Chapter 12

 

Beli reared back, almost throwing Chad and me from his back. I clung on tightly, and Chad shrieked like a terrified child. Beli released a barrage of flames toward the chimera, narrowly missing the creature—probably more a demonstration of power than an actual attempt to harm it.

Then almost out of thin air, three more chimeras appeared. They were not all the same. The torso of one was like a horse, rather than a lion. Another had what looked like a llama’s head rather than a goat’s protruding from its back. The third was by far the creepiest—it looked like an oversized opossum up front with a hyena’s head in the back. All of them, though, had the characteristic dragon-like heads in the middle and the same serpentine tails.

Beli flapped his wings hard, backing away from the growing crowd of chimeras.

“Can you take them?” I asked.

“Not all of them. We only have two options. The first is to retreat. We might be able to try again later, but chances are they’ll be on the lookout. There’s no telling how long we might have to wait until they’re sufficiently satisfied we’d given up.”

I bit my lip. “Not doing that. Even here, Chad has something of an expiration date. What’s the second option?”

“I create a portal that will take us directly into the void.”

“Sounds like a great idea! Why exactly didn’t we do that to start?”

“Because we were only going to enter the fringes of the void. If I take us there through a portal, I cannot guarantee how deep into the void we might go. Too deep and we’ll have no orientation, no way to know which way is up or down.”

“Can’t you just cast another portal out of there?”

“I require the elements—those that constitute my nature—wind, fire, and earth. Without access to those elements, I am powerless. And in the void, there are no elements.”

“Hence why it’s a void…”

“Indeed.”

“Only if the Almighty deems your cause worthy might he deliver you from the void. Make your choice quickly. These chimeras are growing impatient.”

I grabbed my crucifix again—I was glad I had it back. “I’m going to trust God—whoever he might be. We’re doing this. Isabelle, Chad, you agree?”

I’m in. Let’s do this…

“Who’s Isabelle?” Chad asked. “I knew you had an imaginary friend!”

“No time to explain. I just need you to agree. Or disagree. I’m not forcing anyone to do this who is unwilling.”

“I’m dead soon either way, so I’m with you, Annabelle!”

I nodded. “All right, Beli. We’re in. Let’s do this!”

I felt my thighs expand as Beli inhaled. A cloud of smoke billowed around his massive nostrils. With a roar, Beli released a torrent of magical flames, all forming into a massive, circular gateway in front of us. The energies around it were bright and vibrant greens, reds, and whites. The middle of the gateway was completely black.

The chimeras recoiled at the sight before circling back around and attempting to charge our position. Beli was quick. Elongating his body, he flapped his wings hard and we torpedoed into the gate, into the darkness… into the void.

* * * * *

 

Silence.

Beli intermittently flapped his wings—probably more out of instinct than a need to actually keep us aflight here—and it was the only sound I could hear aside from the dragon’s deep breaths. And Chad’s puppy dog whimpering. I clenched my fist and elbowed him in the gut.

“Sorry… I’m afraid of the dark.”

“A forty-year-old afraid of the dark?” I looked back at him in disbelief. Still I couldn’t see him—in the void there’s no light, nothing to illuminate the surroundings.

I reached out into the darkness with my hand—a darkness so deep there was something alluring and also terrifying about it. I didn’t expect to feel anything there, I suppose. But there was something about the mystery of the void that tempted me.

“Can you sense anything, Isabelle?”

Nothing at all… just… nothing…

“Who… is… Isabelle?” Chad asked again.

“I’m possessed. Sort of. It’s another girl inside of me.”

“Inside of you?” Chad giggled.

“Not inside of my vagina, you perv. Her soul is fused to mine.”

“Oh. Yeah. Righteous.”

“Did you say righteous?”

“Totally.”

“All right, Bill S. Preston, Esquire,” I said, referring to the Bill of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

“No way. I’m totally Ted Theodore Logan!”

I chuckled. “And we are…”

“THE WYLD STALLYNS!” we declared in unison.

