She pressed Louise tight to her chest, as she had to dive to her right to avoid a chunk of stone twenty-feet around at least that Isis hurled at her. “You can’t run forever, little mouse,” Isis said. “You and your baby are soon going to be nothing more than smears on the floor.”
Emma searched for something she might use as a mouse hole to escape. If she could get out of this temple, she might be able to force Isis into shrinking down to a more manageable height. She might also be able to find a safe place for Louise.
She didn’t see anything. She flattened herself against a wall and took out the silver Sword of Justice. The sword was supposed to be able to cut through anything from this world; she would have to put this to the test. Emma tightened her grip on the sword as Isis stomped towards her; the ground shook as she closed in.
Emma forced a smile to her face as she looked down at Louise. “Everything’s going to be all right, baby.”
“You promise?”
“I promise. Now, I want you to close your eyes real tight. Can you do that for Mommy?”
“Yes.”
“Good girl.” Emma pressed Louise tighter to her body as the ground shook enough to vibrate through Emma’s armor. She stayed where she was as she waited for Isis to strike.
As befitted her style, Isis tried to stomp on Emma with her left leg. It was of course a useless tactic as Emma easily sidestepped this. She waited until the giant’s foot came down where she had been before she slashed the Sword of Justice across Isis’s foot.
The silver blade sliced through the stone as easily as it had the boulder in the test at Heph’s house inside the volcano. No blood came from the wound, but Isis did roar with pain. “You’re going to pay for that,” she shouted.
Given enough time, Emma could probably chop the giant down a bit at a time. She knew she wouldn’t have that long before Isis switched tactics. She barely scampered out of the way in time as Isis tried to kick Emma with her injured foot. Emma took another swipe at Isis’s foot, which prompted the giant to cry out again.
Despite this small victory, Emma knew she hadn’t really won anything yet. At best she had managed to buy more time for herself and Louise. In that time maybe she could come up with a solution—or maybe she could summon a miracle.
The miracle screamed through the front doors of the temple. Emma again ran across the temple floor as the Pegasus burst through the doors. On its back she saw Tim still in his armor and Dr. Reed ahead of him to guide the horse. Emma kept running to keep Isis focused on her while the Pegasus did whatever it would do.
The Pegasus closed enough for Tim to leap off of the flying horse’s back, onto Isis’s shoulder. He held up what looked like a saw, which he used to slice at Isis’s neck. There was still no blood, but he managed to distract her long enough for the Pegasus to swoop down; Dr. Reed held out a hand to Emma.
Emma took what was in essence her own hand and then swung herself awkwardly onto the back of the horse. Louise opened her eyes, which went wide as she saw what was going on. “Mommy, are we flying?”
“Yes we are, baby. Yes we are.”
The Pegasus flapped its wings to gain altitude; Dr. Reed stroked the animal’s neck. “Are you all right?” she asked.
“We’re fine. Both of us.”
“That’s your daughter?”
“Yes. Katya—”
“Louise. My name is Louise Gladys Earl.”
Despite the gravity of the situation, Emma smiled joyfully at this; tears stung her eyes. “Thank you, baby.”
“Mommy, why does this lady look like you?”
“She’s my…sister,” Emma said. She hated to lie to Louise, but at the moment they didn’t have time for a discussion of quantum physics.
“She’s pretty.”
“Thank you, sweetheart,” Dr. Reed said.
While they talked, Tim continued to slash at Isis with his saw. Emma could do nothing but cry out as Isis finally raised one hand to flick him away like a bug. He flew backwards towards the wall, but fired one of his boosters in time to slow his rate of descent. Still, he crashed hard to the ground, to lie motionless in a heap.
“We’ve got to stop her before she crushes him,” Emma said.
“Right.” Dr. Reed bent down, to whisper into the horse’s ear. To Emma’s amazement, the Pegasus seemed to understand what she said; it banked to the left, back towards Isis. Emma reached to her belt and took the silver Sword of Justice out again. She held this out as the Pegasus wove past Isis’s hands. Emma slashed the blade along Isis’s neck to deepen the cuts Tim had made. Unlike him, she didn’t try to jump on Isis; instead she remained on the Pegasus as it banked right for another pass. “Is there any way to kill that thing?” Dr. Reed asked.
