Armitage pushed Artemis to the side. The girl still didn’t appear to have noticed anything that had happened. The magician staggered a step back under the hail of gunfire, and then raised his hand, bringing it down sharply in what looked like a karate chop in front of him. Sally’s bullets immediately stopped hitting him, instead veering off to his sides as they approached their target. Oliver could see them hitting the standing stones behind him, but they avoided Armitage entirely. The man had brought more than simple shields to the party.
The magician stepped forward. “You,” he said to Sally. “I don’t know you.”
Sally’s guns emptied and she went into her jacket for fresh magazines. “You wouldn’t like me,” she said.
“Do you really think you can stop me?” Armitage asked. “You and your…” he stared at Thrax. “Where did you find that thing?”
“I come from the land of Alora,” Thrax said from behind Oliver. “How I came to be here is a lengthy tale, and…”
“Not now, Thrax,” Sally said. She leveled her guns at Armitage.
The magician raised his hands. “So I have to do this a third time,” he said. “Fine.” He looked at Oliver. “You know what, Mr. Jones? I don’t care about not killing you anymore. If you come back to settle the score in a thousand years I’ll deal with you then.”
“Why wait?” Oliver asked. “The bullets are starting to hurt you.” He looked back to Tyler, who had limped to his side. “Let’s see how much damage the three of us can do.”
“And I will assist my friends,” Thrax said. He narrowed his eyes as he glared at Armitage. “I do not like wizards.”
“It won’t be enough to stop me,” Armitage said. “You’ve weakened my shield, but that doesn’t matter when your bullets can’t find me. I will become immortal tonight.”
“Oh, yeah,” Sally said. “That was the plan, wasn’t it? Well, it’s going to be hard without this.” She let go of one of her guns and her hand flew into her jacket, emerging again in a blur as she hurled something toward Armitage. She caught her falling pistol with her free hand before it had reached her waist.
Oliver stared. The object she had thrown had gone far wide of Armitage. How had she missed that badly? And then he realized she hadn’t missed. Behind the magician, Artemis took a step back, looking down at her chest in shock. Oliver’s mouth dropped open. The hilt of a dagger was sticking out of Artemis, blood starting to spread around her wound. She staggered, and then fell over.
Armitage’s eyes went wide. “No!” he shouted. He ran to her body and knelt by her side, putting his hands on her arms. The girl was unresponsive, her eyes closed.
Oliver stared at Sally. “What did you do?”
“Can’t cast the spell without her,” Sally said. She looked at Tyler and then back at him. “Do you want to explain why he’s a wolf to me?”
Armitage screamed in rage, his fists balled up. He turned back to Sally. “You stupid…you damn wretch…”
Sally pouted. “Wretch? Now my feelings are hurt.”
Armitage looked back at Artemis, and then to Oliver again. “That won’t keep her down forever,” he said. “I’ll keep her body safe until then.”
“Well, at least it bought us another month,” Oliver said. “You aren’t becoming immortal tonight.”
“But you’ll be dying here,” Armitage said. He stepped forward, raising his hands. “You and the stupid monster you brought will all burn. You will…” he stopped abruptly, a strange look on his face.
“That’s my girl,” Sally said.
Oliver wasn’t sure what she meant at first, until Armitage dropped to his knees and he saw Artemis standing behind him. The rope binding her hands had been cut and the dagger was no longer in her chest. It was now buried in Armitage’s back.
Seven had made his way back to Oliver’s side. “Oh,” he said. “I’ll be damned.”
“How?” Armitage asked, his eyes wide.
“I believe you have seen this weapon before,” Artemis said. “I have yet to find something it cannot cut.” She pulled the dagger out of his back and the magician fell onto his side. “Even your barriers are not enough,” she said.
“That is a useful weapon against wizards,” Thrax noted from behind them.
“I’ll say,” Sally said.
Armitage rolled onto his back and Artemis knelt next to him. He looked up at her, his breathing slow now. He raised a hand to touch her face, and then it dropped back to his side. Artemis took it in her own. “It wasn’t…” he said. He took a halting breath. “I wasn’t…I did love you, you know.”
“I know,” Artemis said. “I am sorry, Armitage. I failed you.”
Armitage made an attempt at a nod. “We both failed. At least…” He sighed, and then he was gone.
