Second String Savior

by Rick Gualtieri

  “I didn’t take it.”

  “Then there is hope for you yet, child.” She motioned for me to follow. Behind me, I could hear both Olivia and Sayuri calling my name.

  “The goblet was filled,” Olivia exclaimed. “Never before has such a thing occurred, Jessie! This may be our only chance to have a true defender of light to lead us in the coming end of days—”

  “Only fools refuse power when it is offered, girl,” Sayuri cried. “You’d be wise to remember that. You may never get the chance again.”

  “Then I’m a fool,” I said before bolting into the forest.

  Chapter Thirty-Six: Universal Education

  By the time I finally slogged back into familiar territory, my legs felt like lead. Forget quiet contemplation—maybe I should just sleep on all of this and hope the answer was clearer tomorrow.

  “Pretty!” I’d barely made it to the entrance of the cave when a streak of white crashed into me.

  I rubbed the top of Fluff’s head. “How’d you get ahead of me?”

  “Saw Pretty leave. Saw her take wrong paths to dark place, places where Floof told not to go. So Floof come back here and wait.”

  Oh. I really needed a map.

  I stepped past her so I could change out of my armor and hide Mr. Keyne’s phone in my backpack. “Come on, Floof. You must be as tired as I am. Why don’t we lay down?”

  “Floof no tired! Want to play with Pretty!” Fortunately, despite her over enthusiastic words, she yawned and curled up next to me.

  I stared up at the cave ceiling, feeling my eyelids grow heavy. “What am I doing here? I’m not a hero,” I said more to myself than anyone.

  “Not true,” Fluff said, her voice slightly slurred. “Pretty is great hero. Save friend Boo.”

  “Thank you. I’m glad someone believes in me.”

  “Floof believe in Pretty.” Fluff said between yawns. “Floof think Pretty is brave.”

  After all that had happened, it was a nice thought to fall asleep to.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  I bolted awake to what sounded like a shotgun going off in the distance. It must’ve been a dream. What idiot would be firing a gun in the middle of a peace conference?

  I untangled myself from the snoring baby Sasquatch and sat up. I saw no sign of the others, which only further stoked the fires of my anxiety . . . literally as my hair began to glow, lighting up the space around me in a red glare.

  That couldn’t be a good sign. Something felt off, wrong. Oh, what I would have given for Gary and his blips to be there with me.

  The sound of branches cracking got my attention and a moment later I heard heavy footsteps headed my way. An enormous cloaked creature limped from the shadows mere moments later. “Please, by the spirits of the ancestors . . . Yush, are you there? Yush!”

  “Huge?” I cried at the sight of the giant yak-man. He looked winded and his eyes were bloodshot.

  “Great Conqueror of Burp. You must hurry! There is not much time. It’s a . . . it’s a trap!”

  “What do you mean?”

  He wheezed and seemed to search for the words. “Bush. I went with her to confront her mate. She had discovered information about the T’lunta and treachery.”

  Vampires . . . I knew it! “What treachery?”

  “She wished to save her words for Turd, but we were attacked in the woods of our ancestors before we could reach him. They were strong.” He cast his eyes downward. “Stronger than us . . . and they knew to hide their smell. I told Bush to run, but she is alone—”

  “How do I find her?”

  “Yush can find her,” he said, a wild-eyed look on his massive face.

  “You go find Yush. Just tell me where Bush might go or tell me where to find Turd.”

  “Bush would go to the trees of her ancestors.” He pointed off in a direction. “That’s where we were to meet with her mate. Safe place, sacred.”

  “Well I’m gonna go make it safer.”

  Magic hair, don’t fail me now. I bolted for the tree line, sparks falling from my head with every step I took. I didn’t feel one hundred percent, to be sure, but I couldn’t leave Bush alone, not after everything she’d done.

  I pumped my arms and cursed my plodding feet. If I really was some destined shiny one, or whatever the heck they wanted to call me, then I’d make it there in time. After all, that’s how comics worked.

  The trees changed from pines and spruces to the red-leafed maples that I remembered Bush pointing out to us. Red leaves . . . all the leaves seemed redder than I remembered, and as I skidded into a clearing, I saw more red than I ever wanted to see.

