It blew a sort of trumpet, long and loud, vibrating through my bones. When the noise died, it pumped its wings and rose straight up into the sky. Ready to dive bomb.
I readied myself for another slap of air. It kept rising, not looking down at us, until it reached a dizzying height— Then it tilted its wings and sped away.
“What’s happening?” I asked, my power ready for action. Darius put a hand on my back to keep me moving. “Does it realize it’s no match for us, or is this dragon trickery of some kind?”
“You have freed it,” the demon said, lying on the ground. It apparently didn’t even want to bother standing up. “Death cuts the tie of loyalty.”
“Are they violent pets, or…” I started running with Darius, once again pulling the demon behind.
“Disgraceful to call them pets. They pledge their loyalty to one they deem worthy. They are allies. But their loyalty is to one being, not the sect. Where the being goes, the dragon goes. Often a demon that can secure a dragon has its pick of sects to join. Many become leaders eventually, accruing followers based on the status of having a dragon, even if the leader’s power isn’t sensational. As you saw.”
“Where do they live when they aren’t shackled by loyalty to a psycho clown and his mind-bending circus?”
“The Great Master sees to the solitary dragons, or those in their mating cycles.”
My father, the dragon keeper. That would be a cool thing to have on a business card. Although Reagan “unicorn blood drinker” Somerset didn’t sound half bad, either.
We ran alongside a paltry fence that could easily be torn away or jumped over. No spikes or barbed wire deterred those who were up to no good.
A moment later, I saw why.
“Is that a goat?” I asked in disbelief, staggering with surprise and fatigue.
“It is similar to a Brink goat only in appearance.” The demon sounded disgusted again. My ignorance was really standing in the way of its whole hero-worship thing.
A little bigger, maybe, and with more fur, but otherwise the creature standing in the pen munching on grass looked like a goat. Same weird eyes, same curved horns, and same presence that made you pat your pockets to make sure you didn’t have something in there it might want to eat.
“Is it an animal, though, or a demon doing a great job looking like a goat? Oh my God, is that a llama?”
“These aren’t animals that exist in the Brink,” the demon spat. “But yes, they are animals.”
“Dude, you need to get out more. That’s a llama. Snobby bastards.”
Darius glanced over with a grin. “What do you have against llamas?”
Demons tended the animals and the grass behind nothing more substantial than the wired enclosure. They glanced up as we passed, but didn’t show any other interest. Beyond them loomed a large structure almost like a barn, in good shape. Animals bayed in the distance.
“I had a llama growing up. It wouldn’t give me the time of day, even though I was the one who always fed it. Ungrateful…” I leapt over a roll of hay. “Do the animals eat?”
“Of course the animals eat.” The demon was growing tired of my questions, I could tell.
I let it go. It wasn’t that important in the grand scheme of things. Nor was it important to dissect why these animals looked so similar to those in the Brink. Or why they had them in the first place when demons didn’t eat or drink milk.
I probably had more questions about the animals than about anything else I’d seen thus far. Just when I thought I was getting a handle on the place, something else weird cropped up.
A knot of worry eased when we crested a berm and the landscape changed. A boat waited at the lone dock stretching into the still river. I turned back to the demon, and saw nothing behind us.
“Darius.” I grabbed his arm, and we walked back out of the illusion together. From the corner of my eye, I caught the demon trying to scamper away. “Wait a minute there, hoppity.” I wrapped it in air and, ignoring its screeches, dragged it back. “Where are you going?”
It looked at the mark on its hand, which had been fading but now glowed back to life. It hunched. “Magic in progress is severed when you enter the river. My task is completed.”
“But you can’t tell anyone about me, right? Be honest, because I will know if you’re lying.” I wouldn’t know any such thing, but there was a good chance it would believe me. I was the heir, after all.
“The confidentiality bond as it pertains to the summoning is still in effect,” it grumbled. “I will be punished for leaving without approval and having no reason for doing so.”
“Yet you wanted to guide me initially. Guide me in secret, I might add. That doesn’t add up.” I narrowed my eyes at it. “You lying little devil.”
It crouched to the ground and worried at its mark, looking up at me. It didn’t say anything, but then, it didn’t have to.
“Kill it,” Darius said without inflection.
I should have. It had tried to set me up in the beginning, just like we’d thought. If we’d taken the path it had laid out for us, it would have brought me to its leader in the hopes of gaining a boon. What a sniveling little…
On the flip side, Callie and Dizzy could mark it to help me. My goal was never to come back to the underworld, but it never hurt to have insurance.
“Go,” I said, dissolving the air. “Remember my…” I tilted my head. What was the word I was looking for. “Leniency?”
“Mercy,” Darius murmured.
I snapped. “Mercy, yes. Remember my mercy. Now get gone.”
It took off like a shot, clearly wanting to quickly put as much distance as possible between itself and me.
Without delay, I turned around and did the same thing, hurrying into the illusion of the river while holding Darius’s hand so we didn’t get separated. We ran down to the dock and climbed into the boat.
This creature had the same vaguely human look and grayish skin as the one that had given us a ride initially.
“Hello, Egg Man,” it said.
“Are you the same guy we had before?” I asked it, because how else would it remember my supposed name?
Its face turned to Darius. “Hello, Walrus.”
Darius nodded in greeting.
“Where do you go?” the creature asked.
I looked at Darius for an answer. Strategy was his department.
“The way we came in,” he said.
Without hesitation, the creature untied the rope and the boat calmly drifted away from the side.
I blinked at Darius, wanting to ask a few questions. Like, why did he seem so confident it would know? And did it, in fact, know? And was this the same one as before?
Plunk.
I flinched and ducked away before groaning. “Not the drops again.”
Silence filled the empty expanse as we made our way across the river. Darius, still nude and seemingly not disturbed that his bare butt was resting on an often used and probably rarely cleaned seat, stared off to the side patiently. The creature stared between us, also patiently.
I fidgeted and tried to keep from jumping overboard. I really hated this ride.
“Question.” I pointed at the creature. It didn’t look at me. “Are you a tattletale?”