20. Into the Flames
Into the Flames
Sometimes, Driz had terrible thoughts. This was one of those times.
What if she didn’t take Pearl home? What if she could keep her?
Driz dismissed the idea at once. Pearl had asked to go home, and Driz would always take her there. Pearl belonged in Salt Bluff.
Driz had nothing to offer her here. She had no shelter or food or warmth a human needed. Her home was a hollowed cliff filled with junk.
As Driz flew Pearl back toward the ravine, something was wrong. And it had nothing to do with the confusion and welling ache in her chest at the uncertainty of what was happening with Pearl.
The faintest hint of smoke filled her nose. It didn’t take long to locate the source.
“What’s wrong?” Pearl asked, sensing a change in Driz.
“Fire.”
Pearl stiffened and looked toward the ground. “Where?”
Changing course, Driz abandoned her destination of the ravine and headed to the mines.
They landed at the top of the curving road. She’d barely touched down when Pearl shoved out of her arms, running straight for the entrance of the upper mineshaft, Driz on her heels.
“It is not safe,” Driz said.
Pearl stumbled to a halt. Flames licked and ate at the wooden slats on the track that led down the slanting shaft, leaving a charred, smoldering trail in its wake. As they watched, it caught on the wooden walls of the entrance building.
“There’re explosives inside,” Pearl whispered. “I saw them earlier today. If they all go off, it could collapse the whole bluff.” She looked between the fire and the lights of town.
“I will get them out.”
“No.” Pearl gripped Driz’s arm, fear flashing over her face.
“Tell me where.”
Pearl stared at her, eyes flickering. “Take two rights and then a left. That’s the newest branch. Three crates. I think. Fuck.”
Driz cupped Pearl’s cheek and pressed a quick kiss to her lips, needing to erase the distress there. “I will get them out.”
“I’ll go get help.”
“I can fly you—”
“No, there’s no time.” Pearl reached for her belt and opened a tin.
Driz stiffened as the blight sparkled and filled the air with the stomach-churning scent. She grabbed Pearl’s wrist. “Don’t use that.”
But Pearl twisted away and rubbed it in her mouth anyway.
“It is dangerous,” Driz stated, a new fear consuming her. Didn’t Pearl remember how it had made her sick last time?
“I’m used to it.”
Driz stared at Pearl’s glowing mouth, wanting to kiss her despite it.
Pearl gripped Driz’s face, bringing her down to look into her eyes, hesitating as if about to say something. “Please be careful,” Pearl finally breathed before she dashed away into the night, her limbs moving faster than a human’s should as she bounded down the road.
Driz didn’t have time to reconcile the yet more confusing emotions and thoughts in her body.
She entered the mine. Flames galloped and reared like limbs of a wild beast, overwhelmingly bright in the confined space.
As smoke choked her lungs and stung her eyes, she focused on the tiny part of it that reminded her of the cigarette Pearl had shared with her, the reminder of their connection, and rushed into the too-small caverns.
As when she’d started to explore them before, as soon as the entrance got more than a few paces behind her, she instinctively wanted to turn back. And this time, there was fire too.
The heat suffocated her. Driz had to fold her wings as tight as they could go, and still they scraped along the low ceiling.
She edged along the rock wall, using it as another anchor, attempting to avoid the section of flames consuming the track.
The fine hairs on her wings started to melt and burn.
Thinking only of Pearl, she plunged deeper.
Pearl hugged the neck of her horse as they raced back up the road. The blight had gotten her almost all the way to town, and her limbs still shook from it. She stubbornly ignored their protests and pushed her horse faster, with Sheriff Oak beside her and more following just behind.
They were too late. It had still taken too long. But she hadn’t heard any explosion. She hoped that meant Driz had been successful, and that she was safe. And that it wasn’t only the drum of hooves that masked the sound.
They pounded up the curving slope, only slowing when they reached the flat grade at the top and saw the mineshaft hut flickering with orange flame around the glowing gap in the hillside.
Pearl’s heart stopped. Driz stood by three large crates. And she was hurt. Half of her hair was gone, dark smoke streaking her wings and face and the remains of her clothes. She looked like a monster born of fire, and Pearl longed to run to her and hold her tight until she was better.
Her mother cursed beside her. “Sandstone,” Sheriff Oak spat as she pulled her mount up short.
Pearl did the same, swinging down. Sandstone? Driz’s coloring? Did she recognize her?