  No.

  All the breath left my body at once. I tumbled into a bank of snow and leaves—red, blood-soaked leaves.

  “No,” I mouthed but my voice failed me.

  A furry form lay slumped against the largest of the maples in the grove. Red, so much red seeped around her, and time seemed to stand still.

  “No!” I howled as I ran to her side. “No, this can’t be happening. Bush! Bush, can you hear me? Bush, please wake up. . . Wake . . . up!”

  Bush gurgled and spat out some blood. Her midsection was riddled with wounds. Oh God, there were so many. The Sasquatch finally opened her eyes and reached a bloodied paw toward my face. I grabbed her hand. “Bush, please hold on. We’ll get your sister—”

  “Hair . . . less . . . Holy. . .” she wheezed. Each breath seemed more labored than the last. “Listen . . . treach . . . treachery. Must . . . stop . . . must stop—”

  “What? What must we stop?” Bush’s head rolled to the side and her eyes began to glaze over. “Bush!”

  “Free . . . will . . . T’lun—” Her breath ran out before she could finish. No, no this couldn’t be happening.

  Wait! I healed Huge, didn’t I? Maybe I could heal her, too, just enough to get her stabilized until the others found us. The others always found me, right?

  “Do it. Just do it, Magic Hair,” I begged. “Please save her.” I laid my head down against her bleeding torso, the heat rushing from me into her. Once again, I felt a terrible feedback loop of being attacked over and over again.

  It came from all sides. There was no way to defend myself from the onslaught. All I could do was black out.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  “Jessie!”

  “Hairless Holy One!”

  I blinked rapidly, and looked up, taking in the shocked faces of Yush, Phil, and Huge—all surrounding me with looks of shock on their faces.

  Yush met my eyes with hers. “Hairless Holy One . . . what happened?”

  “Where’s Bush?” Yush looked away. I could feel the cold sinking into my bones. “Where . . . is . . . Bush?”

  “With ancestors,” Yush replied gravely.

  “I wasn’t . . . I wasn’t—” Brown hair fell in front of my face. Whatever mojo I burned to try and save her . . . it wasn’t enough.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven: Freewill is an Illusion too

  “She said there was treachery, that we had to stop the freewill T’lunta.”

  Huge and Yush muttered furiously in a language I didn’t understand while Phil kept bringing me towels. However, no matter how many times I washed my face, I still felt the hot, sticky blood on my skin. I wasn’t strong enough. My powers just weren’t enough.

  “It makes no sense. How could the Freewill T’lunta kill Bush? That tiny T’lunta could not best a cub, let alone a female.”

  Huge growled and shook his horns. I guess they were back to using English now.

  “Where is she?” I asked. It wasn’t much, but I felt the need to pay my respects, apologize to her one last time.

  “Turd take Bush’s body,” Yush grunted.

  “I wasn’t fast enough. I couldn’t save her.”

  Awful silence reigned for several long minutes until Phil stepped in and gave me an awkward hug. “It’s not your fault. And you were there for her in the end. She didn’t die alone.”

  “She shouldn’t have died period
,” I snapped. “I was at some stupid party while she was—”

  “She was ambushed. There’s no way any of us could have known about it,” Phil said softly. “There’s more going on here than you—”

  “Then you should have told me! Maybe I could have . . . could have. . .” I devolved into blubbering. Some hero I was. Sayuri was right—only fools turned down power when it was offered.

  At least my misery had company. Fluff remained an inconsolable mess in the corner.

  Gary slipped over to my side while Phil stepped away to confer with the other adults. “I’m so sorry, Jess. I should have gone after you when I saw you leaving. I—”

  “We could beat each other up like this all night,” I replied weakly. “It won’t bring Bush back. Nothing will.”

  We hugged for a good long while, tuning out everyone around us to become as comfortably numb as possible. It was only when I heard “accusing the Freewill” that I slipped back into the moment.

  “What’s going on?”

  Yush and Huge had moved to the entrance of the cave. Another Sasquatch stepped away from them as I approached. “What’s going on?” I asked again, a little more insistently.

