Guardian Hound (23 page)

Peter led Sally to one of the off-white couches, setting his plate carefully on the glass-covered coffee table in front of him. He suddenly missed the wood-paneled rooms of Ravens' Hall.

Virmal and Harita looked perfectly comfortable in the rich surroundings. They were both dressed in fine red silk. She wore a fancy sari, while he wore a tunic and trousers. They laughed with Mei Ling, who wore a sleek black dress that draped to the floor. Ariel wore jeans, a black-and-white Harley Davidson T-shirt, and a new black leather jacket that Peter (and the raven clan) had bought her.

Lukas seemed too nervous to pay any attention to the surroundings. He sat down, stood up and looked outside next to Ariel, then stood next to Mei Ling before circling the couch as if he was herding them all together before he went and sat back down again.

Rudi sat down next to Lukas and put a hand on his arm before Lukas jumped back up again. “Should we get started?” Rudi asked quietly.

“Yes! Yes,” Lukas said.

Peter cringed. Had he ever been that excitable as a boy?

Cai showed him the pair of them tumbling and cawing, high in the air above the hills west of Seattle.

All right, so maybe sometimes he had been.

“Let's get started. Can everyone sit down?” Lukas asked.

The twins sat down on the other couch while Mei Ling and Ariel perched on chairs.

What would he see if the raven clan hadn't been cursed? How would Mei Ling show signs of her crocodile soul? A long snout, or maybe golden eyes? Would he be able to see the shadows of Ariel's tusks?

Peter hadn't found an account from the raven's perspective of their great betrayal. He hoped that one of the old books would have a clue. Not what had happened—but why.

Lukas stood and moved behind the couch he'd been sitting on. He stood taller as he looked at them. “I started having nightmares, premonitions, about the end of the world when I was five. So believe me when I tell you, I know the horrors we face.”

Was Lukas' hound soul close to him? It was the only reason Peter could think of for the change in Lukas—how he'd suddenly gone from puppyish excitement to calm leadership.

“The consequences, however—the complete annihilation of this world and possibly others—is worth the risk.

“You are all here because you're special. There's something in you, native to you, that we can use in the coming battle.

“Sally, you're the brave heart, while Peter, you're the healing one. Virmal, your magic and calm are the opposite of the shadows'. Mei Ling, your ferocity and strong scales are the armor we need. And Ariel, you can see through the shadows' lies.

“Together, we can defeat them.”

“How?” Virmal asked. “What are we supposed to do tonight?”

“I—I don't know,” Lukas admitted. “I just know that together, all of you form the knight.”

“Is it a literal knight?” Mei Ling asked. “Or metaphysical?”

“Do we transform somehow, into this knight?” Ariel asked. “‘Cause, I'm sure y'all are nice, but I don't want to get that close.”

“When I was a boy, I thought there was a knight. Now, I don't know. You all make up his scent. From you comes his essence,” Lukas explained.

“
Foretellings
are not always clear,” Mei Ling said. “Even the best—and I have known many—cannot tell you directly what will be.”

Why did Mei Ling have such regret in her voice? Just listening to her made Peter sad. Who had she lost recently?

“Will the shadows come?” Harita asked. “Once we're assembled?”

“I believe so, yes. In all my dreams, the knight is the only one who can defeat them. If the shadows can destroy him, nothing will stand in their way. So they will come. They'll be drawn irresistibly to our gathering. And then, we will fight.”

“Then why aren't they here now?” Ariel asked. “It
ain't
because it's day out—they attacked me in broad daylight that second time.”

“I've encircled the room with my special brine,” Virmal explained. “It won't defeat the shadows, but it makes them uninterested.”

Peter sniffed, finally detecting the faint smell of vinegar and mint.

“You'll each get a jar before you go,” Lukas told them. “The shadows may attack us individually, before we gather.”

“Great,” Ariel muttered. “That's all I need. Another damn attack.”

Peter squeezed Sally's hand. They'd walked downtown from her place and had planned on walking back up the hill. They'd both been alert and watching the traffic, just in case the shadows tried to confuse a driver and send him or her careening onto the sidewalk and after them.

“We know how important this is,” Virmal said. “But if Harita and I are hurt…well, the tiger clan may seek retribution from the hound clan.”

“Yeah, the boars may come riding for your ass,” Ariel added.

“The raven clan…” Peter stopped, considering. “I don't know if they'd be more pissed or relieved if I'm gone. Sorry. I've upset them recently.” More than upset them, really. One of the elders would probably challenge him in the next couple of weeks.

“I doubt the crocodile clan will care about my death,” Mei Ling stated bluntly. “I was born outside the families.”

