappeared in different places!
“Now apply that to our real world, with three dimensions. If someone found a fourth dimension, they could do all sorts of disappearing and reappearing acts. Instead of keeping cars in our cramped three-dimensional garages, they could park them ‘up’ one dimension, out of the way, until we needed them again.” He turned to Jonathan. “So that’s what Mom hoped to do? Put this baby someplace out of the way, until you were ready for it?”
“Someplace safe,” Jonathan stressed. “She was sure she could open a portal to a place where time would stand virtually still, and the baby could remain unharmed, until we could reveal our marriage to family and friends. Ever optimistic, she worked on the mathematics and sorcery the whole time she was away. Seven months into her pregnancy, she sent for me. I can still remember her the night I arrived in the Australian outback.
“She was glowing with the aura of discovery, and triumph. I’ve found the perfect place, she told me, and it will keep our little Evangelos safe. The stars had told her the baby was a boy, and that was what she wanted to name him—Evangelos, Greek for ‘angel’ or ‘messenger of light.’ As I said, she was optimistic.
“After a few days together gathering supplies and enjoying each other’s company, we parted. She told me to return home—I would only be in danger if I stayed—and not to worry. She would remain in a quiet corner of the outback, give birth with the help of a midwife she had come to trust, and then work her sorcery to hold our child safely until the right time came. Wanting to stay but trusting in her instincts, I kissed her good-bye, told her I loved her, and left. It was the last time I ever saw her.
“A week after I left, under the crescent moon, I received a cell phone call from the midwife. Her voice was strangled and I understood only two words—bad portal. The call was quickly cut off. Unable to get back in touch with anyone, I took a desperate chance and flew over the Pacific on my own wings. It was days before I got there, and by then
there was little I could piece together.
“Here is what I know or can deduce: Evangelos must have decided he was ready early, because there were clear signs in the house of a premature birth. The birth happened under the crescent moon, given the timing of the phone call. But Dianna was gone, and the midwife’s body was not far from the house. The cell phone was ruined in her hand. Scratched in the dirt, using the midwife’s blood, Dianna had left a brief and gruesome message: No child.”
“Yech,” Jennifer spat.
“Using blood in writing is an old werachnid custom,” Skip explained. “Aunt Tavia told me about it. After battle, a werachnid will often write the tale in the blood of whatever enemies have fallen, so that we pass on the knowledge of what we learned.”
“That’s gruesome,” Elizabeth sniffed.
“It’s handy,” he countered.
Jennifer decided to change the subject. “So how can there be a child, if it died?”
“There was no body of a child,” Jonathan pointed out. “At the time, I saw some evidence of lingering sorcery, which I assumed to be what was left of a portal. While I’m no expert on such things, I could see plainly that it wasn’t prepared well. Perhaps Dianna was rushed by the premature birth, or she misjudged the stars, or the midwife who assisted her made some miscalculation. When they attempted to place Evangelos in the portal, I guess it killed him. That would have explained the dead woman—Dianna wasn’t normally given to murderous rage.”
Jennifer looked at her mother, but the woman’s expression was inscrutable. “Why didn’t you just ask Ms. Wilson what happened?”
“She wouldn’t have anything to do with me,” Jonathan answered. “I tried on several occasions to find her, and came close once or twice. But she always anticipated my arrival and vanished. She plainly did not want to see me again and likely considered our marriage a grave mistake. After a month or two, I received papers to end our marriage quietly, through an untraceable stream of lawyers. Since that’s what she wanted, I signed them. A few years later, I heard she married another werachnid—Otto Saltin, your father,” he nodded to Skip. “And, of course, I met your mother.”
“And now it appears Evangelos is alive,” Skip said.
Jonathan nodded blankly. “I wouldn’t have believed it. When I considered the midwife’s words and Dianna’s, I came to the natural conclusion he was dead. I know little of sorceries and other dimensions. But ‘bad portal’ could have meant Evangelos ended up somewhere Dianna didn’t expect—somewhere bad or hidden, where she couldn’t follow. All this time, Evangelos wasn’t dead. He was lost.”
“Abandoned in a different world,” Skip murmured.
They sat in silence for a moment, until Jennifer couldn’t contain herself.
“So that’s what this thing is—your son? My brother?”
“Half brother.”
“But how do you know that for sure, if you’ve never seen him? How did he get back here? What does he want?”
“Even now, we only have pieces of the puzzle,” Jonathan admitted. “But put them together, and it’s a pretty convincing picture. First, the DNA evidence at Jack Alder’s house says that someone related to me was there when he died. It wasn’t you, and it wasn’t your grandfather. Evangelos is the only other person who could possibly leave DNA related to mine.
“Second, your description of him sounds like something half-spider, half-dragon. While I can’t say for sure how the offspring of a werachnid and weredragon ought to look, that’s as reasonable a picture as any.
“Third, the words this thing scrawled next to Jack—and the words you heard in your own head—are hauntingly similar to what Dianna wrote in the midwife’s blood. Rage and grief have passed from mother to child. Somehow, unlikely as it may seem, Evangelos has survived, found his way out of whatever dimension he was trapped in, and come into our world.”
“Okay, so let’s say it’s him,” Skip conceded. “What is he doing here? Why is he killing people?”
