Eve of Redemption (43 page)

As the dragon banked for another attack, the Serpent admired the strong wings that held it aloft. Granted, his initial reaction to the beast had not been spectacular. When Denizen had told him they were going to acquire the services of a dragon, the Serpent had been expecting something more regal. He honestly didn’t know
what
he had expected, but this broken-down, mottled thing with warts the size of softballs and a mind little brighter than that of a common lizard had left him disappointed. Oh, but how that had changed when the beast had futilely struggled to prevent them from taking control of it. The unbridled fury it had displayed as it belched hell-fire and screamed had filled the Serpent with an awestruck wonder. And then when they had taken to the sky! Never had the Serpent dreamed of such power.

Another icy dark blast flew toward them, but Father dodged it and dove at the demon. Cyrus created a shield and ducked behind it, but at the last moment Denizen banked away and sped toward the overturned truck bed. They flew so low the Serpent could feel the desert scrub tickle his belly. The dragon’s talons scraped across the truck bed but failed to catch hold. The Serpent thought he noticed a slight wobble to the beast’s flight as it soared into the overcast sky once again.

The beast cannot remain much longer. Though the distance between this world and ours is thin here, the beast is weakening and needs to return to its home.

Like a fish out of water,
the Serpent thought. It could live for a brief time, but in the end had to be returned to its element or die. The Serpent did not want this dragon to die. After all, he hoped to do this again. In this body, he truly was a serpent.

Another blast from Cyrus caught the dragon broadside. The Serpent’s mind went blank, and when he came back to himself he was tumbling through the air. The Serpent sensed something else out of the ordinary, but it took him a moment to figure it out. Denizen’s presence had vanished. The Serpent tried to take control of the plummeting beast, but it was too late. The air was expelled from his body as his massive bulk slammed into the rocky ground. The Serpent managed to hold onto consciousness this time. The beast struggled to pull itself to its feet, and the Serpent fought to reestablish control over it. It was weak, maybe too weak to be of any more use. He raised his massive head and looked around. About a hundred yards away on his right lay the beast Cyrus had used to pull the wagon. It appeared to be dead. Somewhat closer to his left sat the truck bed under which John Burke hid. The Serpent knew the man was still there. He could sense him.

Cyrus Whitkey was nowhere not be seen.

I am in the void between worlds. The portal is closing. You must get Burke through here. I cannot hold it open much longer.
Denizen’s voice sounded strange, distant.

The Serpent flexed the muscles of the great beast. Yes, it was weaker, but still more than a match for anything this world could throw at it. As if in response to his thought, the Serpent sensed another attack. He sprang into the air, flapping his massive wings as another of Whitkey’s balls of black fire exploded. The Serpent gasped in a great lungful of air as he climbed into the sky. Again, the fire within him flared. He spun his head in the direction of the attack and spewed his deadly flame. Again, the fire was blocked, and again Cyrus sent his own retaliatory strike. The Serpent felt the icy cold of the black fire as it passed within inches of his head.

Stop messing around, and get Burke through the portal.

I still don’t understand why we are taking him into the Veil. Isn’t that exactly what they want?

Don’t question me, boy. Don’t you ever question me.

The Serpent shuddered. His master had never spoken to him so harshly. The dragon’s great strength was fading quickly now. Just staying in the air took tremendous effort. The Serpent had to find a way to get Burke out of here without getting them both killed. Not that it really mattered if Burke was killed. Wasn’t that what they had wanted all along? Wasn’t that the…wait a minute. Burke couldn’t be killed. Had not the Serpent himself tried on numerous occasions? God, or the Ancient One, whatever he was called, protected Burke. That gave him an idea. Beating his weakening wings with all he had, the Serpent dove low and again aimed for the truck bed. This time, instead of trying to grasp it on the fly, he landed just behind it and grabbed it up in his jaws. He heard Burke scream in terror or pain—it all sounded alike to him—as the man dangled by the chains that held him. The Serpent shifted the truck bed in his jaws so that Burke hung in front of him like a shield. A small shield, granted, but maybe enough to deter Cyrus from attacking, or at least shield the dragon’s body with Burke’s protection.

The Serpent turned toward Cyrus Whitkey just as another black ball hurtled toward him. There was no time to dodge, and he tensed in anticipation of the pain. The blackness engulfed him, covering his cold-blooded body with its frozen flame, but then it passed on harmlessly around him. Burke’s protection had been strong enough to cover the Serpent as well. The Serpent launched himself into the air, the sound of his flapping wings covering Cyrus’s scream of frustration. He allowed the dragon to take more control, knowing the beast would instinctively head for the portal that only it could see. The Serpent sighed as the world blurred and shifted around him. It had been a very interesting day. Flying a dragon. Battling a demon lord. Almost being killed.

Wow. What a rush.

S
ara’s boots squished as she sought footholds in the marshy grass along the edge of the lake. Damp mist swirled around her, cloaking her surroundings in a gauze-like veil. The sound of water lapping the shore to her left warned her not to venture any farther in that direction. Sweat dotted her forehead, adding to the clamminess the mist caused. Never before had she been so close to the legendary lake, nor had she ever wanted to be. Only spirit masters came here, and they were shunned for it. Some said the waters were poison, others that the spirits of the damned were forever entombed in the dark depths. Whatever the truth, one look at a spirit master was enough to warn others to stay clear.

And now, she was looking for a spirit master.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ryan asked.

