Dark Muse (17 page)

Otis clawed the dirt. “Where'd he go?”

Muddy stood up and grabbed his guitar. “He'll
be with us every step of the way.”

When he opened his right hand, a silver pick
lay in his palm.

* * * *

They looked down the trail that lead to the
town and then at the unknown path. “We need Lyra. We need a guide
to get us to the mountain.” Muddy slipped the pick into his pocket,
right next to the one he’d retrieved from the creature. Silver
Eye’s and Zack’s. He prayed it would give him the confidence he
knew he would need.

“What mountain?” Poe squinted, her eyes
adjusting to full sight once again.

“Where the Tritons have my brother. Where the
Dark Muse is waiting for us.”

“Okay, but let's do it without getting
killed.”

“Do you guys always make such an entrance?”
Lyra stood behind one of the non-living trees.

“What?”

“Whenever someone's stupid enough to go into
the River, it pretty much feels like an earthquake here. Now you
might understand why the elders here fear your group so much.”

Otis looked at her and winked. “So, hot
stuff, what does that mean?”

She swatted his head. “We'll go first thing
in the morning. Now you need to rest. Some of us might not see
another sunset.”

Poe nodded at a male version of Lyra. “Sure,
but first, who’s he?”

“Hi, I’m Luke,” the boy said. He looked about
their age, which meant almost nothing in this world. “My sister
told me you need some navigational help.”

“I saved you,” Lyra said. “My people trust no
one anymore. I’m sorry. Ever since they built that
thing
and
the music died in our villages, nobody’s trusted outsiders.”

“How do we know you’re not baiting us?” Corey
hadn’t trusted many people lately, other than his band and family.
“We could wake up chained to something, or fed to one of those
things out there.” He waved his monstrous arms in an arc. The band
understood that much more existed in this world than they knew.

“You don’t,” she said, sighing. “Most of the
younger ones fight the change. The eye in the center of town,
watching us, is listening for those like you.”

The pyramid? Could he trust them?

“The last few who crossed over didn’t fare so
well,” she continued.

“They were killed?” Poe bore into her.
“Musicians? Like us?”

The other girl stared off into the direction
of her town. “Some, but some were once welcomed here with open
arms. They wrote songs that could appease even those that
threatened their lives. Legends,” she said. “I’m sure they were in
your world, too.”

“Are they dead?

Her brother finally spoke up. “Nobody’s sure.
Those idiots in town captured some and let the Tritons take them
away. Others simply went the way you’re headed now.” He bowed his
head. “They might still be there. Or they’re dead, if they’re
lucky.”

“What do you mean lucky?” Otis yelled. “Dead
isn’t lucky.

The twins locked gazes. “You’re sure you want
to go there?”

Muddy felt himself getting angry. “Isn’t that
where your people took my brother?”

The boy threw his hands in the air. “Hold on.
First, I don’t know who your brother is. Second, many walked right
into the lion’s den.”

“Describe him to me,” Lyra said.

Muddy did, as the image from the night his
brother disappeared would be forever tattooed in his memory. He
noted the teen’s hair, eyes, height, clothing and of course, his
guitar.

The teens stared at each other again.

Muddy felt his stomach slowly snake into a
knot. “What? You’ve seen him?”

Lyra didn’t speak. Luke turned to him. “If it
was him, he arrived and bypassed the village completely, as if he
knew something the others didn’t.”

“Where’d he go?” The knot constricted.

The boy pointed at the peak in the middle of
the distant mountain range. “Right into the lion’s den, without
saying a word.”

* * * *

Luke led the band to an outcropping on the
eastern edge of the town, outside of the influence of the pyramid.
“No one will know we're here,” he said. “Even that thing won’t
sense us. Trust me.”

“Why are you so sure?” Muddy felt no trust on
this side. The sensation of being drugged, locked up and chased
down were all too fresh in his memory.

Lyra laughed. “Well, for one, your little
stunt has them scared out of their gourds. They’re convinced you’re
working with the Dark Muse and the Tritons.”

“What stunt?”

“Crossing over like you just did. Most choose
the quiet way.”

