9. Dusk of the Dead
The landing hurt a lot more than Joe expected it to. He groaned, not sure if he was happy that he was regaining feeling in his limbs or not. He kept his eyes closed, took deep breaths, and hoped the pain was temporary.
This has to be the worst idea you've ever had, a soft voice spoke in Joe's head.
He immediately shot up, his eyes snapping open. It had been so long since he heard her voice that he almost forgot what it sounded like, but he recognized it instantly. There was only one person who could talk to him like that.
Isis, Joe thought with malice, it's been awhile. Where have you been?
Honestly, the Land of the Dead is no place for a Warp Wizard. Your powers are much weaker here. Isis went on, ignoring his question. I'm only looking out for you.
I'm here to help my wife, who I'm lucky to still have no thanks to you. Joe rolled his eyes. Isis had been the one to activate Joe's magic in the first place, officially making him a Warp Wiz and causing him to nearly get killed by Sydney.
I warned you that being a Warp Wizard would cause problems. Don't blame me for a choice you willingly made by yourself.
Maybe my memory's a little foggy, but I don't remember there being much of a choice.
Isis was silent for a while. Joe was beginning to think she left his mind, but she spoke one last time. Just be careful while you're here. That empty vision of your future isn't so empty anymore. And please, try to remember that I am on your side.
Joe frowned at Isis' words. That empty vision? Joe's mind went back to when they were in After Time and Isis had first revealed herself to him. She had shown him three different visions of his future. Only one would come true and it all depended on the path he chose to take, magic or no magic. The third portal had been blank, just fog swirling round and round, and that was the one that had remained after Joe's decision. What did it mean if it was no longer empty?
Joe was dragged out of his thoughts by an overly excited Fred. "We made it!"
"We're alive. We're actually alive," Sam spoke in disbelief, enjoying the feeling of life flowing through him.
Joe studied his friends. They looked as bad as he felt, though Joe probably didn't look much better. The landing had been hard on all of them, but at least they were alive.
"Now all we have to do is track down the girls." Fred paused, his smile slowly dropping. "Anyone know how to do that?"
Sam rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Sorry. I left my bloodhounds at home."
"They couldn't have gone too far, right?" Joe stood and joined his friends. "Let's just walk around until we find them."
"How do we know if they even landed here? We could be hundreds of miles away from them!" Sam exclaimed. The trio looked around. Their landing sight showed no sign of any previous visitors. It didn't show any signs of life at all.
"We have to find them eventually. We're wasting time just standing around here. Let's get going." Fred turned to leave, deciding that was the end of their conversation.
Joe and Sam had no choice but to follow. They jogged to catch up with Fred, who was speed walking his way through piles of bones and between high cliff walls.
It took a minute for Joe to notice, but once he did, he couldn't take his eyes off of it. "Fred... what's that in the back on your shirt?"
A rectangular bulge was poking out from Fred's back, tucked in the waistband of his pants and hidden underneath his shirt. Fred quickly turned around to hide it from Joe's view. "Um... my wallet?"
Joe stopped and folded his arms over his chest. Fred made a lot of money at his job, but even he wouldn't have a wallet that big. "Please, tell me that is not what I think it is."
"What do you think it is?"
Joe rolled his eyes and gestured to Fred to hand it over. With a reluctant sigh, Fred reached back and pulled out The Book.
"Fred!" Joe yelled. He yanked The Book from Fred's grasp. "I told you that The Book interferes with my magic! No wonder we ended up thousands of feet in the air! What if something happened to it? You know what could happen if it gets destroyed!"
Fred held his hands up defensively. "I know, but I thought it could be useful so I grabbed it right before we left. That thing had maps of this place in it, remember?"
Joe shook his head. "You shouldn't have brought it." He handed The Book to Sam. "Here, I trust you with it more than I trust Fred, and I don't want it on me in case I have to use my magic."
Sam eyed Joe's book wearily, as if the last thing he wanted was to be in charge of it. He finally took it and put it away. "Can we get going? The sooner we're out of here, the better. This place gives me the creeps." Sam wrapped his arms around himself and shivered, taking in his surroundings nervously.
