I sighed too soon.
The crunch of gravel under tires and the rumble of a V8 reminded us that Darren Yazzie had gone to Kayenta for a few goodies, and now he was returning at a spectacularly unfortunate time.
Eyes widened around the hogan and voices faltered, but Frank Chischilly sang on. Failing to complete the ceremony properly might offend the Holy People-and that would rather defeat the purpose of having a ceremony in the first place.
"It"s Darren!" Sophie said, putting a hand up to her mouth in worry. "I asked him to go to town for me-I didn"t think we"d be dealing with them so soon!" She moved toward the door, and one of the crew members-I"d never been introduced-slid over to intercept her. moved toward the door, and one of the crew members-I"d never been introduced-slid over to intercept her.
"Ain"t nothin" we can do for Darren except hope he figures it out and turns around," he said. "Anyone who goes out that door will die. Ain"t nothin" faster than a skinwalker."
He was right. Those things were faster than Leif and therefore faster than anything I could manage with the aid of magic. Moralltach or no, I couldn"t keep them from taking me down. They were so alien to the magic I was familiar with that I wondered if even the Tuatha De Danann could handle them.
Stay, boy, Oberon commanded.
Don"t worry, I"m not going anywhere.
Granuaile fished her cell phone out of her jeans and hope bloomed on her face. "There"s actually a signal here!" she said. "We can call him."
It was far too late for that, signal or no. The hammering on the hogan ceased, and we heard a thunderous impact against metal and shattering gla.s.s. I rushed to the east wall, where the door faced the road, and peered through a gap in the door"s hinges. Frank kept chanting over Darren"s startled cries. Through the wee gap, I couldn"t see much except for his truck"s headlights cresting the lip of the mesa. The lights shuddered violently as the skinwalkers rocked the vehicle. A yell, two gunshots-he must have had a pistol in his glove compartment-more broken gla.s.s, a bobcat scream, then a human one, and then the headlights reeled crazily and disappeared. A rolling, crashing noise followed, as Darren"s truck tumbled off the graded road and down a half mile of rocky hillside. I doubt he survived it; my only hope was that one or both of the skinwalkers had taken the plunge with him.
Frank kept singing, but everyone else had fallen silent. Sophie was doing her best to be stoic about it, but I saw tears on her cheeks and she"d probably be plagued by guilt for years if she didn"t get help. tears on her cheeks and she"d probably be plagued by guilt for years if she didn"t get help.
I patched up all the logs with bindings while we waited to hear something that would tell us the fate of the skinwalkers. There were no more bobcat growls or attacks on the hogan. A tense half hour pa.s.sed with no sounds from outside, all of us wishing the silence would last another minute and yet feeling that it couldn"t possibly last any longer. What broke the silence, finally, wasn"t a bobcat. It was a human voice-or, rather, two of them, on the outer edge of what could be called human. The voices were hoa.r.s.e and throbbing with menace, and they spoke in Navajo on the north side of the hogan.
Peering through the cracks, I saw the skinwalkers in their human form. Though they kept moving from place to place in a blur, they would stop briefly here and there, as if they were following some unseen connect-the-dots pattern on the mesa. In their brief flashes of stillness, they were lean, of stunted stature, and unclothed. That didn"t mean they were underwhelming; their menace was simply concentrated, like frozen orange juice fortified with Vitamin Evil, and their eyes kind of reflected that, a liquid fire glowing out of their sockets with no pupils. The bobcat skin was gone, so now it was just them with that spirit wrapped all around and through them; their human auras were tainted with black ichor. I was curious to see where Hel must have cut them, but neither of them looked wounded. Whatever it was they were saying, they kept repeating it, and lots of eyes shifted briefly in my direction before looking away, pretending that I wasn"t there. Frank winced the first time he heard it but then grimly continued to work on his sandpainting and lead the singing.
I flipped my faerie specs off. "What are they saying, Sophie?" She pretended not to hear and, in so doing, set an example for the others. No one would meet my eyes.
They began chanting in time with Frank-he"d apparently reached a sort of call-and-answer section in his "sing." And I think it would have been a casual pa.s.sage under normal circ.u.mstances, but in this case they were belting it out and supporting from the diaphragm, an unconscious agreement that they should drown out the skinwalkers with their raised voices. Somehow, the skinwalkers" voices cut through it without increasing their volume. They began chanting in time with Frank-he"d apparently reached a sort of call-and-answer section in his "sing." And I think it would have been a casual pa.s.sage under normal circ.u.mstances, but in this case they were belting it out and supporting from the diaphragm, an unconscious agreement that they should drown out the skinwalkers with their raised voices. Somehow, the skinwalkers" voices cut through it without increasing their volume.
