Awen Storm Read online

  He rolled Brian’s dark eyes, and it was Brian who answered. “We're in a place called UnderEarth. There's a whole, amazing world down here, Emily. And all sorts of creatures. We were captured by lizard-men, then we got lucky. A nice Fomorian lady rescued us.”

  Emily’s Da cut in. “We’re out of danger for the moment, but we’re stuck here until we can find a way back to the surface. Assuming the Dracos don’t find us first. Can you get word to the Order? They need to prepare for what’s going on down here.”

  There was a loud knock, and Emily came to in the bedroom in the Atlantean Center. With a sigh that was both annoyed and triumphant, she called out for Khenko to enter.

  **

  For a year, Ethnui had worked on the computer virus and had been eager to upload it to the Dracos’ server. It was designed to blind the reptiles to the comings and goings of any but themselves. But the invisible program would also open a subroutine.

  She tapped a few keys and the Reptilians’ data streamed to her mainframe. She checked her handheld and found it there, too. And all without detection or trace. Ethnui allowed herself a momentary smile at her utter brilliance. Her program was working.

  Not only had she and the human left the compound unseen, she now had access to the Dracos’ data. Without her virus, she would likely have been captured, and would now be rotting in that cell beside Brian. Or they’d both be dead.

  Her neck prickled. Brian was not like the boys Ethnui knew. An intelligence smoldered behind the obsidian-colored eyes, and she kept wanting to touch his thick hair. Being near him stirred feelings she hadn’t experienced before. A sparkle. A tingle. A flutter of the heart.

  Her fingers flew over the keys, pulling up feeds for the compound. The command center was empty. Zooming in on the computer console, she studied the layout and configuration. Ethnui would need to get into its guts to know for sure, but the Reptilian technology appeared similar to that used by the Fomore.

  Accessing their database, she searched for information on the human. The data was sketchy. She clicked out of his file and perused the compound feeds. They rotated through several vantage points, including the cells in the dungeon where Brian had been held.

  In the foyer outside his cell, two lizard-men cleared away piles of remains. Blood and guts were everywhere. Ethnui gagged and switched to another chamber. A Draco slept on the side bench, snoring and out cold. Ethnui clicked through the other feeds, finding no sign of her missing colleagues. Were they in the outer prisons?

  She went back to the feed of the command center, where guards now gathered around a holographic image of a nasty-looking Draco. He was decked out in full battle gear, wearing a half-helmet and wristlets of leather, along with a thick, shell vest. His claws were painted blood-red.

  Ethnui shivered and activated translate mode. The lizard barked commands and insults, threatening to do worse if they failed as miserably as the guards who had died the day before.

  So that’s what the lizards had been cleaning up. Ethnui retched and hung her head over the side of the chair. She practiced a Fomorian calming technique, breathing deeply. On the monitor, Dracos poured into the command center. Their ranks swelled as they jostled one another to cram into the hall.

  They didn’t know how the human could have escaped and had written him off as unimportant. Instead, they were focusing on finding two of their own—a Draco named Ishkur, and another named Nergal.

  Ethnui sat up straight. Nergal was the monster that had imprisoned her father and then Ethnui. But what were they saying? Magma released by the earthquake had pierced the chute system and was spreading rapidly through the base and the town. Served them right.

  But what she heard next was more chilling. Dracos had been dispatched to search the city and all the known Fomorian hideouts. Ethnui’s heart skipped a beat.

  They must leave. And now. If it wasn’t already too late.

  Thinking longingly of sleep, she hurried to Brian’s chamber and knocked lightly, in spite of the urgency. When he didn’t answer, she opened the door a crack.

  “Brian?” A light snore answered. She entered to prod the boy’s shoulder. “Wake up. We must go.”

  The long lashes flew open, and a hand snaked out to grab Ethnui’s wrist, holding her in place. Then the eyes came to life, and Brian let go.

  “Hullo.” His voice was low and sleep-drenched.

