We met Shauna and Daphne outside the emergency room. Doc Ramis was there, and Shauna was loading Valentino into the back of her sky-blue Prius. Doc held an IV bag and kept shifting it one way or the other to keep the line in Valentino’s arm from pulling. Nina stood by, arms crossed and face tight. She glanced at us as we came out, and then turned to go back in, probably to sit with Leo.
Ed was there, too. I hadn’t seen him in the room before, so I assume he must’ve been out grabbing the soda he held in one hand. The neon green liquid in the bottle contrasted sharply with the bright red t-shirt he wore. I smiled a little when I saw the text on the t-shirt read, “I saved Hyrule and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.”
“Judah,” he said, jogging up to me, “tell me you guys are fixing all this.”
“It’s being handled,” Sal said.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
Ed had a good heart, but he wasn’t a fighter. I didn’t want him pulled into what was going on, but if I just dismissed him, he’d probably feel bad. Like me, Ed needed something to do when there was trouble. It just wasn’t in him to sit on his hands.
I nodded and pulled a small notebook from my purse along with a pen. I scribbled down a quick list and handed it to him.
He gave me a funny look and wrinkled his nose. “What’s all this for?”
“Tomorrow night. Call Father Reed, too. See if the church is free after six tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow?” Realization dawned in stages on Ed’s face. “Oh! Right. I can do that.” He stole a glance back at the car as Doc squeezed in the back with Valentino. “And you’ll let me know if there’s anything I can do for him, right?”
“I promise.”
Ed darted off for his moped, which was parked nearby. The old thing coughed to life and he sped off.
“We’ll meet you at Chanter’s,” Sal told Shauna as she paused by her car.
She nodded and got in.
“So how do we get in contact with Logan?” Hunter asked.
Sal started for his truck. “I wouldn’t worry about it. I imagine he’ll find us.”
~
Just as Sal predicted, Logan was at Chanter’s house when we arrived. He was throwing a little red ball for Bolt as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Logan threw it one more time after we pulled into the driveway, but held it after Bolt brought it back, much to the dog’s displeasure.
“So, Hunter,” Logan said as the dog trotted beside him, “have you come to a decision yet?”
Hunter gave a single, firm nod. “I’ll do it.”
“Very good.” Logan lifted his head to address Sal. “Your friend, Valentino, has been taken into the lodge for healing. Chanter indicated that you should join him.”
Sal knitted his brows together and gave me a long look.
“She and her boy will be fine with me,” Logan promised. “No harm will come to them. I gave you my word, didn’t I? Both will be returned to you safely, wolf, along with the scale you’ll need to make the cure for Valentino.”
I turned toward Sal and he mimicked my move. “It’ll be fine. Time is running out. You’re needed here where you can help.”
It was a long moment before Sal reached out to take my hand. “Be safe, Judah, and remember what we talked about.”
“I will.” I squeezed his hand before he pulled it away, leaving the keys to his truck behind.
Logan tilted his head back and forth, mimicking a bird watching something with intense interest, only his gaze was focused on Sal as he walked away. “Interesting. What is it exactly that you two spoke of? Something the rest of us should be aware of?”
“You know, Sal is a father, too.”
Logan frowned. “I was informed that he had lost a child.”
“It doesn’t mean he’s any less of a parent.” I put my hands on Hunter’s shoulders. “That love doesn’t die just because a child’s heart stops beating.”
Something flashed in his eyes, but I couldn’t tell if it was rage or sorrow. Whatever it was, my words had struck a chord and I knew I’d been right earlier about why he hadn’t separated Zara’s spirit from Utena’s.
Logan pushed past me. “We will have better luck going to the place we last saw her. However, I believe we can draw her anywhere. It may be wiser to use the part of the river north of Paint Rock, the section close to here. There will be no people there for her to harm.”
“No people but us,” Hunter muttered.
Logan heard him. I was sure by the way he turned his head, but the old Thunderbird chose not to respond. “I will fly over the road to guide you to the place. You can take your truck.”
A bright light flashed in front of me. I put up a hand to shield my eyes and blinked away the sudden assault of green in my vision the flash left behind. When I could see again, all that was left of Logan on the ground was a large, black shadow. I looked to the sky and found him circling the immediate area. I couldn’t see his face, but I detected a sense of impatience in the way he moved through the sky.
