“They didn’t know you were coming,” Reggie said, “but they’ll still know a portal was opened within the facility, and trace it here.”
“Oh, uh, yes, that is true,” Verna said, pushing up her glasses.
Reggie added, “And the ARC is as likely to stone us as talk to us right now.”
Father giggled. “New stones, blue stones, as natural as silicone.”
“Interesting,” Verna said, looking at Father. “Is this a vision?”
Father had a touch of prophecy, one of the gifts of sorcery. Of the five branches of arcana magic—wizardry, sorcery, thaumaturgy, alchemy, and necromancy—our family had a little of everything but alchemy in our bloodline. Father’s dominant branch was thaumaturgy, the crafting of magical artifacts and the use of sympathetic magic, but his prophecy gift seemed to have been enhanced by his madness, and had helped me a few times since my return from exile.
The left side of Father’s face twitched and he didn’t speak, but he smiled, and his right hand tapped his thigh once. Once for yes, a response Verna had managed to condition Father to give, a way to get past his inability to speak. At first it had brought to mind the beeping of Christopher Pike’s space wheelchair on Star Trek, and I felt conflicted about it. Father was not one of Verna’s animals to be trained. But she genuinely cared for him, and he for her, and it had helped them communicate more.
“Hmmm, let’s see,” Verna continued. “New stones, blue stones—”
“Seriously, people,” Reggie interrupted. “Remember the whole fleeing for our lives part?”
“Oh, yes,” Verna said. “Quite. So sorry.” She pushed her glasses up again. “The old passage?”
Reggie nodded. “The old passage.”
I moaned.
“What?” Dawn asked.
I shrugged. “The old passage is the secret entrance behind the waterfall.”
“Wait, Snoqualmie Falls?” Dawn said. “They’ll crush us!”
“No no no,” Verna said. “We’ll be fine. But we’ll get wet. Oooh.” She began wandering along the shelves lining the far wall, rubbing at one ear. “I have this wonderful water repellant made from Mogwai oil that I’ve been meaning to try …”
“Verna!” Reggie snapped impatiently.
“At least, I’m pretty sure it will repel water,” Verna said, oblivious to Reggie. “Or it may just make you irresistible to frogs. I haven’t quite worked out—oh my, who left this turned on? I hope it wasn’t me.” She stopped beside a globe with what looked like a fireworks show going off inside.
Father took her arm, and said, “Come, dear. We must flee.”
She blinked up at him. “Arlyn?” She glanced at her watch. “Oh, wonderful. I’d say we’re seeing at least twice the baseline rate of lucidity—”
“We’re leaving now, dear,” Father said, and gently pulled her in our direction.
“What? Oh, yes, quite.” Verna lifted a Nerf bazooka off of the nearby table. “Ready.”
Reggie nodded, and said, “Okay folks, stay close.”
We exited the room into a very industrial-looking hallway, entirely made of smooth concrete, with pipes and an air duct running along the ceiling, and colored stripes on the floor to help guide visitors to the various key departments. Reggie led the way, Sammy and the exiles following him, then Father and Verna. I brought up the rear with Dawn. We passed the Department of Mana Management and the Department of Interdepartmental Cooperation before the first stairwell came into sight.
“Hey!” A voice called behind us. “Verna? What’s going on?”
I turned to find an enforcer had stepped out of one of the doorways we’d just passed.
“Oh poop,” Verna said, then there was a fwoomp! sound as she fired the plastic bazooka past my head.
A yellow Nerf ball flew at the enforcer. He shouted the beginning of a spell in a startled and slightly squeaky voice but had no time to complete it before the ball splatted against him.
There was a thwump of displaced air as the enforcer disappeared.
No, not disappeared. He’d become a baby, sitting amidst the collapsed pile of an enforcer suit.
“Oh!” Verna said, frowning down at the bazooka. “I thought I soaked these in the MLSD.”
“MLSD?” I asked before I thought to stop myself.
