Dae's Christmas Past (26 page)

“And exactly what is that, buddy?” Jake demanded. “What’s your philosophy about?”

“It’s about destroying modern civilization,” Duran raged. “Once we’re done, there won’t be governments, internet, or any of the things that make life the way it is today. Once our horses have ravaged the earth, people will sit by fires in the darkness again. They will worship the old Gods, and follow the ancient ways.”

“Listen to yourself,” Kevin said. “The old ways are gone, and a bunch of demon horses aren’t going to change that. Give it up. You can’t win this, Duran.”

“The wild horses will stand against you,” Mary Catherine said forcefully. “They will call on horses around the world to fight you. You can’t hope to win against them.”

“You are a silly old woman,” Duran said. “The horses will join us when they understand what we’re doing. You can’t keep them from following the demons that are so much like them.”

“I think now might be the time to start shooting,” I said to Jake.

“I think you’re right.”

He took out his gun, but we weren’t prepared for the dozens of horse cult followers who came up behind us—and those people were armed.

“Did you think we were backwards because we follow the horse cult?” Duran asked. “Just because we believe in the horse demons as the center of the world doesn’t mean we won’t defend ourselves against invaders. Get their weapons.”

Jake laid his gun on the ground, and put up his hands. “Sorry, ladies. A man should know when he’s outgunned so he can live to fight another day.”

“If there is another day,” Mary Catherine muttered.

“Sorry, Dae.” Kevin relinquished his rifle and sidearm. “Everyone stay calm and watch for opportunities. We can still get out of this.”

“It’s okay,” I whispered back. “This might be what we needed.”

I saw Osisko walking slowly toward the fire behind the barn. We were on the right track. My heart was pounding. I thought I might be sick. But we were doing what had to be done.

The four of us were quickly rounded up by the cult followers. They took us to the area where the huge fire was blazing beside the big horse. There were more followers tending the fire, probably fifty or so all together. We’d sadly underestimated their numbers. It shocked me that people had come tonight who weren’t part of the excavation team. Why would anyone want to do this?

“I think we should have waited,” Mary Catherine said as she was tied to a tree.

“Hindsight,” I answered. “What should we do now?”

“Well, the gun idea didn’t work,” Jake said. “Maybe the animal psychic could call in some help.”

“I’ve been trying to do that for the past ten minutes,” she said. “I don’t think they can hear me, or they’re scared.”

Jake fought the cult members when they tried to tie him to a tree. One of them picked up a rock, and hit him in the head with it. He slumped forward as they held him, and wrapped the rope around him.

“This would’ve been a lot easier if all the cult people were from the past and didn’t understand cell phones.” Kevin stared at his phone that had been smashed on the ground at his feet.

It made me angry. “Why do you want us here, Duran?” I yelled. “Do you need an audience?”

“It will be nice to have someone that’s not part of our group to witness what we do here tonight with their own eyes,” he said. “But more than anything, I want you to understand the power of our demon horses, and what they can do. Maybe you’ll decide to join us when you understand.”

“That’s not going to happen.” Kevin pulled at the ropes on his hands and feet. “Save the show for someone who cares.”

“What do you have in mind?” I asked.

Osisko was staring into the fire, sparks flying all around him as the huge logs shifted and burned into coals. The fire was as high as the horse statue.

“My horses are going to make things the way they should be, the way they were when my ancestors first brought horses to the island. We’re going to destroy the bridges.”

“You can’t.” I wondered if the demon horses could actually do that much damage. Remembering the feeling of their raw power, I shivered in the cold night air. “You’ll cut us off from everything—food, power—everything we depend on to live.”

“That’s my dream. Once things are quiet out here, we can take over the towns close by on the mainland and consolidate our power with other sites like this. Imagine the thousands of people on the island feeding life to the demon horses as they realize that new gods are being reborn. It’s going to be wonderful.”

“Don’t try to reason with him, Dae,” Jake said when he came around again. “He’s insane. He can’t understand what’s going on.”

But I couldn’t keep still. There had to be some way to reach him. “What do you think will happen when the demon horses need more energy to feed? When they can’t get enough, they’ll turn on you. That’s what happened the last time they were summoned. They began killing the people—our ancestors—that had called them.”

I suddenly knew why Osisko had died to stop the horses. I could see it clearly in my mind. That’s what the demons had wanted. The bonfires they came from were just the beginning. They wanted to dominate humans.

He laughed at me. “You don’t understand, Madam Mayor. They are grateful for my help in bringing them back. I knew the words, and the ceremony. My ancestor was the one who originally summoned them to earth. I have the horse totem. They won’t turn on me. It won’t be long before they’re able to take over the world.”

It was stunning to think that Duran and I were related, however far back in the past. That probably meant he had a gift too. It might be the only reason he could call the demons.

“Yeah,” Jake mocked him. “A bunch of horses are gonna take over the world. You’ve got some weird ideas, little man.”

There was a sudden burst of flame from the huge fire. We were close—the heat was almost unbearable. In the orange light, I saw Osisko watching, and listening to his descendent. Surely this was the time to act if he was ever going to. He knew what Duran was doing. He knew the consequences. We couldn’t help him, but there had to be something he could do.

Duran’s disciples took their places around the fire and began chanting. Osisko crept closer to me, and began to untie my hands.

He pointed to the big horse that looked alive in the glow of the fire.

“I don’t know what to do or how to stop it,” I whispered to him. He hadn’t spoken but I knew what he wanted. The cult members were too busy looking for the demon horses to notice what we were doing. It was possible Duran could see Osisko too. “What should I do?”

He put out his hands flat on the tree as though he were setting them on something to understand it as I would.

