Maybe a good leader didn't carry all the weight. Maybe she let others hold their share.
I sighed, feeling as though I was making a mistake, but not sure exactly what the error was.
"Pack shovels and buckets. Anything that will hold water." I looked past the three of them to Gal and Chas. "You guys go back into town and gather anyone who can help fight the fire."
I slung the bow over my shoulder and grabbed my spade from the porch. "We'll make a fire break."
My gaze trailed over to where the bear still lay on my step. The fields just past the hogbacks were home to all sorts of animals. I'd already seen a dire wolf. If there were more out there, and they smelled the fire, they might already be fleeing danger straight in this direction.
"Pack weapons too," I said. "We might have to take down a few terrified animals."
I stood, facing the few who remained.
"Well," I said. "We should get moving. That fire isn't going to put itself out."
-4-
In the end, it wasn't just any old wildfire. Hunter had set ablaze woods and field alike. All the surrounding homesteads of the six farmers who kept cattle and grew wheat out in the valley protected by the hogbacks and the mountains were under immediate threat.
"Isn't there anything you can do?" I said, facing Marlin.
He stood with his beanie pulled down past his earlobes, wearing a plaid mens' shirt over a white tshirt that read Gord Fuckin' Downey and it was almost too white in the saturated colors of cloud cover and orange flame.
"Can't you juice the clouds or something?"
There were plenty of them, brooding and thick, but they didn't look like they were about to drop water anytime soon. I knew there was a lake just past the hogbacks and a few fireponds, but if we were going to form a waterline, we would need everyone we could get. Everyone we could get was still precious little since Chas hadn't made it back from town with the second load of reinforcements.
"I told you, I'm not a sorcerer," he said.
He fiddled with the dial on his music maker, scanning the area as though he was already working out exactly how he could use it to coax the wild beast of weather to obey him.
"I don't care," I said. "Find a way to do it. It doesn't matter how."
He nodded, his lips pressed together in a grim line.
"The rest of us are going to be busy," I said. "If we can't get a fire break big enough, we might have to fight the flames. We're going to need all the help we can get then."
His face had a pinched look, but he nodded at me just the same.
"I'm on it."
He pulled his white earbud wires out from his shirt pocket and twirled them in front of me. "Courage. That's what's needed."
"Captain Obvious over here," I said.
"Not you." He tapped his earbud as it nestled into his ear. "The music. 'Courage'. Perfect song for the circumstances."
"I'm not sure I want to know," I said over the roar of flame and crackling wood.
"You don't know what you're missing," he said a little too loudly even for the roar of flames and shouting and then spun on his heel to disappear into the woods, brushing aside branches that might not be there in a few hours if we didn't hurry.
I heaved a bracing sigh and faced Lance and Myste.
"Ready?" I said.
With a nod, we all broached the flames. I hefted the spade over my shoulder and set my path toward the nearest wall of flame.
At least the ground looked easy to break. I prayed the rocks would be few and far between.
The heat was nearly unbearable. Chas had finally arrived and townsfolk spilled from wagons and horseback and immediately started stretching out in a line towards the lake. Fortunately, several ponds dug specifically to make watering the fields easier peppered the landscape. The children were already dunking plastic buckets into the water and carrying them to their parents.
Parents dumped water over the ground just beyond the trenches in the hopes of soaking the earth and halting the progress.
"Shall we?" I shouted at Lance, certain he wouldn't hear me otherwise.
It was backbreaking work and it was hot. I reasoned that if anyone was used to working in the heat, it would be Lance and Gal.
We had decided that those two would set strategic smaller fires toward the main flame wall in the hopes of controlling the burn while it ate up any fuel that kept it advancing.
Myste, strong as she seemed, sweat profusely and took breaks often. She had dropped her quiver behind her and was putting her back into the digging, throwing as much dirt as she could toward the fire side of the trench.
I'd already spent a good deal of my time this morning shoveling, and I was sore all too soon. My hair was plastered to the back of my neck and rivers were running down my back into an over-soaked shirt but the front of me was completely dry.
It felt like we fought for hours but I couldn't tell. The clouds overhead were darkening. I couldn't tell whether it was because the sun had begun to set or if Marlin was having any luck trying to conjure some magic.
We worked as close as we could to the fire and as far from it as needed to be to stay safe, but even so, the heat scorched my skin. Errant sparks shot into the grass, creating hotspots that constantly needed to be tamped out.
Neither Lance nor Gal broke stride as they worked, but I could see Myste was struggling.
I edged closer to her, doing what I could to help her. A dozen kids, some of them that I recognized from the school house darted in and out, weaving around people as they ran to the ponds and back again. They had stopped passing their little buckets to their parents and were already throwing the water at the runaway sparks.
"Someone needs to tell those kids not to get too close," I said.
I was having a hard time speaking. My lungs hurt and my mouth was dry. I thought I had singed off my eyebrows.
She looked at me, obviously trying to make out what I was saying, and when she did, a hotspot broke out at her feet and caught on her pantleg. Smoke billowed off her leg and burst into flame.
I yelled at her and, startled, she screamed and shook her foot.