Hunter and I got back into the truck and Logan took off down the long driveway. I tried not to think about what we were about to do and how much of a risk it was. Zara had killed. She’d nearly killed again. Her moods were unpredictable and driven by thoughts and desires I couldn’t fully understand. Putting my son in front of her as bait, dressed up like one of her dead children might make her sympathetic. It might remind her of all she’d lost and invoke a motherly feeling. It might also make her angry and vengeful, especially if she saw through the ruse. My son had chosen to take that risk and I would support him. I only wished we’d had time to come up with a better plan.
At the main road, Logan turned right and I followed as if we were headed back to Paint Rock. Just before the reservation walls, Logan made a sharp left where there was no road. I squinted for a better look and saw that there was an unpaved track that went down that way.
He must’ve meant for me to take it, I thought, so I did. My car wouldn’t have been able to handle such a road, but Sal’s truck was in good shape and did well enough, even though we bounced everywhere.
The road got rougher the further we went. I had to steer around naked bushes and small mounds. Soon, a narrow body of water sprang up on my right. The Concho River. By my guess, we were three, maybe four miles from the highway I’d left. I could hear traffic zooming by on the Ray Stoker Jr. Highway not too far away, but it must’ve been on the other side of the trees and somewhat distant. Maybe a half mile away. Less than twenty miles ahead was the marina. I knew because Hunter and I had gone to check it out not long ago. The marina was where the Concho River fed into the Colorado, but those mighty waters were far enough away that the little river we drove beside was barely more than a creek.
Logan touched down in an open area where there was still a little grass. He didn’t change back into a man, but waited patiently for me to pull the truck away from the spot and behind some heavy bushes. After parking, I got out and arranged the branches of the bush as best I could to conceal the truck. It didn’t have to be perfect. It just had to be good enough.
Once the truck was concealed, Hunter and I walked the short distance to where Logan waited. While we were busy, he’d changed back into a human and busied himself in gathering a handful of mud that he formed into a thick patty. Bolt sniffed around, wagging her tail and hopped off to chase a rabbit out of the brush.
“Your role will not be to fight,” Logan said to Hunter as he stood from where he squatted near the water. He walked up to us, passing the mud patty between his hands. “Your role is to be still and calming. You must act as if you are her lost child. We will do the rest.”
Logan broke off a small section of the mud and tucked it behind Hunter’s ear, smoothing it down and around his jawline. He spread another chunk over Hunter’s cheekbones and more still on his chin and around his eyes. As it dried, the mud crusted and crumbled, but when it fell away, it left subtle changes in the shape of Hunter’s face. It was as if he was crafting another human out of the clay-rich soil overtop of my son. This new child was thicker in the face, though he somehow managed to have sharp, angular features as well.
When he’d finished sculpting a new face for Hunter, Logan lifted what was left of the mud above Hunter’s head and crumbled it between two fingers. It rained down as dry dust that the wind took up and scattered. Some of it struck me in the face and I had to turn away, coughing to clear my lungs. When I turned back, Hunter was gone. The boy standing in his place was younger, shorter, with sun-darkened skin. He wore loose fitting deerskin leggings and a necklace made of little white beads. The wavy, dark brown hair on his head had turned black and straight. The middle section of his hair had been teased upright while the rest flowed down in short, tightly wrapped braids on either side.
I stepped forward to circle around him. Had I not known this was Hunter, I would have mistaken him for another child entirely.
“Gawonii,” Logan said from behind me. “For now, that is your name. Remember it.”
“What kind of magick is this?” I reached out to touch Hunter’s crafted face. It felt indistinguishable from real skin. “A glamor?”
“No, not a glamor. Old magick. Magick that should not be here.” Logan’s face and voice were grave. “When Zara and I leave, we will take it with us and the world will be as it was.”
“I don’t understand. What’s wrong with this magick?” Hunter looked down at himself, clearly as amazed as I was.
“Nothing is wrong with it, child, but the time for it has passed. This is not our world anymore. The time for us to cede it to other generations was long ago. It isn’t a sad thing, though you’ll hear many mourn the loss of the old ways.” Logan gave a grim smile and gripped Hunter’s shoulder. “But they forget in the old days, there was much death and suffering. Before medicine and technology, life was short and brutal. The loss of such magick is the price we pay so that others may live fuller, happier lives. The world is made of give and take. All must trade one treasure for the next eventually.”
Logan withdrew his hand and cleared his throat. “Now, Judah Black, you and I will go into the bushes and wait for Zara to show herself while Gawonii plays his part.” He retreated.