“I loved those movies,” Chad said.

“I figured as much. Bill and Ted are like your spirit brothers.”

“Hey, thanks!”

“Don’t mention it,” I said, smirking. It wasn’t meant to be a compliment. But if he was going to take it as one, it was no skin off my hide.

“Beli,” I said. “So now we’re in the void. What do we do now?”

“I figured you’d know…”

Legba’s host… his remains…

“Makes sense. Marie said he’d help guide us,” I said. I loosened the drawstring on the burlap sack and retrieved the head. “Now how do we make this thing work?”

“Who you calling a thing?” Legba’s shrunken head said.

I was so spooked I almost dropped it into the void.

“What the…”

“Long time no see, Miss Mulledy.”

Chad was speechless—which wasn’t a bad thing.

“Is it really you? Papa Legba?”

“Of course it is. Don’t I look like myself?”

I bit my tongue. I mean, he did—sort of. If he’d been born a Legba-shaped grape and became a raisin. “But is it actually you, or are you just… I don’t know… speaking through this head?”

“Doesn’t everyone speak through their head?”

“He’s got you there!” Chad interjected.

I elbowed him in the gut again. I know you aren’t supposed to beat animals in order to discipline them or teach them tricks. The rules are different when it comes to grown-ass men. Not like there was much point disciplining him in this instance—he wasn’t long for this… void.

“I thought you were separate from this old host. Just figured something about its familiarity with you was why Marie Laveau said it would help us find you. She didn’t say it would become you.”

“But it isn’t me. Not completely. Still, one can never be totally separated from the body, not in this life. The soul still likes to find its home in a body… one way or another. You brought the parts of a body my being once inhabited, and my soul—if you can call what we Loa have a soul—could not resist taking up residence inside. At least for a time.”

“But this body… it’s dead!”

“There is no death in the void, Miss Mulledy.”

“There isn’t life, either, it seems. At least not much of it.”

“But life is all around us, is it not? What is life if not the breath of the All-father, of Bondye, of the One? And what is God if not life itself?”

“I don’t know, to be honest. Your questions… I mean, I know they’re supposed to be rhetorical.”

“You are wise not to know. When it comes to matters of the Almighty, we’d all do better to declare that we do not know than to presume that we do.”

“My head is hurting right now.”

“That’s because you humans are accustomed to thinking too much. When you stop thinking, trying to figure everything out, it can be painful. It means admitting one’s powerlessness.”

I nodded. “Well, I really do look forward to more sage wisdom and advice, Papa Legba. But since you fell, Kalfu has consolidated more power, and he threatens to gain even more as we speak. He still hopes to steal Isabelle.”

“I would nod back at you if I had a neck. And this fellow you bring with you…”

“His name is Chad. Marie Laveau chose him to become your new host.”

“Him?” Legba asked. “She couldn’t do any better?”

“Hey!” Chad protested. “Not cool. I’m giving my body to you. Show some respect.”

I snickered. “Beggars can’t be choosers—that’s what Marie said.”

Legba laughed—which I must admit sounded awfully odd coming from a severed, shrunken head. “Sounds like something she’d say. Chad, I only jest. I am eternally grateful for your sacrifice. However, if I’m going to return in human form—if any of us will return—we must seek the blessing of Bondye.”

“And where do we find him? I don’t see anything here but blackness.”

“Who’s to say that God isn’t black?”

I cocked my head. “God is black?”

“Why not? He is black, white, and every color imaginable. He is today and yesterday, all times and places.”

“And he could be she, too, you know.”

“Indeed, Miss Mulledy. All things have their genesis in the All-father, in Bondye, so he is also in all things.”

“They why do even you refer to the All-father as father, not mother. As he, not she?”

“Blame the patriarchy,” Legba said.

I grinned a little. “I’ll do that.”

“Simply speak, Miss Mulledy. Let your request be made known.”

I turned over my shoulder. “You ready for this, Chad? I don’t know if Bondye will respond, or how quickly this will happen. But before I ask, you should be ready.”