“Hey lady, can it, why don’t you?” Shade said, quite unexpectedly. He stood next to Fraidy and put a paw on his emboldened brother’s shoulder. “Talk about being a dampener,” he said, shaking his head in evident disappointment. “Fraidy’s right, we can’t let the chief do all the work on his own. He needs us because without us he’s vulnurble.”
“Vulnerable, , bro,” Carbon corrected.
I sank back against the wall and stifled a yawn. Weird, I know, when my system should be spiking on cortisol. It was a peculiar feeling this defeat. It almost felt like a warm blanket. And I must admit it was kind of nice not to be running around and worrying where our next bit of life-saving intel would come from. I thought it might be nice just to close my eyes for a second or two …
Onyx’s dulcet tones came to my ears. “There is something rather unsettling about what’s going on here,” he said to his siblings.
“I can almost see the hope oozing out of them,” Gloom said, stepping next to her brother while donning her dragon-steel hat.
“What’s the matter with them all?” Fraidy gasped. “Have they been hexed? Have they?”
Carbon guffawed. “Well, something’s going on. Look at them.” Carbon didn’t need to add anything. Our postures and expressions said it all.
“Yep, yep, thought I sniffed a dirty rat too, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.” Jet grunted. My excitable kitty pressed his nose to the floor and sniffed. He sunk low, and keeping a low profile, Jet slinked across the room, his nose just above the floor sniffing, sniffing, sniffing. He followed a warm lead that turned cold. “Nope, nope, nope, nope.” It was almost a mantra. Jet turned, jumped up onto a stainless steel trolley and sniffed around the low-slung windows of the basement. He pawed at the cobweb-covered casements. I watched, listlessly from my seat on the floor, and hazily wondered why my kitties were making such a fuss over a lost cause.
“It’s getting stinkerier up here, yep, yep,” Jet said, sniffing furiously around the draftiest window in the room. “Yep, oh man, yep, stinkerier and stinkerier by the second.”
Gloom took a step toward her zippy brother. “Be careful, bozo,”
“Yep, yep.” Jet pushed his face into the corner of the drafty window and withdrew it gingerly. He held, between his teeth, a pebble-sized piece of glowing black gem. The glow the stone emitted was a sultry gray. Jet jumped carefully down to the floor and set the item down slowly.
“Bet you One Million Sols that that thing there is a Warlock Warlord Tachyon Killing Black Diamond Device Thingy.” Midnight said, taking a step backward.
“And I bet it’s creating this ….” Eclipse flung a paw toward my defeated friends and me. “... zombie affliction too.”
“Why ain’t it affecting us?” Shade asked, staring at the pebble.
“Maybe the governor doesn’t see us cats as a threat?” Carbon suggested.
Gloom eyed the gem warily. “Shields thinks we’re a joke.”
Eclipse pulled on the fastener under his chin to tighten his helmet. “Well, who’s up for showing the governor the joke’s on him?” He said, tugging at his own chin-strap. “We need to get the bipeds on their feet and ready for action. And I think it starts with getting away from that stone.” Eclipse pointed at the black gem.
“Let’s kill it,” Shade said, taking one step closer to the pebble.
“No. We don’t know what it can do,” Onyx said. “We mustn’t threaten it or place it under any kind of attack. I’ve no doubt it’s rigged with some scrupulous security systems, and the last thing we want to do is antagonize it.”
Shade shrugged. “Well, let’s just beat it up real bad then.”
“We could try some cat magic?” Gloom suggested. “Something that wouldn’t hurt it, but would stop whatever it’s doing to the silly people over there.” She nodded at my fallen crew and me.
“I think we shouldn’t mess with this stone at all,” Eclipse said. “I suggest we just let it sit there and do its thing. We all know what happened to Orville.”
“Huh?” Carbon said. “We can’t just let it sit there, goofball. These sacks of potatoes will never get up if we don’t do something with this thing.”
“Yes. We can let it sit there, and we will. What we need to do is move everyone away from it.”
Shade looked stunned. “What, like, on our backs?”
“No, you idiot. We can rig up the Shadowgate charm. We’ll get everyone out that way.”
Midnight’s ears pricked up. “Can we do that? Like, seriously, can we? How?”
