by Jenny McKane
Breaking through the final rows of thorny short hedges, they pushed on through gnarly, spindly trees that populated the wild part of the small island. They weren’t much taller than Sunny and had twisted, papery trunks that offered little reassurance as she gripped them when the terrain changed underneath her feet. Plaxo was barreling through the wilds, not really paying attention to the fact that Sunny, with her longer legs and lack of night vision capabilities, was having a hard time keeping up.
“Slow down, Plaxo,” she finally hissed, when she’d stubbed her toe on an exposed root for the third time.
“Apologies, Lady Hunter,” the small dream demon called from up ahead. “Plaxo can tell we’re getting close!”
Good, right? Sunny wasn’t so sure that barreling through the wilderness toward an unknown enemy was a good thing, but the dream demon seemed happy, so she was going with it. Despite not looking like much, dream demons turned out to be pretty powerful creatures in their own rights.
A root tangled around Sunny’s foot and she went down with a soft curse. Plaxo either didn’t hear it or didn’t want to stop his pursuit, and barreled on. She reached down her leg and tried to free herself from the thin, ropey root and found that the harder she pulled, the tighter it held onto her leg.
“What the hell?” she whispered as the root held tight.
Sunny struggled a little harder this time and was starting to panic just a bit. The tree was holding her in place? For what?
Using her other foot, she managed to pry her leg free (but not without taking a good slice of the top layer of skin off first) and regain her footing. She moved more carefully now, not truly accepting that a tree had tried to hold her still, but also not forgetting just how powerful truly demonic trees could be after surviving the one in Azrael’s keep.
“Plaxo!” she whisper-yelled into the darkness. “Wait for me, Plaxo!”
But the dream demon was long gone, the little shit.
Reaching for her obsidian blade, Sunny looked around the grassy terrain until she spotted the flashlight a few feet away, where it’d fallen. Gingerly stepping over potentially-possessed roots, she scooped the flashlight up and started back on her way, not entirely certain of the direction that Plaxo had taken in his rush to nab the interloper.
She’d managed to get herself turned around in the copse of trees that blocked any view she might have had of the temple. She was incredibly disoriented and to top it off, her ankle hurt something fierce. She was going to ring Plaxo’s neck as soon as she got her hands on him.
Rustling in the undergrowth beside her made her jump and she faced the source of the noise with her blade at the ready, willing to send whatever dark creature that was arriving into the pits of hell when Plaxo crashed through the leaves, a twig stuck in his ear and a few leaves in his teeth.
“Oh, Lady Hunter,” he practically wailed. “Plaxo thought he lost you!”
“You did almost lose me,” she barked at him, lowering her knife. “You left me here after that stupid tree tried to break my ankle.”
Plaxo glanced over his shoulder toward the tree Sunny was wildly waving at.
“The tree, Lady Hunter?”
If he’d had an eyebrow, and if he’d been able to raise it in question at her, he’d certainly have had the look on his face that told Sunny he thought she was just a little crazy at the moment.
“Look.” She pointed to her raw, bleeding ankle. “The roots wrapped around my foot and wouldn’t let go when I tried to stand. The tree attacked me!”
She suddenly felt foolish about how angry she was getting at the fact that the dream demon wasn’t believing her.
But Plaxo stilled a moment and turned his head away from Sunny, as though he was trying to listen to something that she couldn’t hear with her human ears.
She followed the direction he was looking but saw nothing. Of course she didn’t, her puny human senses couldn’t keep up with the demon.
“It’s here,” Plaxo said simply, looking around them into the darkness.
“What’s here?” She needed some sort of point of reference. Some sort of warning. Did she need the obsidian blade? Did she need some sort of miracle?”
“No clue,” Plaxo the Philosopher whispered, just as Sunny found herself about to scream out in frustration.
She didn’t have to wait long.
Whatever was coming, Sunny finally heard it approach and it sounded big.
“Crap, Plaxo,” she whispered as full panic set in. “Are we about to get eaten?”
She swore in the crappy light from the flashlight, Plaxo gave her a noncommittal shrug. If she survived this, she was going to strangle the life right out of her small friend.
The thing made its entrance with a crash and an upturned tree.
Sunny swung the light toward it and had to grip the handle like a vise to keep from dropping it. The creature in front of them was on two legs but had bird-like claws on both its hands and feet. It was covered in feathers along its back, had a sharp, grotesque beak, and human eyes. Sunny shuddered at the last part. The tail was plumage, just like a bird, but there were also some humanoid characteristics. Sunny was having a hard time placing what the hell she was looking at. On two legs, it was almost half a head taller than Sunny, but when it fell forward onto all four legs, it was the size of a Great Dane.
“Greetings, Solomon,” the thing said, a high-pitched voice that seemed to rumble and twitter in its throat.
It moved to the side, its body parallel to Sunny and Plaxo while its head faced them. It almost looked like it was stalking them. Gripping her blade tighter, she moved her body to keep the thing in front of her in case it tried to leap at them.
Eventually, it stopped moving and instead of launching itself in the darkness, it sat on its haunches and let out a chirping, chortling sort of war cry.
