Back at the tent, I rolled down the shades while Rodger lit the lanterns. The wind off the desert was chilling me to the core. I pulled on my New Orleans Zephyrs jacket while Rodger dragged a crate from under his bed.
He unhinged the lid. “Take a look at this.”
Inside was a good portion of his rock collection. While I tried to work some circulation into my cold fingers, he started pulling out various trays, lined with felt.
I appreciated the thought, but, “I can’t get her a rock.”
“Oh ye of little faith,” Rodger tsked. He drew out a white velvet bundle and proceeded to unwrap a gorgeous pink crystal cluster. He held it out to me and I watched as the lantern light caught the facets of the crystal. “It’s cobaltoan calcite. Used to stimulate love and beauty.”
I snarfed. “In that case, we need a truckload.”
Rodger shrugged. “It’s symbolic. And it’s yours if you want it.”
It was sweet, but, “I don’t know. Do you have any crystal skulls?”
He handed the pink calcite to me. It felt heavier than expected. I had to admit it was pretty. And unique. “You don’t think she’ll think this is too girly?”
“She’s having a girl,” Rodger said, as if pink and girls went together like … oh, I guess they did. He turned back to his collection and began putting the trays away. “Shopping’s over. Five minutes is my limit.”
Men. They never changed, no matter the species.
I hefted the rock. It really was pretty. “Thanks, buddy.”
He tossed me the velvet cloth and I rewrapped it. If I had time, I’d grab some pink medical tape and make a bow.
“Maybe you should come with me,” I mused.
“No way.” Rodger flopped down on his cot. “I don’t do showers. Besides, tomorrow’s my day off. I plan to waste it in front of the TV.”
I placed the rock on my dresser and began shucking off my boots. “Don’t you ever get tired of it?” Our television only got one station—PNN. And there was only so much of it I could take.
Rodger stretched out on his back. “Nah. Especially not with the new prophecy coming in.”
I dropped my boot.
“See what you miss when you’re out playing with dragons?” He rose up on his elbows. “Yeah. Evidently, the healer got a bronze weapon.”
I cleared my throat.
Of course I did. The oracles sure didn’t waste any time.
“They’re back to their soothsaying,” he said, bunching up his pillow and lying back down. “The media is going nuts.”
“Glad I’m going to miss it,” I said, heart pounding, lying through my teeth. Whatever the oracles predicted could impact me immediately. I needed warning. I needed to know as soon as it happened, exactly what I was going to face.
If only the oracles worked that way.
* * *
The next morning, I stood out waiting by the tar swamp, still unsure as to exactly what kind of transportation one took to a gorgon baby shower.
Please let it be a jeep. Or as long as I was wishing: a tank.
There was no telling how far it was to the Island of Wrath and Pain, but I had a pretty good idea it wasn’t a hop, skip, and a jump around the corner. I hadn’t seen a puddle of water, much less a lake, since I’d left home all those years ago.
At least I’d get to see Medusa. She’d canceled on her last prenatal appointment. The poor mom-to-be was scared to death of dragon pox. I tried to explain to her that being half rattlesnake, she couldn’t get the disease (even if the camp had been truly infested—which it wasn’t), but it was no use. Once the gorgon got something in her head, well, it was set in stone.
My fingers tightened on the handle of my medical kit. My other hand held the wrapped-up rock.
I was still trying to figure out how I’d gotten myself into this.
“You see anything?” Rodger yelled from the window of our hutch.
“No,” I said, my voice carrying over the tar pits. If he wanted to talk to me, he could walk over here like a normal person.
And then, I saw something in the distance. It looked almost like a horse. Dang, what I wouldn’t give to see Marc’s friend Oghul at this moment. He was a berserker, and a little rough around the edges, but his enchanted horse was a wicked fast ride.
Whatever it was, it was kicking up an enormous dust cloud.
As it got closer, I saw the animal had shaggy fur. There was no man, or berserker, on it at all. Rather, it had two heads. No, three!
Dread clenched low in my stomach.
This creature could be coming for something else. But no, it was hurtling directly for me.
“What the hell is that?” Rodger hollered.
It was the size of our tent, with the shaggy, muscled body of a lion. It roared as it charged straight for the place where I stood.
