Armitage shook his head. “No. You’re much easier. I knew what you were when I scanned you back at the police station. Lycanthrope. Lykánthropos. The old word means both wolf and man. Blend them and you get something interesting.”
“I’ll show you something interesting,” Tyler said. He gritted his teeth and Oliver heard bones starting to snap.
“But what if we nudge you in the other direction?” Armitage continued. “There are three forms, you know. Let’s try pushing you all the way down to canid.”
Artemis stepped forward, her eyes wide. “Do not!”
Armitage moved his hand through a pattern in the air. “This may sting a bit.”
Tyler dropped to his knees, putting his hands to the side of his head as he winced and then screamed in pain. His bones stopped snapping, but his body began to shimmer and then shrink. Oliver gaped at him. This wasn’t the painful bone-breaking transformation Tyler normally went through. It was as if his body had been turned into jelly and was being put into a new mold. His hair grew long and Tyler shifted onto all fours as his head elongated. In the span of a few seconds, Tyler was gone. In his place stood a large grey and white sheepdog. The dog looked at Oliver, and even though Tyler’s eyes were barely visible through the hair covering them, he could make out an expression of shock.
In spite of his own surprise, Oliver found his mouth forming a statement. “That isn’t a wolf.”
“Perhaps I pushed too far,” Armitage said. “A wolf would have been a bother to deal with, anyway.”
Behind Armitage the Ripper was doubled over laughing. Oliver found he hated the murderer even more for that. Being Jack the Ripper was bad enough, but Oliver couldn’t abide anyone laughing at his friends.
“Enough of this,” Artemis said. “Change him back, Armitage. I will do whatever you want in return.” Oliver turned to her in surprise. He would have sworn he heard concern and fear in her voice, but it didn’t appear to be for her own safety. He’d never seen her put the needs of a member of her team above her own before.
“Why bother?” Armitage asked. “You aren’t in a position to escape. You have nothing to bargain with.” He looked back to Oliver. “Now, now,” he said. “What to do with you?” He considered that. “I’m still not sure what you are.”
“I’m the guy that’s about to kick your ass,” Oliver said, clenching his fists.
“No, you’re not,” Armitage said. The Ripper took a step forward, but the other man waved him off. “You’re one of the Incarnations, aren’t you? I can’t tell which you are, but I’m almost certain of it.”
Oliver saw Artemis wince and look away. That had struck a nerve with her. He didn’t know what the hell Armitage was talking about, but Artemis’s reaction had made him nearly certain the man was correct.
“You’re crippled,” Armitage said. “I can’t imagine why, but you’re trapped in a human body. I could kill the body, of course, but I can’t be certain what that would unleash. And even if nothing happened now, the fact that you’re crippled today doesn’t mean you always will be. I wouldn’t want you to come looking for revenge in a few hundred years. Your kind have long memories.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Oliver asked. “What’s an Incarnation?”
“You don’t even know?” Armitage asked. He looked at Artemis. “You have that much power at your disposal and you haven’t even told him?” He shook his head. “I suppose I can understand your reasoning, my dear, but that was your last mistake.”
“Restore him,” Artemis said. She pointed at Tyler. “Do this and we will quarrel no further. I will come with you and Mr. Jones will not interfere.”
“I’m afraid you brought two dogs with you today,” Armitage said, “and neither is likely to let me take you without a fight.” He nodded at Oliver. “This may be a bit unpleasant, Mr. Jones, but it won’t kill you. I need to put you back in the bottle. You’re leaking, you see.” He raised his hand and Oliver heard the sound of rushing water again, rapidly building to what he suspected would be a crescendo the likes of which he’d never experienced before. His skin began to tingle and he felt water rushing over him.
“Armitage, stop!” Artemis shouted.
Oliver put a hand to his forehead. The world was beginning to spin again. He felt a headache coming on. Whatever Armitage was doing was going to knock him out of commission quickly. This was a different kind of magic than what Armitage had used on Tyler. He wasn’t sure how he knew the difference, but something told him this power wasn’t meant to be loosed in this world. It belonged somewhere else.
