Fort Morgan (12 page)

“
I thought we
were . . .” Tanesha started. “You’re
sure?”

Heather nodded.

“
Then what the fuck are we
doing?” Jill’s voice rose with frustration. She immediately shook
her head. “I’m sorry. The boys are babies, and Katy and Paddie
and . . . I can’t . . . I
just . . .”

“
Alex Hargreaves said that
the serpents hold grudges,” Heather said. “Remember?”

Sandy, Tanesha, and Jill nodded.

“
We’re going to end the
grudge,” Heather said. “For us and for Alex. She and her people
have done so much for us. If we do this for anyone, we should do it
for them.”

“
But how?” Tanesha said.
“If we capture them, we’d have to guard them. I don’t want to spend
my life guarding some dumbass serpents! I have med school to
finish.”

“
If you destroy them, you
run the risk of them tearing the fabric of the world,” Delphie
said.

“
Fabric of the world?”
Jeraine asked. “Aren’t we getting a little out there in hippie
land?”

“
We’re way past hippie
land,” Aden said under his breath. Jeraine nodded.

“
We know they’ve tried to
take over Queen Fand’s world,” Jacob said. “They could have done
that with thousands of other people or countries all over the
world.”

“
We don’t know,” Delphie
said.

“
Then
how . . .?” Aden asked.

Delphie shook her head.

“
Then why should they go?
Why should you go?” Sam asked.

“
Because we have to,” Jill
said.

“
What is it that we know?”
Jacob asked. “Because it doesn’t sound like a hell of a whole
lot.”

“
No.” Delphie shook her
head. “That’s not true.”

Everyone looked at Delphie.

“
What?” Jeraine
asked.

“
If we knew nothing, they
wouldn’t have taken me, taken Jake,” Delphie said. “We know
something. We just don’t know that we know it.”

“
Hera said she was trading
Heather for Zeus,” Jill said.

“
To destroy all the love
in the world,” Heather said with a nod.

Delphie started to laugh.

“
What?” Aden’s voice was
so irritated that Sam stood up and moved toward Delphie.

“
We have love,” Delphie
said. “That’s why I laughed.”

“
And that
means . . .?” Tanesha asked.

“
It means that all of this
— everything from taking me, Jake, and Keenan to capturing Rodney —
all of this is about love,” Delphie said. “How did we save the
fairies?”

“
Jake put the bones back
together and . . .” Aden said.

“
With love,” Jacob said.
“We saved the fairies by loving them — and their love cascaded
throughout the world.”

“
Why did the women and
children fight against Saint Jude and the serpents?” Delphie
asked.

“
Love,” Sandy said with a
nod.

“
And that means?” Jill
scowled at Delphie.

“
Heather’s going to have
her baby,” Delphie said.

“
What?” Heather got to her
feet.

“
Tanesha is right about
timing,” Delphie said.

“
What?” Tanesha
asked.

“
The serpents are dead,”
Delphie said. “They’ve probably been gone for a
millennium.”

“
But what about Saint
Jude?” Jill asked.

“
Exactly,” Delphie
said.

More accustomed to Delphie’s oddities, Jacob
got up. He gestured for Heather to sit back down, and she did. Sam
stopped his progress across the room. Jacob smiled at his father,
and Sam went back to his seat. Jacob put his hands on Delphie’s
shoulders.

“
We don’t understand,”
Jacob said. “Can you help us to understand?”

Delphie looked into his eyes for a moment
before she nodded.

“
Are you saying Blane and
Heather’s son is a serpent?” Jacob asked.

“
No!” Delphie laughed.
“Why ever did you think that?”

“
You
said . . .” Jacob started.

“
What do the serpents need
us to do?” Heather asked. “That’s what you’re saying, right? They
were destroyed sometime in the long ago past. We thwarted their
efforts to survive by killing the breeding pair when we killed
Saint Jude. We just released everyone from the Sea of Amber, thus
destroying the last reason for them to linger in time. We’ve also
stopped them from taking over the fairy court.”

