38. Rodan

38

Rodan

T he sun was shining down brightly by the time they made it to the park. Ankou blended oddly with the people around him, foregoing his robes for a sweater vest and button-down long-sleeved shirt tucked into dark trousers. Though he drew a few curious glances, the god seemed to pass for human better than Maeve or Rodan could, even with their glamour in place to tamp down the otherworldly glow to their skin.

Troy had been offered a glamour, took it for a few seconds, and then loudly complained of the sensation and chose a hat to hide their too-long ears instead.

They walked leisurely, rotating amongst themselves. Rodan found himself falling into step beside the human Gladys. "I am surprised you did not put up more argument about staying with us all last night," he remarked, raising an eyebrow at her. "You seem to roll with what's happening quite well."

She chuckled. "When you come from a background like mine, you learn to just go with it. Life makes little enough sense, and this is—incredible, despite everything. I think my heart will explode any moment from fear, but at the same time? Just what I saw at the dining table this morning was enough to make all this worth it."

"What of your friends? Family?" he pressed.

"I'm an orphan. No family. I have friends I've been texting. I live with a few of them. They know I'm getting paid by some eccentric rich person I met at work, and they're just keeping tabs to make sure none of you kidnap me." She sent him a wink. "You never know what the other half gets up to."

Rodan walked with his hands behind his back, contemplating. "I was, for a long time, the sole ruler of the Realms. It is my home, and I love it far more than anything I've seen here, but I understand if the draw of the familiar is too much."

Gladys slowed, then stopped, turning to him on the side of the path. "Are you saying you would bring me to the Realms? When this is over?"

He tried to read her tone but could not, so simply said the truth. "Yes. If you wish to."

She blinked a few times, then noticed the bulk of the group having gotten ahead of them and hurried on. Nath had hung back, as had Pike, though the scrapper was a little further along.

"I do not mean to offend," Rodan offered after a drawn silence. "As I said, Earth is not my world."

"I've seen so little of it," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I always thought I'd get to travel but, that? A whole other world?" She peered at him. "Humans aren't, like, slaves to the Fae or anything, right? I'm not going to be walking into some kind of?—"

"No," Rodan interrupted before she could expand upon the idea. "No," he repeated, gentler. "We're fairly egalitarian in the Realms, at least I hope we are. Humans live freely among the other species. There are some places you'll find more of your kind, but they will always be others, too. Centaurs, elves, goblins, to name a few. There are merfolk in the sea, and selkie."

He smiled a little to remember the one, Luna, who had tried to take a bite of him back when he and Maeve had only just started. How long ago that seemed. How ignorant that man was, compared to the one he was now. Everything he had learned upon Tartarus.

"You will find the Realms are similar in some regard, but very different in most. It would be quite the transition."

Gladys kicked a pebble that went skittering off, clinking into the iron base of one of the black-painted benches lining the side of the walk. "What would I do? What kind of jobs are there?"

"You would be our guest, at first," Rodan ventured, warming to the idea. He liked what he had seen of Gladys so far, and wished to keep her close. "You would have a suite of rooms, clothes, food, whatever you have need of. The castle and Realmsgate need a great deal of assistance, however. We're in the midst of rebuilding efforts from a great storm, and the neglect of the last thirty years from Sebastian's unfortunate reign." He shrugged. "You could mind some of the children of the workers, perhaps, if you have a care for that sort of thing. Or assist in cataloguing the library. It's been ransacked to hell."

Gladys chuckled and glanced at him, no shyness in her expression. There never had been, he realized. Awe and disbelief, for a certainty, but she had never been frightened or intimidated by him. "What else?"

Rodan spent some time going over the long list of tasks needing doing. The gardens had been left to a poor state. There were general construction needs all throughout the city. They had to work at clearing the roads. With the onset of winter, there would be a need for hunters. Trackers. Fish were numerous enough in the sea they would make up the primary diet for a while to come, until he and the others could restore the lush forest that used to coat the island Realmsgate sat upon.

And he wanted to start a museum of his own, he said at last. "We have nothing like where you worked in my land, nowhere. There are far more pressing needs, of course, but eventually? If you wished, we could certainly learn much from your experience there."

