Chapter 24:
It took, in Jack's mind, surprisingly little effort to get the other Reapers to agree to the plan. Well, maybe agree wasn't the right word. Comply was better; there had definitely been quite a bit of grumbling. Nonetheless, everyone had gone to convey the message to the Death Gods and any ghosts or fae they thought would be willing to assist.
Jack himself had discussed a few plans with Klaus, who was more amenable to the idea than Jack had expected given his earlier behavior. The Hessian had been protecting his town from the Nightmares quite admirably, though, so he would have a bit less trouble than the rest of Death's forces.
Believing the Headless Horseman had things well under control in his neck of the woods, Jack and Mei began traveling across North and Central America, gathering intelligence and devising strategies with the spirits and Reapers. Everyone wanted to take advantage of the current lack of demon activity, so things got moving quite quickly.
It was the same all around the globe. Ghosts of most every kind volunteered readily enough, as did many Unseelie fae; they in turn were supervised by the Reapers, who would relay messages about their progress up the chain of command to Death and the Horsemen.
One of the main issues was keeping such a large-scale operation under wraps; the last thing they wanted was the Moon's spirits (chatty bunch that they were), and thus the demons, getting wind of what was going on, which was why Death had instructed the Reapers not to involve themselves with living humans directly if it could be avoided. There was little confrontation on that front, however; most Reapers were happy to just be working at a larger pushback rather than being stuck at a stalemate or, worse, caught on the defensive.
Jack was heading back south, having just flown over the US-Canadian border into Montana, when a noise to his right caught his attention.
He was surprised when he saw several Nightmares, galloping hard in an effort to keep up with Mei. Jerking his gaze back to the left showed a similar situation on that side.
"Really?" Jack yelled to no one in particular, digging his heels into Mei's sides. She snorted, leaping forward and lengthening her stride, kicking her heels up at the Nightmares in challenge.
Jack laughed as they began to pull ahead. "Atta girl, Mei! You show 'em how a real horse runs!"
Mei whinnied and sped up again, Jack lowering his hands to give her more rein; they started gaining ground much more quickly.
It came as no big shock when a third troop of the creatures came at them from above.
Jack drove Mei into a hard dive toward the ground; there were no trees, and they were far from any large towns, so there was no cover to be had.
It really shouldn't have been so surprising when a gigantic shadow appeared out of nowhere and swallowed them both.
"Oh, come on, not again!" Jack yelled at nobody in particular as he and Mei tumbled through nothingness, gripping his horse's mane as she whinnied furiously.
They hit the ground hard; Jack was thrown from the saddle as Mei fell, tucking his head into his chest as best he could as he rolled. He landed on his stomach, eyes screwed shut and dust in his mouth.
"Mei!" Jack called, spitting to clear his mouth and brushing dust off his face as he pushed himself to his feet. He stumbled a few paces once he'd stood; he was still dizzy from the fall.
He heard the rush of displaced air to his right and stepped sideways to avoid Leiron's punch. As the Spring spirit sailed past him Jack stuck out his foot, tripping the sprite with a startled yell and sending him sprawling face down on the rock floor.
Primrose and Amaryllis came at him next, from opposite sides. Jack lightly gripped Amaryllis's wrist as the spirit threw a punch at his face, stepping back and directing the other's arm downward so his fist landed solidly in Primrose's stomach rather than Jack's face. Primrose was immediately doubled over, wheezing, and Jack used Amaryllis's hunched posture to his advantage, whacking the spirit over the back of the shoulders with his left arm and sending him face-down into the dirt next to his brother. Jack then hooked his ankle around a still-winded Primrose's and dragged her foot backward and up, sending her toppling forward.
Freesia and Lilac, when they came at him, lasted about as long and fared no better.
I'm amazed I ever saw these guys as a threat, Jack thought to himself as he turned from the groaning heap of spirits on the floor toward his horse, who had managed to stand and shake the dust off. Once she'd spotted him Mei whickered and trotted quickly over, Jack stepping forward to meet her. His smile became a full one when she reached him, reaching up and rubbing gently between her eyes as she began sniffing him all over, sounding almost frantic.
Jack laughed when a particularly hard sniff was accompanied by a shove to his waist. "I'm fine, girl, really! See? All in one piece!"
Mei snorted, moving her gaze to the still-stunned Spring seasonals before stomping furiously and pinning her ears.
Jack laughed, stroking her neck and gathering the reins in his hand as he moved to mount.
A large shadow swelled up before him.
Jack and Mei leaped apart, Mei whinnying as Jack jumped backward again when the shadow lunged for him, missing him by mere inches as it dove into the floor. Several more shadows rose between the two, pushing them further and further apart and driving Jack to perform increasingly elaborate acrobatics to avoid them.
