by A. R. Cook
“Honestly, David, you must have known that you and she couldn’t—”
“Did you hear what I said? You call this an ‘investment,’ but what would I ever use this for anyway? I know a hundred other things that are more practical. I don’t need this.” He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
David felt hot, yet he shivered. He was sitting in mud, and he was slowly sinking into it. He did not care. He had no energy or will to move. Rain pounded the earth around him, making the mud gelatinous and causing him to sink faster. Somehow, the mud felt good. David imagined himself as a frog, settling deep into the wet ground, out of sight, hidden from the rest of the world.
Actually, he was a frog. He was conscious of being a frog, but it did not matter to him. He nestled himself into his grimy surroundings, deciding this was a perfectly acceptable mode of living.
“Is this why you came here?” he was asked by a distant voice. “Because you want to keep running from who you are?”
The frog blinked.
“What good is all the knowledge you have gained, all the time you’ve spent learning, if you’re just going to sink into the mud?”
The frog croaked, but did not move.
“How can you hope to save anyone else, if you won’t save yourself?”
The frog was now almost completely submerged in the mud. The darkness and coolness were inviting. But, he did think: How do I do that?
“By accepting the balance of both the good and the misfortune in your life. Only by acceptance and forgiveness can we heal from wounds. If you can learn to heal, then you will be able to heal others. Is that not what you came here to do?”
It began to come back to David. He willed his stumpy legs to lift him up, but the mud sucked him back down. He forced his head above the mud, and with all the strength he could muster, he leapt up and out from the earth. For the briefest moment he felt suspended in the air … a clear, clean space of nothing, a neutral place without distraction or influence. He did not feel himself descend back down, for the next moment he was sitting cross-legged, with his human legs attached to his human body, on what felt like a lush woolly animal pelt. The pelt beneath him lifted ever so slightly, in a breathing rhythm. David wondered if he was seated atop something alive.
The woman in white was standing there before him. She placed one hand on David’s head. With the other, she placed something small, round and cool in his hands, folding his fingers around them. She said nothing, but she leaned in and kissed David on the forehead, exactly like Catarina had before she had left.
This time, though, David did not feel resentment or anger. He was at peace.
The woman disappeared, and in her place was a white bison, looming over David. The pelt that David was seated on folded up around him, enveloping him in a gentle cocoon of fur until it melded into him. While David no longer saw the pelt, he could sense that it was still around him, an invisible barrier that made him feel safe and unafraid.
“Be on your way now,” the White Calf said, and she was gone.
David was sitting alone in the clearing, as the sunrise sliced through the darkness as a golden blade of light. There were no bones, no mud, no bison. He looked down to see an apricot-sized turquoise stone glistening in his hands.
Chapter Fifteen
David walked back down the path through the woods, along the way finding a honey-coated Tanuki sleeping soundly at the base of a tree. He pocketed the turquoise stone, and carefully picked up Tanuki, who snorted in his sleep.
“Ey, boyo, you’ve been gone all night.” Gullin, in perfect health although dirty and a bit sleep-deprived, was sitting on the same log. The dying embers of a small campfire fizzled at his feet, and next to it were leftover bits of a grouse that he had caught for a late dinner.
David was so happy to see Gullin alive, he almost dropped Tanuki. “Gullin! You’re okay! I had a vision where you were a pile of bones!”
Gullin laughed brazenly. “Guess that explains how you feel about me.”
David dug the Turquoise out of his pocket, holding it up. “I spoke to the White Calf. I passed her test.”
Gullin let out a long whistle. “Looks like you did a good job, lad. So, how was the White Calf?”
“Beautiful but scary,” David replied.
“Well, she is a woman,” Gullin chuckled. “You can tell me all about it on the way back. Wake up the gopher and let’s get back through the Curtain.”
It was much faster going back through the Curtain, for Tanuki had only to follow the scent of his Master Yofune. They exited the Curtain right at the entrance of Yofune’s lair, and the trio found all the gypsies and Yofune safe and sound, and fast asleep.
