Leo steered the dragon toward the southwest.
"Good job, Festus. " He patted the dragon's metal hide. "You did awesome. "
The dragon shuddered. Gears popped and clicked in his neck.
Amoriel frowned. Those clicks didn't sound too good. If the corroded control disk was failing again—No, Leo spent ages repairing that. This would be a minor problem. Something Leo could fix. Leo looked around and gave her a worried look. He seemed to be having the same thoughts as her.
"I'll give you a tune-up next time we land," Leo promised. "You've earned some motor oil and Tabasco sauce. "
Festus whirled his teeth, but even that sounded weak. He flew at a steady pace, his great wings angling to catch the wind, but he was carrying a heavy load. Two cages in his claws plus four people on his back—the more Amoriel thought about it, the more worried she got. Even metal dragons had limits.
"Leo." Amoriel patted his shoulder. "You feeling okay?"
"Yeah … not bad for a brainwashed zombie. " His dark skin showed a tinge of pink. "Thanks for saving us back there, Snow White. If you didn't stopped us when you did, and If you hadn't chased after her-"
"Don't worry about it," Amoriel said. "Told you, I would not let anybody hurt you."
Leo tried for a grin, but even that was failing. Amoriel knew he felt terrible about how easily Medea had set him against his best friend. And those feelings hadn't come from nowhere—his resentment of the way Jason always got the spotlight and didn't really seem to need him. She didn't know what to say to him, really.
Medae helped kill his mom. Amoriel could only tell a little about how that was for him.
When they had she drive her sword through Medae's heart, she had felt a little too good. She hoped she wouldn't make it out, and would go right back to the Fields of Punishment, where she belonged. Those feelings made her proud, really.
"We're going to have to put down soon," Leo warned them. "Couple more hours, maybe, to make sure Medea's not following us. I don't think Festus can fly much longer than that. "
"Yeah," Piper agreed. "Coach Hedge probably wants to get out of his canary cage, too. Question is—where are we going?"
"The Bay Area," Amoriel guessed. She seemed to remember Medae saying something like that. "Didn't Medea say something about Oakland?"
Nobody responded as Piper let her head hang. Amoriel couldn't help but feel sorry for her friend.
"Piper's dad," Jason put in. "Something's happened to your dad, right? He got lured into some kind of trap. "
Piper let out a shaky breath. "Look, Medea said all three of you would die in the Bay Area. And besides … even if we went there, the Bay Area is huge! First we need to find Aeolus and drop off the storm spirits. Boreas said Aeolus was the only one who could tell us exactly where to go. "
Sensing that Piper didn't want to talk about it, Amoriel nodded in agreement. "She's right. Aeolus is the only thing we've got right now. We still have no idea where Hera is and the Solstice is nearing."
Leo grunted. "So how do we find Aeolus?"
Jason leaned forward. "You mean you don't see it?" He pointed at something ahead of them but Amoriel couldn't see anything except clouds and the distant flickering lights of a few towns glowing in the dusk.
"What?" Leo asked.
"That … whatever it is," Jason said. "In the air. "
Amoriel glanced back. Piper looked just as confused as she was.
"Right," Leo said. "Could you be more specific on the 'whatever-it-is' part?"
"Like a vapor trail," Jason said. "Except it's glowing. Really faint, but it's definitely there. We've been following it since Chicago, so I figured you saw it. "
Leo shook his head. "Maybe Festus can sense it. You think Aeolus made it?"
"Well, it's a magic trail in the wind," Jason said. "Aeolus is the wind god. I think he knows we've got prisoners for him. He's telling us where to fly. "
"Or it's another trap," Piper said.
"It could be a bait," Amoriel agreed. She noticed the tone of Piper's voice as if all's doom and they've already lost. Amoriel couldn't blame her. So she said nothing, knowing that sometimes all you can do for someone is to keep quiet and be there.
"Pipes, you all right?" Leo asked.
"Don't call me that." The girl muttered.
