I told her what happened to Templeton. “I’m so worried about Elise.”
She stared at her mocha. “Let me ask Cernunnos. If anyone would know, he would.” After another pause, she said, “Raven, I’m worried about the appearance of these Aqcarians. I didn’t say anything, but I’ll have to soon. You see, I’ve been having dreams again, and they’ve been filled with floods and hurricanes and cities falling beneath the water.”
I knew enough about Ember to know that she had precognitive dreams that were very real and very foretelling. “You think that they’re up to more than leeching salt off a few humans?”
“The six deaths in each city. That’s not random. That has to be planned.”
At that moment, Yutani peeked through the door. “Can I talk to you? I found something, and it’s not good.”
Ember nodded. “Call the others.”
Once we were all gathered around the massive table, Yutani set his laptop down and turned it around. “I found a site which…it’s like LOCK, but it’s a private organization run by a group that follows end-of-the-world cults. Real apocalyptic stuff, you know. They call themselves the Doom Watchers.”
“Keep track of them,” Herne said. “We might need to contact them at some point.”
“Oh, we will. They list the Aqcarians among their to-watch groups. Apparently, Doom Watchers is run by one of the magic-born, and she works with water energy. She stumbled over some ancient book of prophecies that predicts the end of the current age ‘by water and wind’ and she thinks the Aqcarians are gearing up to bring storm magic to devastate the coast lines.” He shrugged. “I don’t know what they could do about the landlocked areas.”
“Who wrote the prophecy?” I asked. “What’s the name of the book?”
“That’s just it…I don’t know. It didn’t say. It might be the drunken ramblings of some LARPing group, for all we know.” Yutani turned the computer back around. “I’ve tried several searches on Jorgununda, but they keep coming back to Jörmungandr. Both are serpents, and the names are similar and both live in the ocean, so I wonder if the Aqcarians aren’t actually a distant relative to the Norse pantheon.”
“Well, there’s a thought,” Ember said. “We could contact Freya and ask.”
“Mielikki might know,” Kipa said, “but I’m not the person to ask her, given our past.”
“Wait,” Talia said. “Jörmungandr is the creature who will supposedly start Ragnarök. You don’t think that…”
“That we’re facing a cult designed to bring about the apocalypse?” Herne said. “I wouldn’t be surprised. But instead of humans, it’s started by a group of Elemental Fae?”
“If so, we’re in trouble. Do I really think they could end the world?” Ember said. “Not really, but the damage they could cause would be tremendous, given they can control hurricanes and rainstorms. We have to look into this,” she added.
“I’m waiting on a call from Ashera. She’s exploring the sound for me, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Of course, it’s a big body of water, so I don’t know if she’ll run across anything,” I said.
Talia let out a sigh. “I’m nervous in a way I haven’t been since we first learned about the dragons,” she said.
“We can’t just sit around and fidget. We’ll drive ourselves nuts doing that,” Viktor said. “I’m going to take inventory of all the gear and equipment. Wager, want to help me?”
Wager nodded. “Come on, let’s get busy.”
“I’ll continue researching,” Yutani said.
“And I’ll get back to my desk,” Talia said.
As they headed out of the room, Kipa and I turned to Herne and Ember.
“Do you really think we have something to worry about?” Kipa asked, when we four were alone.
“I think we have more to worry about than we expect,” Ember said. “I talked to Morgana this morning. She said that—” She stopped as Talia came rushing back in.
“Erica just called,” she said. “Two small sail boats over in the marina were out on the water when they capsized. They didn’t just keel over and sink, they were dragged down into the water by something. All parties on board were drowned.”
I had a momentary fear that Ashera had gone rogue, but shook it off. She wouldn’t do that—not even accidentally. “Did anybody see what happened?”
“A mayday from one of the boats said something came out of the water and had hold of their boat—a monster of some sorts. Now, unless we’ve got a giant Humboldt squid who somehow made its way into Puget Sound, we have to be dealing with some sort of Crypto,” Talia said.
“Are they sending over information?” Herne asked.
“Yeah, she sent over the reports. I’ll email them to everybody.” She glanced at the clock. “I took the liberty of ordering an early lunch,” she said. “It should be here soon. Oh, and Ashera is here. She wants to talk to you.”