“Master Yofune! Everyone! We found it! We have the Singing Turquoise!” David rushed over to the sleeping blind man, and tried to nudge him awake. “Master Yofune, wake up. I found the earth spirit, and she gave me the—”
He noticed the faint tinkling of bells coming from somewhere in the lair. He nudged Yofune again, but the sea dragon did not awaken. Everyone was in a comatose state, an almost death-like slumber. David heard something collapse behind him, and he turned to see Gullin and Tanuki lying in a heap on the floor, in the deepest sleep.
Of course, there had to be more trouble. David darted his gaze about, trying to see if there was an intruder in the cave. Panic seized him, as he realized: If everyone’s been asleep, then someone could have come in and done something to Acacia—
He dashed over to the wagon where he had left Acacia, and threw open the door. At the other end of the wagon room, Acacia slept—she was sleeping, wasn’t she? David ran to her, checking for any signs of life. She was still breathing, thank God, but hardly. She was withering away, every inch of her skin riddled with greenish-blue veins. He hoped he had returned in enough time. He removed the Turquoise from his pocket.
The tinkling of bells became louder, and the door of the wagon clicked shut behind him. He turned to see Nico standing inside the wagon, locking the door. A small shiny device was around Nico’s neck, a tiny music box that trickled its droplets of noise like grains of the Sandman’s sand.
“Hello, David,” Nico greeted him with all the warmth of winter. “I was wondering where you had gotten off to. Do you like my latest trinket? A fancy little fairy gift. It does wonders to quiet a crowd.”
David held tight to the Turquoise, lowering it out of Nico’s view. “I don’t have time for your nonsense, Nico. Get out of here.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. I’m here to collect, as per my agreement. I confess, I’m puzzled as to why my music box isn’t working on you.” Nico sniffed the air, and immediately gagged and covered his nose. “Blegh! That’s one odorous protection spell you have on you. Smells like a dead festering horse.”
David thought back to that strange invisible pelt that Ptesan-Wi had enveloped him in. She must have sensed that he would run into more danger and given him a ward against enchantments.
Nico advanced a few steps towards him, but David spun around, spreading his arms out to block the fox from Acacia. The Teumessian laughed. “Planning to stop me? This will be fun. I’ll love to see the look on your face as you watch.”
“Watch what? What did you mean, you’ve come to collect?” David demanded.
“In case you hadn’t noticed, the Shade has taken about all it can from her,” Nico said. “Whatever it was you were planning to do, you’re too late. The Shade has come into maturity, so I’m here to harvest it and return it to its owner. My employer has been waiting many a century for her patience to pay off.”
David gripped the stone tighter. “Nyx hired you to do this? You’re working for her?”
Nico grinned. “No point in keeping it a secret, I suppose. How do you think that Shade got inside my cousin in the first place?”
The shocked, then disgusted expression on David’s face encouraged Nico to expound with delight. “Madam Nyx’s Shades, when they are first created, are almost undetectable. One can ea
sily slip one into a wine goblet, and a sphinx wouldn’t know she swallowed it until it was already embedded deep inside her. An easy task for a more than ideal arrangement: I help Nyx obtain a sphinx’s wit, and with my cousin dead, I become the cleverest mind in the world. That is, short of Nyx herself, but I’m not competing with gods. Being the most ingenious brain among mortals is fine with me.”
“You’re not ingenious. You’re sick,” David hissed.
“And you’re naïve, if you think you’re any threat to me,” Nico answered coolly. “As I said, there isn’t anything you could do now to help your darling anyway. So if you’ll be so kind and step out of my way.”
From an inside pocket of his coat, he removed something that glinted in the dim light of the room. It was the sharpest, wickedest pair of scissors David had ever seen.
The scissors dropped out of Nico’s hand as David delivered him a solid punch to the face that sent him reeling backwards, landing on his tail.
