Serpent's Storm Part 10

And that's when I understood that Kali, the crazy G.o.ddess, had sent me back in time. It shouldn't have surprised me because it had happened to me before. Frustrated, I wondered if she'd even realized what she'd done, but I didn't have time to linger on that thought because the Ender of Death was attacking me/my dad again.

"I am going to fulfill my destiny right here and now, Death," Marcel said, both fists raised as he smashed into my dad, sending him sprawling back onto the ground.

This time my dad just lay there in the gra.s.s, looking resigned.

"It doesn't matter what you do to me. My daughter will find you and destroy you."

It took me a minute to realize my dad was talking about me. I was shocked. He was putting his faith in me, the daughter who'd shunned his work and run away from home so she wouldn't get suckered into the family business. I'd never done anything to earn his trust, but here he was giving it to me anyway.

"I will give your daughter a chance to relinquish her power," the Ender of Death said, nonchalantly pulling at the bottom of his T-s.h.i.+rt. "I will offer her a way out, but I hope she will not take it. Then she will die by my hand, just as you will."

My dad began to laugh, his whole body shaking with it. He was tickled by something the Ender of Death had said, but for the life of me, I couldn't have told you what. Actually, I wanted to tap into his brain and see what was so G.o.dd.a.m.n funny, but I found that it wasn't an option.

"What's so funny?" Marcel barked, a.s.suming he was the b.u.t.t of some secret joke. Fueled with anger, he struck my dad in the shoulder with his foot. I felt my/my dad's shoulder bloom with pain and I suspected the Ender of Death had broken our collarbone.

This was crazy. Why wasn't my dad fighting back? Why was he allowing Marcel, the insane Ender of Death, to hurt him?

I got my answers in rapid succession: "Don't hurt him!"

My dad turned his head and I saw my sister Clio and my mother kneeling in the dirt a few feet away. My mother was sobbing and her head hung forward so I couldn't see her face. Beside her, my dad's attorney, Father McGee, looked on, his face composed. Clio, defiant as ever, knelt at attention, hatred oozing from every pore in her body. Her left eye was a swollen purple mess, and a fierce blow to her face had split her lower lip almost in two. Standing on either side of them, keeping them restrained with papyrus rope, were the Jackal Brothers.

"Quiet, Clio," my dad started to say, but one of the jackal-headed b.a.s.t.a.r.ds took matters into his own hands. He slammed his fist into the side of Clio's neck and she slumped forward, dazed.

"I'll ask you again," Marcel said, leaning in toward my dad's face for maximum effect. "Why are you laughing at me?"

My dad shrugged.

"I laugh because you will never win. It's very simple. Calliope will kill you and then the next incarnation of the Ender of Death will be called up and she will fight them, too."

It was nice to hear how confident my dad was about my prowess as a killer, but I thought he was going a little overboard-I was as much a crack a.s.sa.s.sin as I was a n.o.bel Prize-winning microbiologist.

Ha!

The Ender of Death sneered at my dad, not liking what he was saying one teensy bit.

"Well, then," the Ender of Death replied, "it's a pity you won't live to see it."

Marcel turned on his heel, making his way over to where the Jackal Brothers stood with their hostages.

"Let me have it," Marcel said, extending his hand. With horror, I watched as one of the Jackal Brothers drew a clear-bladed scythe from a sheath at his hip and laid the iron handle in Marcel's outstretched palm.

So this is my dad's weakness, I thought, staring at the scythe. I'd never have guessed that something so simple could end my dad's immortal life forever. I thought, staring at the scythe. I'd never have guessed that something so simple could end my dad's immortal life forever.

Marcel turned around, a smirk lifting the corners of his mouth as he walked back over to where my dad waited.

"Good-bye, Death."

He lifted the scythe high in the air, the diamond blade so clear I could see the sun-a tiny orange ball s.h.i.+mmering on the horizon-through it. Time froze and then began again, but in slow-mo, so that I could enjoy the delicate curve of the scythe as it sailed through the air toward me/my dad.

"NO! Please don't hurt him!!" I heard my mom scream, but it was like her words were being strained through a sieve so that I could hardly understand their meaning. I heard my mom scream, but it was like her words were being strained through a sieve so that I could hardly understand their meaning.

I knew my dad couldn't hear my thoughts. I was reliving something that'd already occurred in the past and I had no ability to change its outcome, no matter how desperately I wanted to. Still, I urged my dad to get up and flee, to save himself from his own impending death, but he was immovable. His body remained prostrate in the dirt before the Ender of Death's diamond-bladed scythe even as the whoosh whoosh of the blade cut through the air and the sound of death filled my ears. I caught a glimpse of the diamond blade in my peripheral vision, moving so quickly I could only hold it in my gaze for a second. of the blade cut through the air and the sound of death filled my ears. I caught a glimpse of the diamond blade in my peripheral vision, moving so quickly I could only hold it in my gaze for a second.

Then everything went dark . . . and then I could not see to see.

twelve.