“
We returned the fairy
court to its rightful order,” Jill said.

“
How long was Queen Fand
in pieces?” Delphie asked.

“
Thousands of years,”
Jacob said.

“
Celeste could have been
infected all those years ago,” Sandy said.

“
When the court was
weakened by the loss of Queen Fand and Manannàn.” Jill
nodded.

“
Right,” Heather nodded in
agreement.

“
Celeste and Saint Jude
were infected in the last days of the serpent,” Delphie said. “One
last attempt to continue the species.”

“
We ended that,” Jill
said.

“
What do we need to do?”
Sandy asked.

Everyone turned to look at Heather. Heather,
who loved lingering in the background, was now the center of
attention. Heather, who rarely drew attention to herself, was now
the focus of everything. And, in this moment, she looked every bit
like a goddess.

“
They need you
to . . .”

As if a wind picked up inside the Castle
living room, there was a whirling sound. Before anyone could
respond, the women were swept out of the room. Aden, Jacob,
Jeraine, and Sam screamed and tried to grab them, but they were too
late. The women sped through the world. In a blink of an eye, they
were tossed onto the amber sand inside the volcano bowl that used
to hold the Sea of Amber. They rolled across the sand and came to a
stop against a sandy cliff.

The smallest of them, Sandy was the first on
her feet. She ran to where Tanesha had landed and helped her up.
They went to Jill and helped her to her feet. Delphie had cracked
her head on a rock upon landing. She was sitting with her head in
her hands.

“
Where’s Heather?” Tanesha
asked.

Sandy pointed. She and Tanesha left Jill
with Delphie and ran to Heather. They pulled Heather to her
feet.

“
Look!” Jill
yelled.

On the other side of the bowl, Jill appeared
in the amber sand. Her father seemed to fall on top of her. Perses
looked up, and Jill felt their eyes meet across the sand. He turned
his attention back to the Jill in front of him. Heather and Hera
landed gracefully on the sand, and Sandy landed beside them.

“
Is that us?” Tanesha
asked.

“
It’s playing out right
now!” Heather said.

The military helicopter appeared overhead,
and Alex’s team brought Paddie and Katy. Fin and Abi arrived around
the time Paddie and Katy hit the sand. The serpent appeared. They
could see the serpent’s mouth move but they couldn’t hear his
words. As they watched, King Manannàn appeared from the cavalry’s
ranks.

“
It’s fascinating, isn’t
it, Oracle?” a low voice came from behind them.

Delphie turned to find an ancient serpent
towering over her. The dark olive green serpent was viciously
scarred. The blue and red tartan pattern on its sides showed signs
of being burned. His snout was now filled with broken teeth. Only
one of his eyes remained. There was a deep white slash of a scar
where his eye should have been.

“
That’s the same serpent,”
Sandy said in a low tone. “I thought we killed him.”

“
What has happened to
you?” Delphie asked.

“
Our end came,” the
serpent said. “You must know that, Oracle.”

“
Guessed it,” Delphie
said.

“
We had hoped to avoid the
end, to change the course of things, but. . .”

The serpent nodded his chin toward what they
had done before. There was a rousing cheer from the military
helicopter. The serpents were frozen by the combination of Sandy’s
mother’s symphony and the Sword of Truth.

“
Did the fairies do this
to you?” Delphie asked.

“
Watch,” the serpent
commanded.

They saw their doubles disappear while Fin,
Abi, King Manannàn, and the fairy army got ready to engage the
serpents. The dark olive serpent was surrounded by a great host of
serpents. King Manannàn raised his sword to order the cavalry to
respond and the earth began to shake. The sand around them slipped
away, and they were standing on a volcanic rock shelf. A small
entrance to a cave appeared in the rock wall.

"Hold on!" Tanesha yelled.

"Get back!" Jill said.

