Death's Dragon Box Set

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

His steps were quick and his strides long, and he’d nearly reached the other side of the meadow by the time I caught up with him. I was out of breath, but not out of questions.

“You’re joking, right?” I asked him as we neared the line of trees. A nervous laugh escaped me. “I mean, the Veil of Death? This is some stupid joke you’re putting on with Billy to tease me, right?”

He stared ahead as he shook his head. “I don’t know this Billy, and this is no joke. You’ve passed over the veil, and your not being able to return to the other side shows you don’t belong in the world of the living anymore.”

“But I’m not dead!” I protested.

Any further protestations died on my lips as he abruptly stopped. His eyes narrowed and a frown creased his lips. I followed where he glared and noticed a figure standing very still in the shadows of the canopy.

At our noticing, they stepped into the starlight. It was a woman of slightly above average height, as thin as a rail and wearing a plain black dress that made her look even thinner. Her skin was as white as alabaster and her shimmering black hair trailed down to her thighs. She also wore a wide-brimmed hat with a pointed tip atop her head which could have doubled as an umbrella. A necklace on a silver chain wrapped around her neck, and a pentagram hung from the chain.

“Witch.”

The word left my lips before I even had time to think about it. I noticed the corners of Duncan’s lips twitched upward even as the woman frowned at me. “I am a sorceress, not a witch.” She darted her eyes back to Duncan and clasped her hands tightly together in front of her. “Why are you in my domain without notice?”

Duncan couldn’t have stood any stiffer as he tightened his grip on his scythe handle. “I have every right to pass within all the realms of this land, especially when one of the keepers is negligent in their duty and allowed a troll to breach the Veil.”

She folded her slim hands over her chest and wrinkled her nose. “My magic would have discovered such a creature the moment it entered the realm.”

I snorted. “Then your magic needs a tune-up because that” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder at where the troll’s club lay, “shows that one did.”

She looked past us at the weapon and genuine surprise crossed her face before her sour mood returned. “I see. I will look into this.” She spun on her flat heels to turn away from us, but she paused and cast a sharp look over her shoulder. “Don’t come back without telling me first.” Her gaze lingered on my face for a moment before she marched off into the shadows.

I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. “Friendly people around here. Who else is a neighbor? A goblin with a taste for human flesh?”

Duncan grasped the scythe in both hands and his face seemed to grow older as he stared at where the woman had gone. “You’ll need a place to stay, at least until we figure out what to do with you.”

I lifted an eyebrow as he strode forward. “What do you mean by that?” I questioned him as I scurried along at his side. “What usually happens to people who wander in here?”

“They leave by way of the Veil.”

“And if they can’t?”

“They go to the shadows for eternal rest or punishment.”

I couldn’t help but shake a little as the blood flowed slower in my veins. “But I’m telling you I’m not dead. My truck stalled and this… this werewolf thing attacked me!” Duncan stopped so abruptly that I walked a couple of steps ahead of him before I turned around. “What?”

“Was this creature a werewolf?” he questioned me.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. It looked a lot like one.”

A dark cloud settled on his brow and his eyes flashed with annoyance. “I see. Follow me.” He set out again into the trees but at an even faster pace.

“Hey!” I shouted as I hurried after him. “Do you know that wolf? Does it have something to do with why I can’t go past the veil?”

“We’ll see.”

My eyebrows crashed down. “You can’t keep brushing me off with… whoa!”

The word slipped out of my mouth as the trees suddenly parted to reveal the rear of a large mansion. The Gothic-style manor house had wooden towers and sharply pointed gabled roofs, and there was even a covered wrap-around porch about the ground floor, and a balcony atop that. Gargoyles and stone birds were perched at every conceivable place, and a dozen huge stone chimneys created a forest to hide them.

“Wow,” I breathed as we traveled around to the front.

