I refocused on the screen, watching as the dragon swooped lower. The camera lost him for a moment, zooming out until it caught Duffy flying low over an estate of double-story houses. The ordinariness of the houses highlighted the absurd impossibility of what I was seeing. A Beelzebub-blasted dragon in the real world.
With the dragon outpacing the zoom, it disappeared into the distance. After a cut, video from a different camera appeared on screen. It showed Duffy circling above the JC prison complex. Whereas the previous camera feed appeared to come from a media helicopter, this one came from ground level, and from the quality and jumpiness it was most likely taken by a cameraphone. As the prison was designed to hold supernaturals, much of it was made from titanium, the metal which blocked power from Brimstone, but, of course, that didn’t affect Duffy flying above it. I didn’t have much time to wonder what had drawn Duffy to the prison before he opened his mouth and aimed a stream of fire at the nearest buildings.
I stepped closer still, my mouth hinging open. Duffy didn’t just look like a dragon, he could breathe fire like the dragons of legend; though, considering the fire elementals inside him, perhaps it shouldn’t have been that surprising. Still, I had never seen magic capable of that amount of devastation, not on Earth at least. Then again I’d never seen any supernatural as big as Duffy had become. With several buildings engulfed in flame, the dragon swept upward, twisted around, then returned to blast another part of the prison with his fiery breath. I watched, horrified. Surely no one was inside.
Please let no one be inside, I thought. Just before I’d left Lusteer, I’d broken in to the JC and ended up releasing many of the prisoners, and I could only hope that the prison had remained dormant since.
“Don’t piss on the floor.”
“Excuse me.” I dragged my attention away from the TV.
The clerk smirked. He was a young man, barely twenty, long-limbed, with a thin acne-scarred face. He wore a denim jacket, and a straggly goatee clung to the underside of his chin. “You’ve the look of a man who has lost control of his faculties,” he said.
I took a sudden stride toward him, his snooty attitude grating on me. The clerk snapped his hand under the counter; he was clearly the type who liked to back up his insults with a sneaky grip on a hidden weapon.
Being a fire sentinel meant I wasn’t afraid of whatever weapon the clerk could spring on me. However, with the Sentinel Order searching for me, likely with kill-on-sight orders, I couldn’t reveal myself—despite all my powers, I had to act the weakling. I shuffled backward a few steps, and the clerk returned his hand onto the top of the counter, a smirk on his face.
“You aren’t shocked by what’s on the news.” I gestured toward the screen, though the channel had already switched to an ad break.
“The first time I saw it, maybe, a little bit.” The clerk brayed a half-laugh. “It’s been shown every day for months. You’d have to be from the Stone Age not to have seen it by now.” He sneered. “From the looks of you, perhaps you are.”
I looked down at myself, only then realizing the state I in was in. My clothes were torn, the backs of my hands were streaked with mud, and my beard smelled of rotting wood. “Do you sell credit for phones?” The wilderness could get you dirty, but only civilization could make you feel dirty.
“Didn’t know that Neanderthals used the internet,” the clerk said. “Though I guess everyone has needs.” He leered at me; holy hell, he was obnoxious. “How much credit do you want?” he asked. “Which network?”
Before I had a chance to reply, my attention was drawn back to the TV, triggered by hearing a name I recognized—Caroline Black.
The screen showed a deserted alleyway. “Caroline Black is hidden deep inside the bowels of the city and speaking to you at great personal risk,” a voiceover said.
Caroline Black emerged from the shadows, looked one way then the other before skittishly approaching the camera. Though she was plainly dressed in blue jeans and a beige sweater, she wore makeup and her slightly askew hair had an artful rather than a careless look about it.
“What can you tell us about the latest events?” the newscaster asked.
“The only events are a continual crushing of people’s spirits. They cry out for hope,” Caroline said. “The people in Lusteer desperately need saving, and the national government refuses to answer our call. It’s been over four months since the beast flew into the city and destroyed the shade prison simply to demonstrate his power. Four months. One hundred and twenty five days.”
