by Rainy Kaye
“We guess it came with the, uh, plague mask guy. It arrived a few days before he did.” She shrugged. “Either way, it’s the only thing standing between us and getting the hell out of Dodge, and I want very much not to be in Dodge, or Haven Rock, as it were.”
“I very much want to get my friends, and then leave this entire city to implode in on itself,” I said.
As much as I did want to be anywhere but here, I wasn’t leaving just yet, but I still wasn’t ready to tell her I had come to take on the plague mask guy myself.
There was no sisterhood here.
She straightened her back. “So, as a witch…”
I rolled my eyes, but waved her on. “Proceed.”
“Right, well, there’s a little more to this story. There’s someone else besides plague mask guy. Some man who wears this long forest green colored jacket, sort of like a trench coat but soft and loose like a cardigan…” She spaced out a little, and then blinked back. “Anyway, he’s got this necklace that he uses to control the cockatrice.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How so?”
“More than once, we’ve seen him just hold it up to the cockatrice and then it backs down,” she said, rearranging her legs under her. “Turns the beast into basically a kitten.”
“So, you’re trying to get the necklace?” I said, not at all feeling like going on another side quest.
“I think it’s our only choice.” She squinted at the ground like she could force back the tears brimming in her eyes. “My sister is only five. Not everyone dies instantly from the plague. Some people get sick, but they don’t recover. No one has recovered. Skyla came down with it, and we immediately started giving her some mixture from the apothecary shop. It didn’t cure her, but it seems to have helped delay it. We only have a few doses left, and that’s all. There is no more in the town, and she’s…she’s not doing well.”
My heart sank into my churning stomach as I recalled the bodies on the side of the road. Those had been bad enough, but children were dying too. If I hadn’t already been convinced the mage needed to be put back in his prison, I was now.
“Where is she?” I asked, trying to shake off the stunned feeling in my brain. Since arriving, I hadn’t had a chance to breathe, let alone contemplate the scope of what was happening in this town.
“She’s here, in another tent,” she said, and sniffed a little. “We take turns watching over her, night and day, giving her water and feeding her broth and purees, anything we can get her to take. She’s very weak.”
“Can I see her?” I asked, barely above a whisper.
She nodded, and then pushed to her feet. I started to stand, but she reached down, grabbed my arm, and yanked me to my feet. I nearly fell forward into her.
“Dang, you got some muscle,” I said with a small smile, even though she wouldn’t be able to see it through the respirator. “I should probably do your routine.”
She chuckled a little, though her eyes were sad. “Before the plague, I did a lot of climbing. Come on. I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
I perked up as she pointed to a pair of slip-on shoes next to the wall and then exited through the tent flap. I slipped them on, grateful to at least no longer be shoeless, and ducked out behind her.
Three tents, including the one we stood next to, formed a lopsided triangle around a crackling campfire. The sun had set, and the shadows from the flames danced along the ground and over the three people sitting on blue and purple serape blankets.
“This is my sister April,” she said, gesturing to a girl of maybe fifteen with dark hair pulled back into long braids.
April peered at me over her respirator and then turned back to a card game she was playing with a boy maybe a year younger.
“And that’s my brother, Jax.”
Jax sported an undercut that flipped forward over one eye and wore black tactical pants, a form-fitting quarter combat shirt with pockets on the sleeves, and combat boots that laced up to his ankles. Combined with the black respirator with a red biohazard symbol painted on the front, he had come into the apocalypse with cinema-inspired fashion and possibly a sense of humor.
He gave a little wave and swiped a card off the top of the deck.
The man about my age on the opposite blanket stood and he came toward us.
He extended his hand. “I’m Noah.”
“Safiya,” I said, shaking his hand as I scoped him out. He was tall, broad, and tan, and looked about ready to fall over from exhaustion. “You guys seem to have made a cozy little camp out here.”
“It’s all Ever,” he said with a nod toward the woman next to me. “She had all the gear and convinced us heading into the woods was the best option for now. The red mist hasn’t spread this far yet, but it is coming. Hopefully we’ll be out of here before that happens.”
“Yeah, that’s what Safiya and I were discussing,” Ever said, stepping away from me. She folded her arms over her chest. “If she can help us get the necklace, that pendant the guy uses to control the cockatrice, then we can use it to get the cockatrice to back off long enough to escape. Then we—”
A girl stepped out of the tent straight ahead. She was tiny, frail. Darkness ringed her eyes, and she looked much too worn for someone who couldn’t be more than seventeen or eighteen, if that. For a moment, I almost asked if she was sick as well, but I swallowed down the question before I accidentally insulted the first genuine people this town had to offer so far.
The girl held a book in one hand and a turned off penlight in the other.
“Noah, are you ready for your shift? I’m afraid I’ll doze off any minute.” Her gaze passed over me and settled on Ever. “Why did she even come to this town?”
Ever dropped her hands with a shrug. “Why don’t you ask her yourself?”
The girl squinted, turning back to me, and raised her eyebrows. She didn’t say anything.
I realized everyone had shifted their attention to me. Not at all awkward.
