Honeyed Words (36 page)

He looked at me, alarmed. “If she is broken, who did you call?”

Another thing I hadn’t considered. Who’d he know?

“Someone who can deal with magic and other odd things.”

He shook his head from side to side. “No,” he said, wringing his hands. “No, no, no…” He began pacing back and forth across the carport. “You cannot bring them here.”

“Who do you think I mean?”

“Her…” he said, his voice quavering. “She who must be obeyed.”

“Who?”

“The ancient one?” he asked, confused. “The Corpse Gnawer?”

Nidhogg … ah. Okay, he’s heard of her.

“No, not her.”

He relaxed visibly, slumping against the warrior statue, sliding to the ground, nearly deflating.

“But,” I said, causing him to look up. “I called one of her people.”

“The Eyes?”

I shook my head.

“Mouth?” He was panicked.

I nodded. Qindra had mentioned being the mouth of Nidhogg when we first met. I took it to mean she was her spokesmodel—the talking-head portion of the team. Nidhogg probably didn’t get out much these days.

“She is hard, that one,” he said. He turned once on the spot, sniffing the air. “I should not be here.”

Before I could stop him, he vanished. I didn’t know where he went in those moments, but it was damn unsettling.

I continued taking down streamers and crepe paper. It would be a mess once it started raining again, and for this area, that could be any second now. I shivered as a wind kicked up. It was definitely growing colder. May not be rain too much longer. This far into the mountains it would be snow, and likely lots of it.

I could see the appeal of the isolated life here, but it didn’t seem to be serving Anezka very well these days, all this alone time. Maybe it was time for her to move into town. Not that she’d listen to me.

Qindra pulled onto the shoulder across from the house, looked at her map, and got out of her little Miata. She’d been close, I think. Probably in Leavenworth when she’d answered the phone. So, she was out looking for me. This just kept getting more interesting.

As she climbed out of her car, it struck me as a little creepy that she drove the same car as Katie. She looked around, appeared bewildered. I called to her, and she spun around, searching for my voice, but couldn’t see me just across the road. Odd.

I dropped the last bunch of pink and white paper into the large burn barrel and crossed the yard. Once I was into the street, she spun in my direction, like she could sense me.

“Sarah?” she asked, a little shock and annoyance in her voice.

“Hey, Qindra.” I waved, crossing the distance to her, and held out my hand.

She looked relieved as she took my hand. Her grip was firm enough, but her hands were soft. She did no physical labor, that’s for sure. Oh, I had no doubt about her powers.

“What the hell’s going on around here?” she asked.

I think she was not scared exactly but disconcerted, shaken.

“Part of why I called you,” I said, stepping back and putting my hands in my pockets. I could feel the amulet there, tucked in behind my wallet in my front left pocket. I had my keys in the right, along with my loose money. What has it gots in its pocketsses…? I laughed. This place definitely made me feel strange.

We stood at the car, and I explained a few of the recent events. I kept Bub out of it, but she’d probably pick up his taint. Didn’t want to prejudice her on this. Let her come to her discoveries as she could.

Besides, once I showed her the carvings, she’d pick up on the aura of bat-shit crazy.

She listened intently. “Does this have anything to do with what happened in the spring?”

I shrugged. “Not that I’m aware of, why? You think this is dragon business?”

She jerked her head around to stare at me, choosing her next words carefully. “This place is heavy with magic, protective charms, and…,” she paused, touching her left temple, “… other things.”

Her nails were not all painted like the time I’d seen her in the past. They were plain, shiny with a clear coat, but no magic runes adorned the nails. She was not prepared for battle or anything. Well, as far as I could tell. I knew so little about her.

“How’d you get here so fast?” I asked.

“I was shopping in Leavenworth,” she said, smiling. “Woke up this morning jonesing for one of those fantastic gingerbread cakes and a set of crystal glasses.”

I gave her my best “Spock is confused” look. “Seriously?”