"I agree. We need to find the girls and get this all over with." Joe looked around as well, Isis' warning about his magic being weaker here coming back to him. "Come on, let's get moving."
Liam had proved to be an interesting character. He was very deliberate in his movements and spoke about the Land of the Dead as if he was its architect. He was always smiling in a carefree way, as if he knew nothing could affect him.
His voice was laced with a thick Australian accent and could almost pass as a close relative of Cade's. They had the same deeply tanned skin and forest green eyes, but Liam's hair was as black as the mist that surrounded them and cropped short and tight like a soldier's. He was at least ten years older than the girls, but nothing about his behaviour showed it.
The girls were uneasy about letting him tag along and would rather have sent him away. He stuck around anyway, either oblivious to the girls' distrust of him or too carefree to worry about it. He seemed friendly enough, but one could never be too sure.
Sydney and Kairi were sitting off to the side of the small clearing they had decided to stop at for the night, knowing it would get too dangerous for them to keep travelling. Liam, who had recognized a fellow Aussie the second Cade spoke, was chatting her up a few yards away from them. He was well out of earshot as long as they stayed quiet.
"Think he was sent by Death?" Sydney mumbled. She examined Liam, making sure to pick up on every detail no matter how minor it appeared to be. No one in their group fully trusted him yet, though it seemed as if Cade was warming up to him the more they talked. To be fair, nothing about the man seemed threatening.
"I don't think so," Kairi answered. "He could be a spy, but he doesn't look anything like a Reaper or a Returner. He's definitely alive. Unless he agreed to a deal with Death to turn him alive again if he observed us while we were here."
Sydney scoffed. "If he is a spy, he's the worst one I've ever seen."
"What do you mean?" Kairi continued to watch as Cade laughed at something Liam said.
"He's not observant, like at all. If he was sent here to keep an eye on us, he would be keeping an eye on us. In the short time he's been with us, I can tell that he's right-handed, hard of hearing in his left ear, and has an old-fashioned politeness and attitude about him. I doubt he knows anything about us outside of what we've told him. He doesn't seem to care about what we say or do. Well, except Cade. He's practically throwing himself at her." A soft smirk came to Sydney's lips. "Maybe this will be good for her and help show her there's more men in the world besides Sam."
Kairi sighed, a soft pout appearing on her face. "I wish you and Cade would stop talking like that. There's nothing wrong with Sam and Cade's relationship. Sam's always taken his time with her. I think it's sweet."
Sydney shook her head. "You're an adult, Kairi. It's time you learned that not every love story ends in happily ever after."
Kairi's pout increased and she quickly decided to change the subject back to their guest. "Shouldn't we find out more about Liam?"
"Definitely." Sydney nodded firmly. "He obviously knows a lot about this place, but for all we know he could have been following us and is just repeating what we told Cade earlier. I think it's time we learned a little bit about our tour guide."
The cousins stood and made their way over to him and Cade, who were still having a conversation.
"So, Liam," Sydney started as she sat down next to him, promptly cutting off his prior chat. "How did you arrive to this lovely hell-hole?"
"Technically, dearie, this isn't hell." Liam shook his head as if she was a confused child. "Hell's portal isn't even near us at the moment."
"You know where the portals are?" Kairi jumped over Sydney's lap and zealously got in Liam's face, abandoning any thoughts of suspicion. Sydney frowned at her, both for invading her personal space and for suddenly trusting Liam.
"Course I do." Liam pulled out a small, leather bound book. "Got it all right here."
"And just how do you have all this information?" Sydney pushed Kairi back down and eyed the book in Liam's hand skeptically. "The portals are always moving. You can't pin them down."
"Sure you can. They may be constantly switching places, but they always follow the same pattern." Liam proudly tapped the cover of his little book. "And I know the exact pattern. Why are you lovely sheilahs so interested in the portals? You lookin' for one?"
"Purgatory!" Kairi answered before anyone else could. "We really, really need to find the entrance to purgatory! Like, within the next five days. Can you help us?"