"Okay, fine. You don't like any of the names I make up for you. But if your dad's in trouble and we can help—"
"You can't," she said, her voice getting shakier. "Look, I'm tired. If you don't mind …"
She leaned back against Jason and closed her eyes.
All right, Amoriel thought.
They flew in silence for a while. Festus seemed to know where he was going. He kept his course, gently curving toward the southwest and hopefully Aeolus's fortress. Another wind god to visit, a whole new flavor of crazy—Oh, boy, I really couldn't wait.
Leo looked beat out tired. His shoulders slumped, and his fingers were weak on the dragon's scales.
"Catch a few Z's," Jason said. "It's cool. Hand me the reins. "
"Nah, I'm okay—"
"Leo," Amoriel interjected, "you're not a machine. Besides, Jason's the only one who can see the vapor trail. He'll make sure we stay on course." She then glared at Jason. "He'd better make sure we stay on course."
Jason gulped.
Leo's eyes started to close on their own. "All right. Maybe just …"
He didn't finish the sentence before slumping forward against the dragon's neck.
They were...well...screaming for their lives when Leo woke up.
They were spiraling to the ground in a free fall, still on the dragon's back, but Festus's hide was cold. His ruby eyes were dim.
"Not again!" Leo yelled. "You can't fall again!"
Amoriel could barely hold on to the dragon's metal scales. The wind stung her eyes, but she could just about see that Leo had managed to pull open the panel on the dragon's neck. He toggled the switches. He tugged the wires. The dragon's wings flapped once, but suddenly, she caught a whiff of burning bronze. Amoriel didn't have the slightest idea what was going on, but she hoped Leo knew what he was doing. She didn't think Festus had the strength to keep flying, and she was pretty sure Leo couldn't get to the main control panel on the dragon's head—not in midair. Amoriel saw the lights of a city below us—just flashes in the dark as they plummeted in circles. They had only seconds before they crashed.
"Jason!" Leo screamed. "Take the girls and fly out of here!"
"What?"
"We need to lighten the load! I might be able to reboot Festus, but he's carrying too much weight!"
That didn't do anything to ease Amoriel's fear. Leo was being crazy. He'll die. And even if Jason do as he was told, she doubts he can carry both her and Piper without all three of them dying. Her wings couldn't save her. She had no idea how to use them.
"What about you?" Amoriel cried. "If you can't reboot him—"
"I'll be fine," Leo yelled. "Just follow me to the ground. Go!"
"You're going to get yourself killed." Amoriel screamed.
"Mi amore, Trust me!"
Amoriel was about to protest again but Jason had grabbed her around the waist. Thank gods she was able to wrap her hand around Piper's wrist. In a flash they were gone—shooting into the air.
Amoriel could just about see Leo. He seemed to be talking to Festus as he worked.
Amoriel was right. Jason couldn't take two bodies with the air so thick so their landing was shaky and rough. Jason had both arms wrapped around Amoriel's waist while Amoriel has her hands tightly Piper's wrist. It wasn't exactly the best position to be since the unbalanced weight that came from Piper was making it hard for Jason to control the winds.
She didn't know why but Amoriel felt like when they have their memories she was the better flyer between both of them.
"Extend your arms and legs!" he yelled. We complied.
I could hear Festus groan—metal creaking inside his neck. His eyes flickered weakly to life, and he spread his wings. Their fall turned into a steep glide.
"Good!" Leo yelled, so loud Amoriel could hear him in the wind rushing past her ears. "Come on, big boy. Come on!"
The ground was getting closer, and closer. They needed to land.
There was a big river—no. Not good for a fire-breathing dragon. They'd never get Festus out from the bottom if he sank, especially in freezing temperatures. Then, on the riverbanks, she spotted a white mansion with a huge snowy lawn inside a tall brick perimeter fence—like some rich person's private compound, all of it blazing with light. A perfect landing field. Amoriel yelled to Leo, and pointed at it. He nodded, did his best to steer the dragon toward it, and Festus seemed to come back to life. They could make this!
