One of them, a large white pickup truck, had a hole in it, through the engine block. The edges of metal around the hole still glowed with heat to my vision, so great had been the force exerted where something small and irresistible had gone through it.
“Here is where the trail begins,” Cerberus intoned. “The Nemean Lion has not had a body in millennia. Its shade had to take one to use as a vessel. It is still weak.”
I blinked at the cars. “That,” I asked, “is weak?”
“Yes,” Cerberus said. “In its day, it required the power of Heracles to be defeated.”
We both paused in the shadows across the street from the castle as the men shone their lights on the ruined cars and trucks and talked. I recognized two of them—Will Borden, the werewolf who fought beside My Friend in the great battle, and Michael Carpenter, who was just the best human ever, next to My Friend of course.
“I just don’t understand it,” Will was saying. He was a big man with a small man’s height and moved with tremendous power carefully concealed.
“You’re sure?” Michael asked carefully. He was a tall man, his hair and beard shot with silver, but his body was still thick with muscle. “You’re absolutely sure it was Mister?”
“The door guards said he got out again,” Will said with certitude. “Then, bam. He lets out a yowl and takes off down the street. Flipping cars.”
Michael frowned. “Could that have been an illusion? Concealing something else?”
Will shook his head. “I don’t know. Harry said something about hostile illusions not working near the Castle now that he had initiated countermeasures.”
“Did he really say that?” Michael asked.
“No, he mumbled something like, ‘I’ve buggered hostile illusions and veils for the foreseeable future, so if it’s there, assume it’s real.’ Then he shambled off to his room.”
Michael sighed and glanced back at the Castle with worry on his face. “It’s been a hard year for him.”
“Yeah,” Will said. “But he’s still trying.”
He grimaced. “Look. This is Mister. Should we wake him?”
The larger man frowned thoughtfully. “He’s in very rough shape. I hate to think of him taking more hits.”
“You want us to lie to him?” Will asked.
Michael gave him a faint smile. “No. Never that. Lies, even kind ones, are seeds that sprout trouble.”
Will sighed.
“But,” Michael said. “Given how shaken up he’s been, I doubt he’ll be much help to us. We’ll start the search now and let him sleep until morning. It’s only a few hours until he wakes up in any case. Keep combing the castle and see if Mister turns up. Perhaps whatever the guard saw was some kind of facsimile.”
Will nodded with a grimace. “You believe that?”
“It’s too early to believe anything,” Michael said calmly. “Let’s get more information.”
“You know who you sound like, right?” Will said with a lopsided smile.
Michael grinned. “He does tend to rub off on people.”
“Hey,” Will said. “Isn’t that your truck?”
Michael sighed and glanced up. “Yes. At least it’s insured.”
The two of them kept talking quietly as they went back inside, taking all but two of the other men with them. Those two stared at the shattered cars for a moment, glanced at one another, and then stood a little closer together to face the night.
Cerberus turned to regard me seriously. “The Lion’s shade took the wizard’s cat.”
I stared at him for a moment, shocked. “What? Why?”
“The Lion’s spirit needed a body. I suspect whoever helped it escape had control of the spirit and directed it to seize the wizard’s cat when it got outside.”
“But that is Mister. He is my friend.”
Cerberus growled and narrowed his eyes. “The cat has been taken by the Lion. And the Lion has made him invincible.”
He tilted his head toward the glowing hole in Michael’s truck. “See?
The cat struck the vehicle with such force that the metal burst. It didn’t tear. All the way through the engine, and all the different materials inside.”
“I do not care about engines and metal,” I said. “I care about my friend Mister!”
Cerberus looked at me steadily for a moment.
“The cat,” he said finally, “has been possessed by one of the deadliest creatures my region of the world ever knew. It took the power of a demigod to stop the Nemean Lion back in the day.”
He stared at me and said, “The Lion will kill those who have not earned such treatment. It must be stopped.”
“I will not hurt Mister,” I said firmly. “Or let him be hurt. By anyone.”
Cerberus’ chest vibrated with a growl so low I could not hear it, only feel it. “What did you say?”
I tilted my head at Cerberus and said, “You have six ears. Did none of them hear me?”
Cerberus was silent for a moment, and then snorted out a breath.
“The Lion’s hold on him will be too tight to sever. But perhaps there is a way. I have no particular wish to harm this Mister. But I will do my duty.”
“We both will,” I said. “My Friend’s heart is badly wounded. He needs Mister to help him feel better.”
The legendary dog sighed. “I do not know what can be done. But we must find the Lion before it begins harming innocents. You can see how dangerous it is, even weak with hunger.”
I stared at the shattered cars. I could smash cars like that if I had to. Mostly. But it would take me time, and the Lion-possessed Mister had done so in seconds.
Cerberus was sober and wary—which implied that the Nemean Lion was a creature at least as formidable as he.
Mister, possessed, was very, very dangerous, and not only to cars or innocent people.
It would break My Friend’s heart if Mister hurt or killed an innocent.
And there was only so much heartbreak a man, even My Friend, could take.
And perhaps that was the point. This escape had been no accident, no quirk of fate.
It was an attack on My Friend.
Suddenly I felt like biting someone.
“How long before the Lion is at full strength?” I asked.
“Not long,” Cerberus said. “It will regain strength as it kills. If I follow the scent, can you make sure Your Shadow does not interfere?”
“We will find Mister,” I said firmly. “And we will save him.”
“We will find him,” Cerberus agreed, though his voice was cautious.
“And then we will see.”
Cerberus took the lead, lowered his great blocky head to the ground, and began to course after the scent. He had an excellent nose. I could barely track Mister’s passage myself, and my nose was better than almost any dog I knew. But Cerberus was a Big Dog. And also, he had three noses, which I think gave him an unfair advantage.
But still. A dog is his nose, and Cerberus’s nose was amazing. He was so much cooler than me, which was awesome.
Almost instantly after we set out, I felt a force working against us—gentle but inexorable, like gravity, pulling against our progress, as if no matter where we ran, we would be running uphill.
Shadowy energy permeated the very air, causing chance to bend against us—it sent a truck belching smoke and stench on the street near Cerberus as he tried to recover the trail. It caused other cars to blare their painfully loud horns distractingly and sent gusts of wind eddying between the buildings to stir up twenty thousand city-scents to hide the trail.