I stayed to give some final advice to Hunter, squatting down in front of him so that our heads were level. “If things get out of hand, I want you to turn and run as fast as you can back the way we came. Don’t feel obligated to take any more risks than you’re already taking, no matter what. Okay, kiddo?”
Hunter threw his arms around me and squeezed. “Just make sure you come like you promised.”
I hugged him back and kissed him on the side of the head. “I will always come when you call.”
Logan had ducked behind a thick bush and called over Bolt who sat panting attentively, ears perked. When I went to join him, Logan pulled a knife from his belt and handed it to me. “Her hide is as tough as diamond, but that one scale will be her weakness. Slice it free, and I will do the rest.”
I took the knife and slipped further behind the bushes, kneeling next to the dog. “Logan, there’s something we need to talk about.”
“Shhh! She’ll hear us. Silence now. We will talk after.”
I restrained myself from letting out a frustrated huff. Every time someone said that in the movies, they usually died before the two characters could have their talk. I hoped that didn’t mean something would happen to Logan, especially since the whole plan depended on him staying in flight.
“Mother!” Hunter put his hands to his mouth and gave a loud shout in a voice that was not his. “Mother, I’m here! Mother!”
It took everything I had not to run to him. There’s a primal instinct in mothers to come to a child’s aid, even if the child isn’t your own. If you don’t believe me, walk into a crowded park one afternoon and shout “mommy” and see how many heads turn. We’re hardwired to respond because in pre-modernity, it took a whole team of mothers to raise a single child. When the child calling is your own, even if he doesn’t look like yours, that urge to respond is even stronger. If Zara had any motherly instinct left in her, she would show.
Hunter continued calling and I held my breath. After a few long moments, I turned to check on Logan and found he’d already changed into his large bird self. He turned his head and tilted it in a very birdlike way as if to say, “What?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. I swear, if giant, mythical birds could grin, he would have.
The ground beneath my feet suddenly trembled. I shot my attention forward to where Hunter struggled to stay upright. Water foamed up out of the river, sloshing over the land which drank it down. The force of another wave hit Hunter’s shins and pushed him back.
Zara rose from the water, a giant snake with dead weeds in her antlers. Her scales shimmered as water ran over them, falling droplets glittering in the desert sun. Zara’s gaze was focused entirely on Hunter, though I couldn’t read her expression as a snake to gauge whether she meant him harm or not.
Hunter took another step back, staring up at her as more water billowed from the narrow creek. A long, pink tongue darted out of Zara’s mouth, but she was otherwise still. Watching. Waiting.
“Mother?” Hunter said in a small voice.
The serpent’s eyes widened. It opened its massive jaws and hissed out, “My son. Is that you?”
Logan nudged me with his beak and then gestured for me to climb aboard. I was still a little wary about taking off on his back. As soon as we moved from that spot, Zara was likely to spot us and react violently. I wasn’t sure he could fly fast enough to draw her attention away from Hunter, but there was no other way to do it. If we’d been in the sky when she first surfaced, she would have seen us.
I swallowed any objections and slid onto his back. With no way to hold on other than to grab the feathers, I pressed myself against his back and squeezed my eyes closed. Please don’t let me fall off and die.
There was a sudden spring of movement and we lifted off. The added weight slowed our ascension at first, leaving Logan struggling to sweep his giant wings and build up air beneath him. We hovered above the bushes for a long moment, hoping that Zara was too distracted by Hunter to notice.
I cracked open my eye at the wrong time. Zara’s head shifted and her eyes landed right on me. She reared up with a primal scream and brandished fangs. The move sent more water cascading out of the narrow river with enough force that it knocked Hunter backward. His arm shot up out of the water as it carried him away. I watched, helpless, as he slid downriver and struck hard against a large, flat rock before he lay still.
Ice ran through my veins and my heart jumped into my chest. I moved to climb off of Logan’s back to run to pull my son from the water and into safety, but I wasn’t fast enough. Logan shot into the sky with me on his back, the movement so sudden I had to hold on with all my strength to keep from falling back. His quick thinking saved us from being crushed when Zara threw her body at the ground where we’d been just moments ago.
Rainbow coils shifted and slithered, pulling and tearing at the earth beneath. Bushes and trees uprooted as she wound over the area, pulling herself from the water. Zara’s head shot higher. She snapped at us as we circled higher, her fangs so close I could feel the heat of breath on my back.
I scanned the ground for any sign of Hunter and came up empty. The flat rock was visible, but he wasn’t on it. Dammit! Where was he?