Muddy fell into a soft bedroll within the
tent the twins pitched for them. “I just hope everyone else is
fooled as easily.”

Moments later, he passed out, dead to the
world and unable to tell the others what he’d learned the night he
spent in the River.

As the morning began the next day, the sun
blasted through the opening in the tent Lyra had brought them and
shut out the nightmares of the River from the previous day. Silver
Eye, their mentor, spoke to Muddy through the darkness, from deep
within wherever he was now. Luckily, the message arrived right
before his air ran out.

A scream pierced Muddy’s lips but a hand
doused it quickly. When his eyes shot open, he saw Poe bending over
him. “Shh,” her voice purred. “You'll bring them running.”

“Who?” His pulse already thumped through his
skin.

She leaned in as she furrowed her eyes.
“Everyone. And everything.”

After the swim in the River, both real and in
his nightmares, those creatures he met didn't seem so horrible
anymore. “Something tells me this is going to be one long
trip.”

Later, as he stood outside the tent, Muddy
watched as a quiet comedy of musical errors played.

Lyra stood in the middle of the group while
Otis and Corey danced with the grass across from the safe zone
where they camped. The same pasta grass which nearly had Leo for
lunch a day earlier now swayed like soccer moms with cell phones at
a Bon Jovi concert. Their long fronds moved with some current that
gave them the appearance of dancing.

Corey blew a soft stream of blues-tinged
notes, aimed at the green ground that surrounded the camping area.
The bell of his sax-shaped horn sung to the murderous blades that
waved to and fro. Some even washed over his sneakers.

Was he nuts?

The tiny drummer sat cross-legged on the
ground before them, silently beating a rhythm into the earth. That
must have propelled whatever it was, tide or wind, to make the
grass wave. Otis must have sensed Muddy behind him because he
turned and gave the guitar player a sly grin that only he could
give. He nodded, his John Lennon sunglasses blocking out the
world.

Where was Poe? He almost yelled her name when
Lyra grabbed his hand and squeezed hard. Her gaze pointed to the
most obvious place, the middle of the grass.

There she stood, the queen of the ball, all
of her suitors dancing around her. The blades cleared a spot for
her and she held her palms to them, as if conducting them. She
hummed a melody in sync with Otis and Corey, all of them holding
court.

Wow. She’s beautiful. I could fall into
those eyes and forget about my life.

He didn’t care if she saw him staring this
time. He hated the other guys in school ogling her with her long
hair and womanly body, especially because he knew he would lose out
to them every time. She could, and should, be a model with those
eyes and that beautiful smile, but with
her
father, it would
never happen.

Muddy wanted to run into the mass of green
and pull her away. Just yesterday the green mixed with crimson as
it nearly killed Leo. He might still wind up dead from their
poison; another casualty of the bass player curse. However, Lyra
held him firmly in place.

“Just watch.” So he did, but his anxiety
reared up big-time and he fought hard to keep it at bay. He needed
to be strong for Silver Eye and Zack. He couldn’t afford to screw
it up now. The band counted on him. Even Lyra did.

He took some deep breaths, forcing himself to
take in the scene and marvel at its craziness and beauty.
Everything around him seemed alive. The ground below him vibrated,
lulling him into a peace almost like he’d experienced in the River.
His senses heightened as if he grew into the environment. Then his
nose took in the strongest sensation.

“What’s that smell?”

“Wasn’t me,” chimed Otis, still tapping
away.

Corey and Poe smirked, but kept up their
antics.

“It smells like green,” she sang. And it did
with the typical bitter fruitiness of cut grass, but this had an
added ingredient.

“Shrek?” Corey asked between notes.

“Kermit the frog?” Otis rolled as he
drummed.

Muddy smiled at Lyra, who explained, “When
the plants are charmed, like a snake they emit something like
pheromones.”

“So those bozos are putting that killer
linguini in the mood?”

Lyra elbowed him, smiling. “Something like
that. It helps them pollinate and communicate with other plants.
Would you rather they get angry?”

He remembered the blood and his screaming
friend. “I’ll live with this.”