“Yes, magical LSD,” she said distractedly. “I was going to call them Tripping Balls, but—oh yes, then I had the idea for the Baby Boomer, and … huh, I wonder where I put the MLSD? Oh dear.”
“Come on!” Reggie whispered harshly from the front of the line. “Keep moving!”
“Right,” Verna said. “Yes. Good idea.” We started moving again.
Then I thought better of it and ran back. I snagged up the suit, and felt the silver-coated steel baton in one pants pocket as I rolled the clothes into a bundle. “Sorry,” I said to the baby as I picked him up and moved him back into the room from where he’d emerged. I closed the door and hurried after the others again. When I caught up to Verna, I said, “He’s going to be okay, isn’t he?”
“Who?” Verna asked, her tone still distracted.
“The enforcer you turned into a baby?”
“What? Oh. Yes. He’ll be fine. He should return to normal in twenty minutes or so. Or possibly into a man-sized baby for a bit, then himself.”
Dawn snorted. “Finn does that all the time.”
“Gee, thanks!” I said.
“Ssshhh!” Reggie said from the front.
We ascended into the old passageways, where the smooth concrete gave way to more roughened, natural tunnels that smelled like mildewed spices. Our footsteps were now soft susurrations on the sandy soil, and the dull roar of the waterfall grew steadily less dull and more roary.
We rounded a final curve, and mist rolled over us as we faced the backside of the falls, at least twenty feet above where they crashed into the river valley. A path cut into the side of the cliff, leading up to the top and Snoqualmie Forest—or rather, the oversized park that was what remained of Snoqualmie Forest. The path had been created with an uneven edge, cleverly following the natural contours of the cliff wall so that it remained invisible to viewers of the falls.
“We go single file,” Reggie called back. “Be careful, the path will be slippery.”
“Can I have that jacket?” Dawn asked, pointing at the bundle tucked under my arm.
“Uh, sure?” I unrolled the bundle and handed her the jacket. She wrapped it over her guitar.
“Here we go,” Reggie said.
We stepped one by one out into the night. The path was a slippery climb at first, the gray and brown stone in layers like broken and discarded tiles, with the occasional weed growing from a crack. But the wall curved out above the path creating enough cover that no water fell directly on us, and once we had climbed past the edge of the waterfall, the path became less slippery and more a steep climb.
I realized that there were thirteen of us climbing up the cliff side, and I imagined myself Bilbo Baggins climbing the Misty Mountains with the dwarves for a moment.
My legs burned by the time we reached the top. Reggie and Sammy were the first to step up off the path onto the cliff edge, and then they stood to either side of the path and helped up the string of men and women returned from exile.
“Stop in the name of the ARC!” a voice shouted from somewhere above.
“Keep climbing!” Reggie shouted down, then moved along the cliff edge back in the direction of the falls and the ARC facility.
The night lit up with the flash of lightning.
I fumbled out the steel baton taken from the babyfied enforcer, and grabbed Dawn’s arm. “Put that on,” I told her, nodding at the enforcer jacket. It would lend her protection, especially against anything fired at her back. I prayed to the fates that she’d have no reason to be charging at an enforcer.
The last few exiles on the path ahead of me began to back up, shying away from the danger above.
“Keep going!” I shouted up at them. �
��If they catch us on the path, they could just blast us off the edge!”
That seemed to register with the exiles, because they resumed climbing at double speed. I followed close behind, trying not to shout at them in my fear and impatience to know what was happening, to know if Reggie and Sammy and Fatima were okay.
My head crested the edge of the cliff, and I saw Reggie engaged in battle with two other enforcers. Thank the gods it was only two. I didn’t know whether they’d been sent to look for us, or were just a routine patrol, but had there been many more we would have been screwed.
Reggie held his own for now, but was pressed to fight them both. One of the enforcers had a nasty-looking cut on his forehead that leaked blood down the left side of his face, and the other swung his baton a bit awkwardly with his left arm, his right cradled to his chest. Reggie kept them both busy enough that they didn’t have time or space to cast any more spells. But they were good enough to keep him from delivering a finishing blow, and it was only a matter of time before he made a mistake or ran out of steam.