“As you know, there have been threats—”
“All I know is that it’s blatant cowardice to allow this great country to be cowed in this way. If our current leaders do not have what it takes to act in this moment of crisis, they should step aside and allow—”
The sound cut off and the screen went black.
I looked back at the clerk, who had the remote pointed at the TV. “I hate that woman,” he said. “I’ve no idea why they keep putting her on. She always repeats the same spiel in a different way. How is it news to hear the same woman bitching about the same thing each day? If I wanted that, I’d get married.” He gave me a greasy smile. “Am I right?”
“The prison, was there anyone inside?” I asked. “When D— When the dragon did what he did?”
The clerk shrugged. “I notice you call the dragon a ‘he’.” His eyes narrowed. “Most refer to the creature as an it.”
“I presume there’s some kind of intelligence behind the scales. And I didn’t take it as a she.”
“She. Yeah, right.” The clerk sniggered. “If you want to know the truth”—He cast a quick glance around the empty store, then leaned closed to me, lowering his voice—“The real truth. You won’t find it on those propaganda networks.” The clerk picked up a remote and the numbers 703 appeared briefly on screen, then the channel changed. I immediately recognized the icon in the corner of the screen which was made up of the letters LNN with the L lengthened so that the bottom of it underlined the two Ns.
“Why do you have the Lusteer News Network this far from Lusteer?” I asked.
“It’s the Liberty News Network, dope,” the clerk said.
“Oh.” They must have changed the name while keeping the same icon. The destruction of the prison was not the only change that had happened to Lusteer while I had been away.
The channel showed an aged man with a microphone, his jet-black hair blowing in fierce gusts of wind. It took me a moment to place him. It was Fred Hanson, who’d been one of the main faces of the Lusteer News up until recently.
“This is where Lusteer’s savior landed on that great day several months ago,” Fred said. “Here, on top of the tallest skyscraper in the city, he shot fire into the night sky and in that moment, the city was forever changed. It was the day that Lusteer was liberated. If you are watching from another part of the country, then know that you are not forgotten and your day will come.” Fred Hanson took several steps back and gestured to his left. “As you can imagine, the top of Verge Tower was not dragon accessible at that time.” The camera zoomed back to show that a large section of roof had recently been smashed through. Patches of concrete repaired the sides of the hole, and a metal frame had been installed with a transparent covering fitted to it. Effectively, a giant skylight had been added to the hotel. “Of course, the world is accessible to those powerful enough,” Fred continued. “And if we have to remake the world so that it better suits them, then so be.”
Fred moved closer to the skylight, which had been tilted to the side. A makeshift but sturdy ramp had been installed, leading down into a large chamber which had clearly been formed by the removal of several floors and many walls. Fred passed through the skylight and started down the giant ramp. “I’ve been invited to show you into the inner sanctum. The dragon is presently sleeping, but, when awake, this place is where he invites the rulers of Lusteer to consult with him.”
The sound went out, and I looked up to see that the clerk had muted the s
ound. “Liberty News is available countrywide for those who no longer want to remain blind,” he said. “Change is coming to the world; a blizzard is coming. It’s better to be part of the blizzard than be blown down by it.”
“That makes no sense.”
The clerk stretched his neck, tilting his chin upward, then looked me up and down. “You an expert now? A minute ago, you didn’t know dragon-fire from bad breath.”
Despite an urge to strangle the kid, I kept my voice calm. I wanted to keep him talking. “How do you become part of the blizzard?”
He lowered his voice. “Have you heard of LiSS?”
I shook my head though it did sound vaguely familiar. Then, I remembered something. “You mean LuSS? The Lusteer Shade Society?”
“Are you from Lusteer?”
I shook my head again, lowering my gaze. I had said too much.
“You have the city on your brain,” the clerk said. “LiSS is the Liberty Shade Society and they have chapters throughout the country. The prophet didn’t just come to save Lusteer, you know; he’s here to free the world. That’s just where he decided to start.”