“Guys,” he said in rhythm with the band, “we
need to go. Remember what we came here for.”

Poe sauntered out of the grass, the fronds
parting like the Red Sea for her. Within a minute, the song
concluded and the blades lay still.

Before Muddy informed the group of their next
step, Corey stepped up to him.

“You know, he believed in all of us. He gave
every one of us something that we can use to save Zack. You’re not
the savior here; we all are.”

The words hurt. They also rang true. Muddy
had figured all along that since it was his brother, he would be in
charge. But just like in the band, no one was more important than
another. They risked their lives to complete this mission as much
as he did.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just afraid we
won’t get there in time. Silver Eye talked to me in a dream last
night.”

Corey put his big hand on Muddy’s shoulder.
“He came to me, too. Otis and Poe. All of us. That’s how we figured
out how to calm the grass like that. Did you think we just suddenly
went bonkers?”

“No, I know you’re not that psycho,” he
replied with a smile, a little more at ease. He looked at Lyra,
waiting for her to save him. She simply shrugged. He was on his own
again. His dad would remind him that he needed to own up to his
actions and words. “I think we do need to go, though, like
now.”

“We know,” Poe said. “To the ocean,
right?”

How did she know? Then he remembered. Silver
Eye had trained them all.

“Which way?”

Lyra pointed due east. “Luke will meet us
there. He needed to run back to the village for something.”

Muddy felt his anxiety rise again. “Why is he
coming? He doesn’t need to risk his life for us. Neither do
you.”

She winked at him with those light eyes. “You
need a guide. Our people can’t live without music forever.”

“But I thought your town outlawed it.”

She shook her head, eyes shut as if
remembering something awful. “No,
they
did, the same
monsters who took your brother, the Tritons. It’s about time
someone put an end to our pain. Who could live without music all
their lives?”

“How long?” Muddy’s confusion only grew. In a
world where music seemed to inhabit every living thing, how could
someone outlaw people from enjoying it, performing it?

Again, she hung her head. “It’s a long story.
Maybe I’ll tell you one day.” She shuddered. “Let’s get to the
ocean and find out how bad your dreams really were.”

“Are we going the way the others did?” Muddy
pointed toward a slew of high peaks in the distance as they cleared
the edge of the forest.

She didn’t turn. “Only if you want to wind up
like the others. There’s always another way.”

The group gathered up their instruments. The
packs of food that Lyra had prepared for them slung in a knapsack
across her shoulders. The southeastern path headed to an ocean, one
which would likely amaze and frighten them as much as the
forest.

Otis walked behind Lyra, checking her out,
being obvious as usual. Muddy guided Poe and Corey brought up the
rear.

“So, beautiful,” the drummer said. “Your
brother? He has a talent, too? Can’t wait to see what his is.”

Their guide stared ahead and smiled. “He’s
amazing. He’ll fit right in with you guys.” She gave Otis a look
that said she knew his motive.

“Oh, yeah?” He probably thought he would wind
up with another date. “What does he do?”

“Before the Tritons outlawed music, he once
played a mean bass.”

No one spoke for the next hour.

Chapter Fifteen

After a few hours, they rested against some
flat rocks, all except Luke, who had joined them now. He kept watch
for any unwelcome guests.

Muddy bolted upright, hearing one of his
favorite riffs of all time. Suddenly, their need for a guide on the
way to the castle lessened. The song kept repeating in his head and
he knew right away that Silver Eye was behind it. He would be the
guide they truly depended on. Lyra’s brother would have to settle
for the role of bassist. Maybe this time, it wouldn’t be a lethal
job. “I know where to go!”

The others halted their play and gathered
their instruments. Corey nearly dropped his horn in a deep
crevice.

“Careful,” Otis warned. “If you break it, I
think we bought it and no receipt will get us back home.”

“Yeah,” Muddy added, “I doubt there’s a
Guitar Center anywhere nearby with replacement parts.” Thoughts
crossed his mind about a straw and a camel’s back. He wondered if
he could handle the stress.

Poe remained silent. That always worried
Muddy. “What? Do you hear something?”