Fort Morgan (7 page)

Somehow, the small boat expanded to fit all
of them. Sandy sat down on the wooden bench, and Jill took the seat
next to her near the back of the boat. Her father took up the stern
of the boat. Heather and the woman she was with stood near the
front of the boat. Perses pushed the boat away from the dock.

They floated along the
calm burnt-orange water. There was no discernable wind or current.
Yet somehow, the craft moved across the amber sea. After a few
moments, the dock they’d stood on sank into the gelatinous water
with a quiet
plop
. Otherwise, the only sounds were the Sea of Amber lapping
against the boat and the gentle sound of their breath going in and
out.

“
How are we moving?” Sandy
whispered to Jill.

Jill shrugged and looked at her father. His
gaze was fixed on the horizon. She followed his gaze and saw only
the spot where the Sea of Amber met the cloudless orange sky. Jill
shivered.

“
Are you cold?” Sandy
asked.

“
Creeped out,” Jill said
under her breath.

She glanced at the woman Heather was
standing next to. While she watched, the woman’s appearance
changed. At one point, Jill was sure the woman looked like the
Virgin Mary from her Catholic school days with a white head
covering and blue robe. A few minutes later, the woman took on the
features of the pagan goddess, Brighid. Jill blinked, and then the
woman had long, kinky grey hair that stood out from her head and
white, sightless eyes. Her skin then shifted to the deepest black
with clear dark eyes and dreadlocks that looked like snakes. Every
once in a while, Jill saw the woman’s visage settled into the site
of a beautiful woman of regal bearing with golden brown skin.

“
Is
she . . .” Sandy leaned closer,
“ . . .changing?”

Jill nodded. Sandy cleared her throat.

“
Heather?” Sandy
asked.

Heather turned to look at Sandy for the
first time. For a moment, Heather’s eyes scanned Sandy’s body. It
was clear that she didn’t recognize her friend.

“
Heather?” Sandy repeated.
Heather’s face broke into a warm smile.

“
Sandy.” Heather nodded.
She glanced at Jill. “And Jill.”

Heather looked like she would run to hug
them. She glanced at the ever-changing woman and decided against
that.

“
I’m glad you’re here,”
Heather said.

“
Where is here?” Jill
asked.

“
This is the Sea of
Amber,” Heather said.

“
Obviously,” Sandy
said.

“
Yeah, I guess that is
obvious.” Heather nodded.

“
Trust nothing you see,”
the woman standing next to Heather said, now wearing the visage of
an African warrior princess. “Everything is a fabrication of the
serpent. Even this boat.”

“
They want us here?” Sandy
asked.

The woman changed into a Chinese woman
similar to Ng Mui, one of the five elders of the Shaolin
Dynasty.

“
It appears that way,” the
woman said. “They are trying to capture someone, some
thing.”

As the woman nodded, she transformed into an
alabaster woman with shocking blue eyes and jet-black hair.

“
Your friend,” the woman
said.

“
Tanesha?” Heather said in
a whisper.

“
Perses’ granddaughter,
the one protected by the Sword of Truth,” the woman
said.

“
Katy?” Jill
asked.

“
Wait,” Sandy said. “What
are we talking about?”

“
Serpents!” the woman said
as she transformed into a disheveled woman with bushy--eyebrows and
an inch of grey roots in her bad black-hair dye job. Her clothing
looked like that of a transient.

“
We’ve killed serpents
before,” Sandy said. “Why would they want Katy or
Tanesha?”

“
Or Keenan, Jake, and
Delphie?” Jill asked.

“
Blane,” Heather
said.

“
Blane too?” Sandy
asked.

Heather gave a sad nod.

“
What do you know?” the
woman asked Perses, as she transformed into a pirate complete with
a captain’s hat and parrot.

“
I know that you are
driving me crazy, Hera,” Perses said. “Stop changing.”

“
Sorry.” The woman looked
embarrassed. “I do that when I’m nervous.”

“
Well, knock it off,”
Perses said.

