by Kyle Shultz
“We’re three stories up!” cried Melody, as she scrambled to her feet.
“Somehow,” I wheezed, “I don’t think that will be a problem for him. Also, ouch. I think you jostled my kidneys.”
Melody rolled her eyes. “Don’t be a baby. You’re a dragon; I’m sure you’ve got spares.”
“Not in human form, I don’t.”
“We need to get after him.” Melody hurried to the window. “I don’t see him anywhere. Heaven knows what he’ll get up to.”
I got up from the floor. “Let’s be smart about it, then. Look for something we can use to stop him. Perhaps there’s a potion around here we can use.”
“More of that green stuff, maybe?” Melody darted over to the cabinets of bottles that lined one wall of the office, and began rummaging through them. “Maybe that helps him switch back and forth both ways?”
“Maybe, but I wouldn’t jump to conclusions about that. We wouldn’t want to dose him with that potion and end up with an even bigger, more powerful Hyde on our hands. Perhaps it only works in one direction.” I started scanning the labels of the various bottles.
The door to the office banged open. “Oh, good gracious, what’s happened?” cried the prim nurse as she took in the shattered window.
I’d had just about enough of irritating humans for one day. As such, I decided to tell the woman the truth. “Your employer has just used forbidden magical arts to turn himself into a raging, unstoppable psychopath with supernatural abilities. He’s thrown himself out the window and is probably now wreaking havoc across the entire city of Talesend.”
“What?”
“And also, I’m a dragon.” I allowed my pupils to turn golden and slit-pupiled, and willed a few patches of red scales to appear on my face and neck. “Does all of that answer your question, madam?”
The nurse fainted dead away on the spot.
“Right.” I rubbed my hands together. My eyes became human once more, and my scales vanished. “That’s her sorted. Now—”
“Found it!” Melody held up a bottle and beamed at me in excitement.
I blinked. “What?”
“The antidote! I found it!” She handed the phial of blue liquid to me.
I looked down at it suspiciously. “Nonsense. It can’t be that simple.”
“Leave it to you to be pessimistic,” said Melody. “Look, it’s labeled and everything.”
She was right. The words “HYDE ANTIDOTE” were scrawled across the paper label. But still, I thought...
“Come on!” Melody grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the door. “If we hurry, maybe we can still catch him!”
“It can’t be that simple,” I murmured.
Chapter 8
The End…or Not
“Here’s another one,” said Melody sadly.
We had just turned down Greatfall Street, tracking the carnage Hyde had left in his wake. Everyone had fled the streets and now cowered inside their homes. Occasionally, I caught glimpses of pale, terrified faces peering through the windows. They vanished behind curtains the second they met my gaze. It hadn’t taken us long to pick up Hyde’s trail—a string of bodies, all killed in a vicious assortment of methods. The one Melody was pointing to now was little more than a charred skeleton. The only part of it that had escaped the blaze was a singed bowler hat, which had rolled into the gutter.
“And another one,” I added. I crouched over the man’s body. This one seemed perfectly whole despite being very dead. Seeing an odd patch of grey near his neck, I unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a handprint of stone on his chest. Veins of flesh turned to rock radiated out from it in all directions.
“His heart and lungs have been petrified,” I said. “Hyde’s completely out of control. His powers are just firing off randomly now, killing everyone he gets near. He might not even be trying to do it. How many does this make so far?”
“Five. One of them was a teenage boy, another was a woman.” She looked at me with eyes full of sorrow. “He’s a monster, Malcolm. We have to stop him before he kills anyone else.”
“I know,” I said softly. Silence fell for a time as we gazed down at the lifeless body.
“I thought humans dying didn’t really matter to you,” Melody pointed out. “We’re like mayflies from your perspective, aren’t we?”
“If you’re referring to what I said when James was knocked out, that’s not exactly what I meant.”
