“To sum things up, Nehemiah’s basically dying and we have to find Dagda, ASAP.”
“Okay. Can you pick me up?”
“Sure.” I hung up the phone and began loading my guns.
“Who was that?” asked Rob.
“Charice.”
“Where’s Gavin?”
“On his way. He went to the store to buy groceries.”
“So, this is it. You’re going to get your dad back. And just in time to fight Donn.”
“That’s the plan, little man.”
“Dagda. Why didn’t I think of him?”
“Yeah. Why didn’t you tell me that Dagda might be an option?”
Rob cocked his muppet-like head to the side, pondering. “Dagda hasn’t made a big splash in Tir na nOg. Not for a long time. He’s kind of...not involved.”
“Maybe he’s busy holding things together behind the scenes. Like how Brigid and her maidens guard the Eternal Flame.”
Rob bit his lip. “He’s kind of let everything get out of control. He’s the father of most of these other gods that are fighting. He hasn’t done anything to stop them.
“Take Donn for example. Everyone knows he’s secluded himself on his own island, he’s making deals with Fomorians, making a Sluagh army, strengthening bonds with the Banshee Queen. But Dagda has remained silent. He’s turned a blind eye and let other gods and heroes deal with it. So, to answer your question, I didn’t mention or even think of Dagda because he’s been aloof. For a while.”
That tidbit of information didn’t sit well with me. But I was not going to let it throw off my momentum. Maybe Dagda was shirking his responsibilities as a father figure Tuatha, but I didn’t really care about that. I just needed him to heal my dad. I’d let others be the judge of his character.
“He’s still my only shot at restoring Tain into my dad.”
“And Nehemiah.”
Oh yeah. The wizard. Even his name stung. I hated how much that guy impacted me, but there was no way around it. Wasn’t my fault he betrayed my dad. And somehow I’d let Tamera talk me into healing the guy. What was I thinking?
---
As always Charice rode upfront with me. Rob, Gavin, and Tain rode in the back.
“Go over the game plan again,” said Gavin.
“We get to Dan Foley Park. That’s where the monsters came through the mist last night. We wait for nightfall, locate the rift, pass through the Between, and get to the Otherside. Once there, we gather our bearings, figure out which direction Murias lies, then head there and find Dagda.”
Everyone was quiet.
“What?” I asked.
Charice spoke up, slowly. She put a hand on mine, as if to soften the blow of what she was about to say. “Sean, I know you’re eager to heal your dad. I would be too if I was you. But there’s a lot of room for this to go south.”
“Yeah, so? We’ll figure it out. We always do.”
“Okay. But I’m just saying, you’re basing this on a snippet of information you learned today in mythology class, which may or may not be accurate. And we may have to do a lot of traveling.”
“But time moves different in Tir na nOg. We should have plenty of time to make it there and back.”
“I just want you to be ready for the worst. What if we can’t heal your dad in time?”
“Then...I guess we’ll have to heal my dad after we stop Donn.”
Silence followed. I didn’t like that answer. It exposed all of the presuppositions involved in my plan. Like, what if we couldn’t defeat Donn? What if Gavin and I didn’t make it through this, but Tain did? One way or another, he’d end up back with my mom, who would be none the wiser. My dad would be locked in a dog-state for the rest of his days, and probably die young.
Try as I might, I had little control over the situation. I had little control over anything. It was almost like none of it mattered. It didn’t matter that I had been gifted with powers, or that I fought vigilantly against the monsters, against Donn, against the Chaos. All of this stuff with Dad happened before I was involved. I felt like I was trying to pick up the shards of a mosaic art piece and glue them all back together, except I didn’t know how the original form looked, so I didn’t know how to restore it. When it came down to it, I was powerless to fix my dad and completely at the mercy of Dagda and circumstance. And that was the worst.
Impotent anger boiled in me. I hammer-fisted the dashboard with a grunt.
“This sucks.”
