The Conclave of Shadow (21 page)

Back on my feet, I jumped across the corner of the ritual pit. The node at the center flickered only with shadow, which meant Lao Hu hadn't spattered blood on it during his leap. Fuck. I was going to have to stick around for another pass.

At least Lao Hu didn't make me wait long for it. His hind quarters shimmied and he lunged for me again.

I was already leaping towards him. I ducked under his claws and teeth, caught his tail as we passed. My arms nearly jerked out of my sockets as we enacted a hands-on-tail demonstration of physics in equal and opposite reaction.

Lao Hu's yowl ripped through the air. We both went tumbling into the pit in a tangle of flailing limbs and thrashing claws. I managed to twist and land on top of him, using elbows and knees to stay that way until I could grab the lip and heave myself out.

One wild claw caught my shoulder, dragging me back down into the pit. I kicked back, felt my boot connect with something, and the fabric of my trench coat gave way. I scrambled to safety, running for my bike with my shredded coat flapping behind me. Pain coursed down my back in twin lines of fire. I jumped on my bike and shredded rubber getting out of there, tiger fast on my tail.

I
hit
a wall of fog halfway up the slope of Twin Peaks and had to slow, in part to avoid slamming into oncoming traffic, and in part because I couldn't be sure how much of the clouding at the edges of my vision had to do with fog, and how much was due to blood loss. I reached the figure-eight road that infinity-looped around the adjoining peaks. My bike fishtailed to a stop at the narrow, hourglass-shaped meridian at the center. It took me three tries to engage the kickstand. I nearly dropped my bike before I managed it, and the effort to keep it wrenched upright sent a wave of fresh warmth coursing down my back. I thought for a moment pain had me seeing double, but no. That was Mian Zi standing next to his sister. I choked on a giggle, which jostled my shoulder. I swayed with the pain.

Mian Zi and Mei Shen came up on either side, supporting me. “'Cause… twin peaks. Get it?” I told one of them. Maybe both of them. They were trying to make me sit. I struggled against them. “I have to attune the node.”

“Mother, you're hurt. Let me see.” That was Mian Zi, he of the soft voice and gentle hands. He removed my hat and set it aside, then tugged gently at my trench coat. I whimpered when the fabric was pulled from the claw marks slashing down my shoulder.

“Mei Shen?” I looked for her, but at some point she'd disappeared. Maybe she'd never been there? “No. The node. Where's…”

Mian Zi held me when I would have gone looking for the pit. Luckily, I didn't have to look far. We were sitting on the edge of it. “Stop moving. I need to take this off carefully or you'll–”

I didn't have time for gentleness. I tore my trench coat off, and the suit coat underneath, wadded them, and threw the bundle into the pit beside us. The node dimmed with shadow, then flared bright with fire, before settling into a smoky beacon with fire at its center. I sagged against Mian Zi, getting blood all over his nice suit. “There. See? Lao Hu was nice enough to bleed all over me.”

“Good. Now may I see to your wound?” Fabric tore. Mian Zi wasn't even bothering to remove my shirt, just using the rents made by Lao Hu's claws and ripping them wider.

I pushed at him. “I don't have time for this. I have to get to Mount Davidson.”

“Mei Shen is distracting Lao Hu–”

“No.” I twisted to go after her, to stop her, and had to take several moments to breathe through the pain. “He'll hurt her.”

“He is not that stupid. His quarrel is with our uncle. You stand in the way as Uncle's champion.” More ripping fabric followed, and the soothing pressure of something binding my wounds tightly closed. The pain still pulsed deep in my muscles, but I no longer felt the gaping edges of my wounds shifting against each other. I stopped resisting and let Mian Zi do what he could.

“Mei Shen and I have the blessing of the Nine,” Mian Zi was saying. “We have Lao Hu's blessing. He will not forswear his own pledge. He will not offend our aunts and uncles by causing us harm.”

I leaned into him. Just a moment. I just needed a moment of not fighting or running or having to figure things out along the way. “But… before… you said I dishonored myself. Doesn't that mean you're… by helping me…”

“I… may have been harsh in my anger.” His hand stroked my brow, cool as water. It washed away some of the pain, and I wasn't sure if it was due to magic or just the knowledge that my son didn't despise me. “You are our mother. We should honor you in all things.”

