Billy Buckhorn and the War of Worlds, page 9
“Don’t know yet,” Little Shield replied. “A deeper dive into all things serpentine might reveal a lot.”
They got into Raelynn’s rental car and drove away.
Meanwhile, Greyson Greenstone was having a rather heated conversation in the warden’s office.
“How could your guys be so careless?” he screamed at Broussard. “It should’ve been a pretty simple job for a couple of convicts who are doing time for armed robbery to break into a college archaeology lab!”
“I don’t know how that happened, Mr. Greenstone,” the warden replied. “I told them to hide anything that would tie the van to the prison. When they left here, they’d completely covered the prison logo and the license plate with mud.”
Greenstone grew angrier by the minute, and his face began turning red. He clenched both fists tightly and glared harshly at Broussard. The warden began feeling like he couldn’t breathe, and panic set in.
“Please, Mr. Greenstone, we didn’t do it on purpose,” he pleaded as he choked. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make it right.”
“You bet your ass you will!”
Greenstone focused so much energy on choking Broussard that the spell he used to maintain the Greenstone identity began to fade. His one-eyed-man persona with the eye patch and serpent tattoos was bleeding through.
Just then, the guard from the front desk came into the room. “Mr. Broussard, are you all right?” he asked. “I heard shouting down the—”
He stopped short when he caught a glimpse of Greenstone’s partial transformation. As the sorcerer split his focus between Broussard and the guard, more of the Snake-Eye persona became visible.
“What in hell’s name is happening?” the guard yelled as he began to choke. He reached down and grabbed the radio mic that hung from his belt and yelled into it as best he could. “Code 10-5. Warden’s—”
Both Broussard and the guard felt sudden sharp invisible blows to their necks that collapsed their windpipes and cut off all oxygen to their lungs and brains. The two men simultaneously fell to the floor.
The effort Greenstone had put into the double choking had caused his Snake-Eye persona to appear full blown. He looked down at his body to see if the transformation had completed itself. Slim legs and arms had become stout, muscular limbs. His smooth, well-manicured hands had also become stubbier and rougher. And the tattoos on his arms peeked out from below his now ill-fitting shirtsleeves.
Snake-Eye looked at the two dead men lying on the floor of the warden’s office. This wasn’t the first time he’d ended someone’s life. And he knew from experience that the cause of death would be listed as “mysterious” because there had been no physical contact and therefore no physical evidence.
Time to eliminate evidence, he thought and casually walked back to the front desk.
Locating the surveillance system, he placed his hand on top of the electronic recording unit. He gave it a quick zap of electromagnetic current, just enough to blur any details that displayed who entered and exited the building that morning.
He confidently walked out of the building, got in his car, and drove back to his headquarters located deep inside the Chief’s Mound.
embers of the project officially known as the Interstate Spiral Mounds Archaeological Expedition left Wesley’s house on Monday morning of Chigger’s spring break. The group would have a week to check out as many spiral mound sites on Professor Stevens’s map as they could before Chigger would have to be back home.
The continuously rainy weather was causing Cecil’s arthritis to act up, and he wasn’t feeling much like crawling in and out of caves or climbing up mounds, so he didn’t participate. Billy’s parents, James and Rebecca, were, of course, busy at their jobs and couldn’t take off a week for the expedition.
“I’m so pumped!” Chigger exclaimed when the Indigenous Archaeology Alliance van picked him up from home. “It’s almost like getting the Paranormal Patrol back together!”
“Chigger, please don’t call us that,” Billy said. “That name was a joke.”
“The Paranormal Patrol?” Lisa responded. “Is that what you called yourselves?”
“Like I said, it was a joke,” Billy said. “A funny nickname.”
“So that’s where you got the idea of using a nickname,” Lisa said, knowing that Chigger wasn’t aware of the name Billy had given their little group.
“It’s time for a new nickname, I guess,” Chigger said, furrowing his brow and appearing to be in pain as he brainstormed.