Jack eventually ended up on the opposite side of the vast cavern from Mei; the spring spirits had at that point made it back to their feet and were standing in the middle, snickering amongst each other as they watched Jack and his steed leap about.
A movement from the corner of his eye was the only indication Jack had; he ducked quickly out of the way of Pitch's attack. The Bogeyman didn't seem to mind; actually, he was grinning as Jack jumped away from him, keeping his knees bent, holding his hands up in a defensive position in case Pitch came at him again.
Which he did, less than a second later, with an absolutely gigantic shadow looming up behind him. Jack had no choice but to dodge again, using a quick flare of his aspect to move behind Pitch in the space of an eyeblink. Before Pitch could realized what happened, Jack delivered a powerful kick to the small of his back that sent the wiry spirit flying with a surprised yell.
And then the Spring spirits were joining in again and Jack had never been more grateful for the training he'd done with War over the centuries. He was also glad Solriss, Famine and Death had insisted he learn to hone the 'life-energy' perception that came with being a Reaper early on; even if he couldn't see the spirits, he could at least maintain some sense of their positions.
This skill was proving most useful with Pitch at the moment, who seemed content to let the seasonals do most of the fighting while he leapt from the shadows now and again.
A furious, trumpeting whinny announced Mei's entrance into the fray; Jack leaped upward as his steed charged in with a mien that would have made the Red steed proud, bowling over Amaryllis and Primrose before they could get out of the way. She grabbed Freesia's sleeve in her teeth, dragging the spirit off her feet and throwing her into Leiron, sending them both flying into a wall. The mare didn't even pause, grabbing the back of Lilac's shirt as the spirit went to leap at Jack and shaking vigorously. Jack would have laughed at Lilac's startled shout if he hadn't had to dodge another shadow.
"Pitch, what the hell do you want?" Jack yelled, glancing around the room. The Bogeyman had disappeared again; Jack could tell he was hiding in the shadows on the near wall, but he wasn't practiced enough to be able to pinpoint the exact location.
Mei snorted, dropping a very dizzy Lilac on top of the still-groaning Amaryllis and Primrose as a chuckle echoed around the chamber.
"Why, simply a chat, Frost; we haven't seen each other in so long. I was hoping to catch up." Pitch's voice was echoing everywhere, just as his laugh had, but Jack could tell the spirit himself was still in the nearby shadows. He was moving, though, going…
Jack leaned to his left and spun about, dodging Pitch's attack and grabbing the surprised Bogeyman's wrist and dragging it down. Jack stuck out his foot, causing Pitch to trip and go tumbling forward. It would have been immensely satisfying to see him crash into the floor, but his reflexes were good enough that he was able to summon a portal and disappear into the shadows a second before impact.
Jack was already moving; he'd made it over to Mei in a couple large bounds, the mare bending her right foreleg to make it easier for him to swing into the saddle. Once he had, Jack grabbed the reins, turning her to the left toward a hole in the cavern ceiling. Jack barely even needed to nudge her before Mei was springing into the air at a gallop.
Seeing the shadows swelling before them, Jack expanded his Reaper aspect; if any of the shadows reached them, they would pass right through.
He needn't have worried. Mei was a deathsteed; she moved impossibly fast. They reached the tunnel in less than a second and were dashing upward in an eyeblink. Jack expanded his aspect even further; by the time he and Mei had reached the surface, they were invisible to all living eyes.
Jack nudged Mei skyward; she snorted loudly, as if to say good riddance. Jack laughed.
"Couldn't agree more, girl!" he said, tugging gently on the reins to slow her to a canter. Mei switched pace smoothly, tossing her head. Jack glanced over his shoulder in time to see Pitch emerge from a shadow that had formed at the mouth of his lair. The Bogeyman's head turned slowly as he watched the sky, no doubt searching for his escaped quarry.
Jack snickered to himself as he turned Mei toward the southeast. "That ought to keep him puzzled for a while."
"What took you so long?" Pestilence asked as Jack and Mei landed in the main plaza of Torreón in Coahuila, Mexico.
"Pitch decided to waylay us for a 'chat', as he put it, in Montana. He sent a herd of Nightmares after us, had them chase us into his lair," Jack answered as he threw his hood back and looked around. A few of the other Reapers in Pestilence's contingent smiled or waved to him while their horses stomped and snorted their own greetings. Jack grinned back, then exhaled heavily. "Man, I would've roasted here as a frost spirit!" he said, fanning his face with a hand while Mei snorted in laughter beneath him.
