Bounty Of Ash (The Phoenix Series Book 2)

by Sarah Rockwood

  “It’s still bleeding, see.” She drew back the paper towel, which came away clean. “Oh, I guess it stopped.”

  “Are you sure? It was a pretty bad cut.”

  I stepped closer and examined the wound. The gash that had definitely needed stitches was now a tiny scratch. I hadn’t had time to completely heal the cut, but this was better. She wouldn’t think anything weird had happened.

  "It’s just a tiny scratch.” My mom smiled at me. “You were worrying for nothing.” She moved to the counter. “These onions won’t chop themselves.”

  8

  Dinner was relatively uneventful. As uneventful as dinner with nine adults, six children, two teenagers and an off-key chorus of happy birthday can be. Let's just say I'm glad I don't have to sit at the kids' table anymore.

  We were all attempting to recline in our stiff back chairs, enjoying our full bellies when I heard a tap at the dining room window. I sat up and turned to look out, but the brightly lit room had turned the windows into black mirrors. All I could see was a slightly startled woman with wings, sitting in a room full of people who had over eaten. I turned back and told myself it was the wind.

  Then the tap sounded again.

  "Did you hear that?" my sister Lauren asked the group.

  "You mean this?" my dad asked and then let out a massive belch.

  "Oh, Michael!" my mother cried as a third tap sounded.

  "There it is again!" Lauren said, rising from her seat. I hastily got to my feet.

  "It's probably just Bonkers, I'll go let him in."

  Bonkers, my parents’ cat, and I didn't really get along, but I was glad to use him as an explanation now. I had a bad feeling about those sounds.

  "I don't remember letting him out..." my mother mused.

  "What else could it be?" I said as happily as possible as I left the dining room.

  I made my way down the hall that led from the kitchen to the back door. The dining room windows looked out onto the backyard, and this door opened to the same area. Once out of my family's field of vision, I dropped to a low run and switched out the hall light before I stood up and looked out on the yard. I could make out most of the yard in the light coming from the dining room. It spilled onto the lawn bathing the first ten feet in warm yellow light. I scanned the edges of the patch of light. A creature dashed through the field of light making me jump, but it was only Bonkers streaking towards the door. Something had spooked him. I opened the door as quietly as possible, and he rushed inside. Once over the threshold, he paused for a moment and looked surprised to find it was me who had opened the door. I shrugged in response, and he came forward and briefly rubbed his chin against my leg before running down the hall.

  "Cool." Perhaps the cat and I had made peace. I returned to my surveillance of the backyard.

  A shadowy figure moved at the edges of the field of light. It was small and appeared to be very low to the ground. Minion, I thought to myself. My suspicions were confirmed moments later when the creature took a step into the light, crawled up on the window sill and tapped on the glass. I heard my sister say, "There it is again!" and I was out the door.

  I drew forth my wings as I moved, shielding me from my family and exposing me to the minion tapping at my parents' window. It didn't hear me as I approached and I wasted no time in grabbing it by the neck and pulling it back into the shadows.

  "Why are you here, little man?" I hissed in its ear. "I don't think you were invited to this party."

  "Oh, you heard me," the creature said through a strangled throat. "Good. I wanted to talk to you for a moment."

  "Then talk." I eased up my grip but did not let the minion go.

  "Well, um, I've heard so much about you, I wanted to meet the creature behind the wings."

  It stung a little that he said creature and not woman, or even human, but I guess those labels didn't really apply to me anymore.

  "Man, that's lame," I replied, and with the Bounty out it had to be a lie. "You couldn't think of something better? Seriously?"

  The minion sputtered a bunch on monosyllabic words in a desperate attempt to respond.

  "You must be one of Daa's friends. How's he doing?" I asked with a mocking tone.

  "He's fine." said a second voice, strong and clear and very close. It was less phlegmy than the usual minion voice, and I spun towards the sound.