The pointed end of a triangle of cobblestones ran up to the front steps while the slowly widening body pointed away from the home. I noticed a stone in the shape of a five-pointed star placed in the center of the cobblestones near the front steps of the house. A small carving of a seedling was situated in the center of the sigil.

It was to those cobblestones which Duncan led us, and a line of massive old oaks on either side of us cast a gloomy shadow over the area as we made our way down the widening lane. The route stretched far in the distance, but the view was blocked by a mess of mushrooms. Big mushrooms.

The spores popped up out of the cracks between the cobblestones and their wide, rounded tops pushed against one another, crowded out their brethren to soak in the moonlight. Some of the spores were also tall and pointed, whiles a few more were huge monstrosities of twisted shroom. The trees on either side of the cobblestones, too, had encroached on the path, and many of their children had grown out of the breaks to reach almost as high as their brethren outside of the stones. Weeds, too, choked the road, and grass sprouted everywhere.

“Um, I know you already told me this,” I mused as I hurried along beside him and gaped at the view, “but what exactly is the Land of Shadows?”

“The realm between worlds,” he told me.

“You mean like Purgatory?”

He shook his head. “Not quite. Restless souls do wander here, but divine judgment occurs beyond this place. This is where Death herself resides when she’s of a mind.”

Both my eyebrows shot up. “Death is a woman?”

The corners of his lips twitched upward. “Who else could be so cruel and kind?”

I stared hard at him. “So, if this is her home then what are you and that witch lady doing here? And what was that troll doing here?”

His good humor vanished as he stared ahead. “The witch’s name is Eva. She is a Keeper of one of the Points, as am I. The troll was an intruder.”

Both my eyebrows shot up. “An intruder? Like me?”

He cast a curious look at me before he stared ahead again. “No, not like you. The troll intended to destroy the Veil and allow more of its kind inside the realm.”

“But why?” I asked him as I struggled to keep up with his quick steps. At that pace, the five miles were going to be covered in a matter of minutes. “Why do they want in here? And why did he go poof when you, um, ventilated him.”

There went those corners of his lips twitching upward again. I almost wanted to see what his full smile looked like. He lifted up his scythe. “This weapon allows me to completely destroy any creature, so long as I decapitate them. They are then sent beyond this realm to their just desserts.”

I studied the razor-sharp blade and its glistening point. Even looking at it made me wince. “So why was it wanting to get in here?”

He pursed his lips tightly. “You have more important questions to ask.”

My face drooped. “Like what?”

He turned his face to me. “Like how you came to be here and why you can’t leave.”

I tilted my head to one side. “Don’t you know why?”

Duncan shook his head. “Only the part of why you can’t leave.”

I thought back to his first questions to me. “You mean the berry?”

He nodded. “What induced you to eat anything within these woods?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t really have a choice. I was kind of knocked out after running from that troll thing, and a strange voice in my head told me to eat what they slipped into my mouth. I think it was a berry, but I’m not sure.”

The dark cloud over his brow returned, and stormier than ever. He looked ahead again and tightened his grip on the scythe he held at his side. I started back when the weapon exploded into black mist much like the troll had vanished. “I see.”

“I don’t. What’s going on and why” I pointed at where the last wisps of his weapon disappeared, “were you carrying that? And how did you make it disappear?”

“I am a Keeper of one of the Points.”

“That woman back there, Eva, didn’t have one,” I pointed out.

“Our positions are not the same.”

I frowned and grabbed the sleeve of his jacket, arresting his movement. He continued to stare ahead even as I tried to catch his eye. “What the hell is going on here? I know I’m not dead, but I’m stuck in this not-Purgatory with a bunch of people who are keeping a bunch of secrets along with a bunch of points. What aren’t you telling me and why?”

He turned to face me and set his free hand atop mine. “Come with me to the end of this walk. Both of our answers await us there, if she’s willing to come.”

My hand shook a little. “She? You mean?” I couldn’t get the word out.

He nodded. “Death.”