“We already have a—”
“How about Mound Diggers Extraordinaire?” Chigger said, interrupting Billy. “Or . . . Supernatural Sleuthing Services, Incorporated. Ooh! I know. Something to do with preventing the Underworld from taking over!”
“Wow, that sounds really familiar, doesn’t it, Billy?” Lisa said. “Amazing!”
“Okay, okay,” Billy said with an air of defeat. “I guess we—”
“What exactly have you been calling us?” Lisa asked her boyfriend, interrupting him. “The Underworld Takeover Prevention Team, I think it is.”
“Really? You already came up with a nickname and didn’t tell me?” Chigger exclaimed. “Underworld Takeover Prevention Team, huh? Has a nice ring to it. That’s UTPT, for short.”
“Okay, I admit it,” Billy said. “I got the idea of having a nickname from you, Chigger.”
“And it’s an effective nickname because it reminds us of what we’re trying to do here, right?” Lisa commented.
“When you’re right, you’re right,” Billy said. He was glad to see Lisa connecting with Chigger. He wanted that trend to continue.
There were three vehicles in the caravan: Ethan’s archaeology van; the university van, which was towing a boat; and a third van that carried additional gear they’d need for the expedition, driven by a graduate archaeology student named Brad.
Ethan, Lisa, Billy, and Chigger rode in Ethan’s van while Professor Stevens drove the university van. Brad, driving alone in the third van, would be helping to load and unload gear as well as assist Stevens with any actual excavation or recordkeeping to be done.
As her father drove, Lisa described the experiences she’d had with Raelynn after leaving the Texarkana prison and what they’d learned about the Three Rivers Indian Mounds Park and the nearby Angola prison.
“Raelynn promised to ask the FBI to fast-track their investigation,” she said, wrapping up her report.
Ethan remembered he wanted to get more details about Billy and Chigger’s original adventures on the Arkansas River. “Tell me more about your experiences in this first cave we’re headed for,” he asked. “I think you called it the crystal cave.”
“I like to call it the bat cave,” Chigger said. “And I think our story says why.”
Billy and Chigger, who sat in second-row seats, took turns recounting those events, which had occurred last November and December. That seemed like such a long time ago to the two friends. Ethan and Lisa were so astonished by it all they could scarcely believe what they heard.
“Talking about all that really makes me miss Grandpa Wesley,” Billy said with a sad tone in his voice. That was when he remembered something very important he’d brought. He fished around behind his seat and came up with a canvas tote bag. “I found these in a back closet at my grandpa’s house,” he said as he handed one of the objects to Lisa.
It was one of the round medallions Wesley had made for their expedition to recapture the Horned Serpent. It featured two snakes that had been tied together, forming a loop around a center hand with an eye in the palm. The medallion hung from a metal chain so you could wear it around your neck.
“That is an impressive piece of work,” Lisa said, showing it to her father.
“All five of us wore these on that trip because, surprisingly, they repelled the beast,” Billy said. “I suggest we wear them again, but there aren’t enough to go around.”
Chigger grabbed one from Billy’s bag. “I for one wouldn’t set foot in that cave again without it,” he said as he slipped the chain over his head.
Billy went on to explain how Professor Stevens had discovered the image’s power to repel the creature when it attacked him in his basement office. That detail added even more to the amazement Lisa and Ethan already felt about the boys’ experience.
The drive to a boat ramp near the Spiral Mounds Archaeological Site took less than two hours. Stevens had arranged for a canopy-covered motorboat large enough to take all of them and much of their equipment upstream to the cave site. As everyone began transferring equipment from the vans to the boat, Augustus saw that the crew from Ethan’s van was wearing the eye-in-hand medallion.
“I’ll take one of those,” he said.
Billy gave him the last one, and Augustus put it on.
“We’re one short,” Augustus said. “When we get to the cave, I guess someone will have to stay with the boat.”
When all the people and gear were loaded into the boat, they headed out. During the short boat ride, Billy said, “Now I can show you the place where I died.”
