The Mapmakers Union (The Doorknob Society Saga Book 3) (12 page)

“I know but if you have a better idea speak now,” I said.

 Edgar looked as stumped as I felt as we pushed past the crowd of people and out the front door of the club and onto the cobblestone street. I scrolled through the numbers on my phone and hit Faith’s, it started ringing as I held it to my ear.

“Hello.”

“Faith, it’s me I need your help.”

“Where are you?”

“Heading to the Cape Beanery, meet us there.” I clicked off the call and dropped my phone back in my pocket. Walking up to the nearest wall I activated my doorknob and slapped it against the brick creating a portal. I yanked it open and Edgar and I stepped through. The wind was howling, the air frigid, and the lights of the Beanery lit up the road. The bells jangled as we entered and Kirstie waved to us from behind the counter. Thankfully, Val was off tonight.

I sat down at one of the tables and pulled at my shoe straps yanking off my heels and tossing them into my bag. I took out my sneakers, slid them on, and sighed with relief at being out of those feet-killing shoes. I couldn’t do anything about the skirt; even though it was tight it didn’t hinder movement.

Edgar was at the counter grabbing us coffee when the door opened and Faith walked in. She was in jeans and a heavy coat. She spotted me and hurried to sit beside me.

“What’s going on?”

“Look,” I was about to tell her everything; the Reliquary, The Legend, being a Polymorph. But I bit my tongue, a voice in the back of my head screaming at me not to do it. I needed her help but that was no reason to burden her with everything that was going on. The less she knew the better. “You’re right, I’m on a special assignment for DS and we’re going after the Legend of the Mapmakers.”

“Are you serious?”

Edgar walked over and put three coffees down on the table.

 “But by DS going after the Legend won’t that start an open war with the Mapmakers?”

Edgar looked at Faith and then quickly to me, but he didn’t comment he just sipped his coffee.

“We’re not stealing it; we’re borrowing it for a mission. We need it to find a path to something else.” Faith looked to Edgar as if needing confirmation and he nodded.  I was relieved that he caught on and was going along with my lie.

“What are you looking for?” Faith said curiously.

“That’s not important now. What is important is that we get this done now and I need someone to watch my back. We have the coordinates to the Legend, but I’m not sure what we’ll be walking into. Will you back us up?” I wrapped my hands around the hot cup and let the warmth soak into me as I took a sip.

“Of course I will. Anything you need.”

“Good, then we move in five minutes.”

Faith nodded and excused herself to use the bathroom as Edgar leaned over the table and whispered, “You didn’t tell her everything, why?”

“She’s a good friend but there’s no need to get her in deeper than necessary.” My neck was aching like crazy and I grabbed it tightly and squeezed trying to stop the pain. It was looking more and more like I needed to see a doctor, either that or go crazy from the pain.

“Okay.” Edgar seemed satisfied with the answer and pulled out the map he had created using the DS Handbook and started going over his calculations once again.

“Tell me what we’re looking at here?”

“The guards will have use of cartographer’s tools as defensive measures. I’ll need a few minutes to use the Legend. Once I attach it I should be able to import the coordinates of the Tavern, and then we can get out of there. After that I’ll need time to decipher the directions.”

“How long?”

“Not sure, a few days at least, I doubt it’ll be a simple equation.” He shrugged unsure of what he was going to be working with.

 It all sounded so simple but it rarely— if ever— turned out that way, at least not when it came to my plans.

“Anything else I should know?” Faith asked as she rejoined us.

 I finished off my coffee with one last gulp and shook my head. “Let’s do this.”

 We walked to the door and I pushed it open and stepped out into the cold night. Faith and Edgar trailed behind me.  Edgar rolled up his map and slid it into his bag. He lifted his hand and began tracing symbols in the air, golden light following the trail of his fingers displaying equations and coordinates. I slid my doorknob from my pocket and activated it sliding it into a nearby wall. I turned to Edgar as he finished his calculations and reached out my hand. Edgar flicked his wrist and the gold numbers and symbols flew forward slamming into the portal. The energy prickled my skin as it shifted and moved seeking the connection on the other end. Then it snapped into place, my portal grabbing hold, opening, and activating the path. I turned the knob and we walked into the unknown.

