The Heart of the Phoenix (36 page)

Penny scanned the ground and spotted them again, now much closer to the hollow.

“
Get him
!” Susan was moving again, angling toward the earth, toward the man and his captors.

Penny and her friends followed.

Penny recognized the old man Yaegar and her sister by their fiery red hair. He held the smaller brown-haired girl at arm’s length, dragging her behind them, but he held Flanna close to his side, too close for Penny to risk a shot. She kept her wand ready as she followed Susan down at a terrifying speed. She could hear Ellen screaming behind her, in terror or exhilaration.

Yaegar looked up at the sound of Ellen’s shriek, had his wand pointed and firing, and they scattered in four separate directions.

The small girl screamed and yanked free of his grasp, and when he wheeled around to catch her, Flanna stomped down on his foot.

Susan landed twenty feet from the downward path into the hollow, facing Yaegar.

“Let her go!” Susan’s posture spoke of experience, her body turned sideways to make a smaller target, wand steady. When he moved sideways, she pivoted on her feet to keep him on target. “I said, let her go!”

Penny, Katie, and Ellen circled above him, keeping him pinned down and covered on all sides.

The old man shouted something Penny couldn’t understand, and fired on Susan.

She blocked, and his bolt rebounded off her shield, missing Penny’s bike by inches.

Susan returned fire, aiming high to miss Flanna.

He blocked and fired another bolt.

Penny lost patience and broke formation, piloting her bike at him from behind.

Yaegar spun and fired as she closed in, and Penny felt his bolt strike her in the chest. After a few moments of confusion and pain, she found herself splayed out in the tall grass next to her bike.

She’d lost her wand and her breath in the fall, and could only stare up at him, gasping.

Yaegar hoisted Flanna off the ground and crushed her to his chest, a human shield. Susan could only watch, frustrated as he leveled his wand at her.

The brown-haired girl hit him from behind, and he stumbled, dropping Flanna to the ground at his feet. A moment later, bolts hit him from every direction as Katie, Ellen, Susan, and Flanna fired on him, Flanna with a wand so small it fit in her palm.

Yaegar flew backward into the air and landed on his back in a sprawl.

Penny thought the fight was over, but a moment later he was rising again.

She fumbled in the grass until she found her wand, then leapt at him and knocked him back to the ground. Flanna was next to her a second later, kneeling on his chest and shoving her tiny wand into the loose flesh under his chin. The brown-haired girl ran to them and yanked the wand from Yaegar’s hand. Penny noticed the bright glow around the wand’s tip as she held it away from his grasping hand, and the sparks that flew from it.

The girl screamed when she saw the grass at her feet catch fire, and the wand in her hand responded by spraying water on it.

“Not quite ready for that.” Erasmus’s voice came from a distance, and the wand flew out of her hand, through the air, and into the waiting grasp of one of his dreadlocks. “I’ll keep it handy for you, missy.”

They all arrived seconds later, Ronan in the lead, Tracy and Michael behind him, Bowen puffing his way at the rear.

“Okay, young ladies,” Ronan said, and lifted Penny and Flanna bodily from the old man on the ground. “If you kill him he can’t help us.”

Yaegar snarled, spat.

“I’ll die before I help a bunch of traitors and old world barbarians.”

“I can live with that,” Torin said.

“Hey you,” Erasmus said, and when Yaegar looked his way, Erasmus yanked his dark glassed off, hitting the old Red with the full force of his hypnotic eyes.

“Of course, I’d be happy to help,” Yaegar said, his voice serene and his eyes unfocused. “What can I do?”

“Too bad it’s not permanent,” Tracy said. “I like him better this way.”

* * *

Yaegar led them down into the hollow, smiling at the homunculus who stopped him at the edge of the downward slope and bending to pat the top of its head.

“Who’s a cute little lad?” He pulled his hand back and laughed when the angry homunculus tried to bite it.

“Rocky,” Penny called out, and a moment later he scurried up to greet them. “Are all your friends still here?”

Rocky didn’t need to answer. The wild homunculi dropped from the trees, popped up from the ground, climbed out of the hollow and lined the rim of the drop-off.

Torin stepped up beside her and looked down at the eager green-eyed homunculus. “Have we had any visitors?”

