Holliday stepped forward slowly, swirling his hammer around his body in wide loops, high over his shoulder then lower in front of his body. The head of the hammer moved so fast that it blurred into as if Holliday was surrounded by a solid band of dark smoke. “You can’t win,” he said.
I scrambled to my feet, dripping muddy water. “Don’t you know that premature bragging always backfires? That’s villain 101.”
“I think you are confused about who the villain is here. You are the ticking time bomb, the danger to humanity.”
“And you are the assassin, come to murder me in my birthday suit.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I didn’t come to kill you.”
“You didn’t?” The Sentinel Order wanted me dead; that had been made very clear. “Just go then, forget you found me,” I said. “I disappeared once and can again.”
“You know that’s not an option.”
“That’s what I figured.” I let my fireswords disappear and sprinted for the cabin. Water splashed behind me as Holliday pursued. I charged inside, then slammed the door shut behind me. Before I had a chance to decide what to do next, the door exploded inward, showering me with splinters. I backed against the far wall.
Holliday paused at the doorway. “Why run into a room with one door?”
Because I hadn’t fancied charging into the wilderness naked and barefoot. “Fighting naked is undignified,” I said. “Allow me to get dressed, at least.”
“Undignified—that’s your problem? Are you kidding me? Killing, if it comes to that, is messy business. A bit of nakedness doesn’t change that in the slightest. And your discomfort gives me an advantage.”
I touched the wall behind me, preparing to throw myself through it.
“When I intend to kill, I seize every advantage. If that had been my purpose, I would have attacked when you were singing in the rain.”
“I wasn’t singing.” I still found it difficult to believe that he didn’t want me dead, but he hadn’t pushed his advantage at any point. “What do you want with me then?”
Holliday let his warhammer disappear. “May I sit?”
“I’m not set up for entertaining.” I touched the back wall again, assuring myself I could break through it before Holliday reached me if this ended up being some kind of ploy.
Holliday looked around, then sat on the bed. “Have you been living here all this time?”
I gave a nod. There didn’t seem any point denying it.
“Did you really think you could eek out a life for yourself here? You had to know that you’d be found. Is there a big African river around here somewhere?”
“An African river?”
“Yeah, because you are living in the Nile. De Nile, get it?”
“I agreed to listen to you. I didn’t agree to torture in the form of terrible jokes.”
Holliday laughed. “I liked you from the first. Just a fresh faced kid, but you always had big swinging balls.”
“Lowndes thought I was a punk. She’s dead now.”
Holliday laughed again. “Look at you. Trying out your big boy threats. It’s rather undermined though by that adolescent manhood you wield.”
“What did I say about terrible jokes?”
“That one wasn’t a joke. It’s as obvious as the nose on that ugly face.” He nodded toward my crotch area.
If I got out of this, I was never getting undressed ever again. “What do you want with me if not to kill me?”
“You are aware of Doctor Kressan’s work?”
She had created the machine which caused the Searing. “Of course,” I said.
Just as elementals in Brimstone were divided into smoke and fire elementals, sentinels on Earth were imbued with either smoke or fire power. Uro had tainted fire sentinels in such a way that using our magic created a portal to Brimstone. The Sentinel Order, whose leadership had become dominated by smoke sentinels, were ruthlessly determined to fight all things Brimstone, even if that meant eliminating half their order. Via Kressan’s machine, a powerful artifact called a fire summoning crystal, and my own agency, the Searing had caused fire sentinels the world over to lose their powers. Because I was inside the machine, I was the only one spared the Searing. “Lowndes killed Kressan,” I said.
Holliday nodded. “We know. Lowndes made an almighty mess of her entire mission, but killing Kressan was her biggest mistake. That set us back terribly, but we have people building on her work.”
“I didn’t know the Order cared so much about machines.”
“Until recently, we had no idea of what they were capable of. Kressan’s changed the way we think about Brimstone. Before, we saw an eternal fight: sentinels versus shades forever. Now, we see solutions. An end to the war.”
“What kind of end?” If I knew the Order, something they considered satisfactory could be abhorrent.
“The important thing is we believe you can help us with it. That’s why you weren’t cut down mid-song. That’s why I’m asking you to come with me.”
“Asking?”
Holliday looked up at me from where in sat on the bed with a tight smile. “We’ll start with asking and go from there.”
I was coming around to the idea that Holliday really was alone. Which was good, since there was no way I was going along with whatever he wanted. But I could pretend for a time. “Okay. I’ll go with you.”
“Just like that?”
“You’ve shown me I have no choice.”
“Now why don’t I believe you?”
“Because you have a suspicious mind?”
“It has served me well,” Holliday said. “The Order and you, we have never gotten off to a good start.”
“Might have something to do with how you keep killing my friends.”
“We are at war, Rune. I’m not sure you understand that.” Holliday’s smiles were gone. “Most of the country gets to continue living their civilian lives, but those of us on the front line can never forget that we must continue to battle in not just any old war, but the ultimate one—a war for Earth, a war for humankind. Battles can be lost, lives sometimes need to be sacrificed, but humans can’t end up on the wrong side at the end. Walker understands that more than anyone. This is why he is the leader we need. Uro raised the stakes, and we have to be ready to respond in kind.”