Artemis shut her eyes for a long moment, and then placed Armitage’s hand on his chest. She stood up and looked at Oliver and the team. “It seems none of you are able to follow instructions.”
Tyler began to shimmer, starting the transformation back to his human form that would heal his wounds. Sally took a hesitant step forward, placing her guns back in their shoulder holsters. “So,” she said. “Funny story about the Island…”
Artemis stepped forward and opened her arms. After a moment, Sally knelt down and accepted her embrace. “I’m sorry, Artemis,” she said.
Artemis shut her eyes. “I’m sorry, too. I’m sorry, Sally.”
Sally stood up and stepped away, rubbing at her eyes. Artemis clasped Oliver’s hand, and then Seven’s, and then Tyler’s. “Now,” she said, stepping back. “Does someone want to tell me what Thraxtyr is doing here?”
“I was told there was a wizard to kill,” the dragon said. “As I said earlier, I do not like wizards. The reason why is a lengthy tale, and begins with…”
“We may as well listen to him this time,” Sally said. “I think it’s going to be a long walk out of here.”
Chapter 19
Three days later Oliver and Tyler sat across from each other in a small Chinese restaurant a half dozen blocks from Araneae’s San Francisco office. It was late afternoon and Tyler had already put down two plates worth of appetizers, even though they hadn’t officially started lunch yet.
“Have you tried transforming again yet?” Oliver asked.
“No,” Tyler said. “I’m afraid I’ll be stuck as a wolf again.” He signaled their waitress and ordered another plate of dumplings. “It’s weird,” he said after she’d retreated toward the kitchen. “I didn’t like being the…I guess beast is the right word, but at least I could still think in that form. I couldn’t think much, but I still had a sense of self. The wolf is just alien to me.”
“Armitage really did a number on you.”
“Yeah. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to being normal. Or as normal as I guess I was before, anyway.”
The restaurant’s door opened and Sally stepped through, holding it open for Artemis. Sally wore her black jacket and jeans with leather boots, and Oliver was sure she was armed. Sally didn’t like going anywhere without her guns. Artemis wore jeans and a t-shirt with a cartoon character on it. She looked better than Oliver had seen her in months. She was finally sleeping again.
They took seats with Oliver and Tyler. “I see you have started without us,” Artemis said to Tyler.
“Not really,” Tyler said. “We were just getting warmed up.”
“You were getting warmed up,” Oliver said.
Sally poured a cup of tea for Artemis and then one for herself. “Some things never change,” she said.
This had been their first full day back in San Francisco after the trip to England. Daniel Vega had flown them back and then promptly retired on the money he’d been paid. Oliver didn’t blame the man. Working as Araneae’s private pilot meant keeping very strange hours, and occasionally being threatened by mythical beasts. The money had bought his silence. Vega had been determined to enjoy it.
Menus came and they ordered. When the waitress was go
ne again Oliver turned to Sally. “So what’s the verdict? Are you going back to the Island?”
Sally glanced at Artemis. “Nah,” she said. “You guys are hopeless without me.”
“Sally and I have resolved our differences,” Artemis said. She sipped her tea. “Neither of us is…how shall I say…pleased with the way we handled certain matters in the past.”
“And we also decided not to rehash everything here,” Sally said. “It’s history now.”
“Kill yourself or get over it,” Oliver said.
Sally stared at him. “Excuse me?”
“It’s something you said to me once,” Oliver explained. “I was moping around, I think, and that’s what you said.”
“That does sound like you,” Tyler said.
Sally nodded. “Yeah. Fair enough. So I guess we’re getting over it.”
“Good,” Tyler said. “I don’t mind telling you, but you guys were breaking my heart.”
“Yes,” Artemis said. “I had gathered it was difficult for you, Mr. Jacobsen. And for you, Mr. Jones. I fear that I may have become…somewhat indifferent to these things over the course of my long life.”
“We’re gone in the blink of an eye compared to you,” Oliver said. “I guess it would be hard if you let yourself feel everything.”
“I can’t imagine,” Tyler said. “Seventeen thousand years? That’s insane.”
“It is a lifetime,” Artemis said. “No more and no less. However, I may have treated you callously in the past. I apologize.”
