Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Someone had killed the klaxon, but the control room was still flooded with red light.
I’d thrown on a shirt, pants, and shoes, as had Lula. Everyone was gathered in the smaller room with the security screens, scanning for the danger.
“Can you tell which ward was tripped?” Card asked. He had pulled on a hoodie that smothered the tattoos on his skin, though the stone and wood amulet hanging from a cord around his neck glowed a deep green.
“East,” Elmer pointed at a screen which showed nothing but sand, rocks, and black sky.
“Did you see what tripped it?” Lula asked.
Pamela sat at the desk below the screens. She tapped keys and one of the screens went blank, then snapped back to life.
“This is right before the alarm went off.”
I leaned forward trying to make out anything on the screen.
But there was nothing. No movement whatsoever.
“I don’t—” I started.
The screen flashed white, then crackled with static and went dead.
“Well, shit,” Elmer said. “Power, not form.”
“Power?” I asked. “God power?”
Card shook his head, then stopped. “Maybe. I’ll go out and see.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Josie said. “This here,” she pointed at our feet. “Secure. Out there you’d just get picked off or used as a hostage. We stay in the fortress to defend the fortress and everyone in it. Understand? No heroes.”
“All right,” Card said. “Then how do we find out what’s out there?”
“Maybe we don’t?” Abbi said. “If we’re quiet, maybe it will just leave?”
I put my hand on her shoulder, and she leaned into my leg. She was a powerful deity and very brave, but she was also the first to choose flight or hiding as a survival tactic.
“We sent a scout,” Elmer said.
“What happened to stay in the fortress to defend the fortress?” Card asked.
“Scout was already out there,” Pamela said. “We should be hearing from it soon.”
Lu shifted her stance, hands falling on the hilts of her daggers. Lorde stood next to her, panting and silent, her furry ears pricked up into triangles.
Even Hado had shifted from his little kitten form into the shape of a large black panther silently pacing the room behind us.
Time ticked by while we watched the screens.
Pamela pointed. “All right. Scout’s coming this way.”
I didn’t see anything on the screen, but Elmer pivoted. “I’ll see him in.”
Card watched him go. “Any reason why someone shouldn’t follow him?”
“On it,” Josie said. “We shouldn’t have a problem, because nothing can get through the door Scout’s gonna use, but good call on the paranoid caution, Wizard.” She jogged out of the room to catch up with Elmer.
“Weather’s picking up,” Pamela said.
Lightning popped across the sky, serpent quick, a huge roll of thunder breaking through the silence.
We were buried a good distance underground. I didn’t want to think about how loud that had to have been to reach us this far down.
“That’s not a storm,” Abbi said. “It’s a god.”
“Thor?” Lula asked.
Abbi shook her head.
Card wrapped his hand around the amulet and closed his eyes for a moment. Light glowed through the sleeves of his hoodie.
“Not Thor,” he said. “That is a dark, chaotic power.”
“Ate?” I asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“Apep?” Lula asked.
We hadn’t seen the god of chaos yet, though the hunters said he was on our tail.
“I’d need to use stronger magic to know, and right now, I think it’s a bad idea to draw that kind of attention our way.”
“Yeah, let’s not do that,” Pamela agreed.
The screens whited out and thunder roared, loud enough, I wanted to cover my ears.
“Wow,” Abbi mouthed.
It was maybe five minutes later when Josie called out from the other room.
“All clear?”
“Steady on,” Pamela called back.
Josie strode into the room. “Scout says it’s god power, thinks it’s Apep. But the god isn’t near. This is a remote scan.”
“So, a sweep to see if anything pings,” Pamela said.
“Likely.”
“Not sure I want to bet my life on likely,” I said.
“We’ll wait it out, see if he takes his storm and moves on,” Elmer said, stepping back into the room. “Or if he wants to make trouble.”
The minutes ticked by. I counted the seconds between the flashes of lightning and thunder, my gaze glued to the screens. At first, it seemed the storm was stationed above us, refusing to leave.
Then a huge wind picked up and rain fell in sheets. It was impossible, but I thought I heard ravens calling over the storm.
The lightning crackled toward the west. Thunder thumped and exploded, like bombs punching through the sky to shake the horizon, moving farther and farther away with each strike.
The time between flash and bang grew longer. The storm whipped and raged, but it was shifting, moving.
“I think we’re in the clear,” Pamela said. “Anyone? Card? Abbi?”
Card had pushed his sleeves up so he could clasp his wrists. The glow of his quiescent magic seeped through his fingers.
“Again, I’d need magic to know for sure, but that power is moving past us. West.”
“I don’t hear the god anymore,” Abbi said. “He…wasn’t here. Not physically. He was just looking.”
