Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
Yuless would be a problem.
My boss wanted to give me two weeks off to recover from my illness.
Yuless wanted to keep me tucked into bed, quite possibly for all eternity.
I appreciated the attention, but at the same time, I wanted to handle my list of things to do before I could worry about getting into the saddle, training Alligator Bait, and attempting to win the Triple Crown.
Dealing with the node in Tennessee needed to come first, and after that, I would begin doing some research into who had attempted to grab me outside of my own home and why.
Thus far, I hadn’t heard a peep from anyone about it.
The complete lack of commentary from the devils and demons in my life concerned me, but that the angels and archangels also played the same game made me stop and question everything.
Had the situation ended with the incident?
I suspected not.
Escaping my boss proved to be simple; I thanked him, told him I would be checking my email every rare now and again for emergencies, and ignored his commentary.
I would work when necessary but otherwise enjoy the two weeks to attend to other matters.
However, Yuless would be a problem.
The stew, which had done an excellent job of restoring me to a functional state, had cranked the tall, dark, and handsome’s energy levels to ridiculous proportions. Every time I turned around, he insisted on being useful.
Every attempt to sneak off to deal with the node resulted in a barricade of amorous man—and he’d gone overboard in making certain I recovered, determined to be everything except amorous.
How frustrating.
Rather than scream over the situation, I made use of my phone, requesting that the Devil send Darlene to distract Yuless while he came, retrieved me, took us to Tennessee, and gave me the hour or three required to attend to the struggling node.
Darlene arrived first, wearing her wings and plush coat loaded with spots, and she went for Yuless like she meant it, who had taken to hovering sexily no matter where I went. He went down with a startled squawk.
I left him to his fate, waited for Lucifer to arrive, and made my escape in record time.
Teleportation hit with the same force as a punch to the gut, and it took several minutes for me to recover enough to get my bearings.
The sounds of the jungle filtered through the ringing in my head, with birds crying and animals calling to one another.
The air hung thick and heavy, much like Florida on a bad day.
A dense copse of moss-laden trees stretched down a slope before us, leading to a stepped pyramid, similar to the ruins in South America.
Something shone with the brilliance of the sun, and I squinted, glancing upwards.
The node hung near the stone ceiling, and to get a better feel for what was going on, I closed my eyes.
In its attempt to preserve itself, the node had given itself a purpose, providing life to the jungle and temple below. However, much like the node recovering in the castle’s basement, the one above me had twisted itself into numerous knots and strangled itself.
I could understand why Lucifer wanted to connect the nodes; that would keep their many lines occupied so they would cease their self-destructive tendencies. I sighed and opened my eyes. “Well, this is quite the mess.”
“I know. Hagnar is the one who lives here, and this is where the Destroyer of Georgia slept. His node was insufficient to support him, and this one barely could.”
“And the other dragons?”
“Their nodes are weak, but most are also much younger.” Lucifer pointed at the temple below.
“That is Hagnar’s home when he isn’t on the surface, and it crumbles bit by bit because of the node’s failure.
Your dragon does not know this, but without the node, Hagnar will die—and those two have been friends for many, many centuries.
My daughter is also quite fond of Hagnar, so I do what I can to fight this node’s current fate along with his inevitable demise. ”
“And that tiny blight? Would he perish without his node?”
“No, but he’d be easy prey for those wishing to bring about his death. He wouldn’t perish immediately, but he would sooner than I prefer.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Is my node sufficient to support the ridiculous number of dragons infiltrating my property?”
“It is. Every dragon on the planet could take up permanent residence on your property and thrive. Should they need to return to slumber, I would construct a chamber for them underneath your land so they could do so in safety and comfort.”
I could accept such a thing. “All right. Step one is to untangle this mess and give the node a stronger purpose here. Then I’ll see what I can do about connecting the nodes together so they can support each other.”
“I will go visit with Hagnar and calm his nerves, as he will surely panic when you begin your work.”
