Mayor Seabright squinted at him, betraying no emotion. “How so?”
Angus looked around nervously. “Well, over the past few years, Delores and I have noticed some fairly frightening things around us. Especially when the moon’s just right. We checked around, and there’s talk of weird monsters coming out and breathing fire and sucking the blood out of other people. Delores herself here saw a huge flying beast one night, a bat the size of a small truck. Gave her a terrible scare. The next week, something she won’t talk about much—she’d only tell me it had ‘lots of legs,’ and was the size of a full-grown man—cornered her in our own house. It shrieked at her like a demon, she says, and ever since she’s been deaf. She doesn’t talk much normally; but if you’ll give me a moment, Your Honor…”
He nudged her and made motions with his hands that Jennifer recognized for sign language, but the veiled head would only shake back and forth timidly.
“That’s all right, Delores. Anyhow, a friend of a friend told us, if you’re afraid of monsters and such, there’s one town you can go to: Winoka, Minnesota, U.S. of A. So we’re here. If we’ve caused any trouble—”
“Of course not.” Mayor Seabright raised her hand. Her face remained stoic. “Part of Winoka’s proud history is its legacy of sanctuary for those seeking refuge from monsters you’ve seen. I do not believe this council”—she said this without even looking at the other members—“needs to inconvenience you any further. You are welcome here. Thank you for coming out tonight.”
Angus Cheron nodded, mumbled some thanks, and gently guided his wife out of the chambers. He seemed happy enough, but the woman at his side walked as if she were carrying a heavy burden. Jennifer supposed the sight of a dragon or enormous spider, to someone not expecting it, must seem monstrous indeed.
“We shall move on,” the mayor announced. “Martin and Gerry Stowe…”
With his grandson’s help, Martin Stowe took a few steps forward, tapping his cane on the hardwood floor until he was standing squarely before the council.
“Begging your pardon, Your Honor,” Martin began. “I’ll speak for both of us, if you don’t mind, as my grandson is a minor.”
Jennifer noticed some members of the council had the decency to appear embarrassed at the scene unfolding in front of them. At this point, however, no one was willing to do anything to stop it.
Except her mother.
“Your Honor!”
Mayor Seabright stiffened. “Dr. Georges. This council needs no public comment tonight.”
“I still must speak.”
The mayor turned from side to side, as though gauging the patience of the council members. It was clear from his scowl where Hank Blacktooth stood on the matter, but the others’ expressions were more ambiguous.
“Dr. Georges, this council holds deep respect for your lineage, which dates back to Saint George the Dragon Slayer himself. It also appreciates your accomplishments as a warrior in your youth, and as a doctor in more recent years. These facts encourage us to overlook your…recently discovered associations.”
Jennifer felt all of the faces in the room turn to her. Her muscles tensed, and she was grateful her father was safe in Crescent Valley. Was this where the fight would begin?
Her fingers twitched on her thighs as she stared back at a fuming Hank Blacktooth. Him first, if I can reach him.
The mayor continued. “But our patience wears thin. Speak briefly, and be done with it.”
“Thank you.” Elizabeth raised her chin and spoke to the entire room. “These proceedings must not continue!” There was a restless hubbub about the room, but she continued. “Please, by now you must see the futility of your actions. You drag a public school teacher in a wheelchair in front of you and tell him to watch his back. You scare frightened people who cannot understand the creatures emerging around them, and indulge their fears and encourage their helplessness. You now have marched an elderly man in front of you, who struggles with blindness and the care of an orphaned boy. What more must you do?”
“We must question them,” the mayor replied.
“Question them about what? Who they ‘really’ are? Shall I as a doctor give him medical tests, to be certain he is really blind? Shall I run a DNA test on his grandchild, to be sure he hasn’t abducted him?”
“Do not mock the traditions of our people!” This was Hank Blacktooth, who slammed the table with a fist and stood up redder, angrier, and hairier than Jennifer had ever seen him. “You have no standing here! You consort with the very beasts we must extinguish!”
