Black Dog Blues by Rhys Ford

Author:Rhys Ford [Ford, Rhys]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy
ISBN: 978-1-64405-317-1
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2019-03-05T05:00:00+00:00

A RED gleam amid the brush and the black stone was my first hint that something wasn’t right. We were three-quarters into Pendle, our progress stopped by a small herd of antelope rabbits bounding across the road. I let them pass, much to Ryder’s disgust. Unlike dragons, the antelope rabbits weren’t trying to eat me alive, so I didn’t feel like running them over. Since they weren’t sacred to Ryder, plowing through them seemed like an okay plan to him. I was driving, so only my opinion counted.

And I thought they were cute. There isn’t enough cute in the world. I take it when it’s offered to me.

Shannon stirred when we stopped, sitting up and blearily asking if we’d reached San Diego. Her eyes widened when she spotted the antlered bunnies hopping slowly across the asphalt, pointing out the wee babies scrambling after their mothers. Too young to grow a full rack, their furry heads were dotted with tiny nubs, soft with protective velvet.

“Oh, they’re cute!” She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the front seats. Her belly pressed between the space, bulging out over the center console I’d installed over the shifter. “I’ve never seen one. There must be close to a thousand.”

“’Lope bunnies own the place, more than the dragons, really,” I said, shifting the car into park to wait out the herd’s migration. “You can usually see them at night. That’s when most of their predators are asleep, and they can get down to new feeding grounds without having to dodge death.”

“None of them are black,” Ryder observed. “Just spots here and there. I’m surprised they survive out here in the flows.”

“They’re only passing through. They live down in the grasslands, up mountain, or ocean side. The flows are just a corridor. You can’t really see them once they hit the weeds.”

The furry migration was coming to an end. Spotting the wide branches of the male ’lopes rising above the hopping wave, I shifted the car back into drive, and the rear guards sat up on their haunches to stare into Oketsu’s lights as the last of their charges bounded along, the yellow gleam of their eyes turning lime as they turned their heads. The remaining few lazily made their way across the road, closely followed by the sentries, and I let the brake off, pulling Oketsu forward.

We’d gone about four yards when a hillock of paho’eho’e blinked, tiny red gleams appearing over its ridge. They followed, popping up periodically as the Mustang roared along the road. I flipped off the high beams, dropping the headlights down to pick up the ground ahead of us. I knew those gleams and wasn’t too happy to see them bobbing up and down behind us.

“We’re going to have to see how well you can shoot, lordship,” I said, reaching behind Ryder’s seat to pull out a shotgun. I bumped into Shannon’s belly with my elbow. “You might want to sit back a bit. Maybe even get down.”

“What’s going on?” Shannon pushed forward, and her jutting belly button brushed my arm.

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