“You talk about it like it’s straightforward, but this isn’t good versus evil.” If it was, the Sentinel Order wasn’t on the side of good. “It’s much more complicated than that.” Since becoming a sentinel, every one of my decisions had been double-edged. And, at every turn, I had made a bad choice. And yet, looking back, I couldn’t see what else I could have done.
“Humans versus aliens. It couldn’t be any clearer. Are you seriously against humans?”
“We sentinels are not even fully human. And shades were once human.” Sentinels were humans who were born with the power of Brimstone inside them, though that power only manifested itself when they became adults. Shades were humans who became possessed by the creatures who inhabited Brimstone, elementals of fire or smoke. The personality of a shade was a strange combination of the original human and the elemental.
Holliday shook his head. “You overcomplicate what, at its core, is simple. You just need the strength of vision to see through the deception of our enemies, and you need the strength of purpose to follow the right path.”
“And I know I have neither. That’s why I don’t want to fight. That’s why I retreated to here.” The rays of light playing on Holliday’s face as he sat on the bed gave me an idea. I stepped away from the wall. “Can’t I be neutral? Can’t I be Switzerland?”
“Remember that Switzerland were allowed to remain neutral only because they aided and abetted the Nazis,” Holliday said. “And other countries were not given the same choice. Consider yourself Belgium. You are in the middle of the frontline and don’t have the liberty of opting out.” Holliday stared at me. “Can you commit to helping the Order?”
“I need t
o think.” I lowered my head into my hand as I stepped forward, closer to Holliday and the bed. Then, I jerked downward, grabbed a leg of the bed and flipped it over. Holliday yelped as he disappeared under the upturned bed. I raced for the porch, then leaned my back against the stack of firewood and shoved, hoping that my personal Sword of Damocles could now be turned to my advantage. For a moment, it seemed nothing would happen, then with a crack, the boards in the cabin gave way and the whole stack of firewood tilted inward and fell into the cabin. With the destruction of half the wall, part of the roof also collapsed inward. Holliday shouted out, though it was more snarl of anger than scream of pain.
I raced for the pickup truck, jumped inside, and turned the key. The engine spluttered, then died. Beelzebub. I slammed my fists against the steering wheel. Don’t do this to me. Not now. I turned the key again. This time I got nothing at all, the engine dead.
I paused. Took a breath. The wreckage of the cabin shifted as Holliday fought himself free. I pumped on the gas pedal four times, the engine off. Then I paused again. I turned the key. The engine coughed, then roared into life. “You beauty!” I shouted at it, putting it in gear, then slamming down on the gas pedal. The tires spun, kicking up dirt, then the pickup leaped forward. I yanked on the steering wheel, bringing the pickup around. In the rearview mirror, I saw Holliday clambering free.
I accelerated coming out of the out the first corner, then slowed as I came upon a sleek black car parked at the side of the track, a car that would, in short order, be able to run down my own functional but less than high-powered pickup. As I came alongside the car, I slowed to a crawl. I opened the pickup door, then used my foot to hold it open. I leaned to the side, lowering my left hand into the gap between the open door and the floor. I summoned my firesword, pointing it outward. Driving past, the sword slashed through first the back tire, then the front one. The firesword disappeared, and I pulled my hand and foot back inside, letting the door slam shut.
Before I had a chance to congratulate myself, a flash of movement in the rearview mirror grabbed my attention. I turned around to see Holliday hurtling through the forest at top speed, slashing through the undergrowth.
A bump in the road threw me to the side and jerked the steering wheel; the pickup veered toward the ditch. I yanked the wheel back the other way, turning around to face forward again. Once I had regained control, I glanced back at the rearview mirror.
Holliday had briefly gained on me, but I was beginning to pick up enough speed that he was falling back again.
Coming upon a corner, I braked as little as I dared. Two wheels slid off the road. The tires spun furiously as the pickup came to almost a complete stop. Checking the rearview mirror, I saw to my horror that Holliday had jumped toward me. Still twenty paces back at the start of the jump, he was heading straight for the back of the truck. My foot jammed the gas pedal against the floor, the engine whined like a tortured seal, and the whirling wheels kicked up slashing mud.
I had an instant to fear that the pickup was stuck, then it gained traction and leaped forward. Just in time, too, for an instant later Holliday landed where the pickup had just been. Missing his target didn’t slow him down. He briefly stumbled upon landing, then resumed his pursuit, the better surface of the road allowing him to run faster still.
However, with a long flat section of road ahead of me, and the surface continuing to improve, I reached a speed that allowed me to significantly outpace him. Holliday continued to sprint after me for long seconds after I willed him to give up. Then, finally, he slowed to a walk. He shouted something after me that I couldn’t make out.
Even with Holliday having given up, I kept going as fast as I dared, being careful to slow down enough at the corners that I wasn’t risking a crash—it would have been the ultimate stupidity to overturn the vehicle with escape within my grasp. Which meant I was half-expecting just that to happen.