Sammy ferried the exiles toward the nearby tree line rather than engaging the enforcers.
I looked back at Dawn, Father, and Verna, who all just stood at the top of the cliff with me, along with a couple of the exiles. “Run! Head toward town.”
“I don’t see you moving,” Dawn replied.
*La, perhaps take your own advice?* Alynon said.
“Dawn, please help Father get to safety.” I wrapped the enforcer pants around my left arm like a shield, and whipped the baton to full extension. “Reggie needs my help.”
One of the enemy enforcers managed to maneuver behind Reggie long enough to kick him in the back. Reggie’s jacket flashed a bright blue, as did the enforcer’s boot, and Reggie stumbled forward, off balance.
“Reggie!”
The second enforcer swung his baton down at Reggie’s head. Reggie managed to throw up his own baton to block, but the strike got through his block and gave Reggie a glancing blow on the shoulder that sent him stumbling further.
A fireball whooshed past my head in a bright streak toward the enforcer behind Reggie. Granted, it was a fireball the size of a walnut, but it was a fireball. I glanced behind me in surprise at the young woman who’d launched it, one of the exiles and apparently a wizard. I turned back in time to see the fireball strike the enforcer in the ear. It didn’t so much explode as expand, forming a globe around his head.
The enforcer swatted at it, but didn’t seem to be actually burning, the fire only blinded him and cut off his air.
As this happened, Dawn began leading Father toward the forest. But Verna strode in the direction of the enforcers, and raised the Baby Boomer to her shoulder.
I ran up to escort her, just in case.
Firehead fell to his knees, and a second later, to his face. The fireball dissipated as he fell, leaving negative-color imagery floating in my vision.
Reggie had turned his stumble into a tumble, and rolled up to his feet facing back toward the remaining enforcer. But he swayed a bit as he stood.
The enforcer advanced.
Verna fired her Nerf bazooka, but a breeze snatched the foam ball and sent it in a sideways curve over the edge of the cliff.
Reggie pulled out a silver pistol and fired twice at the other enforcer’s legs. Two bright blue flashes as the bullets ricocheted off of the enforcer’s pants, but the enforcer stumbled—right into a combination of blows from Reggie that crumpled him to the ground.
“Run,” Reggie shouted at us, waving toward the forest with his baton.
“Come on,” I said to Verna, and headed after Dawn and Father and the rest. Lady Fireball remained standing, staring in the direction of the fallen enforcers. I skidded to a stop and said, “Hey, you okay?”
“I just attacked someone,” she said in a dazed tone. “I mean, I knew it could be used like that, and I didn’t want him to hurt Captain Reginald, but—” she trailed off.
“It’s okay!” I said. “He’ll live. You did the right thing. But we need to run, now.”
She blinked at me, then nodded, and we ran together after the others.
The forest was a respectably thick stand of evergreens with enough space between them to see maybe fifteen feet in decent light. But to the right, a wide trail, or narrow dirt road, cut a swath through them. We angled for the path, and Reggie caught up with us.
“The ARC’s going … to descend on us … any minute,” he said in bursts between heavy breathing.
I understood. Even if that had just been a random patrol and not a pair sent specifically to find us, the gunshots and magic so close to an ARC facility would trigger a swift and overwhelming response.
“What are we going to do?” I panted.
“No damn idea,” Reggie said.
I realized that the others had stopped running ahead of us, clustering on the path.
And then I saw why. Two imposing, shadowed figures blocked our escape.
“Bat’s breath.”
29
HUNGER STRIKE
My heart clenched, and I glanced to either side of the trail, looking for options among the trees and darkness. Then one of the shadow shapes fully registered.
“Pete?” I called out.
“Finn!” He called back. The shadow next to him resolved into the form of Vee.