"I'm only a guard," she said, too quick. Too dismissive.

"Yes," he agreed, nodding. "Who has worked there half a decade, at least. Surely you've absorbed a great deal in that time. We would pay you well, and you need not live in the castle if you do not wish to. There should be rooms available at the least currently in the city, but surely as renovations continue there will be larger places opening up."

"You're talking like I'd never come back here."

Rodan shrugged, then said, "I cannot help feel what is going to happen here tonight, it will leave its mark on your world. You may not want to come back."

She fell silent at that.

Pike was hurrying ahead to a hotdog stand, Maeve attempting to restrain him, but soon all of them who were willing were sharing in a small meal off to the side. Rodan was curious and had his own covered in onion, relish, ketchup, and mustard. "Classic," Maeve said to him with a wink.

But only two bites in and he was passing it off to Pike, who took it happily despite Maeve and Gladys sounding off warnings.

Rodan laughed and grasped the bottle of water his bondmate passed him, taking a hearty few gulps to rid himself of the taste of the processed meat. Lydia said, "If only there was more time, I would take you to some of my favorite haunts. There is amazing cuisine to be found here."

"What's your favorite?" Rodan asked.

"This Thai place called Basil and Lemongrass. It's right off the park, actually." She pointed in a vague direction. "But they're likely closed today."

Rodan frowned, "Why today?"

"Oh, it's a holiday," Lydia said, motioning around them at the many flags of red and white strips with a corner of stars on a blue field. "Independence Day. When this country celebrates winning a war for its freedom." She glanced at Gladys. "I'm surprised you don't have things to do other than this."

"I do," the human said quickly. "It's just, what's more important? A barbecue, getting drunk with people I've been drunk with a dozen times before, or this?" She motioned between them all.

Looking around, Rodan asked, "Is that why there are so many people?"

Gladys snorted and Lydia laughed. "No," Gladys said. "That's just New York City. You won't see crowds of much size in the park until later in the afternoon, anyway. That's when the festivities truly start."

He thought the crowds were already of a significant size. There were as many people in this park, it seemed, as had been at Maeve's coronation. Possibly more.

They continued to wander the grounds, speaking of little things, but keeping their eyes and senses peeled. Maeve he could sense through the bond even though she was at the head of the group, far ahead of him. There came from her end a steady beat of intensity, and with their shared powers he could see the tendrils of psychic energy she cast over everyone they passed.

Gladys was deep in discussion with Pike, Thea leaning over a long, curved bridge to stare at the water below, Cedric's hand on the back of her neck. Corra, Maeve, and Lydia clustered near the front, with Ankou standing like a shadow to the side of them. No matter how the god had looked conspicuous to Rodan, he never seemed to draw attention from the mortals around them. Some kind of glamour, perhaps?

When it happened, Jen seemed to react first. Her spine went rigid and she twisted, staring deep into the small forest they had emerged from. Elias followed her gaze first, so fast it was as though he had been drawn to the same location.

Then Ankou was beside them, and the rest were coming together, amassing near the boulder Jen was perched on with Troy, Elias standing at the base. The god spoke, his voice heavy and threaded with massive power. "He's here."

First it was a tremble, and then the ground began to shake in earnest, trees swaying as though tossed about by some great wind, the earth beneath their feet rising and falling like an ocean tide.

"Earthquake!" Jen shouted, eyes wide and wild. A touch on her mind was all it took to see she was long-trained to withstand such events, though in her panic she was not sure what to do while they were out in the open. A barrage of memories of smaller tremors, always while Jen was inside a structure, came to him before he severed the connection between them, focusing more on keeping his own feet.

But this was no true earthquake.

The ground was splitting. Trees were crashing in the forest as far within, a jagged peak of obsidian began to rise above the tallest branches. It was about a mile away, but as it rose it widened, until a pillar of black rock was barreling toward them, earth and trees, people, birds, animals, all falling and fleeing in its wake.

Ankou was in the center of the group, and he extended his arm, a sheen falling across the world as he put a protective barrier around them all, a dome of invisible power.

Rodan could sense Maeve's rising panic as that wall of black soil and forest came rushing for them. He reached through the bond to help steady but found his own breath shaky as he said, your father is with us. He will not let you or Lydia come to harm.