“Both victims have had some telling last words,” Jonathan answered. “If Evangelos has spent the last twenty years someplace unpleasant, and if he holds his parents responsible, then it’s possible he’s trying to pass on his grief the only way he knows how—making me experience what he has experienced. No friends, so he finds my best friend and kills him. No father. Thus, last night.”
Jennifer swallowed. “This sounds like the beginning of a nasty trend.”
Her father nodded. The fear on his face was clear. “I am going to assume that Evangelos does not have a wife or a daughter, either. After that, I assume he will come for me, to complete the circuit.”
“So why didn’t he try to finish me off last night?” Jennifer asked. “I mean, I was right there, and he was right on top of me. He must have known who I was.”
Elizabeth spoke. “He’s probably a bit wary of you, dear. He’d want to learn as much as he could first, and it would be hard for him to get close to Winoka. After all, the beaststalkers in that town are a new experience for him. He may be staying on the fringes of town until he can get a measure of them.”
It was clear to Jennifer her mother was avoiding telling Skip that the two of them were beaststalkers as well. She felt a twinge of irritation—more secrets!—but managed to keep her feelings to herself. Her mother continued.
“My guess is that he has started with those people close to your father who don’t live near him, and is trying to gain the courage to enter Winoka. Out here, he probably didn’t expect to run into you. He might not even have realized you existed until you were on top of him, and it startled him. And since you hurt him, he’ll think twice about his next steps.”
“Which may make Winoka the safest place to be,” Jonathan admitted. “After the funeral, we should probably all head back there and hunker down until we can learn—”
“Now wait just a minute.” Jennifer held her hand up. “Yesterday, Winoka was crawling with beaststalkers and it was too dangerous for me to stay. Today, Winoka is crawling with beaststalkers…so it’s the least dangerous place I can stay?” She turned to Skip, a pleading expression on her face. You see what I put up with?
“We can discuss this further tonight,” Jonathan offered. “Skip, I brought you up here because I wanted you to hear the truth as soon as I knew it, because you may be in danger yourself. You are, after all, the closest link to Dianna. Also, I thought you may have insights on Dianna or Evangelos…?”
Skip shrugged. “Most of this is news to me. Mom spent most of my childhood looking for something, but she never told me what—or who—exactly. Her obsession makes a lot more sense now. And then she was gone—” He stopped, plainly upset. “Anyway, I’m glad I finally found out what it was all about. Thanks for letting me know, Mr. Scales.”
Jonathan nodded sympathetically. “Since there are dragons coming here soon, Skip, it’s best if Elizabeth takes you back now to Winoka. What you do after that is up to you. You’re welcome to stay at our house. Or, you may want to go home, and let your aunt know what you’ve learned. I assume she’s aware Dianna and I were…friends?”
“She knows,” Skip nodded. The others waited for him to offer more information, but he didn’t. Jonathan changed the subject.
“The funeral will be later tonight. After that, I expect the Blaze to help Jennifer and me figure out next steps. I imagine we will end up trying to track down Evangelos, though I’m not yet sure how to do that.”
“What happens after we find him?” Jennifer shuddered at the memory of the dark, cold thing hovering over her grandfather. The first time, her anger had gotten the better of her and she had lunged thoughtlessly. She wasn’t sure how brave she would be in a rematch.
“I won’t mince words,” her father answered. “Evangelos is my son. He is your half brother—and Skip’s, too. But he is a killer, and we have to stop him. Somehow.”
CHAPTER 8
The Elder’s Funeral
Several hours after Elizabeth and Skip left in the minivan, with darkn
ess settling over the cabin, three dragons arrived. Ned Brownfoot was one of them—he’d come to take his old friend back into another world. Ned and the others helped Jonathan bring Crawford’s body from the cabin, out over the lake, and into Crescent Valley.
The first thing Jennifer noticed when they emerged into the ancient refuge was that the large crescent moon, which normally greeted them with a ring of fire, gave no such sign this time.
“The venerables are waiting,” Jonathan explained. “They will not signal again, until your grandfather has a proper funeral.” The dragons struck out in a path Jennifer had never taken before—due north, with the area of their homes and hunt far off to the left.
Jennifer ignored the additional clue about the venerables, and instead asked a question that had been on her mind since that afternoon.
“Dad, Evangelos attacked last night, right?”
“Right.”
“And the moon didn’t wane into a crescent until tonight, twenty-four hours later, right?”
His silence indicated that he had not thought of this yet. “This is a mystery.”
“You want to know what I think?” She was proud that she had thought most of this through—using the same logic Mr. Slider was so fond of. “I think he’s got a bit of Ancient Furnace in him, too. I mean, he’s your son, which puts him in the fiftieth generation of Scales, just like me. It makes sense that he’d be able to change at will.”
Despite their grim errand, Jonathan glowed with admiration. “It’s getting harder and harder to stay ahead of you, ace. I’ll admit I hadn’t thought that deeply about it. Soon, you’ll be giving me lectures.”
“Count on it. Anyway, a big part of tracking down my brother will be figuring out who he is when he’s human.”
“Of course, it’s possible he’s always in beast form.”
“I don’t think so. I mean, I feel pressure to change into dragon form if I stay human for too long—but I also feel pressure to change back. I know we can’t be sure, but my guess would be some of the time, at least, he’s running around as a guy. How old did you say Evangelos was?”
Jennifer Scales and the Messenger of Light Page 10