Nico was stunned, and he pressed his fingers to his bloody nose. His poised demeanor was rapidly replaced by his canine instinct, as his orange eyes flared and his teeth clenched into a vicious growl. A layer of copper-reddish fur spouted all over his skin, and his fingernails grew into long sharp points. His face distorted into something far more canine than man, and his lips pulled back in the same frightening way that Acacia’s did when she was enraged. The visible patches of skin around his eyes and lips blackened to pitch, and his ears lengthened and tapered into points, stripping the last recognizable human trait from him. The fox beast rolled up onto all fours, crouching in preparation to lunge. “You’re dead meat,” he growled in a completely different, sinister voice.
David brought the Turquoise over his shoulder, preparing to throw it at Nico’s head. But he couldn’t risk losing the stone just to save himself. He saw Nico’s scissors lying on the floor, and scrambled to get them. Nico was faster, jumping in front of him and swatting the scissors across the floor towards the door. David dealt him a crushing kick to the chest. Nico tumbled onto his back, and David leapt over him to dive after the scissors again. The fox beast twisted around, snagging David by the ankle and sending him flat down onto his stomach. He pounced on David’s back and sank his teeth into his right shoulder. The boy screamed at the intense pain, trying to pry Nico off. Nico scratched him across the right cheek, and slammed his head against the floor. David lay there, half conscious and bleeding.
Nico wiped a trail of blood from his lip. He got up, snatching the scissors from the floor. He turned a wicked eye on David. “I really should test the sharpness of these first,” he said. “I’d hate to be working with a set of dull blades.” He snapped the blades like the jaws of a Jenglot.
David struggled to get on his feet, but Nico swooped down and snatched him by the wrist of his wounded arm. He yanked the boy halfway up off the floor, so David dangled from Nico’s grip as the pain in his shoulder burned hot and raw. The fox paused for a moment, soaking in the anguish and horror on David’s face. “This isn’t a bedtime story. You’re no hero. There wasn’t any chance you were ever going to outwit me.”
Nico noticed that David was still gripping the turquoise stone in his hand, despite the pain in his arm. The fox attempted to pry open the boy’s fingers to get a good look at what this precious stone might be, but David would not relent. He tightened his fingers harder around the stone, but the feeling in his hand was beginning to numb.
“There’s something special about your little rock,” Nico mused. “If you’re not going to let go, I’ll have to snip those nasty little fingers off.” He brought the serrated blades of the scissors towards David’s hand.
David winced, clenching his teeth. He had lost. He lost the fight, he lost Acacia, and he was about to lose the Turquoise. He closed his eyes, clutching the stone, refusing to give it up even in the face of agony. He heard an odd little clinking noise, and he had the faint sensation of something tapping his knuckle.
“What on earth is that supposed to be?” he heard Nico spit in astonishment.
David ventured to open one eye to look. Nico’s scissors were trying to bite down on his index finger, but were unsuccessful due to a sudden sheen that coated David’s entire right hand. It was glossy blue-green, and hard as rock. It felt like an iron glove was fused to his hand. Nico gawked at the miraculous coating. He stabbed at it with the scissors, but it only caused the tips of the blades to bend.
David wrenched his hand out of Nico’s grasp, and with a desperate lunge slammed his stone-plated fist into the side of Nico’s leg. The force of the blow made Nico buckle, bringing him down onto his knee. David smacked Nico on his already broken nose, amplifying the pain. The sheer surprise of it made the fox drop the scissors. In an instant, the scissors were in David’s one hand, and the end of Nico’s tail was in the other.
Snip.
Nico shrieked as a good six inches of his tail were hacked off. He bolted across the room, howling and yelping and gnashing his teeth, while his butchered tail left a spattering of dark red spots on the floor. David staggered to his feet, clutching the scissors in one hand and the chunk of Nico’s tail in the other. The fur on the Teumessian’s head and neck bristled up, and his muscles tensed at the sight of his once magnificent tail now mangled.