  "Not alone, eh? Very smart, " I said to the minion I had by the neck. "But where is your little friend?" I scanned the yard but could see nothing.

  With a low hissing sound, something that looked like a mad hairless badger came running through the light. Before I had chance to move, it slammed into my legs and drove me to the ground with my wings pinned under me. The minion I was holding took the opportunity to fight back and kicked me in the chest.

  It freaking hurt.

  The two of them then went to work on me with their teeny tiny fists. They were surprisingly strong, and I was really glad that my family wouldn't be able to hear me yelling with pain. This went one for what felt like an eternity but was only about ten seconds. Seriously though, count to ten slowly. It's a long time. I was finally able to get my arms in front of me, and with a high pitched scream, I force a shield of energy from my hands as my wings thrust me from the ground. The energy from my hands made a blast of clear white light, and when it subsided, I took a quick look through the dining room window. Everyone was laughing and talking, except baby Jenny who was standing on her mother's lap and pointing at me through the glass.

  "How is this kid seeing me!?" I asked the night.

  But I didn't have time to dwell on that thought, the minions had recovered and were making a charge for me. One stood back and looked like he was preparing an energy ball and the other, the one I'd initially grabbed, was running at me with his fists raised. I took this all in within seconds and made my move.

  I ran towards the one charging me, at the last second I used a sharp extension of my wings to quickly turn and round-house kick him towards the other minion who, at that exact moment, had thrown the energy ball. This hit the first minion as he came barreling towards him, and the two ended up tangled in what turned out to be a net made of energy.

  "So that's your game," I said in a low voice as I stalked towards them. "You think you're going to trap me. No dice, fellas. "

  Mr Energy Ball blanched at my approach and whispered a word that made the net disappear; he then took off at a run with the other minion behind him.

  "I don't think so." My wings flapped gently, lengthening my strides as I ran after them.

  They were heading for the stream at the back of the yard. It was beyond a thicket of trees and ran down into the neighbour's property. The Travel point must be on the other side of the water. I couldn't let them get away. They knew where my parents lived, and if they'd found Daa, they knew my neighbourhood too. If I didn't stop them, the whole Void would be turning up for a slice of cake.

  I chased them through the thicket, but they're minions, and no matter how well I knew that little patch of trees, their crazy hands and feet scramble would beat me every time on the rough terrain.

  I saw the first minion leap into the air above the stream and disappear. The second had sprung into action when I grabbed his ankle.

  I expected to feel cold water on my skin as the minion, and I plunged into the river, what I felt instead was my body being sucked into the fabric of Time as I was forced to Travel.

  9

  I tried desperately to let go of that little jerk's ankle, and he tried desperately to shake me off, but no matter what either of us did, we were stuck together. And only one of us knew where we were going.

  The lights of the Void portal flashed around us. Blue, green, pink, the occasional streak of red, they all passed by me as the minion screamed and thrashed. Realising that I wasn’t getting rid of this guy, I took my free hand and grabbed for the minion's other leg. It took a few tries to raise my arm against the wind, but eventually, I got a hold of him with both hands. T
his left him with no choice but to fold against the wind and grab my hair, thus putting minion crotch directly in my face.

  Gross.

  As quickly as we entered the portal, we were out. We hit what felt like wood, but it bent considerably beneath us, and we began the dance of trying to shake off the other without losing our grip on our opponent. For the minion in front of me, this meant trying to grab my neck. I kept one hand clamped on his ankle and used the other to try and push him off, but he still hand one hand wrapped up in my hair, and it hurt like hell.

  I had completely forgotten about my powers, but my body hadn't and when the jerk tried to bite my face it responded. A blast of dark green energy, strong, protective and angry, ripped from my mouth and threw the minion off me and into the air.

  As the creature cleared my face I was able to take in two things simultaneously; we were on a bridge, and the minion was going over the side.

