Unleashed

by John Levitt

  “I know things.”

  “And you have a problem with that?”

  “No, not at all. She, and those like her, aren’t really individuals like you or me—they take on the aspect and intelligence of others, and without a host of sorts they remain basically just animals. But there’s something else interesting about them that you don’t know.”

  “They rise from the grave at the new moon?”

  “Don’t joke about things you know nothing about. But no, nothing like that.”

  I waited patiently. I was fairly certain he was bluffing, trying to pull some sort of scam to get his fix, but he might have valuable information. Or rather, he might be willing to share it. I had no doubt that he knew more than he ever let on.

  “All those shape-shifters have their little differences,” the Wendigo said, “but there is one thing about them that’s a constant, that always holds true.”

  “And what might that be?” I asked warily. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like the answer. The Wendigo smiled, almost gleefully.

  “Just this. They seldom enter the world alone, and they never stay alone. They exist in pairs. Always.”

  He leaned back in his chair with a satisfied smile, proud of the bombshell he’d dropped. When he noticed I was looking at him with no change of expression, he frowned.

  “You don’t believe me?” he said.

  “No, I believe you. But you’re a day late and a dollar short.”

  “Beg pardon?”

  “It’s an expression. Not to burst your bubble, but I already figured that out.”

  The Wendigo looked positively crestfallen. He’d expected his news to knock me off my feet. Maybe it would have if he hadn’t waited so long.

  “Okay, so you know about that.” He paused and thought for a moment. “What about the energy pool—the one I came out of? And the others?”

  “Yeah? What about it?”

  “It’s an open conduit, you know. Other things can come out of it as well. You really need to shut it off.”

  “Yeah, we figured that out as well. But we’ve had more pressing issues lately.” I shook my head. “Anyway, that’s not information. That’s advice.”

  “Oh, I know. I was just trying to be helpful, that’s all.”

  “And pick up some stones.”

  “Well, yes. But you don’t want them anyway, not really. And I did want to help.”

  I left the table and played the rest of the gig in a funk. When the Wendigo came into the club, he mixed the two worlds that I tried so hard to keep separate. It was hard to concentrate on the music when the sight of him was a constant reminder that there was unfinished and unpleasant business waiting for me. The simple life of an ordinary musician had never looked so good.

  NEXT MORNING I WAS BACK AT VICTOR’S. PROBLEM was, we had nothing to go on. If we waited for more dead people to start turning up, that would give us a place to start, but it would be a little hard on the victims.

  But one thing that the Wendigo had said was true—we needed to close off the energy pool. So far, four things had come through—the fake Ifrit, the Wendigo, and apparently two of the shape-shifters. And perhaps even other things we didn’t know about yet. And as long as it stayed open, there was always the chance that something even worse might appear. In fact, I didn’t understand why we hadn’t already been inundated with uncanny apparitions.

  Eli thought there must be specific circumstances governing it.

  “You mean like the new moon falling on a rainy night?” I asked.

  “Something like that, but nothing that simple, I imagine,” he said. “It would take a lot of study to figure it out. It will be a lot quicker just to shut it down.”

  Easier said than done. I had no idea about how to go even get started, but Eli and Victor were in their element. We decided to wait until dark, since the construction site was active during the day, and there was no way to operate until it shut down. The energy pool was more apparent at night anyway, easier to locate and isolate. They spent the rest of the day poring over books and arguing about the best way to dissolve the pool. I stayed out of the way for the most part. About seven, we headed out.

  Eli was disturbed at the turn things had taken, but he was thrilled to finally be able to meet Rolf. Eli was the one who had figured out what he and those like him were—practitioners who had changed over time so that they were no longer quite human, but instead incarnations of myth and lore, magical beings themselves. But with one thing or another, he’d never met any of them.

  Rolf was alone, though, which was a disappointment for Eli. He’d particularly wanted to get a look at Richard Cory. Rolf let us in, sizing up Victor and Eli. He immediately took to Eli, but didn’t seem to care much for Victor. I guess he hadn’t yet lost all his human reactions.

