Chapter 29

Jesse and I spent the rest of our already hectic and too short vacation from work helping Gabriella translate the tablet and the pictures from the nest. Sharpay arranged for Gabriella to get time off from her poolside duties to work with us. The man in yellow didn't make any more appearances, but to be on the safe side Ryan restricted us to only reading one page from the tablet a day, leaving it covered at all other times. I can't say Gabi was happy about it, but Jesse and I were more comfortable with the thing hidden

The work progressed slowly. The hand painted symbols in the cavern weren't uniform, and more than a few looked similar, but made no sense when translated in context. We only managed to translate the first mural we'd found, revealing that it was a festival held in honor of the things' god, Motichian. It was called the Feast of the Consuming Darkness.

After that we had to return to work, still no closer to understanding just what was going on. The tablet said lots of things, but none of them made any sense. At least we all hoped they didn't. If even half the things Jesse and I had read were true…

Fulton didn't go easy on us when we got back. He wasn't the type of man who liked his precious order upset, and our absence had forced him to rearrange the schedules of half of the staff and have some of them work overtime. To make matters worse, he was still terrified of Sharpay, which meant he knew he couldn't fire us, but was bound and determined to punish us as much as he could. The fact that none of us could really focus on our jobs under the circumstances didn't help matters any.

Ryan and Sharpay's parents were back in town for a few weeks before their annual trip to France. Even though we did all the research at my house, Ryan and I had resumed our normal pattern of alternating nights between his house and mine, but for the full moon we agreed to stay at my place all three nights, and to have Jesse and Joey come over too. That way there was less of a chance of Ryan's parents walking in on Joey mid-change, seeing as he wasn't quite housebroken yet.

On the first night of the full moon Ryan took Joey upstairs just before sunset to once again try and coach him through the change. Jesse and I stayed downstairs with Gabriella translating yet another page from the tablet for her and trying to puzzle out the whistle's symbols. Between our ability to read the tablet and what she'd learned from the scroll on the professor's computer she'd been able to figure out most of it, 'Call the winged servant… Haon-dor'. But there were still three symbols on it that didn't appear anywhere in the scroll or on the tablet.

"Maybe we should just blow it." Gabriella said, after an hour spent comparing one of the mystery symbols to the pictures she'd taken in the nest.

"What is your obsession with the whistle?" I asked. "Don't you think we know enough about it?"

Jesse nodded in agreement with me.

Gabi shook her head. "No. I don't know how it works, or what the winged thing that helped Paul is."

"Why do you need to know how it works?" I asked.

She sighed and looked at me. "Because if I know how it works, then maybe some of the rest of this will start making sense."

"Yeah. I don't think it would help." Jesse said, throwing the blanket back over the tablet.

"Understanding always helps." Gabriella said. "None of this makes any sense. Everything we are, everything we find, violates half the known laws of physics. If I… if we can figure out the laws these things work by, then who knows what secrets we'll be able to uncover."

I could tell she was heading towards a rant and cut her off. "Gabi. We're not doing this to revolutionize science. We're doing this to save the two of us," I pointed at Jesse and then myself, "from the thing in the tower. Remember?"

She sighed again. "I know, Troy. But… you just don't understand how hard this is for me."

Jesse snorted. "For you? Last time I checked you weren't the cursed one."

Gabriella rolled her eyes and then focused them on the whistle again, ignoring us for now.

I heard a door open upstairs, and Jesse and I left Gabriella to her studies. We found Ryan and a once again canine Joey coming down the stairs.

"Still?" Jesse asked, kneeling down to greet Joey with an affectionate pat on the head.

The wolf heaved a heavy sigh and rolled its eyes, as did Ryan.

"Do you want me to try tomorrow?" I asked, looking at Ryan. "No offense, but maybe your methods just aren't for him."

Ryan sighed. "Fine, you can try tomorrow. But they aren't just my methods, they've worked for generations of Oborotni and they'd work for him if he'd let them." Ryan glared at the back of the wolf's head.

I felt more than heard a sound penetrate my skull, I felt dizzy. Joey gave a yelp and dropped to the ground trying to cover his ears with his paws. The shrill vibration came again.

"Shit. She's blowing the whistle." Jesse said, turning to race into the kitchen.

Ryan and I followed on his heels, and caught Gabriella putting the bone whistle to her lips for a third time, and for a third time the annoying vibration messed with my sense of balance. I stumbled and fell into Ryan, who also having lost his balance toppled to the floor with me on top of him.

"Stop." Jesse said, snatching the bone from her hands.

"I just wanted to hear what it sounded like." Gabriella said.

I pushed myself up, and looked down at the prone form of my boyfriend beneath me. He caught my eyes, and groaned, pushing me off of him. "So not the time for that, Troy." I stood up, and offered him my hand to help him up, which he accepted.

A sound like nails on a chalkboard flooded into the kitchen from the living room. Ryan ran into the living room, followed by Gabriella, then myself, and Jesse in the rear. The sound was coming from behind the curtain that was concealing the sliding door to the backyard.

I moved to the side of the curtains and pulled the drawstring parting the curtains a sliver.

Ryan gasped. "Close the curtains."

I didn't even think about it, but just did as he told me, drawing them shut with a single fast movement.

"What is it?" I asked.

"She summoned the winged thing." Ryan said, spinning to glare at Gabriella.

"What?" I asked, and peaked around the edge of the curtain, through the sliding door, and into my backyard. There was definitely something out there, but I couldn't get a good look at it. I just caught a few glimpses of something large, black, and winged hovering in the yard.

