Shadeland (The Ethereal Crossings, 1)

by D.L. Miles

  Chapter 16

  I stood in Yamuna’s kitchen with her, as she calmly sipped at her tea and nibbled on a cookie. She didn’t care for Jared, so obviously she didn’t care that he was…well…made of stone. But she had stopped me from getting near him and that had to count for something, didn’t it?

  “What was that?” I asked, pointing in the direction where Jared had fallen and was now staying. “He just…he just…” I trailed off, unable to actually say what I was thinking. Despite what I knew about this world I found it hard to comprehend.

  “He was bitten it seems,” she said, offering me a chair but I refused, “a shame too. We need to know exactly what bit him in order to cure it.”

  “But you said that it was a child of Medusa right? So it’s easy to find the cure.”

  Yamuna rolled her eyes lazily at me. I had no idea what a child of Medusa was, but I was hopeful she knew how to cure it. She said, “There are many children of Medusa, we need to know which one bit him. They all have very different cures.” The teacup rose to her lips, an attempt to hide her smile?

  “So if we figure out which one it was, we can cure him?” I sounded horrifyingly hopeful.

  “I suppose,” Yamuna shrugged. She didn’t seem interested in helping Jared. Part of me thought she really just wanted to keep him there, a token of her enemy’s defeat. “This isn’t really my area of expertise, now if you don’t mind, maybe you should finish finding the ingredients?”

  “But what about Jared?” I held my arms, knowing I could never get the final ingredients without his help. But finding them wasn’t my first priority now either.

  “I’ll look after him,” she said, without the evil smile I had anticipated.

  “Shouldn’t we cure him first, and then finish with the ingredients?” Yamuna sighed.

  “Jared isn’t going anywhere,” she told me, “but don’t you want to stop the killings? We don’t even know what bit him; it could take weeks to find a cure. Go get the dust and the other blood, and then worry about the bounty hunter.” Her tone was so harsh. Yamuna crossed her legs and waved me to the door, showing me that I didn’t have a choice.

  I walked out the door, knowing it was pointless to argue. I could understand why she and Jared didn’t get along; they both needed things to be their way. Stepping outside I took a deep breath before I could look at Jared, lying frozen on the ground.

  Carefully making my way down the steps, I kept my eyes on the Charger telling myself I would not even glance in his direction. But curiosity got the better of me, and I looked down at him as I brushed by.

  Jared only looked like he was sleeping, taking a nap on the concrete path. Pushing my thoughts of him aside, I had to focus on the other current situation; finding out how to catch an inter-dimensional killer, not curing Jared. Both seemed impossible though.

  To top it all off, I had no way of getting anywhere. When I made it to the car, I realized that Jared still held the keys in his hand, which were also made of rock now. The walk back to my apartment was too far, so I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.

  Scrolling through my contacts I considered who I should call. My first thought was Luke, but he was probably still sulking in his room; I doubted he would even answer the phone. My next thought was my father, but he would only ask questions, and try to stop me from doing anything involving the Eidolon’s. It wasn’t that he didn’t like them, he was one of the few that accepted them, but he still thought they were far too dangerous for humans to deal with. After him came my brothers; all of which were busy with their own lives.

  That left nobody else in my phone to call, my only other contact being...deceased. As I set my phone back into my pocket I felt a small piece of paper. Forgetting what it was, I pulled it out of my pocket to read; it was Dr. Wineman’s phone number, written in Luke’s elegant cursive.

  I remembered he had given it to me during out first lesson, when he thought I should have it. I hadn’t thought the doctor’s number would be important enough to write down, so Luke insisted on doing it for me. I hadn’t even remembered it was there, with everything that had happened.

  Weighing my options, I decided that I had to call him for help. I didn’t want to do it, because there was a very slim chance that he would help me, but he was the only option I had. My keys clicked as I dialled his number, hoping he wouldn’t just leave me here to figure out a different solution.

  “Liv!” Dr. Wineman answered after two rings. “Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

  “Uh…no?” I said, surprised that he knew who was calling, and that he wanted to know if I was hurt. I heard him breathe a sigh of relief.

  “Thank goodness,” he said, “so you decided not to summon the Shadeland ancient?” He was so full of hope; it made me feel a little guilty to answer.

  “Not…quite,” I told him, “I need your…help.” I looked up and down Yamuna’s street, a car nowhere to be seen besides Jared’s

  “Of course,” Dr. Wineman said and I could picture him waving his hands, “what do you need?”