She shrugged. “I have a life.”

“Now, for this place…” She drew a long wand out of her jacket and wove an intricate rune in the air. It blossomed in front of her, and I stepped beside her to see through it. It was like the magic mirror on
Romper Room.
Who do I see in my magic mirror? She glanced at me, her eyes questioning, but she did not stop me from pressing my shoulder against hers to get a better view.

The rune expanded into a sphere about three feet across. It was like looking through a huge magnifying glass, only this one didn’t make things bigger, just clearer.

“There is some distinctly distasteful power at work here,” she said.

The buildings were there, just as you’d expect, but there was a red and black haze over everything. The carport was exceptionally bad, but the back corner of the house was freaky nightmareland. It was horrible, nauseating. There was a palpable evil there, something oozing and hungry, and there was a tendril drawn taut from the house to … I looked down … my midsection. I took a step back, and the tendril grew thinner but did not break. I looked back to the house, to the churning miasma of bruises and blood—the steady pulse that undulated against the gathering storm clouds. I felt a hitch in my stomach as the coffee I’d had earlier soured. I had to look away and concentrate real hard not to vomit. Holy shit.

“That what you asked me out here for?”

“Oh, god.” A final glance through the rune set me off. I bent over, hands on my knees, and tried to breathe. My brain couldn’t really describe what I saw. It was more a feeling, or a smell, but it was definitely nasty. Death, decay, evil. Grade-A evil, dude. Saliva flooded my mouth, and I knew what was next.

I stepped away from her and fell to my knees vomiting. My vision wavered, and I closed my eyes. My stomach heaved, and I heard the splatter of sick on concrete. I heaved a couple of times. There was nothing much in there beyond coffee, but I was thinking about tossing out a spleen. It hurt, the muscles spasming and my throat burning. For a second, I thought I would drown in it.

Then I felt Qindra’s touch, and a coolness washed through me.

“You have been infected,” she said. “This place is like a virus, a living thing looking to spread its hold onto anyone who is exposed.”

When I raised my head again, the house looked normal, but I was terrified. “My friends are in there.”

“They shouldn’t be,” she said matter-of-factly. “We should see what we can do to fix this.”

She strode across the road, stopped briefly at the barrier, and said a few words, swishing her wand around like she was clearing away smoke. A gong sounded in my head, and a great moan reverberated from the house.

“Did you hear that?” I asked, but the look on her face told me she had.

The next moment, Julie slammed open the front door and hobbled out, looking over her shoulder at the house. “She’s losing it,” she called. “Better get in here.”

The barrier was gone. We ran toward the house, and Anezka came out, covered in blood, screaming like a banshee and brandishing a large knife. Julie saw her at the last moment and dove sideways, swinging her cane up to block the knife as Anezka flung herself at her.

“Not prepared for this,” Qindra said, looking over at me. “I’m not equipped.”

Got it, no magic fingernails, nothing to stop a screaming psycho. Fuck.

I launched myself at Anezka, catching her in a full-body tackle and carrying both of us into a hedge. She was naked and bleeding; cuts crisscrossed her torso. Julie scrambled out of the way.

Anezka hadn’t dropped the knife. I remembered enough of my martial-arts training to know I was screwed. I tried to block her knife hand, but she jerked back at the last second. I missed her wrist. The blade sliced the side of my hand, sending a flare of pain up my arm—hurt like hell.

I brought my knee up, catching Anezka in the breadbasket. She rolled to the side, swinging the knife. I saw it in slow motion. The blade was going to catch me in the thigh: I was trying to move, but a shrub tangled me.

Julie brought her cane down on Anezka’s arm out of nowhere. Anezka screamed and dropped the knife. Julie swung the cane a second time and clocked Anezka in the side of the head, sending her back onto the lawn, stunned if not unconscious.

“Nobody move,” Qindra called, and I looked up in time to see Bub. He’d appeared out of nowhere. He looked from me to Qindra, and finally to Anezka.