Peter blinked. He'd never heard of such a thing.

Of course, under Prefect Aaron's rule, if the raven clan discovered someone born out of the families, they probably would have declared him a half-breed and killed him.

Rudi sat up abruptly. “You're a wild one?” he asked.

Mei Ling gave a toothy smile. “I am. I believe, in some way, we are all outcasts from our clan—different, yes?”

“I'm not,” Ariel declared. “But the boar clan families
ain't
as closely knit together as y'all to start with.”

Peter slowly nodded. He hadn't started out different, but somewhere along the line, he'd changed. Maybe that had been Jesse's influence—the closest thing he'd had to a best friend growing up.

“If we get through tonight, what happens then?” Peter asked.

Lukas shrugged. “Go back to your lives?”

Cai shook himself at that. No, there would need to be more. More healing.

Maybe Sally and Lukas were right about Peter. The battle would leave scars—both externally and ones that didn't show, he knew.

“I say, brunch tomorrow afternoon, here,” Sally declared cheerily.

“Yes, eat and celebrate,” Harita exclaimed.

Peter wanted to join in their optimism and good cheer, but he didn't trust what the night would bring.

Seattle, Present Day

Lukas

Lukas blinked hard and tried to clear his vision when Rudi flicked on the large spotlights over the field. The green grass sparkled in the bright, false daylight. The ground, saturated from the spring rain, squished under his new hiking boots.

A tennis court sat between the field and the apartments to the west. The two-story, brick community center and annex buildings blocked the north, and the east was partially blocked by a group of tall pines. There was only a street and a hill separating the south from the field, and Lukas intended to stay well away from there.

The shadows couldn't hide anywhere on the field.

Mei Ling crossed the field with Rudi, both dressed all in black, looking determined.

Harita strode across next, now wearing a blood-red sari, while Virmal followed, in a traditional tunic and trousers, in black. They stepped in perfect unison, as if they listened to lilting dance music.

Peter and Sally came last, in typical Seattle-flannel hoodies. Ariel walked with them, in black motorcycle leathers.

Lukas took in a deep breath, taking in the scent of the assembled warriors.

His knight. It was a more complex scent than he'd remembered, with threads of ripe wheat fields and fertile Seattle mud in addition to the cool glass, fierce heart, hard scales, and calm mint. The sharp bite of the knight's sword was missing, but Lukas felt sure that would come.

But all the warriors he needed to assemble were here.

“Now, we wait?” Mei Ling asked.

Lukas looked at the assembled warriors, each so strong, standing with nothing to do in the middle of an empty field.

“Yes?” Lukas said. He looked at Rudi, who shrugged.

“They'll come,” Rudi assured Lukas.

Lukas shook himself. His neck hairs pricked up. “It shouldn't be too long.” Embarrassment crept in. What if he was wrong?

The warriors shuffled from foot to foot, looking around.

Lukas raised his head and sniffed. Something had shifted, like a wind that suddenly puffed from a different direction, changing course.

He turned his head, seeking the change.

There. At the south end of the field, where the lights were the weakest.

The scent of the shadows rolled out, foul in the clear night. Lukas squinted; the bright lights overhead made it difficult to see past the edges of the park.

From the thin row of trees and bushes, shadows stirred through the dead leaves, rustling in the quiet night, slithering like great snakes.

Hamlin pushed at Lukas.

Lukas pushed back.
No.
He couldn't change. Not here. Not with the shadows so close. What would happen if they trapped him?

The other warriors started transforming. Peter's fingers had already changed to great feather-like blades ending in talons, a beak forming on his face. Virmal's skin grew orange, white, and black fur, while his hands grew into long, sharp claws. Ariel had tusks that curled up from her bottom jaw, along with hard eyes and wicked, knife-sharp hooves. Mei Ling's face had pushed out into a snout with glittering teeth.

“Sally, Harita, Rudi, in the center,” Lukas panted.

Hamlin kept pressing against him. He couldn't change. Not until the knight formed.

“No,” Sally said. “That's—that's not right.”

“You're not a warrior,” Peter squawked.

“You're the heart,” Lukas said. Shouldn't the heart stay at the center?

Reluctantly, Sally stood in the center of the circle of warriors.

Hamlin pushed images at Lukas, of strong teeth and great claws. Not hound form, no, but at least a hound warrior, so they could defend themselves.

Lukas had never taken this form before. But he trusted Hamlin to show him.

Quick as his other changes, Lukas' snout pushed out, his nails grew into sharp, black claws, and hair pricked out of his face and chest. It settled on him like mist, comfortable and familiar, as natural as his hound form, or perhaps even more so: A true amalgamation of his human and hound souls, forming a warrior. Like the others, he didn't wear armor—it rose from within; the strongest silver lined his bones and protected his flesh.