Moving as fast as the trembling earth would
allow, they stumbled their way into the mouth of the cave. The
volcano erupted. From the safe location, they watched the
destruction. Fairies and serpents flew into the air. The fairies
disappeared in a flash, while the serpents bore the brunt of the
volcano's fury.

"How could this happen?" Delphie asked.

"I have no idea." The ancient serpent shook
his head. "Do you?"

"I. . ." Delphie started.

Heather screamed and dropped to her knees.
Sandy ran to her side. Jill and Tanesha took off their jackets to
make a blanket for Heather to lie on. Sandy helped her lie
down.

"Her water broke," Sandy yelled to
Delphie.

"You will not take the child," Delphie
said.

"No," the ancient serpent said. "We no
longer desire to inhabit humankind. We wish only for a peaceful
end."

"And the child?"

"The mother holds all of her father's
power," the ancient serpent said.

Delphie scowled with distaste and
disgust.

"We are as loathsome to you as you are to
us," the ancient serpent said. "And yet. . ."

"You will have to ask her," Delphie
said.

"Ask what?" Jill asked.

"There will be a great release of power when
the baby is born," Delphie said. "The serpents would like to
harness this power to rest in peace."

"That's what they want?" Tanesha's
doubt-filled voice came from her position at Heather's bent
knees.

"As payment for the debt of killing a
breeding pair of serpents," the ancient serpent said.

"What about the financier?” Sandy asked.

"I know nothing of this," the ancient
serpent said. "Do we have a deal?"

"Only if you no longer begrudge Alex and her
team!" Jill said.

"Or us," Sandy said.

"Done," the ancient serpent said.

"Heather?" Delphie yelled to Heather.

"Get guaranteed safe passage home," Heather
said. "Be specific."

"Safe passage for myself, Heather, the
child, Tanesha, Jill, and Sandy," Delphie said. "No harm will come
to us, the military people, the children, or anyone associated with
us. You will return us back to Denver in our timeline."

"Done," the ancient serpent said.

"And you will leave this world forever?"
Delphie asked.

"We already have," the ancient serpent said.
"We will finally be at peace."

"Ladies?" Delphie asked.

The women looked over at her.

"May love heal your wounds so that you may
rest in peace." Heather's words came out in grunts.

"Go ahead," Tanesha yelled.

"It will be done," Delphie said.

Heather howled in pain.

End
of Serpents

“
We have to go in,” Sandy
said.

She pointed toward the interior of the cave.
Because she and Jill were closer to the same size, Sandy took one
side of Heather and Jill took her other side.

“
Go!” Jill said to
Tanesha.

Tanesha ran into the cave to find a spot for
them. Delphie lingered near the entrance. Jill and Sandy could only
move Heather at the pace she could tolerate. It was slow going.

“
Over here!” Tanesha
yelled.

They shuffled toward her voice. They were
halfway across a large room with a vaulted ceiling when Tanesha got
a fire lit. The light and warmth drew them. They helped Heather lie
down in a spot by the fire that Tanesha had cleared of debris.
Heather grunted but didn’t complain.

“
Where’s Delphie?” Tanesha
asked without looking up from Heather.

“
She’s still out there,”
Jill said as she knelt down.

“
I’ll go,” Sandy
said.

She jogged across the dark cave to the
entrance. Delphie turned to look at her and then turned back to the
volcanic bowl that had once held the Sea of Amber. The serpent had
stayed with Delphie. Together, the Oracle and the serpent watched
the end of the serpents. Sandy came to a stop by Delphie.

The entire bowl was filled with burning lava
and putrid fumes. Serpents tried to fly away but were caught in the
cross drafts from the hot lava and the cold ocean air. The serpents
crashed into the lava where they were burned alive. The sound of
screaming serpents and the deeper rumble of the volcano filled
Sandy’s ears. She took a step forward and was buffeted by a blast
of hot air. Her lungs filled with hot volcanic ash. She took a
couple of quick steps back and backed into Delphie, who caught her.
Delphie gave Sandy’s arms a little squeeze before letting her
go.