Onyx looked at his mysterious brother and then to the slumped Portia. “How do you propose to do this, brother? Portia’s magic-making faculties are supremely impaired right now, I would imagine. And even if she were cogent, I can’t picture her letting anyone inside her head to steal her spells.”
“We only need everyone to grab onto each other,” Eclipse said. “I have the rest covered.”
Shade slapped a paw to his forehead. “Bro, you got into the Witch Fearwyn’s head, didn’t you? When we had to Shadowgate out of Cathedral, you hopped a ride on Portia’s shoulders.”
Eclipse nodded. “Correct, and I happened to have had a paw on her head at the time.” He looked at his siblings. “I absorbed the magic she used to transport us.”
Gloom glared at her brother. “What do you mean ‘absorbed?” Her eyes collapsed to slits. “You went sniffing for it, didn’t you? You went sniffing for that spell while we were all falling into Shadowgate. Portia’s magical channels were wide open to your hack.”
Enigma kitty smiled and said nothing.
“You can really pull off the Shadowgate charm, ‘Clipsy?” Fraidy said, his small eyes discs of liquid hope.
“I’m almost certain I can,” Eclipse said. “I can feel the magic of the spell, so I say we take a chance and try and get the heck out of here.”
Fraidy wasted no time. I saw him trot over to us, the heap of bipeds, and start joining our hands. I smiled weakly as my neurotic cat joined me to my fellow Shadowgate passengers. Portia got my right hand, Maude Dulgrey got my left. I giggled when I saw the little guy lift Horace’s giant fist with both of his front paws and his mouth. “You’re funny,” I said.
Fraidy only dropped Horace’s hammy fist into Reverend Peacefield’s accepting, upturned palm. The other cats helped in the joining of hands ... until the fallen were all linked together.
“Hop on,” Eclipse said, from his place on my lap. The cats took their brother’s advice, and each found themselves a lap.
“Where are we going, though, bro?” Midnight queried, tucking his head under Hinrika’s chin.
“To the chief,” Eclipse said.
I let my eyelids fall shut again, and just before I hurtled into the nauseating spin of Shadowgate, I heard my cryptic cat say: “To the Mwyrden Cliffs.”
Chapter Fourteen
Our landing at the bluffs brought us to our anxious senses immediately. Untangling myself from Maude’s bony arm, I looked over the faces of the other Shadowgate transportees. I could see from their expressions that they looked how I felt. Or they felt how I looked. I opened my mouth to ask about everyone’s well being when a flurry of activity and a burst of shouting broke out behind me. I turned and saw a handful of uniformed men from GIPPD stampeding, brooms in hands, toward the edge of the cliffs.
David’s voice zig-zagged along the crosswinds that buffeted these bluffs. “There!” I heard my friend shout. “He just dipped below the cliffs, don’t let him get away. Disable him if you have to.”
I stood up on feeble legs. “David?” I called weakly. The chief spun toward me and the jumble of Custodians, and friends. “Hat? What … what are you doing here?” He ran toward me.
I still felt a little out of it. “We … we were hexed, I think. Shields …he must have--”
“Hat, no time, I’m sorry,” David said, out of breath. He pointed toward the bluffs. “Jyldrar’s just made a break for it.” The chief bit his lip. “It’s happening, Hattie. It’s really
happening.”
I finally snapped out of my stupor. “Oh my Goddess, okay, okay … oh my Goddess, we have no brooms!”
David whirled toward his men running at the cliff’s edge. “I’ll take care of it. I’ll get my boys to surrender a few. Follow me.” The chief started off but turned back almost instantly. “Vee, Hinrika, Portia, come on, let’s go. We’ve got a dragon to tame.” My friends dusted themselves off, and with grim faces, they followed me, the cats and the chief to their chariots.
“What about us?” Carpathia queried from underneath her bandaged mouth. “What shall we do?”
I looked back. “I - I don’t know, Carpathia,” I confessed. “But Millie and Dilwyn still haven’t shown up, so maybe go look for them? It’s probably best you all stay together anyway. We’ll let you know if we need any help, okay?”
“Go!” Maude said, heaving herself up using Horace’s enormous knee as leverage. “And may Goddess be with you.”
