Banshee Worm King: Book Five of the Oz Chronicles (21 page)

Ajax reached up into the tree and hoisted himself up
higher.
 
Seconds later his big padded
hand reached down to me.
 
I grabbed, and
he pulled me up to his level.
 
Ajax
grabbed the trunk of the tree and shifted his weight forward.
 
The tree started to bend.

“What are you doing, big guy?”

The top of our tree collided with next tree up the
hill.
 
Ajax grabbed the trunk of the new
tree while still holding onto the old tree. He grunted and motioned with his
head for me to climb across to the new tree.

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” I closed my eyes and
prayed that neither tree would break under Ajax’s weight.
 
After a count of three, I jumped to the new
tree.
 
Ajax released the old tree and it
snapped away from us like a catapult.

Ajax repeated the trick until the treeway was in
sight.
 
He was showing signs of
exhaustion, but he refused to stop.
 
I
pretended like I needed a rest even though he was doing all the work.

There hadn’t been any signs of the Banshee for a long
time.
 
I was tempted to jump to the
ground and race to the treeway on foot.
 
Surely we could make it.
 
It
wasn’t that far.
 

“Ajax,” I said, “Break off a good sized branch and toss it
to the ground.”

Before I could suggest which branch, he reached up and
yanked one down that was as big around as the fat end of a baseball bat.
 
It hit the ground with a thud. The ground
underneath it bulged up ever so slightly.
 

“It followed us.”
 

Ajax started the process of getting us to the next tree,
but he was so tired he nearly slipped and fell to the ground.

“Whoa, take it easy. Take a few more minutes and try
again.”

He was relieved that I suggested he rest.
 
He bowed his head and collected himself.

“I need you to regain your strength by the time we get back
to the treehouse.
 
Turns out Bostic isn’t
the award-winning host we thought he was.”

Ajax hooted which I assumed meant “No duh.”

I sat back against the trunk of the tree and watched the
leaves bob and dip in the steady breeze.
 
It reminded me of sitting in the woods behind my house, lying on the
ground and staring up through the trees as the clouds raced by.
 
“I can’t go home, Ajax.”

His hoot indicated a “Why?” this time.

“Lou isn’t real.
 
She
can’t go back with us.”

There was no response from him this time.

“I can’t go back without her. I know I did some terrible
things to Stevie, and I know I deserve to be here.
 
It’s my responsibility to make it right.
 
I know all that, and I accept it, but this...
this doesn’t seem fair.”

He turned his massive head toward me but still didn’t offer
a hoot or growl in response.
 

“It’s cruel. Crueler than anything I ever did to him.
 
And it’s not just cruel to me.
 
If Lou ever finds out, it’ll kill her.
 
Plus if I’m the key like everyone’s been
saying, that means I’m the key to getting everyone home.
 
Wes, Gordy, Tyrone, April, you. Everyone will
pay if I don’t find a way home.
 
But if I
find a way home...
 
you get the point.”

He nodded.

“I wish I knew what you were thinking, big guy.”

He pointed at me and signed a word I knew, “Protect.”
 
Then he spread his hands out and did a half
circle shape.
 
“You protect all.”

He stood and reached out for the next tree that would move
up the mountain.

I had no idea what he meant by “You protect all,” but it
didn’t sound easy.
 
I was getting tired
of being the guy at the center of everything.
 

***

We made it to the treeway, but we barely mustered up enough
energy to make it to the zip lines before daybreak.
 
By the time we got in our harnesses, the
first slivers of light were stretching across the sky.
 

As soon as I hit the deck of the house, I could feel that
something wasn’t right.
 
I pushed open
the door to the house and announced we were back, but as it turns out, I
announced it to an empty room.
 

“Lou,” I said walking to the back door.
 
The deck was empty.

I called out for the others, but no one called back.
 

Ajax knuckle-walked through the door and looked as confused
as I felt.
 

We both heard the sound of someone darting across the zip
line.
 
We hurried to the deck and watched
the fog, waiting for the person to appear.
 
Hopefully it was one of ours, letting us know they were all okay, that
they just went out for a morning walk through the treeway.
 
Maybe they went out looking for me.

A large figure dashed out of the haze and soared toward
us.
 
It was Bostic.
 
He landed on the deck and unhooked his
harness with a disturbing smile.

“Boy,” he said. “Gorilla.”

Ajax growled and shot him a hateful glare.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

“In a safe place,” he said.

“What does that mean?”

“It means what it means.
 
No riddles.
 
I’ve put them where
they won’t come to harm.
 
That’s what you
do with bargaining chips.”

Ajax’s growl grew louder.

“And you certainly don’t bring harm to the fellow who knows
where they are.”

I crossed the deck keeping my eyes on him.
 
“What exactly are we bargaining for?”

He removed his harness and tossed it on the hook.
 
“I’m bargaining for you.”

I looked over the deck.
 
“You alone?”

He laughed and pointed up into the canopy.
 
“I’m never alone.”

I strained to see what he meant. A flicker of light seemed
out of place and then another and another.
 
