“I thought that maybe it was because other things covered them up,” I said. “Like the lake in Oregon. Maybe the town in Canada is still there.” Yeah, that was a weak response, but I had a niggling of where Meka was going with this, and I didn’t like it because I hadn’t thought about it before. I hadn’t known this massive dark forest would be here in this place hindering me from what I needed to do. Furthermore, I didn’t want to think about what it meant specifically.
“Maybe in that place,” Meka said, “but other places that can’t be so. Here. We should be seeing that building. If it’s still there. It might be under all of this. If that’s the case, then how can we get to it?”
I looked down. I stood on the edge of an asphalt road. Five feet away it ended as if it had been chopped away with a massive butcher knife. That was the point where the forest stopped. Nothing covered up the road; it was gone. It was likely that everything else was gone, too.
“I don’t have any answers,” I said. “No one does. The rules have twisted here. Why doesn’t technology work? Why can’t we shoot a gun, for example? Maybe gunpowder doesn’t have the same properties in the changed world that it used to have. Maybe God waved his hand and said that he didn’t want anyone to shoot anyone else ever again. I don’t know.” I paused and took a breath. “But Meka, I have to stop this Cheyenne Jr. thing from happening. Even if I have to go to hell to do it.”
“Yeah,” Meka agreed unhappily, “even if we have to shake hands with the devil himself.”
“Sometimes a deal with the devil is better than nothing at all,” I said. I swallowed nervously before adding, “Time to go.”
I could feel Landers’s frustration with me in the back of my head. I think he could feel my anxiety. Perhaps he could feel Horse’s and Meka’s, as well. For all I knew, he could feel the firefly pixies’ anxiety. If you could feel everyone having a load of anxiety, you would be frustrated, too. Snippets of thoughts escaped him, and I wasn’t sure if he meant them to leak. (“Not close enough.” “What is she doing now?” “Why can’t she just listen?” “Still not close enough.”)
There wasn’t a trail that led us from point A to point B. There wasn’t a yellow brick road that led to the Emerald City in the Land of Oz. There weren’t signs. There weren’t greeters to tell us where lingerie and women’s underwear were located. We were on our own.
I had left the regular horses outside the grove mainly because Bitey was very unhappy about the giant black trees. Bitey had threatened to lose her horsey mind, and I didn’t want to be bucked off, and then trampled as the poor beast fled for less magicky climes. We left them loose in the same meadow to graze and hoped they wouldn’t wander.
We picked our way through the distorted roots and branches that twirled and twisted through the wood. While there wasn’t an exact path, there was a way to follow the long roots and branches about so that we didn’t have to clamber over them at every turn. Everything seemed to have its own pattern, even in a wood that was untamed and convoluted on its best day.
After about ten minutes I realized I couldn’t see the sun, and we didn’t have a compass. (Not that compasses always worked in the new world.) The grove had closed around us in an icy black grip that was inexorable in its convergence.
The firefly pixies buzzed around us, and I could detect a certain amount of hesitancy in their actions. Finally, Light landed next to my ear. “Circles,” she said warningly.
I understood. We were going in a circle. We stopped and Meka said, “Hetta talks about tracking sometimes. Bushcraft, she calls it. Sometimes she laughs and calls it redneck craft. Her daddy and granddaddy taught it to her. Both of them grew up running moonshine through the Appalachian Mountains. Anyway, she said something about following a line of sight. Look straight ahead—” he gestured with his hand— “then go to that point. Then do it again. When you don’t have the sun or stars to follow, then you make do with what you have. I reckon if we go straight through this wood, then we’ll run into that building or end up on the other side.”
Horse nickered again. For an animal who wasn’t really a horse, he sounded exactly like a horse. “You do know I can’t climb like those stupid argopelters in D.C., don’t you?”
The argopelters were a type of monkey that had lived in the middle of the monuments. Once D.C. had burned, I didn’t know what had happened to them or to the human boy who lived with them. They had fled McCurdy just like most of the other new animals. I hoped they had found a nice patch of woods out of harm’s way.