No one quite knew what to say to that. But Chigger always seemed to have a way to lighten any situation, whether he meant to or not.
“And I can show you the place I helped save Billy’s life by calling the Cherokee Nation marshal on our satellite phone,” he bragged, a smile beaming from his face.
After a brief silence, Lisa was the first to break the tension with a laugh. “Chigger, you crack me up!” she joked. “And you don’t even know how you do it.”
They soon rounded a curve in the river and came to the flat landing space at the bottom of the cliff. Billy tilted his head upward, and everyone looked up to see the mouth of the cave.
“This is it,” Billy said.
“The bat cave,” Chigger added.
Billy looked at Chigger and asked, “Are you picking up any negativity here? Any purple-type energy?”
“Not really—maybe a tiny bit. But now that we’re here, I don’t know why I let you talk me into coming along,” Chigger said. “I’m not going in there. I’m staying in the boat.”
“That’s good,” Augustus said. “You can give your medallion to Brad.”
“Gladly,” Chigger said, handing the object to the grad student.
Wearing raincoats, everyone but Chigger clambered out of the boat and onto the shore. Billy led the way up the slippery wet footholds that had long ago been etched into the cliff face. Lisa was up the steps next, and she stood beside Billy, who was taking in the rainy westward view.
Billy grasped the small medicine pouch containing the Uktena scale that hung from his neck. It was a gift from Grandpa, who said it was powerful warrior medicine, and the teen needed some of that now. He, too, was feeling reluctant to reenter the world of the Horned Serpent. However, since the team looked to him as their guide and leader, he turned on his flashlight and marched into the darkness.
Ignoring the upward path to the left that led to the crystal part of the cave, they followed the ramp to the right downward toward the serpent’s prison. As they reached the pedestal where they’d left the purple crystal months before, Billy was in for a shock. The crystal was gone, and the stone door was open.
“That’s certainly not the way we left things,” Billy said, peeking in through the open doorway. The Horned Serpent was nowhere to be found. “Crap!” he said loudly. “Chigger’s not going to like this one bit!”
Then he remembered the horde of bats that had been hanging from the ceiling. Shining his flashlight upward, he scanned the cavern’s roof. A single, seemingly harmless bat fluttered around near the apex, apparently not in a hurry to get anywhere.
“Double crap!” he shouted. “There should be about a hundred bats hanging from the ceiling. Where could they be now? Let’s get back to the boat.”
Once everyone was back in the boat, Billy broke the news to Chigger.
“Crap, crap, and triple crap!” the teen exclaimed. He scanned the river in both directions. “That thing could be anywhere!”
As the motorboat carried the crew back downstream, the one lonely bat departed the cave and flew south across the river to a small ghost town known as Skullyville. Three frame houses, a general store, and a cemetery were now the only remnants of a once thriving community that included a Butterfield stagecoach station.
The bat dropped down to a spot in the backyard of the house closest to the cemetery and began its transformation into Norman Redcorn, a Caddo Indian medicine man and member of the Society of Serpents.
Time to report to the Head of the Snake, Redcorn thought and stepped into the old house. He’ll definitely want to hear about this.
Back at the boat ramp, Stevens and his assistant snapped the waterproof cover tightly over the boat and hooked it up to their van. They’d need it to access at least one other cave during the expedition. The caravan headed east for Clarkesville, Arkansas, the next stop on the Underworld Takeover Prevention Team’s tour.
Within a couple hours, the caravan reached the Mountain Shadow Motel southeast of town, where they’d spend the night. After stashing their stuff in three neighboring rooms, the gang of six had some dinner at Fat Daddy’s BBQ.
That was when Chigger pulled out his sketchbook to show off the recent batch of comic book sketches he’d been working on.
“I don’t know where these ideas are coming from,” he admitted. “Sometimes they show up in dreams, and other times they’ll just pop into my head while I’m wide awake.”
