Gorgon Read online

  She had to push it away, to keep herself together. Not make another mistake like the one that had let the demons take Isobel.

  “Sam?” he finally asked.

  “Yeah,” she answered, a little breathless.

  “I need to go,” he said. “Call me tomorrow. Okay? As soon as you can.”

  “I will,” she said, watching as the phone in her hand went dead, then going back to her room to get the rest of her prep done.

  <><><>

  Spake led the way down a path toward the little docks, leaning on a cane that appeared to be a Christmas decoration.

  “Just this way,” he called. Isobel, Kara, and Jason were with them until the docks, then they would split up, and the three of them would stay and wait for Samantha and the rest of them to get back. Samantha had both her backpack and her duffel bag full of things she intended to try, and she’d gone through it that morning with Spake. Kelly was chomping at the bit to see this new kind of demon. Lange shoved Jason as they walked down the path and Jason stumbled away.

  “What the hell, dude?”

  “Oh,” Lange said. “Sorry. I forgot.”

  “Forgot what?” Jason asked, tugging at his jacket to straighten it across his shoulders. Kara snorted.

  “You two were in a pissing match yesterday,” she said. Samantha gave Kara a quick look, and the lanky woman shrugged. “Hardly going to be a shock when he gets there.”

  “Literally or figuratively?” Jason asked.

  “It’s still floating,” Spake said. They came around a slight bend in the path and in view of the boats.

  “All right. This is where we leave you guys,” Samantha said.

  “I’m coming,” Isobel said matter-of-factly.

  “So am I,” Jason said, as if this was something Samantha should have seen coming.

  “I’m not sitting here by myself,” Kara said with a grin, winking at Samantha.

  Mutiny.

  “You can’t defend yourself,” Samantha said to Isobel, “and you’ve already gotten injured in a fight because you fractured in the middle.” She pointed at Jason. “I need you to stay. All right?”

  “But I can come,” Kara said cheerfully. Samantha gave her an exasperated look, and Kara grinned wider.

  “Are you really going to fight this, Sammycat?”

  “Yes,” Samantha said emphatically. “She very nearly killed Jalice, Sam, and me. I’m not letting the three of you anywhere near her.”

  “I left the sail around here somewhere,” Spake said, wandering off. Samantha watched him for a minute, then looked at Jason again.

  “Feel your shoulder,” she said.

  “I know about that,” Jason said.

  “Feel it,” Samantha said. He shrugged.

  “Samantha,” he said. “I’m not letting you go up against this thing on your own.”

  “Gee,” Lange said.

  “No offense, dude, but you haven’t fought with her in years. She and I are on the same page, and she needs someone who’s got her back.”

  “Not if she’s as good as she should be,” Lange said, going to sit on a bench and propping his heels up on the arm. “I don’t care if you get yourself killed or not, but I’ll say it. She shouldn’t need any of you.”

  “Shut the hell up,” Kara said. Samantha frowned at her. That was significantly out of character. “That’s big talk, the kind of talk that gets Rangers killed. Everyone trying to show each other up all the time. After, sure, that’s fine, but you don’t pull that kind of crap going into it.”

  “Why do you even want to be there?” Samantha asked Isobel, looking for another lever. If she could convince Isobel to stay, she would be able to say that Jason and Kara needed to stay with her to make sure she stayed safe.

  “If I weren’t going to come, I would have stayed at the house with Miranda,” Isobel said. Samantha frowned. She would have thought of that, herself, if she hadn’t been so busy with her mental check list this morning.

  “Why?” Samantha asked again.

  “Because I’m involved,” Isobel said. “And I want to see in what, exactly.”

  “We’re talking about a demon here,” Samantha said. “Probably a lot of them. They can move from place to place instantaneously. They’re incredibly dangerous.”

  “I saw,” Isobel said. “I was in the middle of a lot of them, if you recall.”

  “And we had to come bust you out,” Lange said from his bench.

  “I was working on it,” Isobel said with a slight smile. “Only a matter of time.”