  Yush sneered. “Turd has taken Bush to the valley of speaking. Seeks to use her death for own gain.” She spat on the floor.

  Huge repeated the gesture and stomped his foot. “The arrogance!” he added with a growl. “If what Grulg said is true—”

  “Just tell me what is going on!” I barked.

  “We must go, Hairless Holy One, or no peace,” Yush said, staring right through me. That didn’t sound good. “You stay—”

  “No, I need to see this.”

  “But—”

  “I need to see this. I need to see what’s going on between that smug little vampire prick and Turd, and I need to see for myself.” A few sparks ignited on my head. “Anyone gonna try and stop me?”

  “Fine.” Phil handed me a robe with a hood. “But at least try to be discreet. It’s not all-out war yet.” She leaned in and added, “There’s a lot going on here, things that Yush won’t tell any outsiders, even me, so please, I’m begging you, just listen and learn what’s going on.”

  I closed my eyes and remembered what Bush said when I was in pain and she was soothing me. I whispered, “Peace is worth fighting for. Peace is worth dying for even. I get it. I’m not going to start a war, Phil, but I have to know. I have to figure out why this happened, okay?”

  She nodded and pulled up my hood. “Remember, low profile, dearie. You’re not glamoured and your powers seem erratic at best. Try to stay calm.”

  “I’ll be fine. It can’t be worse than finding Bush in that clearing.”

  Talk about famous last words.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Within minutes I found myself face to face with a new nightmare as we joined a roaring, howling crowd full of furious supernatural creatures. Turd stood alone in the center of the arena, his fur streaked with blood and a look of deep sadness in his eyes. My entire body locked into place as I once more had to face the nightmare of last night. Bush lay lifeless on the table. I’d managed to heal a few of her wounds, but not nearly enough. A knot formed in my throat and tears welled in my eyes.

  “Behold my mate!” Turd cried. “See what the Freewill T’lunta has done. Shame . . . shame has made Turd’s beloved take her own life—”

  Howls, screams, and wails filled my ears. I could feel the rage of the crowd coursing through me at his words.

  “Warmonger!”

  “Death to the Freewill!”

  “No mercy for the defiler!”

  I wanted to scream with them, too. I wanted to howl “No mercy!” I wanted to yell until I couldn’t yell anymore, but then a terrible realization hit me. Turd was lying. Bush didn’t kill herself. Kind, brave, noble Bush who believed in peace above all else didn’t kill herself just so that she could be used to start a war. I may be an idiot teenage girl, but even I could see through that lie.

  “No!” I cried out, stepping forward. Before I could rush to throw Turd’s lies back in his face, however, both Gary and Dionaea caught hold of me.

  “Low profile,” Gary whispered in my ear as they dragged me over to the dryad contingent. Sayuri and Olivia stared at me expectantly, but Ash remained conspicuously absent from the delegation. I didn’t get much time to mull that over as the crowd picked that moment to rise to its feet, the din turning into an overwhelming wave of noise.

  The opposing faction had chosen to make its entrance and this time when I saw the head vampire’s smug face, I felt more than a little fire in my guts. No matter how Turd tried to spin it, I remembered Bush’s final words. She wouldn’t have wasted her breath if he hadn’t played some part in her death.

  Turd looked toward the ubervamp and snarled, “Freewill, see what your treachery has wrought!” A pall fell over the crowd.

  He indicated the body next to him, anger and sorrow both evident in his voice. “My mate. The mother of my cubs. You defile the tree where her ancestor lay.” Turd turned to us all. For a moment I could swear he was looking at me and only me. “Such was her shame, she took her own life.”

  The gasps and murmurs from our side of the arena made the vampires seem to pale more than usual. Turd began gesticulating and acknowledging each spirit designation in turn.

  “Is it really surprise? Freewill T’lunta were known as conquerors, murderers. Many legends tell of their evil.”

  Turd turned toward a group of stone-like monsters. “Terrocks, did not Freewills enslave your people long ago? Use them as servants to build their fortresses?”

  Their response was a gravelly growl of anger.

