Flight of the Crow (14 page)

The blast from the gun blew the young man's chest away, but right in front of Quinn's horrified eyes, the young man melted into a swirling cloud of blood and smoke and Draak Priest stepped out of it. Quinn lifted the gun to fire the second barrel and the gun exploded in his hands. Quinn screamed and looked down at the bloody stumps that used to be his hands. A sledge-hammer hit blow him in the head and blackness claimed him.

Bryn and Fingle had to wait in a line and pay to get into the Exposition. Once inside, they went straight to the Negro Village. Bryn stopped in front of the exhibit, horrified by the degradation inflicted on these people. She'd spent time in Africa. These Bantu were mighty hunters. She recognized this tribe as belonging to the Bumbusi people who built the great Zimbabwe complex on the Zambezi River. They were an old and great tribe.

“Stay here and watch for Priest,” she told Fingle. His nose had grown again and was trembling as he scented all the different odors coming from the village.

“Yes, mum,” he said.

After casting a glance both ways, Bryn raised her hands and wrapped herself in a cloak of invisibility. She stepped into the compound this way and slipped between huts searching for the witch doctor. She didn't find him, but she found his hut. It was bigger than the rest of the private huts. She recognized the charm hanging over the entrance and ducked inside into the darkness. A woman squatted on her heels next to a fire feeding it bundles of fragrant grass. She looked up when Bryn entered, though obviously didn't see her. Bryn raised her hands again and allowed the spell to dissipate. The woman didn't bat an eye. “Who are you?” she asked in one of the Bantu dialects Bryn understood.

“I am Bryn Sahir. I've known your people for many thousands of moon risings.”

“I see you be a witch. Why you in the hut of Kivunjo?”

“Is he the high priest of your tribe?”

She nodded as she scowled and fed more grass into the fire. Smoke began to fill the hut. It smelled of dried vegetation, herbs and magic.

Bryn felt the press of time eating at her. “Has he been sheltering an evil man?”

“Dragon man been here.” The woman pointed with her chin. “He keeps his belongings in those bags over there.”

Bryn's heart leapt. The dagger could be here in this hut in one of those bags.

“He plans much evil against me and my sister tonight. I need to search those bags.”

“Dragon man no friend of mine. He promise my man many things give him nothing. He promise Kivunjo a dagger filled with powerful magics. He promise to help us get home. He promise Kivunjo lion skins and the horns of the rhinoceros.”

Bryn crouched next to the woman and looked into her muddy brown eyes. She squatted on flat feet. She was very small with the round belly of a pregnant woman. “When will you have your baby?”

The woman's eyes were veined and the whites yellow. “Only Kivunjo know this. He want me to give birth at home in our village, but I think I will have this baby here in disgrace as a captive of the white demons.”

Bryn went through the two carpet bags in the corner of the hut. She found nothing of interest or value. Priest was careful. When she'd finished going through the bags, she stood up and slapped her hands on her hips. Worry wrinkled her forehead. What if Quinn had been right?

“When did the white man leave?”

The pregnant woman groaned and rubbed her belly. “He turn into smoke and leave here when sun was well up. He think we too stupid to see him. Ha! Kivunjo follow him, keep eye on him. White man owe Kivunjo and Kivunjo make sure he get paid.”

Bryn's face flushed and sweat popped out on her face. Priest was going after the skull and she'd left Quinn by himself. Fear for Quinn rippled through her. What had she done?

“Have you seen a white woman with hair the color of fire?” She asked the pregnant woman.

The woman shook her head as she moved around the hut gathering ingredients for some kind of stew; dried meat, vegetables, herbs and grain she kept in a bowl. “Not see anything but inside of this hut. Hate going outside where all the eyes follow you watching and watching. I can't get used to it.”

“When I catch Draak Priest I shall help you get home,” she told the woman. “Your child should run free across the plains of your homeland not be penned up like an animal.”

“If you truly do this thing for me, I will bless you and your offspring.”

Bryn hugged her and ran out of the hut. She needed to get home immediately. Something terrible was happening. She could feel it. When she was outside the fence, she found Fingle sniffing around behind one of the buildings. “We must go home, Fingle. I have a very bad feeling I should not have left Quinn alone.”