This unleashed a free-for-all of conversation around the room, which the mayor stamped out with the hilt of her sword. “Dr. Georges is not on trial here today,” she told the room sternly. “We will hear what she has to say!”
“All I ask is for this council to seize an opportunity,” Elizabeth continued. “This beast we all track—this Evangelos, as I have come to learn his name—is a threat not just to us, but to your so-called enemies as well. While he is a fearsome opponent, I believe we can overcome him—if we seek help, instead of living in fear and suspicion.”
“Where do you suggest we find this help?” Mayor Seabright looked like she had already swallowed the answer and didn’t care for the taste.
“I ask this city for no more trust than you have already given me for years. End these proceedings. Let me and my family handle this. This Evangelos appears focused on us already, and we’re in the best position to handle him. We feel we can help him, rather than kill him…”
“What do you mean by ‘this creature is already focused’ on you?” This question came from a different council member, a younger man with short red hair, freckles on his cheeks, and a skeptical look.
“I mean Evangelos has left messages—messages that appear to target my husband.”
A new round of murmurs shot through the room. This time the mayor did not try to quell them. Jennifer could see the surprise on her face, as well as the faces of the other council members.
Hank Blacktooth was the first to speak out again. “So are we to understand that your husband, a demon who shifts with the crescent moon, has attracted a still greater threat to this town?”
“That is not exactly—”
“I have a better proposal,” Mr. Blacktooth interrupted. “Let us banish you, and him, and your brood from this town. Then this thing will not bother us, and it can kill you all quietly, out in the wild, perhaps. We need never concern ourselves with it, or you, or your traitorous ways again!”
This spurred quite a bit of excited shouting back and forth from the other council members, and the dozens of beaststalkers throughout the room. The vast majority of voices clearly agreed with this horrible plan, but Jennifer heard one or two voices argue against it.
She turned to look at the mayor and saw something astonishing: Tears were trickling down the old woman’s stern face. The mayor and Elizabeth silently stared at each other while debate raged around them, as if they were communicating without words.
Finally, the mayor had enough. With a single sharp stroke of her sword’s hilt onto the table and a piercing look from her mysterious eyes, she brought order to the room.
“That will do. Councilmember Blacktooth, I see your heart is as cold and forbidding as ever. Were it not for your own distinguished heritage, I would remove you from this council for your evil words this evening.”
Hank Blacktooth began to protest, but the mayor flipped the end of her sword and smashed the blade into the table. “I am not done speaking yet. Plainly, this town has strong feelings about the distinguished Dr. Georges. Too few of us, apparently, remember all she has done for this town. Our forgetfulness is a blemish on our souls.
“That said, we have a duty to the townspeople. We are not all beaststalkers here—some, like the Cherons we just met tonight, are here for protection.
“Therefore, rather than completely reject either Dr. Georges’s proposal or councilmember Blacktooth’s, I will accept parts of both. Elizabeth Georges, you are given the task of tracking down this beast you call Evangelos. Dispose of him as you see fit, as long as he does not threaten this town. Should you achieve your goal by the end of this year, this city will embrace your family. Should you fail…we will purge you from this town, as we purged the rest of your husband’s kind.”
Her simple raised hand was enough to cut short the protests and/or cheers that began across the room. “While you take on this quest, this council will remove itself from the investigation and suspend these proceedings.” She turned to the Stowes, and to the last man who had not spoken yet. “Mr. Martin Stowe. Mr. Rune Whisper. You are released from this council’s business, for the moment. Do not attempt to speak to others of what you have heard tonight. Please make yourself available to Dr. Georges, should she need to question you. We are adjourned.”
With the sound of her sword’s hilt hitting the table, a conversation flooded the room, now louder than ever. Jennifer tried to take it in, but she could barely make any of it out. Some people thought the mayor’s judgment was fair; others felt it was an insult to either her mother or beaststalker tradition.
The Stowes appeared relieved and made their way slowly through the crowd together. Jennifer heard the rap of the cane fade as they left the room.