"Hold on," Jason screamed, his arms tightening around her waist and his face forming agony as he desperately tried to control the winds.
Amoriel could feel her hand starting to slip but she desperately held on to Piper. However it didn't last long as more than six feet into the ground, the weight was too much and Amoriel's hand was sweating. Thank gods they were close enough to the ground that her fall won't be causing any permanent damage.
Jason turned them around so he's below her, taking all the hit from their fall when they hit the ground.
When his arms finally released her waist, it fell to his side due to exhaustion. His breathing was heavy. He groaned when Amoriel pulled herself up from on top of him, standing up as she tried to catch her breath.
"You alright, Jay-Jay?" She asked him, seeing the exhaustion on his face. Offering her hand to him.
"Peachy," he muttered as he accepted her outstretched hand, Amoriel looked around to see that they were in someone's backyard. Thank gods the snow softened their fall a bit. In front of them is a huge white mansion with a small lake just beside it.
"Piper?" Amoriel ran to her new friend who sat in the snow. For a minute, Amoriel's heart dropped thinking that something bad happened to her female bestie but Piper turned to her and gave her a smile. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," she said, standing up as well. "What about you-"
Before Piper can even finish her sentence, a loud crash came above them and the three had to watch as Festus the dragon tumbled across the sky with Leo faithfully holding on to it. Then Festus crashed to a thousand smaller pieces, its head rolling off to the side and Leo fell roughly into the snow.
Tears blurred Amoriel's vision as she saw the smoke Festus was emitting, knowing how much the fire breathing bronze dragon helped them and how much he meant to Leo. It broke her heart just thinking how heartbreaking it will be for the fiery latino.
Amoriel ran towards her boyfriend to see him laying unconscious on the snowy ground. Grease, snow and mud covered him, but there doesn't seem to be any injuries except the few scrapes and scratches.
"Leo," Amoriel started shaking him, trying to wake him up. "Wake up, Leo." She cried out, charmspeak thick in her voice. "Wake up!"
It seems to have worked as Leo's eyes started to flutter open.
When Leo came to his senses, Jason and Piper were to one side, leaning over him, and Amoriel had her hands on his shoulders. He was lying in the snow. He spit a clump of frozen grass out of his mouth.
"Where—"
"Lie still. " Piper had tears in her eyes. "You rolled pretty hard when—when Festus—"
"Where is he?" Leo instantly tried to stand up, but Amoriel kept him down, her own tears falling to her cheeks. They'd landed inside the compound. Something had happened on the way in—gunfire?
"Seriously, Leo," Jason said. "You could be hurt. You shouldn't—" but Leo didn't listen.
Leo pushed himself to his feet. Then his head turned towards the wreckage. Festus dropped the big canary cages as he came over the fence, because they'd rolled in different directions and landed on their sides, perfectly undamaged.
Festus hadn't been so lucky.
The dragon had disintegrated. His limbs were scattered across the lawn. His tail hung on the fence. The main section of his body had plowed a trench twenty feet wide and fifty feet long across the mansion's yard before breaking apart. What remained of his hide was a charred, smoking pile of scraps. Only his neck and head were somewhat intact, resting across a row of frozen rosebushes like a pillow.
"No," Leo sobbed. He ran to the dragon's head and stroked its snout. The dragon's eyes flickered weakly. Oil leaked out of his ear.
"You can't go," Leo pleaded. "You're the best thing I ever fixed. "
The dragon's head whirred its gears, as if it were purring. The scene brought more tears to Amoriel's eyes as she felt pity for her poor boyfriend, the boy who could fix a bronze dragon overnight but never had a family to go home to. She stood next to him, but Leo kept his eyes fixed on the dragon. He closed his eyes, and silent tears streamed down his face.
"It's not fair," he said.
The dragon clicked. A long click, and two short ones. Almost like a pattern...morse code. Leo stared at the dragon, like they were having a telepathic conversation.