“Hell,” I breathed. If that was “just looking” I didn’t want anything to do with the god actually finding us.
“Will that attract more gods?” Josie asked. “Now that one’s been sniffing around the place?”
Abbi shook her head, then stopped. “I don’t know. The other gods are helping keep us hidden. Cupid. Raven.”
“If Apep knew we were here,” Lu said, “we’d know.”
She was right.
Elmer tapped on the doorframe. “Scout says he’s moved on. For now.”
“You trust this scout?” Card asked.
“Sure do.”
I caught the skitter of a little brown lizard disappearing behind a shelf in the corner of the room. I couldn’t be sure it was Sniffer, who had vetted Card outside earlier today, but I had a feeling that was who the scout was.
Card’s head jerked toward the corner. “Do you smell dragon?”
“Dragons? Down here? Can’t see how that’s likely,” Elmer said. “It’s getting on late. I’ll monitor the screens. Everyone else, get some sleep if you can.”
He pressed his steady hand on Pamela’s shoulder, and she glanced up at him.
“You sure?” she asked. “I’m good for a couple hours.”
“You can spell me then.”
She stood and Josie reached for her.
“Not that I think I’m gonna sleep,” Pamela said. “Nothing like a brush with a god to get the old heart pumping.”
“Once you hit the pillow, you’ll be out cold.” Josie tugged her toward the door and out of the room. “Night all. See you in a few hours.”
“You sleeping?” I asked Card.
He was still staring at the corner where the lizard had disappeared, but he shook his head. “I don’t need much sleep. Besides, I still have some research I want nailed down before we address the book.”
“I’m staying up!” Abbi announced. “Come on, Hado, let’s find new places to hide.”
She leaned into my leg again, almost like a sideways hug without arms, then bounced out of the room, Hado a huge shadowy panther prowling behind her.
“I know she’s spying on me,” Card said.
I checked how I should take that and was relieved by his smile.
“I don’t mind,” he went on. “But I just wanted to say, again, I’m here to help you with the book. I don’t want the cursed thing. I don’t want to use it. I have my own problems, believe me.”
“We heard you’ve made some enemies,” I said. “Wizards?”
“Wizards. Not the same kind of problem as gods, but…not great.”
“Do we need to keep an eye out for wizards now?” Elmer asked.
“No. I’ve been careful about my movements and magic,” Card said. “The Crossroads has protections set up for me. Ricky’s staked claims that would trigger all sorts of laws and conflicts if the wizards try to push it. For now, for once, I’m not the person in the most trouble.”
“You say that like it’s an unusual thing,” Lu said.
“It’s rare.” This time the wizard’s smile was brilliant and filled with the sort of wickedness I last saw on the trickster god’s face. “People don’t tend to find ways to piss off powerful people as often as I do.”
“You’re in good company, son,” Elmer said.
Card started toward the door. “Just remember, I’m here to help. Nice dragon kind, by the way.”
Elmer swore under his breath and picked up a thermos on the floor next to the desk. “Thinks he’s so smart.” He unscrewed the stopper and poured coffee into the silver lid. “You Gauges staying up like the other two?”
“No,” I said. “We’re going to bed.”
“Elmer,” Lula said, “thank you—again—for this place. For putting your own safety on the line for us.”
He swiveled the chair, making it creak. “Family looks after family.” It was a mantra, a ritual. “It’s a heavy burden that’s fallen on your shoulders. Your choices are going to change the world for all of us.
“Giving a little of what we have to help you is the least we can do. I’ll keep an eye out now. You two kids get some rest.”
I snorted at the “kids” comment. I hadn’t been a kid for almost a hundred years. Both of us were older than he was, in fact.
But Lula tugged on my hand, and there would never be a time I wouldn’t follow her.
* * *
“From the top,” Card said. “Easy now.”
The wizard perched on a wooden chair—he’d specifically said he needed a wooden chair and had inspected all of the chairs in the hideout before settling on this one.
He was outside the circle of spells, in the west corner—again, he’d insisted on that—with a bark-bound book on the table beside him. The table also held several candles in a variety of colors, a bowl of water, and a cup of tea.
I didn’t know what all the other stuff was for, but the tea was for drinking.
Lu and I hadn’t slept deeply, but I’d drifted off for at least an hour or two and felt better for it.
I was sporting a low headache from the bump on the head I’d taken yesterday, and all the aches and bruises were making themselves known, but the hearty meal and about half a pot of coffee had set me up in a better state all around.
Even Lu had eaten—fruit and bread with honey—and Abbi, of course, had nearly demolished an entire tray of cinnamon buns.