  Without thinking, I leapt over the side of the bridge, tucking and rolling as I sailed through the air, my wings tight to my back. I saw the minion beneath me and reached out a hand, catching him once again by the ankle, my wings flapping in a hard reverse as we hovered just inches from the ground. The minion's face touched the dirt, and he whimpered. Dangling him by the ankle, I flew back up to the bridge.

  As I did, I took in my surrounding. We were in an ancient forest. We also had to be somewhere on the north-west coastline because as far as I could see every tree in this forest was a giant redwood.

  The trees were widely spaced, and although it wasn't super comfortable, I was able to fly in a muscled sort of way between them. I found the bridge I had jumped from and then followed it along through the trees looking for the other minion.

  "Where's your friend, big boy?" I asked the minion.

  "Oh, he'll be long gone now." The minion chuckled, hacking up a big wad of phlegm that he allowed to fall to the forest floor.

  "Gross!" I shook the minion to make sure his excretions didn't get on me.

  "The great warrior is afraid of a little spit? That is hilarious," the minion laughed again, so I dropped him.

  He screamed, and I let him fall five or six feet before I swooped down and caught him.

  "Now who's scared?" I asked mildly as I flew back up to the maze of rope bridges.

  They seemed to go on forever; wide, perfectly spaced pieces of wood lashed together with thick rope and draped from tree to tree. It would have taken years to create such a system, and how the hell would you get up here in the first place?

  "What is this place?"

  The minion was still recovering from his fright, and it took him a few seconds to answer.

  "It's a secret."

  This time I tossed him up into the air.

  He screamed again as he sailed in a beautiful high arch over the bridge beside us. I landed on the bridge as he flew over the opposite side and reached out, snatched him from the air, then tossed him onto the bridge. He landed on his stomach with a grunt. My wings stretched to stabilise me as I used the toe of my boot to roll him onto his back. I placed my boot squarely on his chest, pinning him.

  "Alright, I've had enough of your shit. You and your buddies have followed me, threatened my family and punched me far more than I would deem acceptable. I've kicked your ass a couple times now, and I’m willing to do it again if you continue to piss me off. So this is what's going to happen; I'm going to let you sit up, and you are going to answer my questions." I leant into my leg, making him gasp. "And if you try to screw with me, I am going punt you off this bridge. Understand?"

  The minion nodded.

  "Good boy."

  I slowly lifted my boot from the tiny creature's chest and took a small step back. At first, he didn't move, just lay there looking at me with a wary gaze, then ever so slowly, like he was moving a single vertebra at a time, he rolled up through his spine to a seated position. It was a move any Pilates instructor would be proud of.

  "Impressive."

  He smiled a little self-indulgently and then settled himself into a cross-legged position. With a good deal less grace, I held on to the ropes and lowered myself onto the bridge, mirroring his position.

  "The rumour is true," the minion said.

  "What rumour?"

  "That you've changed."

  "Yeah, I get that a lot."

  I was really getting tired of hearing that. What did these creatures expect? I'd lost all my memories of the Void when I'd been reborn as a human, and I'd had to fight most of these jerks to get my wings back. Stuff like that changes a person.

  "What's your name?" The question surprised him.

  "You wish to know my name? Why?"

  "Because I'm talking to you," I said dryly. "Look, this is going to go a lot faster if you don't question every question. "

  "True. Maha, I am called Maha."

  "Okay, Maha. Second question; did Daa tell you where to find me?"

  "Oh, poor Daa." The minion laughed, hacked up something heavy and spat it off the side of the bridge. "You did a real number on him. It took us hours to find him, and when he got out of the box, the newspaper had stained his forehead. Everyone kept asking him ‘what's the headline!’"

  He laughed again, and I had to fight from joining him.

  "Okay, that's pretty funny." I smiled, and Maha stopped laughing and stared at me. "What?"

  "You are quite pretty for a humanoid."

  "Thanks." I don't think I could have added more sarcasm to the word if I'd tried.