Oliver opened his eyes. Sheepdog Tyler was whining next to him. He could see Artemis screaming at Armitage, but her voice was distant, nearly lost in the sound of the flood that was engulfing him. He felt hot and cold at the same time. There was a kind of pressure on him now, testing him, looking for something.
Looking for the leak, Oliver thought. That was it.
He needed to escape. Whatever was happening to him, he didn’t know how to fight it. But running would be pointless. He couldn’t get away like that. What other options did he have?
And then he thought back to Saffron. Whatever an Incarnation was, she had to be one, too. And she was powerful beyond compare. Armitage had said he was crippled, but how much power did he really need to get out of this situation? Maybe there was a way he could escape?
Armitage still had his hand raised and appeared to be chanting something, but Oliver couldn’t hear any of it. He could nearly see the power rippling off of the other man, but he wasn’t sure if that was real or if he was heading into some kind of delirium. And then the answer came to him. He’d opened a portal once, a long time ago, to escape from a dangerous situation. But that was a poor man’s version of what he could really do. Saffron had shown him. He’d seen her do it more than once.
Artemis was still shouting. Oliver staggered a step forward and put his hands on her shoulders. She looked up at him in surprise and he nodded at her, trying to look reassuring. “We’re going home,” he said to her, although he could no longer hear his own voice and couldn’t be sure the words had come out.
Saffron had used fire. Fire in a pillar. Oliver summoned the last of the strength he had as he felt his eyes start to burn. The world was slipping away. And then flames surrounded him, running down his arms to engulf Artemis, too. They didn’t burn him. They were just an expression of his power. And he needed to think. This magic required direction.
Home.
For a moment he thought he could hear Tyler still whimpering, and then the world seemed to shift somehow. He saw white light around him, had the feeling of wind on his face, and for a moment he thought he could hear birds.
An instant later he found himself standing on a high bluff overlooking the ocean. He had just enough time to wonder which ocean it was before he passed out.
Chapter 9
Oliver felt himself floating in darkness. It was warm here, which he liked. A gentle breeze caressed his skin. The sensation comforted him. He felt as if he had finally arrived at a place he had been away from for far too long. He could stay here forever.
Then a hand touched his forehead. “Wake up, Oliver,” a girl’s voice said. He knew the voice, although he couldn’t place it. “It’s okay. You can wake up now.” The voice was kind, almost motherly. He found that it made him feel safe.
“Come on,” she said. “Wake up now. Come back to me.”
Oliver opened his eyes. He was lying on his back with a blue sky overhead. Artemis knelt at his side; it was her hand on his forehead. She gave him a gentle smile. “That’s it. Come back.”
Oliver shut his eyes and sighed. His mind felt dreamy. “You’re using my first name,” he said. “And contractions.”
“It’s possible to be capable of something and yet choose not to do it. You’ve had enough sleep, Oliver. I understand you’re tired, but you need to wake up now. We are not in the best situation.”
Oliver opened his eyes and pushed himsel
f into a sitting position. He and Artemis were on a grassy bluff overlooking the ocean; they didn’t seem to have moved from the place he’d briefly seen before he passed out. He’d have guessed they were a few hundred feet above the beach, which looked as if it had never been touched by human feet. In the other direction, miles away, he could see mountains, their gentle peaks stretching gracefully into the sky. He could make out snow at the upper elevations. They must be far north of San Francisco, then. If they weren’t still in California, maybe it was Oregon or Washington. In any case, it should take Armitage a great deal of time to find them again.
He looked at Artemis. Her expression remained gentle for a moment longer, and then her features melted away into the impassive face he knew so well. “Are you injured, Mr. Jones?” she asked.
“I don’t think so,” he said. He got to his feet and rubbed his arms. He didn’t feel pain anywhere, but he was exhausted. Transporting himself and Artemis here had no doubt taken a great deal of energy. “I’m fine. Where do you think we are?” He looked around again. “Maybe somewhere near Crescent City?”