Status: Reminder, next time ask what Cartographer tools are!

The first thing I noticed was the shrubs; they were tall like really tall. I could barely see the tops of them. It was still night wherever it was we had exited. We were standing on a grassy area surrounded by massive shrubs and trees. I looked up at the sky and tried to orient myself by the stars. I’d thought they were crazy at school when I had found out that Astronomy was mandatory. According to our teacher you could figure out your position anywhere on the planet by where the stars rested in the night sky. And those lessons were about to come in handy.

“Any ideas?” Faith stood beside me looking at the sky.

“My best guess would be somewhere in the Midwest.”

“At least we’re still in the same dimension.”

Edgar was already examining another map and scribbling new coordinates on it. I knew he was attempting to sketch out a general idea of the area around us. I reached out with my own abilities and was able to learn that whoever set this area up had a specific plan.

“This is our only entrance and exit point that I can sense; the rest of the area is locked down.” I removed my doorknob from the door and held it tightly and nodded in Faith’s direction. She took her own knob out and activated it.

“I think we’re looking at a cartographer’s challenge,” Edgar said. “The hedgerows are a maze and in it we’ll find the Legend, but as we go through, we’ll have to face off against the guards and their defenses. We have to do it quickly, since they’ll call in reinforcements as soon as they spot us.”

“You’re the mapmaker lead the way.” I gestured to Edgar and he headed into the maze of hedges. Faith and I trailed behind him, me with my energy whip out and her with a chained azure mace swinging at her side.

Edgar moved swiftly stopping only for a moment whenever we reached a cross section. I was completely turned around after a few minutes, but Edgar plowed forward with such speed that I figured he knew what he was doing.

We reached another intersection and turned to the left and came to a dead stop.

“Uh-oh,” Edgar said.

 A guard was standing at the end of the row of hedges and staring right at us. He seemed almost as shocked to see us as we were to see him.

“Protect!” he yelled as he yanked out a map and all I could think was that’s a stupid thing to do. I mean why would I be scared of a map? I figured that one of these days I’d learn.

“Run!” Edgar yelled but it was too late. Gold energy surged around the map and the lines of energy running across the paper jumped off the page. Everything from the compass to the little lines representing roads danced wildly toward us. But the thing I really noticed was the drawing of a griffin; you know the mythical creature with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. I always wondered why they were drawn on maps. Now I had a pretty good idea.

The lines of gold energy raced around the outline of the griffin and its form took on more substance. It lifted its head high and roared, the sound reverberating and shaking the earth underneath us.

“Oh crap!” I scrambled backwards stumbling as I went and the griffin leapt forward, its large claws slammed into the ground where I had been standing and pawed at the earth.

Faith came forward swinging her energy mace above her head and distracted the beast as I regained my footing. The griffin snapped its mouth sending sparks of gold and blue in all directions as it bit into Faith’s mace. She yelped and fell to the ground.

The beast reared back, its one front paw raised, ready to bring it down on Faith. I flicked my arm bringing my whip around and cracking it against the griffin’s leg. The animal screeched, and then its head swung around to me with a snort.

“Chloe?” Edgar said nervously beside me.

“We’ll deal with this thing, you find the Legend.” I pushed him away and spun my whip creating a shield as the beast swung a paw at me. It crashed into my defenses, the blow shoving me backwards.

Faith was pulling herself up and recreating her mace. She took a deep breath and started swinging it again. She attacked from behind, hitting its hind legs. The griffin roared and spun to defend against another foe. As it did I snapped my whip, and caught it good around the griffin’s neck. The creature swung and twisted its neck biting frantically at my energy whip. Every bite reverberated up my arm, but I concentrated and held my weapon together.

“Hit it again!” I yelled over the beast’s screeches.

Faith rushed in and smashed her mace against his back as hard as she could. The griffin roared again and kicked out with its back paw catching Faith in the side and flinging her into the hedgerows.