The noise was disorienting, and she covered her ears. In the distance, she heard similar cries in response.
“How many of you are there?” was all she could think to ask.
“On this island? Ten of my brothers and I are here,” the thing said before looking at Plaxo. “Greetings, dream demon. It is an honor to have you on my island.”
Plaxo relaxed and bowed deeply at the bird looking demon.
“Plaxo is honored to meet a tengu in person,” the dream demon said.
Tengu? Sunny had never heard of one but had a feeling she was about to be educated.
Chapter Eight
Tengu.
Sunny used a lull in the conversation, letting Plaxo give some formal dream demon greetings that showed his respect, to look up the tengu on her smartphone.
Traditional Buddhist demon/guardian spirit that guards mountains and forests of Japan. Harbingers of war and often death.
Oh, fantastic.
Taking a deep breath, Sunny slid the phone into her back pocket and tried to focus on the conversation happening in front of her.
“What brings the tengu to the island?” Plaxo asked, obviously trying to be diplomatic, but seeking the answers he wanted.
“This is our island,” the tengu said. “The better question is what is a human and a dream demon doing here?”
He was looking at Sunny as he asked the question.
“Archdemon and archangels, too,” Plaxo decided to supply, ever the helpful demon. “They are returning to the island soon.”
She shot Plaxo a look that asked him why he felt the need to share that. For his part, the tengu didn’t seem to notice or care about that last part.
“I was injured and needed to recover,” Sunny answered. “One of the nuns is helping me.”
The tengu ruffled its feathers again and made another throaty call into the distance. The answers were swift and sounded closer.
“Kiku, the ancient one,” the tengu said to itself. “I know her well. What else are you doing, Solomon? Answer wisely—and know that we can sense lies easily.”
“I’m also learning to summon the Guardians,” she answered slowly,
still unsure how much information to provide. “We might have an end-of-days on our hands. Maybe. Probably.”
It seemed to be what the tengu wanted to hear and it nodded.
“We’ve been woken recently,” it said. “And now we know why. I felt the presence of a summoner and came to investigate. You practically ran into our midst unwittingly. You should be more careful.”
Great, the thing was critical, too.
“I was trying to keep up with the dream demon,” she said, a bit lamely. “What woke the tengu?”
“What is your name, Solomon?” The thing asked instead of answering.
“Sunshine,” she said. “What is yours?”
“Yama,” he said, puffing his chest out a little. “We’ve been summoned because of the war that’s brewing. It must be a big one with many arms reaching across many continents for the drums to wake us after such a long sleep.”
Yama, the leader of the island’s tengu, explained that after making peace with the ancient Buddhist warrior monks ages ago, they were no longer needed and hibernated in the local mountains, rivers, and forests.
“We wondered what would have woken us after so long and what side we are to serve on,” he said.
Sunny cleared her throat.
“Yeah, about that,” she said. “We’re not even certain what the other side is shaping up to be at the moment. We have our hands full trying to keep all the feral demons in hell from spilling over here. But establishing who our enemy really is definitely tops the list of things to do next.”
Yama considered her words a moment before speaking.
“What is that ring you wear? It’s a seal, no?”
She glanced down at the Solomon ring on her hand.
“It is. It was a family heirloom, I suppose. An ancestor of mine used it against a legion of demons to do his bidding and I guess I’m doing something similar,” she said.
“Enslaving demonkind?” The question was quiet, but Sunny didn’t miss the implications beneath it.
“No,” she answered quickly. “Definitely not. Giving them a chance to break their curse and trying to save the world at the same time is the way I like to look at it.”
It might be a naive way of looking at things, but she was clinging to it with all she had.
“Your ancestor imprisoned them?” the tengu pressed.
“Accidentally, from what I understand,” she replied. “When it came to alliances, I don’t think he was well versed. And neither am I, but I am trying to learn.”
Yama stretched forward, digging his large talons into the ground and preened his feathers.
“We would not have woken up if there was not a wave of death coming toward us,” Yama said after a spell. “We might make good allies for the Solomon and her followers. Then again, we might make good enemies and devour them on the spot. Time will tell. We will watch the Solomon and give you our answer in time.”
Sunny frowned, uncertain of what they were talking about. She hadn’t asked for allies, had she?
“We’re not staying here much longer,” she said, still a little lost as to how the conversation had turned. “We’re going to have to take the fight to another part of the world.”
Yama nodded.
“As long as there are rivers, forests, and mountains, we can be in the fight,” he said. “But my brothers are not convinced that you are worthy, so we will watch you and make our decision in time. Be aware that there are others like us around the world that will join your fight one way or another when the drums sound—we cannot help it, as it is in our nature. But most of us have choices, so if you prove yourself worthy and give us a good fighting chance, you’ll find that you have more allies than you probably counted on.”
With that, Yama shrieked a long note in the air and turned, disappearing into the brush without another word.
Plaxo looked over his shoulders at Sunny, his eyes wide.
“You had no idea there were tengu out here, did you?” She cracked a smile.