A tall Douglas pine swayed in the southeast corner of the field, moved by a wind that didn't ruffle Lukas' fur. Then it shuddered and split into two.

A towering shadow lumbered forward.

Fear ran down Lukas' back, his hackles rising further, like sharp blades ripping through his shirt but protecting his back and neck.

The chaotic, boiling clouds rose up and up. Lukas had to crane his head back just to see the top of it. The thing had no face, no eyes, no hands or mouth. Nothing for Lukas' eye to rest on, nothing to address. Foul scents of moldering corpses and bitter acid rolled over him.

“Ready,” Mei Ling hissed.

A quick glance around showed Lukas that a wall of darkness and thick shadows had formed around them. They were surrounded by shadows. The bright field lights bounced off the dark clouds.

The thing in front of Lukas rolled to a halt. “Little one,” it said, its tone jolly. “Is this all you can bring against me?”

Lukas stiffened, a growl reverberating in his chest.

The shadows had never talked to him before. They'd never communicated directly.

“We've been seeking you for so long,” the thing continued. “The viper, he was seeking you, too.”

“Where is the viper warrior?” Lukas asked. There was a trace of the viper clan in the awful scent, but it was thin and corrupted.

“We left him behind, resting, recovering from his great deeds,” the thing said. “He has provided us with so much, giving us form. It will be so much easier, now, to live here.”

“No,” Lukas said, shuddering. “You cannot stay. You can't stop consuming. You'll destroy this world like you destroyed your own.”

“If that happens, we will simply move on,” the shadow replied.

“You will be stopped here. Now,” Lukas said, growling.

“By you, little one? Or the puny birdman, or the kitten? I think not.”

Shadows suddenly flew through the air, thudding solidly into Lukas' chest.

Lukas eagerly clawed at the shadows pushing against his chest. Finally! They were physical and he could really fight them.

He howled when acid bit into his hand.

The things were solid, and full of deadly acid.

Lukas fought frantically, tearing the things off and flinging them away, growling. He tried biting into them, but the acid ate into his tongue and he couldn't spit— his warrior mouth wasn't designed for that.

Mei Ling, beside him, whirled and had some success beating shadows on the ground with her tail. The smell of burnt fur rose from Virmal and Ariel, while Peter howled as he sliced through shadows with his knife-like fingers.

Why wasn't the knight assembling? Why weren't the warriors fighting together? And where was the knight's sword?

Rudi fought the shadows as best he could as well, trying to keep them away from Harita and Sally. But Rudi couldn't protect them. Acid burned his snout and paws as well.

Something wasn't right. Sally smelled scared, not like the wild, beating heart.

It was worse than any of Lukas' nightmares.

Lukas backed up as the shadows pressed in. The others pressed back as well. They were running out of room, out of time.

Where was his knight?

Dark
, Hamlin said.
Dark now.

“Rudi! Cut the lights!” Lukas called out as he clawed off another shadow threatening to drill into him, to corrupt his soul.

With a snarl, Rudi bounced up, leaping over the assembled group and racing toward the shed that contained the switches, shadows streaming after him.

Lukas desperately fought on, trying to keep the shadows back, fighting to keep the humans safe. But Sally cried when a spray of acid flew through the air and bit into her cheek.

How could they defeat these things? They weren't pure shadow. Peter had said the viper had put his poison into them, making them corporeal.

And unfortunately, even more deadly.

The humming lights fell silent and darkness overcame them.

The shadows paused their attack. They were almost impossible to see in the dark, at least until their eyes adjusted.

Hamlin propelled Lukas forward. Lukas bit into the large, towering thing, pulling off a hunk, worrying it and then dropping it.

His mouth didn't burn.

The shadows flowed together around the leader, then dissipated like morning fog, growing thinner and lighter until they disappeared.

Lukas turned around, panting. His eyes adjusted and he examined his warriors, all changed back to human.

Mei Ling's perfect hair was pulled to the side, her mouth and chin torn and bloody. Peter cradled his bleeding hand to his chest, and even in the dark, Lukas could tell his normally dark skin was pale. Virmal had burns all down his right arm. Arial sat on the ground, crooning, holding her arms tightly across her chest.

Even Sally and Harita were hurt. Rudi, too.

“I'm sorry,” Lukas whispered, though he wanted to howl.

Why hadn't bringing these people together, with the threat of the shadows, assembled the knight? Where was the knight's sword? Was Lukas still missing someone? Was there something else wrong?

How was Lukas going to defeat the shadows if the one thing his dreams had foretold wasn't true?