Fingle growled. “Yes, ma'am, but I wonder if I may sniff around inside this here building? I smells me the mother of all cats.”

Bryn grabbed his arm. “Forget the cat. I think there's a tiger exhibit in there. That cat you smell will eat you.”

Fingle's eyes flew open. “No!”

“Yes, tigers are huge. Let's go.”

They left the Exposition. Outside on the city streets, Bryn's anxiety would not be assuaged. “Make it home as fast as you can,” she told Fingle. “I'm going to fly.”

He nodded and she quickly said the words that would turn her into a crow. She perched for a moment on a tree branch and cawed. Fingle woofed and Bryn took off flying high over Paris as she shot toward her home.

* * * *

Fenix landed on the roof and morphed back into a human. Something terrible had happened here. She took a deep breath as she ran down the stairs to the third floor. The first thing she saw was the pool of blood in the doorway of Bryn's bedroom. Her heart thudded heavily as she ran lightly to the doorway and peered inside. When she saw the carnage, she gasped. Quinn lay on the floor, his hands a mangled bloody mess. Blood had soaked into the carpet and pooled on the hardwood floor.

The remains of the bedroom door were spread everywhere. Under several large pieces lay Sam, unconscious, on her face on the floor. She went to Sam first, picked her up and held her. The witch groaned and turned over in Fenix's arms. “Quinn,” she moaned.

Fenix laid her down. “I'll see to him,” she said.

Quinn lay on his side with his ruined arms in front of him. When Fenix turned him onto his back he screamed. She sighed with relief. Where there was life, she could work her magic. If he'd been dead, saving him would have been beyond her abilities. She wasn't God.

“Quinn, hush, I will make you better.”

“Skull,” he moaned. “Priest got the skull.”

“Quiet,” she said as she knelt over Quinn. She held his ruined hands in her own though he fought and tried to pull away. Sympathy for his pain and suffering filled her and tears flowed from her golden eyes. Sam knelt beside her and watched with awe on her face as everywhere the tears touched, the flesh healed.

Soon Quinn stopped struggling and paid close attention to what Fenix did. “I thought I was going to die,” he whispered.

“You would have,” Fenix said. “You lost a lot of blood.”

Quinn glanced at the carpet. “Looks like I lost all of it.”

When his hands and arms were pink from the healing, Fenix dropped them. She was completely exhausted. Quinn had been desperately injured, truly at death's door. Bringing him back had sapped her strength. A noise in the hallway startled them. Quinn struggled to his feet and pushed Fenix and Sam behind him. But it was only Bryn. She rushed into the room in time to catch Fenix as she fainted.

* * * *

Draak Priest entered Saint Sulpice Church and walked boldly past the sanctuary to the sacristy. It was after dark and the church was empty. He looked both ways before turning an ancient sconce to the left. The base of the sconce was a gold angel. The angel was holding the globe for the candle in both hands. When Priest turned it, a loud scraping announced the opening of the door to the catacombs below. Priest shot through it and touched a square of raised wood on the wall on the other side. The door closed with a bang and Priest headed down the steep stairs into the depths.

When he hit the first landing, he stopped. Far above, he thought he heard the door scrape across the tiled floor of the sacristy. He waited holding his breath. Was someone following him? He shook his head. Who could be following him? Convinced of his superiority in all things and flying high on his recent success at defeating Bryn and her friends, he continued into the depths. He had little time before he must complete the ritual. The moon would soon be high above the church and the beam of light would come through the eye in the lamb. He had to be there with the
Coeur de Flamme.
He had to complete the ritual.

When he reached the underground river, he followed the slippery path along the flow to the low door. Once inside the room with the cage, he unpacked all the things he would need. He held the skull of Cardinal Malenfant in his hands and felt the evil of the man flow into him. Malenfant had left a legacy of horror and darkness that still permeated his bones.

Priest placed the skull in the position of honor on the altar and began lighting fresh candles. He lit five black candles and one red one, then he took the snail eggs out of his pack. The eggs were like white pearls. Each one was perfect and round. He poured the small pouch of eggs into a golden chalice and placed them in front of the skull and then pulled a watch out of a hidden pocket in his robe and checked it. The moon would be above the church in three minutes and would remain in the right position for three minutes.