“Plaxo would not have journeyed out here with Lady Hunter alone and unarmed if he’d known that,” the dream demon said, his voice small and shaky. He’d been spooked, that much was certain.
“I’d never heard of a tengu before today,” she admitted as they made their way back toward the temple. “Are they well known?”
Plaxo was leading again, luckily, as Sunny was still incredibly turned around.
“They’re known in lore more than anything,” Plaxo said. “And they exist mostly in the human realm, as Yama said. They’re attached to that human religion and drew their strength through those interactions. There aren’t many tengu in Hell, and none that Plaxo has ever met.”
“But you had heard of them before?”
“Yes,” he replied. “Plaxo has heard they can tear a man’s head from his shoulders before the victim knows he’s being attacked. They torture their prey before they kill, too. At least that is what is said. Terrifying.”
Sunny snickered.
“You looked scared,” she teased as she saw the lights of the temple up ahead.
“Plaxo was not scared,” the dream demon argued, the offense clear in his tone. “Plaxo was cautious because he has a squishy human with him to protect. There’s a difference.”
“I’m not squishy,” Sunny muttered but stopped when she remembered something Yama said. “Do you remember when he mentioned knowing Kiku-sama? Is that strange? He’s been asleep for hundreds of years? How old is she really?”
Plaxo merely gave a light shrug of his shoulders and continued, but Sunny’s mind raced. Who was the elderly nun that she was known to a band of terrifying mountain demons who’d all but been asleep for hundreds of years?
Sunny glanced around the property as the temple came into view, things becoming more and more familiar as they pressed on.
She was beginning to wonder if things weren’t what they seemed with the humans around her, either. Sunny knew better now than to take angels or demons at face value, but it was apparent that the humans they were encountering also liked to keep their cards close to their chest.
Was she dealing with immortals? Really old people with amazing ageing abilities? Probably a few of both, she thought as she pushed herself up the stairs, limping with the sting from the tree roots.
“Plaxo,” she called ahead to the dream demon who turned to look at her just as he got inside. “How did the tree roots get me? Are they alive?”
He gave a shake of his head.
“Plaxo’s guess is they are subjects of the tengu,” he said. “Tengu are very old, very powerful demons who take their jobs seriously.”
*****
Asmodeus was in the temple when they returned. He was sitting on the staircase that led upstairs to the bedrooms, his hands folded over his knees. For an immortal archdemon, he looked exhausted.
“Long night?” Sunny asked.
Plaxo had disappeared, saying he had a few things he needed to do in the demon realm before the morning. Sunny was too tired to ask what he was up to. The terrible night of sleep was catching up to her now.
“You should pack when you wake in the morning,” he said.
He didn’t exactly look thrilled. Sunny’s stomach dropped at the news—she always knew they’d be leaving, but she wasn’t ready. She didn’t feel good about leaving yet.
“Where are we headed?”
“Metatron said a contact of his came through with potential summoning stones,” he said. “If they’re legitimate, then we’ll need to be there quickly before the nox destroy them. We leave early.”
Sunny took the news and just nodded. She’d wrap her mind around it eventually, but probably not right now.
“I met a tengu,” she said with a long breath, the same as she’d say that she went to the grocery store and bought ground round on sale. Her eyes were closed and her head against the hallway. When she looked back at Asmodeus, she swore his eyes were round and wide open.
“Are you serious, Sunshine?” he whispered, his ey
es darting around. “You met a tengu and survived?”
She let out a laugh, unable to help herself. She really was a destroyer of odds, wasn’t she? But when did the luck run out? That was the scary part when she considered how far she’d come.
“They wanted to introduce themselves,” she explained. “They’re still on the fence as to whether they’ll join our side or not, but I think I made a decent impression. They’d been hibernating for hundreds of years, by the way—said the drums of war woke them. That mean anything to you?”
Asmodeus blew out a breath and lit a cigarette he’d been holding in his hand. Since when had he been a smoker?
“Yes,” he said as he lit the end and sucked a long pull through the ember. “It means we’re fucked soon.”
Nice.
“That sounds ominous as hell,” she said, still not able to rise to the bait he was putting out.
She was too tired to overreact. Or maybe too jaded at this point—it was getting harder and harder to scare her with omens and prophecies. And that’s exactly what the drums of war sounded like.
“It’s ominous,” he said. “It means the world is starting to react to the impending war. Sides are assembling, much as I told you they would. It’s not a surprise, but it’s not exactly good news.”
“Yama, the tengu, said other species are going to start waking up and will decide who to follow and who to fight, too,” she added.
Asmodeus shrugged.
“It’s their right, I suppose.”
She frowned.
“Aren’t you going to suggest I make a good impression? Try to win some more demons to our side?”
He shook his head at her, his eyes distant. Had the news about the drums shaken him?
“It’s not the demons I’m worried about, Sunshine,” he said. “They’ll make your life difficult and make you believe they won’t side with you, but in the end, the majority will. It’s the angels that you should worry about. You have no allies to speak of where it counts in the angelic realm and that’s a whole host of fire power we can’t match, tengu or not.”