  “A ride,” I said, “and maybe an escort?”

  Twenty minutes later Dr. Wineman pulled up behind Jared’s Charger in a small, red, four door convertible. The top was down, letting in the warming spring air. He smiled at me, still thinking I had changed my mind of the subject of summoning the Shadeland creature, but he was wrong. Very wrong.

  Dr. Wineman stepped out of his vehicle and walked around to see me.

  “I’m very glad you have changed your mind,” he said, grabbing me into a hug. I didn’t wrap my arms back around him, instead I stood there again, feeling awkward. Again. Why did he insist on hugging me? I barely hugged my own family. When I didn’t say anything he let me go and looked at me, the expression on his face telling me he understood. “You haven’t changed your mind, have you?”

  Taking one last glance at Jared I said, “Not exactly.” Dr. Wineman looked behind me, his eyes staying on the house, rather than Jared, where I thought they should be.

  “Let’s get you home,” he said, hurrying me into the car. As he shut the door and walked around to the other side I looked back at Yamuna’s house, just in time to see the front door shutting. Dr. Wineman quickly started the car and drove away, leaving Jared and Yamuna behind.

  We sat in his convertible in silence, neither of us saying what we were thinking as he drove down the street. I guessed he was trying to think of a way to convince me not to do the spell while I had to figure out a way to make him help me actually do the spell. Somehow I thought both of our goals were rather improbable.

  In the past, whenever I had to say something I didn’t want to say to Luke, I just asked him to read my mind…it was so much easier then. Maybe the best thing to do right now would be to convince him to help?

  “I need your help,” I said, finally breaking down and speaking.

  “I cannot help you summon the Shadeland creature, Liv,” he told me, “it’s far too dangerous.”

  “I’m going to do it with or without you,” I said, frustrated, “and with Jared out of the picture I’m on my own so it would just be—“

  “Jared?” he asked, “why is he no longer with you?” I stared at him from the passenger seat. Had he actually not seen the stone version of what was once Jared back in the garden?

  “He was…bitten by something and…turned to stone,” I said, not really sure how to explain it. It seemed to make sense to him though, as his eyes widened and he screeched the car to a halt, pulling to the side of the road with a jolt.

  “He was… he turned… what bit him?” Dr. Wineman waved his hand in the air towards me, flustered.

  “I don’t know!” I said, beginning to panic. “I never saw it, it was in a box at the pet store!”

  “Pete’s Pets & More?” I nodded and he sighed. “Anything that could turn him to stone like that means there is a limit on the cure.”

  “What do you mean?” I c
ould feel my stomach drop inside of me.

  “I mean, if he doesn’t get the antidote soon,” Dr. Wineman gave me a cold look, “he could very well stay like that forever.” He put the car into drive and began back down the road, no explanation, just the horrifying truth hanging between us.

  “Where are we going?” I said, hoping he wouldn’t say he was taking me back to Luke.

  “To find out what bit Jared,” he said, “so then we can figure out if we can save him.” If? I thought.

  Dr. Wineman pulled up in front of the café Jared and I had been to earlier, only two spots down from the pet store. I felt like there should be a broken window, cops surrounding the store but everything was normal; people were walking past it and looking at the animals inside, nothing out of place. That bothered me, knowing what was really hidden inside the backroom.

  Dr. Wineman rested his arms on the steering wheel, watching the store.

  “How many are in there?” he asked, as if readying himself for an attack. For some reason, I couldn’t quite remember the number of people that were there. It was all blurred together.

  “Um…about three or four?” I guessed, trying to focus but finding it difficult. There was a nagging feeling in the back of my head, as if we were being watched. As I tried to look around the area the doctor was already out of the car and heading for the shop. What was he planning?

  He barged into the pet store just as I walked past the kittens in the front window. Waving at the small grey one that seemed to recognize me and hop over to the edge of the glass to see me. I smiled at him, and walked into the store.

  “You there!” Dr. Wineman said to the man behind the counter. I didn’t think he was one of the men that had shot at me, but then again, I didn’t get a very good look at any of them.

  “What are you doing?” I whispered to him as we approached the counter.

  “Follow my lead,” he said, sounding as if he was making this up as he went along. He suddenly banged his fist on the counter, surprising both me and the man behind it. “I want answers.”

  This attitude was strange on the doctor. He had seemed so…mild-mannered, and even as he was being forceful, it was awkward. It was like trying to watch a child act like an adult. I was embarrassed for both him and myself.