David held the scissors out, the damaged points directed straight at Nico’s face. His arms and legs wobbled, for the blood loss from his wound was making him weak. Nico saw this, and it only whetted his appetite. He charged right at David, teeth bared and claws extended. David reared his arm back to thrust the scissors with all of his strength, but as his attack went forward, his body went backwards from Nico slamming him against the wagon’s door.
Both opponents were dead still, eyes locked, and neither was certain who might have just received a fatal blow.
David’s mouth opened, but made no noise. Nico had him gripped with bone-wrenching strength by the shoulders, and the fox’s claws were digging deep into his already dreadful shoulder wound. He looked down, for he still held the scissors. The handle end of it butted up against his chest, while the lethal end was digging into Nico. But there was no blood. Instead, the scissors had impaled the music box hanging from Nico’s neck. The box’s cylinder tumbled out, plinking onto the floor, rendering the music box voiceless.
Nico observed his dumb luck, and his lips drew back into a demonic smile. He laughed with pure joyful insanity. “I told you, I can’t get caught,” he sneered.
His smile abruptly dropped as a lioness’s paw grasped him by the hair from behind.
The sphinx was fully awake, released from the music box’s spell of slumber. Her growl of rage made Nico emit a small, helpless whimper. He was yanked back with such force, his spine bent backwards nearly to the point of snapping in half. David, released from the fox’s grip, slumped to the floor in exhaustion. He felt a cold sensation over his hand as the glossy sheen retracted, resuming its stone state in the palm of his hand. He watched Acacia thrash Nico with unbridled ferocity. It was no contest for a lion, even an ill one, to fight a fox.
“I give! I give!” Nico gasped through Acacia’s grinding grip on his throat. The sphinx was a terrible sight, the deathly pallor and gauntness of her face making the fury in her eyes all the more menacing. Nico gagged and choked, as Acacia pushed him down onto his knees and bent him backward. She grasped his scalp with her free paw and dug in her claws until he yelped.
Acacia looked back at David. Seeing and smelling the blood that had stained the right side of his shirt intensified her feral madness. Her lips pulled back, exposing teeth and gums. She gaped open her jaws to clamp onto Nico’s face and crack his skull.
“Acacia …”
The sphinx stopped. David slowly arose, leaning against the wall for support. He was pale and exhausted. “Acacia …you don’t have to do that. He’s the monster. You’re not.”
Acacia’s murderous wrath softened into curious bewilderment.
“You’re more important than he is. He’s
not worth it. All I want to do now is help you.” As much as he loathed to say it—he really wouldn’t have minded watching Acacia shred Nico a while longer—he said, “Get him out of here.”
Acacia turned her gaze back to Nico, who was shivering in terror. A small grin escaped her. She dragged the Teumessian by the hair across the wagon, unlocked the door, and threw him outside, shutting the door behind him.
Nico, blinking in confusion at being released so easily, pushed himself up into a sitting position. He observed his snipped tail, and tried to fold the remaining fur over to taper the end. His attention turned from his tail to the crowd of infuriated gypsies surrounding him. Everyone was wide awake and glowering at him, including the Huntsman, an abnormally large gorilla of a badger, and one extremely fuming, growling sea dragon.
“Fox hunting season is open, everybody,” Gullin said, gleefully cracking his knuckles.
Chapter Sixteen
With a quick slice of her claw, Acacia tore a length of cloth from a drape hanging on the wagon wall. Even though she was barely able to stay on her feet, she set David down on the bed cushion, and pulled back his shirt collar so she could see his shoulder wound. Her natural instinct was to lick the puncture to clean it, but she could hardly touch the wound without David wincing and jerking away. She wrapped his wound as best she could with the drape cloth to stop the bleeding. The exertion from the fight and her anxiety to tend to David’s injury caught up with her, and she collapsed against his chest.
“Acacia, stay awake! If you fall asleep, you might …” David did not want to think of it. He lifted up the Turquoise in his left hand. “I got the Singing Turquoise. I can banish the Shade from you.”