  “What brings you here tonight?” he asked.

  “We need to close down the energy pool,” I said, getting right to the point. “We think there might be other things that could come through it, and the ones that already have weren’t too friendly.”

  “Be my guest. You may be right, but it’s not something I’d care to mess with, myself.”

  “What gave you the idea to create it in the first place?” Eli asked. “And how exactly did you manifest it?”

  “We didn’t mean to,” Rolf said. “It just happened.”

  Eli immediately started in speculations about the unconscious and its relation to talent. Which led, inevitably, to the subject of Ifrits, and why Rolf and his friends never acquired them.

  Rolf became instantly wrapped up in the discussion, and the two of them ended up sitting cross-legged on the ground next to scraps of concrete and lumber, chattering on like two unkempt chess-playing codgers in a city park. Victor waited impatiently, then gave up temporarily and wandered back to where the energy pool shimmered and sparkled in the darkness. When he almost walked right into it, I realized he couldn’t see it. That was a complication.

  Eli finally joined us, still talking to Rolf, and he couldn’t see it, either. Rolf seemed to be amused by that.

  “Any ideas?” I said to him. Rolf nodded and draped his arms around both their shoulders.

  “Ahh,” said Eli. “Now I see. Amazing.”

  Rolf removed his arms from their shoulders, but once they’d seen the pool they could keep their vision of it. Victor walked around to the other side, taking care not to get too close.

  “Hmm,” he said. “Now that I actually see it, I’m thinking we might have to change our strategy.”

  “It’s too strong to push it back,” Eli agreed. He walked around the pool and joined Victor on the other side. “Perhaps we could speed it up, instead. Add some additional energy and destabilize it that way.”

  “Hmm. Could work. What about the Coriolis force? Can we adapt that?”

  “No, but there should be an analogue we could use.”

  As usual, they were talking way over my head. I wandered away and joined Rolf.

  “Quite the professors, ain’t they?” he said.

  “Not a bad thing, actually. It doesn’t hurt to be smart.”

  “Never said it did.”

  We watched them measuring and discussing. After a time, Victor reached into his traveling bag and took out four crystals, placing them around the perimeter of the circle, evenly spaced. Next came a series of wooden rods, and he enclosed each crystal with a triangle of three sticks, like a little tent. Finally, he nodded and stood next to Eli.

  “Will it be enough?” asked Eli, and Victor shrugged.

  I walked over slowly to where they stood. Eli in particular wasn’t going to like this, but I had no choice.

  “These might help,” I said, taking the two rune stones that I’d been carrying around out of my pocket. Eli looked at them, then at me.

  “How long have you had those, son?” he said quietly.

  “All along. I kept a few back when we used them to trap the Wendigo.”

  Victor just shook his head and reached out a
hand for them, but Eli stepped forward and took them instead.

  “How many more do you have at home?”

  “Some.”

  “My fault. I should have known. A junkie doesn’t turn over all his drugs just because you ask for them. Well, time for that later. Right now we can certainly use these.” He handed one of the stones to Victor, who circled around to the opposite side. Eli lifted up his own stone, and a rueful smile broke out upon his face.

  “I forgot how it feels to hold these,” he said. “This is what it feels like to have real power. Very seductive, I must say.” He called over to Victor.

  “Ready?” Victor raised one arm in the air. “Now,” said Eli, and there was a crackling sound as a flash of phosphorescent green light arced between the stones. The crystals flashed in unison and began to pulse with their own light of swirling color, reflecting the colors of the pool. The swirl of colors in the energy pool started to move more quickly, and a high-pitched hum like a jet turbine filled the air, making my teeth hurt. Lou had been sitting by the edge of the pool, gazing into it, fascinated as always, but now he jumped back in alarm.