“But it’s true, isn’t it? You dragons, you live so long, what’s the difference between twenty and eighty years for you?”
“Sixty years. Same as it is for everyone else.”
Melody clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Don’t be tiresome.”
“Time is precious, no matter how much of it you’ve been given. Perhaps not all dragons think of it that way, but I certainly do.” I looked at the dead man. “And Jekyll is stripping away decades from these people; years they can’t afford to spare. So yes, I do care. I see it differently than you do, but in my own way, I care.”
“I see.” Melody hugged herself as a chilling breeze began to blow. “Does all this mean that Jekyll’s theories were right? There’s magic deep down in everyone, and that potion can bring it out?”
“I’m not sure.” I draped a handkerchief across the face of the dead man. “Why do you ask?”
Melody looked back at the charred corpse she had found. “Because I’d rather not think that there’s something this horrible lurking in everybody. And if this formula of his should fall into the wrong hands—”
“It’s already in the wrong hands,” I reminded her.
“You know what I mean. Right now, we’ve just got somebody using it on himself, but what if someone tries to mass-produce it for money, or something? We could end up with hundreds, maybe thousands of Mr. Hydes running around and brutally murdering people.”
“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said with a sigh. “You’re quite right, though. We’ll have to be very discreet about this. We can’t let our usual contacts in the police and the government get involved. Even if they’re trustworthy, the people listening in to their communications might not be. I wouldn’t want the military to have Jekyll’s formula—or worse, the Council of Scions.” That bunch of megalomaniacal Charmbloods had already amassed far too much dangerous magic; they certainly didn’t need any more.
“Then we’d better hurry,” said Melody. “Because if they capture Jekyll or Hyde before we do, they might get information out of him that we don’t want them to have.” She loped down the street. “Come on. There are scorch marks on the wall over there; he probably went this way.”
I hurried after her. Just as we reached the wall bearing the burn marks, a hissing, snarling creature as big as a large dog leaped out of an alley and swiped at Melody with its claws. I pulled her out of the way just in time.
The creature, I realized, was a rat—or at least, it probably had been at one time. Now, in addition to being much larger, it had six legs, a pair of horns, and a scorpion-like tail. It flicked a serpentine tongue at us and screeched in fury.
“Oh, this will never do,” I muttered. I unleashed a blast of fire at the creature, reducing it to a pile of blackened bones in an instant. “I hate rats. Even when they’re less ugly than that one.”
“Me too.” Melody shuddered. “But we must be getting close. I assume that was some of Hyde’s handiwork.”
“Better yet, this alley appears to be a dead end.” I pointed to a figure huddled against a high wall at the back of the alley, his head resting on his knees. “Which means, if I’m not mistaken, that we’ve found our man.”
Melody gasped at the sight of Hyde. “Malcolm, be careful. Remember what happened last time.”
“I’m not about to forget. No matter how much I might want to.” I strode forward, clutching the bottle of antidote.
“Do we have to make him drink it, or can we just throw it on him, do you think?” Melody whispered.
“I’m not going to t
ake the risk of it not working if we use it all up by dumping it on him. I’ll hold him down and pinch his nose, you pour it down his throat.”
Melody’s jaw dropped. “Don’t be daft! He’ll kill you!”
Suddenly, Hyde’s head snapped up, and he fixed us with bloodshot eyes. I flinched away from him on instinct. Before I had a chance to conceal the bottle of antidote behind my back, Hyde’s gaze fell on it.
“Is that my medicine?” he croaked. “The medicine that makes me calm down?”
“Er...” I hesitated, unsure how best to answer.
“Yes,” said Melody. “Do you want some?”
“Melody!” I hissed.
“Look at him. He’s scared out of his mind. I don’t think he wants this to go on any more than we do.”
“Please,” said Hyde, crawling forward and reaching toward me, “please, give it to me. I want my medicine.”
“What if he just smashes it or pours it down a storm drain?” I argued. “Then we’ll have lost our only weapon!”