I blew a kiss to my friends and ran after my cats and the Custodians so we could follow the Wyrmrig to his fate in the heart of Burning Peak.
David threw me a broom. “Here,” he said. “If you don’t mind I think I’ll ride along with you. I need to …. catch my breath.” My friend’s pale face looked drawn and tight. I noticed his eyes looked different, somehow. A simmering light seemed to dance beneath the pale blue of his irises. Shields hold was getting stronger.
“Hop on,” I said, watching the chief’s men, Verdantia, Hinrika and Portia swoop downward from the cliff face.
“Shift over, kitties,” David said, swinging a leg over the broom, and pushing the cats further down toward the thatch. Once the chief was aboard, I pushed off and free-fell for about twenty feet or so from the edge of the Mwyrden bluffs.
Almost as soon as we descended, David’s arm shot out past my ear. “There!” He shouted. I followed his finger to a point about four hundred feet ahead of us. Typhon Jyldrar, no more than insect size from this distance, flailed around on his broom, making a wonky path toward Cathedral.
“Is this it, do you think?” I said, glancing back at the chief. “You think we’re following the real Wyrmrig?”
I couldn’t see my friend’s face as he replied, but his words had an edge to them. As if the Chief were wincing as he spoke. “Jyldrar’s the best lead we’ve got, Hat. We’ve gotta follow it through, I guess.”
I nodded. “Well, I mean, he does seem to be heading toward Cathedral, at least,” I said. “If he takes us to Burning Peak, I think it’ll be a miracle …. but, yeah, you’re right … he’s the best we’ve got.”
“He’s the only lead we’ve got, you mean,” Gloom said, bringing a heavy dose of reality to the conversation.
Carbon tiptoed toward the front of the broom, resting his paws on David’s shoulders behind me. “What’s he doing?” He said, watching Jyldrar’s bizarre moves as he flew in a jerky line across the Sea of Mages.
“One of my men hit his broom,” David said, his voice weary. I felt the man I loved slump against my back, pushing my body alarmingly close to the front of the stick. I turned my head but couldn’t see David’s face. I felt his head fall heavy on my shoulders. “Carbs?” I shouted back. “Is the chief okay?”
A moment’s silence.
“Carbs? Is David alright?”
“Um,” my heat-seeking kitty said quietly. “Not even close.”
Oh, my Goddess. Oh, my Goddess. I tried turning again but only succeeded in making the broom veer violently right.
“Boss!” Shade called. “Keep the broom true. We’ll make sure the chief doesn’t fall off, don’t worry.”
I was utterly freaked out.
I licked my lips. “Okay, okay,” I breathed. “I’ll keep heading toward Cathedral,” I said, trying to calm myself down.
“Just keep following the drifter dude,” Carbon said, nudging an encouraging head into my back.
“Okay,” I said. “Okay. You’re sure David’s secure?”
“He’s not goin’ anywhere, boss-lady,” Midnight advised. “We’ve got him covered.”
“Okay.”
I took a deep breath and narrowed my eyes on the flailing target, and with a newfound determination, I swooped down to get closer to the drifter with the Elder Code and the rest of the pursuing Custodians, catching up with Portia almost straight away. The old witch looked across the expanse of sky between us. “We’re going to land down at the back of Burning Peak. Understand?”
I nodded across to her. “Even if the drifter doesn’t land there, we are going to stay toward the rear of the mountain.”
I nodded again.
“Hattie, are you sure you understand …. You look … wait, what’s wrong with CPI Trew?” She eyed the chief with a hard stare.
“Take a guess,” I shouted across.
Portia nodded. “He’ll get worse the closer he gets to the governor.” And with those comforting words uttered, the Witch Fearwyn swooped downward to pass on the intel of intended landing spot to both Hinrika and Verdantia. I kept my altitude, and with David slumped behind me, I followed the drifter and the rest of my crew from above.
“I can’t believe this is really happening,” Gloom said, peering down at the flying pursuit team below. My grumpy cat climbed over Carbon and tapped me on the shoulder. “You think this clown is really the Wyrmrig? You think we stand a chance?” I kept my eyes on the fleeing drifter as his broom swooped and dived just above the surface of the Sea of Mages. “I don’t know, honey,” I said. “I certainly hope so.”