  The pool revolved even faster, like a maelstrom in a horror tale. Bits of color broke free and washed up onto the ground, like nothing so much as a whirlpool throwing off rainbow-colored spumes of spray. The colors blended together as it spun faster; then, when it seemed as if it could no longer hold together, it folded in on itself like multicolored Silly Putty. One final spasm rocked through it, and just before it collapsed, a long streamer of viscous energy snaked out, falling right across one of Lou’s front paws. As it contracted, it dragged him toward its center and pulled him under, almost as if it had a malevolent consciousness. There was a horrible slurping sound like a clog becoming unstuck in a bathtub, and then the entire construct dwindled into nothingness. Then, at the last possible moment, it surged back, gyrated wildly, and finally settled down into its familiar rhythm. The humming cut off abruptly, and the only sound left was the roar of traffic on the access ramp overhead and a far-off ambulance wailing.

  I ran over to where it pulsed, seemingly eternal. It was back, but Lou was gone.

  FIFTEEN

  IT WAS HARD TO BELIEVE A SPACE SO SMALL could feel so empty. My flat is great, but it wasn’t suited for pacing, and I couldn’t sit still. Four strides and I was up against a wall; four more brought me to the opposite side of the room.

  This wasn’t the first time Lou had gone missing. But the previous time I’d thought he’d simply left, abandoned me. That happens sometimes with Ifrits; it’s a lurking fear felt by every practitioner who’s blessed with one. It had plunged me into a depression and paralyzed me, but this time it was different. He’d been taken, swept up by the energy pool, and I didn’t even know if he was alive or dead. And if he was alive, I had no idea how to locate him. Neither did Eli or Victor. It was like watching someone fall into a raging river, swept away by the current. You stand on the bank, watching helplessly as the torrent sweeps them away. You feel you have to do something, but there’s nothing you can do.

  Which was ironic. If it had been me that had fallen into that thing, Lou could have found me, and he would have, come hell or high water. But I wasn’t as clever.

  Victor wanted to try closing the pool again, but Eli nixed that idea. He pointed out that if we closed the pool now, Lou would be gone forever. The chances of his finding his way back were slim, but if the pool were destroyed, those chances would drop to zero.

  Besides, he was worried. Trying to close the pool had instead made it even stronger. Another attempt might have unintended disastrous consequences. A lot more research and thought would need to be done before the next attempt, and that would take some time.

  I didn’t care about any of that. I wanted Lou back. The only person I could think of who might be able to help find him was the Wendigo, and the only way that I knew to find the Wendigo involved using Lou’s talents. Catch- 22.

  For once, the knock on the door came as a welcome distraction. When I answered, the Wendigo stood outside. I’d never been so glad to see an untrustworthy supernatural entity in my life. But why was he here? Of course. He was still hoping to get the remaining stones.

  “May I come in?” he politely asked.

  Normally I wouldn’t have wanted him to. But now I treated him like an honored guest.

  “Of course,” I said.

  He nodded and walked in, looking around with curiosity. He wandered back and forth, picking up things and putting them down again before sitting down at the kitchen table, much like Morgan had done. With him it seemed rude and out of place, though. I guess he hadn’t quite got the human conception of appropriate boundaries yet. But a lot of normal people are the same way.

  “Sorry about what happened at the energy pool,” he said. Once again he seemed to know everything, which saved some time and explanation. “You’ve got to be careful with those things.”

  “I get that. And it was pointless, anyway; it’s still there. But Lou’s not.”

  “I know. A shame, really.”

  “Yes, it is. I don’t suppose you have any ideas?”

  “About what?”

  “Locating Lou. Bringing him back—if he’s still alive.”

  “Oh, he’s alive all right, unless something on the other end got him.” Relief flooded over me at hearing the word “alive,” but I didn’t like the rest of the sentence.

  “What other end?” I said, suspecting I wouldn’t like the answer. The Wendigo looked at me patiently.