  Detailing their predicament, Ethnui blushed when he leapt out of bed wearing nothing but briefs. She turned her back and finished her explanation while he dressed, then led him to the kitchen. Grabbing the two packs filled with foodstuffs and water, and disinfectant tablets in case the water ran out, she retrieved her handheld and its dock from the processor, then signaled Brian to follow.

  “Where are we going?” He took one of the packs and slung it over his shoulder.

  “There’s a spring at the edge of Fomori territory with a dry cave. We can hide there.”

  Brian shouldered one of the packs. “How far is it from their base?”

  “Hopefully far enough. About a hundred kilometers.”

  They exited what had been Ethnui’s home for the last eighteen months, and a shiver passed through her. She wasn’t sure if it was fear or excitement.

  “Stay close,” she warned. “This journey is treacherous, even without the Dracos on high-alert. The computer virus should continue to hide us from their security network. But as I told you before, they can see and smell us in person.”

  She didn’t tell him what they might find beyond the border. Based on the stories Ethnui had heard, it was a dangerous realm from which none had returned.

  **

  Azi perused the seventeen-page report assembled by his team. It listed possible access points between Under and AboveEarth. With all the possibilities, the Dracos should be able to breach the barrier. They just had to find the right ones. He scanned the summary eagerly.

  According to the report, the primary entrances were at the North and South Poles. The openings were so large they could be seen from outer space—2100 and 1500-kilometers respectively. To keep them secret, the humans had allowed no commercial fly-overs since early in their 20th century.

  There were also cave entrances in the Sierra and the Rocky Mountains of the western United States, and in the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains in the east. Other access points peppered the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, and Caribbean Isles.

  There were even portals beneath the ocean. These could be found in the deep trenches of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, and the submarine ranges of the Atlantic Ocean, especially around the Azores, Canary Islands, and Falklands.

  There were also created entrances beneath the Denver airport in the western United States, the Giza Plateau in Egypt, US Air Force worldwide complexes, and in sacred temples in India and China. All the known AboveEarth openings were guarded by the humans’ governments and military forces.

  At Azi’s direction, the team had referenced each AboveEarth point to the corresponding UnderEarth coordinate. He flipped through the report to the map section and spread it on the marble counter. Locating Xibalba IX, his current location, Azi noted the nearest openings. The closest was beneath the Sierra Mountains. And only a few kilometers from the base.

  Azi leapt from his chair and sprinted through the compound. He would take his trusted assistant and investigate.

  Disappearing Corpse

  Lugh sat up in bed to answer his cell. His head chef never called, especially at this hour.

  “Lugh, this is Spence. Did you come by and get the dog?”

  “Huh?”

  “Your dog. He’s not in the deep freeze. Did you pick him up today?”

  Lugh scrambled from the bed, yanking on his jeans with one hand and juggling his cell with the other. “No, Spence. I wouldn’t do that without letting you know.” He switched his phone to speaker-mode and laced his sneakers, pausing when a thought occurred to him. “Wait! Are you getting me back for putting Cu in there without telling you? If so, you
woke me from a dead sleep, and frankly Spence, this isn’t funny.”

  His head chef groaned. “I’m serious, Lugh. Cu’s gone.”

  “Did you search the freezer? Maybe someone moved him.”

  “If they did, they left the blanket and bag. They’re piled in the corner where Cu was propped. Where else could he be?”

  “Not a clue. But I’ll be there in ten.”

  Lugh ran a brush through his unruly hair and threw a jacket over his clothes. He left through the front door without looking at the living room as he passed through. It was too empty without Brian and Cu.

  In less than ten minutes, he pulled into Jocko’s parking lot. Two minutes later, he stared into an empty freezer. Not empty-empty, it was filled with meat and frozen goods. But the wolfhound was gone. In the corner where Cu had been awaiting burial, lay the blanket and vinyl body-bag.

  Lugh gaped at Spence, then back at the vacant corner. Who would’ve moved his dog? And to where?

  “I looked everywhere,” Spence said apologetically, “including the supply closet and the cellar. I can’t imagine who would have the cojones to take him. Or how they would’ve gotten him out of here without me knowing.”