Oliver nodded. “I’m just glad it’s over. I’ve never seen anyone like Armitage before. I don’t know what we’d have done if Sally hadn’t shown up.”
“He’d have turned you into frogs, probably,” Sally said. She looked at Tyler. “I wonder if that’s better than being a wolf. Probably slimier.”
“Shut up,” Tyler said.
“Frogs aren’t slimy,” Oliver said. “They’re actually pretty dry.”
“Sounds like someone has a thing for frogs,” Sally said.
“I don’t have a thing for…” Oliver shook his head. “You know, there was one thing I was totally blind on.”
“Your unspoken love for frogs?”
“No.” He looked Sally in the eyes. “The pacification field never worked on you, did it? You could have left the Island anytime you wanted.”
Artemis turned to Sally, her eyebrows raised. Sally held Oliver’s gaze for a moment, and then looked down. “Yes.”
“Because you’re not of this world, either,” Oliver said. “I should have figured that out sooner.”
“I sold it pretty well.” Sally held her palms up and mimicked somebody surrendering “Oh, no,” she said. “I can’t go anywhere because this crazy magic makes me weak.”
“That had not occurred to me,” Artemis said. “You truly were not a prisoner there?”
“No.” Sally sighed. “Thrax would have taken me anywhere I wanted. Trust me, you would not believe how fast dragons can fly once they get some elevation. I’d have beaten you to England except we got lost. Some idiot gave him alcohol to drink right before we left.”
“Why did you not escape earlier?” Artemis asked.
Sally shrugged. “I didn’t want to. Where was I going to go? I don’t have anything on this planet except you guys, and once I’d lost you I just wanted to be alone. Hanging out in paradise with my dragon. It wasn’t so bad.”
“You could have just come with us,” Tyler said. “I mean, that’s why we went out there. To get you.”
“I hadn’t decided on it,” Sally said. “I meant what I said about being angry. And I didn’t want to argue with you again. But I talked to Thrax about it. He said a lot of things and that turned the tide.”
“He must be very wise,” Tyler said.
“He thinks the sun is a fire spirit who lives in the sky,” Sally said. “But he did point out that I was acting without honor, which is something dragons take pretty seriously. And he also said he had to go, because Artemis was the only one who knew how to get him home. He was afraid he’d never see his people again if he didn’t help. So I came along.”
“Nice of you,” Oliver said.
“Yeah,” Sally said. “I’m great that way.”
Their waitress emerged from the kitchen pushing a cart with their entrees. Tyler dug into his orange chicken with gusto. “You know,” he said, “there’s something I don’t get.”
“What is that?” Artemis asked.
“The dragon,” Tyler said. “Thrax. He went back to the Island, right?”
“I have received confirmation that he returned.”
Oliver nodded. “But he’s only there because he thinks you can send him home.”
“Indeed,” Artemis said.
“What’s he going to do when he finds out you can’t?” Oliver asked.
Artemis poured herself another cup of tea. “The thing is, Mr. Jones, it has occurred to me that I do know the means to return Thraxtyr to his home. I simply do not have them at the moment. Do you know of which I speak?”
Oliver thought it over. “That key you were talking about before,” he said. “The one that goes to that…I think you said it’s an intersection. A place where worlds meet?”
“Something like that,” Artemis said. “It seems likely that with that key and some experimentation, I would be able to open a door that would return Thraxtyr to his place of origin, where he may continue searching for that wizard he dislikes so much.”
“But the key’s on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean,” Tyler said. “You lost it when you came over on the Titanic.”
“Indeed. Which leads me to a question.” Artemis smiled at Oliver. “How do you feel about submarines, Mr. Jones?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matthew Storm lives in Anchorage, Alaska. He’s only met one dragon, which told him a lengthy tale. It began in the mountains of Alora, far north of…
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ALSO BY MATTHEW STORM
The Interesting Times Series
Interesting Times
Interesting Places
Interesting People
Nevada James Mysteries
Broken
Scars
The Riley Flynn Series (as M.J. Storm)
Riley Flynn and the Runaway Fairy
Table of Contents
Copyright © 2015 Cranberry Lane Press
For Alaska
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO BY MATTHEW STORMThe Interesting Times SeriesInteresting TimesInteresting PlacesInteresting Peopl...
Interesting People (Interesting Times #3) Page 17