The blaze leapt to the air behind her. I thought I smelled burning hair.
I didn't think. I just threw myself at her.
We rolled onto the ground and I propelled her over me and then rolled myself so that I was on top of her. I tasted ash and dirt and old grass.
It took several heart stopping seconds for us to realize the fire was out. We both lay there exhausted. She was breathing heavily. A raspy rattle came from her throat each time she inhaled.
I was on my back trying to catch my breath when she leaned over me.
"Thanks," she said.
Her black eyebrows furrowed together and beneath her sooty face, the green eyes looked like emeralds.
"Think nothing of it," I said, blinking to rid my eyes of the sting of smoke.
But it wasn't nothing. It had taken the last bit of stuffing out of me. Lying on the ground, I found I couldn't so much as roll over. My muscles felt like bowls of pudding.
I couldn't go on. I just couldn't. I didn't know how any of the others were managing.
Just then a rumble throttled its way across the heavens. I stared at the sky through blurry vision.
The clouds had grown darker.
Everyone around me stopped and looked upwards. I saw one of the kids hold his hand out.
"Raining," he said.
That one word made water leak from the corner of my eye.
"Sweet Jesus," I said to no one but myself. "That crazy bastard did it."
I no sooner said it than the downpour began and I laughed outright as I lay there and rolled over to see the rain had started in earnest. It pelted the ground so hard it jumped back up several feet into the air. The sound of it striking the flames made a sizzling noise. Steam rose all around us.
Cheers went up. I caught Myste's eye and she held her hand out to me. Together, we found our feet and leaned on each other as
we looked over the landscape.
A breeze fingered its way across the field. I felt it move my hair and it was enough of a relief that I managed to stagger away from Myste and take in the effects without support.
"It's moving the flames back," she said.
I nodded, taking a moment to hang over my waist and prop myself against my thighs.
"We just might win this round," I said and turned to face her. "I think we just might win."
Her smile was slow and lazy and it buoyed my spirits as much as the rain. The cheers had died down, replaced by the sounds of grunting and laughter as, renewed, we worked in concert with the rain and water carries to tamp down the rest of the flames.
It wasn't much longer before we had it under control. An hour after that, and we were walking the field abreast, checking for leftover hotspots.
I found Lance walking with a kid on his shoulder, lifting high and peering out over the fields. He pointed every now and then, and Lance would trot toward a hotspot and together they'd stamp it out and water it down.
We had it all but finished by dusk and Marlin strode from the woods with a cocky air. He spied me and headed in my direction.
"You did it," I said. "How?"
I clapped his beefy shoulder and the earbuds bounced against his back. He reached around and grabbed the wire and pulled them back neatly over his shoulder.
"I wooed a few nymphs is how," he said and the cockiness went out of his step.
He collapsed onto a charred tree stump and hung between his knees. "I need water something fierce."
He peered up at me. He'd lost the beanie somewhere between conjuring rain clouds and finding me. His chestnut hair stuck up straight and it was matted as though he'd been rubbing it with grimy hands.
"The heat has made us all parched," I said and signaled a nearby water carrier who ran off to pick up a bucket and dipper.
"The hell with the heat," he said and clutched at his spine before arching backward. "You ever woo a water nymph?" he said. "It's brutal."
I squatted in front of him so I could pass him the scoop from a bucket of water.
"And by woo you mean..."
"Pleasure them," he said. "And by a few, I mean a dozen."
He grabbed the bucket and tilted it to his mouth. Water poured over his tshirt, soaking it enough that I could see the small patch of chest hair beneath.
"You're not serious," I said.
He canted his head to look up at me.
"Look at me. Do I look like I'm kidding?" he said as he plucked his shirt away from his skin. "I must have lost two stone."
He did look a little thinner, but it might have been the power of suggestion. He upended the bucket again, this time over his head and shook out his hair like a dog.
"Did we bring any snacks?" he said. "I'm starving." He sniffed his armpits. "And I stink like paramour."
He hoisted himself to his feet and grinned broadly.
"It worked though, didn't it?
He scanned the landscape with a crooked grin.
"I must have been all that and a side of bacon for them to seed the clouds with that much water."
I nearly choked on my own spit at the look of pride on his face. He swung his gaze my way when he heard me trying to stop coughing.
"Speaking of bacon," he said. "I've done the job you requested and now I must be fed and bathed as a reward, and I must have at least twelve hours sleep."
He held up a hand when I attempted to speak.
"Make it fourteen hours. I might have thrown out my hip."
He shook out his leg and winced.
I wasn't sure what came over me, but I flung my arms around his waist and hugged him. However he'd done it, he'd saved the town and much of the young grain. If he wanted to pretend he'd coerced magic from supernatural creatures rather than admit he did actually have powers, that was his business.
"You're amazing," I said.
He peeled me away gently.
"Please don't," he said. "Not that I wouldn't normally love to have a beautiful woman all up in my business, but I'm afraid my very skin hurts and I have nothing left for you to enjoy. To put it baldly; I'm spent."
Then he winked at me. I might have laughed for the joy of accomplishment and victory except that's exactly the kind of thinking that fate loves to hear.