What"s going on, Atticus? Oberon asked.
I don"t know, buddy. I don"t speak their language.
Those things out there don"t smell like cats anymore. They"re human but tainted with something else. Kind of like burnt rubber.
"Sophie. I need to know what they"re saying." I got no reply. "Come on, somebody help me out here. I can handle it."
The man who"d prevented Sophie from going out to save Darren-and getting herself killed in the process-finally took a step toward me and offered his hand. I shook it and nodded once to him gratefully.
"Ben Keonie," he said.
"Um...Reilly," I said.
"I think Sophie wants to finish the sing," he explained, as she and the rest of the crew continued to chime in at the appropriate places. "But I can tell you what those things out there are saying if you like."
"Yes, I"d appreciate that."
"They"re saying, "Feed us the white man.""
Chapter 8
f.u.c.king Hel.
Oberon leapt in front of me and began to growl at Ben, teeth bared and hackles raised. If anyone tries to feed you to the skinwalkers, they"re going to get fed to the wolfhound.
Whoa, calm down, Oberon. Stop growling. You can see he"s not even considering it.
That"s because he"s considering my teeth.
Okay, I"m sure he gets the idea. "Stop growling," I said aloud. Oberon quieted and wagged his tail contentedly, looking up at me.
What"s the meat I get for impressive displays of loyalty? Is it lamb? Because I think I earned a rack or at least a leg right there, drizzled with an ancho-chile sauce and a dollop of mint jelly.
That"s it. I"m using parental controls and blocking the Food Network.
"Sorry about that," I said to Ben. He shook his head and gave a tight little smile. It was no big deal.
"Who are you, man? How do those skinwalkers even know you"re here?"
"Well, that"s...um..." I didn"t want to explain to him that I was on several G.o.ds" Most Hated list and that one of them had recently turned me into a bobcat Fancy Feast. Because then I"d join Sophie in shouldering blame for Darren"s death, plus I"d feel guilty about endangering the lives of everyone there, even though they had intended to lure the skinwalkers out in the first place. "We should probably wait and talk to Frank about that. He knows why, and he can explain it best, I think." for Darren"s death, plus I"d feel guilty about endangering the lives of everyone there, even though they had intended to lure the skinwalkers out in the first place. "We should probably wait and talk to Frank about that. He knows why, and he can explain it best, I think."
"At-I mean, Reilly?" Granuaile said. "If they"re in human form now, what"s stopping them from opening the door?"
That was an excellent excellent question. Aside from the hinges, plenty of wire bound it shut, but I thought they would have at least tried it by now. question. Aside from the hinges, plenty of wire bound it shut, but I thought they would have at least tried it by now.
"I don"t know," I murmured. "Let"s go see." I flipped my faerie specs back on, so as I got closer I could see the door silhouetted by the white glow of magic. The glow wasn"t at the very top, but it was on either side and definitely at the bottom. "It"s the ward laid down by the Blessing Way," I marveled. "It starts at ground level and then moves up, starting with the door. Hogan doors always face east, so it would be simple to structure the spell that way. Clever. If they reach for the door now, they"ll be burned."
Granuaile nodded but had no further questions. I switched back to normal vision and waited for the song to end, as the skinwalkers continued their creepy loop of demanding extra-rare Druid.
I tried to squat out of the way on the north side. It kept the skinwalkers lurking over there, since Hel"s d.a.m.ned knife had somehow turned me into ambulatory ambrosia. Oberon and Granuaile came over to squat beside me.
"Now what, sensei?" Granuaile asked, sotto voce.
"Now we have a long, sleepless night ahead of us. And if they start thrashing the hogan again, I repair it. Just keep it up until sunrise, when we hope they"ll go away."
"What if they don"t?"
"Then I try to figure out a way to mess with them magically without doing any direct harm. But I think they"ll go. The thing that makes their eyes glow doesn"t like light."
With a flourish of Frank"s hand and a final shout in unison, the first song ended. Frank sank down, exhausted. Before he could say anything, the skinwalkers" litany changed, and this started a series of murmurs among the Navajos.