"Yeah," Leo said. "I understand. I will. I promise. "
The dragon's eyes went dark. Festus was gone.
Leo cried and Amoriel wrapped the boy in her arms. She didn't say anything. She simply let leo sob on her shoulder while holding on to her tightly like she was the only thing that keeping him grounded. From what Amoriel has figured out, Leo has been alone most of his life. Perhaps he never had another person to trust and now his greatest creation was gone. She was crying too, Festus was like her child. He was their baby.
Finally Jason said, "I'm so sorry, man. What did you promise Festus?"
Leo sniffled. He opened the dragon's head panel, just to be sure, but the control disk was cracked and burned beyond repair.
"Something my dad told me," Leo said. "Everything can be reused. "
"Your dad talked to you?" Jason asked. "When was this?"
Leo didn't answer. He worked and tugged at the dragon's neck hinges until the head was detached. It weighed about a hundred pounds, but Leo managed to hold it in his arms. He looked up at the starry sky and said, "Take him back to the bunker, Dad. Please, until I can reuse him. I've never asked you for anything. "
The wind picked up, and the dragon's head floated out of Leo's arms like it weighed nothing. It flew into the sky and disappeared.
Piper looked at him in amazement. "He answered you?"
"I had a dream," Leo managed. "Tell you later. "
Leo knew he owed them a better explanation, but right now he could barely speak. He looked like a broken machine himself—like someone had removed one little part of him, and now he'd never be complete. He might move, he might talk, he might keep going and do his job. But he'd always be off balance, never calibrated exactly right.
Still, he couldn't afford to break down completely. Otherwise, Festus had died for nothing. They had to complete this quest. Or the world would crumble down. Or explode. Take your pick.
Amoriel looked around. The large white mansion glowed in the center of the grounds. Tall brick walls with lights and security cameras surrounded the perimeter, but now she could see just how well those walls were defended.
"Where are we?" he asked. "I mean, what city?"
"Omaha, Nebraska," Amoriel said. "I saw a billboard as we flew in. But I don't know what this mansion is."
"Lasers," Leo said. He picked up a piece of dragon wreckage and threw it toward the top of the fence. Immediately a turret popped up from the brick wall and a beam of pure heat incinerated the bronze plating to ashes.
Jason whistled. "Some defense system. How are we even alive?"
"Festus," Leo said miserably. "He took the fire. The lasers sliced him to bits as he came in so they didn't focus on you. I led him into a death trap. "
"You couldn't have known," Piper said. "He saved our lives again. "
"But what now?" Jason said. "The main gates are locked, and I'm guessing I can't fly us out of here without getting shot down. "
Leo looked up the walkway at the big white mansion. "Since we can't go out, we'll have to go in. "
They would've died five times on the way to the front door if not for Leo.
First it was the motion-activated trapdoor on the sidewalk, then the lasers on the steps, then the nerve gas dispenser on the porch railing, the pressure-sensitive poison spikes in the welcome mat, and of course the exploding doorbell.
Leo deactivated all of them. It was like he could smell the traps, and he picked just the right tool out of his belt to disable them.
"You're amazing, man," Jason said.
Leo scowled as he examined the front door lock. "Yeah, amazing," he said. "Can't fix a dragon right, but I'm amazing. "
"Hey, that wasn't your—"
"Front door's already unlocked," Leo announced.
Piper stared at the door in disbelief. "It is? All those traps, and the door's unlocked?"
"The dude who owns this must have thought that no one would get pass his deat traps so he didn't bother with the door," Amoriel said.
Leo opened the door and quickly stepped inside, obviously escaping whatever conversation Jason was planning on.
Before Jason could follow, Amoriel caught his arm. "He's going to need some time to get over Festus. Don't take it personally. "
"Yeah," Jason said. "Yeah, okay. "
But Amoriel could tell that still he felt terrible. Back in Medea's store, he'd said some pretty harsh stuff to Leo—stuff a friend shouldn't say, not to mention the fact he'd almost skewered Leo with a sword. If it hadn't been for Amoriel, they'd both be dead. And they hadn't gotten out of that encounter easily, either.