"Don't see why not." Liam grinned in a gentlemanly way. He scanned the pages of his notebook, revealing drawings of maps with notes written off the sides. "Let's see... purgatory should be in the north at this time of year." He stopped when he finally found the page he had been searching for. "Ah, yes. There it is. Section B6. It'll take us four days to get there."
"Four days?" Kairi frowned.
"And that's if we don't stop during the day for breaks." Liam promptly shut the book and hid it from view. "We'll have to make it there within four days. After that, the purgatory portal moves to a new spot and I can't guarantee that we'll get there before your deadline."
"It's better than walking around like we were doing," Cade offered an encouraging smile. She cast a sidelong glance at Liam and toyed with a strand of her hair, her bracelet jingling in the process.
"What would you do that for? In fact, why do you need my help at all?" He pointed over his shoulder at Sydney. "She can just summon up some of her demon friends and show you the way."
"My what?" Sydney squinted at him, clearly not knowing what he was referring to. "What are you talking about?"
"I see you and your circus friends come through here all the time. You usually do one of your little dances to make some demons appear and navigate through no problem." Liam turned to look at her. "Why'd you change your hair? The cherry red was nice."
"Circus?" Kairi spoke before Sydney could barrage him with more questions. "You mean the Cirque des Morts? Why would they be coming here?"
"That's the one." Liam nodded. "No clue why they come here though. You sure you're not that demon girl? You look just like her."
"I've never been more sure in my life," Sydney answered. "I've never even heard of the Cirque des Morts."
Liam shrugged. "Sorry for the mistake then. But I swear you could pass as her twin."
Sydney didn't say anything back, lost in thought. Her eyes looked to the ground, her left hand tracing the scar over her collarbone.
"Well, if you'll excuse me, dearies. We have quite the journey ahead of us and I am going to need some rest. I suggest you do the same." He rose to his feet and dipped his head to them. "Goodnight."
The girls watched as he strode away with crisp footsteps. He settled down in a spot not too far from them near a cliff wall.
"This is fantastic!" Kairi clasped her hands together. "Now all we have to do is come up with a plan to get out of my debt."
"Except that we still don't know anything about him." Sydney crossed her arms, finally coming out of her thoughts.
"He doesn't seem that bad," Cade offered with a sheepish smile.
"Oh, come on. You never trust anyone when you first meet them. What's so special about him?"
Cade shrugged, her eyes focusing on the ground. "Not a clue, but he's done nothing wrong so far. He's even taking us to the portal."
"So he claims," Sydney kept her eyes locked on Liam. "For all we know, he could be leading us into a trap."
"Why would he do that?" Kairi tilted her head. "He has no reason to betray us, does he?"
"I wish I knew the answer, but unfortunately, I didn't get enough information on the guy to even take a guess." Sydney furrowed her brow. "Look, I'm just being cautious. Something about him seems off. He kept dodging all my questions. How could he possibly know as much as he does about the Land of the Dead? That notebook he has is precise and detailed. And the way he behaves is so... out-of-date. Look at what he's wearing. It looks like some sort of uniform." She gestured to his weathered clothes.
His outfit seemed as though it was once white, but was now a grungy grey. The sleeves of his shirt had obviously been torn off, leaving him in an awkward looking vest with the top three buttons missing. His pants had several holes in them and the bottoms were entirely frayed.
"It's not like there's an undead army," Kairi said with a shrug. "Even if it is a uniform, we don't have to worry about him calling a battalion of zombies."
"Still... and what was up with that demon girl thing? Kairi, what exactly is the Cirque des Morts?"
Kairi waved her hand dismissively. "Exactly what you think it is, the Circus of the Dead. I'm more interested to know why they've been coming here. Their business is in the overworld, not the underworld."
Sydney and Cade exchanged skeptical looks, not satisfied with Kairi's answer. In truth, they had no idea what to think of the Cirque des Morts.
Kairi simply shrugged it off. "I'm sure it's nothing. Anyway, Liam was right. We need to get some sleep. We can't afford to stop during the day."
The other girls nodded their heads in agreement. "Let's just hope this trip doesn't throw us any surprises."
A/N - My wifi was out for three days, which gave me plenty of time to be productive. So expect lots of updates from me soon. ;) As always, please leave a review. Thanks for reading!