Frank shook his head though as they came to the end and began to loop once more. "That"s all bulls.h.i.t," he said, his voice rasping a bit more than it had before. He looked around at Ben, Sophie, and the others. "Even if we could be sure they"re not lying, which we can"t, they"d never be honest with the deal."
What deal? Oberon asked. If they"re making a deal with your life, I"m going to have something to say about it.
Let"s wait and see.
Sophie said, "But what if he"s alive, Frank? If there"s a chance we could save him, shouldn"t we at least try to figure something out?"
Frank"s voice was full of sympathy. "He"s not alive, Sophie."
"But how do you know know?" she said, her tone desperate.
"I"ll tell them to prove he"s alive right now. You"ll see." Frank set aside his sand for the moment and carefully rose to his feet, coming over to stand next to Granuaile on the north wall. He faced the wall and shouted something in Navajo.
I get it now. The skinwalkers want to trade Darren for me. Frank thinks they"re bluffing and Darren is already dead. He"s asking them to prove Darren is still alive.
And if he is?
We"ll have to do more than sit here and wait for dawn. We"ll have to try to save him.
But not if it means giving you up, right? When I didn"t answer, Oberon pressed for an answer. Right, Atticus?
The skinwalkers hissed, apparently upset that Frank wasn"t interested unless Darren was breathing. They spat out something else, and, whatever it was, it set Sophie to crying anew. Frank shot her a look that said, "I told you so," but then the lines on his face rearranged themselves into the topography of regret. He gingerly knelt down next to his jish jish and announced he would begin to sing again. and announced he would begin to sing again.
Darren"s dead, I told Oberon. You don"t need to worry about me You don"t need to worry about me.
Oh. Well, I"m sorry to hear about Darren. He smelled like a very nice guy.
I was sorry too. But I wasn"t going to be allowed to mourn him now, nor was Frank going to get started on that new song.
A sound like steel tearing erupted from the throats of the skinwalkers and they attacked the wall again, this time with spirit-juiced human fists. They weren"t as effective as the bobcat forms, and I had no difficulty rebinding any damage they did.
The futility of it sank in after a few minutes and they subsided, but while everyone else was comforted by this, it worried me. I"ve met more than my fair share of demons and monsters, and usually they"re so full of juvenile rage that they"re incapable of dialing down the aggression until they"ve killed something. You can"t ever talk your way out of a fight with creatures like that, but you can predict their behavior reliably and use it against them. Up to now they"d attacked us using the "Hulk smash!" school of martial arts. Silence and peace just meant they were going to try something else. But what? The ground was covered. The door was safe. The walls were getting there. That left...the roof.
The roof wasn"t finished by a long shot. That plastic sheeting wouldn"t slow them down much, and those lads were so slim they could drop down through the trusses and beams without any trouble. But they"d have to stand still for a moment to tear a hole through the plastic, and during that time they"d be vulnerable. I rose from my crouch and addressed the room.
"Does anyone have a gun?" The looks I got in response suggested that I"d asked about something profoundly distasteful, like trickle-down economics or the poetry of William Blake. "Okay, how about a knife?"
Ben had a decent knife clipped to his belt. He nodded at me and handed it over, hilt first.
"Thanks," I said. I grabbed the shovel Granuaile had used and unscrewed the wooden handle from the blade. I used the knife to whittle the end of the handle down to a sharpened point, unbinding the cellulose a bit to make the work go easier. I had a makeshift javelin in less than thirty seconds. Switching the javelin and knife between my two hands, I held the tip of the javelin over the fire to heat it up a bit and kept an eye on the ceiling.
Granuaile and Oberon figured it out by watching me.
"Oh, no, the roof..." she breathed.
"That"s right," I said. "That"s their best shot." I gently tossed the knife at her feet. "If they get through, they"re coming after me because of the compulsion Hel put on them. And once they do that, stab "em in the back and duck."
"Will that kill them?"
"Probably not. But it will distract them, maybe give me a chance to draw my sword or save my life-you know, that kind of thing." I flashed a quick grin at her to try to lighten up the message. It didn"t seem to relax her very much. The tip of the javelin was beginning to smoke and glow orange: good. I moved back to the north wall to encourage the skinwalkers to attack on that side, if they were coming at all. I boosted my reflexes and strength with temporary bindings, hoping they would be enough to let me get a decent shot. I"d get only one. that side, if they were coming at all. I boosted my reflexes and strength with temporary bindings, hoping they would be enough to let me get a decent shot. I"d get only one.
How are they going to get up there? Oberon asked.