  The thought of Mitch Wainwright creeping into Jocko’s ran through Lugh’s mind, but he dismissed it as ridiculous. Blaming his old nemesis for something he would have no reason to do was grasping at straws.

  “Was he here when you got to work?”

  “Yessir. And he was here this afternoon when I ducked in the freezer to cool off. That woulda been around four or five. I didn’t notice he was gone until closing.”

  As Spence spoke, Lugh remembered Hope’s words. The lives of both animals were tied to the Awen. And since Hope was alive, Emily was too. Maybe Cu had come back from the dead? But if so, where was he? Under the earth with Emily and Brian?

  Lugh hoped so. Maybe Cu could help them escape.

  “Pack ‘er up, Spence, it’s late. We’ll unravel this mystery tomorrow. In the meantime, go home and get some sleep. Cu’s dead, so no harm, no foul. Right?”

  Spence cocked one brow. “Guess not, boss. I’m sorry I woke you up. Sleep in tomorrow, okay?”

  Lugh slapped his back. “I have never slept late a day in my life, but the meds make me drowsy, so who knows. Maybe I will. Want me to stay and lock up?”

  “Nope, I’ve got it. You go on home. I’ll grab my stuff and be right behind you.”

  On the drive home, Lugh pondered his theory. As crazy as it sounded, it made the most sense. They had witnessed the cat and dog’s initial appearances—seemingly out of nowhere. With luck, the hound had returned and would rescue Emily and Brian.

  At home, Lugh shucked his overcoat and walked through the house, looking for Cu and Brian out of habit. Feeling blue and a bit creeped out, he kicked off his shoes and climbed in bed. He thought about taking a pain pill, but rolled over and plumped his pillow instead.

  Only sleep wouldn’t come. Lugh lay in bed, reliving the horror of the earthquake and volcano. He was grateful Emily’s magic had saved him and the entire Atlanta area, but dammit all to hell, why couldn’t he have saved her? Or Brian? Or Cu and Hamilton?

  Lugh was almost asleep when he heard a noise. The tree service had trimmed the black walnut, so it wasn’t that. He rolled over and was drifting off when he heard it again. Only this time it came from the dining room.

  Groaning, Lugh dragged himself out of bed and padded down the hall in the dark, nearly jumping out of his skin when a crash sounded on the patio. Heart pounding, he grabbed his baseball bat and tiptoed to the slider. Sucking in a breath, he flicked on the light and peeked through the blinds.

  There, alive and in glorious color, was Cu the Irish wolfhound, who exploded into loud, frantic barking and reared to put his paws on the door. In seconds, Lugh had removed the two-by-four and opened the slider.

  “Cu!” he gurgled, happier than he’d been since the earthquake.

  One hundred and forty pounds of dog bounded in, knocking him to the floor. Laughing, Lugh tried to wiggle away, but the dog slathered him everywhere with his long tongue. Clutching Cu in a bear hug, Lugh rolled on the floor with the gangly wolfhound.

  Cu yelped with joy, then squirmed free to skitter back-and-forth between the kitchen and living room barking.

  “How’d you get here, dude? You were dead!”

  Cu shoved his empty bowl across the floor and barked.

  Laughing, Lugh snagged it and filled it with kibble. Cu’s bark grew shriller. Lugh set the bowl in its usual spot and the barking was replaced by the frantic crunch of kibble.

  “Death and reincarnation made you hungry, huh boy?” Lugh stared in wonder. Cu was alive. Really and truly alive.

  Filling the other bowl with filtered water, Lugh chuckled when Cu lapped it noisily. He bent to hug the dog close and ran his hands over his curls. Cu whined and went back to eating.

  “So how did you do it?” Lugh asked, though he knew the lives of the animal Elders were tied to the Awen. Hope was alive, and now Cu was alive. By extension, that meant Emily was too. Grabbing his cell from its dock on the counter, Lugh sent a text to Morgan and Arthur, despite the late hour.

  Water Dragon

  Emily gazed out the window at the waves crashing against the shore. She ached to curl in a ball in the morning sun and sleep for a hundred, no, a thousand years. But even a short nap would be nice. She eyed the lanky American Indian.

