Chapter 11 #2
The landscape around us shifted and changed as the hours ticked by—the edge of what looked like an ocean was far to our left, or maybe it was just a mirage.
The road we were on had been paved at some point, but the plants and flora had pushed through making it rough.
A few buildings were scattered in the distance to our right.
According to Lucky’s tour guide impression, no one lived in them, but in a pinch, they’d work for shelter if a freak storm came rumbling through.
We drove for the rest of the day until we were well past sundown, and the vehicles needed whatever re-charge that Isla did for them. Magic and fuel mixed together.
Sorrow was still tucked in my arms, and he was still asleep when I stepped off the bike.
“Isla,” Veyyr called to the witch as Egan started a fire. He motioned at the paper in his hand, the paper that Doran had given him for the Hyrda bones. “Look at the directions. Can you tell what…”
They trailed off as they went over the paper that the vampire had given him. My mind went to the idea of resurrection. Was this a good idea? Who the hell was he trying to resurrect? And why? Dead was dead, and the peace that brought should be honored not stolen.
Harrison quietly brought the little girl around to me. “I’ve bandaged Rana here up, put some blood stop on the scratches.”
I gave him a nod, still cradling the big ass bird that was snoring in my arms. “Good. Let’s get some food into us all and then…well we can go from there.”
The little girl looked from Harrison to me. “Why did you save me? No one does that. My da…he said it’s survival of the fittest now.” Her amber brown eyes welled with tears at the mention of her father.
There had been a moment of understanding in my very bones that I had to save her—it wasn’t a question of if but must. Holding Sorrow with one hand, I reached up and cupped her cheek. “It’s my job, kid. Protect what I can, save what I can.”
She blinked away a few tears. “Like…the Tracker?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know who that is.”
Harrison hushed the little girl. “We need to keep you quiet, if Veyyr or Isla see you…oh shit.” He dragged the girl behind him, and I stepped up as Isla strode over to us.
“What is going on here? What is…is that a child?” Isla’s eyes shot wide, and she reached for Rana.
I stepped between them as I’d done with Rana and the bleeders, and Rana clung to me tighter, as if Isla was just as terrifying.
Funny thing, I wasn’t sure which would be more dangerous to the little girl.
“Yes, a child who would have been killed had we left her behind.” I still had Sorrow in one arm and the big damn bird was getting heavy. I could always throw him at the witch as a last-ditch effort if I had to.
Isla snorted. “You think you have some sort of pull with the Veyyr, and you don’t. He’ll send you both out on your own for this! Veyyr! Come see what your new pet has done now! Unique skill set my ass!”
Harrison stayed behind me, Rana clinging to his hand. “I won’t let him toss you out, Mallory. Not you or Rana.”
I appreciated his loyalty to doing the right thing, but I didn’t think he’d have a choice. Veyyr looked up from where he sat near the fire. “What?”
Isla laughed. “She brought a child with her, Veyyr! A child! Does she think she’s a surrogate mother now? Ha! Tell her to be rid of the child. Tell her to take her new brat and go.”
His eyes went from the paper in his hand to me, his expression unreadable in the firelight.
“I am aware. I helped her save the girl.”
Those few words and they totally rocked the witch, hell, they rocked me.
I’d thought he’d be pissed, rage, maybe even do what Harrison had said and send both me and Rana away.
Isla apparently had hoped for the latter. “Send them away, my Veyyr! She is threatening us by bringing in a mutt from Bone Town! You don’t know what the girl is capable of, do you?”
He turned those ice blue eyes to Isla. “And what is the child capable of?”
Rana took my hand, squeezing it tight, her voice echoing in my head. Please don’t let her hurt me. She’s a mean one, she hurts people she doesn’t like. She…she bought supplies from my mother and then when the Slicks came, she cut my mother. She said by accident.
The words weren’t spoken but slid into my head like a cold hand. They didn’t feel at all like the mentor who’d trained me. They sounded…and felt…like the little girl whose hand I held tight.
I didn’t loosen my hold on her, unsure if she could read my mind or just project her thoughts. Telepathy, that’s why Isla thought she was dangerous? Perhaps because the child could see into the witch’s black heart?
And that bitch had cut Rana’s mother, drawing the bleeders to her? Anger snapped and twisted through me, making it hard to keep my breathing to an even, steady in and out. This was not the time, not so close to Bone Town and the bleeders that might have come this way.
I was going to end Isla. Not tonight, not tomorrow, but I was going to end her.