“Prophet. Him? Yeah, right.” I snorted. Duffy turning into a fire breathing dragon was more plausible than him turning into a religious figurehead.
I looked up to see the clerk studying me. “Who are you?”
“I’m nobody.” I turned and headed for the exit.
“Wait, come back!”
I pushed out through the door, letting it crash closed behind me. At the pickup, I looked back. Through the glass door, I could see the clerk waving something in my direction. The phone credit, I realized. After all that, I had forgotten to buy it.
Well, I wasn’t going back. I climbed into the pickup. The engine roared to life with the first turn of the key. I drove to the road, then paused, uncertain of which direction I was going.
You can’t go back to the cabin, Jerome thought. Knowing what you know?
I squeezed the steering wheel, and my knuckles whitened. I shouldn’t have tried to find out what was going on. Knowing that my home had been terrorized—was still being terrorized—made doing nothing harder.
Harder didn’t mean impossible. I just had to know that what I was doing was right, and I had to be strong.
I remembered Pete. His death wasn’t on my hands, but I hadn’t been able to keep him safe. And he would never have been in that situation—he’d never have gotten involved in the fight, never been in danger, if it hadn’t been for me.
Thinking that Jo might not be safe felt like hot acid in my stomach. But if I went back to Lusteer, I’d only be bringing more danger with me.
I had to be strong.
I turned the steering wheel and pressed on the gas, directing the pickup back toward the cabin.
Chapter 3
Tuesday 07:45
I raised my arm to block the light streaming in through the window, blinking hard as my eyes adjusted. I rubbed sleep from my eyes as I sat up; I couldn’t remember the last time I had woken to the full light of morning. Shards of light coming though cracks in the walls stabbed at swirling dust motes.
Many of the bigger cracks were above the head of the bed where the wall bowed inward. I had many times determined to fix that wall, strengthen it, but I had never done it. Something about having an avalanche of wood ready to fall on my head while I slept seemed fitting, somehow—my own personal Sword of Damocles.
I threw off the blanket and sat up, still tired. It had been a restless night. Visions of a dragon wreaking havoc on Lusteer had kept me from sleep until close to dawn, though nightmares about Duffy hadn’t been the only thing that had been different. I also hadn’t visited the Oasis.
I hadn’t believed Sash when she told me that I’d seen her for the last time. I guess I still didn’t.
Rain drummed against the roof. I moved to the window and looked outside, watching heavy raindrops splash in muddy puddles. Yesterday had been the first day since I’d arrived that I’d done absolutely nothing productive, and something told me today was going to be more of the same. After seeing a dragon incinerate a prison, chopping firewood or spear fishing seemed meaningless.
But what was the point in moping around, with thoughts circling ever darker? I glanced back outside, then, following a sudden impulse, I stripped off my underwear and walked outside, coming to a stop where the rain was heaviest. Naked except for the barbed wire necklace, I closed my eyes, tilted my face upward. The rain stung my skin and a sharp gusts of wind raised goosebumps all over my body. I ran my fingers through my beard and remembered the way the clerk had looked at me. Only civilization can make you feel dirty, I had thought. But that wasn’t true. There were many ways to feel unclean, and rainwater didn’t help with most of them.
I started to rub my hands along my shoulders, then across my chest, wiping off dirt. I can’t go back to Lusteer, I thought. I’ll only make things worse. I always make things worse. Jerome had no answer for me. I rubbed harder, scouring something—I didn’t know what—off my skin.
“Are you going to start singing?” a voice called out.
I swiveled around. Standing ten paces away was Gary Holliday.
My gaze darted back and forth, looking for others, but he appeared to be alone. “I didn’t know I had an audience,” I said.
“You thought yourself invisible?” Rain dripped from Holliday’s hair and face.
“No, just out of sight.”
