by M. R. Forbes
Then she ran away.
“You're welcome,” I shouted after her. I wasn't looking for a freebie. I couldn't if I wanted to. A simple thank you would have been nice.
“No appreciation,” Death said, appearing beside me.
“These are the people you want me to sacrifice myself to save,” I replied.
“No, Conor. Danelle is. Karen is. Molly is. Forget about the rest. You have to take the good with the bad. How did you know I would save you when you jumped?”
“We both know, now that Samedi’s free, death by suicide is the easy way out for me. The one where I can still make a selfish decision.”
“You knew I would be watching you. Expecting it.”
“Or something like it, if you know me as well as you say you do.”
“I think I liked you better when you were afraid of me.”
“I think I liked you better when I didn't know you existed,” I said. “Tell me, does Dannie know what I did to her? Does she remember?”
“I don't know.”
“How do you not know? Aren’t you a god or something?”
“No. There are no gods, Conor.”
“Then how did you wind up in control of the afterlife?”
“I’m not in control of the afterlife. There are no gatekeepers, least of all me.”
That was all he was going to give me?
“So when I bring someone back, they’re coming from where?”
“I really don’t know,” Death replied. “Your problem is that you think there’s an answer to the question, but the problem is the question itself. It can’t be answered. It just is.”
“You said there are no gatekeepers, but Dannie told me I have to shove Samedi through a gate. I’m struggling with the logic.”
“I’d say it’s a metaphor, but it isn’t. You have the power to open a portal to the netherworld. Nothing mortal can survive there, and Samedi is mortal.”
“Are you sure I have that kind of power?”
“Have you read every spell in the book Tarakona gave you?”
I reached into my pocket, taking out the book. “Not all of them.” I started flipping through the pages.
“It isn’t in there.”
“Are you just fucking with me now?”
“My point is that the spell exists. You have the power to cast it, or you will soon. If you noticed, losing your hand increased your strength.”
“Should I lop off the other one? Or cut it down to the shoulder?”
“That probably won’t be necessary.”
“So you’re saying the spell is out there, and somebody out there has it?”
“Yes. I relayed the same information to Danelle to pass on to you, but I suppose you enjoy my company more?”
“Yeah, right. I don’t suppose you know who has it?”
“I know who knows. You know them, too.”
I coughed out a laugh. “Tarakona?”
“Yes. He might even be willing to tell you.”
“I thought you two were working together?”
“We aren’t on speaking terms at the moment.”
He didn’t sound too unhappy about it.
“Kirin?” I asked.
“He wants her. I won’t give her up. You saw how dangerous she is.”
“I saw a scared girl who doesn’t know a damn thing about the outside world. What did you do with her, anyway?”
“Brought her to a monastery in Tibet.”
“Seriously? Monks? Let me guess, some ancient order that has an expertise in dealing with gorgons?”
“They’ve only been around since the reversal, but they do have an expertise in artifacts. They’re crafting one to help her control her power.”
“You haven’t learned a damn thing from Samedi’s mask and dice, have you? Anyway, you immortal assholes do understand that there’s some serious shit going down here on Earth, one that may make saving Kirin pretty much worthless?”
“There’s nothing we can do about Samedi directly. Go to Tarakona and ask him for the whereabouts of the spell.”
“Fine. I don’t suppose you can zap me over to Australia?”
“Does that mean you’re going to take the job?”
I froze. Was I? I turned my head to look back at what was left of the wendigo. I coughed again. I looked at my hand. I looked at Death. He had given me something. A clue to a potential way out. Did he know it? Was it a carrot or a cattle prod?
“Yeah,” I said, not very enthusiastically. “I’m on the job.”
4
Conor dies at the end.
I told Death to hold off on the zapping, and made my way back inside, climbing the steps to the apartment like an average dying human. I was out of breath by the time I reached the front door, and I paused outside when I heard the laughter beyond.
“So then I was like, what the fuck, Conor?” Dannie said.
Amos and Frank were cracking up. Frank’s laugh was louder than Amos’. So easy and free. I wished I knew how he did it. Life had dumped him in a vat of shit, and he had made lemonade out of it.
I pushed the door open. The three of them hushed immediately.
“Hey, the wet blanket is back,” Amos said, looking my way.
“Fuck you, Amos,” I replied. My eyes fell on Dannie. “Which story were you telling them?”
“How much did you hear?”
“What the fuck, Conor?” I mimicked, badly. “Although, I think ninety percent of our conversations ended something like that.”
She smiled. “We’re only laughing about it because we’re friends.”
I glanced at Amos. “You and Frank are friends now?”
“We have a common enemy. It’s good enough for the time being.”
“What if I decide not to take Death up on his offer?” I asked. “Then what?”
“I’ll probably head back to Vegas, get a couple of girls and call it a lifetime. I don’t want to go out sober or dressed.”
“Thanks for putting that image in my mind.”
“You would do that to Dannie?” Frank asked.
“I don’t know where you got the impression that I was a good guy?” I said.