“I know,” I said. “Maybe the sisters could fly up and try to scout out a way.”
Light sighed heavily, which was difficult considering her size, and the firefly pixies flew straight up. They made a line of luminescent fluttering dots in a direction that I wouldn’t have thought to go.
“Hetta also talks about the Tsul ‘Kalu in the deep dark woods,” Meka said. He pronounced the words “Sool Ka-loo.” I didn’t know who Tsul ‘Kalu was, and I think I was certain that I didn’t want to know, either. Even the name made me twitch inwardly. I’d never been the kind of girl to sit by a campfire when someone told ghost stories.
“Maybe it’s not the best time for a tall tale,” I said. I especially didn’t want to hear a tall tale about something that already gave me the willies.
“I don’t expect that many tales are that tall anymore,” Meka said.
“Can I get an amen?” Horse asked and chuckled.
A few of the firefly pixies landed on Meka’s head. They loved stories. The darker and grimmer, the better they liked it. (There was a story about a hitchhiker that vanished without getting out of the car that both captivated and freaked them out. “Where did she go?” they sang. “How could a human vanish out of the back of the moving-square-old-human-magic-object?”)
“Tsul ‘Kalu is the great sloping giant in the Carolinas. He is so powerful he cleared mountaintops. He made the magic that makes the mountains. The people there fear him and leave tributes for him. His fire-red eyes are so terrible that they will turn a normal man into bone.”
I wanted to say something sarcastic, but all I could think about was that a giant forest deserved a giant living in it. Something old, ancient, and ready to go nom-nom-nom on the average everyday visitor. It was better than thinking about Theo and the bomb under the mountain. However, on the inside it wasn’t better. I think I’d rather have faced Theo in the dark grove.
“Tsul ‘Kalu is also the great hunter, the lord of the game, and those who go into the shadowy woods of the Appalachians make certain to acknowledge him,” Meka paused to smile at the row of firefly pixies lined up on his forehead, anxiously waiting for the rest of the story. “Once there was a beautiful young woman who lived in the mountains with her mother, and Tsul ‘Kalu came to court her. She was a fickle young woman, but she grew to love Tsul ‘Kalu. However, her mother was more selective. She said her daughter’s beau must be a hunter, and so Tsul ‘Kalu brought them a deer that very night to show his prowess.”
Ahead of us there was the lofty shape of a huge snaking tree. I froze as one tremendous branch moved. A humongous shape toward the top turned in our direction; the head of the giant moved to see what had invaded his domain. Then slitted eyes opened and poured forth ruby-colored fire as they stared down at us.
Meka continued to speak, obviously not seeing what I saw. “Then her mother said he must bring them wood, so he brought them giant trees and laid them in front of their house. Her mother did not wish to split the wood and complained, and the next night Tsul ‘Kalu took the trees away and left nothing. Then when the mother wished to see her daughter’s beau, he refused because the mother would spoil his colossal magic. So the mother hid and waited. When she saw the great hairy giant with the scorching eyes, she shrieked in fright, and screamed for her daughter to run away. Tsul ‘Kalu was so angry that he took the daughter away with him to his mountain and never returned.”
Meka let the words die away and then added, “Anyway, that’s what this pla
ce reminds me of.”
The giant shape continued to regard us, and I whispered hoarsely, “Time to go back.”
Meka said, “What?” He followed my staring eyes to look at what I was seeing. “What?” he said again.
The firefly pixies launched into the air and headed back. They didn’t need a second warning.
Horse took a step back and nickered nervously. “I was right. The grass in this place sucks. I think I want to go back to the meadow now.”
I touched Meka’s arm and pulled him backward. The eyes followed me. “He’s watching us,” I said.
“Who?”
“You can’t see that right in front of us?” I asked with extreme disbelief.
Meka peered in front of us. “There are trees and branches and more trees,” he murmured. “What do you see?”
“There’s a giant there,” I said. “A great sloping giant like in your story. With red staring eyes. He’s taller than most of the trees. He’s looking at us. He could stomp us with one foot.”
Meka continued to look forward. “I don’t see it, Lulu,” he said finally.