"What do we do?" Jesse asked with a hint of panic in his voice.

"Turn off the lights and hope it goes away?" I suggested.

"With our luck?" Ryan asked. "It'll still be flapping around out there until lunch. I'm sure the local news will love that."

"So what do we do?" Jesse asked.

Ryan looked from the whistle clutched in Jesse's hand to Gabriella. "You called it, can you tell it to go away?" He asked.

Gabriella shrugged. "Maybe. If I understood the spell right it should have to obey me."

"Spell?" I asked.

Ryan glanced at me and held up his hand. "One thing at a time." Then he turned to look at Gabriella. "If you understood it correctly? If? New rule, if we survive this, no casting anything unless you know what it will do."

Gabriella rolled her eyes, yet again, and mumbled something about the scientific theory under her breath.

"Now, tell it to go home, or wherever." Ryan said, pointing out to the patio.

Gabriella sighed and I opened the drapes wide enough for her to unlock and open the sliding door; the sound of large wings flapping was audible through the opened door. She stepped into the backyard, and Jesse slid the door shut behind her, but not before a whiff of a strange scent made it through the opening. Joey barked and pawed at his nose.

Jesse knelt down at his boyfriend's side and rubbed his head. "I know. Let's just hope she can make it leave."

Gabriella approached the flapping shape, which retreated to the far side of the yard. I eyed the light switch that controlled the patio lights and considered turning them on. On the one hand it would let us see the thing better, on the other hand I wasn't at all sure I wanted to see the thing better.

Ryan shook his head. "Don't do it, Troy. I don't want to know."

I nodded and pulled my hand away from the switch.

Gabriella turned around and came back to the sliding door, opening it. "It's not listening to me. Let me have the whistle."

Jesse eyed her with suspicion, but handed the bone object over. Gabriella slid the door shut and walked to the edge of the patio, holding the symbol painted whistle over her head. I pressed my ear to the glass to hear her. "Your services are no longer required. Go home. Go on, shoo."

Gabriella shrugged and returned to the door. Jesse slid it open as she reached it. "No luck?" He asked.

She shook her head. "Wanna come try meeping at it?"

Jesse shook his head. "Do I want to? Hell no. I don't even know if I can. Just because I can understand it doesn't mean I can do it."

"You can try." She said, taking his hand and attempting to drag him out.

"What makes you think it even speaks degenerate-hyena?" Jesse asked, struggling against her grasp.

"Let's just call it a hunch." She said, finally getting him past the threshold. We didn't bother to close the sliding door this time; it was evident that for now at least the winged thing was content to keep its distance.

"Like the hunch that got you to blow that stupid whistle in the first place?" He asked.

"Yes. Like that one. Now take this," she dropped the whistle into his hands, "and tell it to go home."

"How do we know it isn't already home?" Jesse asked, approaching the edge of the patio and looking up into the darkness.

"It's not. If the Pnakotica is correct then it's from a lot closer to that dream city." Gabriella said.

"That's a lot of ifs." Jesse said, looking from the source of the gentle flapping sound to Gabriella.

"Just do it." She said.

"So what, now you're a Nike commercial?" Jesse asked, turning to look at the dark form that I couldn't quite see, and shuddering. "Um... okay... shoo?"

"Try that gibberish the things speak." Gabriella said.

"Oh yeah. Um... meep?" He said.

"That's not what I meant." Gabriella said.

"Hey, if you think it's so easy, you do it." Jesse snapped at the dark haired girl before returning his attention to the thing. "Go home." He said brandishing the whistle at it as though it were some kind of weapon. It didn't seem like the thing was even acknowledging him, though I couldn't see its head, for which I should probably be thankful. "Please leave?" There didn't seem to be any reaction from the thing. "Meep, meep, meep?" Jesse tried.

"Now you sound like the road runner." I called from the open door.

Ryan cuffed the back of my head.

"Ow, what?"

Joey gave me a low growl. I glared at him and assumed a dominant posture without realizing I'd done it. He backed down.

I returned my attention to the end of the patio, where the thing seemed to be hovering just over the basketball court. Gabriella and Jesse's bodies blocked most of my view, but I was able to tell that it was at least the same type of thing as we'd seen in Phoenix. I could just make out one of the thing's arms, which looked like it had at least one more joint than was normal, and one less finger.

"If there was a spell to summon it, was there a spell to banish it too?" Jesse asked, still staring at the thing.

"Of course there was." Gabriella said. "It's just that that part of the scroll wasn't readable."

Ryan leaned in next to me and whispered in my ear. "New pack rule. No casting a spell unless you've read and understand the reverse spell."

I nodded, and then turned my attention back to the strange scene in my backyard. The things tail was now twitching and thrashing in what looked like irritation or impatience, I couldn't tell which.

"Uh, guys, you're pissing it off." Ryan called to them.

"No duh." Jesse said without bothering to turn around. He held the whistle to his lips, and again I felt more than heard the strange vibration echoing in my skull. The thing flapped closer to him. Jesse pulled the whistle from his lips and then pointed at the thing. "You can go home. We don't need you. You're released." It twitched its tail again.

"Here, give it back to me." Gabriella said. "I want to try something."

Jesse looked from the flapping thing to her. "Isn't that how we got into this mess?" He asked.

"Just give it to me, Jesse." She said. Snatching it from his hands, she held it up to her lips and inhaled through it. I didn't hear or feel anything from the whistle but then the thing gave a shriek that tore through my head and sounded like a set of bag pipes falling down the stairs. It flew off into the sky.