It was jarring to be back in my own body-even more so to have been a mute witness to my father's murder. Everything Jarvis and Hyacinth had said was true: I was Death again, well, at least partly, until Daniel came along to challenge me-then all bets were off. The strangest part of the experience had been hearing my dad tell the Ender of Death that I would avenge him. My dad had never spoken to me like that before. In fact, he'd done everything to dissuade me from using magic, almost as if he were protecting me from my birthright . . . something I'd never considered before.

With the obstinacy of a child, I'd railed against joining the family business . . . but maybe that was just what my dad had intended, what he had wanted all along: for me to be as far away from Death as possible-but thinking the idea was my own. He'd been s.h.i.+elding me from the supernatural world, letting me have a real life while it was still humanly possible to do so-and I'd completely misunderstood his intentions. I'd been living under false pretenses, existing in the land of denial not because I wanted to, but because it had been engineered that way by my parents.

I had this odd feeling I'd never really known my father- and now I was never gonna get the chance to remedy it, because he was gone. I had already done so much crying I didn't think I was capable of any more tears, but I was wrong. The tears came freely, and once they'd begun, they didn't want to stop.

"He's dead." I shuddered. "They killed him with a diamond-bladed scythe, cut his head off."

Kali was gone-back to Purgatory to help try and reclaim Death, Inc.-or else she would've laughed in my face when I continued with: "They have my mom and sister and I have to go back and save them."

Hyacinth was much kinder. She merely shook her head no.

"You'll do them no good dead. You have to prepare to face the challenge ahead of you. Only then can you save your family."

Hyacinth was right.

If I wanted to help anyone else, I had to help myself first.

"I'm ready," I said to Hyacinth, but she merely nodded and pointed to the sea.

"Ask for his help."

"Help me-" I started to scream, my voice sailing across the waves, but it proved to be unnecessary. Watatsumi had many ears listening to our conversation, and within seconds the water at the marsh's edge was alive with bubbles.

"I heard tale you were looking for guidance," the old man said as he dredged his human body out of the water and flopped onto the brittle gra.s.s in front of us.

The upper part of his body was as I remembered it-a long, lean torso wrapped in a kimono-but the lower half was now nothing more than a flat fish tail made up of thousands of sparkling red jewel-like scales. As soon as he had beached himself on dry land, the glittering scales began to fade until they were gray and l.u.s.terless. The old man reached down, catching hold of the scaled fish tail and shedding it as if it were a second skin to reveal the gra.s.s skirt he was wearing underneath. The old man hoisted the fish tail back into the sea, where it sank below the waves. He stood up and walked toward me, moving with as much ease on dry land as he had underwater.

Hyacinth took the opportunity to go, disappearing behind the sh.e.l.l of the burnt-out helicopter and leaving me in the old man's capable hands.

"I want to learn how to beat my challenger," I said, "I want to kick his a.s.s. I hear you can help me."

The old man giggled, pleased with my irreverence.

"Good, that makes things easier," he replied. "Think fast."

I felt something heavy fly into my midsection, knocking me backward onto my a.s.s.

"What the-" I started to say, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw something large and silvery escape the waves and shoot toward me. On guard now, I rolled over onto my side so that the silvery thing shot past me and landed on the gra.s.s, flopping around wildly.

"A fish? You're attacking me with fish fish?" I managed before another sea creature flew through the air, flinging itself at me like a berserker.

"This is gross!" I said, sidestepping another flying fish and glaring at the old man. I didn't care that he looked pathetic and harmless in his ratty gra.s.s skirt. I knew underneath the sweet old man exterior was a scaly sea serpent biding its time until it could show its true form and chomp me in two.

"Stop throwing fish at me!" I screamed as I bent down and picked up one of the floundering creatures, its gills working overtime as it tried to suck some air out of the alien and inhospitable environment.

"You're gonna kill them," I said, throwing the projectile fish back into the water, where it swam out of sight-only to have three more leap out at me for my trouble. One of the fish slammed into my shoulder, knocking me down hard. But it was really on the losing end of that proposition, dying on impact, a smear of blood marking my shoulder as the murder weapon.

"Enough!" I yelled, picking my way through the dying fish littering the marsh floor. I couldn't look at the heaving bodies and drying silver scales without feeling annoyed about all the waste of life.

"What's your problem?" I said, stalking over to where the old man sat cross-legged in lotus position, skimming the surface of the water like a j.a.panese Jesus. He'd moved to this position out on the water because it was just out of my reach-but that didn't stop me from picking up one of the dying fish and lobbing it at his head.

To my surprise, it wasn't a fish but rather a harmless clump of seaweed that landed in the water and floated at the old man's feet. I scanned the ground around me, but the fish had magically disappeared. In their place: rotting clumps of dark green seaweed that stank to high heaven.

"So, what was the point of that?" I bellowed from the edge of the marsh. "What does that do for me, buddy?"

The old man sighed. I guess he was expecting a little more brainpower from a Death-in-Waiting.