“
Yes, my dear.” Hera’s
voice sounded like she was talking to a beloved child. She
transformed into a medium brown skinned woman with curly brown hair
and a long white dress. “Sorry girls. I wondered why you were
looking at me so oddly.”

“
It’s not usual for us to
see someone . . .” Jill said.

“
Yes, I imagine that’s
true,” Hera said. “We women, we transform into whoever our loved
ones need us to be.”

“
Be a role model,” Perses
said. “Stop doing it.”

“
Yes, yes, you’re right,”
Hera said with a smile. “I imagine your daughters don’t do
that.”

Jill cleared her throat so as to not answer
the question. Hera gave Perses a kind of “I knew it” look, and he
groaned.

“
What are we doing here?”
Jill asked.

“
We’re saving them,”
Heather said.

“
Who?” Sandy
asked.

“
Jake, Blane, Keenan, and
Delphie,” Hera said. She smiled at them.

“
Why are you here?” Sandy
asked Hera. “In the last few years, I’ve met fairies and goddesses
and all kinds of creatures. I’ve learned that no one helps unless
they have something to gain. So what is it you want?”

“
Hera has an issue with
the serpents,” Heather said. “She’s been bugging me to help her
ever since we killed that pair of serpents.”

“
Why us?” Jill
asked.

“
That’s what I asked
myself,” Hera said. “Why you?”

“
And?” Jill
asked.

“
I don’t know,” Hera said.
“Perses?”

He gave her a vague look and a shrug.

“
Wait,” Sandy said. “What
does the great Hera need help with?”

The woman looked at Sandy and then looked
away. Sandy looked at Jill’s father. He was giving Hera a hard
look, which she ignored. Heather scowled and looked at the floor of
the boat.

“
Oh look,” Hera turned
back to look at Sandy, “we’re here.”

“
Where is here?” Jill
asked.

Without warning, a serpent erupted from the
Sea of Amber and flew at the boat.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday morning — 11:34 a.m.

“
Right, but why is Katy
here?” Paddie asked his father, Colin Hargreaves.

Colin was on his knees dressing Paddie in
protective gear. Katy was snuggled up against Tanesha on the cot a
foot away. Her dark eyes followed Colin’s movements as he dressed
Paddie.

“
Because she may be in
danger,” Colin said.

“
But Katy’s safe at home,”
Paddie said.

“
Not as safe as with us,”
Colin said.

“
But . . .”
Paddie leaned into his father. “I didn’t bring my shiny
sword.”

“
I did,” Colin said.
“Well, Auntie Alex did.”

“
Where is it?” Paddie
asked. “I can’t protect Katy without my sword!”

“
Lucky for you, we’re all
here to protect Katy,” Colin said.

“
What about my mother?”
Tanesha asked.

“
Yvonne?” Colin’s eyes
looked up while his hands zippered Paddie into a protective
jacket.

“
That would be my mother,”
Tanesha said.

“
She’s safe,” Colin
said.

“
According to who?”
Tanesha asked.

“
According to the FBI and
the Phoenix Police,” Colin said.

“
We’re talking serpents,
not robbers,” Tanesha said.

“
As you know.” Colin held
out a pair of pants, and Paddie stepped into them. “She was not the
target.”

“
Oh yeah?” Tanesha
asked.

Colin gave her a mild look.

“
You were, Auntie
Tanesha,” Katy said in a loud whisper.

“
I know that, but how did
he . . .?” Tanesha started. She stopped talking when
Fin appeared next to Colin. “Fin?”

He smiled.

“
What class do we have
first period on Mondays?” Tanesha asked.

“
Human Body Block,” Fin
said.

Tanesha popped to her feet to hug Fin. Abi
came up behind Fin. Tanesha hugged her, too.

“
What are we doing here?”
Tanesha asked.

“
The serpents want you and
Katy,” Abi said.

“
They made a deal with
Celeste,” Tanesha said. “I know, we talked about it.”