Charice jumped, then recovered. Her hand slid over my fist. “Sorry Sean. I didn’t mean to make you angry.”
I shook my head. “No. You’re right. And you’re being realistic. Thanks. It’s just that this plan really is a crapshoot before we’ve even started. And we don’t have much time.”
Rob put his hand on my shoulder. “Even though your plan sucks, I’m with you bud. Also, I’m contractually and magically obligated in a bound-to-you-until-death sort of way.”
That made me smirk. “Thanks Rob.”
The weight of Gavin’s hand pressed down on my shoulder too. “You’re not doing this alone bro. We might be down a player, but I’m subbing in, and if yesterday and last night are any indication of what we can handle together, I think we got this.”
Charice’s hand was still over my fist, but I opened my hand and let hers in. She didn’t say anything. She did not need to. Her being with me, holding my hand said more than any words.
Tain managed to sneak his head over the center console and nuzzled my arm. After all the shifting and transformations, it was still hard to believe the family dog was my dad. I scratched him behind the ears. “Wherever you are in there, Dad, just hang on. We’ll find a way.”
---
The dolmen surprised me, even though it shouldn’t have. A structure of rocks at a local park wouldn’t be suspicious to anyone except for local fanatics who complained about everything on the NextDoor app. And nobody listened to those people. But to the supernaturally trained eye, it stuck out like a severed thumb.
What was crazy about the new dolmen, was that, unlike the previous one on an island surrounded by swamp sloughs beyond the outskirts of the suburbs, this dolmen was in the heart of the city. In fact, geographically it was almost dead center of Vallejo. I didn’t know much about arcane magic, but I knew that locations played a huge part in the power of a spell. Minions of Chaos had erected this passageway between worlds right under our noses while we fought to keep things like this away.
We found it accidentally. We were still waiting for the sun to set. Chaos was strongest in the dark of night, thus that’s when the monsters would break through and cause their mayhem again. After so much death, Six Flags was closed for the day. The story the news spun was that a bunch of the zoo animals simultaneously got out and attacked park visitors, injuring many, and killing some. Yet another theory was that it was some kind of sick and twisted terrorist attack, where the terrorists had posed as park workers in monster costumes to cut down a bunch of innocent bystanders.
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I doubted even the survivors knew the truth, that supernatural monsters had shown up for real at Fright Fest. But on a primal level, they all knew in their heart of hearts, it was not costumed faces that had eyed them coldly, as sacrifices to fuel the greater Chaos.
The cover of the magical underworld was all but blown, with the media being the only one holding on to the past. I noticed that the streets were somewhat empty today, as if many people feared being outside in such uncertain times.
Nightfall came and went. Still we waited. I guess I expected the same barrage of beasts to escape from the Otherside and wreak havoc. But the dolmen remained still. Calm.
I kept thinking that at any moment a thunderous roar would break the silence and hideous creatures of every dark form would pour from the gateway. They never did.
Gavin grew restless. “They’re not coming, bro.”
The dark center of the erected gateway seemed like the scope of a sniper rifle. We were going to walk into death’s eye. I drew Fragarach for good measure. “Fine. Let’s go through this then.”
Into the dark of the dolmen we went.
Again, the sense of walking down a long corridor overwhelmed me. The pitch black darkness simultaneously weighed down, like an overbearing watcher, and yet it also felt like the darkness stretched in all directions forever. I could not shake the feeling that we were driving the wrong way onto a freeway exit, heading straight for oncoming traffic. Except we wouldn’t be deer caught in the headlights, but flesh and bone caught in rows of sharpened teeth.
Without Nehemiah, the going would be tough. Just about every other time we were here in the Between, he was leading the way with his amethyst light. He seemed to have an instinctual way about navigating the dark. I relied on Luck to guide me. I willed a trickle of emerald magic into my hand and held up Fragarach like a beacon against the darkness.
After that I felt better. I didn’t need the wizard. It was fine. We’d be out of here in no time.