"Why don't you you tell tell me me what this exercise teaches us?" he said, rephrasing my question back at me. what this exercise teaches us?" he said, rephrasing my question back at me.

"I don't know." I shrugged, feeling as if I were in the middle of a pop quiz I'd forgotten to study for. The old man floated farther away from the edge of the land, enjoying my profound discomfort.

"You're the b.l.o.o.d.y guide," I said. "Guide me to the answer."

"Nope," he said, grinning. "You guide guide me me."

I didn't like this word game bulls.h.i.+t. If he wanted to teach me something, then he was gonna have to do it the old-fas.h.i.+oned way. I was much better at accomplis.h.i.+ng things once someone had told me what needed doing. I guess that was what made me such a good a.s.sistant-not much thought involved in getting someone's dry cleaning, is there?

"Look, you tell me what I'm supposed to think and I'll think it," I said, hoping honesty would get me somewhere. Instead, the old man just covered his eyes with his palm and shook his head.

"You are Death's Daughter." He groaned. "But you act like Death's idiot. What do you have against thinking for yourself?"

I shrugged.

"It's easier the other way."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. I could feel the disgust radiating out at me.

"That is the idiot talking again," he said. "Think!" "Think!"

I sighed, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole situation.

The man wants me to think. Well, even if I'm not aces at it, I can at least give it a shot. Now, what am I supposed to be learning from the fish/seaweed incident?

Just calming my brain down for two seconds and not putting up any "I can't do this" roadblocks freed my mind enough to let the answer come to me. It was so simple that I had to agree with the old man: I was being an idiot. It wasn't that I couldn't couldn't do what he asked of me. My problem was that I was so used to coasting through life I'd gotten lazy, letting things happen around me rather than being a willing partic.i.p.ant. I knew this about myself. It'd been pointed out to me before, but I'd never had a reason to change it. Now I had four good reasons: my dad, my mom, Jarvis, and Clio. If I wanted to avenge the people I'd lost and save the ones who still had a chance, I was gonna have to get myself together and start acting like a real person who gave a s.h.i.+t about what was happening in her life. do what he asked of me. My problem was that I was so used to coasting through life I'd gotten lazy, letting things happen around me rather than being a willing partic.i.p.ant. I knew this about myself. It'd been pointed out to me before, but I'd never had a reason to change it. Now I had four good reasons: my dad, my mom, Jarvis, and Clio. If I wanted to avenge the people I'd lost and save the ones who still had a chance, I was gonna have to get myself together and start acting like a real person who gave a s.h.i.+t about what was happening in her life.

"You wanted to me to think about illusion," I said. "To understand that things are not always what they seem."

The old man clapped, the sound as dry and brittle as the marsh gra.s.s I stood on.

"You're finally using your brain, Death's Daughter. Does it hurt?"

I gave him the finger, which got him t.i.ttering like a schoolgirl.

"What's next? You gonna teach me how to gut a fish, Sensei?" I said, rolling my eyes. "Or maybe you can teach me how to turn into a big red sea monster-"

"Good idea," the old man giggled. "You want to be like Sumi and get big, huh?"

"Like who who?" I asked.

The old man pointed to his own chest.

"Get big like Sumi. Sumi. Sumi. That's me." That's me."

Did I want to get big like Sumi? Heck, I wasn't opposed to it.

"Sure, tell me how to get big like Sumi," I shot back. Sumi grinned, his teeth flas.h.i.+ng in the fading sunlight.

I hoped "learning how to get big" would be the last item on the Sumi "guidance counselor combination plate," because twilight was fast approaching and I didn't want to spend the night chilling on the marsh.

"You have the jewel I gave you?" he asked and I nodded, retrieving the scarlet stone from the pocket I'd slipped it back into.

"Good," he said, pleased I still had the stone in my possession. "Now put it in your mouth-"

"Put it in my mouth mouth?" I replied incredulously. "You've got to be kidding me."

The old man shook his head.

"Why would I kid you? You have no sense of humor."

"Excuse me?" I said, taking umbrage at the implication. I said, taking umbrage at the implication.

"Put the stone in your mouth or go home."

I glared at him-he knew I couldn't go home and he was just being contrary.

"Fine," I sniffed, putting the jewel in my mouth. "Appy ow?"

The jewel tasted like seawater and mud, but I kept my features slack, not giving Sumi the satisfaction of seeing the disgust I felt.

"Now swallow it," he said as if it were the most commonplace suggestion in the world.

"Oo!" I said, the jewel rattling against my teeth. "Oo way!"

Suddenly, the old man was standing beside me, his gra.s.s skirt and kimono akimbo. I had no idea how he'd gotten out of the water and onto dry land so quickly, but before I could ask him, he'd slapped me hard on the back, sending the jewel flying down my trachea. I choked, my gag reflexes kicking in, but the jewel went down anyway. I could feel it hit bottom, sitting in my stomach and taking up s.p.a.ce among the remains of the shawarma I'd eaten for lunch.