At the moment I opened my mouth, the awful, curdling sound of someone else's screaming drew my attention.
"What in the hell?" I said and turned to the sound that hadn't yet died out but was growing in horrible ways.
My gaze skirted the landscape, trying to locate the source. Townsfolk all over the fields were doing the same. Whatever it was, wherever it was coming from, it was over the rise and in the unburned woods. It didn't sound human but it certainly sounded terrifying.
"Maybe you left one nymph unsatisfied," I said to Marlin.
"Very funny," he said.
He put his hand over his hair, running his fingers across it as though he just realized his beanie hat was missing.
"You might want to pull in the civilians. My spidey senses are tingling and it's not good."
I shot him a look of astonishment.
"You know what it is, don't you?"
"I've heard the sound before, yes."
Lance and Gal strode toward us. They looked sooty and sweaty and both had burn holes in their clothes. Lance had pulled his shirt off at some point and sweat had cut narrow rivers through the black soot.
The sound came again, this time louder and it made even Lance flinch.
"That can't be good," I said.
"Trust me." Marlin limped toward the sound. "It's not."
"We need to get everyone pulled back," I said as Lance drew near. "The magician is getting antsy."
Lance turned in the direction of the noise and at the same time, lifted his hand and waved in whoever could see him. Some of them were already heading in.
"What is it, magic man?" Lance said.
I thought he might answer, but Myste started sprinting toward the fields. I tracked her for a full two seconds before I realized the answer was right in front of us all.
Hunter and a dozen of his men had ambushed us and were racing for us all on horseback and their screams on advance were blood-curdling.
-5-
We were vulnerable and Hunter had known it. A bunch of exhausted farmers and shopkeepers. A schoolteacher, a bunch of prostitutes. Among the entire town that had turned out to fight the fire, there were precious few warriors.
And those were all exhausted.
I'd underestimated Hunter's cunning.
I wouldn't do it again.
He'd set the fire, knowing exactly what we'd do. Now he and his Ruby Skulls had taken the advantage and were galloping toward the motley crowds of firefighters, who were, as yet, too occupied to notice.
For a second, my mind's eye flashed me a scene I'd imagined a dozen times from a Tolkien series of an old world battle. Everything a reader could imagine as she escaped into fiction in the late hours of the night raced through my mind.
But this was no fiction. This was real.
And innocent men and women were about to die all around me because Hunter thought of them as guilty. The ones who saw him were already running headlong from the fields and trying to find shelter. Many still fought the fire, working diligently on their fire breaks.
I looked at Lance.
"Someone needs to get them out of here."
"Agreed," he said. "Chas."
I could feel my fists clenching. I needed to get out there now. I couldn't wait. People were going to die. I hunted the ground for my bow, regretting not bringing Excalibur. I'd left it several paces away and darted toward it.
From behind me, I could hear Lance's whistle, a shrill sound that made one of the wagon horses whinny. Lance barked out quick orders, I assumed to Chas, get the wagons. Load the kids. But it wasn't enough. Chas had to race to the wagon and urge the horses toward the charging Ruby Skulls and these were
beast of burden horses, not war horses.
I shouted at the kids to run. Some of them heard me and began racing for the wagons.
Myste had the right idea. She was already grabbing kids as she ran and was throwing them in our direction. She must have shouted at them to run too because they were racing like the devil was on their heels.
Chas collected them up and hoisted them into the wagon as he drove it over the charred ground. Though the horses balked, he forced them on, determined to win out over their primal fears.
Even seeing kids clamoring into the wagon, even watching it fill and Chas drive the horses back around toward us, my throat felt knotted up. It wasn't enough. We needed to do more.
It was moments, not much more, but it seemed an eternity. Things didn't move fast enough. The residual heat from the fire was suffocating, the clogging stink of smoke made dusty ash of my lungs. The sound of the Ruby Skulls beside us, thundering across the earth was nerve-wracking.
Several farmers stood there dumbfounded as they watched the events. I saw one of the Ruby Skulls ride up to a firefighter several hundred yards away.
My stomach clenched.
I screamed out a single word. "No." But it had no effect.
The Skull's sword struck out. The men fell in a heap.
"Bastard," I yelled and propelled myself those last few paces, pumping my arms toward the weapon I'd dropped.
I almost fell sprawled out on the ground as I grabbed for it.
Gal's grip, hooking my elbow, kept me from pinwheeling onto my face.
I looked at her, aware that I must have looked terrified. I couldn't blink. My jaw ached.
And yet my voice came out calm.
"Find a way to get them out of here. We'll draw Hunter's fire."
Two short nods and she was gone, loping like a gazelle over the fronds of charred grass.
That left me and Lance and Marlin. Dallas was dozens of yards away. Several hooded figures surrounded him, probably the oldest of his Street rats. I watched as one by one, they disbanded and started gathering up kids and rushing them from the field into the woods.
"We need to form a line," I said out loud. "We need to get in front of the weakest. Between them and Hunter. Everyone else needs to fight."
Queen of Skye and Shadow complete box set : Queen of Skye and Shadow Omnibus books 1-3 Page 16