  Khenko had told her he was a shaman of the first degree, trained as an Iroquois medicine man to minister to his people. But he had abandoned that calling after some terrible experience he refused to share. He’d run from the responsibilities thrust upon him, leaving the tribe and his family back in Princeton, New Jersey. Emily could relate.

  How many times in her almost thirty years had she done the same? And how often had she wanted to leave since learning of her world-saving burden? So many, she couldn’t begin to count. She had no right to judge this man for doing the same.

  But, Khenko Blitherstone was avoiding her question. When his expression remained blank, she prodded. “There is no plan, is there?”

  His answer was flat and emotionless. “Not really, no.”

  “There’s something important you’re not telling me. Spill, Khenko.”

  Evading her gaze, he cleared the remains of breakfast from the kitchen.

  “Would you at least tell me how I’m supposed to get back to Atlanta? You say that you know who I am, but do you also know that the druids are depending on me? That I have to finish my training so I can help avert some world-ending disaster?”

  The medicine man looked down at feet the size of diving flippers. A shock of strawberry hair slid across his face. “According to Draig Talav, you are to remain with me until you regain your strength. She says the dragons will teach you what the druids cannot. Past this, I’ve not been told. Past this, I cannot see.”

  “Dragons?” Emily squeaked. “Where are the others?”

  “Beats me,” Khenko said, wiping the table. “I have only met Talav. But she said dragons, plural. She called them Keepers. Does that mean anything to you?”

  Emily nodded, remembering what Hope had told them that night in the Wren’s Roost library. “The Keepers keep watch over Earth and her inhabitants. They save us from ourselves and one another.” Then she thought of Talav’s explanation. “Oh wait. Talav said the Keepers keep us humans safe from reptilian aliens that live inside Earth. And there’s something called a forgetfulness curse. The Keepers are responsible for that too. Or so I think.”

  “Aliens live inside the earth?” Khenko pulled at his long chin. “Talav didn’t mention anything like that. She did tell me about the forgetfulness curse. She threatened me with it and made a big deal of letting me keep my memory. If she hadn’t needed my help to save you, I doubt I would remember a thing. She let you remember, too,” he added. “You must be special.”

  “Not so much,” Emily mumbled. “According to her, I am one of a few who are immune to
the dragons’ forgetfulness curse.” She yawned, not bothering to cover her mouth. Her eyelids felt heavy, and her head heavier as it sank toward her chest.

  Khenko rounded the table to put an arm around her waist. “Let’s get you back in bed, princess.”

  “No, no,” she protested and pointed to the sea churning outside the window. “Can I go out to the beach? I’d love to curl up on the sand, assuming that’s okay with you and the dragons.”

  Her sarcasm landed. Khenko blushed, though the change in color was difficult to discern on his permanently-tanned face.

  “Of course, madam.” He swept into a bow. “Your wish is my command.”

  “In that case, take me home. Or let me use your cell phone.”

  The medicine man snorted. “You know I can’t. But I can take you out to the cabana. Then I want to hear about those aliens when you wake up.”

  **

  Exiting the vortex, Draig Ooschu, the water dragon, paddled toward the isle of Zephyr Cay. Her bumbling sister had managed to corral the Awen, though Ooschu had failed. That burned within her like Tienu’s fire. But the Awen was injured, and another human was now involved in what should be a clandestine operation.

  Slicing through some of the clearest water in the world, Ooschu spotted a large squid, her favorite delicacy. The translucent creature scooted along the ocean floor, barely discernable against the creamy-white layer of crushed seashells. Unable to resist, she dove for the snack before continuing her journey.

  The closer she got to her destination, the stronger she could feel the Awen’s pull. Slowing to a halt, Ooschu trod water to survey the land. The lee side was covered in dense vegetation, mostly mangroves and scrub palms so thick that even the diminutive key deer would have trouble picking through them. Sea turtles sunned on a fallen palm trunk, and colorful parrots chattered in the trees. But the structures Talav had mentioned were nowhere to be seen.