"Piper," Jason said, "I know I was in a daze back in Chicago, but that stuff about your dad—if he's in trouble, I want to help. I don't care if it's a trap or not. "
Her eyes looked shattered, like someone had smashed a hammer through them, and she couldn't find all the pieces.
"Jason, you don't know what you're saying. Please—don't make me feel worse. Come on. We should stick together. "
She ducked inside.
"Together," Jason said to himself, but Amoriel could hear him. "Yeah, we're doing great with that."
Amoriel squeezed his shoulder, making Jason turn to her to see the comforting but crooked smile she had. "Give yourself some credit, Jay-Jay. We've been through a lot today and I think everyone just wants a moment's peace for a while. They'll come around."
Her first impression of the house: Dark.
From the echo of their footsteps, Amoriel could tell the entry hall was enormous, even bigger than Boreas's penthouse; but the only illumination came from the yard lights outside. A faint glow peeked through the breaks in the thick velvet curtains. The windows rose about ten feet tall. Spaced between them along the walls were life-size metal statues. As her eyes adjusted to a nocturnal environment, she saw sofas arranged in a U in the middle of the room, with a central coffee table and one large chair at the far end. A massive chandelier glinted overhead. Along the back wall stood a row of closed doors.
"Where's the light switch?" Jason's voice echoed alarmingly through the room.
"Don't see one," Leo said.
"Fire?" Piper suggested.
Leo held out his hand, but nothing happened. "It's not working. "
"Your fire is out? Why?" Piper asked.
"Well, if I knew that—"
"Okay, okay," Piper said. "What do we do—explore?"
Leo shook his head. "After all those traps outside? Bad idea. "
"Leo's right," Amoriel agreed. "The best chance we have is staying together."
"We're not separating again—not like in Detroit. " Jason decided.
"Oh, thank you for reminding me of the Cyclopes. " Piper's voice quavered. "I needed that. "
"It's a few hours until dawn," Jason guessed. "Too cold to wait outside. Let's bring the cages in and make camp in this room. Wait for daylight; then we can decide what to do. "
Nobody offered a better idea, so we rolled in the cages with Coach Hedge and the storm spirits, then settled in. Thankfully, Leo didn't find any poison throw pillows or electric whoopee cushions on the sofas.
Leo didn't seem in the mood to make more tacos. Besides, they had no fire, so we settled for cold rations.
As they ate, Amoriel studied the metal statues along the walls. They looked like Greek gods or heroes. Maybe that was a good sign. Or maybe they were used for target practice. On the coffee table sat a tea service and a stack of glossy brochures, but she couldn't make out the words. The big chair at the other end of the table looked like a throne. None of them tried to sit in it.
The canary cages didn't make the place any less creepy. The storm spirits kept churning in their prison, hissing and spinning, and Amoriel got the uncomfortable feeling they were watching Jason. She could sense their hatred for the children of Zeus—the lord of the sky who'd ordered Aeolus to imprison their kind. The venti would like nothing better than to tear Jason apart.
As for Coach Hedge, he was still frozen mid-shout, his cudgel raised. Leo was working on the cage, trying to open it with various tools, but the lock seemed to be giving him a hard time. She decided not to sit next to him in case Hedge suddenly unfroze and went into ninja goat mode.
Despite how weird she felt, once her stomach was full, she started to nod off. The couches were a little too comfortable and she was exhausted.
Piper had already curled up on the other sofa. Amoriel wondered if she was really asleep or dodging a conversation about her dad. Whatever Medea had meant in Chicago, about Piper getting her dad back if she cooperated—it didn't sound good. If Piper had risked her own dad to save them, that made her feel even guiltier. Not that she'd know what Piper was going through, y'know, with her not remembering her dad and all .
And they were running out of time. If she had her days straight, this was early morning of December 20. Which meant tomorrow was the winter solstice.