Gloom tapped me again. “And what about your mighty-magical-power that everyone says you have? You gonna pull that out when the time comes? You still have that one unlocked ward, right?”
“I don’t know, Gloom,” I snapped. “I don’t see how that last ward is going to help.” I turned and stared at my kitty. “You think a LOVE charm is really going to save our lives? Like I said to Millie, I really don’t think I’ll be able to love the dragon -- or dragons-- to death.”
The riders below me slowed, and Portia Fearwyn rushed upward to greet me.
“Jyldrar’s broom has been compromised,” she explained, nodding toward the slowing pursuit. “He still hasn’t seen us, so that’s good. We need to hang back, so we don’t hamper whatever he intends to do.”
I let out a frustrated sigh. “We’re running out of time.”
The Witch Fearwyn squinted into the distance. “I know,” she said. “But at least it looks like we’ve got the right target.” She pointed to the horizon where Cathedral’s gold, black and green coast came into view. Jyldrar, having severe problems with his broom now, kept his ride aimed at the black diamond isle.
“Is … is … he doing okay?” Portia asked, nodding at David.
“He’s getting worse,” I said, listening to the chief’s shallow, wheezing breath. The Witch Fearwyn frowned. “Well, there’s nothing we can do now,” she said, pointing the nose of her broom downward once more. “We’ll have to hope this is all over soon.” With that, she dropped out of view to join Hinrika and Vee in the snails-pace chase.
I let my own broom drop just as soon as we sped over the shore of Crystal Beach. Jyldrar, slowing to that defining point where gravity becomes king, puttered over the sands, and then, with a final push, he somehow managed to lift upward as he dragged his broom across the base of the Glimmers and the waterfall.
Portia waved her arms up to me and gesticulated wildly. “To the right!” She commanded, steering Verdantia and Hinrika into a sharp turn toward the back of Burning Peak and the falls. “Go wide! Go wide! Stay out of sight!”
I veered right as instructed, making sure I flew in a full arc until I was well out of the hot-zone at the front of the mountain; my cat’s helmets faintly clattering together as I made the sweep. I saw Hinrika, Vee and Portia fly the same wide-berth below me.
Carbon’s chin fell on my shoulder, and my kitty peered down. “Where’d he go?” He said, swerving his small head in a near three-hundred-and-sixty-degree
arc.
“He’s dropped somewhere behind the falls,” I said, my breathing labored and heavy. I could feel the rush of adrenaline fill every cell of my body, and if the hair on my head standing on end was anything to go by, I’d have sworn my stress hormones had coursed their way down every single hair follicle on my crawling scalp. I let my broom fall to join Portia and the faeries. “Are we landing near the start of the tunnel?” I called out to the leader of the Custodians.
Portia shook her head vigorously. “He dropped somewhere back there,” she said, pointing to a spot quite a distance to the left of the falls. “At least a mile back, I’d say. We’re going to need to herd him to the entrance.”
“I … I don’t know if David can take much more.”
The Witch Fearwyn dropped a little lower and looked up. She gave the chief a brief inspection. “I agree,” she said. “He needs to sit this one out.” Portia looked at Vee and Hinrika flying slowly below her and then looked back at me. “Okay, I’m going to take Hinrika and Verdantia and steer Jyldrar to the tunnel … if he’s not coming this way already, that is.”
“Okay. What about us?” I said.
“Circle wide,” she said. “And I mean wide, Hattie. The governor’s cronies aren’t occupying the back of the mountain where the entrance is, so if you’re wide enough, you should be able to drop down without being seen. Wait at the tunnel entrance for us. The chief can rest up there until we drive Jyldrar up to you.”
I dragged a hand over my face, and immediately had to wipe my palm on my jacket, my skin was so clammy. I tried to draw in a breath that wasn’t short and jagged but came up short. “Okay, so we just … wait there?”
Portia gave me one curt nod. “Stay still and stay out of sight, am I making myself clear?”
Shade answered for me. “We ain’t goin’ nowhere, lady.”
“Very good,” the Witch Fearwyn said. She hesitated, half pointing her broom downward, half pulling it up. “Just … just be careful,” she barked, and dropped like a stone to join Vee and Hinrika.
The Angel and the Dragon Page 18