Rocky responded with his customary chatter.

“No,” Penny said. “They were in the sepulcher for a while, but no one’s come through to the hollow. They’re gone now.”

Torin nodded and let out a breath. “Did they see any of you?”

They didn’t need Penny’s translation this time. Rocky shook his head.

“Our friend here,” Torin hooked a thumb back at Yaegar, “is going to go through for a visit. It shouldn’t take him long.”

Yaegar pushed through the hanging boughs that hid the hollow from view and started down.

“It’s coming along quickly,” Yaegar said. “Tynan will be satisfied.”

Penny parted the obscuring greenery and peeked inside.

The trees were all still there, and Clear Creek still flowed through. The door, the fire pit, the hard packed earth, but the granite cliff wall was gone, along with the opening to Ronan’s cave. The sepulcher’s concave wall had replaced the natural backdrop, the displays, the pictures, and the Birdman’s mounted head.

They’d replaced the door Penny had smashed through in her escape. It was closed now, and the sepulcher was deserted, except for Yaegar.

The old man turned and gave a friendly wave before crossing from the hollow to the sepulcher, then through the door into his world.

“How long will his happy thoughts last?” Susan had been skeptical from the start. “He was busy blasting Penny out of the sky five minutes ago. I’m not thrilled about letting him go.”

“A half hour... maybe,” Erasmus admitted. “He won’t need that long.”

“Hey, guys.” Ellen waved until she had their attention, then pointed at the brown-haired girl. She’d introduced herself as Jaiden Wright, ten years old, from Kingston, and asked if they could help her father. “What are we going to do with...?”

“Give her the old man’s wand,” Susan said. “We can teach her how to use it, and she can help us help her father.”

Jaiden held her hands up and took a step backward. “I’m not touching that thing again. I almost set myself on fire!”

“Been there,” Katie said.

“Done that,” Penny said.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Ronan said, and Jaiden looked determinately away from him. With all the strangeness of the night, it seemed a seven-foot-tall humanoid fox was just one thing too much for her to take.

Flanna retrieved Yaegar’s wand, then pressed the small one into Jaiden’s hand.

“I’ll teach her a few things,” Flanna said, and led her away.

Ten minutes later Flanna was teaching Jaiden the elementals. Penny watched with a degree of nostalgia, while the others stood and sat around the path down into the hollow.

“If he’s got his right mind back the Red Guard is going to come through in force,” Bowen said. “And as the only non-magic user on this team I’m feeling a little vulnerable.”

“You can wait at my house,” Susan said.

“No,” Torin said. “If my brother comes this way he’ll go by your house. He’s not going to just pass by.”

“Then we should go back now and collect anything we’ll need,” Tracy said. “I’ll take Bowen, Jaiden, and Flanna.”

“Legota,” Flanna said, and brandished her wand in a clockwise motion. A swirling portal opened up before them. Through it they could see the front porch to Susan’s house. “It’s a Jump Gate, good for short distances.”

“You gonna teach me to do that?” Jaiden regarded the portal warily. Yaegar had just dragged her through a half dozen of them on their way to the hollow.

“Not yet,” Flanna said. “You’ve got a few other things to learn first.”

Flanna took her hand and they stepped through. Tracy and Bowen followed them, and the portal closed.

* * *

Yaegar rejoined them a few minutes later, stepped through the door into the sepulcher, closed and locked it behind himself with a deadbolt, and crossed over into the hollow.

“The Red Guard is standing down,” Yaegar said. “Waiting for my word to begin their march.”

Ronan grunted. “How long can we expect them to wait?”

“Until I tell them,” Yaegar said. “That is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“But it won’t be long until Tynan misses him,” Torin said, nodding toward Yaegar. “He should be on his way back already. If he doesn’t return soon...”

“They’ll be on their way soon,” Penny said. “A lot of them.”

“It’ll be more than just the Reds,” Ronan said.

“The Vulture’s gang,” Erasmus said, and the nest of living dreadlocks under his top hat went crazy with agitation. A long one slid from beneath the rim and pulled the hat off. “Hey, wake up and get out here.”

