Kate Daniels 02 - Magic Burns

was a big grassy lawn somewhere here, but beyond the herbal field rose trees, massive dogwoods and oaks tinseled with Spanish moss. The trees looked entirely too old to have grown naturally. I couldn’t recall how I knew the lawn had been there, but I remembered it. And the fountains. Many water jets shooting from the ground.
    And a woman. A very tall woman who laughed a lot. Her face was a fuzzy blur in my memory.
    Derek wrinkled his nose. I glanced at him.
    â€œAnimal,” he said. “Odd.”
    â€œWhat kind?”
    â€œNot sure.”
    The trees parted before us, revealing a hill sitting in the middle of a large clearing. More of a kurgan, actually, rising straight up out of the herbs, like a cap of a colossal mushroom. Kudzu and grasses blanketed the hill in a green shroud, but at the very top the bedrock broke through: smooth, polished dark gray marble, tinted with swirls of malachite and flecked with gold.
    If I had a marble dome that pretty, I doubt I’d let it get overgrown like that.
    The Medusa impersonator circled the hill and stopped. We stopped, too. Ghastek sent the vamp up onto the hill and it perched among the kudzu like some gaunt ghoul.
    Derek sneezed.
    â€œBless you.”
    He sneezed again, pulled a canteen from his belt and washed his nostrils out.
    The guide waited. We stood with her. A light breeze rippled through the tree branches. Birds sang. The sun, highly amused by our presence, did its best to barbecue us.
    The vampire sprang straight into the air and landed ten feet behind us. Derek snarled. And sneezed again.
    A deep rumble shook the ground. I backed away.
    The grassy soil fell away in heavy slabs. The hill quaked and crept up, higher, higher . A colossal brown head emerged from underneath the kudzu, the flesh hanging from it in wrinkled folds. Two eyes stared at me, black and shining like two giant chunks of anthracite.
    A tortoise.
    I quested: not a shiver of magic. No scent of burning grasses associated with illusion. It was an actual living tortoise.
    The curve of the gargantuan mouth widened. The jaws opened and a black maw gaped before us. I braced for a wave of turtle breath, but no discernible scents emanated from the mouth. The mother of all tortoises rested her chin on the grass and held the pose.
    Okay, now I’d seen everything.
    Our guide bowed her head and pointed into the tortoise.
    â€œIn there?”
    She nodded.
    â€œYou want us to go into the tortoise?”
    Another nod.
    â€œIt’s alive.”
    Another nod.
    â€œNo.” Derek sneezed again.
    â€œI must say it’s a bit irregular.” Ghastek’s voice vibrated with excitement. It’s easy to be deliriously happy about investigating something, when you’re in no danger of being swallowed.
    I glanced at the vamp. “How fast can you rip it apart if it eats us?”
    â€œThe shell is quite thick. We’d have to exit back through the neck. If it withdraws its head, we’ll have to carve through a lot of flesh.”
    â€œIn other words, if it eats us, we’re screwed.”
    â€œCrude but accurate.”
    I faced the guide. “Are you coming with us?”
    She shook her head.
    Nice plan. Take the gullible outsiders, walk them around for a bit, then feed them to the giant tortoise. The tortoise is full, the outsiders are dealt with, and everybody’s happy.
    â€œDerek, what do you smell?”
    He stepped forward, took a deep breath, and doubled over in a sneezing fit. My werewolf was allergic to tortoises. Why me?
    â€œAnything sour? Animal breath?”
    He shook his head. “Water. And flowers.”
    I pointed my blade at the guide. “If it eats us, I’ll kill it, and then I’ll find you.”
    The guide nodded again. She didn’t take a step back and flee in horror. Perhaps I just wasn’t scary enough. Maybe I should invest in some horns or fangs.
    â€œI’m going in. You two are welcome to stay outside.” I bent my back and took a step into the tortoise’s mouth.

CHAPTER 16
    THE TONGUE GAVE A BIT UNDER MY FEET. LIKE WALKING on a saturated sponge. Ahead a deeper blackness indicated the opening of the throat. I bent lower to clear the roof of the mouth and headed for it.
    Behind me Derek sneezed.
    â€œDecided to come after all?”
    Sneeze. “Wouldn’t miss it.”
    The throat sloped gently, its bottom flooded with a murky liquid. Long strands of what looked like algae hung from