Sorrow stirred in my arms and stretched his wings wide, cracking his beak in a yawn. I shook him and he hopped out of my arms.
“Bad witch.” He muttered as if he were reading my mind too.
From my right, Lucky stretched his arms over his head. “The bird has the right idea. It’s been a long day, and I for one want to sleep. Let it go, Isla. The kid is harmless.”
“You shut up you stupid fucking ogre!” Isla screeched, flinging a hand toward him, a spell ripping off her fingers.
“Duck!”
Lucky dropped to the ground, so the spell went over his head and disappeared out in the darkness.
“Isla, enough.” Veyyr growled.
“Enough?” Lucky stood back up, his dark purple skin darker than it had been only a moment before, his eyes blacking out with an anger that I had no doubt was a terror to see. Fighting and fucking.
We were about to see the fighting side of Lucky.
“That spell would have taken off my head, Veyyr.” He growled.
“But it didn’t.”
“Because Mal gave me warning. Mal, the one that Isla wants dead.” Lucky’s shoulder’s rose along with his anger. “You’re going to have to come through me now, witch if you want at Mal or the kid.”
Egan and Dave sidled behind Isla, and Harrison stayed with me and Rana. The lines in the camp clearly drawn.
Veyyr stood and lightning cracked through the sky, swiftly followed by enough wind that everyone had to drop to a knee to keep from being blown over. “I said enough.”
Rana hid under my arms and Sorrow let out a caw, sliding across the ground until he was butted up against my knees.
The point was made clear.
Veyyr was still top dog here, no matter what Isla thought of her position in the group.
He sat back down, using the firelight to read the paper that Doran had given him, totally absorbed in the quest for the hydra bones. Whoever he was wanting to resurrect, he was focused on that above all else.
“Put my tent up, Egan!” Isla’s voice trembled only a little, her back to me and Rana.
Harrison touched my arm. “You’ll be okay now.”
“Less worried about me,” I said. Isla was not okay, not in the least. Her shit mental state and propensity for throwing spells was too intertwined.
No, I was worried more for Rana. I wasn’t stupid, bringing the little girl along with us, however far we had to go was a terrible idea—especially if we were hunting hydra bones and gods knew what else.
But that didn’t mean we couldn’t find a place for her that was safe.
Another town maybe. Someone like Dakota would look after a child.
Thinking about Dakota, I wondered if he and the group had made it to Underfall.
A tug in my left hand, as if a string had been tied to the center of my palm, stitched through and tied with a knot, stood me up. My body was moving on instinct, and I let it lead me.
I closed my eyes and an image of Dakota filled my head, his dark hair and eyes, easy but tired smile, the scar above his right eye. The tug in my palm was stronger yet and…he wasn’t far in the scheme of things. Maybe to the northwest. Maybe a little less.
I could find him, I was sure of it.
“You okay?” Harrison’s question snapped me out of whatever it was I was feeling. I realized I’d walked away from the fire and the others, a good twenty feet closer to where I felt Dakota. Felt him.
Tracked him? I shook my head and stared out into the darkness, wondering what monsters were out there. Riftwolves, bleeders, giants. Who the fuck knew what else?
“Mal?”
“Yeah, sorry, just thinking about Rana. Isla might be a raging bitch, but she’s not wrong. Bringing a child with us is a terrible idea. I just couldn’t leave her there to be killed.”
“But where can we take her? There aren’t any towns. Nothing close anyway.”
Rana wasn’t so far away that she couldn’t hear us. “I…I don’t want to leave, I’d like to stay here with all of you. Please.”
How did I explain what I was feeling and that I was sure I could find Dakota? That I could pinpoint him, and that as far as a safe group went, it had a better shot than most.
“Do you think I could take a bike? I think I can find her somewhere to go, but I’d have to take her tonight.”
Harrison grimaced. “I mean we have lots of fuel, so yeah, but how…”
I turned and went back to the fire. “Rana, eat up. I’m going to take you to a friend, and his group. There are other kids, and you’ll be safer with them than with us here.”
Rana frowned but did as I asked, shovelling the food off her plate with speed. “Really, other kids?”
Veyyr lifted his head. “At night is a terrible idea. There are more things out there than you’ve seen. Or remember.”
I gave him a tight smile. “I’d hate for you to leave without me.”
The world seemed to dip away, leaving us staring at one another as he spoke. “I won’t be going anywhere without you, Tracker.”
I could sense Dakota, track him. Was that what I was then?
A skill set that was unique. This was why Veyyr kept me close.
The word nested behind my ribs like it had been waiting there the whole time.
Tracker.