Horse took another step to the rear. “I don’t see it, but there are things moving in the grass. They’re wriggling toward us.”
There wasn’t any grass or anything that was wiggling, and I blinked.
“I don’t see that, either,” Meka said, “but there’s something moving in the distance. Something white and ugly like maggots writhing in an infected wound. Giant maggots.”
I didn’t see that, either, but it dawned on me that we were all seeing things that freaked us out. Horse didn’t like bugs that landed on him or were in his food sources. Meka didn’t like infections; he’d asked me about my wound enough times.
It was all this place. I could see those fiery eyes glaring at me, ready to do damage on a serious level, but if Meka and Horse couldn’t see it, then what did it mean?
Chapter 22
The Darkness Enters Lulu
The Present – The Grove
I took a step backward, tugging Meka with me. “We need to leave.” We needed to leave yesterday, but that wasn’t happening. In a heart-wrenching moment, the giant thing in front of us had leaned forward while my eyes were averted. Despite what everything was telling me, it looked utterly, freakishly real. I could hear the creaking movement of its limbs and feel the ground shifting as it moved. Those terrible eyes had caught me in their blistering embrace and weren’t about to let me go. How could that not be real?
Meka also couldn’t look away from his personal horrors. He stared straight ahead at what had captured his attention. “I ain’t never seen something like that,” he whispered. “It’s like ghostly fiends. Their mouths are the size of watermelons with rings of teeth like a leech’s.” I felt the shudder in his arm as he trembled convulsively in response.
“I can’t see them,” I said desperately, “just like you can’t see what I’m seeing. I don’t think it’s real.” But it seems real. I couldn’t stop telling myself that.
Meka jerked. “I gotta go. I gotta go,” he repeated helplessly.
“Stay together,” I said. I hooked my arm through Meka’s and pulled him back. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Horse was turning in a slow circle. He was speaking in a language I hadn’t heard before, although I had a good idea of what he was saying. It was probably something along the same lines as what Meka and I were saying.
I glanced back to the front, and the horrendous giant was much, much closer. His blazing eyes burned the flesh on my face and arms. I could feel the heat all the way into my bones, and it wasn’t the kind that warmed the cockles. My heart skipped a beat in my chest. In another moment that horrid thing would reach out a monstrous black hand to crush me in an inescapable grip. “It’s not real,” I said. “It’s not real,” I repeated.
Abruptly Landers was there in my head. Gideon says not to go through the black door, he shot at me, an arrow of urgency that impaled my brain. Don’t go through the black door!
I don’t see a black door, I thought back nearly as desperately as Landers’s thoughts. All I see is something awful. Something that’s going to make me need to change my underwear.
And Meka sees giant white maggots. And Horse sees things crawling toward him through the grass. It’s some kind of trap. That place is making you have hallucinations! Try to go back the way you came!
I couldn’t bring myself to look away from those fearsome eyes. It didn’t seem to move unless I wasn’t looking at it, so I was too afraid to look away. The unreasonableness of the concept didn’t sink into me. It was real. It was there. Landers wasn’t there. There was no black door. I couldn’t go back because there was no back to go to. I had the feeling that if I looked back again there would be another giant beastly being there with the exact same formidable eyes staring at me.
It’s not real, Landers insisted. I don’t know what’s happening, but you’re all seeing something different. Calm down. CALM DOWN, LULU!
My heart slammed in my chest as I stared forward. Finally, I blinked and kept my eyes shut. I secured my arm on Meka’s and made certain I wouldn’t let him go. I had an idea that if I did, he would vanish forever into the murky shadows. I couldn’t do the same for Horse, so I whispered, “Horse, it’s not real. It’s not real. It’s not real.”
Louise would have taken care of this. She would have talked the being down with a sarcastic wit that was as deadly as a rapier’s blade.
There was a rush of feeling that infused my entire being. With relieved comprehension, I knew it was Landers trying his best to help me. I believe in you, Lulu. You’re more than you were before. You’re good and kind. Your beauty shines from inside you like a beacon on a lonely shore. You have to believe in yourself. You have to let Louise go. Kick her out on her ass. Take that step.