“Rather farther than that, Mr. Jones,” Artemis said. “We are no longer on Earth.”
Oliver stared at her. “What are you talking about?”
Artemis sighed and stood up. “I do not know the name of this place, Mr. Jones, at least not the correct one. However we are no doubt in the realm of your family. Your home.”
“What are you talking about?” Oliver asked. Something a short distance away caught his eye. It looked strangely like… “What is that?” he asked.
“Perhaps I should have said it is what is left of your home.”
Oliver took a step away from the bluff. Scattered all around were chunks of white stone, jagged and in some cases charred. Nearby stood what looked like the remains of an ancient stone column. “Is that marble?”
“It seems likely.”
Oliver stepped closer. There had been a structure here once, and as near as he could tell it had been huge. Maybe the size of a palace. Something devastating had happened here, though. As he walked through the ruins Oliver spotted what looked like an impact crater. Had a bomb hit? But further examination revealed more craters, scattered as far as the eye could see. This entire area had been leveled in some kind of attack. Could it have been a carpet bombing? Or meteors? Or something worse?
He looked back at Artemis. “What did this?”
“I was not here at the time, Mr. Jones,” she said. She looked around. “If I had to guess…” She shook her head. “There is no easy way to explain this.”
“Try me.”
“Have you never wondered what you are, Mr. Jones?”
“Of course I’ve wondered,” Oliver said. He glared at her. “You know that. I’ve wondered since the first time I met you what was really going on. Why I can do the things I can do. But you never tell me. You never tell me anything. You just sit there with your smug little face and…” He stopped. Artemis looked sad. He was suddenly ashamed of himself for speaking so harshly. “I’m sorry.”
“I am also sorry, Mr. Jones. I should have been more straightforward with you, perhaps, but the truth is I do not know everything, and nor did I ever. I did not know what you were when we met. I only knew that you were something unique.” She gave him a rueful smirk. “And the truth is, I was wrong about that. You are not unique at all.”
Oliver knelt down and took a piece of broken marble in his hand. Something told him it was thousands of years old, and the damage done here had occurred long ago, and yet the stone was still sharp enough that it might have cut his fingers if he gripped it tightly. The weather seemed to have done nothing to smooth it over the years. “Tell me what you know, then. Who am I?”
“That is not something I can answer.”
Oliver turned on her. “Are you kidding me? After everything that just happened? We’re not even on Earth, for God’s sake…”
“It is not that I will not tell you, Mr. Jones. It is that I cannot. You asked who you are, and that question I think only your family could answer. I also doubt any of them will.”
“Why not?” Oliver asked.
“Because mother would not wish it,” came a new woman’s voice.
Oliver turned. A tall woman in a long gold dress had appeared out of nowhere a few feet away. She had curly blonde hair down to her waist and her entire body seemed to be glowing, as if a spotlight had been placed on her from just above her head. Even in broad daylight, she was somehow brighter than anything else around them.
“Hemera, I presume,” Artemis said.
The woman smiled broadly. “Hello, Artemis.” She stepped forward and embraced Oliver tenderly, much to his surprise. “Hello, brother.”
Oliver took a close look at the woman as she stepped back, still smiling at him. Another sister? “You’re not the same one as before,” he said. “The one that’s been in my house.”
“Excuse me?” Artemis said.
“Eris is a naughty girl,” Hemera said. “She knows better than to contact you, but of course she did anyway. The poor thing really can’t help herself.”
“Eris,” Oliver repeated. He’d heard the name before, and would have had to admit he wasn’t entirely surprised by it. “Goddess of chaos.”
“You have met her, Mr. Jones?” Artemis asked. “It appears I am not the only one who has been keeping secrets.”
Oliver gave her a guilty look. “I was going to tell you,” he said, “eventually. We haven’t really been getting along lately.”
“You had guessed it, though, had you not?” Hemera smiled broadly, her white teeth gleaming. “You always were the clever one.”