  “Answers?” the man questioned. His nametag was written on a dog bone, reading Steven. His tan polo shirt and matching khaki’s seemed oddly disarming and I didn’t recognize him as one of the shooters. What if he didn’t know anything about what was in the back?

  “You know what I’m talking about,” Dr. Wineman continued, banging his fist again, “tell us what we want to know!”

  “Maybe we should tell him what we want to know,” I whispered closely to him. The doctor went still, thinking.

  “Right,” he said, “tell us about what’s in the back.” Steven’s eyes widened further, so he did know about the secret operations. His eyes narrowed at us, testing our knowledge.

  “What do you want to know about what’s in the back?”

  “What bit the bounty hunter?” Dr. Wineman loomed over the counter, trying to appear imposing but missing the mark completely; he merely looked like he was leaning casually. Steven reached under the counter, his muscles tensing as he gripped something.

  “That’s enough Steven,” came a voice from the door, the bell chiming as the person stepped in. Steven set both his hands back on the counter innocently. Dr. Wineman and I turned to find a girl with a dark blue streak in her hair; Violet. “I’ll take care of these two.”

  Her expression didn’t give away what she was thinking. I knew she had history with Jared, so maybe that meant she would be willing to help us. Unless her history was similar to Yamuna’s…

  “You sure?” Steven asked.

  “Yeah,” she said back, “c’mon.” She nodded her head towards the door and walked out. Dr. Wineman looked to me and I shrugged at him before we followed her out. We tracked her all the way back to the doctor’s car as she leaned on the passenger door. Before the doctor could open his mouth I cut him off.

  “Do you know what bit Jared?” I asked, hopeful. She looked up at me, her thin eyes boring into mine. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking at all.

  “Yeah,” Violet said, “what are you gonna do if I tell you?” She crossed her arms.

  “We want to help him,” Dr. Wineman said, reverting to his usual self. He must have felt comfortable enough to not threaten Violet. She snorted at his comment.

  “Good luck with that,” she said, “he was bitten by a Cockatrice.” She got off the car and put one hand on her hip, challenging those around her. If she and Jared had a history, it was clearly a negative one; he seemed to have that effect on a lot of people.

  “Are you sure?” the doctor asked, troubled by her words. She nodded with a hint of guilt in her eyes. She turned to me then, her face changing with determination.

  “What were you two doing there, anyway?” she questioned me. I didn’t answer and instead looked to the doctor. His features didn’t give me much hope that we would be able to help Jared.

  “What’s a Cockatrice?” I asked. Dr. Wineman touched his hand to his lip in thought and I didn’t think he had heard me.

  “Hmm?” he said, coming out of his daze. “Oh, it’s a creature from around the twelfth century; it has the ability to turn one to stone with simply a look, or a touch.”

  That must have been why Yamuna called it a “Child of Medusa”, I thought, remembering the story of Medusa turning people to stone with just a glance.

  “Or a bite,” Violet chimed in, unimpressed.

  “Ah, yes,” the doctor agreed, still touching his face. Violet didn’t ask me again what Jared and I were doing there earlier; she just walked back towards the pet store, mumbling something under her breath. The way she walked in her black jacket reminded me of Jared; there was something very similar in the way they both held themselves. Or maybe it was just their overpowering arrogance that bothered me so much.

  “So is there a cure?” I asked meekly, feeling as if there was no hope. Jared was turned to stone, and Luke would forever be labelled as a killer. There was no way I would be able to collect the final ingredients on my own, let alone summon and kill the Shadeland being.

  “Yes,” the doctor sighed and pulled his car keys from his pocket, “but it will take some time to acquire.” We climbed into his car and drove off, towards an unknown destination.

  “So what is it?”

  “It is something that a human should not concern herself with,” he scolded, “I will help Jared, but you must stay home.” He turned down all the streets that told me I was going home. That wasn’t all he made me realize though, he just proved that he was in fact, an Eidolon. As he pulled up in front of my apartment building I touched the door-handle.

  “What are you going to do?” I couldn’t help but ask. He let the car idle as he watched me, weighing his options as I had when deciding whether or not to tell the cops about Luke. Dr. Wineman was deciding if he should tell me the truth, because it was the right thing to do, or if he should lie to me, for my own good. When he finally came to a decision it was written clearly on his face.

  “I’ll tell you everything you want to know,” he said, “when I get back with the cure.” Not another word passed between us as I got out of the vehicle. He drove away, and there was nothing I could do to help anyone now.