He let Augustus see them first since Chigger had first offered him a look. Then the drawings got passed on to Ethan. The Osage man, familiar with a variety of tribal stories and beliefs, reacted immediately.
“These aren’t just any random monsters and creatures you’re drawing here,” Ethan said. “These all look very much like mythological beasts from the legends of Indigenous people all across the country. And some of them resemble the composite Underworld beings depicted in Mississippian Mound Builder societies,” Ethan said.
“Let me see those,” Billy said, and Ethan passed the sketchbook to him.
He scanned the pages, seeing all manner of two-legged and four-legged creatures, some with human features, some with horror-movie-creature features. But one in particular caught his attention, because Billy had seen the beast with his own eyes: the metallic-winged Tlanuwa. And Chigger had not been with him when he’d visited the North Carolina national forest location where the creature spoke to him in January.
“You’re absolutely right,” Billy told Lisa’s father. “Grandpa Wesley and I saw this one when we visited our Eastern Cherokee cousins.” He pointed to Chigger’s drawing of the large bird as he passed the sketchbook back. “Chigger’s exposure to the purple crystal and his time under the influence of Carmelita Tuckaleechee must have put him directly in touch with supernatural Night Seer energies.”
Chigger folded his arms and looked down, feeling ashamed of himself. Billy saw this.
“No, no, no, Chigger,” he said. “I’m not blaming you for anything. I’m just confirming the same conclusion I came to before. You’re a valuable asset we should use. You can possibly help us discover what the dark side is up to or maybe even where our missing Sun Chief is.”
Chigger looked up with a much happier expression on his face as the food they’d ordered arrived at the table. Everyone ate in silence as they mulled over the possible meanings of this new revelation.
“But why are your drawings signed The Muskrat?” Lisa asked pointedly.
“Good question,” Chigger replied. “Like I said before, the drawings and the signature seem to happen while I’m in a fog or unaware of what I’m doing.”
Everyone waited for more explanation.
“I sort of think it’s a hidden part of me that wants to come out, that wants to be seen,” he said finally. “I looked up muskrats online, and they’re creatures that mostly operate at night, building nests and finding food. Since my last name is Muskrat, I believe my inner self wants to be less afraid to do things that force me to be braver.”
No one had anything to say to that since no one expected such insightful comments from the boy.
Ethan broke the silence and changed the subject. “Ever since we entered the crystal cave and saw the setup where the Horned Serpent had been captured, a thought has been nagging at me,” he said. “Mound Builders believed in Horned Serpents and other such creatures as Underworld spirits, not physical beings. Someone had to actively conjure that Uktena to bring it into physical existence.”
“Yeah, Grandpa said Cherokees considered them to be water spirits,” Billy added. “Only very rarely did anyone actually ever see one.”
Ethan continued to point out what that might mean. “So, a thousand years ago when the Sun Priest imprisoned the Uktena in the bottom of that cave, a conjurer first had to use an incarnation spell or a manifestation formula to bring the creature into the Middleworld.”
“That’s so obvious now,” Billy replied. “Why didn’t any of us think of it?”
“So, follow my logic here,” Ethan said. “A thousand years ago, followers of the Snake Cult assassinated the Sun Chief after the beast had been locked in the cave. Therefore, someone from that cult must’ve manifested the beast in the first place. If you remember the history, the Sun Chief’s twin brother had run off to join the Snake Cult when he was expelled from Solstice City.”
“Oh my gosh,” Chigger blurted out. “That means the Snake Cult is active again. They’re the ones who must’ve taken the purple crystal and freed the Uktena.”
Everyone stared at Chigger in disbelief for a moment. Actually, they were in a confused state, in disbelief that Chigger was thinking surprisingly deeply today, but in full belief that, unfortunately, he was probably right!
Or was it just really good barbecue that was doing the talking?
The following morning, as rain continued to fall, the crew headed for the next mound site, which sat within a state park called Morrison Bluff Park. The park was on the south side of the Arkansas River and contained a handful of man-made mounds.
