The Paladins (36 page)

“One second, okay?” She hunches and using her forefinger, draws a line in the mud alongside Ferdy’s body from his head all the way to his feet. Cole and I leap aside as the earth shudders open creating a hollow in the ground. A smothered sob escapes her as the Minotaur rolls into the twelve-foot crater she’s made from
nothing!
A little rut in the dirt.

Her rise is unsteady. My arm wraps her waist, and I’m grateful she accepts my touch. Again, using her forefinger and thumb this time, she mashes her fingers together in the air. Another tremor taps our feet and the earth moves. Dark soil envelops Ferdy for an eternal sleep under a loamy blanket. A small rose bush responds to Rae’s crooked finger and waddles from the maze. The thorny plant roots at the head of the gravesite and rests there.

Cole pats Raven’s head. “Nice. What other secrets have you been keeping from us, little minx?”

She imitates one of Cole’s one armed shrugs. “I couldn’t leave him here like that.”

Water fills a dozen circular puddles at our feet. As many reflections of the girl I love stare back at us from the ground, the silver sky her backdrop. I’m impressed, stunned by her expanding power. Yet that’s nothing compared to the girl she’s always been. My chest swells and aches at once.

“I’m sorry, Raven,” Cole says. He scans the trees with something near loathing. “I can hardly believe I’m saying this, but we need the fastest route back to Gideon’s mirror.”

Mirror
… Truth flutters against the sticky web of memory. The threads vibrate alerting me to something important I’d forgotten. The watery puddles, silver skies, reflections, the Weird Sister’s ramblings …

“His power to see you lies in the ability to see himself. Pollute the silver circles. Blind him, and he will seek you no more.”

Mirrors, that’s it! Rose told Cole that Pan’s mirrors were his view to the world, stored in different places and connected like a hive. That’s how he
sees
. And ours is both mirror
and
doorway.

I release Rae and grab Cole’s shirt sleeve. Confusion lowers his brow. An explanation’s on my tongue when I remember Rae’s warning. I hurry to the courtyard, dragging Cole after me.

He trips and lets fly with a string of British insults I’m sure would piss me off if I understood them.

I stoop for a broken stick, set the end ablaze, and then blow it out. Squatting over the stone courtyard, I scratch my message in soot. When the blackened end won’t write anymore, I light it again, and repeat the process until I’ve communicated everything on my mind.

Cole slaps my back. His eyes light with understanding unsafe to express with words. When he motions for my stick, I pass him the makeshift pen, and he writes:

Brill, but forget Pan. Go home.

Raven is wild as she plucks the stick from Cole’s hand. It won’t write. I suppress a smile when she shakes it like a stubborn ballpoint, and I re-singe the end for her.

Stop him.

Gently, I take my pen from her. Our fingers brush and the contact jumpstarts my quiet pulse.

How?

Everyone goes still. How do you destroy an ancient magic? The portal is a mirror, but one made of liquid smoke. Raven extends a hand. Retrieving the stick, she writes once more.

Promise.

Her gaze hones in, steady as a missile locked on target. I’m sure her request is about more than shutting Pan in The Void. She’s asking if I’m trustworthy, if I can keep my word.

I promise.

The sun ducks under a haze of thin cloud cover. Cole slaps two fingers across his wrist indicating his long lost watch. It’s hard to gauge the time left until sunset, but no one wants to spend another night here.

Cole nods to Raven. “How ’bout a lift, luv?” He dares a smile, and I’m gratified to see her return one.

“Sure.” She rubs her mud-coated palms on her equally filthy pants. “Will you gentlemen be traveling by tree or triceratops?” With that, she bounds off, signaling to a huge elm nearby.

“Are you mad?” Cole asks, once Rae’s out of earshot. “You can’t keep that promise.”

I’m not arguing the point, so I answer with a question of my own. “If I fail, will you get her through the portal?”

His dark head angles from me to Raven and back, a grim expression coating his features. “You won’t fail.”

