Elliot, page 4
part #3 of Anarock Shifters Series
She persisted in her quest until noon when she waddled into a hunting camp east of Lafayette. She sauntered between the thatch huts snuffling to herself. She entered the open yard and straightened up. She resumed her human form and cast a sidelong glance over her shoulder at Elliot.
“You said Victor was going to Lafayette,” he ventured. “Did you change your mind?”
“He’s not here. I just want to check with a few people. Maybe he told them his plans.”
She approached a house. Five men lounged in front of it. Some picked their teeth. One of them smoked. They conversed in low tones and stopped when Aria advanced on them.
She nodded down at a wrinkled old black man in patched overalls. “How you doing? Was Victor Griffin through here in the last couple of days?”
The man nodded toward the trees where Aria first entered the camp. “You know he was. You can smell him as well as anyone, I reckon.”
She nodded again but she didn’t smile. “Do you happen to know if he’s coming back this way and when? I really need to talk to him.”
The old man cocked an eyebrow at her, but a younger Choctaw boy across the circle spoke up first. “He didn’t say when he was coming back. He didn’t tell us his plans. He said they were going out to scout the Omega Battalion’s trail, so he didn’t know where they went. He seemed awful anxious to find ‘em. He conscripted ten men to scout south and another twelve going north. He left us to hold this village in case any of the scouts came back. He left orders we was to send word back to Anarock if anybody found trace of ‘em.”
The old man frowned at this disclosure, but the other men only nodded their confirmation.
“Thanks,” Aria told them. “If he comes back through here, could you tell him I’m out looking for him? I’ll head on toward Lafayette, but if I don’t find him, I’ll go back to Anarock myself.”
“You ought to be there now,” the old man grumbled. “The likes of you don’t belong in the Quag.”
She didn’t react. “I suppose I have as much business in the Quag as any other New Breed.”
The young kid interjected again. “Victor ain’t going to Lafayette if that’s what you’re going there for. He went south.”
Aria frowned. “What’d he do that for? Did he have any reason to think the Omega Battalion went that way?”
“He didn’t share his info with us,” another man added. “He came and talked to a few people. Then he said he was going south.”
“Do you know where he went?”
“You can follow him as well as the next bear,” the old man snapped. “If you have as much business in the Quag as any other New Breed, you can get along the same as the rest of us. You don’t have to go on badgering and interrogating.”
She still didn’t rise to the bait. “Okay. Thanks anyway. I appreciate your help.”
She turned on her heel and strolled out of the village the same way she walked into it. She didn’t turn into a bear, though, and she didn’t go in the direction of Lafayette. She went south.
She hopped across a stream and plunged into deep swamp. She picked her way around ponds and danced over fallen logs. Elliot dragged behind her, but he didn’t enjoy himself the way she obviously did. He didn’t even put much attention into the prospect of finding Victor. He could trust Aria’s nose to do that.
Later in the afternoon, she slowed her pace. She found a worn path and hiked along it with no particular object in mind. Was she even still looking for Victor? To him, she looked like she was just horsing around out here for lack of anything better to do.
She halted next to a fallen tree trunk and scanned the woods falling into shadow. Sunbeams slanted almost horizontally through the foliage and dust swirled in the golden light.
She bent down and snapped off a sheaf of white mushrooms from the bark. She bit off a section and chewed them. Elliot curled his lip at her. “How do you know that’s not poisonous?”
She rotated the leafy wad in her grasp and examined it. “It’s chanterelle. Do you want some?”
He made a face. “No, thanks.”
“You’re not the brightest bulb on the tree, are you? You haven’t eaten since yesterday. You’re gonna fall over and then I’m gonna have to haul your slack-ass back to the village. That’s no way to behave in the Quag, but I guess you don’t know that since you never spent any time here.”
He groaned. “Can’t we just go back? I won’t try to stop you reporting me to Victor, but let’s go back. This is foolishness.”