“You have to give her my heart.”
“Your heart?”
“Yes. It’s the only thing that can destroy her.”
“How do we do that?”
“I don’t know.”
Louise shuddered against Emma’s body as she began to cry. “Don’t go, Mommy. You promised you wouldn’t leave.”
Emma pulled Louise back enough to look into her eyes and smile. “You’ll never really lose me, baby. I’ll always be in your heart.” She tapped Louise’s chest as she said this. “No matter what happens, you remember that and that Mommy and Daddy will always love you.”
She patted Louise’s back as the girl began to sob violently. She hated to do this to Louise so soon after they were reunited, but there was no choice. It was the only way to make sure Isis was destroyed for good this time.
While she comforted Louise, Dr. Reed whispered more instructions to the Pegasus. Then she turned to Emma, her face grim. “Emma, give me that spare sword of yours,” she said.
“I don’t think I can. You have to be the Scarlet Knight to use the Sword of Justice.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that. I’m you, remember? Or close enough.”
“Good point.” Emma took the gold Sword of Justice from her belt and then handed it to Dr. Reed. The blade glowed yellow, but it didn’t burn the doctor’s hands; apparently she was right that they were close enough for it not to matter.
Dr. Reed faced her again; she looked even grimmer now, on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry about this, Emma. Take care of Joanna for me.”
“What—?”
She didn’t get a chance to finish before Dr. Reed pushed her off the back of the Pegasus. Emma plummeted towards the floor while Louise screamed in her ear. She pressed Louise tight against her and closed her eyes—
The cape snapped up and inflated like a parachute to slow her descent. She still held on tightly to Louise as they drifted towards the floor of the temple. “It’s all right,” she whispered into Louise’s ear. “We’re not going to fall.”
From that vantage, Emma watched Dr. Reed die. The Pegasus flew back towards Isis, and again easily wound its way through Isis’s hands as she tried to swat the flying horse out of the air. This time, it was a suicide mission. The Pegasus flew straight ahead; it headed for Isis’s mouth instead of her neck.
Isis must have known what was about to happen. As the Pegasus drove at her mouth, she didn’t try to swallow it. Her mouth disappeared entirely. This didn’t matter, as Dr. Reed had prepared for that eventuality. Emma knew now that was why she had asked for the Sword of Justice.
The Pegasus flew parallel to where Isis’s mouth had been. As it did, Dr. Reed held out the sword to slash at Isis’s face. The goddess couldn’t resist a scream. That was when Dr. Reed completed the last phase of her plan. She steered the Pegasus into Isis’s mouth and disappeared from sight. Dr. Reed’s heart was the same as Emma’s. It was just as pure and thus just as lethal to Isis.
Emma touched down even as the first explosions rocked Isis. She raced over to where Tim lay to shield him and Louise with her body. The explosions that began in Isis’s midsection soon spread up her chest, to her neck. The black stone of her body cracked and white light spread from the cracks. Isis let out a final
scream of rage and pain that was enough to rattle the entire temple.
Then came the final explosion of white light that shattered Isis; pieces of her sprayed in all directions. Emma put her head down as she felt chunks of stone patter against her like a hailstorm. When it was all over, there was only silence in the temple.
Emma sat up and looked around. All that remained of Isis were the bits of lifeless black stone. Nothing at all remained of Dr. Reed or the Pegasus. They were gone. “Mommy, where did the nice lady go?” Louise asked.
“She went to Heaven, baby,” Emma whispered. She hoped that was the case.
***
They had to make the climb up the path, to the plot where Captain Donovan would be buried. Amanda found her legs growing heavier the closer they got, to the point that Megan put a hand on her back to help her forward. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Megan asked.