Once the ancient cypress deposits Cole’s feet on solid ground, he promptly drops and retches. Though my reaction isn’t as violent, I’m anxious, and sweating, and relived it’s over.

“Now what?” Cole asks. He wipes his mouth and pushes to a wobbly stand.

We cluster together near the small pond where our journey began, and contemplate the door’s destruction. The shimmering portal is so unlike the flip-side, where it masquerades as a harmless mirror in my father’s study. Roughly twelve square feet, the portal quivers like heat waves off a newly tarred road. The gateway home is nothing more than a smear in the scenery. Yet, from this side of The Void, it sends a warning, emitting the subtle hum of a hot electric fence.

Raven tosses her head. “There’s got to be a way.”

I’ve both dreamed of and dreaded this moment, because I don’t know the answer. The witch said to destroy it but didn’t say how. Or did she?

Come on, Maddox, figure it out!

My brain fixates on the Weird Sister’s instructions. I pace the length of evil shine, dissecting her words. “She said pollute … ” My mind casts about for clues. “Taint, poison, contaminate … corrupt? If something is pure, a foreign substance will pollute it.” We didn’t kill the Draugar. In the end, we didn’t need to. Slowing them down was enough. “Maybe we don’t have to destroy the portal,” I say. “Can we disable it?”

“Gideon!” Raven points indicating Pan is listening.

“I think we’re past that now, don’t you, luv?”

Cole’s right. There’s too much to communicate in writing, and it’s only a matter of time until he shows.

Urgency releases fresh heat in my veins. I shove a hand through the glass. The same sticky fluid as before covers my skin. A force I don’t understand starts its subtle draw, pulling me toward the other side. When I resist, the mirror releases its hold, and my hand pulls free. “It’s fluid, like liquid silver, nothing like real glass.”

“Can’t be shattered,” Rae confirms. “What about using fire? Can you melt a mirror?”

Cole’s headshake is anything but promising. “We tried once with a laser in Mr. Belfield’s science lab. The glass bubbled, burned it a bit, but that’s all.” My frustration must show because he adds, “Don’t panic. Let’s review, shall we?” He holds up a finger. “The witch said Pan only seeks the living.”

Raven nods. “He lives off their suffering.”

“Right.” Another finger goes up. “He watches our world and brings his victims here through the mirrors.” A third finger rises. “We pollute them and he can no longer do either.” Forth finger unfurls. “So, what’s left?”

“The dead,” I finish. “She said the dead may not enter. Blind him, and he will seek you no more. So who … ?”

Raven snatches my arm. “My mother!” Her nails bite my skin as she stares straight ahead, unseeing. “I’ve been dreaming about her for weeks. Strange dreams that always end in nightmares about plants, and the earth—deaths, burials, and resurrections.” She blinks, and that seems to snap her out of her trance. “I think she’s been trying to tell me all along.”

I gently pry her vice-like grip from my forearm. She folds into a sitting position at my feet, her shoulder blades poking out like wings.

“What are you saying?” Cole lowers himself to a seat next to her, and I do the same.

She makes a quick study of her bloody nail beds before raising her eyes. “Do you know anything about what happened to my mother, after she died?” There’s barely a breath before she continues. “It was this huge scandal in our town. Turns out she was never cremated. The funeral home took our money, from other families too, and then dumped the bodies in a mass grave on their private property. We only found out because a storm unearthed them. Can you imagine what that was like for us? Driving down a flooded road and passing floating corpses everywhere? That’s how people found out. The evacuation route went past the acreage where the bodies were dumped … ”

Her eyes glimmer, but she doesn’t cry. She only waves her hand as if shooing a mosquito. “That doesn’t matter right now. It’s what I learned afterward that’s important. State and federal laws exist about burials for a reason. The dead can spread infectious diseases, taint the ground, poison a well, or contaminate the air.” Her laugh is brittle. “The dead
pollute
.”

“The dead may not enter … ” Cole twists toward the flickering portal.

We’re quiet together. Nothing but the quick sound of a squirrel up a tree and some fussing birds witness our collective ah-ha moment.