Frigid musty air blew from sporadic directions. Aside from our footsteps on the rocky obsidian ground, silence rang in my ears. I had the feeling that if ever I were stuck in here for any length of time, I would go mad, no doubt.
My inner sense of time vanished. We were between time, between being. We simply were. The only measure I had were the steps we took. But the dark left no way to gauge how deep we’d delved.
“What is this place?” asked Gavin.
It seemed wrong to probe the dark with questions of its nature. Like making loud noises in a library.
Rob spoke up. “It’s not a place, so much as a means to get between Earth and the Otherside. That’s why we call it the Between.”
Gavin shuddered. “Feels like...we’re inside a giant mouth about to chomp down on us.”
“Don’t say that,” yelled Rob.
Charice clapped a hand over his mouth. “Shhhhhh.”
“But how did this place get here?” asked Gavin.
“That’s a loaded question full of all kinds of assumptions.” Rob spoke quieter this time. “I’d be happy to answer it.”
In a quiet voice, he went into all of the various myths and legends about the Between.
On the one hand, his talking was comforting, like he was dispelling the inherent fear hovering around us. On the other hand, it felt as if his speaking challenged the dark, daring it to answer.
Rob’s voice suddenly cut short as he let out a yip and fell out of sight.
“Rob!” My voice echoed into the black beyond.
I skidded to a halt and held out my arms, blocking Charice and Gavin from stepping any closer. The air pressure, if you could call it that, felt different, like there was a vast space below and in front of us.
We’d just barely walked over the edge of a cliff.
Far below us, I heard flapping and a hoot. After a time, owl-Rob shot over the lip of the precipice and crash landed next to us. He shifted back to hob form, panting and catching his breath. He wasn’t exhausted as much as shocked.
“What happened?” Gavin asked.
“I was walking, then the ground was gone all of a sudden. But when I fell, it was like some force stronger than gravity yanked me down faster than normal.” He gasped between sentences. “I hardly had enough strength to get back up here.” Rob lay his head down on the uneven obsidian ground.
Up until that point, I was so sure we were going the right way.
Rob jabbed a finger into the corner of his mouth. “Hey. Why don’t you just use Fragarach to cut a way through to Tir na nOg?”
“Because, last time I did that we ended up smack dab in the middle of Mag Mell.”
I willed more Luck magic into Fragarach until it illuminated the immediate area around us and then some. The jagged cliff edge cut across the horizon as far as I could see on either side of us. We’d come to an end of the Between. Not the end, but an end, as far as walking was concerned.
Focusing, I tried to gather some sense of which way was best. We could either go left along the cliff’s edge, or right. We could not go back.
“Which way should we go?” I asked.
“Either way. Let’s just keep moving,” said Gavin.
Charice and Rob nodded.
“Can you sniff out a way?” I asked Tain.
He lowered his nose to the ground. He turned circles before finding something that interested his sense of smell. After a few paces to the right, he growled. Tain’s joints bent as he lowered himself to the ground. Even in the low light I could see the fur on his back bristling.
A familiar feeling crept along my body and soul, a sensation I wish I did not recognize. My Keening burned in my chest.
A thing crawled in the dark towards us.
My back stiffened. Green light fell on the thing trying to sneak up on us. Its serpentine head was as big as a small Honda Civic. It was no more than fifteen steps away from us. It had gotten so close before we even sensed it. Now, unbridled vile hatred emanated from the thing as an unearthly hiss cut through the silence.
My light exposed it, so its posture shifted. Instead of staying low to the ground, its head rose up to intimidate us. The head was lifted by a long neck as thick as a hundred year old redwood tree. What little I glimpsed of the body was feline in form, pulsing with thick corded muscles underneath shiny scales covered with short fur. It looked like a leopard with a snake’s body and head. That’s the best I can describe it. But that comparison fails to capture how repulsive it was. Like the difference between a cute pet hamster and a gutter dwelling, coarse-haired rat.