“You try to act like you aren’t. But I wouldn’t call getting Kirin out easy, and you didn’t give up on that. You saved her from Samedi by turning him on Black.”
“And let him gain more power than he would have otherwise. Go me.”
“The point is, you saved the most innocent person in the room. That makes you a good guy in my book.”
“Where have you been, anyway?” Dannie asked. “You’re more disheveled than usual.”
“I jumped off the rooftop.”
“What?”
I smiled. “A test. Death caught me. We chatted.”
“And?”
“Apparently there’s a necromantic incantation to summon a portal linking our world to some kind of purgatory between life and death. Allegedly, I can open that portal, and if I can get my hands on Samedi, I can drag him into it. He’ll be trapped in the netherworld, and everything I care about will be safe, except for myself. I’ll be dead.”
“Did he give you the spell?” Frank asked.
“He doesn’t have it,” I replied. “Tarakona does.”
“Oh. That’s no problem then, right? Mr. T loves us.”
“I wouldn’t say loves,” I said. “But yeah, he owes me. Samedi is as much a threat to him as he is to anything else in the world.”
“That means you’re going to do it?” Dannie asked.
I looked at her. I nodded. “It’s my fault you got killed. I took the job for Red, I called you for backup. You should have never been involved. Just one time in my life, I want to do the right thing. Make the right decision. If it brings you back and stops Samedi from eating the world, I’ll do it.”
“Better late than never,” Frank said.
“Yeah, something like that,” I agreed.
“So what do we do now?” Amos asked.
“Death’s
going to dump me off on Tarakona’s doorstep. I-“
“You?” Frank said. “Don’t you mean us?”
“This is my fight, Frank. My job. My responsibility. Why don’t you head back to Japan, meet up with that Kitsune? You’d make a cute couple.”
He laughed. “Yeah, right. Have you looked at me lately? We’re friends, and friends don’t abandon one another in a time of need.”
“Even if it means you might die?”
“Especially if it means I might die. This is the most fun I’ve had in my entire life.”
I nodded. I knew I couldn’t talk Frank out of it, and to be honest, I was hoping he wouldn’t let me leave on my own.
“What about you, Amos?” I asked.
“I already put my ass on the line to get you here,” he said. “If I have to choose between a world filled with new-hoos and a world filled with undead zombie fuckers, I’ll take the new-hoos.” He smiled, patting his shotgun. “I’m in.”
I turned my attention to Dannie. Our eyes met.
“I think you should stay here,” I said. “You get a second chance. I don’t want you to wind up dead again.”
“Screw you, Conor,” Danelle said. “I’ll do what I want. I’m coming along. I’m not an invalid anymore.”
I knew better than to try to talk her out of it.
“In that case, Death’s waiting for us downstairs.”
“Hold up a minute,” Frank said. “I’ll be right back. I gotta piss so bad.”
He stomped away, into the bathroom.
“Geez, can you believe that guy?” Amos said.
I walked over to Dannie. “It really is good to have you back,” I said softly.
“It’s good to be back,” she replied. She stepped forward, embracing me. “I forgive you for getting me killed.”
“Thanks.”
She forgave me for getting her killed. What about for the other thing? I don’t know if I would ever know, and the thought ate at me. I had a feeling she was enjoying twisting the hook a bit before letting me off it.
If she ever planned to let me off it.
“I thought it would take you days to make a decision,” Dannie said. “I’m surprised it only took you an hour.”
“Maybe I’ve grown up a little since you’ve been gone,” I said.
She gave me the half-smirk that I knew so well. “Maybe,” she replied.
We stared at one another, our eyes locked, trying to read whatever was attempting to hide behind them.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Frank said, bursting out of the bathroom. “Are we going?”
I broke the staring contest to look at Frank.
“Yeah, we’re going.”
5
Get a piece of the rock.
One second, we were standing on a street corner, huddled together like a group of homeless beggars watching Control comb over the dead Wendigo with a mixture of curiosity and boredom.
The next, we were standing somewhere in the middle of New Zealand, outside of a long-dormant volcano where the dragon named Tarakona made his lair.
“What the fuck is this?” Amos said as we materialized from the trip. For a second, I thought his magic resistance had caused the jump to put his ass on backward or something. That might have been worth it. “Why are we here, instead of there?” He motioned to the volcano.
He had a point. We were a good ten miles out.
Why?
I turned to Death. “Well?”
“Something’s wrong,” he said. I didn’t understand how an almost-god could be worried, but he was. “We should have been inside. Something blocked my magic.”
“Something or someone?” I asked. “Samedi?”
“I’m not sure,” he replied. “Even my efforts to see into the mountainside are being blocked.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not good,” Frank said.
“Me too,” I agreed. “Could Samedi know what we might be after?”
“It’s possible, but he wouldn’t know where to find it. Not this fast. But, Tarakona helped me to contain him all of those years ago.”
“Meaning he ain’t too happy with him,” Amos said.
“We need to get in there,” I said. “Tarakona may be in trouble.”