“It’s foolishness to you. If you want to go back, no one’s stopping you.”
She stuffed the last of the mushrooms into her mouth and set off. Elliot stayed where he was trying to decide if he should go after her or turn around. What was the use of traipsing through the woods hunting for Victor Griffin? Victor would go back to Anarock eventually. He certainly wouldn’t punish or censure Elliot before then. At least Elliot could await his fate in peace.
He took a deep breath. He would just tell her he was leaving. She wouldn’t care, but at least she would know where he was. He would tell her, take off, and fly home in time for dinner. The future could take care of itself.
He trotted forward. He got within ten feet of her back. “I’m going home, Aria. I’ll see you back there. I don’t want to keep bushwhacking out here day and night. If you find Victor, you can tell him I’m waiting for him back in Anarock.”
She rotated her neck and spoke over her shoulder. “All right. See you around.”
He stopped and she kept walking. His spirit collapsed into his shoes. She really was walking away from him without a backward glance. She didn’t care that he was leaving. She didn’t need him anymore. She didn’t give him a second thought.
She marched between the trees. The sun glanced off her hair and set it afire. Did she ever care about him at all?
He braced himself to turn away when, right in front of his eyes, she plunged straight through the ground and vanished from sight. One minute she was walking away in front of him. The next minute, she sank through solid Earth and disappeared.
He blinked at the spot where she should have been. Trees grew out of the soil. Insect voices clicked in the woods. Did she accidentally walk over a hidden patch of quickmud or swamp covered in debris? No, she couldn’t have. She would be floundering in it now if she did.
He tiptoed forward and almost whispered, “Aria?”
No sound answered him. He poked the spot with his toe. It was solid, dry, and undisturbed. He thought hard. What happened to her? She wasn’t here. He could almost wish he was seeing her walk away without a thought for him. She wasn’t. She was nowhere.
He looked back toward the village. What should he do? Should he go get help? Who could help him? How could they help him? Aria was gone. He couldn’t even explain where she went.
He swallowed hard. “Aria?”
Nothing. No sound broke the stillness. The ground under his feet felt firm and true. What the hell just happened? He couldn’t get his brain to function enough to make sense of it.
He rotated in a circle examining the woods around him. His being screamed out for her, for her to be back in the world where he was. She wasn’t in it. She was gone, just like that. She wasn’t dead. She wasn’t anywhere. She might as well have never existed.
She existed. She was alive. She was…. somewhere. He knew her. He cared about her in a distant, juvenile kind of way. He cared about her as much as he could care about someone he completely took for granted. Now she was gone.
He took a few steps back in the direction of the village. How long would it take to get back there? He could fly there in a few seconds. Then what? How could he explain to those hunters where Aria went when he didn’t understand it himself? They might think Elliot killed her to stop her reporting him to Victor.
That wasn’t right. No one besides Elliot knew why Aria was looking for Victor. She didn’t tell anybody he went over to NightRage.
He looked back one more time. The spot appeared as tranquil and serene as ever. No trace remained of her, not even a scuffle of footprints. Her boots made one clear imprint after another until they just…. stopped.
What should he do? Who could he turn to—his father? What would Aria’s family say when he returned to Anarock without her? Elliot would have to give a full account of everything to Victor and his father, including the part about why Aria was looking for Victor to begin with.
He would do it. He already got to the point where he wanted to return to the Prometheus Crest. He would come clean to Victor and anyone else who needed to know what happened to her. He owed Aria that much.
He squared his shoulders and got ready to pivot around one final time when, without warning, something poked up out of the ground. The Earth itself disgorged her back onto its surface. It spat her out and deposited her body on exactly the same spot where she disappeared.
Elliot charged to her side and flung himself down on his knees. He hardly dared touch her, even though she appeared totally unharmed. No dust clung to her jacket or even her hair.
“Aria!” He grabbed her shoulders and rolled her toward him. “Aria! Are you okay?”