I pulled a face at that. Sometimes the cultural divide that separated us was harder to face than the divide caused by my own mistakes. “I think I'm more comfortable with you kicking me to the curb when I mess up.”

“I will leave such things to Mei Shen.” He hugged me, careful of my shoulder. I sank into it for a moment before – carefully – squirming away.

“I have to go. La Reina is waiting.” I looked down at my shirt, half of it stained bloody and one entire shoulder gaping open. My suit and trench were hopeless. I'd dumped my wig several nodes ago. I took my hat from Mian Zi and set it on my head. “You think she'll notice I'm not quite myself?” I said in a Dick Van Dyke mockery of Mr Mystic's usual accent. Oi, it's a jolly 'oliday.

Mian Zi's lips twitched. “I think she might.”

“Shit.” I touched my face, my exposed braided hair. I'd always been so resistant to cutting it or dying it black, and now I was reaping the consequences of that reluctance.

“Here. This might help?” Mian Zi took off his suit coat and helped me into it with minimal shoulder jarring. It was a bit long in the sleeve, but close enough to pass.

And it reminded me of something. The Lady. I touched my face. If she was… we were… connected by blood, then it stood to reason that I might be able to do anything she could do. Didn't it?

I closed my eyes, passed my hands over my hair. My features I could disguise with shadow, but–

“Even better,” Mian Zi said softly.

I opened my eyes. “It worked?” My hair felt the same to me. Whatever I'd done had to be illusion. A trick of the light. Or, rather, a trick of shadow.

“See for yourself.” Mian Zi swiveled the mirror on my bike. My gut rolled. I looked like what I'd always pretended to be: Mr Mystic.

And now it was time to act like him. “I must be on my way,” I murmured in his voice.

“Go.” Mian Zi helped me onto my bike. “We will do what we can to give you time.”

T
he stairway pass
-through between houses and the hiking trails circling Mount Davidson weren't made for motorcycles. I didn't care. I shredded my way up the steps and looped around the curve of the mountain. My tires kicked up dirt and rocks as I rode up the narrow, ungraded path to the massive white marble cross at the summit.

La Reina scowled at me when I roared up to her and cut the engine. Her wings puffed and settled. “You have no respect for what is holy, do you?”

The wooziness of pain and blood loss had faded somewhat thanks to whatever Mian Zi had done, but I still lacked anything resembling patience at being told off just now. “Upsetting gods seems to be a bit of a hobby of mine.”

“Hm. So it seems. I called for backup. You look like hell.”

Like hell. She didn't know the half of it. I'd refined my shadow illusion to hide the worst of my injuries and exhaustion. I could afford to look weak in front of my kids, but La Reina was Argent, and I was still Mr Mystic. Now more than ever.

“You are too kind. Shove aside.” I was used to the drill by now – the construction cones, the neatly dug five-by-five, the gravel backfill, the ritual sigils burned into the rocky substrate with hardened pitch, the titanium node at the center. I hopped down and stomped around a bit, but whatever blood had coated my boots from kicking Lao Hu, it had long scraped off. The node flared with shadow flames thanks to my own blood spattering about, but there was no orange-flame brightness to counter them.

“Bollocks.”

“What?”

I levered myself out of the pit. “I'm going to have to fight him again.” I peered down the hill. Would he come up that way, following my trail? Or, knowing what I was up to, where I was likely headed, would he circle around and come from the trees that surrounded the cross on three sides? I passed a hand over my eyes. They itched with exhaustion. When La Reina's hand landed on my uninjured shoulder, I jumped.

“Are you allowed help?”

Forget my previous irritation. She could castigate me all she wanted. “Are you allowed to give it? On the disrespecting holy shrines front, getting into it with an ancient cat god so that you can use him in a blood ritual is not precisely… hm. I suppose it would be problematic to use the word ‘kosher' in this instance?”

“Decidedly so. And he is not God.”

Not your god
, I kept myself from saying. I was not so foolish as to look a gift-angel in the Metatron. “In that case, I would welcome–”

I didn't get the chance to say what I would welcome. Lao Hu burst from the trees. I tackled La Reina to one side, but he wasn't going for us. He slammed into my motorcycle, sending it rolling down the steep incline in a series of crashes and groans and a spray of broken plastic and metal bits. I cringed at the noise, fighting fury and helplessness. Now, even if we managed to get Lao Hu to bleed on this node, I had no way to get to the last node at Land's End.