  “No,” Samantha said. “It’s too dangerous. None of the three of you should be anywhere close.”

  Jason drew Anadidd’na.

  “The argument is over, sweetheart. Let’s go.”

  “Where did Spake go?” Kara asked.

  “Sail,” Spake called from the little dock house, approaching with keys. “Can’t leave without the sail.”

  “Spake, can you be the voice of reason, here?”

  The man blinked at her with a ‘who, me?’ face.

  “What’s this?” he asked.

  “We’ve got it covered,” Samantha said. “You, me, the angel, and the punk on the bench over there.”

  “Why’d they come if they aren’t coming?” Spake asked, walking away again. He threw the giant plastic candy cane into the river and got on the boat. Jason grinned at her on the way by, and Kara gave her a quick hug.

  “We talked it over last night,” she said softly. “He’s still on the same fragment; he remembers. Kelly’s a good kid, but we don’t want you in there on your own. If Sam were here, it’d be different.”

  Samantha watched as the rest of them loaded up onto the boat, still wanting to fight it.

  “Tide’s headed out,” Spake called.

  “It’s a river,” Samantha called back. Spake grinned.

  “Not that tide.”

  She glowered, not having a clue what he was talking about, as usual, then sighed and boarded.

  <><><>

  They’d agreed that midday was the best time to go. Catch the highest sunlight. It was nearly fall, but even so, it was intense on the water. Samantha tucked her sunglasses closer against her face, wishing Spake’s boat had a canopy.

  “Why don’t you have a boat?” Jason asked. “This is awesome.”

  “Cooler of beers, some music, this would be a nice way to spend a day,” Kara agreed.

  “She’s new, she’s new,” Spake murmured at the wheel.

  “When’d you get her?” Jason asked.

  “Who?” Spake asked.

  “The boat,” Jason said slowly.

  “Six, eight years,” Spake said, looking as though it were a random question.

  “That’s not very new,” Jason said.

  “No,” Spake said. They looked at each other for a minute, then Jason shook it off and looked back at Kara.

  “We should get some of the Rangers together and get out on the water somewhere.”

  “You know anyone who can sail?” Samantha asked.

  “Isn’t sailing if you haven’t got a sail,” Spake said. “It’s boating.”

  “Do you know how?” Jason asked.

  “I could learn in an hour,” Samantha said.

  “Or cruising. Or yachting. Or rafting,” Spake said.

  “Thought you were a boyscout,” Jason said. “You know everything.”

  “I’ve never needed to,” Samantha said.

  “Dinghying. Sea-dooing. Birdwatching.”

  “Demons don’t hang out on water?” Jason asked.

  “Not much,” Samantha said.

  “Birdwatching?” Isobel asked.

  “Are we going upstream or downstream?” Kelly asked.

  “Upstream,” Samantha answered.

  “This is bad,” Kelly said, leaning far over the edge of the boat to dip his fingers in the water. “This is very bad.”

  “What is it?” Samantha asked.

  “Dengue,” Spake said.

  “So
rt of,” Kelly said.

  “What?” Samantha asked.

  “It’s in the water,” Kelly said, shaking his hand off and sitting back down to look at Samantha. “And it comes up out of the water and it makes you sick.”

  “Spreads like oil,” Spake said.

  “Yeah,” Kelly agreed.

  Samantha wasn’t sure she’d ever heard someone talk to Spake like they were both a part of the same conversation.

  “There was black in the water around the island in New Orleans, too,” Samantha said. “Warding people off.”

  Kelly shook his head.

  “It’ll do that, but it also makes you weaker. I think.” His eyebrows knit as he closed his eyes and focused. “Yes. Yes, that’s what it means.”

  “Black tar dengue lizardrod,” Spake said.

  “Exactly,” Kelly agreed.

  “What?” Jason asked.

  “Oh, good,” Kara said. “I’m not the only one.”

  “What?” Kelly asked.

  “There’s talking, and there’s hearing,” Spake said, adjusting course slightly.