An irritated squawk and the fluttering of small wings announced the small bird’s presence. It popped out and spun a circle in the air until it faced Erasmus.

“
You forgot about me again, didn’t you
!” The bird fluttered down toward his shoulder, then changed its mind and fluttered to a landing on Susan’s head, its small talons twined in her hair.

She rolled her eyes to look up at the irritable fowl.

“
I’ve been stuck in there for weeks
!” The bird looked down at Susan. “Hi lady.”

“Quit complaining,” Erasmus snapped back at the bird. “Shut up and listen or you go back in the hat.”

The Miniature Plumed King grunted and turned his head away from Erasmus but stopped arguing.

“The Reds are on their way, and I need eyes in the sky.” Erasmus pointed toward town, and the Plumed King took off without another word, taking a hank of Susan’s short blonde hair with him.

“
Ouch
!” Susan shouted and rubbed the top of her head. “You miserable little...”

“So what do we do with him?” Bowen nodded toward the still pacified Yaegar. “We can’t send him back and we can’t keep him around.”

Torin nodded his reluctant agreement. “He could return to his nasty old self any minute.”

“You should probably kill me,” Yaegar said, and shrugged. “It’s what I’d do if I were you.”

“How about if I just put you to sleep instead?” Erasmus said.

“I suppose that would be an acceptable alternative,” Yaegar allowed, then yelped as a bright white bolt struck him in the chest. He tottered for a moment, eyes fluttering open and closed, then fell backward in a faint.

“Thanks, Tracy,” Erasmus said.

“Happy to help.”

“Hey, who’s that?” Ellen pointed down the trail to the house, at the scrawny figure stalking toward them.

Penny tightened her hold on her wand and squinted into the distance. “Oh no, you have got to be kidding me!”

A moment later Susan recognized the visitor, and groaned.

It was her sister, and Penny’s least favorite teacher, Miss June Riggs.

* * *

“I knew this would happen!” June screamed. She was still a long way off, but her voice carried well in the sudden silence of her unexpected appearance. “The moment Susan told me you were coming I knew it would come to this.”

“I think she means you, Penny,” Katie said.

“All of that crazy stuff, Susan and her friends!” June screamed. “Those crazy red magicians, it all ended and Dogwood was better off without it, but you brought it all back!”

She arrived stomping through the grass, out of breath and red-faced.

“Enough, June,” Susan said, straining to remain calm.

“Now the Reds are back,” June said, ignoring her sister. “The town has no power, no cell phones or Internet.”

Penny had seen her godmother’s sister angry before, but she had never seen Miss Riggs lose control like this.

“I decided to leave town this morning when I saw all of those filthy foreigners taking over the park.” Penny could hear more than anger in her voice, there was panic too, maybe fear. “I drove west, and came back into town from the east. When I turned around and drove east, I came back into town from the west.”

“What?” Susan grabbed June by her shoulders. “What are you saying?”

“I drove for over an hour and I couldn’t leave town,” June said. She looked into Susan’s eyes, wiped tears from hers. “What did you people do?”

Everyone turned to Torin, their eyes echoing June’s question.

After a long, silent moment, he answered.

“Dogwood is no longer in your world,” he said. “There is no way in or out now... at least until the breach spreads.”

“And when that happens,” Tracy said, coming unnoticed upon them with Bowen, Flanna, and Jaiden at her side, “there will be no stopping it.”

“There might be one way out,” Erasmus said, digging deep into one of the many pockets of his long coat. He pulled out a familiar object.

One of the enchanted doorknobs.

“The one he used to come here,” Ronan said for the benefit of the others. “But if its mate is still in Bowen’s shop...”

“I removed it as soon as I came through,” Ronan said. “I forgot about this one, but the other is back in the cave.”

They all looked back into the hollow, at the curved stone wall that used to be natural granite, with the narrow entrance to a small cave, the cave that seemed to have been left behind.

* * *

“How long does this take?” Flanna whispered, and recoiled as nine faces turned to her.

“Shhhh
!”

Penny watched as she rolled her eyes and retreated to stand with Jaiden, who was too bewildered to protest Flanna’s breaking of the silence.

The mood around the hollow was tense, an uneasy stillness while they waited for Ronan to succeed or fail.