“Something?”
I thought back to the tail end of the conversation with Rose and Alister. After the discussion of coordination.
“Rose and I are splitting up. Checking the obvious suspects. It’s not Johannes, according to Alister. He’s taking advantage, and if it happens it happens. Jacob’s Bell disappears, along with all his enemies and Hillsglade House, he drains the marsh and expands east, ignoring whatever’s left to the south. But the cards suggest it’s not him. That means we need to look to the other practitioners and Others. Ones with territories that wouldn’t necessarily be part enough of Jacob’s Bell to get drawn into the abyss with the rest of the town.”
The man frowned.
“We gather who we can on the way, the junior council if nobody else, and investigate the possible threats behind the scene.”
“The Briar Girl lives nearby,” he observed.
“Rose is tracking her down, with her group. We’re after the Hag. Or the remaining Duchamps, then the Hag. We’re better equipped to travel a longer distance.”
“Speak for yourself,” Roxanne muttered. “Short legs, I hurt all over, and-”
“You’re hunting an experienced Other and practitioner in her own domain?” the High Priest asked, interrupting her. “And you want my devotees to help?”
“Ideally.”
He frowned.
“You have one Satyr and one Maenad. I’ll send the same to miss Rose. You don’t involve them in a fight if you can help it. If you get the Duchamps on board, they’ll act as bodyguards to those Duchamps.”
I nodded.
“Fine,” he said. He turned and looked. “About a twenty-minute walk from this end of the town to the other.”
“Half an hour, with Tiff, Peter and Roxanne along.”
He nodded. “You’ve seen Johannes’ play?”
“Play? No.”
“You will,” he said. He touched a Maenad and a Satyr on the shoulders, then pointed at me. They nodded.
Not the most trustworthy allies, but I’d take what I could get.
He turned to go, heading toward Hillsglade House.
“You, what?” Peter asked. “Hey! You can’t do that! You’ve gotta tell us!”
Jeremy turned, and I saw a gleam in his eyes. A mean one, just a little wicked. More than a little mad.
I flashed back to when he’d betrayed me to Conquest. Starting the whole event, complete with a war in the city.
Peel away the surface, and you see what lies beneath. Remove him from Sandra…
…Or remove Sandra from him.
This was what he was, before.
“Take it from someone who works for a god,” he said, spreading his arms, still walking, albeit backwards. “Some things just can’t be described with mere words. Don’t get my followers killed, or you’ll lose what little grace I’ve given you.”
“Shit,” Peter said. “Aw shit, what?”
“Calm down,” Roxanne said.
“Dirty pool,” Peter said, sounding annoyed.
We didn’t make it a block before we saw what the High Priest had been talking about.
If the area had been unchanged, the snow still falling, I might never have noticed.
But I saw the snow move at one rooftop of a very old building downtown.
A lot of snow moved, as a matter of fact.
Wings unfurled, briefly highlighted.
Red eyes opened, gazing at us from a distance.
A toothed mouth opened, and roared. A screech.
I saw a flicker of flame, and brief illumination of a scaled body. The noise of the screech was enough to disturb the snow, pushing it away from the rooftop. To highlight other shapes.
A man. Larger than the Astrologer’s creation, craggy in features, with a heavy beard. Tall enough I could see him head and shoulders on the far side of a two-story building.
“Johannes is going full mythic on us,” Tiff said.
“Helping us on our way to the Abyss,” I said.
“Huh? I don’t get,” Roxanne said, backing away a step. I could see the marks in her skin, standing out with how pale she was.
“If you want to sink people, you gotta drop something big on them.”
14.03
“Oh man,” Evan said. “Is that a dragon!? That was fire in its mouth.”
“That was a dragon,” our satyr said. “It disappeared.”
It had. The area where the thing had dwelled was now only shadow, and stirring snow.
The satyr very pointedly looked up, as if expecting the dragon to drop on us from above.
Everyone present took his cue, moving closer to the nearest building, as if it might provide just a bit of cover. It had the benefit of moving us out of the craggy giant’s field of view.
“How do you deal with a damn dragon?” I asked.