  “You appear to speak Spake’s language,” Samantha said carefully.

  “Was he not speaking English?” Kelly asked, confused.

  “All the words were English,” Kara said. “I think.”

  “Lizardrot isn’t,” Jason said.

  “Lizardrod,” Lange corrected passively, watching the shore go by.

  “What does it mean?” Samantha asked. Kelly frowned.

  “The dogs are hunting the bank,” Spake said.

  “Yes, I imagine they will be,” Kelly said, still looking for words. “Really? You didn’t understand it?”

  “Dogs?” Jason asked.

  “That part, at least, I expect is true,” Samantha said, standing to look at what Spake was focused on. He glanced at her with what might have been amusement. She nodded.

  “Dogs.”

  The hellhounds were out, running loops around the island ahead of them. One of them bayed and the others congregated after a minute, then disappeared up over the crest of the hill.

  “Lizardrod,” Samantha said. “They use that…”

  “Make’s ‘em dumber than rotting wood, come spring,” Spake said with half a grin.

  It was an aphrodisiac.

  Well, yes and no. It was part of a potent aphrodisiac, but not the erotic half of it.

  It was an amplifier and a mute, dimming reason and increasing emotional response.

  And it only worked on humans.

  “I’m an idiot,” Samantha said.

  “Well, you know,” Spake said.

  “That’s why I left,” Samantha said, digging into her bag. Lizardrod. Lizardrod.

  She didn’t have anything specific.

  That frustrated her.

  “Sometimes I think you’re just making this all up,” Jason said.

  “Sometimes I feel like it,” Samantha said. Angelhair. It would have to do. She pulled the dried fibers and rolled them between her fingers, bruising them, and then mixing them with an acid. The angelhair dissolved, and Samantha took a small sip. The acid burnt on her tongue, but the angelhair had neutralized most of it. She handed it over to Lange.

  “Careful,” she warned. He’d watched her make it, and knew what it was, but she said it anyway, for everyone else’s benefit.

  He took his sip and passed it on. Kelly wrinkled his nose and passed it to Jason.

  “You’re an awful bartender, Sam,” Jason said with a cough.

  “I said careful,” Samantha said.

  “Is that why she beat you?” Jason asked, thumping his chest with his fist. “Whatever it is you’re talking about?”

  “No,” Samantha said. “It certainly didn’t help, but she beat me square.”

  “Can’t even imagine,” Jason said.

  “Yes you can,” Samantha answered.

  “They almost killed her, when she was protecting the angel dust,” Kelly said.

  “That reminds me, actually,” Samantha said. “The demon who led that group, the one that was after the angel dust. She bailed me out when I was getting Isobel.”

  “You needed bailing out?” Isobel asked. “You seemed to have it pretty in hand, when I saw you.”

  “The hot blond chick?” Lange asked.

  “Angelica,” Jason said.

  “You know her?” Samantha asked.

  “Yeah, she was looking for a patron, after everything went bad for them with the angel dust,” Jason said. “I’d guess she still is.”

  “Yeah,” Samantha said. “What do you make of her?”

  “Other than that she’s hot?” Jason asked. “Not much. She’s a demon. We all know what that means.”

  “Yeah,” Samantha said. “I’m going to have to deal with that, at some point.”

  “Let me know what you do,” Jason said.

  “Yeah,” Samantha answered.

  “How many demons do you make deals with?” Isobel asked.

  “A few,” Samantha answered elusively. “It’s complicated.”

  “She says that a lot,” Jason said. “But it really is.”

  “Are there good demons and bad demons?” Isobel asked.

  “Yes,” Jason said.

  “No,” Samantha said at the same time.

  “Hold on,” Spake said. He was about three seconds too slow, as the boat hit the shore about the same time he said it, launching everyone several feet to the side. Jason and Lange landed on the deck.

  “I said hold on,” Spake said.

  Samantha drew Lahn and went to hop off the end of the boat.