Almost unseen, except by Jennifer, was the last man the mayor had mentioned—what had his name been? Rune Whisper? Tall, pale, and gaunt, wearing a pine green suit that seemed one or two sizes too big, the middle-aged man gave a half-nervous, half-arrogant glance about the room before darting out as fast as his legs could carry him. Before he even made it through the doorway, Jennifer lost track of him—had he just vanished?
“Come on,” Elizabeth said wearily, tugging on her arm. “Let’s go home.”
INTERLUDE
Evolution
The outskirts of Winoka, like everywhere else across Minnesota in October, got dark early. A few family farms had tractors with bright headlights working late to finish the harvest. But beyond that, light was scarce in this part of town. Noise was even scarcer deep in the groves and away from the highways.
Exactly the way Evangelos liked it—dark and quiet. A good environment for wrestling with these unusual emotions.
First, fear. It had been a long time, and in another dimension, since Evangelos had felt fear. Before the prey had grown and turned to hunter. But in this world, there was something to fear—these beaststalkers. Going to their gathering had been a huge mistake, and nearly a disastrous one. Unfortunately, curiosity had won out.
The second emotion was relief. Evangelos knew the emotion from the trails of memories traced from Australia, through dozens of other countries across this world, all the way to this town of Winoka. It was a feeling not far from the surge of blood to the head that came with victory, and a kill. Relief. What Evangelos felt when Father’s new wife spoke up and halted the proceedings. Up until that time, it was increasingly likely a fight would break out, and too much would be revealed. But now, that moment could wait. If it came at all.
Relief. A gift of sorts. Did that mean this woman deserved some sort of…gift in return? Evangelos pushed the thought down deep. Gifts like mercy were illusions of this world, not anything real. There were no allies here.
No friends
.
No friends? Then what was a person who did not want to kill you or hurt you? Who wanted to help you?
This unbidden voice brought up the third and most uncomfortable of all these new emotions—doubt. This doubt, this other voice—it was an unfortunate side effect of how Evangelos lived. Learning more about the people who lived here provided a better disguise, and better intelligence—all the better to hurt Father—but it also meant more memories, more thoughts, more voices inside, more of these new emotions.
The girl—the new child of Father, the sister to Evangelos—she brought out the most of all three emotions. Fear, because she had come closer than she probably realized to saving their grandfather, and Evangelos hoped this young stalker-dragon never learned that. Relief, because Evangelos had gotten away, and was assured of greater strength next time they met. And doubt…why?
Because she’s your sister.
Quiet
!
Evangelos craved quiet, wanted the voices silenced. Only quiet could nurture the sorrow, the rage, close the gaping hole where a soul should have been.
This girl was not a sister. This girl was what Evangelos should have been—what was taken away by an incompetent mother and an uncaring father.
Mother was lost. But Father…
Father will pay.
So close, now. Evangelos had spent enough time in Winoka now to learn which house was the Scales house. And Father’s work took him to the hospital often, near his new wife. But Evangelos still had not really seen him properly, never been close enough to read memories. Father moved quickly and furtively from house to work, and flew quickly to the cabin when in dragon shape. He was being careful, that was for certain. And of course, so was Evangelos.
Spindly claws clenched at the thought of Father. The stench of a twisted dimension swirled off the black scales. It was almost laughable, this name. Evangelos. “Messenger of light.”
There was a message, all right. But light had nothing to do with it. Delivery was forthcoming.
Miles away, several farmers stopped cold suddenly in their fields. The scream wasn’t something you heard: It was something felt in the blood.
CHAPTER 10
The Halloween Dance
“Oh, Jennifer, you look like an angel!”
“I am an angel, dork.”
“Oh, right.” Susan chuckled. “How about me? Is this crown on right?”
“Yeah. I’m surprised you chose this outfit.”
“What?” Alarmed, Susan spun around to check herself, making her brown curls dance. “Is there a tear in the gown? Is the color wrong? Do I look fat?”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just that a princess is so…”