“You should have known better. You are the last fire sentinel, after all. How secret could you really expect to remain?” Holliday was a barrel-chested man with a constant half-smile on his face. He appeared unarmed, but as a smoke sentinel, he could summon a multani—in his case, a giant war hammer—in an instant. He was a key member of the Sentinel Order.
I looked around again. Could he really be alone? If he was, perhaps I had a chance. “I was invisible for nearly a year despite, I’m sure, the considerable resources of the Sentinel Order looking for me. I won’t make the same mistake again. The clerk in the store, right?”
Holliday tilted his head to the side. “Kind of.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” It had been stupid to stop at a store so close to where I lived. And even stupider to engage the clerk in conversation about Lusteer, then charge out.
“We were always going to find you,” Holliday said. “One of our scientists has invented a machine that detects supernatural activity, and we have tuned it for fire sentinels.”
“That’s a lie. You would have been here earlier if you had that.”
“How do you think I got here so fast? The device isn’t that accurate, but we used it to concentrate our search in this area. It’s true, though, that it was your carelessness that brought me directly to your door. The Order has agents in LiSS, and the shop clerk’s story was what had me sending a drone over the area searching for a blue pickup.”
I glanced across at the pickup truck. I couldn’t do anything about a machine such as Holliday described, but I could keep my vehicle under cover the next time. If there was a next time. “If you were so sure I was close, why are you alone?” I couldn’t imagine the Order had only one person looking for me.
“I wasn’t alone until recently, but events in Lusteer are heating up.” He smiled. “Dragon-fire tends to have that effect. I’m due there myself soon.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” I wasn’t sure how much I could believe.
“I’ve always been too talkative, I guess, but we all have to work with what we have. In my case, a smidgen of charm.”
“How does charm help to kill people?”
“It disarms them.” Holliday chuckled.
“So you are saying that I shouldn’t let myself be distracted.” I summoned my fireswords. “Thanks for the warning.”
“Be careful with those,” Holliday said. “Not sure they are safe for naked operation. Something might get chopped off.”
I had a sudden realization of how surreal the scene was. Here I stoo
d, naked in the pouring rain, my fireswords fizzing angrily, bantering with another sentinel, one who wanted me dead.
“Listen.” Holliday took a step toward me.
I attacked, pulling both fireswords over my right shoulder as I jumped toward Holliday, then slashing downward just as I landed. Holliday leaned backward so that the tips of the swords passed in front of his chest. His own weapon, a black warhammer of swirling back smoke, appeared in his hands, and he immediately struck out with it, stabbing forward with the spike jutting from the head of the hammer.
I desperately threw myself to the side, deflecting the thrust. I threw out a counterstrike with my other firesword, but, off-balance, the strike went wide. I stumbled away, my bare feet slipping in the mud.
“Do you really think ancient warriors charged into battle naked?” Holliday asked. “Wouldn’t it provoke hilarity rather than fear?” He looked me up and down, squinting. “Or perhaps that is just with you.”
I stepped forward, stabbing with my left firesword, following up with an overhand strike with the right one. The force of Holliday’s block with the hammer on my left firesword sent a shard of pain up my arm. He swiftly reversed the hammer to block my right firesword.
I fell back, my left hand dangling low by my side. I shook it to regain feeling, then quickly raised it again to deflect another blow from Holliday. The hammer was longer than he was tall, the head of it the size of a cinderblock. If it had been a real weapon with real mass, it would have been too cumbersome to be effective. As it was, Holliday could wield it like a rapier, sending the hammer flashing at my head, then stabbing the handle at my torso an instant later.
My arms flailed in front of me, my fireswords whizzing back and forth as I made block after block, stumbling backward at each step to give myself space and time. I tried to deflect or dodge the heaviest of the blows, but that wasn’t always possible. When Holliday managed to get his full weight into a hammer strike aimed at the center of my chest, and my crossed fireswords took the full force of the impact, and I went flying backward, skidding through puddles and across mud.
Fire Serpent Page 2