Indeed, he was shielding each of them, even the human Gladys who was clutching Pike's arm and weeping openly.

And then it stopped. The mountain—for that was what it was—had just as suddenly appeared in Central Park ceased its relentless climb toward the heavens. As Rodan looked up, and up, he noted its peak utterly disappeared into endless sky.

There was a moment of silence, punctuated now by sobbing humans, crying children, wailing. Then, after a pause, the scream of dozens of sirens.

He could sense the pull in Maeve to go to them, to help, but he reached through the bond again. Steady, love. You can do the most good by staying with us. There are emergency services on the way by the sounds of it. They cannot help in the mountain, but you can.

Rodan was moving toward her as he said this, and saw her taking several steady breaths, her chest heaving and color high. He ran a hand down her back, transforming the casually elegant clothes she had been wearing for a stroll in these gardens to, instead, be the same-similar armor she had worn to the duel with Sebastian. Only this time, he made sure it was black, adorned in places with dull gold. The plates were made and positioned in such a way she did not rattle as she moved, but was able to retain full mobility.

Maeve hauled in a breath at the change, looking at her gauntleted hands and reaching for the daggers strapped to her sides. He had given her six, just in case.

And in a blink, he had transformed his own clothes into the black armor he had also worn, and looked to the others. "I can help each of you change. We should be armed and armored."

"Holy shit," Gladys breathed. "Me too?"

He nodded. "If you're to stay with the party, then yes. You cannot go in there without protection." And he would give her more than armor. When it came to her, he pressed a glamour into her skin that made her nearly undetectable to anyone who would have ill intent toward her. Then he provided a silver and moonstone sword and dagger pairing, admonishing gently when she reached too eagerly that she not use them unless necessary. "Lest you have some hidden training I know nothing about. These are simply made for you, to boost your speed, agility, and senses. Wear them with care."

The woman surveyed her leather armor with steel plates and gave a low whistle. "This is so badass. That," she pointed at the mountain looming above them, which was gathering dark clouds at the peak, swirling and spreading outward like an oncoming storm. "Is not. That is scary as shit. But I'm—I want to go with you all, to the Realms. And I think you're right," she added softly. "This is going to change everything."

Everyone so armed, Rodan turned to Ankou, who had shed his mortal disguise for his robes of office, billowing and streaming behind him like a sea of stars and shadows. Looking upon his face, Rodan was glad Ankou was on their side. Mostly.

"Danu will not like this and he, well… he will know about this, soon. When he acts is anyone's guess, but unless we can neutralize this soon, he will come here, and when he does he may leave nothing but destruction in his wake."

Rodan surveyed the mass of piled debris and dirt, then asked, "How do we get into the mountain?"

"I can make an entrance," Ankou said. "The stone will yield to me. You can clear a way."

Lifting a hand, Rodan did just that, unmaking and moving the mounts of earth and rock and other things piled against the side of the mountain that started some five yards away. It was a minimal effort to carve a generous path with sloping sides, but he told no one how many bodies he found within the mass. How many deaths.

Ankou likely knew already.

They moved as a tight unit toward the mountain, every step toward it the sky darkening still further above them, thunder rumbling and lightning crashing. Far behind he could hear the wail of the sirens, still, and the screams and cries of the Earth humans. People calling for loved ones.

He wondered how few would be found.

And then he turned his thoughts away from such things, focusing instead on the humming warning coming from the structure. It seemed to sing in a malevolent, oily voice, go away. Do not come here. You are not welcome. Stay back.

Maeve shuddered ahead of him, and he knew she was hearing much the same.

But when Ankou reached the base of the mountain, he placed a hand on the obsidian without hesitation, opening a tall, wide archway, through which yawned only the deepest dark he had ever seen. Maeve hesitated, and he sensed a flash of her time beneath the lake. He reached out and grasped her shoulder. She turned her face to him, eyes wide.

"It'll be okay," he said. "You won't be in there alone."

Ankou was already within, ushering them forward with an impatient wave of a white hand. The only others who held back were Gladys and Nath.

Maeve nodded once, then took a deep breath and stepped into the oily dark.

Rodan followed her an instant later, and was struck blind.