No wonder; I’d panic, too, if someone started meddling with the entity keeping me alive.
Once Lucifer popped off to handle the mysterious Hagnar, I sat on the trail, made myself comfortable, closed my eyes, and went to work.
One thread, thicker and stronger than the rest, connected to the ecosystem, which the node sustained.
I left that be, searching out the first line I meant to work with, deciding I’d take a similar approach to how I’d corrected the lake’s node.
Unlike the first I’d untangled, the node had sucked all the ends within its darkening core, requiring me to tentatively pluck at loops, careful not to break any, until I located one with a little give.
The end, which had several knots to form a loop, perplexed me.
In some ways, it reminded me of a lasso.
Understanding the entire thing could unravel with rough handling, I worked the knots loose, smoothed the crimps in the line, and followed the line to where it connected to the heart of the node.
The center, like much of the rest of the tendrils, suffered from shadows, with only the one line supporting the cavern brilliant and healthy.
As Lucifer had mentioned the temple—Hagnar’s home—deteriorated, I began with it, the same way I had begun the careful purification and raising of my boss’s precious little castle.
After some consideration, I began with the top, wrapping the strand around the blocks of stone and tucking the end to secure it.
Much like the node at home had done, it fought me until it realized what I did, after which it cooperated and became pliable to my touch.
The next strand untangled with ease, and much like a rose blooming, it unfurled, leaving behind a mess of loose strands, each one requiring purpose.
Some I attached to the cavern walls to give the chamber support. Others reinforced the precious workings of the jungle environment. I saved the last bundle of ten lines for my next project, connecting the node to the ones in Florida.
Locating them from such a distance took time, and the minutes crawled by while I stretched out my awareness and searched.
Along the way, I uncovered several other nodes, all weak and dying.
Their sorry state reduced me to the brink of tears, and rather than focus on my primary task, I attended to each one, freeing strands so that I could spin them into the weave I wished to make.
By the time I reached the node underneath my home, rather than a singular strand, I had a cord with twelve lines as well as the bundle from Hagnar’s node.
Rather than a ball of energy, the node beneath my property took the form of a circular tapestry, its edge consisting of thousands of seeking lines, each one ready and willing to take up a task. After some thought, I decided which thread I selected didn’t matter.
Any strand would do as long as I could connect the nodes together.
Rather than weave, I spun, twisting the very essences of the strands together so they became one. The first went well, and a shimmering rainbow of color marked where the lines fused together. I connected the adjacent cords until all the lines were secured into the weave.
In a way, the node reminded me of the outstretched arms of a galaxy, with uncountable stars on the verge of being whipped out into the universe.
I did the equivalent of tap at my neighbor’s node, eyeballing one of the excess cords sustaining the castle. After a few more ginger taps, I began the process of unwrapping it from the structure. To my relief, it cooperated.
I spun its end to my node, securing them together for better or for worse.
Taking hold of one of the weave ends from mine, I went off in search of one more node to test. The line followed me, as though it came from the heart of an infinite ball of yarn ripe for my use.
I found two close together, and the poor things had tried to support each other, creating a mess I’d be challenged to correct.
Not wanting to observe them both perish, I sighed, drew out a second line from my node, and did the equivalent of loop both around my ankle while I worked on my last challenge of the day.
The work proved to be slow, tedious, and frustrating, but I took my time, and when I freed a single line from the weaker of the two nodes, I wasted no time drawing it towards the thick cord I’d fashioned, along with one of the lines I’d drawn out of mine, spinning them together around the larger rope so the energies could hopefully be transferred and shared.
The second node progressed faster, as though it woke and realized what I sought to accomplish and was aiding me as best it could. Like its sibling, I secured it to the master line so it could benefit as well.
Then I addressed the rest of the mess, and unlike the other nodes I’d worked with, I attached it to anything I could find. Sometimes, it was a large stone, sometimes a young tree—anything the strands of energy could attach to.