I yanked my whip trying to tighten the noose around its neck but it jumped forward letting the slack out. His golden arm rushed toward me, its claws flashing ready to swipe. I turned into it knowing that was the only way I wouldn’t get sliced to ribbons.

The turbulent energy slammed into me knocking the wind from my body and lifting me off the ground. I sailed through the air and crashed with a thud on my butt in the grass. I back-pedaled with my legs and arms scrambling to move away as quickly as I could. The ground shook as the griffin pounded its paw into the spot I had just left. That was a second near miss, three times and I’m out.

I twisted my wrist and flicked out my whip and took a swift crack at the griffin’s face. The beast roared back on its hind legs trying to escape the potent blue energy. It gave me just enough time to jump up and push through a hedgerow, the branches clawing at my arms and tearing my stockings. I spun my whip splitting the next line of hedges and ran through the opening I created trying to gain some distance. A whooshing sound rushed at me from behind and I turned to see the griffin leap into the air, its massive wings flapping and kicking out gusts of wind. Its head swiveled searching for me and it let out a murderous roared when it spotted me.

“Seriously?” I sighed and edged backward as it flew at me. I needed a plan but at the moment I was clear out of ideas.

The griffin soared down, swinging its claws at me. I deflected it with my whip and a shower of energy washed over me. If this was my plan it was a bad one, I would either run out of energy or the alarm would sound and we’d get caught.

The beast roared its frustration at what I assumed was his failure to bite my head off. I could only deflect for so long and I couldn’t wrap my whip around it or the beast would just lift me into the night and drop me who knows where.

Apparently, I was taking too long to figure out my choices. The griffin swooped down and angled for me between the hedgerows. I turned and ran for it all the while hearing the sounds of bushes being shredded by its large golden wings. I reached a corner and spun on my heels to the left. The beast didn’t have enough control and tumbled head long into the new row of hedges. I didn’t waste the opportunity. I raised my arm and with a forceful snap brought my whip down cracking it across the beast’s back. His howling screech nearly punctuated my eardrums.

The guard who’d released the griffin walked through a broken hedge. He was holding his map and scribbling on it furiously. I brought my whip back once again as the griffin roared up and turned on me. I ignored the raging breast and cracked my whip aiming for the map. I hit dead center slicing it in two and breaking the energy that had created it. The griffin screamed and shattered into a shower of golden sparkles.

The guard stepped back, spun around and ran right into Edgar’s fist. I heard the pop as the man fell to the ground out cold. Edgar stood over him holding his fist in the air like some kind of trophy.

“I got him.” He smiled as I dropped to my knees exhausted. Edgar rushed over and slid to the ground beside me. I looked down and saw that my stockings were shredded and my legs covered with thin cuts and smeared with blood. My next shower was going to be a pain filled experience that’s for sure.

“Have you seen Faith?” I took deep breaths trying to steady myself after expending so much energy. I used the breathing techniques my dad had taught me years ago. They were the same ones he would use during his magic act.

“No, I saw her get knocked aside and then I started searching for the Legend. After I found it I came back looking for you.”

I was so exhausted from the battle with the griffin that it took me a moment to realize what he had just said. I grabbed his shoulders shaking him. “You found it!”

 He blinked rapidly and a smile spread across his face. He reached into his bag and lifted the Legend out. Power emanated from it as if it was the Holy Gail.

“I did,” he said proudly.

“Edgar, my boy you’re a freaking rock star.” I laughed and he dug through his bag till he pulled out the map he had created. He spread it out on the grass and winced, I knew he was desperate for more time than we had with the Artifact but that’s one thing we were short on.

“There you guys are.” Faith came around the corner and rushed toward us. She skidded to a stop a few feet away and stared down at the Legend in Edgar’s hand. Her eyes lit up and her hand flew to her mouth.

“You okay?” My hand squeezed reflexively around my doorknob, but what had caused that strange reaction? It seemed instinctive and yet it was crazy. Faith was my friend and not just any friend, lately my best one.

“You got it?” she whispered through her hand.