Cripes. The thing really did have three heads. The largest was that of a lion. It snarled as the creature skidded to a stop inches from where I stood. I choked on the dust and the heat and the acidic gamy stench of the beast.
The lion’s head huffed, bathing my face with its humid breath. The second head looked like a big, ugly, hairy half-possessed goat. It champed its teeth, and I dodged to avoid twisted horns as long as my arm.
The third head, that of a cobra, was attached to the beast’s tail. It coiled over the body as the hind legs thumped to the ground. The soil beneath my feet vibrated with the impact as the serpent hissed and showed its fangs.
“Fuck no.” I dropped my bag and backed away slowly.
I breathed heavily, trying not to show fear. If it attacked … hell, I didn’t know what I’d do.
Maybe I could bash it over the head with my crystal.
While the other two heads ate me.
It was a chimera—part lion, part goat, part serpent. They were known for their bad tempers and their willingness to devour nearly anything made of meat.
And oh, look, it had a little saddle on the back of its massive body.
I backed up toward Rodger and my tent, afraid to take my eyes off the thing. “Rodger?”
No response.
Goddamnit. Where was he?
“Rodger…” Every instinct I had screamed for me to run. But I didn’t dare. Fleeing equaled prey.
But each step I took backward, the beast followed me, mouths snarling, fangs drooling. It wasn’t letting me go. At this rate, it was going to follow me straight into camp.
“Rodger!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
Footsteps crunched on the sand behind me, steady and sure. Definitely not Rodger.
“Calm down.” Galen drew up next to me, as controlled as I’d ever seen him. “They can smell fear.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, my voice not as steady as I liked. “And what does that smell like?”
He stood between me and the beast. “Tasty.”
“All the demigods in limbo and I had to pick the comedian.”
Galen wore a crisp, new flight suit and his sword belt. The snake dripped venom that hissed in the sand at his feet. “I’ll say one thing for you. You picked a hell of a ride.”
He took one step toward it, then another, his hand on the hilt of his blade. “Stop it,” I hissed. He was going to get himself killed.
He ignored me.
I stood rooted to the spot. The creature had stopped advancing. “Maybe it’ll leave.”
Galen didn’t take his eyes off the beast for a second. “No. It’s here for you.”
The chimera pawed the ground, restless.
“It’s going to take you to its owner, no matter what,” Galen said. “Don’t make it drag you by your toenails.”
Damn Medusa. Damn her and her baby shower and anybody else on the western edge of the world who thought it was a good idea to hold a party on the Isle of Wrath and Pain.
“Come on.” Galen reached back for me.
I hesitated. “Is it tame?”
“No,” he said, “but it will let us ride.”
“I’m going to kill her,” I said, trying to get my mind around it. I found my medical kit. I tucked the crystal inside before following him.
“Trust me,” Galen said, “that’s hard to do.” He reached up and gripped the reins dangling from the lion’s neck.
The chimera leaned down and snorted, its hot breath tickling my leg.
I froze.
Belatedly, I realized it was lowering itself down to let me mount.
Galen cracked a grin. “You still want me to stay here?”
And miss all the fun? “Get on.”
chapter sixteen
Even with the chimera leaning down, it was a chore to get me close to the saddle. Galen, on the other hand, straddled its massive lionlike shoulders like he was born to it. He stashed my medical bag and my gift, before I let him pull me up. Sort of.
He had me by both arms while I tried to fling a leg over the back of the thing. Only every time I tried, the snake on the end of its tail coiled up and hissed, showing a red forked tongue and razor-sharp fangs.
“There. You see that?” I asked, backing down.
Galen was unimpressed. “Don’t let it know you’re scared.”
“Too late.” I wondered if Kosta would have cleared my day trip if he’d known I’d be riding through limbo on a mythical beast who wanted to eat me.
The lion’s head belched fire.
Oh, that was just perfect.
“Come on,” Galen prodded. “It’s just like riding a bike.”
“Have you ever ridden a bike?”
“No.”
I shook my hands out, trying to get some circulation going.
This was in no way like my ten-speed back home. And what if I could actually manage to climb onto a chimera? I didn’t know the way to Medusa’s—or the way back. And I’d better be home by tonight because I had a shift bright and early tomorrow—working with my roommate, so this time Rodger couldn’t cover for me.
