Black Key

Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

But first, we had to make a slight detour. Our road meandered northward between the werewolf kingdom of Conas and the vampire empire of Blutstein. Even with the shadows of night all around us, something about the area began to appear familiar to me.

“We’re on the High Road now, aren’t we?” I asked my companion.

Tegan smiled as he stared ahead at the wide thoroughfare. “Yes. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

I leaned back in the seat and tried to do the calculations. “Three months?”

“About that.”

I sighed and shook my head. “I can’t believe I’ve been here that long. It just seems like yesterday that I dropped in here.”

Tegan’s eyes twinkled as he turned to me. “I did attempt a better landing than that.”

A laugh escaped me. “Yeah, but I don’t think me clinging to your back helped.”

“I would do it again with a dozen of you on my back,” he assured me.

I leaned my cheek against his shoulder and set my hand on his arm. “I wouldn’t like that.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Why not?”

I grinned up at him. “I’d be jealous of the other eleven.”

Tegan laughed and pecked a kiss on my forehead. “I would crown you the queen among princesses.”

I snorted and snuggled up closer to him. “This queen doth decree that you are a hopeless flatterer.”

“You give me a lot of practice,” he teased.

I leaned away and playfully swatted his arm. That’s when something burst out from beneath the canvas in the rear of the carriage. The horse loosed a terrible scream and bolted. I started to the side and would have plunged to the ground if Tegan hadn’t grabbed my front and wrenched me back against his side. He grabbed the reins in both hands and pulled tight even as a narrow shadow flew over our heads and down the road.

The carriage rolled to a stop and the horse and I tried to catch our breaths. Tegan stood on the box and his eyes glowed a light red as he peered into the darkness.

“What the hell was that?” I choked out.

He frowned and plopped himself back into the seat. “I think it was your broom.”

I blinked at him before I twisted around to dig through our supplies. A quick perusal revealed the truth and I turned around to face ahead. I jumped to my feet and put my fingers in my mouth. My loud sharp whistle blew forth and echoed down the road, but no broom was forthcoming. “Broom! You get back here right now!”

Tegan grabbed the back of my pants and yanked me down before he clasped the reins in both hands. “I think we had better follow it.”

He cracked the reins and we shot off down the road. The horse was only too glad to work off some of the excess tension and we flew across the ground. I glimpsed a thin shadow swaying to and fro but heading ever onward.

“What the hell is it doing?” I asked my companion.

He shrugged. “It looks like it’s going on a trip.”

I glared at the offending stick ahead of us. “And without me.”

Tegan grinned at me. “Then we’ll have to make sure you’re not left behind.” He cracked the reins. “Yah!”

The horse sped up and I gripped the side of the carriage tight with both hands. We bounced down the road and past several more leisurely travelers, startling them enough to send them to the shoulders. The night grew darker and the stars were extinguished one by one by the branches of the trees that encroached on the road. A silent horror began to creep up on my mind and I found my heartbeat quickening.

“Tegan?”

“Yeah?”

“This is starting to look really familiar. And spooky.”

He pursed his lips as he continued to stare ahead. “We’re headed for the Gallery.”

My heart dropped into my stomach. The Gottlose Galerie. That spectral haunt where the ghosts were fond of company and insisted you never leave. I shuddered and wrapped my arms around myself.

“Maybe it’s headed to Matty’s house,” Tegan suggested.

Some relief washed over me. Matty the Witch was easier on the eyes than that haunted place, though not much. At least she’d be able to tell me why my broom was misbehaving.

We flew down the road and the night changed from waxing to waning. The broom turned a sharp right many miles north of the start of our chase and we turned onto the narrow path. We had only gone a mile when the road ran out completely but the naughty broom continued onward.

Tegan drew out the horse to a stop and hopped down. “Looks like we walk from here.”

He tied the horse to a gnarled tree and helped me to the ground. We hurried down a footpath close at hand and slowly the trees began to take on a hideous appearance of death. The vegetation died away and the earth became a blackened ruin of rot and decay.

“A perfect place to be chasing a broom in the middle of the night. . .” I muttered to myself.

“We should be at Matty’s house soon,” Tegan assured me.

Sure enough, in a half hour, the path opened and we found ourselves in the little meadow occupied by Matty’s humble abode. The usually quiet and calm clearing was filled with cries that came from inside the house, and I could see the door was wide open.

“Get off, you stupid piece of wood! I said get off!”

Tegan and I rushed forward to the door but froze on the threshold. Matty was waving her arms in front of her as my broom was trying desperately to give her a full frontal hug. She glared at the sweeper as she swatted its advances back.

“I don’t need your hugs, I need your owner!” Matty snapped.

Her sharp eyes fell on us as she used her defensive weapon to point at us. “What are you-oof!”

My broom had used her distraction to lunge forward and snuggle the length of its body against hers. Matty was sent sprawling backward and onto the floor where my broom continued its exuberant hugging, its straw end sweeping the floor for joy.

“Get this stupid thing off me!” Matty snapped as she futilely fended off the affections of my traitorous sweeper.

I stomped into the room and grabbed the handle. The broom twisted in my hold and stuck its splintered ‘face’ in mine. I glared right back at it and lowered my voice to a dangerous whisper. “Unless you want to be used as a wheel spoke from now on, you better behave yourself. Got it?”

The broom shuddered and went limp in my hold. Tegan helped Matty to her feet and she brushed herself off before glaring at both broom and mistress. “What in the world is going on here? Why did the broom return?”

I set the bristles on the floor and shrugged. “I don’t know. This thing has a mind of its own.”

“And I’m starting to think it’s the only one between you two,” she snapped before she paused. The witch leaned forward and squinted at the broom in my hands. “How in all the worlds did you manage to give the handle that many cracks?”

I sheepishly smiled at her. “That’s my fault. We kind of got stuck in a magical barrier and needed some help getting out.”

She wagged a finger at me. “You need to be more careful. My brooms aren’t just made of wood and straw. They’re loyal servants who will ride you to the underworld and back.”

I snorted. “I think it’s loyalty is just to you.”

“There must be some reason it came back here,” Matty mused as she took the broom and cradled it in her palms as she studied the wood. She wrinkled her nose and pushed the broom back into my hands. “I don’t see anything very bad about its upkeep except those scratches.” The witch turned her attention to me and narrowed her eyes. “What kind of trouble are you in?”

I shrank beneath her scrutiny. “Us, not so much. It’s Zahn who might be in bigger trouble.”

Matty wrinkled her nose. “What’s that old coot done now?”

“He tried to contact us through his blood connection but the line went dead,” I told her.

Her eyes widened and she whipped her head up to Tegan. “Then he’s-?”

Tegan shrugged. “We don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to find out, only Domini is objecting to us doing the investigating.”

Her eyebrows knitted together. “That blood contract you have with him?”

“Exactly,” Tegan confirmed.

She pursed her lips before she held out a hand, one to each of us. “Hold out your palms to me.”