  He next addressed a party of creatures that I knew all too well. “Wisps, you have tales of the Freewills extinguishing your eternal flame many harvests ago, yes?” Okay, maybe those jerks deserved a little punishment, but two wrongs didn’t make a right.

  I didn’t get too much time to stew over it. The war chief then pointed to another group in white robes. “Magi, do not your people speak of the death the Freewill brings? If he lives, the Silver Eyes shall rise and bring the end of your kind.”

  I blinked a few times. What did I just hear? I glanced at Gary, but his expression was unreadable. Silver eyes? What is a silver eye, unless. . .

  It was at that moment when I caught sight of exactly that—silver eyes behind a wooden mask, as Ash slipped into one of the rows closest to the front. She stared at the body of Bush, cocking her head as if studying it.

  She wasn’t given long. Another jolt of green lightning flashed in the arena. When it cleared, the ball lightning of doom was back.

  “DAY TWO OF THE PROCEEDINGS WILL NOW COMMENCE. BOTH PARTIES WILL MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE TABLE,” it projected, ignoring all of the angry commotion still rippling its way through the crowd. The vampires meanwhile chatted amongst themselves, looking somewhat frantic.

  “THE PARTIES WILL MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE TABLE NOW.” The green globe of death did not sound like it was in a good mood, but the vampires kept arguing.

  “THE PARTIES WILL. . .”

  “Yeah, yeah! I heard you the first time!” the ubervamp shouted back. What a cock. Couldn’t he even show some respect for the dead lying near him? He wasn’t even acknowledging her. Was he guilty after all?

  Stop it, Jessie. Don’t go down the rabbit hole just yet. Bush wanted peace. She wanted. . .

  “THERE IS AN UNAUTHORIZED OBSTRUCTION ON THE TABLE. IT SHALL BE REMOVED.”

  . . .And then she was gone. In a flash of green Bush vanished, replaced with a pile of ash. I collapsed against the stone, my hands shaking and my cheeks burning. How could she just be gone, discarded, blown away in a heartbeat? If that wasn’t bad enough, her supposed beloved and mate didn’t even give her a second glance. Both he and the ubervamp sat right back at the table as if she didn’t matter. I wanted to scream again, but Gary took hold of my hand at that moment. I took a deep breath and steadied myself. “I’ll remember you, Bush, e
ven if they don’t care.”

  I let the tears fall but kept my calm. We weren’t at war yet. There was still a chance.

  “I have grievance!” Turd shouted, bringing one meaty fist down hard enough to shake the table. Dionaea made that motion with her hands again, and a shimmering field rose around us, allowing us to clearly hear what was being said below.

  “VERY WELL, THE GRIEVANCE WILL BE HEARD,” the moderator replied calmly. How could anyone be calm after watching this travesty? That green blob liked to shout in all our heads—couldn’t I shout back? The globe quivered slightly. Did it just hear me?

  Turd rose and looked to his supporters. “The Freewill knows no limits to his boldness. Freewill tell his human servants where sacred trees of ancestors were.” He pointed to a skinnier guy in the ubervamp’s crew. “This one left his waste upon the tree of Hush the Quiet, ancestor of Bush. He defile her spirit!”

  I couldn’t resist hissing along with the crowd. We were told on day one where we were supposed to poop. Wait, this horror . . . all this pain was over a bunch of crap, literally? I had to cover my ears and catch my breath. I couldn’t take much more. The memories of Bush holding me when I was sick made me grit my teeth and punch my fists into the bleachers until I couldn’t take the pain anymore.

  “Now my cub knows mother died of shame of dishonor!”

  The cub . . . oh no. I looked frantically among the Sasquatches and finally locked my gaze on him. Burp seemed so much smaller than I remembered, his shoulders slumped and his head low.

  No matter what I felt, he must have felt a thousand times worse. Tears welled up as I saw him patting Fluff, who’d wrapped herself around his leg. I would rather deal with a thousand cranky death otters than ever having to see that little ape cry ever again. I could feel the heat rising in my chest and spine. Someone had to pay for this. Someone here had to know the truth!

  Turd kept going on and on about his motherless cubs, using her memory like a tool to his advantage. The heat rose again.