Driz’s attention fixed on Pearl. Pearl started to step forward, but a firm hand yanked her back and the barrel of a rifle extended, aimed at Driz.
“What the fuck is going on.” Sheriff Oak’s words were a question, but the tone was an accusation. “If it’s me you want, well, here I am.”
Driz finally looked away from Pearl and toward Sheriff Oak. Her brow furrowed in confusion. She took a step back and knocked into the crates of explosives, hastily steadying them as she stumbled.
“Get away from those,” Sheriff Oak snapped. “Or I’ll shoot them instead.”
“Ma!” Pearl hissed, horrified. They might all be blown away by that. Behind them, Pearl heard the others dismounting. A few ran toward the flaming mine that was casting them all in heat and light, but Sheriff Oak didn’t take her eyes or rifle off Driz.
Driz looked back at Pearl, who nodded, and Driz edged away from the pile, limping as she sidled sideways, nearer the edge of the hill.
“Thank you,” Pearl called. “For getting them out.”
“Don’t speak to her,” Sheriff Oak growled, stepping between them, and Pearl wasn’t sure who she was talking to. Though it didn’t really matter. “What d’you want?”
The same question Pearl had demanded of her.
“You’re injured and outnumbered. And there’s plenty of night for you to bleed out in before dawn, rock vulture.”
Driz’s damaged wings twitched and she recoiled, her shoulders and body hunching into a defensive crouch. Her eyes sought out Pearl again, reaching for her without moving. Pearl remained motionless, unable to reach back.
“I wish to help,” Driz said in her clear, careful voice.
“Why?” the sheriff demanded.
Pearl shook her head, trying to tell Driz not to answer. But Driz did answer, and said the worst possible thing. “For Pearl.”
“Over my dead body.”
Pearl grabbed her mother’s rifle.
Sheriff Oak didn’t even look at her, just released the weapon and drew her revolver. “You’ve got about five seconds to tell me how you know her name.”
Driz glanced between Pearl and the new gun pointed at her, and then the others. At least three more were trained on Driz. Her eyes shone in the fire’s light.
The rift between them gaped miles wide. Pearl stood with her people on one side, looking across at the woman who wasn’t the enemy.
And Pearl was afraid.
“Don’t.” She dropped the rifle and stepped in front of her mother, putting herself between the revolver and Driz. She grabbed the cool barrel, trying to force her to look at her. “Ma.”
But Sheriff Oak didn’t. “Did you give her the necklace?” she demanded of Driz instead.
Driz hesitated, seeming to finally comprehend perhaps the truth wasn’t the best choice. But even in her silence, it was the wrong answer.
“With all respect, there’s more pressing matters,” Rave said, his weapon still in his holster. He looked at Driz, asking her directly, “How’d the fire start?”
Driz turned her gaze slowly to him. He swallowed but didn’t back away or draw the weapon.
“I do not know,” Driz rumbled. “We smelled the smoke—”
“We?” Sheriff Oak spat.
Driz flinched and flicked a glance at Pearl. She was so obvious, Pearl could have throttled her for it. It was like she’d never even tried to lie before. And perhaps she hadn’t.
Pearl wanted to cry. They were so different.
“Pearl,” Sheriff Oak said, her voice deadly. “Tell me that doesn’t mean what I think it does.”
“It doesn’t,” Pearl said easily.
Driz might not lie, but Pearl did. And if she confirmed what she was certain her mother was piecing together, she would shoot Driz. Pearl knew she would.
So Pearl focused on her mother instead of Driz, and she lied. “I was out meeting with a woman. I smelled the smoke and came to investigate. This goyle appeared and agreed to help. I might’ve mentioned my name. I don’t remember.”
“Did it start the fire?” asked someone.
“Why would she do that and then remove the explosives?” Rave countered.
“Everyone shut up,” Sheriff Oak ordered, and everyone did. She hadn’t taken her eyes off Driz. “Did she give you the necklace, Pearl?”
“No,” Pearl lied. “I don’t know her.” She glanced at Driz and wanted to die at the bewilderment on her face.
“What d'you want with Pearl?” Sheriff Oak asked Driz, her voice horribly calm.
“I…” Driz stumbled again. One of her feet appeared badly burned.
Pearl blinked away the searing tears, but she didn’t acknowledge them. She choked on the icy razor in her chest, but she didn’t crumble to it. “Stop this,” Pearl said, keeping her focus on her mother. “There’s a fire. Think of the town. Let her go.”