"Just increase your aspect; you won't feel the temperature," another Reaper said.
Jack smiled. "Thanks, Madrik, but… I kind of like it, truth be told."
"Masochist," Aditi muttered loudly. The other Reapers laughed.
Then Pestilence raised his arm, gesturing for silence, and everyone immediately guided their horses to gather around him and his mount.
"All right, we're in charge of North and Mesoamerica. Nikoleta, your team is southernmost, in Panama and Costa Rica. Nakh-ke and Somowadi, your groups are in Nicaragua and Honduras, respectively. Piscia, you have Guatemala, El Salvador and Belize; you'll be with them, Jack. Adeia and Ivanildo, you're both in Mexico. We'll be working our way north eventually. The Death Gods and their servants have been passing word down the grapevine for the past day; I'm told the ghosts are already waiting for us. I'll remind you the ghosts are the ones doing the legwork; we are just helping them be seen. Avoid interacting with living humans if at all possible, and do NOT let any demons catch wind of you or learn what the ghosts under your guard are up to. Same with the ghouls. Be warned many of these spirits are centuries old; I'd recommend making certain they know precisely which tales they're supposed to be telling."
The Reapers shared looks with each other, most of them grimacing. Tooth mice and rabbits were fine (Jack was sure if any of Tooth's servants were still active they'd quite appreciate it), but the last thing they needed was some of the more forgetful ghosts accidentally telling the story of the eyeball-eating variety of sandman.
"Everyone's already split off into their groups? Yes? Leaders, you've done a headcount?" Pestilence said. As the team leaders nodded their assent, he went on, "good. Once you've reached your stations, assign one or two messengers to relay information back to me as needed. Switch roles as necessary. Move quickly, and be discreet. I don't need to remind you how much we have riding on this."
More nods of understanding, a few murmurs of agreement here and there. Pestilence nodded once himself.
"Good luck; I will leave you to your tasks. Jack, wait a moment, if you would."
Puzzled, Jack guided Mei closer to Pestilence and his mount as the other Reapers kicked their steeds into the sky. He smiled reassuringly at Aditi and Madrik, who cast worried looks his way as they went. Once everyone else was gone, Pestilence nudged his horse forward and closed the distance between the two of them.
"Jack, do you have any idea what Pitch wanted from you?" the White Horseman asked, gazing into Jack's eyes with a look Jack found unusually… intense, though his face was expressionless as ever.
Jack shook his head. "No. He never said anything about what he wanted; just that he thought it was time for a 'chat.'" After a moment's pause, he added, "the Spring spirits were with him. You think they'd know? I could scare it out of one of them easily enough."
Jack might have imagined it, but was that just the slightest curl at the edge of Pestilence's mouth? "I doubt Pitch has told them anything of note," the Horseman answered. "Keep an eye out for them, however, and any other of the Moon's ilk who may have fallen in with him. If he wants you badly enough to have a herd of Nightmares and the Spring seasonals on hand to apprehend you, he will likely attempt it again."
The former frost sprite grimaced. "I know. I was planning on just… keeping my aspect up for a while, keep myself invisible to them. I don't want to be watching out for both Pitch's minions and the demons."
Pestilence gave a curt nod. "Likely the safest course of action, at this point. I would expect trouble from that quarter, regardless."
Jack felt a grin creeping across his face before he could stop it. "Are you worried about me, Pestilence?"
The exasperated look in the White Horseman's eyes was one Jack had seen more than once (more often than not he was the cause of it). "For the life of me I cannot fathom why."
"Awww, you do care!"
"I will neither confirm nor deny such, and it will remain so until my dying day."
"Technically, you're not alive."
"Exactly."
Jack blinked for a moment. Then, laughing so hard his sides almost hurt, he kicked Mei into a skyward gallop, turning her south after the other Reapers. Mei whinnied along, kicking up her heels exuberantly as she caught up to the tail end of the herd.
"Piscia! Somebody needs to tell Death the end is nigh! Pestilence just made a joke!" Jack called, still laughing.
The other Reapers immediately cracked up, several cracking their own jokes as they rode along. Jack started laughing even harder, almost falling out of his saddle, when he heard Madrik yell back at him, "damnit, Jack, you've doomed us all!"
I know… it's been nine months. I am so sorry. Life happened (as it does), and my muse for this story left me for another writer about seven months ago. I wrote I think five or six versions of this before I got something that was even moderately workable. Thankfully I'm on summer vacation now, so at least no schoolwork to worry about (just regular work. Yay). I.e. hopefully it won't be another nine months until the next update. My muse is still missing, unfortunately so… morning writing drills and afternoon editing for me!