  “The other end of the energy pool. It doesn’t work quite the way you seem to think it does.”

  I regarded him sourly.

  “I have no idea how it works.”

  “Take a guess,” he said. I thought about it.

  “Well, Eli thinks it creates things based on archetypes, bringing them into existence in some fashion.”

  “With all due respect, Eli is totally clueless about that. The pool doesn’t create anything. It pulls things from other places, things that already exist elsewhere. Sometimes the things it pulls up have entered this world before—that’s why I seem so familiar, and mimic legend and myth in some manner. It’s not that I was ‘created’ by some archetypal template; it’s because others like me have visited before and people remember.”

  “So the pool could never have created an actual Ifrit, then?”

  “Of course not. It simply pulled in a creature from somewhere else that resemble Ifrits in some ways.”

  “And how did you get sucked into it?”

  “That’s a little different. I wasn’t an accident—I was just waiting for an opening. When someone like myself gets into this world, we gain some powers, ones we don’t ordinarily have. That’s why I like it here, and that’s why I intend to stay.”

  “And the shape-shifters?”

  “Same thing. In their world, nothing but mindless beasts. Here—well, you can see how clever they become.”

  “So Lou wasn’t swallowed up and dissolved by the energy field?”

  “No. He just went somewhere else, much like I came here.”

  “Goddamn it,” I said. “I should have gone after him.” The Wendigo shook his head.

  “If you had, you might well have ended up somewhere entirely different, and I doubt you’d ever have found your way back.”

  “Why hasn’t Lou found his way back, though? That’s something he’s very good at, after all.”

  “That I couldn’t say. Maybe the pool took him somewhere his tracking sense doesn’t work. Different places, different rules. Maybe he’s trapped by something and can’t get away.”

  “And maybe he’s dead.”

  “Maybe.”

  “But if he’s alive, you could find him,” I said, making it into a statement. “And bring him back, like you did for Sherwood.”

  “Possibly. I’d like to help, if I could.” That didn’t sound very believable.

  “In return for what?” I asked bluntly.

  “Maybe
I just would like to help. Is that so hard to believe? Of course, if you wanted to show your appreciation . . .”

  “By handing over the rest of the stones, for instance?”

  “That would indeed be a handsome gesture.”

  “And I’m supposed to trust that you’ll do your part?”

  He smiled, but it wasn’t triumphant, or knowing, or smug. It actually seemed a bit sad.

  “What choice do you have?”

  And that was the truest thing he’d said since I’d met him.

  “Deal,” I said, walking over to the trunk where I kept them. I pulled out the remaining stones, placed them on the kitchen table, and pushed them across toward him. I was breaking one of the cardinal rules of bargaining—never front the money. But he had the upper hand, and he knew it. Now that he had what he wanted, there was no reason for him to renege on the deal, though. If I tried to play hardball with him instead, he’d feel obligated to find a way to screw with me. At least, that was how I read him. He let them sit there, as if afraid I’d change my mind if he tried to pick them up.

  “What now?” I asked.

  He didn’t answer right away and I thought he was thinking, but then noticed he had focused on a drawing on the wall over my computer, a sketch of me at a gig done by an artist friend. A Wendigo with ADD. How perfect. I rapped on the table, making him start.

  “Sorry,” he said, pulling his attention back to the subject at hand. “Tell you what. I won’t try to track him down myself—that could be very difficult.”

  “But you said you could do it.”

  “I said it was possible. But not only would it be difficult; it could be dangerous. You never know what you’ll run into, or how the place you end up in may affect your powers. Remember that beast on the moor?

  “So no, I won’t go there—I’m just getting used to it here. But what I will do is help you get there on your own, if you like. Getting back will be up to you, though.”

  “That will do just fine,” I said.

  “It’s got to be at night,” he said. “So I’ll come back this evening.”

  He swept up the stones on the table with an exaggerated flourish and tucked them away in an inside pocket. “Again, a pleasure doing business with you.”