Ash

“Dhan, I need my stuff,” I yelled.

Norm sniffed the air. “Who is Dhan?”

“A friend,” I said softly. Or at least, I hoped he still was.

There was no answer to my call, so I flicked my fingers at the dirt below the gate and moved it in a huge chunk, big enough that Norm and I could shimmy in underneath the electrified gates without touching the humming metal. What was so strange to me was that Dhan had never been afraid before. What had changed that he suddenly had put up an electrified fence?

I dropped to my belly and wriggled through the hole I made, and Norm followed, grunting as he got a slight shock on his ass. “Ouch, that’s hot. Wait,” he pulled himself through and glanced up at me, his eyes glimmering. “Is this where we’re going to pull the prank?”

“No, my friend is here. He’s going to help me get all the things I need. For the prank.” It seemed wrong to keep leading Norm on, but I didn’t really know what else to do. If he was supposed to come with me, and to do so quietly, it seemed the only way. Still, I had a feeling it might come back to bite me in the ass.

I strode toward the front doors of the mansion. They were askew, broken halfway off their hinges and hanging by mere threads of metal. Again, I wasn’t put off. Not by that; I knew what Dhan was going for. He wanted people to do a complete fly-by. I broke into a jog, and between one step and the next, the world flashed around me, and I found myself flat on my back as a pulse of electricity shot through the soles of my feet. I lay there, panting, unable to believe what had just happened. Norm burst out laughing. “Oh, mother goddess, you should see your face, that’s a good prank . . . AHAAHH!”

He howled, and I could only guess that he’d been hit by the same electrical current that had caught me. I rolled to my belly and pushed away from the house. Using my connection to the earth, I found the trace-thin wires. “What the hell, Dhan?” I compacted the ground around the wires, crushing them flat and useless.

And then I looked at Norm. He was flat on his back with his arms and legs straight in the air along with every strand of his long floating hair. His eyes were bugged out wide as he slowly turned his head to stare at me. “Wow, I don’t like that prank after all.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t so good.” Even though I had to admit Norm did look mildly funny. My lips twitched and I clamped my mouth shut.

I shook my head and stood. “Dhan, that was not nice.” I pushed my toes into the loose dirt and connected even deeper to the earth. The house in front of us rumbled in response to my call, the foundation of it rattled, and someone inside screamed. A woman, not a man. I frowned. “Norm, you stay here.”

“Yeah, I’m just going to lie here for a while.” He lowered his arms and continued to stare up at the sky. I jogged toward the house again, slowing as I reached the doors. While electricity wouldn’t necessarily kill me, there was no doubt it was unpleasant and could incapacitate me long enough for someone who wanted to do me harm to have an open window in that department.

I peered through a crack in the door. There was a woman on the floor, or at least I thought it was a woman. She wore a sari faded with age, but other than that and the long dark hair, I was hard pressed to say if she was even human. Slowly, she lifted her head, and I jerked back.

Skeleton. Her skull had retained her hair and that was about it. Another thing to scare the humans away, to keep Dhan safe when he rested between his healings . . . but it seemed extreme. I’d never known him to be so afraid, not for himself.

I pulled my two swords out and pushed through the doorway. The female skeleton lurched toward me, her hands outstretched as she whispered a curse in Hindi, that I would die and not find release, that I would live and wish for death, that I would find myself trapped in darkness and pain forever. Not exactly what I would call pleasant.

I removed her head with a single strike. She wobbled where she was for a moment, then fell in a strangely graceful clattering of bones within her sari. I didn’t put my weapons away, though, not after that odd welcome. “Dhan, it’s Ash, from the Rim.”

No answer, but there was a scuffle of feet from deeper within the house. I crept forward, all my senses on high alert. I entered the kitchen first but found no one. From there, I slid through each subsequent room, but still, there was no sign of my old friend. I slid both weapons away and frowned as I made a slow circle. A sigh escaped me. He had to be out on one of his errands, I shouldn’t have been surprised. And yet . . . something didn’t feel right. Like there were pieces here out of place.

I backtracked into the kitchen where a small TV sat. I stared at it, quickly identifying the power button. I flicked it on and the screen came to life in a blur of black and white images. I moved the channels around until I found a weather channel.

“Hurricane Charley is sliding across the Atlantic Ocean, but we expect it to dissipate before much longer.” The announcer was speaking over an image of swirling clouds that spun between North America and Europe.

Miko had said to watch for unusual weather patterns, that Cassava would throw the area she was in off its center. I frowned and leaned in close to the TV as if that would somehow give me the exact answer I wanted. The British Isles were in the direct path of the hurricane . . . if it were going to go rogue. I tapped my fingers on the edge of the counter, thinking. Behind me was the sound of a weapon sliding from a sheath. I spun, drawing my swords as I did so.

Behind me was Dhan, or at least I thought it was Dhan. His eyes were sunken in and his usual healthy glow was sallow and grim. Even his jet-black hair was dull; not gray, but as if someone had taken away the shine.