  “Jason, will you be my rear guard?” she asked, head up and scanning.

  “You got it, sweetheart,” he answered. Kara came to stand next to him, and something caught Samantha’s attention.

  “Where did you get that?” she asked, looking at the knife in her hand.

  “Abby gave it to me,” Kara said, looking at it.

  “It’ll kill a demon, won’t it?” Jason asked, and Samantha nodded slowly. She knew that blade, and she needed to discuss it with all of them, at some point, but this was not that point.

  Isobel was the next to land next to her as Kelly glitched ashore.

  “No,” Samantha said.

  “This isn’t a discussion,” Isobel said.

  “I agree,” Samantha said. “They will kill you.”

  “Then I won’t be your problem any longer,” Isobel said. “I’m offended that you believe me defenseless, though. I loathe war, but I was married to a military man for several thousand years. I’m not without any training.”

  She put her hand to her hip and drew a sword.

  One Samantha hadn’t noticed was there.

  Samantha’s jaw dropped as she heard Kara ask where the blade had come from.

  “What’s her name?” Samantha asked.

  “Whose?” Isobel asked.

  “The blade,” Samantha asked. “What’s her name?”

  “You name swords around here?” Isobel asked.

  Samantha drew Lahn.

  “This is Lahn. She’s an angel-forged blade, named in angeltongue, the word they use for both victory and peace. That,” she said, putting an arm toward Jason, who accommodatingly drew Anadidd’na, “is Anadidd’na, hell-forged, known by the demons as Kha’shing, the dragonsword. Jason named her the angeltongue word ‘hello’. Carter’s sword is called Diana.”

  “And what does that mean?” Isobel asked, still skeptical.

  “Just Diana,” Samantha said. She started to explain, then shrugged. “It’s just Carter.”

  “Well, I don’t think metal needs a name,” Isobel said dismissively.

  “It isn’t just metal,” Samantha said, edging closer, buzzing with the need to see the sword up close. Lahn had four symbols in relief on her top side, as you held her right-handed - leading to some interesting shimmies in the magic, owing to Samantha being left-handed - and the power of the four shapes was considerable. Lahn had a tendency to hi
de, and had spent most of her existence lost. It took special skills to find her, when she was lost. She was invisible unless you knew to look for her or that she was there, and she got away if she didn’t want you to have her. It wasn’t that she was sentient. It was simply the depth of magic in that first symbol. Then there was the amplification to her potency against dark magic and demons, and then a whole family of healing magics.

  Isobel’s sword was etched with angeltongue symbols along both tapered edges on both sides. The flat, center surface had an elegant curve, Celtic by nature, which was strange, because much of the Celtic imagery had, in turn, been influenced by an angel colony early in their culture.

  Avalon.

  “May I?” Samantha asked.

  “Not the time, sweetheart,” Jason called. Spake landed next to her and sniffed the blade from a distance, then shrugged and started toward the crest of the hill where the dogs had disappeared.

  “We good?” Isobel asked.

  “I would never argue with someone with someone carrying a blade like that,” Samantha said.

  “Liar,” Jason called.

  Samantha was still fighting with the need to explain, to understand, to study.

  Another time.

  Lange was following Spake, and Kelly was stalking off to the right, his head up.

  “Stay close,” she said to Isobel. “You ever fight in a formation?”

  “No,” Isobel said. “Raef left me alone a lot, and he wanted to be sure I could take care of myself. I’ve killed men, but only defending myself and others.”

  “Well, you’re on the offense now,” Samantha said. “You need to keep track of where I am. That blade shouldn’t be able to hurt Kelly, so you don’t need to worry about him, but it will kill the rest of us…”

  “Lack of experience doesn’t correlate to lack of tactics,” Isobel said. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

  “Isn’t going to stop me,” Samantha muttered, looking at the sword again. It moved like it was much lighter than Anadidd’na, though she was every bit as long as Jason’s sword. The build of the blade was much slighter, almost rapier-esque, and she lay in Isobel’s hand like an old friend.