Priest slipped the huge emerald off his neck. It had hung there since he'd coughed it up after stealing it from Bryn Sahir by swallowing it. Oh, how angry she'd be when he appeared before her a young, vibrant man with all the power he now possessed. He would take her then, take her and take her until he was tired of her. Nothing would stop him. He would be invincible.

With the emerald on the altar beside the chalice of snail eggs, he pulled the last element for the ritual out of his pack. The dagger of Lazarus gleamed in the light of the candles. The gems in the hilt glinted as he turned the knife this way and that to admire it. The vampire king would be furious if he knew what Priest planned to do with his precious knife.

Priest checked the time again. One minute and the moon would send its powerful beam through the eye and into this chamber. Priest readied himself by holding the emerald under the tube where the moonlight would emerge. A sudden movement in the corridor outside the chamber caught his eye. A flash of light and a shadow appeared. Priest grabbed the dagger determined to kill whoever was there. It had to be one of the horrible twins. They had the knack of appearing wherever he least wished them to be.

A huge shadow formed on the ceiling of the chamber. The shadow hovered over the rusted cage and grew until it covered the ceiling. Shadow arms reached for him and he screamed. Kivunjo had followed him!

The witch doctor put a tube to his mouth and a dart flew at Priest. He tried to dodge it, but the small feathered dart stuck in the fleshy upper part of his arm. Kivunjo leaped into the room and shrieked a blood-curdling cry that filled Priest with terror. His head swam as he yanked the dart out of his arm. The tip was stained an ominous green. He'd been poisoned.

Kivunjo laughed a hideous giggle as though he were insane. “Where my dagger, white demon?”

He spotted Lazarus's dagger in Priest's hand and leaped onto the top of the cage. “Mine!” he crowed. “I take it now.”

Priest fought the tide of darkness spinning toward him. The poison was making him so dizzy. He might be immortal, but this evil little demon had powers. Kivunjo leaped off the cage and grabbed for the dagger. Priest moaned and slipped out of the way in the nick of time. The
Coeur de Flamme
caught the witch doctor's yellow eye and he reached for it. Priest stabbed wildly for Kivunjo with the dagger and nicked the witch doctor's ear. Blood flowed as suddenly the small chamber was filled with blue light. The full moon had reached the right position. Priest had to perform the ritual now or wait another year.

“We must find Priest,” Fenix said to her sister. “He has the skull, the dagger, the emerald and those blasted snail eggs. He's going to perform the ritual.”

“Where?” Bryn asked.

“He must plan to use the chamber under the catacombs. He took me there. There's an altar and a cage. Everything at that level is ancient.”

“How do we find it?”

Fingle walked into the room at that moment. “I be thinking we try the church,” Fingle said. “Down there under that church. I smelled him with my sniffer, I did. He was down there. There's an entrance somewhere inside Saint Sulpice.”

“He must be in the chamber with the cage,” Fenix said. “The chamber is really deep under the city. I remember going down and down. I thought the stairs would never end. And when we got to the bottom, we walked along an underground river. I was disoriented when Lazarus brought me out. I'm so sorry, I can't remember how to get back down there. So many turns and stairs and it was dark.”

“There's no time to waste,” Bryn said. “We must leave immediately.” She patted Fenix softly. “Don't worry, darling, Fingle will find Priest's secret entrance and then maybe you can recognize something.”

Quinn lay in her bed covered with the quilt. Babbette had come up from the servant's quarters with Fingle. She leaned over Quinn helping him drink a sustaining cordial Bryn kept in a carafe on her dresser. He sipped the ruby-red liquid and tried to get up. “I shall go with you.”

Bryn laid a restraining hand on his chest. “No, you'll just be in the way. We need to move fast, my dear, and you need to regain your strength. You almost died.”

Quinn flopped back against the pillows. “I feel so useless, like half a man.”

“You were right about Priest coming for the skull,” Bryn admitted. “I was wrong. I should have been here to keep you from harm. We might have caught Priest. You're not useless, my dear. Your brain is marvelous. You were ahead of me. I should have listened to you.”