“I have to,” Amanda said. It wasn’t just that Captain Donovan had been a mentor to her; Amanda had a special role in the ceremony. The captain didn’t have any living relatives—at least none that could be located on short notice—so Amanda had been elected to receive the flag traditionally given to the fallen officer’s parents or siblings. She hadn’t really wanted the “honor,” but Lieutenant Cielo had persuaded her that it’s what Captain Donovan would have wanted.
Because of this, she had a seat up front with the commissioner and the rest of the top brass. Megan sat next to her on one side while Darlene sat on the other. Amanda was grateful for their presences to keep her from a fresh round of sobs at the sight of that shiny black coffin shrouded by the American flag.
Her brothers had both been buried in caskets just like it, only three months apart. Amanda, only seventeen at the time, had sat beside her mother and stared down at her feet while Mom blew her nose into a handkerchief. Amanda had let her stepfather comfort her mother while she sat numbly in her chair; she didn’t look up as the bugler played Taps and the honor guard fired their weapons into the air. For Peter’s funeral she had actually shed a few tears, but for Rick’s three months later, she couldn’t summon any emotion other than shock at the thought she would never see either of them again.
For Captain Donovan’s funeral, she again looked down at her feet; she didn’t listen as Lieutenant Cielo and others eulogized the captain. As the speeches dragged on, Amanda knew there was someone missing, someone who had known Captain Donovan as well as anyone: the Scarlet Knight. The city’s erstwhile masked avenger had been missing in action since the capture of Don Vendetta. The superhero whose armor could stop bullets like those that had killed Captain Donovan. Amanda snuck a glance around the gathered crowd. Was the Scarlet Knight here in her secret identity? Or was she using her cape to watch invisibly from nearby? Amanda didn’t know, but she did know that if she saw the Scarlet Knight, she would take a few shots at the bitch for disappearing when Captain Donovan—her staunchest ally on the force—had needed her most.
The anger from this buoyed her through the rest of the speeches. The pit of despair opened again, as the first strains of “Amazing Grace” echoed across the cemetery. From the corner of her eye, she saw Darlene dab at her eyes with a handkerchief and clutch her son tightly to her body. Amanda felt a hand on her back and Megan whispered, “It’s all right to cry.”
Amanda didn’t right away, but as the honor guard lined up for the twenty-one-gun salute, the floodgates finally opened. She rested her head against Megan’s pale shoulder and sobbed while the shots rang out. She knew she didn’t cry only for Captain Donovan, but everyone she had lost in her life. Too many good people had died while the bad guys like Don Vendetta remained alive. Her brothers and Captain Donovan had given their lives for noble causes, but evil still remained to suck more good people into its maw.
At first she thought the clap of thunder was another gunshot. Then it rumbled again and she looked up to see black clouds rushing in. It would be appropriate for it to storm during the funeral, for God to shed tears just like she, Darlene, and so many others.
The clouds continued to multiply until they blotted out the sun, to plunge the cemetery into darkness. The priest shuffled forward to say a final prayer before they committed Captain Donovan’s body to the ground. She looked up and braced herself for the storm.
But the black clouds dissipated as quickly as they had gathered. Sunlight shone down on the assembled mourners; a ray of it reflected off Captain Donovan’s casket, into Amanda’s eyes. She smiled a little at this and then nodded to the casket. “Goodbye, Lottie.”
Epilogue
Joanna heard the final scream and then the silence. This lasted for a few terrible heartbeats before a cheer went up from outside the fort made of crates Joanna had retreated into once the battle began. All of the Reds had returned from their disruption raids except for two: Akako and Mommy. When she heard that scream, Joanna knew the latter would never return. Mommy was dead.
She curled up on the ground to allow herself to sob like the eight-year-old she was. She had lost her mommy and she had never known her daddy. She was alone, orphaned. What would become of her now?
She felt a hand shake her and then the nice old man known as Old Coyote said, “They did it, darling. Your mother and the others. Everything’s going back to normal.” She didn’t react to this; she remained in her almost fetal position. “Are you awake, darling?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you come out and celebrate with the rest? It’s mostly because of you.”