I opened my eyes, and Theo stood only inches away from my face. I couldn’t help the frightened gasp that came out of my mouth even while I registered his changed appearance. He was clean-shaven and looked as he had in San Francisco two years ago. He wore the same sackcloth that he had before and deftly twirled the plum flower chain whip in one hand. His eyes, however, were no longer the color of my father’s most expensive whiskey, but rather the glowing red of the sloped, frightening giant.
“Hasadiah,” Theo said, “it’s time for your redemption. It’s time for you to pay the price for your sins.”
I pulled back and tugged Meka with me. I didn’t look away from Theo as I went. I had to yank hard on Meka’s arm, and finally I pinched the skin on his bicep so he wouldn’t resist. I pulled him back and back, until I bumped into Horse. Horse had stopped his disturbing circles and panted as he tried to look in a thousand places at the same time.
“Make them stop, Lulu,” Horse pleaded. “Make them go away.”
“I’m going to get Meka on your back, Horse,” I said as Theo watched me with those wretchedly frightful eyes. “And you have to go. You have to run until you get out of the grove. You have to.”
“I can’t ride over those bugs and creatures,” Horse whined. “They’ll get on my hooves and on my legs, and they’ll eat me like they ate the grass.”
“They’re not there,” I said. I repeated it, a mantra that would make it come true if I said it enough. “They’re not there.” Theo seemed like he was there. He stood like the great giant, motionless but unceasingly watching me with those burning eyes. I could feel the sweat dripping from my forehead and upper lip. If I turned away, he’d be on me. He’d beat me with the plum flower until my back was in shreds again, and then he’d beat me until I bled to death or my heart simply gave out.
“Meka,” I said and pinched him again, twisting so hard that I knew I would leave a bruise.
Meka said, “What?”
“Get on Horse,” I said. I pulled back and made a stirrup for him out of my hands. He finally looked away from what had entranced him and looked at me incredulously. He didn’t hesitate. He put a foot into my hands, and I grunted as I hoi
sted him up. Horse nervously danced sideways but held position.
“Straight line, Horse,” I said. “Don’t stop until you see the meadow.”
“I can’t,” Horse whinnied. “I can’t. I can’t. I can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” I said as I gazed irresolutely at Theo. “You can do anything you want to do if you just believe in yourself.”
Horse’s head went up and down, and his great turquoise eyes looked at me. “I’ll try. Get on, Lulu. I can carry you both.”
Meka whispered, “They’re coming.”
Theo wasn’t moving, but then, I wasn’t looking away from him. I believed in myself, but the fear was a thick fog surrounding my soul. It was so heavy and gummy I could have spooned it up and put it into a cup. I knew I had to stay back so that the others could get away.
“Run, Horse!” I said. “You have to run.”
Horse’s large body trembled but he didn’t move.
“Run, Horse!” I said again.
I stepped back from Horse’s side and pulled out Mr. Stabby. I stared into Theo’s red eyes as I pricked Horse’s large posterior, shrieking, “RUN, HORSE!” Horse screamed with the abrupt onslaught of pain, and suddenly he was gone. I could hear the pounding of his hooves as he dashed away. Was I mistaken or did the grove give a roar of dismay?
I was alone with what was my biggest nightmare.
Landers was there again. His presence surrounded me and comforted me. I was sorry I hadn’t had the chance to see where we might have gone. He liked me. Furthermore, I liked him, and I hadn’t really liked anyone, not even Zach, since before the change. If I was being honest, then it had never really been the kind of liking that I would have equated to caring for another person. I hadn’t even really liked Richard Bennington III, my former fiancée. No, he had been the right person for my position. His money had been good for my money. His Mayflower ancestors had been appropriate for my Jamestown ones. But he wouldn’t have ridden hundreds of miles to get to where I was in order to help me. He wouldn’t have been willing to go into a tech bubble and face the dreadful man from my past. He wouldn’t tell me that he believed in me.
Forest of Dreams Page 21