Only when I reached the main road did my thoughts turn toward what was going to happen next. Not only had the Sentinel Order discovered me, but I literally didn’t have any clothes on my back. I checked the fuel gauge—less than a quarter of a tank left. And no money to pay for gas.
Passing the store where the trouble had begun, I scowled in that direction. Then, following an impulse, I slammed on the brakes. The back of the pickup fishtailed slightly as it slowed enough to make the left turn. I parked it up alongside the store, and before I had a chance to second-guess myself, I stepped out of the vehicle and stormed up to and through the door.
Once again the store was empty except for the same clerk. This time he had his shotgun already in hand, aimed at me.
Standing there naked and muddy with a shotgun pointed at me, I did the last thing he expected.
I smiled.
Chapter 4
Tuesday 08:20
The clerk jerked backward, the shotgun wobbling in his hands. “You,” he said. “What are you doing here again?”
“I came to piss on the floor.”
The barrel of the shotgun trembled. “Just get out.”
“You really want me to go? Don’t you want to be part of the storm. No, what did you call it, the blizzard, right?” I held out my right hand and my firesword appeared. “Welcome to the blizzard.
The shotgun fell out of his hand, bounced off the counter, then slammed onto the floor.
He looked down at it, then back up at me, both of us surprised it didn’t go off. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“You should have thought of that before you started blabbing about me all over town.” I stepped toward the counter.
“I didn’t.” He stumbled backward until his back hit the wall, knocking over cigarette packets. “I mean…I just mentioned you at the LiSS meeting. I didn’t know who you were. If I did, I never would have.” He gulped.
The tip of my firesword wavered in front of his throat. After having to suffer through his constant air of superiority when we last met, it was good to see him turn into quivering jelly in front of me. “Shouldn’t you be in your knees.”
“My knees?”
“You go to the Lusteer Shade, sorry, Liberty Shade Society meetings, don’t you? Shouldn’t you want to worship powerful magic-users like you do the dragon?”
“If…if…if you want.” The clerk swallowed hard, then fell to his knees.
“Get up. You look like an idiot on your knees in front of a naked man.” I let the firesword disappear.
The clerk hesitated until I gestured again for him to rise.
“As you can tell, I’m lacking in resources,” I told him.
“You came to rob me?”
“No. I came to receive offerings. I’ll start with your clothes.”
“My clothes?”
“Having to repeat myself is getting tiresome. Yes, your clothes; take them off.”
The clerk hurried to comply, but his hands were shaking so much that he had trouble unbuckling his belt.
That make you feel better, did it? Jerome thought. Make you feel like a big man?
Why shouldn’t my powers allow me to feel good once in a while? I thought. That clerk is the biggest ass in the known universe. Does being a sentinel bring no rewards?
I picked up a basket and quickly moved through the aisles. This time, I wasn’t looking for resources to survive in the wild, but rather what I needed to return to normal society. I grabbed soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, scissors, razor. I also threw some chocolate bars and other snacks into the basket. I had a long drive to get back to Lusteer.
When I returned to the clerk, he had stripped off his jeans, top and T-shirt and was hesitating over his underwear. “Leave that,” I told him. “You think I want to wear your disgusting underwear?”
I picked up his jeans and pulled a wallet from the front pocket. I took the cash, then dropped the wallet on the floor. “Is this all the money you have?”
The clerk nodded.
I needed money for gas and food and that didn’t look like enough. “Your do
nations to the cause are severely lacking. Are you seriously telling me this is all you are willing to contribute?”
“It’s all I have on me.”
I nodded toward the register. “Maybe you could borrow some.”
He didn’t hesitate. “Of course.” He pressed a button and the register opened. He flipped up a lever, then grabbed a fistful of notes and handed them across.
“Thank you.” I took a chunk of the money, ignoring the notes that fell. I gestured at the items in the basket. “Ring up these few items as well when you are working out how much you owe the register. Your generosity is appreciated.” I threw his jeans into the basket, then followed it up with his top and T-shirt and headed for the door.
“Are you going to Lusteer?” the clerk called after me. “Are you going to join him?”
“I’m going to Lusteer,” I said. But I’m going to kill him, I thought.
Only in that moment did I realize what I intended to do, though from my calculation on the amount I needed for gas, my subconscious had been quicker on the uptake. Holliday and the Sentinel Order would be after me wherever I went, but that wasn’t my main concern. I had caused Duffy to become a dragon—my actions had directly led to his current reign of terror in Lusteer.
I exited the shop and climbed back inside the pickup, dropping the basket on the passenger seat. This time the engine started on the first turn of the key. I knew what I needed to do.
Of course, needing to do something was very different from having the slightest hope of defeating a gigantic fire-breathing dragon.
Chapter 5
Wednesday 11:05
I was half and half, half energized and half exhausted—bone-deep weary from driving all night without any sleep and simultaneously twitchy from drinking several cups coffee overnight after months without caffeine. And one whole of a nervous wreak.
Fire Serpent Page 3