Two more shadows detached themselves from the forest, and moved out onto the path, a willowy form gliding gracefully, and a huge form lumbering grace(half)fully. Silene, and Sal. In addition to her normal green dress made of leaves and moss and other growing things, Silene wore a belt with a dozen small pouches on it.
I made my way past the clustered exiles to where Dawn, Sammy, and Fatima stood facing the Elwha group.
My relief at seeing my brother evaporated as I remembered the circumstances of our last parting—banishment for destroying Dunngo’s spirit. And they hadn’t seemed too keen on seeing me again. Which meant if they were here, it meant nothing good.
Had Dunngo’s sister demanded justice? Had Grandfather incited them further against me?
“Greetings, Gramaraye,” Silene said.
“If you’ve, uh, come after me for some reason …?” I said.
“Not in the way you may think,” she replied. “The Silver Archon must be stopped, and your brother felt you should be allowed to help.” Her tone said she was not entirely convinced on the matter.
I looked at Pete, then glanced behind me, half expecting to see enforcers rushing at us. “I know the Archon’s been a real pain, but I don’t think right now—”
Pete said in a growl, “He has Mattie.”
My head snapped around. “What?”
Sammy stomped up beside me. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!”
Vee placed a hand on Pete’s lower back, and said, “Mort took her there. She’s okay, for now.”
“Why would—” I began, but Reggie interrupted.
“We need to save ourselves before we can save anyone else,” he said. “The ARC’s about to come down on our heads.”
“We can help with that,” Silene said.
Sal grunted. “Follow Iself into the woods.”
He stalked off the side of the road toward the trees, great hairy arms swinging, head and shoulders taller than anyone else present, even Petey.
“Follow him!” I said to the exiles. “It’s okay.”
We all hurried off of the main road along a narrow break in the trees that barely qualified as a path, with me, Pete, Vee, and Silene bringing up the rear. Sal led us quick and confident through the shadowed forest, never seeming to run into snags or hit his head on the low branches despite his size and speed. Behind us, Silene walked with her hands splayed out at her sides as if feeling for heat rising off of the ground, her brown-and-green hair and the green living dress causing her to blend into the forest even without a glamour. The trees creaked as they leaned in a little closer together when she passed, ferns and shrubs grew to fill in the space behind us, and
the underbrush rustled and snapped and shifted like a stirring beast.
I heard shouts in the uncomfortably close distance, men and women calling to one another.
Reggie dropped back to us. He didn’t look great. Sweat caused his bald head to reflect what moonlight filtered through the treetops, and he looked less like Louis Gossett Jr. just then and more like Death’s older brother Dearth. He said, “The dryad’s magic will slow them down, but they’ll still be able to track us. I’ll buy you some time.”
“Reggie—” I began.
He shook his head. “This is happening, Gramaraye. You need to go and get Mattie, and get Vee and the rest somewhere safe.”
A series of little lights like fireflies appeared in the distance, spreading out through the forest and weaving between the trees.
“Shit. Go!” Reggie said.
“Be careful,” I replied, and immediately winced. There are just some dumb things I wished I could stop saying. Like when a checkout person says “Thanks for shopping,” and I say “You too!” Or, you know, when someone I care about is about to run straight at a pack of charged up enforcers in a suicidal attempt to save me, and I say “Be careful!”
But Reggie just said in a distracted tone, “Get going.” Then he ran off perpendicular to the path, pulling something out of the inside of his jacket pocket.
I turned and found Silene waiting for me. I joined her and hurried after the others, relying on Silene to guide me along the hidden path ahead while it became tangled and covered behind.
Several of the little wispy lights appeared to be zigzagging in our direction, like photon torpedoes hunting for a cloaked Klingon Bird-of-Prey, glowing a bright blue-white.
“Someone let slip the bloodhounds of war,” I said to Silene. “Anything you can do?”
“No,” she said as we continued to sprint. Ferns and huckleberry branches whipped against my legs and hands. “The more I use my magic, the faster they will find us.”
Smells Like Finn Spirit Page 31