Merde. This was such a bad idea.
“I’m not afraid,” I lied. I pressed my body into the rough fur on its back, muscles burning as I shoved a leg up into the air.
Now or never.
“I’ve always wanted to ride a three-headed monster.”
Thank the universe Galen was as strong as he looked. Between the two of us, we managed to thrust me into the sad little saddle. I noticed, with some satisfaction, that he was breathing as hard as I was.
His gaze flicked to the space behind me. “Down,” he ordered as the snake head hissed in my ear.
I didn’t even want to look to see how close it was. But I could feel the lower half of it, winding against my leg.
“Are you ready?” he asked, reins in hand. He’d positioned himself in front of my saddle, riding bareback.
“I’m sure not getting off.” At this rate, I was tempted to attend Medusa’s shower on the back of the animal, rather than try to climb up again.
I ventured one last glance back at my tent before bracing myself against Galen’s hard, muscled back.
“Go!” He leaned forward, pulling me with him as the beast let out a mighty roar and took off like a shot.
Christ Almighty—my teeth vibrated and my bones clattered together as we lurched across the desert. It was like driving eighty-five down a road full of potholes and speed bumps.
Wind tore at my hair. Sand pelted my eyes and my face. I could barely see the blur of the desert as it streaked by.
Galen crouched low, holding the reins steady, steering with his legs as he took the chimera left past what could have been a hell vent, or a caravan, or, cripes, I didn’t know.
The beast’s heads lolled, tongues out like dogs on a car ride.
I buried my face against Galen’s warm back, as I felt the chimera accelerate to an even more mind-numbing speed. I squinted, not daring to open my eyes fully against the stinging dust. The desert was a whirl of red-on-brick-on-red.
The chimera’s muscles worked between my legs, in a full run. I didn’t know how fast we were going. Didn’t care. As long as Galen made sure we got off this thing in one piece.
And I did trust Galen.
The kicker was, I wasn’t even risking myself for a prophecy this time. No, I was doing it out of sheer obligation. That and the fact that I needed to see my patient. This was pioneer medicine—limbo style.
Medusa was technically full term—only two weeks from her due date. If I’d had her in my clinic back home, she’d be making weekly visits to my office. As it stood, I hadn’t seen her in a month.
The beast jarred, and I gripped Galen with everything I had. Its smooth gait went rocky and I slapped hard against the saddle as we slowed to a reckless hundred or so miles per hour.
We were beyond the limbo desert, in a volcanic wasteland. I tasted fire and soot and sulfur. The beast padded over fields of rock and black ash, leaping over tendrils of red lava that oozed from the ground.
Cinders pelted me as we took a particularly hard leap.
What the hell?
We dodged the spiny horns of the goat as it threw its head back and bleated out a small fireball. And there, ahead of us, I saw it—a massive stone house on a hill.
Dang. I squinted. The thing looked more like a rotting temple. It sat in the middle of a large lake. Galen shifted and I struggled to catch an unobstructed view around him, watching as the mist rose off the water.
We rocked from side to side as the beast padded toward the lake. It made no move to let us dismount and I wasn’t about to piss it off, so I hung on. Still, it had to know the water was poison.
The chimera stopped at the water’s edge. The shore was crusted with sulfur. Bones lay tangled in the sand. The creature bent its lion’s head to sniff at the bubbling water and I almost felt sorry for it.
I’d feel even sorrier for us if it keeled over and dumped us in.
“Steady,” Galen said under his breath, sounding more confident than I felt as the creature took one step back, then another.
“You don’t think it’s going to—” I ended on a shriek as the beast drove forward.
I almost jumped off, would have if Galen hadn’t held tight to the hands I had wrapped around him.
We hurtled over the massive lake of fire, on the back of a suicidal beast, and came down teeth-rattling hard on the other side.
My head pounded, my vision swam. I swallowed, trying to make my throat work, and when I recovered enough, I saw all three heads watching us.
“That’s our sign,” Galen said, sliding off the beast. I was less graceful as I half dismounted, half fell into his arms.
I held him tight, my knees useless, grateful to be here and alive and in one piece. I braced my hands against his chest and noticed he was wearing armor.