We all had differing reactions. Tain snarled. Silence overtook me. Gavin gasped. Charice cried out in terror. And Rob screamed, “Questing Beast.”
What I’d once taken for wings along its side were massive throbbing gills. I did not understand their function, and I prayed I never would.
I was caught off guard for only a moment, then I blasted it with an emerald orb. “Run, run, run.”
Without any idea where we were going, we all bolted the opposite way. The cliff was now on our right and the Questing Beast was behind us. The Quester was the only other living thing I had ever encountered in the Between, so I doubted it fed very often. I did not want to feed it today.
The ground beneath us trembled under the massive footfalls of the feline atrocity.
I fell to the back of the group so I could launch random orbs of Luck magic at it. They exploded on impact, but fizzled out, having no effect besides temporarily blinding the beast.
With each impact the monster’s rage grew. The roars it let loose shook the ground as fierce as its footsteps and made my skin crawl.
I tripped and fell. Without proper focus my emerald light went out. The last thing I saw was the Beast’s open maw shooting for me. Radiant amethyst wings burst into existence to my side. On my other side a burst of open flame spouted from my brother’s mouth. The Questing Beast halted, taken aback.
“Sean,” yelled Charice. “You have to cut a way through with your sword.”
I scrambled to my feet, fumbling with Fragarach, but in the dark my hand slipped along the edge, scoring a gash along my arm. Panic and pain made me swear.
“It’s too close. I can’t focus.” I observed the cut as best as I could in the low light. It seemed to only have split the surface, but not go any deeper. I ignored it.
A mixed cry of pain and anger escaped my brother’s lips. The Questing Beast regained its composure and was coiling its neck for a final strike. I realized what my brother was trying to do. And I feared for him. For what he might become. He might not be able to shift back. “Gavin, don’t do it.”
Horns sprouted from his forehead. His limbs elongated. Flames erupted along his body, forcing the rest of us back. As soon as the flame manifested, it was extinguished.
Where my brother once stood, an orange scaled dragon knelt. Dragon-Gavin bared rows of teeth. The Questing Beast bucked at the ground. Gavin’s wings unfolded and his neck began to glow. The glow spread up the length of his throat until a fire beam shot from his mouth.
The two behemoths battled. Though Gavin intended to defend us, the fight quickly devolved into a struggle for dominance and the desire to eviscerate the opponent. It meant the four of us remaining had to sprint away before getting flayed open by the claws or teeth of either beast.
“Sean. Master. Buddy. You’re gonna have to cut open a rift with Lir’s sword.”
My teeth gnashed together. It was the last thing I wanted to do. No. Actually the last thing I wanted to do was die under the claws of a sabretooth-snakeoid.
At my touch, Fragarach gave off a faint glow. “Watch my back,” I said to my pals.
Turning away to attempt some semblance of focus, I meditated on Murias. Other than Tech Duinn and Tir fo Thuinn, I didn’t know if I had ever been there. But anywhere was better than here.
Air rushed into my nostrils. I felt the presence of a substance I could cut, just in front of the sword. Raising Fragarach high, I brought it down in a quick arch. The blade rent a hole through spacetime. Light beams poured in from the beyond, from the Otherside. “Get in,” I yelled.
Charice, Tain, and Rob all got through.
“Gavin!” I called his name over and over.
The silhouettes of the scaled beasts were cast in the light of the flames spouting from my dragon brother’s mouth. Otherwise, I would not have been able to tell who was who in the dark.
The Questing Beast limped and stayed low. One of the dragon’s wings twitched. Their cries contained less fury now. Deep snorts and breathy exhales revealed they’d both almost beaten the life out of each other.
The rift began to shrink. I called my brother with more fervor, hoping a familiar voice would penetrate the bestial dragon mind. His head cocked towards me and his slanted eyes widened. Quick as a cat, he blew one last blast of fire at the Questing Beast, then bounded through the rift.