I looked closer and saw why.
 
The
freakish monkey-worms were hiding in the trees.
 
There were dozens of them.
 

He walked into the treehouse.
 
“I didn’t have a clue what I had with you,
boy.
 
Thought you were just another group
of ‘poor me’ survivors passing through my mountain.” He chuckled.
 
“Don’t get me wrong.
 
You were that and then some.
 
Never heard so much moaning and groaning
about the state of this apocalypse we presently are enjoying.
 
You people just don’t know how to take
advantage of a situation. There are riches to be made. Fun to be had.
 
You just gotta have the right attitude.”

Ajax and I followed him into the kitchen.
 
“Are you going to get to the point?”

“The point is I have made my way here, boy.
 
I have prospered like I never could have
dreamed in the old world.
 
I have carved
out a nice little life and it keeps just getting better.”

“Where are the others?”

“We’ll get to that.”
 
He snapped his fingers.
 
“You’re
probably wondering why I can talk all normal now.”
 
He pulled back his bandage and removed the
tobacco leaf revealing scars that looked like nothing more than minor
scratches.
 
He ripped the bandage off and
tossed it away.
 
“Myrmidon meat does more
than make you feel good.” He rolled his eyes and smiled.
 
“I mean really good.
 
It also helps you heal fast.
 
You done some real damage. By the way, that
is some trick you’re able to do there.
 
You got all Hulkie on me.”

“And we’re headed that way again if you don’t tell me where
my friends are.”

He shook his head in disappointment.
 
“Patience, boy. I ain’t in no particular
hurry.” He reached down and picked up a sack of the meat.
 
“Long as I got my supply of jubilee meat, as
the Ratty-Bob’s call it.”
 
He reached in
and pulled out a hunk of meat.
 
“Join
me?”

“Ajax,” I said.

The silverback approached, eyeballing Bostic as he
knuckled-walked.
 

“Throw every one of those sacks of meat over the deck.”

Ajax huffed and entered the kitchen.

Bostic’s cocky demeanor disappeared in an instant.
 
“No!”

“Stop, Ajax,” I said.
 
To Bostic, “Either tell me where the others are or we take the meat and
give it all to the Ratty-Bobs.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll tell you.”

Ajax backed away.

“I’m listening,” I said.

He leaned against the counter and hung his head.
 
“Like I said, I had no idea who you were.”

“What difference does it make who we are?”

“Not ‘we,’” Bostic said lifting his head.
 
“You. I had no idea who you were, Oz.”

“I’m not anybody.”

“That ain’t what the Myrmidon’s think.
 
They got a keen interest in you, boy.”

“Why?”

“Hell, I don’t know.
 
They ain’t the best communicators.
 
I’ve worked out the basics of their little squeaks and clicks.
 
About all I know is that someone wants you.
 
They ain’t exactly fond of that someone, and
they want you to get one over on this other fellow.”

“What’s this have to do with the others?”

“I’ll tell you what it has to do with the others.
 
The Myrmidons came here not long after you
left last night.
 
They ain’t the
brightest bulbs in the box, but they get a scent on a body, they will find it
without much effort.”

“Scent?
 
You mean
they got my scent from their camp?”

“No.
 
They’ve had
your scent for a while. They’ve been hunting you for some time.”

I sat down at the counter.
 
“They want the Source,” I said.
 
“They need it to defeat the Délons.”

Bostic shrugged.
 
“None of that matters a bit to me.
 
I’m an independent businessman just trying to eat my meat and feed my
worms.”

“The bargain?
 
What
is it?”

He cut some meat from the hunk and dropped it in the
skillet. “I give them you, and they’ll let the others go.”

I raised an eyebrow.
 
“That’s the deal you made.”

“That’s the deal I made,” he said as his steak started to
sizzle.

“You don’t seem like the kind of guy who would make a deal
without getting something in return.”

He looked over his shoulder. “Did I forget to mention
they’re giving me 36 Myrmidons?”

I looked at Ajax to see if the deal made any sense to
him.
 
He sat back on his haunches and
stared dumbfounded.

“They’re giving you their own kind?”

“Yep.”

“To eat?”

“Yep.
 
They want you
bad.”
 
He flipped his steak with a
fork.
 
“Do you know what this means?”

“No,” I said.

“I’ll have livestock.
 
If I can find a way to breed those ugly things, I could have an endless
supply of Myrmidon meat.
 
I could expand
my operations.
 
Send the Ratty-Bobs South
to drum up business.
 
I’ll own this whole
mountain range.
 
This is huge.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” I said.

“I agree.
 
I’ve just
spent a couple of days with you and even I can tell you’re worthless.
 
Got no idea why they want you so bad, but I
don’t care.”
 
He removed the meat from
the skillet and dropped it on a plate.
 
“Say, you’re not going to fight me on this, are you? Cause if you do,
I’ll send one of my monkeys to tell the Myrmidons to cut that pretty girl’s
head off.”

“She’s not that pretty,” a voice said from the deck.