“I thought chaos would be part of it.” Oliver nodded. “Or maybe dementia. I wouldn’t have guessed she was a god, though.”
“She is not, in the traditional sense,” Artemis said. “Although I imagine she likes to think she is. This particular pantheon is a bit difficult to explain.” She glanced at Hemera. “At this time I feel I should say that I do not mean to offend you.”
“You are unlikely to offend me,” Hemera said, still smiling. “And if you did, it would not matter much. I am not a killer. And if that were my nature, even I lack the power to kill you, Artemis.”
“Wait,” Oliver interrupted. He turned to Artemis. “The name Artemis is in mythology, too. Don’t tell me you’re…what, goddess of the hunt?”
Artemis gave him a disgusted look. “Of course not, Mr. Jones. Attempt not to be an idiot, will you?”
“Oh.”
“Eris, like Hemera, is not technically a god. She is the personification of a primordial force. An Incarnation, if you will. Chaos, in the case of Eris. They predate the gods by a good margin. I doubt you recognize Hemera’s name. It was not as well-known as some of the others. You will, of course, recognize the day.”
“The day of what?” Oliver asked.
“Day, Mr. Jones. You are familiar with daytime? That time when the sun has risen and you can see more clearly than at night?”
Oliver looked at Hemera. “That’s why you’re glowing, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Hemera said. “I could choose not to, but I enjoy the light. It is natural for me.”
“As disorder is natural for Eris,” Artemis said.
Oliver looked from Hemera to Artemis. “If Eris is chaos and she’s the daytime, then what am I?”
“I have no idea,” Artemis said. “There are old stories that one of you was cast out. One of you fought with…” She glanced at Hemera. “Does it matter if I say her name?”
“You can, if you like,” Hemera said. “It is not a secret. But he must not, for fear that she will hear and stir from her long slumber.”
“Then I will not say it at all,” Artemis said. “If I know Mr. Jones, the first thing he does will be to repeat whatever I tell him.” She nodded at Oliver. “Look it up later.”
“Look it up…” Oliver began, before realizing he was doing just what she’d predicted. “Fine. Tell me w
hatever you can, then.”
Artemis glanced at Hemera. “May I?” Hemera nodded. “The stories said that one of you challenged your mother, which would have been a brave but ultimately futile act. She is…powerful beyond comprehension. She responded by stripping the upstart of all his power, of his memory, destroying his lands, and banishing his spirit to inhabit mortals until the end of time. His name was wiped from history. I do not know it, and those that do will not speak it for fear of angering the mother.”
Oliver searched his memory. He knew mythology. The mother of Eris was…it came to him in a moment. Nyx, the goddess of night. Nyx, who even Zeus had been said to be afraid of. That made sense. Nyx was unstoppable. He resolved not to say her name aloud for the time being. “I know who we’re talking about.” Hemera gave him a startled look. “Don’t worry. I know to keep my mouth shut.”
“Mother does not forgive easily,” Hemera said. “If it were not for her great love, you would have been erased from all of existence. Even your family would not remember you.” Her smile faltered just a bit. “It is unwise to anger her.”
That much certainly seemed to be true, Oliver thought. He didn’t know what he’d done to get on Nyx’s bad side, but he didn’t think he wanted to do it again. “If all of that’s true, then what about my…my abilities, I guess is the word? I can change things. I wiped out a bunch of lizard people once. I didn’t mean to. It just happened.”
Hemera nodded. “You have been bound for a long time. Your bonds are now weakening. That is why you have abilities normal men do not. But you must remember that the body you inhabit now is that of an ordinary mortal man. When it dies, your spirit will wander once again until it finds a new home. This is how it has been since your banishment.”
“How long has this been going on?” Oliver asked.
“For a few thousand years,” Hemera said. She smiled. “I could not say for certain. Time doesn’t mean that much to me. But perhaps in a few thousand more mother will forgive you and return you to the family.”
Interesting People (Interesting Times #3) Page 9