Those words only caused Joanna to sob more violently. Yes, this was in large part because of her. She had brought Akako here with the spell for Tim, who in turn had rescued Dr. Earl from Isis. She had brought the others here—including Mommy. In that way she had killed Mommy. If they had never left the safety of the sandbox, Mommy would still be alive.
“What’s wrong, darling? You still worried about your mom? I’m sure she’s safe—”
“She’s dead.”
“Now you can’t know that—”
“Can too. I heard her scream. I felt her die.”
“Maybe you’re wrong. Could have been someone else.”
“No. She’s dead.” She summoned her preternatural maturity as she looked the old man in the eye. He had been kind to her since everyone had left; he’d brought her food and a blanket and made sure she was comfortable. She didn’t want to hurt him, but she had no choice right now. “I’d like to be alone, please.”
He stared at her for a moment and then nodded. “Sure thing, darling. I’ll be back to check on you later.”
Old Coyote crawled back from the entrance to the fort, to leave her by herself. She curled back up on the ground, unable now even to cry. What would she do now? Would she have to go to a foster home? Or would she wind up with her grandparents in either New Mexico or California? Maybe she could live with Becky in Washington with her three obnoxious boys. That gave her a shiver as the boys always pulled her hair and terrorized her with spiders when they came to visit.
She closed her eyes and wished she could wake up and this would all be a dream. It seemed for a moment she got her wish when she felt someone shake her shoulder again, followed by Mommy’s voice saying, “Wake up, baby.”
Joanna sat up too quickly; she bumped her head on one of the crates. This told her she was not dreaming. When she turned to the entrance of the fort, she saw Mommy was here—sort of. Her mother’s skin had turned a bluish white that seemed to glow. Joanna realized she could see through her mother now. “Are you a ghost, Mommy?”
“Yes, but just for a minute. Then I have to go.”
“Why?”
“Because those are the rules, baby. It’s just like with your father.”
“Are you going up to Heaven now?”
“Yes. But I’ll still be able to watch you. Both of us will.”
“Daddy too?”
“Yes. He’s there and he loves you very much. So do I.”
Joanna couldn’t hold back a renewed wave of tears. “What�
�s going to happen to me now, Mommy?”
“Dr. Earl is going to take care of you.”
“She is?”
“Yes.” Though she was a ghost, Mommy’s hand was real enough as she touched Joanna’s cheek. “It’ll be a little different, I know. Dr. Earl hasn’t been a mommy for long. You’ll have to be patient with her.”
“But I don’t want her. I want you.”
“I know and I wish I could, but it was the only way to make sure Isis went away.”
“It’s not fair. Why do you have to go away?”
“Because that’s how things are. You know that, baby.” When Mommy smiled at her, Joanna’s heart broke as she realized it might be the last time she saw this in person. “It’s not going to be forever. When you’re an old, old lady—a grandmommy—then you’ll come to Heaven too.”
“I guess.”
Mommy’s smile faded. “It’s almost time, baby. Remember what I told you.” She leaned forward to kiss Joanna’s forehead just as she had every night before Joanna went to sleep. There had been many times, especially lately, where Joanna resented how Mommy babied her; she hated herself now for thinking that way. The kiss was far too brief. Then Mommy touched Joanna’s cheek one last time and nodded to her. “I love you, baby.”
“I love you too, Mommy.”
With that, she was gone. Joanna threw herself back on the ground; she cried until she had no tears left and then sniffled and hiccupped. After what must have been hours, someone touched her shoulder again. “Go away!” she shouted.
“Joanna, it’s me,” Dr. Earl said. “I need to talk to you.”
“I know what you want. Mommy’s dead.”
“Yes. I’m sorry.” Dr. Earl was silent for a moment, but Joanna could feel she was still there. “Before she died, she asked me to take care of you. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. If you want to go back to your own world, we can probably work things out there. Your grandparents or Aunt Gladys—”
Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Wrath of Isis Page 183