“
They get revenge for you
and your friends killing the breeding pair,” Fin said. “And Celeste
gets control in the fairy world.”

“
What are we going to do?”
Katy asked.

“
We have a way to fight
them and get our friends back,” Fin said.

“
They have my dad,”
Tanesha said.

“
We’ve got that covered.”
Colin nodded.

“
How?” Tanesha
asked.

“
You’ll see,” Alex
Hargreaves said as she walked over to them. “Are you
ready?”

“
Katy and Paddie are
ready,” Colin said.

“
Abi?” Alex
said.

Abi waved her hands and Tanesha shrank to
fairy corps size. In the blink of an eye, Fin was wearing full body
armor.

“
We’re ready,” Fin
said.

“
Let’s go,” Alex
said.

~~~~~~~~

“
Hang on!” Perses
yelled.

The boat rocked and liquid amber sprayed
into the air.

“
Don’t let it get into
your eyes!” Hera yelled.

“
If it isn’t Jillian
Roper.” Jill heard a slimy man’s voice inside her head. She sprang
to her feet and looked around. “Killer. Adulterer.”

“
Jill?” Sandy grabbed onto
Jill to keep her from falling overboard.

“
Hedone, the lesser child
of an inferior wife,” a woman’s voice whispered inside Heather’s
head. “Killed another man. did you?”

Heather’s eyes filled with the image of
Blane in his hospital bed. The nurse was just pulling the covers
over his head. She closed her eyes to block out the image.

“
And Slutty Sandra,” a
voice started in Sandy’s head. “Exactly how many men have you had
sex with? Whore. Imagine all those
men . . .”

Sandy jumped to her feet.

“
Close your ears!” Sandy
said. She grabbed Jill. She looked up at Sandy with drugged eyes.
Sandy shook Jill.

“
What’s happening?” Perses
asked.

“
They are staining us with
despair,” Sandy said.

The serpent dove into the water next to the
boat. The boat rocked back and forth. Perses grabbed Jill to keep
her from falling overboard. Sandy grabbed Heather and shook her.
When Heather didn’t respond, Sandy slapped her across the face.

“
Don’t you dare,” Sandy
said. She grabbed Heather’s hand and put it on her pregnant belly.
“For him.”

Heather woke with a gasp. Weak from the
effort, she weaved back and forth. The voice continued.

“
Jacob left you,
murderer,” the voice in Jill’s head said. She gasped. “He
hates
you. He
hates
you.”

“
You have to fight it!”
Sandy yelled to her friends.

The serpent’s tail came around the bow of
the boat. Perses slashed at it with his sword, but the tail knocked
Jill to the side.

“
They’re coming after you
because you can kill them!” Hera yelled. “Hedone!”

“
You are the master of
evil,” the voice inside Heather’s head said. “How many children
have grown up alone because of you? How many hearts have you
broken? Throw yourself over!”

Heather leaned over the boat. Sandy grabbed
her arms to keep her in the boat. The boat rocked almost onto its
side. And the voice continued.

“
Jump over board!” the
voice said. “Go on. No one will miss you. Do it.”

For a moment, Sandy’s mind was lost. She
shook herself head to toe.

“
I know you voice!” Sandy
said. “You will not get another moment of my time!”

The serpent hit the side of the boat.
Heather began to fall toward the sea.

“
Hedone!” Hera
yelled.

She snatched at Heather but only caught her
tunic. Sandy grabbed onto the fabric. Heather hung a foot above the
Sea of Amber. Jill shook off her father and went to the side.

“
No one loves you, Jillian
Roper! Jump in! No one will ever love you. You are
hopeless.”

Jill moved to throw herself overboard.
Heather slipped toward the sea, taking Sandy with her.

“
Ting
!” a clear ping came from somewhere.

Jill stopped moving and looked toward the
sound.

“
Slut! Whore! Jacob
couldn’t stand to look at your ugly face!” Jill heard and was lost
again. Perses grabbed her arm to keep her from jumping
over.