Sara turned to the young man. Anxiety for his sister was clear in his haggard face. Sara knew how hard it had been for him to leave Dana behind. “No, I don’t want to do this, but I don’t have any other ideas. Do you?”

“You would have heard them by now if I did.” He sighed. “I can’t stop thinking about Dana. She could be…” His voice faltered.

“She probably has a better chance of surviving than we do,” Kyle said. “No one has ever gone into the mist and returned. This whole thing’s nuts. We should just take off into the forest. The Horde can’t have invaded the whole world.”

“Really?” Ryan retorted. “Why not? What if they are all over the world? They’re here, aren’t they? Why not everywhere else, too?”

Kyle stepped up close to Ryan, his nose almost touching the slightly shorter young man. “You’ll do whatever Sara tells you to do, won’t you? No mind of your own, just following her around like a lovestruck puppy.”

“That’s enough!” Sara’s words came out louder than she intended. “Kyle, you can do whatever you want. If you want to take off, feel free. We won’t try to stop you, but I’m done living in fear of El-Shaddai and his followers.” She paused to gather her breath and pull a strand of hair from her face. “I plan to fight just as my parents fought. If I die, so be it. At least I’ll have tried. Come or go, it makes no difference to me.” Without giving either man a chance to respond, she turned and stalked off into the mist. She heard one of them mumble something behind her, then the sound of two pairs of feet followed in her soggy footprints.

She sighed. Kyle was becoming more and more belligerent. She didn’t know what his problem was. Well, maybe she did. As much as she hated to admit it, Kyle was jealous of her friendship with Ryan. Not that there was anything between the two of them. That was something she had never been able to get Kyle to understand. The harder he tried to force his presence on her, and the more he showed his jealousy of Ryan, the less she wanted to be around him.

Sara felt the ground beneath her become more solid. Her feet no longer sank in the marshy surface. She stopped. The mist hid any trees or bushes that might be nearby.

“Is this a road?” Ryan asked.

Sara looked around. “Yeah, it might be. This stupid mist makes it impossible to see more than five feet away.”

“Shhh…listen.” Kyle held up a hand.

Sara held her breath but heard nothing except the soft lapping of the waves on the shore. She was about to ask Kyle what he had heard when a different sound caught her attention. She cocked her head toward the lake and waited. There it was again—a light splash, like a fish leaping from the water, except that no fish swam in Mist Lake. Nothing lived in those dark waters.

“It sounds like someone paddling,” she said.

Kyle turned toward her, a sneer on his face. “And how do you know what paddling sounds like? Have you been sneaking out on the lake with your boyfriend?”

Sara opened her mouth with an angry retort and then closed it. How
would
she know what paddling sounded like? As far as she could remember, she had never been anywhere near a boat of any kind. The sound of the waves grew faster, and something ran up on the shore. She knew it was a boat without really knowing how she knew. “Someone’s out there.”

All three of them stood still, wraiths in the mist as they waited to see what would happen.

“Come closer, young ones. Come closer.” The voice that whispered from the mist was not loud, yet its commanding tone brooked no disobedience. Drawn to the voice, Sara took a step toward the water’s edge. Ryan’s strong hand on her arm stopped her. She looked at him, and he held a finger to his lips.

“No need to fear, young ones. I am who you seek.”

Sara gulped in a breath. “You are a spirit master, then?” A light laugh came from within the mist.

“Spirit master, eh? Is that what they’re calling us now? It will do, I guess.” The tone of his voice had lightened, as if he were enjoying himself.

Sara gazed into the dark, swirling mist, muscles tense as once again the unknown loomed before her. Her mind flitted over the sudden crash her orderly life had taken. She had been training for the war for as long as she could remember, but it had always seemed so far away. Now, in the span of only a couple days, it had wiped out the only life she remembered. The Horde, the worm-spider creature, the little man in the cabin, and now a spirit master—her mind and body were so stressed she felt like she might explode at any moment. And since so much of it seemed to be focused on her, she was surprised she was still functioning at all.

Kyle slipped up on her left side and Ryan on her right as the newcomer materialized out of the mist, robed and hooded in a dark gray material that shimmered when he moved. He carried an ornate walking stick and dragged his left foot. Stopping a safe distance away, he gazed at them, his face hidden in the dark shadows of his cowl. “And what brings you to this sacred ground, young ones?” His raspy voice gave Sara the impression that he was old, but the hand that held the staff did not look like that of an old man. As she studied the spirit master, she realized nothing about him except that one hand was visible.

She saw no good reason to evade the man’s question. If he was a friend, he might help them with their quest. And if he was an enemy? She chased that thought from her mind. “The Horde of El-Shaddai is upon us. They have overrun the Keep. We seek Eve.”

A low chuckle emanated from the darkness beneath the man’s hood. “You seek Eve, do you? What if I told you Eve was nothing more than a legend, a story to inspire hope in a hopeless world? What would you say to that, girl?”

“I would thank you for your time, sir, and say we shall continue our search without your help.”

Again he chuckled. “You are a brave one, aren’t you? I like that. But are you brave enough? Many have gone in search of the legend. None have proven successful.”

“Enough of this nonsense,” Kyle said. “Can you help us find Eve or can’t you?”

The hood turned toward Kyle, and the temperature dropped at least ten degrees. “You should learn some respect, boy. Don’t the masters of the Keep still teach that?” The tone of the spirit master’s voice did not change, but the icy chill remained.