Logan let out a thunderous screech and banked to the right, forcing me to turn my focus back on keeping myself alive. He soared a little higher, turned about face and screamed. The sound rattled my bones and deafened me temporarily, leaving behind a ringing sound in my head. It affected Zara differently. Her whole body shook, vibrating like a bell struck. She swayed back and forth, dizzy, but only for a moment. Her recovery was fast enough I might have missed the effect if I’d blinked. And she was angry now. Well, angrier.
Zara darted forward, pulling her massive, snake body from the ground and utilizing her wings. She flew at us and snapped, taking off some of Logan’s tail feathers. He banked a hard left, right, and then sailed higher so that we were above her, a position we would not maintain long if Zara got any more air under her wings.
I was still busy glancing down in search of my son every chance I could, but I hadn’t spotted him yet. I’d have to search the ground, something I couldn’t do until Zara was subdued. If I waited much longer, I’d lose my chance and she’d be on us again.
I gritted my teeth and tightened my grip on the knife as we evened out, a good twenty feet above Zara’s head. My arms trembled as I pushed myself up and stood on shaky legs. The wind at that altitude, however high we were, rushed against me and threatened to push me off. It threw my hair over my head and in my eyes. I traced a finger between the strands, pushing it away. Zara looked up at me.
Now or never.
I leapt off the Thunderbird’s back and into the air, doing my best to aim for Zara’s head.
They say jumping from a high altitude doesn’t feel like falling after a while. Only the first few minutes or so, but even that doesn’t seem right. The wind pushed against me as if it was trying to hold me up. I felt weightless, as if the world was moving and I was standing still.
Without a parachute or any kind of equipment, I didn’t know how to guide myself. Not that a parachute would have helped much since I wasn’t trained to use that either. Mostly, I fought against the force of gravity to angle myself so that when I fell, I could grab onto Zara.
The ground rushed closer, along with the opening jaws of the giant snake. Fangs gleamed and dripped with saliva as she opened her mouth to swallow me.
A loud crack of thunder ripped open the air and lightning rained down on either side of Zara. Suddenly distracted by the bigger threat, she snapped her mouth closed and turned her head, allowing me to fall right where I needed to fall.
I hit maybe five feet from the flat top of her head and continued sliding until I grabbed the sharp end of a scale and held on. It cut into my hand, sending a waterfall of blood down my arm, but I couldn’t afford to focus on that. Zara had busied herself shaking like a dog, trying to throw me off. I had to hold on. More than that, I had to concentrate enough to call up my magick so I could find the scale.
I squeezed my eyes shut, doing my best to block out the pain in my hands, the sinking, spinning feeling in my gut as she wriggled to and fro, the electric static in the air from the lightning Logan was still throwing down. It was impossible. With all of that going on, I might as well have been standing on the ground reaching for the moon.
“Mom!”
My eyes snapped open at the sound of my son’s voice. I looked down and saw him standing near the river, bleeding from a good gash in his forehead. Hurt, but alive.
He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted, “You can do it!”
I looked back at how far I was from my goal. It wasn’t so far, and Logan was keeping her distracted. Even if he wasn’t, what choice did I have? If I didn’t do this, Valentino was going to die and other people would be in danger too. I’d been through worse. Hell, I’d banished demons before breakfast before. I could sure as hell climb five feet and use my magick to find one little scale.
I threw my other arm up with a grunt and grabbed another scale. Even though it cut into my palm, I pulled myself up with a grunt. I grabbed another scale and pulled myself even further.
Zara bucked to the right and shook her head violently to get me off, but I held fast. When she reared back to dive into the ground as she’d done before, Logan swooped down under her and let out another blast of thunder from his beak.
I climbed further.
One more scale and I pulled myself atop Zara’s head where I held on tight gripping scales on either side of her forehead and closed my eyes. You can do it, I told myself as I tried to shut out all that was happening around me. You have to.
And when I opened my eyes, I had. There, directly in front of me, was the blazing white scale that would save everyone. I dug my feet in against her scales until the sharp edges bit into the soles of my shoes and the bottoms of my feet. Then, I let go of her with the hand that was still grasping the knife and fought to slide the blade under the scale.
It cut like butter until I reached the bottom. Then, it stuck. I had to grip the blade with both hands and give it a hard pull. The scale popped free and I scrambled to grab it.
Zara roared and wriggled back and forth. I lost my hold and went flying into the air, tumbling forward. The ground rushed to meet me.