“We don’t have any other choice,” said Melody. “If he doesn’t want to take it, we’re not going to be able to force him to do it. Our only option is to hope that he’s telling the truth.”
I shut my eyes. “You’re right, of course. I only hope he’s not lying.” I held out the bottle to Hyde.
He snatched it greedily, pulled the cap off with his teeth, and downed its contents in one gulp. Then he leaned his head back against the bricks behind him and closed his eyes. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you, thank you.” A tear trickled down his cheek. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I never meant for anyone to be hurt. I never do.” A choking sob escaped his lips.
“He’s not changing,” Melody murmured. “He’s not throwing magic around any more, but he’s not changing, either. Why not?”
“Don’t wanna change,” Hyde whimpered. “Don’t wanna be Dr. Jekyll.” He pushed himself to his feet, staggering a little, and clutched at my sleeve. “Please, please don’t make me be him.”
“Well, I wouldn’t feel too happy about being him myself,” I said, resisting the urge to pull free from the man’s grip. “But on the whole, isn’t that preferable to all the harm you’ve caused?”
“Five innocent people are dead,” said Melody. “Maybe more. You want that to stop, don’t you? If being Dr. Jekyll is what it takes, aren’t you willing to make that sacrifice?”
Hyde drew in a shuddering breath. “All right,” he said hoarsely. “All right. Let Dr. Jekyll come. I’ll say yes.” He seemed calmer now; more coherent. “But you’d better lock me up somewhere until he comes, just in case the antidote stops working.”
“Right,” I said. “I didn’t understand all of what you just said, but I got the important bits. Come on. I know just the place to keep you until you change back.”
“Where?” asked Melody.
“My cave. I can imprison him there quite securely with the aid of some artifacts I’ve collected over the years.”
“And once he becomes Dr. Jekyll?” said Melody. “Then what do we do?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
I was lying, of course. And judging by the look in Melody’s eyes, she knew that all too well.
“Maybe there’s another way,” she murmured. Hyde clearly wasn’t listening. He had broken down sobbing, and was rocking back and forth on his heels.
“I don’t think so,” I replied.
“I’m sorry. You told me once that you didn’t want any more innocent deaths on your conscience, after…whatever happened thousands of years ago. The things you haven’t told me about yet.” She touched my arm gently. “I don’t know what the burden you’re carrying is, Malcolm, but I wish there was a way I could make it easier for you.”
I exhaled slowly. “Nothing to be done about it.” I kept my voice low as I regarded the forlorn figure of Mr. Hyde. “Not every story can have a happy ending, and after all the deaths he’s caused…there’s no way this ends well. I don’t like it, but I’ll do what I must.”
Something else was nagging at me, though. The feeling that I’d missed something important.
I only hoped I would sort it out before it was too late.
Chapter 9
Home Sweet Cavern
“You’re sure he can’t get out of there?” said Melody dubiously, as I finished fastening chains onto Hyde’s wrists and ankles and slammed the door of his cage shut. We were in the cavern beneath my townhouse, where I kept a comfortable little hoard of gold to sleep on. The light from enchanted, perpetually-blazing torches on the walls glinted off the pile of coins and relics. In size and grandeur, this place paled in comparison to caves I had occupied in bygone eras, but it still felt like home.
“The cage and chains are made of pure Hephaestian steel,” I assured her. “Unbreakable by virtually anything, including dragons.”
Melody shook her head. “Why do you even have them down here? I’ve been meaning to ask ever since my first visit to this place. At first, I’d assumed they were just decoration, but—”
“Hyde isn’t the first person I’ve had to keep locked up down here.” A note of sorrow crept into my voice, despite my best efforts to conceal it.
“Who was the last one, then?” asked Melody.
I didn’t want to answer, but found myself telling her the truth anyway. “My son,” I said softly.
Melody stared at me in horror. “Your—”
“It was a long time ago, and I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I do.”