“I think he wants you to touch the horse,” Mary Catherine said. “I think that may be the answer, Dae.”

“No. Don’t do it,” Jake said. “I saw what happened to you after you touched one of the small horses. You may not survive if you touch the big horse.”

“We’ll figure out something else,” Kevin reasoned with me. “There’s another way besides you touching that thing.”

I was scared, no doubt about it. I also didn’t understand how touching the big horse would help. All I would be able to see was how it was made, and the terrible things it had been called on to do in the past. How would that make any difference?

Yet I knew that Osisko understood how my gift worked. He knew how to stop the horses. I had to trust him, and myself. “I can’t stop this by touching the horse.”

He jumped up and down like a monkey, slapping the charred bone on the sand.

“Don’t do it,” Mary Catherine urged. “Help me get free. We can get away from here, and I can call the wild horses.”

“Let’s get the sheriff, huh?” Jake said. “It’s not like I don’t believe the horses would help. I don’t want to see any of them get shot either. We need backup with guns.”

“Let’s just get out of here,” Kevin said. “You can’t do this alone.”

I’d finally freed myself from the tree and the ropes, and started toward Mary Catherine to get the rope off her too. Osisko had other ideas. He grabbed my arm in a surprisingly strong hold, and began pulling me toward the big horse on the other side of the fire.

“No!” I fought him off. “I have to free my friends first. You don’t understand.”

He wouldn’t listen. We skirted the edge of the clearing, and were finally within arm’s length of the horse. He grabbed me and dragged me to the feet of the statue. The cult members were too entranced by the fire and the chanting to see what I was doing.

“Dae!” Kevin called out, the fire gleaming on his angry, frightened face as he fought to free himself.

I kept pulling back as Osisko tried to propel me forward. We were standing close to one of the horse’s legs. He outstretched one of my arms and I fought him, suddenly terrified that touching the statue could be the end of me. I’d thought that he understood my gift, but it seemed I was wrong.

I finally screamed out of fear and frustration. The flames from the center of the fire changed color from red/orange to black.

The demons were coming.

As the legs, torsos, and heads began to emerge from the inferno, a cold certainty that the horses could do everything Duran had predicted grabbed me. The terrified faces of the cult members surrounded me. Maybe it was one thing to practice summoning the demons—which was what I believed had happened—and another to have them destroy the bridges that connected us to the mainland. Anyone who lived here knew what that would mean.

As the first horse clawed its way out of the fire, three cult members shrieked and ran away. The remaining members continued to chant.

It was a now-or-never situation. The demons had to be stopped. I didn’t know what I could do by touching the horse, but I had to try. There wasn’t time to go for help. This was happening now.

I reached for the large horse’s stone leg, the smoke from the fire blowing into my face, choking me. Duran noticed what we were doing.

As my hand went flat against the cold stone, Duran rushed at me, screaming the chant he’d been repeating.

Too late.
The impressions and power of the horse began to surge through me.

Unlike the smaller stone horse that Jake had compelled me to touch, this one was clear and easy to understand. I saw the stone workers carving it, and a priest of some kind blessing it. It was thrown in the fire as soon as it was completed. The red stone glowed until the horse’s body was completely orange. It was as though the stone had absorbed the fire.

It had been created for only one thing—destruction. That was why the early cult members had finally entombed it where it could never come near fire again. The blood shed by the demon horses flooded through it, and through me. I could feel the demons rising from a dark place to answer the summons of the stone horse, and the cult members, again.

Words that I didn’t understand spewed from my lips. I was above all of it, coldly dispassionate, like the horse I was touching. My rational mind still clung to my thoughts, and who I was, while the demons tried to rip away everything good and human in me.

Duran stepped quickly back from me. His face contorted, filled with fear. He stared at me, shaking his head until he finally ran out of the circle of light created by the fire.

Chief Palo had arrived, bringing Sheriff Riley with her. They were rounding up the remaining cult members and putting them into a van. Kevin was walking into the firelight, staring at me. Mary Catherine was untying Jake.

“Get her away from that horse,” Jake yelled at Kevin.

“Somebody tell me what’s going on,” Sheriff Riley interrupted.

“No!” Mary Catherine stopped Kevin from coming toward me. “Not yet. Osisko believes she can stop the demon horses. You can’t take her away yet. They’ll destroy everything.”

“What demon horses are you talking about?” Sheriff Riley demanded. “I should have all of you arrested for being crazy.”

“I can see them,” Chief Palo yelled. “Look! Right there beside the fire. They’re huge. Someone has to stop them.”

All weapons were directed toward the horrible creatures coming from the fire. Bullets meant nothing to them. They weren’t made of flesh like real horses. They kept fighting to be free, to destroy everything they encountered.

“Dae can do it,” Mary Catherine said. “She’s holding them back right now. Just give her some time.”

I understood her words, but I wasn’t sure she was right. I was frozen to the stone leg, unable to move. There was friction between me and the stone that was holding my hand in place. It felt like my hand would tear away from my wrist if I tried to move it.

“We have to get her out of there,” Kevin growled. “This could kill her.”

“Not yet.” Mary Catherine put her hand on his shoulder.

Then I could see the red and black horse demons. They were staring at me with their yellow eyes. Mary Catherine was right. They were waiting to be released on their targets. Duran and his followers didn’t control them anymore—I did.

I fought to hold them and then realized that they had to return to the black fire. I had to send them away, even though it was the hardest thing I’d ever done. Their power and ferocity made my insides quiver. I could imagine how Duran had felt, drunk on the ability to control them. It was like holding back a hurricane. Their thoughts whispered obscene promises of wealth and power.