But her mother was beyond reason. Pearl wasn’t certain she was even with them in that moment. “I should’ve ended this decades ago.”
Pearl threw herself toward Sheriff Oak’s arm.
She knocked it enough that the blight bullet, which Pearl was certain was aimed somewhere deadly, only hit Driz’s wing. It ripped through it with a smoking force.
Driz tumbled backward, slipping off the edge of the steep slope and disappearing. Her shriek echoed, accompanying the skitter of rocks and dirt and gravel. Then a dark shape lumbered upward and away.
Driz bellowed, the visceral sound of pain compressing Pearl’s lungs. Pearl had seen her fly enough to tell how labored it was. She made it to the next ridge and crashed into it, scrambling over the lip and out of sight. A few more shots rang out, but they were wasted bullets. Driz was too far now.
The dam of emotions in Pearl’s body gave way. She couldn’t hold them back anymore. Violently throwing off the hand that landed on her shoulder in an attempt to stop her, she turned to her horse.
She heard her mother saying her name. Pearl didn’t listen. She didn’t care about the fire anymore. Others could handle it. Or let it burn.
She didn’t remember the ride, just found herself suddenly standing in her room. She looked around, dazed and empty. It was better than feeling all the things that clamored silently, overcrowding her chest and mind. She grabbed the saddlebags that hung on the wall.
She finished ramming a few rations inside when Sheriff Oak burst through the door.
“Pearl, talk to me.”
Pearl shoved past her and headed back toward the stable.
The town was at once too awake for the lateness of the night and too quiet as most everyone rushed toward the mines to put the fire out.
That was where Pearl should have been. And most definitely where the sheriff should have been. Pearl told her as much.
“I’m not the sheriff right now, Pea.”
“That’s all you are.”
“Tell me what happened between you and…”
“What d’you wanna hear?” Pearl threw back, the anger and pain turning to meanness too easily. “That I fucked a goyle?”
“Pearl.”
That tone in that voice usually worked. But not tonight. Pearl was immune to it tonight. Like her mother earlier, Pearl had gone somewhere else.
“Where’re you going?” Sheriff Oak asked as Pearl attached the saddlebags.
“I told you to stop. I told you to let her go.”
Sheriff Oak grabbed Pearl’s arm.
Pearl looked at her without really seeing.
“What’s that thing done to you?” Sheriff Oak demanded.
“Only what I asked her to.”
“I won’t let her take you from me.” There was panic in Sheriff Oak’s voice that Pearl wasn’t used to. Later, it would hurt to recall it.
“She’s not taking me, Ma. I’m leaving you.”
Her words hit true, and the grip on her slackened. Pearl pulled free and mounted. She itched to run, but that was too slow.
She rode into the night and didn’t look back. She didn’t have a plan beyond “find Driz.”
That long-faded scream reverberated through Pearl’s empty chest. The fear of finding Driz bled out as her mother had threatened flashed unbidden through her. So she called back to that fear as she charged into the canyonlands. The scent of the fire followed her.
Where would Driz go? Back to her grotto? Could she make it there? Could Driz even fly?
Pearl called out, recklessly uncaring who or what else might hear her. She was beyond caring for such things. As she blocked out her emotions so they wouldn’t engulf her, she also blocked out the part of her brain that had any sense.
She opened her tin. The last bit of blight stared back at her. She’d already taken a lot earlier, her body still shaky.
Would she need it, once she found Driz? But if she didn’t find Driz, what would the point be? She closed the tin, willing her natural senses to work.
Blood. Spattered on the cliff. Pearl followed the streaks, dark and sticky and making her insides curdle.
She heard Driz before she saw her, stumbling and crashing up a semi-sheer slope and through a patch of stinging brush, her limbs and claws scraping and gouging out bloody rock and dirt.
“Driz!”
Driz glanced back at her but kept going. Pearl cursed because she couldn’t follow directly. She was a slow climber even in daylight, and it was too steep for her mount. She angled around the rise, looking for a better way up.
The howl shivered through her whole body.
Normally a wolf of any kind would steer well clear of a gargoyle. But Driz was injured and bleeding like any other prey. And by the sound of it, the predator knew it.
Pearl urged her horse faster, scanning the dark valley for a way up. When she didn’t find one, she had to make a decision.
Loading her chamber with her two remaining blight bullets, she dismounted, taking her saddlebags with her and slinging them around her own shoulders. She looped the reins off her horse. They were close enough to Salt Bluff that he should find his way home.
Then Pearl started to climb.