She flopped in his grasp. Her neck lolled to one side and her hair brushed across her closed eyelids. Her arms flapped down and sent up billowing clouds of dust.
“Aria!” He touched her cheek. “Jesus, girl, say something to me. What happened?”
She didn’t respond. Nothing he did brought the slightest reaction from her. She lay flat on her back, still and motionless.
Elliot’s heart hammered in his brain. He had to think. He had to remember some of the measly first aid he learned in grade school. He placed his hand on Aria’s chest between her breasts. Yes! She was breathing. Thank God.
He scanned her body and palpated her limbs. From first examination, she appeared intact and unhurt. She was just unconscious.
He had to get her to some help. He thought fast. He had to take her to the village. Maybe the hunters knew something about this. God knew they had cures for just about everything else that happened in the Quag.
He looked all around him in search of some way to help her, but he didn’t see anything. This was all on him. If she lived or died depended on him and no one else. He thought she was strong. Now she needed him.
The forest gave nothing away. A nearby slick of water oozed into the shadows at its usual leisurely pace. Leaves floated on its surface and water striders skated across the glassy liquid.
He would shift. He would fly her to the village. If the hunters couldn’t help her, he would take her back to Anarock. NightRage could help her if no one else could.
NightRage! Fuck NightRage now and forevermore! He would never have anything more to do with NightRage. She was loyal to the Prometheus Crest and that was good enough for him. If she wanted him to be loyal, he would do it. If he had to pledge himself to the Crest for the rest of his natural life to prove himself worthy of her, he wouldn’t hesitate.
He took a step back to give himself room to shift. He straightened up, but at that moment, a great heaving, churning, pitching, tossing upheaval shook the Earth beneath his feet. He staggered to right himself when the nearby water erupted in a geyser of spray.
He stumbled to get away, but his eyes bugged out of his head when a monstrous black form shot out of the swamp. A gleaming, devilish dragon lifted out of the pond. It crawled out of the Earth itself to crouch in front of Elliot.
Elliot’s jaw hung slack gaping at the thing. He’d seen enough dragons in his life not to be surprised by one, but this one shocked him out of his mind. It seethed and rumbled in menacing, gargantuan power and it narrowed its glowing red eyes at him. It arched its wings and blocked the sun. Its midnight scales absorbed the light to make it part of the shadows.
It slithered its neck from side to side casting around the clearing until it spotted Aria lying there. It strutted to her and straddled her fallen form. Then it surprised Elliot even further by speaking in a very distinct gravelly voice. “This one is mine. Keep away from her.”
Without thinking twice, Elliot rushed forward. “No, you don’t! Get away from her. She doesn’t belong to you.”
The dragon rounded on him hissing through its gleaming fangs. “Keep back if you value your head. This one is mine. She saw us down below so her life is forfeit. She will come with me now. Do not attempt to intervene.”
Elliot’s surprise faded to black rage. “You’re not taking her anywhere. I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but you’re not doing anything with her. She belongs to Anarock and that’s where I’m taking her. What did you do to her? Are you the one who took her under the ground? If you harmed her in any way, I swear to God I’ll kill you myself.”
He sensed his own dragon fury threatening to break loose, but he couldn’t let this fiend take Aria. He couldn’t understand where she went when she sank into the ground, but whatever happened, he had to protect her from this creature.
This dragon didn’t belong to Anarock. Beneath all his emotion and explosive energy, Elliot recognized that. It wasn’t New Breed. It was a stranger. Elliot knew enough about the New Breed, not just in Anarock but all over the South, to know when one of them belonged to his people.
For one thing, it was bigger and more powerful than any dragon he’d ever seen in his life. For another, the dragon shifters of Anarock couldn’t speak in their dragon form. That made this one a different species altogether.
The creature squatted low over Aria’s inert frame. It cracked its jaws and screeched at Elliot. Its deep voice vibrated through his legs and into his bones. “She is ours. She saw us down below. We cannot allow her to leave. Anyone who sees us must come down or die. That is our first law.”