I scrambled to my feet, circling to one side of Lao Hu while La Reina looped the other direction, splitting his focus. Lao Hu rolled and came up snarling, all orange and black fur, yellow teeth and yellow eyes. Or, eye. The other was swollen shut, the fur on that side of his face matted, the white ruff under his jaw stained a rusty color. Mei Shen must have done that. My gut clenched around the fear that he might have injured her in return.

I flexed my wounded shoulder, testing how much movement I had, how much I could push it. Even that slight movement sent a deep pain shooting through my back and arm. I bit down on a hiss. Not much, then. This was going to have to be a kicking fight.

“My offer still stands,” I told Lao Hu. I widened my half of the circle to put the ritual pit between us. “Help me attune the last two nodes, and I'll be your catnip.”

“You offer to make a bargain with me when you have no coin,” Lao Hu said. I forced myself to keep an eye on him and not to glance at La Reina creeping around his blind side. “You are wounded. You have no way to flee.” His whiskers twitched. “And your friend must think I'm stupid.”

He lunged to one side, paw swiping at the air where La Reina had stood. She was already aloft, great wings flattening the fur along Lao Hu's back and sending leaves and dirt flying in little vortexes. She raised a sword that glowed with copper fire and hurt my eyes to look upon. Lao Hu's too, by the way he hissed and spat. She brought the sword down, driving him towards the pit. I moved closer to the edge, making myself bait.

Lao Hu was too cunning for that tactic. He feinted to one side, then bolted the other direction when La Reina brought her sword down to block him. His claws dug great furrows into the hard-packed ground as he scrabbled around the pit. His back legs kicked up a spray of dirt, leaves, and wood chips. I lowered to a half crouch. He bounded off the cross and came at me. Falling back, I planted a boot in his gut and flipped him over my head and into the pit.

And got dragged in with him when his claw snagged my trousers.

We were a mad tangle of kicking, clawing, biting, until suddenly I was alone in the pit, flat on my back and staring up at a receding Lao Hu. Great, tawny wings seemed to sprout from his shoulders, giving him the look of a flying sphinx. Save for the part where he dangled from his ruff like a giant kitten.

Not for long. He twisted in La Reina's grip, biting, bringing his huge claws up to shred her wings. She screamed, the high and piercing cry of a raptor, and they both plummeted from the sky.

I crawled out of the pit. La Reina had caught her descent on the arm of the cross and was lowering herself to the ground. Her slide left long, bloody streaks down the white marble. The lower half of one wing was shredded, dripping blood and pinfeathers. She sagged to one knee, using her copper-flamed sword to hold herself upright. “Where?” she searched the clearing behind me.

“He landed back in the trees.” And very likely on his feet.

La Reina staggered to her feet and turned to scan the trees. “Is the node attuned?”

I shot a confirming glance over my shoulder. “Yes.”

“Then go. You are of no more use here.”

“But–”

“He doesn't want me. Go. I forgive you.”

Which only made me feel worse. I sprinted down the hill at an only slightly out-of-control run, following the scarred furrow carved by my bike. I was under no illusion that it would still run, but the hill backed onto a residential street. Perhaps I could… what? Ask a friendly weekend warrior for his hog? Carjack someone? Assuming I could make it to street level before–

Lao Hu hit me at a full run, sending both of us into an uncontrolled tumble. My hat flew off. I ate dirt and fur in equal measure, but at least the rolling impact made it impossible for him to do much extra damage. We slammed into someone's back fence, Lao Hu taking the brunt of the impact. I kicked away and started running.

And then something caught me around the waist, and my pumping feet lifted from the ground, wheeling in midair. A hat slammed on my head – my fedora – cutting some of the glare and increasing my confusion.

“Thought you never went anywhere without that fedora of yours, Old Man,” said my rescuer in a soft, Midwest drawl.

“Tom?”

“Yup. Figured I'd show you what a real rescue looks like.” He looped around, and I caught sight of La Reina leaning against her blood-streaked cross. She gave us a feeble wave. Right. Backup. She'd called it. “Was that a tiger I saw you fighting?”