Chapter 66
Stella
When I went back to the room I shared with the others, Edie and Fae were asleep in one bed, while Leandro snored in the other. Fergus, like me, had nervous energy, and he was pacing in front of the window.
“Did it go alright for you?” Fergus asked in a whisper, but I shook my head. “Would you fancy a stroll while the others sleep?”
I left a quick note for when Edie woke, letting her know that we were going for a walk down the main street.
Fergus and I slipped quietly out into the warm evening sun. The town was still busy, with others brushing by us without a second glance. Fergus nudged me and pointed ahead at a place two doors down on the boardwalk. The sign overhead read Glacier’s Edge.
“That’s a pub if ever I saw one, and it smells like dinner. Will we chance it?” he asked.
My stomach rumbled, as it so often did, and I nodded. “Let’s do it.”
Inside, the pub had the same rustic charm as The Frozen Grave.
Mismatched chairs around battered tables, their surfaces scarred and polished by years of use.
Flickering lanterns hung from exposed beams overhead and electric fairy lights were strung between them, bathing the handful of patrons in a warm glow.
Speakers were nailed up on the wall, playing out a lively song in a language I didn’t recognize, which only ruled out English and French.
At the far end of the dining room, the bar was built from weathered timber, and behind it, the backbar utilized carved driftwood and featured a frosted mirror and shelves of bottles.
A few patrons sat on stools made from old kegs, and a wiry man was tending the bar.
He appeared to be in his fifties, his long black hair framing a thoughtful face that hinted at First Nations heritage.
The savory aroma of hearty stew and fresh bread mingled with the tang of old ale, and that’s really what drew us in. Fergus and I took a seat at a corner table, and we’d only just settled in when the bartender came over to us.
“You new around here?” he asked.
“That obvious, is it?” Fergus replied.
“I make it my business to know the people around town,” he told us with an astute smile.
“I’m Henry Bonet, the owner and operator of Glacier’s Edge Saloon and Diner.
We’re open from eight in the morning until midnight, unless I get tired and close up earlier.
The kitchen serves dinner from 5 pm until about 9 pm, depending on how fast we run out. The bar serves alcohol all the time.”
“Nice to meet you, Henry. I’m Fergus, and this is Stella. We’ll likely be in town for a few days, and we’d love to hear your recommendations on what to eat and what to do while we’re here.”
Henry gave us a strange look. “That sounds like you’re here for sightseeing. The two of you wouldn’t happen to be on your honeymoon, would you?”
“Us?” Fergus laughed, a little too loudly, and my cheeks burned. “No, we’re travelling companions. But we are hoping to do some sightseeing, I suppose.”
“There’s one other bar, but the service isn’t nearly as good as it is here,” Henry boasted with a broad smile. “There’s a brothel and a casino down at the south end of town, if you’re into a rowdier place.”
I shook my head adamantly. “No, that really isn’t for us.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think so,” Henry admitted with a laugh. “But you are visiting at the most perfect time of year. The orcas are coming up the inlet chasing the salmon, and you’re likely to catch sight of them. Sometimes, if you’re very lucky, you can even get a glimpse of a humpback.”
“That’s amazing!” I said excitedly. “My daughter Fae would love that.”
“Oh, yeah, you got a little one, with you?” Henry asked. “She might also like to see the sealions that sun on the docks down in the harbor. Just be mindful of steering clear of the Cold Shore if you head that way.”
“Oh?” I asked. “Why do you say that?”
“For one thing, the guys that work there tend to be real pricks, and they’re usually armed,” Henry said, glancing around as he spoke as if realizing he ought to make sure there was none of them around to overhear. “The other reason is that they get up to some weird shit down there.”
“I’ve heard about Cold Shore, but I don’t think I know quite what it is,” Fergus said.
“Down at the harbor is their outpost, but the main HQ are way up in the Alaska Territory, where the sun doesn’t shine for months at a time,” Henry explained.
“They’re supposed to be a team of the best and the brightest from all around the world, coming together in an underground bunker to rebuild civilization. ”
“Sure that’s not all that strange, given the way things are going,” Fergus reasoned.
“Fair enough. I’ve never got a good vibe from them,” Henry said. “The higher ups almost never leave the outpost, though the low-level guards like to have drinks around town. They prefer the brothel and casino, but we get them here from time to time, too.”
“Have you ever been inside the outpost?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Never, and I wouldn’t want to. Sometimes people go in, and they don’t come back out.”
“Oh yeah?” Fergus asked. “Who’re you on about?”
Henry leaned forward, speaking more quietly as he did. “A couple years back, these two odd little kids rolled up in town. They were with one of the Cold Shore cronies, and the rumor was that these kids were some kind of zombie hybrids. A little boy and a little girl, can you imagine that?”
But I didn’t have to imagine that. I knew exactly who he was talking about.
I’d first learned of the hybrid children and their disturbing conception in The Book of Mercy. Mercy had claimed to get pregnant with newly infected men to produce her offspring, and if I hadn’t met her son Chosen myself, I don’t know that I would’ve believed it.
Chosen was the one that I had taken from Emberwood and left in the Tarik Copper Mines.
Then it had broken my heart to leave him, but I had to return to my daughter, and I didn’t know where a zombie hybrid child was supposed to fit in this world.
And then it had broken my heart again when I found the pit was full of nothing but blackened, burnt corpses.
I had mourned him twice, and I regretted my choices, even if I still couldn’t see any other option.
My daughter had been just a newborn, and a zombie child like Chosen was far too dangerous.
From what I had seen, he could make choices beyond what the pheromones commanded, which meant that I might not be able to stop him if he tried to eat my daughter or attack – and infect – someone else.
His sister Valorous I had never met. According to her book, Mercy had left her young daughter back at their farm during the assault on Emberwood. I had sometimes wondered how she fared, but mostly I tried not to think too much on the Loth family and what had become of them.
“The children are here?” I asked, trying not to sound as desperate for information as I felt.
“They were,” Henry said. “But that was years ago. They’re probably dead or up in the Alaska Territory by now.”
“Well, that is certainly an intriguing idea,” Fergus said, since I had lapsed into a stunned silence. “You really seem like you have your finger on the pulse of things around here.”
“Well, I certainly try,” Henry agreed with a proud smile. “If there’s anything that you want to know, feel free to ask me.”
“Um, I think right now we’d like to know your recommendations on what to order to eat,” Fergus said.
“Two bowls of stew and our finest summer ale, coming right up!” Henry announced.
“Thank you, mate,” Fergus said as Henry departed, presumably to get our orders. Once he’d gone, Fergus rested his arms on the table and leaned in closer to me. “So, you knew them zombie kids, yeah?”
“What?” I asked. “How’d you know?”
“There’d been rumors that it was a hybrid child led the zombies through Emberwood,” Fergus explained. “And then you turned white as a sheet when Henry said that they were dead.”
“I don’t really know them, but…” I trailed off, because I didn’t know how to explain the connection or responsibility I felt toward Chosen.
Before I could find the words to continue, Henry reappeared at our table carrying two steaming bowls of stew and a pair of mugs filled with summer ale. He set them down in front of us with a cheerful nod, and the savory aroma instantly cut through the heaviness of our conversation.