  "And for all your angry words, your energy is very clean and kind. I can see that now as we sit here." He looked at me thoughtfully. "Who would put a Bounty on your head?"

  "So you don't know?"

  "I do not."

  "Ganaraj sent you all after me with no explanation?"

  "He is our leader; he does not need to explain."

  There was something about the way Maha said those words that lead me to believe he was monumentally unhappy with the situation.

  "And was Daa telling me the truth, the person who brings me to him gets a share of my power?"

  "That is what we have been told."

  "I'm going to assume that appeals to you since you tracked me down."

  He nodded.

  "Okay, back to my first question, where are we?" I flared my wings. "And don't give me that secret shit."

  "We are in a minion stronghold."

  "What!?" I scrambled to my feet. Maha sat there serenely.

  "Yes, Phoenix, this is a place where minions gather. In fact, if you listen closely you can hear hundreds of my brothers approaching."

  "No..."

  I breathed the word as my ears strained against the sounds of the forest. I could indeed hear a multitude of tiny hands and feet slapping against wood. And the sound was growing louder. The bridge began to sway subtly. Panic nibbled at me, I looked left and right, trying to see my attackers approach.

  "There is no escape, Phoenix." Maha was slowly getting to his feet. "Your pretty face will twist in pain as I take my share of your power." He was speaking so quietly, it made the sound of approaching minions even more frightening. His voice lowered to a whisper, "We will tear you apart."

  At that moment hundreds of minions broke like a wave over the bridge in front of me. The bridge was now shaking with their weight. I screamed. And then I ran.

  Panic took over as I saw more minions approaching from the many bridges on either side of me. I could feel the minions at my back getting closer. I ran and screamed and ran, my lungs ripping as the air pumped in and out of me. My head was full of blind panic and fear. My wings began to shake and flashes of the terrible day when they were torn from my body raced through my mind, filling my centre with cool icy terror.

  I ran until I found myself on a platform, a junction between many bridges. I spun around and found I was completely surrounded by minions. They raced towards me from every angle. I had nowhere to turn.

  I stood silent with fear as they broke onto the platform and cascad
ed over me. It was a wave of tiny hands and teeth pinching and pulling at my body. I pulled myself into a ball at the base of the pile as images of my first attack moved like a strobe light through my body. I heard a minion scream ‘Wings!" It pulled me from the flashback and snapped me into reality, lighting a fuse of rage that exploded in my belly. It filled me with deep blood red power that exploded from my body like a land mine. Every minion touching me was thrown violently back, taking his brothers with him as they screamed in pain. I looked at their flesh; it was burned where my power had touched it.

  My power continued outward, creating a shield of fire around me. The minions it touched writhed in pain, and the others scrambled back, screaming as my shield caught them, burning where it touched. I stood calmly within the flaming orb.

  A voice shouted above the din of screaming minions and the stench of burning flesh.

  "Let me through, let me through!"

  Maha broke through the crowd and froze, taking in the carnage before him. I called to him from within my burning shield.

  "You will never taste my power, Maha. None of you will." I laughed at the fear on his face. "Tell Ganaraj, I am coming for him."

  And then I Travelled.

  10

  I landed on my hands and knees on the bank of the stream. I dug my fingers into the mud and let out a guttural yell of rage.

  "Damn it!" I shouted and pulled my hands back from the filth. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" I yelled.

  How could I let the minions get the drop on me like that? Why am I always so trusting? I had no idea what world I was in and yet I sat down with Maha like we were old friends.

  And the pain, so much pain, the fear and loss had come rushing back. It felt like I was right back there in the Void, pinned down and assaulted yet again. The little hands, then and now, felt like a thousand blades slicing at my skin. I yelled again and pounded my fists into the ground. I was not going to let those bastards win by succumbing to the anxiety that was threatening my bones. I would get up and find Big G and put an end to this. He might not have called the Bounty, but he knew who did. And he was going to tell me.