Instead, Logan caught me, wrapping a set of large talons around my leg. They bit into the muscle and drew blood, and the sudden stop as he yanked me back up cracked my spine from one end to the other, but all of that was preferable to hitting the ground from fifty feet up. From upside down, I watched as the magick that held Zara in her snake form dissipated beginning at her tail and climbing all the way to her head. One by one, the scales turned to dust, dissipating in the sunlight like ash. The only thing that was left behind was her frail looking human body, which plummeted to the Earth.
Logan flew into a dive at a pace that made my chest hurt and my eyes water. The ground tilted and got bigger as he raced to save her, catching her at the last minute before I touched the ground. She hit his back with enough force that he uncoiled his talons and let me fall the last three feet. The impact, combined with the strange, upside down flying, made me vomit and then roll over, clutching my stomach as the dizziness subsided.
Hunter ran to my side. “Mom! Mom, are you okay?”
My voice was strained as I answered, “I think I just remembered why I don’t like roller coasters.”
A big grin spread across his strange face. Even though the boy looking down at me did not look like my son, I saw him in that smile and knew my boy was alive and well.
Logan lowered Zara to the ground. She was naked, and bore new bruises, but most notably a large patch of skin on her forehead was now red, raw, and bleeding. Once she was down, Logan changed back to man and dog and ran to her side, turning her over gently.
Her eyes fluttered open. “Father. Why?”
He placed two fingers on her chin and tipped it up. “Because, my daughter, your grief has driven you mad. It is time for us to go.”
Zara’s eyes refocused on Hunter and she reached for him. “But I’ve found him. I’ve finally found my Gawonii, my son. He’s alive. You see? I didn’t kill him after all.”
Logan closed his eyes and his forehead wrinkled. “Magick has made him look that way. It was necessary to bring you to me.”
She searched his face with big, wet eyes. “I don’t understand. Father, I don’t understand. Where is Gawonii? Where is my son?”
He turned away and swallowed as she began to sob.
I pushed up, doing my best to ignore the nausea that still clouded my head. “Logan, you can’t just take her back to Galunlati. Look what it’s done to her.”
His face hardened and he clenched his jaw, speaking through his teeth. “What else would you have me do? There is no place for the undying legends we chose to become. We traded eternity for a moment of power. This is the consequence of our choice.”
I walked over to him and placed a hand on his bare shoulder. “No,” I offered gently, “this is the consequence of your failure to grieve and not allowing her to go on to be with the ones she loved and lost. Zara can’t grieve and move on because you didn’t let her.”
“What choice did I have? Our people were mad with their desire for revenge. And when it didn’t work...” He turned back to his daughter, his expression pained. “It didn’t seem fair, that I should give up everything forever for a failure. We challenged God and failed. We must pay for that crime.”
“Don’t you think you’ve paid enough?” I gestured to Zara who had curled up, weeping. “Don’t you think she’s paid enough? Logan, you bound her to something beyond this world, just as you bound yourself to stop her. Those bindings can be undone.”
He was silent for a moment, watching Zara sob, and then whispered, “But I will have to watch her die. How does a parent choose to let his child die?”
“When she’s ready to go and keeping her here would only prolong her pain.”
Logan closed his eyes and his shoulders sagged. “Oh, my little Zara. What have I done?” He reached out to place a trembling, wrinkled hand on his daughter’s arm. She lowered her hands from her face, revealing red, bloodshot eyes. “Is she right? Is death what you want?”
She blinked back tears and wiped a hand over her forehead, smearing the blood. “You taught me that death wasn’t the end. If that’s true, if we are all reborn, then you must let me go. Even if that isn’t what’s waiting for us, how can you expect me to live in a place of darkness, tending the dead? Especially now that I have seen life again?” Zara shifted her head to look up at the gray clouds in the sky. “I miss the sun.”
Logan nodded once and moved his hand to her forehead. “Then sleep, daughter mine, and dream only of sunny summer days, of running through tall grass, of the laughter of children. Go and live in the light.”
A bright light emanated from under his hand. Zara’s body stiffened, and then quickly relaxed. When Logan removed his hand, Zara was no longer breathing.
He pushed to one knee and then stood before walking a short distance to retrieve the scale I had pried free from where it had fallen among the dead bushes. It had turned snowy white.
A ray of sunlight fought through the clouds and settled on the water not far from where we stood. The clouds didn’t clear, but no rain fell the rest of the day or for many, many days after.