“That’s it, then.” Cole stands, brushing mulch from his pants. “We drag something dead through the mirror, and we’re home!”

“Tsk, tsk. Always in such a hurry to leave me, eh?” Out of a nearby hedge walks Pan, calm and unremarkable as if he’s out for an afternoon stroll. At least, I assume it’s Pan. He’s retaken the form of a man, shirtless with black leather pants and boots adorning his lower half. Stringy hair, white painted face, eyes blackened and running with makeup, he’s a bad impression of Brandon Lee in
The Crow
. And adding insult to injury, the asshole’s stolen my cane.

I’d like nothing better than to grab Raven and Cole and jump through the mirror to freedom, but I made a promise. My body heat rises as I brace for a fight. I concentrate the power around my organs. The sky darkens. Several trees appear above the hedgerow.

I arch my neck until vertebrae cracks. “We’re done here.”

“Indeed?” He smiles. “Certainly you may go, as soon as you decide who will stay.”

Raven and Cole take their place on either side of me.

My chest is a furnace. “Never figured you for a welcher, Pan. The deal was to enter the labyrinth, locate the girl, and find our way out again. You knew Rose was a lie.” When Cole flinches, I curb my speech. “Desiree is dead. Our deal is void.”

“Interesting choice of words, dear boy, but they won’t help you.”

His gaze tracks Raven. “One
will
stay. I’m afraid we won’t be denied. You can’t kill the dead, and there’s no escaping your own mind, am I right? Even the insane will tell you—wherever you go … well, there you are.” His strangled laugh ejects from his throat in a gag.

The maniac’s confidence works in our favor. He thinks we mean to kill him, not trick him. The Draugar weren’t alive either, technically, but we crippled them anyway. Too bad they aren’t here. What I wouldn’t give for one of their stinking hides right now—toss it through the portal—end of story.

Across the lawn, pond water stirs. Pan keeps his back to the ripples spreading over the surface in ever widening rings, yet his sick grin convinces me he knows what’s coming. The water laps itself in waves until they skim the bank.

I step in front of Raven, ready for another scorpion. Her breath warms the skin of my arm. She’s alive, and going to stay that way if I have anything to say in the matter.

Countless lumps boil under the pond scum until the surface resembles green oatmeal. When the lumps rise, I note their human shape. They’re not Draugar. In each face, the eyes and nose are missing. Mouths are nothing but thin gashes sewn shut with black yarn, but if they’re dead, they’ll do.

Pan’s new army aligns with him.

So be it.

I allow the heat begging for release to spread throughout my body. The sky mushrooms into chalky gray storm clouds.

Cole sends a message in his churning vortex of doom. Animals and trees break onto the scene. I’m no longer interested in solitude. This shared power with my friend and the girl I love makes me so much more than I am alone. And this time, I’m fighting on the right side.

Pan crosses his arms. “Come, come, children, who will it be? Monday’s child—fair of face, Tuesday’s child—full of grace? I prefer the girl, but the first to raise a hand will do.”

Plants and wildlife loyal to Pan face off against Rae’s band. Anxious expectation fills the air, then everything happens at once.

A moan echoes through the trees, quickly answered by one on the other side. Leaves quiver, moved by gusting winds. Timbers creak as opposing trees collide. Unfortunately, they’re so busy fighting each other they cancel each other out as allies.

The faceless men march. I launch a firebomb in the shape of a burning lion. Cole rises two feet off the ground and feeds my flame more oxygen, tripling its size. My fire-beast lopes toward Pan’s gruesome troops.

Pan spins, giving us his back. Hands in the air, he drains the murky pond sending gallons of liquid high into the air. The water gallops forward becoming a foaming, white stallion.

Fire and water arc toward each other. The elements hit in a brilliant head-on collision. Heat evaporates water. Water cools the blaze. Resulting steam hisses overhead, spreading on the wind in a cobra’s pale hood before dissipating.

A willow tree breaks from the woodland skirmish. Long roots wriggle over the earth like octopus tentacles heading straight for Cole.