“Uh, well…” I held my breath, trying to think of what to say. I wasn’t keen talking about my intentions with the mage, but I didn’t have any other reason to be in Haven Rock that wasn’t more bizarre. I let out a sigh. “I came to see if I could help stop the mage.”
The girl scrunched up her face. “What?”
“The guy with the nifty headgear,” I said, miming the beaked plague mask. “He’s a mage—an evil one, if that wasn’t a given—and my friends and I have been trying to figure out what to do about him and the others.”
Noah jerked back. “Others?”
“Yeah…” I grimaced, as if the news hit me all over again too. “There’s seven of them. Two down.”
I tried to sound hopeful, but it fell flat.
“Well, that’s…something,” Noah said. He started to rub his hand down his face and then seemed to remember he was wearing a respirator. “Anyway, Paisley, yeah, I can take over. Go get some shut-eye.”
Paisley shuffled over to the empty blanket and collapsed down on it. Noah turned and headed for the tent across from us, and I caught slight snores from Paisley right before we ducked inside through the door.
A camping cot stood in the middle of the room, and on it, bundled in blankets and wearing a respirator, was a tiny form. Her eyes were closed, but her chest heaved in a strange rhythm and her skin looked blotched in the dim light of a solar charged lamp sitting next to her.
Several hiking backpacks laid in a heap to the side of the door, and I picked my way around them as Ever and Noah took their spots beside her bed.
Ever stared down at her. “She wakes less and less, and I think it won’t be much longer before she...”
She swallowed down a sob, and Noah reached over and rubbed her back. “We’ll do our best to get her out of here.”
She nodded, and I couldn’t help but notice the realistic edge to his encouragement. They had long given up on believing they couldn’t fail. They were just trying, anyway.
Ever turned to me.
&nb
sp; “There’s no hospital in Haven Rock. We have to get Skyla out of here, and we can’t waste any time.” She straightened up. “You said you need to save your friends, right?”
I nodded, stiffly, uncertain where this was going.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Safiya. The man with the necklace, he’s got…He can use…He’s a…”
“Mage,” I supplied for her. “Not a dark one, but he has magic, and he’s a man, so he’s a mage.”
She nodded. “I think if we can get the drop on him, and at least one of us can match his…abilities…we have a chance, but only one. That’s why we haven’t tried yet.”
“Yeah.” I hesitated, but I benefited nothing from not putting all my cards on the table. “My magic isn’t stable. It just comes and goes, and I have no way of knowing when or how long.”
She winced, hard, and my face flushed. I hated that part of my magic most of all these days. Every time I needed it and it wasn’t there, I had to swat away the memories of Jada rolling her eyes and saying our magic was stupid.
She hadn’t been wrong. I kept using it, anyway.
“Well, we don’t have a lot of time or options left,” Ever said, glancing at Skyla. “She’s going to die soon. It’s all or nothing at this point.”
“There’s no one else who can help us?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. They hadn’t holed up in the woods with a dying little girl for the thrill. “What about your parents?”
Ever’s expression fell further, if that was even possible.
“Mom died from breast cancer two years ago. We promised her…” She shook her head and took a deep breath. “We promised to take care of Skyla for her.”
Her pointed tone conveyed her agony at not just failing her little sister, but her last words to her mother.
“Dad was one of the first to catch the plague,” she continued. “He…he went within a day. When Skyla came down with it, we panicked. The only immediate option was the apothecary, so we tried that, and it worked, a little, for now. Since then, we’ve been trying to get her out of this town so we can take her to the city and get her to a hospital. I don’t know if they can do anything to help her, but she will have a better chance than out here in a tent in the woods.”
I remained silent, absorbing her words as I stared at Skyla.
Finally, Ever turned to me, resolution in her eyes. “I understand your magic isn’t reliable, but it’s better than ours—which is none. Help us get the pendant to stop the cockatrice, and my siblings and I will help rescue your friends before we go. Noah can stay here and watch Skyla.”
Noah glanced up, as if surprised he wasn’t involved in the decision making. He started to speak, but Ever held up her hand.
“As soon as we have the pendant, you can take the car with Skyla and head into the city,” she said. “You can drive the fastest, safest. Jax and April don’t even have their licenses, and no one in their right mind should have given one to Paisley.”
“Paisley is your sister too?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure why it surprised me.
Ever nodded, expression relaxing.
“Yes, I think half the town population are me and my siblings,” she said, and then gestured toward Noah. “Except him. He’s my, well, fiancé, I guess. We were supposed to get married.”
I scowled. “When?”
“Today.” Her cheeks lifted as she forced a hard smile. “Today was my wedding. So, that’s been postponed.”
Noah wrapped one arm around her waist, drawing her back to his chest, and nestled his chin on top of her head. “For now.”
She stepped apart from him and crouched next to the cot, adjusting Skyla’s blankets. “Anyway, that’s the only thing I can offer you.”
“I don’t even know for sure where my friends are,” I said, as if it even mattered.
Of course I was going to retrieve the pendant, whether or not she returned favors. I didn’t have to be a doctor to know that Skyla wasn’t going to live much longer without medical intervention.