“Sorry,” he mouthed. He lunged forward and grabbed Anezka. I tried to reach her, grab her by the leg if nothing else, but I was too late. Bub wrapped her in his thin, scaly arms and vanished, carrying her away with him.

Didn’t see that coming.

I rolled onto my back, panting and holding my bleeding hand to my chest, looking up at the gathering clouds. Rain tonight, I thought. Storm likely.

Qindra leaned over me and held out her hand to help me up. “We should get that cleaned up and bandaged.”

“Good idea,” I said, taking her hand. My ass was going to hurt tomorrow. I’d hit the ground pretty hard on my left hip and butt.

Julie leaned on her cane pretty heavily, her breathing ragged and fast. “Not in as good a shape as I was before the…,” she looked over at Qindra, “… spring.”

Qindra nodded and held the door as we both limped inside. She took the wand and drew a warding line around the door. The frame glowed blue for a long time after.

Blood was smeared across the kitchen cabinets, along one doorframe, and on the wall leading down the hall. There were swirls and glyphs painted in Anezka’s blood.

“Lot of death here,” Qindra said, eyeing the macabre artwork. “This could take a while.”

She took out her cell phone and walked out onto the front porch. “I’m going to need some things.”

Julie set an overturned kitchen chair upright and sat down with a grunt. “She went crazy just about the time Qindra got here,” she said. “Was going for another beer when she grabbed the knife instead. Almost killed me, but thankfully she’s still pretty weak … and fairly fucked up.”

“Lucky, I guess.”

She watched me for a minute and shook her head. “You’re bleeding, Beauhall. Let’s see how bad it is.”

I winced. “Careful.” Julie was good with cuts and such. Tended enough horses with minor wounds. I just gritted my teeth. No stitches, please. I hated stitches.

She stood, came to the sink where I was standing, and pulled my hand away from my chest. She ran it under cold water and clucked at the flap of skin that came off my palm partway.

“Stitches it is,” she said. “We’ll need to get you to a doctor. Unless there’s stuff here?” She looked at me, expecting me to know everything. Hell, I hadn’t snooped around, just slept on the couch and kept Bub company while Anezka was in the hospital.

We ransacked the bathroom and found a fairly empty emergency kit. There was gauze, but no tape. Nothing we needed for stitches. “She did some horse doctoring in her day,” she said. “Might have some stuff out in the shop.”

I shrugged. “She’s got several lockers out there. Not sure what’s in ’em.”

“Guess we should go look,” she said. “Just hope there’s no bodies in there.”

I shivered. Nothing had smelled when I was out there, but now that Qindra had broken the barrier that surrounded the house, I could smell an underlying odor of decay. Funny thing was, when the barrier fell, I didn’t feel like I was being kept out, but that something had been unleashed.

As we crossed the carport, Qindra watched us and waved. Nothing too earth-shattering yet. I reached into my right pocket and felt the amulet. I bet I could call Bub back. Only, would he bring Anezka with him? She wasn’t a bad person, Frank vouched for her, but she’d definitely lost her damn mind.

The lockers held junk, mostly. There were no med kits for horses or humans, but we did find a lot of collected crap: old work boots, coveralls, welding goggles, gloves. The typical stuff. No bodies, thank god. There was duct tape, however. We grabbed it and went back into the house. Iodine, clean gauze, and duct tape can make a pretty good field bandage. Was waterproof mostly and held together well. Nothing to do now but wait. The cut wasn’t too deep, pretty shallow really but wide.

Qindra was still on the phone by the time I was bandaged, so I grabbed a couple of towels and mopped the water off the table from earlier. Once that was done, I took down a couple of clean glasses and got water for Julie and me.

“Qindra says the house is basically haunted. Bad juju,” I said.

“That’s a big duh,” Julie said, taking the glass from me. “If this place was any more bizarre, I’d expect to see Bruce Campbell coming through the door.”