“Not may, Conor,” Death said. “Is. I’m sorry, I can’t get you any closer, and I dare not approach. There’s dark magic here. Strong dark magic.”
“And you’re afraid of it?” I said. “You’re Death.”
“Death isn’t dark,” Death replied. “That’s one thing you need to learn.”
“There isn’t a wizard alive that likes death magic, so I’m calling bullshit on that statement,” I said. “Whatever. Tarakona has the spell. Tarakona is in there. That means we need to get in there.”
“I’m with you, Boss,” Frank said.
“Me too,” Dannie said.
She didn’t even have a weapon to speak of, but she wasn’t afraid to walk right into the storm. It only made me feel worse.
“Amos?” Frank said.
Amos looked over at the volcano and then back at us. “Maybe I’ll sit this one out. You can pick me up on the way to wherever else that isn’t here.”
“I’m sorry,” Dannie said, walking over to him. “Did someone give you the impression you had a choice? Let’s go.”
“That’s a long walk,” he whined.
“Five miles or so,” Frank said. “It’s good exercise.”
“And you need it,” I said.
“Eh. Fine.” He started walking toward the volcano. “Dark magic? Samedi’s spirit was in your dice, and I saw what your dice could do. We’re fucked. You know that, right?”
“You’re not going to get out of it that way,” Dannie said. “Just keep walking.”
I looked at Death. “What’s the difference between dark magic and death magic?”
“Death is a natural part of life,” he replied. “There’s nothing natural about dark magic. Do you remember what I said about the magical fields and where they come from?”
“It was only thirty minutes ago.”
“That energy moves naturally, created by the ebb and flow of the planet’s core. Dark magic is a tap into the source.”
“The core of the Earth?”
“That’s why the fields are stronger the further down you go. That’s why the immortals have been sleeping there.”
“Immortals? Tarakona. You. Who else?”
“It doesn’t matter. They’re still sleeping.”
“Then let’s not wake them up.”
“Exactly.”
“So Samedi is coal, and we’re solar, right?”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“I’m using that analogy if anyone asks.” I turned back to the others. They were leaving without me. “What are you going to be doing while we’re walking straight into a fucking nightmare?”
“Looking for Samedi.”
“So you’re sure he isn’t here?”
“He may have been here. He isn’t here anymore.”
“How do you know?”
“He has a presence, Conor. You’re connected to him through your history. You’ll feel it, too.”
I didn’t like that answer. I didn’t want to know when Samedi was around. It was better to be surprised.
“Conor, let’s go,” Dannie shouted, looking back at me.
“Does she know?” I asked again.
Death vanished. Asshole.
I jogged toward the others, catching up quickly but then pausing to cough. I knew I had to get used to it. Losing my hand made me stronger. Getting sicker made me stronger, too. I knew I would need all of the magical strength I could get. I just had to find a way to keep going, to stay alive until I was in a position to kill myself by taking Samedi.
Would that sound better to say out loud? I doubted it.
The four of us kept walking, the open plain trading in for some trees and other vegetation as we grew closer. We were a couple of miles out when I started to fee
l the dark magic. It was like a spider had crawled into my ear and died. I started sticking my finger in there, scratching at it as though I could pick it out.
“What are you doing, Baldie?” Amos said, the first to notice my reaction.
“You don’t feel it?” I asked.
“Feel what?” Dannie said.
“The itching in your head. Like there’s a bug in there or something.”
“Nope,” Amos said.
“Me neither,” Frank agreed.
“Maybe there is a bug in your ear,” Amos added. “Simple problem, simple explanation.”
“There’s nothing in my ear,” I snapped.
I was starting to feel cold. I shivered beneath my coat, reaching up with my other hand to itch my other ear before realizing I couldn’t. It surprised me how quickly I had almost forgotten my hand had been chopped off. I glanced at Dannie, as though she could do anything to help me.
“I may not be itchy,” Amos said. “But I don’t like the feeling out here. It’s fucking creepy.”
“It’s the dark magic,” I replied.
I could hear a soft groaning now, like a wooden ship in a storm. It filled my senses. I hadn’t expected to be able to hear the dark magic. I breathed in, trying to draw it to me. Succeeding. I could feel my body turn more cold as I took the lightest touch of the magical energy into me.
Death said the two types of magic weren’t related, but then why could I hear it? Why could I use it? Use it how? I didn’t know what to do with it. I pushed it out, directing it toward the nearest bush. It didn’t wilt and die like I might have expected. It changed, turning black, thorns extending from its branches. A large bulb grew at the tip of it, and it opened to reveal rows of sharp teeth at the same time it snapped out toward Dannie.
It didn’t reach her. A shotgun blast echoed, the plant’s new head exploding under the pressure of the buckshot.
“Green thumb this,” Amos said, laughing at the result.
“Shit,” I said, staring at the remains. “I didn’t mean to do that.” Death should have warned me to stick to my magic. “Sorry, Dannie.”
“That was totally cool and totally terrifying at the same time,” Frank said. “That sucker looked like he could take your arm clean off with one chomp.”