“We know this town inside and out,” Ever said, not looking up. “Not just the town, but everything surrounding it too. I would have taken Skyla on foot, but there’s no way I could transport her that far without a vehicle, though I may have to try if we can’t get the pendant, and soon.”
I nodded. “We’ll do everything we can to save her, but since my magic isn’t reliable, we’re going to need some way to protect ourselves if situations get out of hand.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” she said, her shoulders pulling back. “We might not be witches, but we have these.”
She tapped the sheath at her ankle.
“Dull pocketknives?” I tossed my head with a grin. “I don’t need to spread butter, thanks.”
Wordlessly, she stood and gestured for me to follow her.
I started forward. Pain slammed into my ribcage, and I hunched over, lungs tight, pressing my palm to my side.
“Yeah, you probably want to be gentle for a while,” she said. “I don’t know how he didn’t kill you. No one else has survived a run-in with him.”
I decided not to reveal my little blocking technique yet that I had no real control over. No point in ruining all the surprises at once.
When the pain settled enough I could breathe again, I followed her out of the tent. Paisley remained out cold where she had fallen asleep. April and Jax huddled together, dozing, having abandoned their card game. Jax brushed snowflakes off April’s head.
I waved at them before trudging after Ever to the third tent. My footsteps sank a little. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like the snow had deepened in the short time we had been inside. As I stared down, snow dusted across my shoes.
Ever stopped at the doorway and turned to me. “Do you remember how Roosevelt said, speak softly but carry a big stick?”
“Didn’t know the guy personally, but sure,” I said.
“Well, we handle the town politics a bit like that now,” she said, throwing back the doorway. “We just like much sharper weapons.”
I ducked to peer inside.
The interior of the tent looked like they had looted an armory. The longer I stared at the collection, the more I realized all the weapons were bladed, from different parts of the world and throughout time.
Randall would have been beside himself if he saw this.
I didn’t say anything.
After a moment, she said, “I know, right?”
I looked up at her.
“Deal?” she asked, with a pleasant air about her of someone who knew exactly what they brought to the table.
No weapon would beat my magic, but no weapon would disappear without warning, either. A few pointy things would definitely be a welcomed addition to our arsenal. It wouldn’t help much against the fight with the mage, but for the moment, I had to focus on getting the pendant to control the cockatrice and then saving my comrades.
“Where is this guy at?” I asked. “The one with the pendant.”
“He has been hanging around a ski resort. It closed up after people started to die, and he seems to be squatting there,” she said. “It’s a bit of a hike from town. My car won’t handle that much off roading, too-risky.”
In the corner rested a sword with a long triangle shaped blade and a wide H-shaped handle. My heart skipped a beat like I was in love.
“That,” I said, pointing to it. “I want that one.”
She laughed. “The katar? That was Dad’s favorite too.”
“Collector?” I asked.
“More than that. He was a welder, carpenter, and, for some reason, a blacksmith.” She shook her head. “People used to hire him to make custom railing, patio furniture, you name it, but his true love was these weapons. They aren’t flimsy replicas, either.”
“So, your dad basically unwittingly armed you for the apocalypse,” I said as I took in the collection again with a fuller appreciation for the craftsmanship.
“Yeah.” She crossed over to the katar and knelt to p
ick it up. “Unfortunately, it hasn’t been quite enough for us to survive.”
She held up the weapon, and I resisted the urge to grab it.
“What do you say?” she asked with a smile.
I straightened upright. “I say, let’s go get that pendant.”
7
Ever and Noah packed up our supplies while I dozed on the floor of the tent, next to Skyla’s cot. She didn’t move. When the sun came up, I crawled out of the tent, barely rested, as Paisley put on a pot of oatmeal over the campfire. April handed out new filters for everyone’s respirators, and I swapped mine though I had to wonder how long before the mage decided to add a little oomph to his plague magic and render the respirators useless.
Paisley passed out bowls of breakfast. No one said much as we ate, and I figured everyone had as much energy as I did. We needed to conserve what we could for the trip ahead. Ever had gathered a proper outfit for me, so at least I wouldn’t freeze to death in the snow.
After everyone had finished eating, I changed and we headed out without much fanfare, leaving only Noah behind with Skyla’s weak form.
As I trudged after Ever, loaded down with a jostling backpack and the katar sheathed on my hip, the weather struggled between being just an annoyance and becoming an actual storm. Snow fell harder, dusting over our tracks as we made them and blurring the air. My newly acquired outfit, complete with jacket and boots, kept the cold out to a tolerable level, but the chill bit at the exposed parts of my neck and slivers of wrists.
Behind me, Paisley, April, and Jax peered from their masks, keeping watch as they brought up the rear. They each grasped curved kukri at their side. As impressive as their armed silhouettes were, I had to wonder how useful any of it would prove when we reached our destination.
Again, I found myself the only witch among my comrades. Like usual, they had far more faith in my abilities than myself. I had been honest with Ever, but in the kingdom of the blind and such.
I needed Sasmita here to help, but either the New Hope of Haven Rock had found some way to subdue her furious magic, or she had escaped and was likely hiding. Maybe even planning an attack on the dark mage. Either way, if she wasn’t still at the cabin, I had little hope of finding her, especially not without help from Ever and company.