“Too bad. The point is, not only is the metal incredibly strong, it’s enchanted. It dampens magical power, and it prevents the prisoner from doing anything to break himself free. Even if you handed Hyde the key right now and told him to let himself go, he wouldn’t be able to do it. He’s completely secure.” I held up the key I had used to lock Hyde’s shackles and cage. “Only someone else can use this to let him out.”
Melody still looked uncertain. “I hope you’re right.”
“So, now we can leave,” I said, as I slipped the key into my pocket.
“What?” Melody exclaimed. “Are you joking?”
“Don’t leave me,” Hyde pleaded, his chains clinking as he reached up to grip the bars of the cage. “I don’t want to be alone.”
“Stop whimpering,” I snapped. “Melody and I have an errand to run.”
“We do?” said Melody. “I thought we’d wrapped up all our loose ends.”
“Not quite.” I beckoned for her to follow me farther away from the cage, out of Hyde’s earshot. “There’s something about this I don’t like,” I said.
“You’ve got a psychotic murderer in a cage in your cellar. If you were perfectly comfortable with this state of affairs, I’d be worried.”
“That’s not what I mean. I just—there’s something I want to check.”
“What?”
“I need to ask Hades a question. It’s not important, really, it’s only to give me a little additional peace of mind.”
Melody shrugged. “All right, fine, but if it’s not that important, then why should I bother to come with you? We’ve been running around the city all day. I’d rather stay here and keep an eye on Hyde to make sure he changes back safely.”
I shook my head. “Certainly not. I’m not leaving you alone here with him.”
“You just said it was completely safe and that he couldn’t get away. Were you lying?”
“No, but...” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Look, I’m not worried about him breaking out of here, but I am slightly concerned that someone might try to break in and release him.”
Melody’s eyes widened. “You think he had an accomplice or something?”
“It’s a very faint possibility. Hades can clear it up for me.”
“But if that is a possibility, then you’ll need somebody to stay and guard him. Unless you’d rather I speak to Hades?”
“No. If he agrees to answer my question at all, it’ll only be because I�
��m the one asking it. He’ll never give you the sort of information I’m looking for.”
“Then that settles it. I’ll stay here and watch Mister-Doctor-Hyde-Jekyll-whatever.”
“But if someone comes...”
“I’m assuming that person won’t be as dangerous as Hyde when he gets stirred up. So long as they’re not, I can handle them.” She stepped over to the wall, where I’d hung various weapons—mostly belonging to people who had tried to kill me over the centuries. She took down a sword, a mace, and several daggers. “I’m quite handy with sharp objects, remember?”
I sighed. “All right. But be careful. Hopefully I won’t be gone very long.”
“Take your time,” said Melody, patting my arm. “Hyde’s not going anywhere, and nobody’s getting to him.”
I knew she was right, but I couldn’t shake a persistent feeling of uneasiness. Forcing myself to ignore it, I mounted the stairs leading to the main floor of the house. Once I reached the door at the top, I cast a final glance down at Hyde. He was curled up in a ball, shivering and moaning in his sleep.
What could frighten a man that powerful? I wondered.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out.
Chapter 10
I Love Beekeeping
“No,” said Hades, pitching another shovelful of dirt out of the grave he was digging. “And please note that this particular ‘no’ is coming from the god of death, so it carries more weight than most.”
“Hear me out,” I urged. “First of all...why are you digging a grave by hand? Can’t you just snap your fingers and make it happen?”
Hades scowled at me. “You don’t snap your fingers to dig graves. It’s a solemn act. Needs to be done with respect and reverence. Not that you’d know anything about reverence.”
“Ouch. That hurt.” I jumped aside to dodge a large chunk of earth. This one had been thrown by Cerberus, who was digging happily alongside his master and barking at intervals from each of his three heads in turn. “Besides, what’s so reverent about letting your dog help you?”