Elliot withdrew into himself ready to shift. “You’re not taking her anywhere and you sure as hell aren’t going to kill her. You have no right here. This is our land.”
“Your land.” The creature let out a chuckle that turned Elliot’s stomach. “You may keep the land. We will take the female. She saw us down below. This is our law. If you wish to keep her, I will kill her. Then you may keep her.”
The thing pivoted around to peer at Aria. Elliot saw the situation falling apart before his eyes. He had to do something, but he already sensed that he couldn’t fight this dragon. It was too big and powerful. It would flatten him in seconds. He didn’t have time to alert any of the hunters back in the village. He had to act.
“What did she see?” he blurted out. “What’s down there to see?”
The dragon didn’t look at him. It eyed Aria in a way Elliot didn’t like at all. “We are down there. She saw our country. Now she must die before she informs anyone we are there. This is our law.”
“I know you’re down there. You just told me. Do you plan to kill me, too?”
The dragon craned its neck to glare at him over its shoulder. “I will.”
Elliot took a firm grip on himself. He had to think of some way to change this dragon’s mind before the whole situation went down the shithole in a big hurry. He gulped to swallow the lump in his throat. “Listen to me. There has to be a way to avoid bloodshed. If you kill us, the New Breed of Anarock will come looking for us. They have magic-wielders who will find you. If you want to hide your secret, take both of us. You don’t have to kill her. Take us both. Just let us go together. That’s the best way to preserve your secret.”
The dragon grumbled low. “You do not know what you ask.”
“I know I’ll be going with her. Wherever you plan to take her, take me with her. If that’s what it takes to stop you killing her, I’ll do it.”
The monster rotated around. Its colossal weight shook the ground when it took a step. It leveled Elliot with a terrible glare. “As you wish. You will go.”
Elliot’s shoulders slumped. Now what the hell did he get himself into? “Where are we going?”
“We go to the Halcyon Coast,” the stranger informed him. “We dwell under the water.”
Elliot started to ask another question, but before he could get the words out, the ground under his feet gave way. What he originally took for solid Earth sagged in a spongy, gelatinous sog. He plunged through it and the world went black.
5
Aria blinked and opened her eyes. She looked around and didn’t recognize anything. Elliot Weeks sat next to her. He looked the same. He gazed at her with a beatific smile on his face. “Hey, girl. You all right?”
She rubbed sleep out of her eyes and looked around again. Bluish-green walls enclosed her, but Aria could look right through them at a watery landscape all around her. She could make out other semi-transparent walls, none of which hid any of the surroundings.
She was lying on a bed, but it wasn’t like any bed she’d ever seen before. It was really nothing more than a shelf sprouting out of the wall. A piece of floor extended out to make a platform. The surface squished slightly underneath her. It conformed to the body. It relaxed or stiffened according to her movements and body shape.
Aria wouldn’t tend to think of something like that as comfortable, but it was. It didn’t have sheets or blankets. It didn’t need them. The environment kept everything at one constant temperature so it stayed neither too hot nor too cold.
She opened her mouth and shut it again. “What’s going on, Elliot? Where are we?”
He waved around him. “We’re on the Halcyon Coast. We’re underneath the waters of the Quag.”
“How….?” She stammered. “How is that possible?”
“Take a look.” He gestured to the room in which she lay. “This whole city exists under the water’s surface. Don’t ask me how they do it. I guess they have magic…. or maybe some magic-user created this place for them. I don’t know.”
She blinked to the right and left again. None of this made sense. Gators swished through the water above her head. Fish flickered here and there. Nothing seemed to separate this room from the rest of the water.
She never imagined the Quag being as deep as this. From here, the place appeared to be several dozen feet deep at the least. In places, it looked several stories deep. Waterweed and plants wavered in the gentle current.