My guess is an alley-oop. One of them will toss the other up. They"re strong enough to manage it. They proved it a few seconds later.
Take two Fords from the 1940s and sc.r.a.pe them against each other at an excruciating three miles per hour, then feed that sound through the amps at a Motorhead concert: That"s what the skinwalker sounded like when he landed on the roof directly above me and tried to paralyze us all with fear as he tore at the plastic sheeting. Most everyone flinched, startled by the noise and the direction it came from. I didn"t hesitate once I saw the skinwalker silhouetted against the dark cobalt of the starlit sky; I threw the javelin straight up, hoping it would connect, then reached back to draw Moralltach from its sheath.
The javelin flew true, but the skinwalker was so fast that it was able to jerk back and take it in the shoulder joint instead of the middle of the chest. My boosted strength served me well; the javelin plowed straight through to the other side, no doubt ruining the skinwalker"s shoulder, and the impact bowled him backward off the roof. He shrieked as he fell. He missed the ward of the Blessing Way, unfortunately, but I figured neither of them would view attacking the roof as a good idea anymore.
Heh. I think you made your point, Atticus.
G.o.ds Below, Oberon, that was horrendous! You just violated the Schwarzenegger Pun Reduction Treaty of 2010.
What? No, that didn"t qualify!
Yes, it did. Any pun relating to a weapon"s destructive capabilities or final disposition of a victim"s body is a Schwarzenegger pun, by definition. That"s negative twenty sausages according to the sanctions outlined in Section Four, Paragraph Two capabilities or final disposition of a victim"s body is a Schwarzenegger pun, by definition. That"s negative twenty sausages according to the sanctions outlined in Section Four, Paragraph Two.
My hound whined. No! Not twenty sausages! Twenty succulent sausages I"ll never snarf? You can"t do that-it"s cruelty to animals!
You can"t argue with this. Your pawprint is on the treaty, and you agreed that Schwarzenegger puns are heinous abominations of language that deserve food-related punishments for purposes of correction and deterrence.
Auggh! I still say it"s your fault for renting Commando Commando in the first place! You started it! in the first place! You started it!
Who started it is immaterial. You violated the treaty by continuing it.
This is terrible. Terrible! But, wait, it"s the end of the day and I"m still up, 43! That means I earned back ten penalty sausages!
That is a ridiculous figure, Oberon. One.
Eight.
Three.
Five!
Fine. You may discount five penalty sausages by virtue of your minor victory.
Oberon lay down and put his paws over his eyes. Oh, great big bears, negative fifteen sausages! It"s a nightmare, that"s what it is.
His words were more true than he realized, but for far weightier reasons than the loss of meat products. If I was reading things right, skinwalkers were the worst nightmares of the Navajo world, all their other monsters having been dispatched long ago by Monster Slayer, and I am sure there was nothing more horrifying in their minds than being taken by one. It was a nightmare for me too, because there wasn"t anything I could do magically to defeat these guys, and physically they were far faster and maybe stronger than me. I was unprepared, like a bad Boy Scout. Their magic was as old as mine, if not older, crafted independently and far removed from the European traditions with which I was familiar. do magically to defeat these guys, and physically they were far faster and maybe stronger than me. I was unprepared, like a bad Boy Scout. Their magic was as old as mine, if not older, crafted independently and far removed from the European traditions with which I was familiar.
I remembered a bizarre day of my education, when the archdruid taught me how to unbind vampires, beguile dragons, and tame manticores. "You"ll probably never need to use this," he said, "but if you ever run into one of the beasties, you"ll be glad I took the trouble. Now, stop stop looking at that girl over there and pay attention, G.o.ds blast you!" looking at that girl over there and pay attention, G.o.ds blast you!"
I had been an unruly and easily distracted apprentice at times. But I was fairly certain there was nothing in Druid lore that would help me deal with this. It would take days or weeks of experimentation to come up with something new and effective, but I didn"t have that luxury. Nor did I have anything to chuck skyward should they try the roof again; I was fresh out of shovels or anything else that could be converted to a projectile weapon. Well, maybe I could fling the discarded shovel blade like a square Frisbee.
Thankfully, the skinwalkers had no intention of attacking again. They had plenty of wounds to lick, not to mention a sharpened stick to yank out of a torso, and they weren"t (yet) hungry enough for my flesh to continue their a.s.sault in such a state. They made plenty of spitting and cursing noises as they staggered away, and mildly hopeful expressions bloomed on the faces of the Navajos.