Queen of Skye and Shadow complete box set : Queen of Skye and Shadow Omnibus books 1-3

by Thea Atkinson

  But only if Musk or Hunter were oblivious to the them in the first place.

  Only if that cache of plastic explosives was still untouched.

  "And only if the tunnels are viable," I mumbled out loud.

  "What's that?" Lance said.

  I looked at him with a blank stare, realizing that I hadn't said anything out loud. I'd been deep in thought, re-walking the paths of my childhood and trying to ferret out the storage rooms in the caves.

  I explained my plan and watched his face for evidence that it was ludicrous.

  He looked as excited as I felt.

  Maybe we were both crazy.

  "We only need one viable shaft," he said. "Just one that goes all the way through."

  "The Street rats," I said. "I wonder if this is where Dallas has them holed up. I wonder if he knows the tunnels as well as this map."

  I tapped it once and the corner broke off and fluttered to the floor.

  I stared at it, suddenly realizing how precarious this entire environment was.

  "Can you draw?" I said.

  I began rummaging through the drawers. I didn't think we could manage excavating the cork board without damaging the map and we would need a record before we attempted to cart it home.

  I found an old lead pencil and a notepad bound up inside a leather portfolio. The leather was cracked and worn but it had kept the paper near pristine.

  "Here," I said, shoving the pad and pencil at him. "You draw what you can, and I'll sweep the trailer for barter. I'd hate to leave anything useful behind."

  He tried to protest but I insisted that any drawing was better than none.

  "No," he said. "That's not the problem."

  He planted his feet apart right about the same width as his shoulders and got a grim, stubborn look on his face.

  "I don't think you should be digging around in here."

  "Why?" I said. "Because I'm a girl?"

  "Hell no. Because I don't want you to bring the rest of the roof down on us."

  I patted his hand indulgently.

  "No worries. If you get nervous, you can doodle outside."

  I made for the cork board with a crowbar I spied in the corner. I hefted the metal bar against my palm and then pried a corner away from the wall.

  It didn't need much muscle. In fact, it came away with a whisper as a piece of the wall tore away with it and fell with a clank to the floor. I peered through the rusted hole left behind into a rabbit warren in the hill.

  I could see sunlight filtering down a yard away.

  Tiny rabbit skeletons lay in a heap beneath it.

  "Poor things," I said, then turned to pass the corkboard to Lance. "Here," I said. "We'll bring it home with us but make a copy just in case it doesn't journey well."

  In the end, while he did go out into the sun to draw the copy as best he could, I scrounged two pads of paper and an entire cache of ink-filled pens and mechanical pencils.

  Sadie would thrill to get such goods to help track her ponies and routes and payments.

  The same glass container held three old fashioned stick pencils and an eraser that was hard and brittle. Even so, I stuffed those too in my pockets.

  Another sweep netted me a dusty bottle of spiced rum from the bottom desk drawer and a first aid kit filled with bandages wrapped in plastic.

  Great barter.

  We left with hopes high.

  A plan of attack, something that might work, formed itself as we saddled up and rode home.

  The plan was as simple as we could make it.

  We'd send men into the tunnels one by one and see how far they could get safely. We'd mark each one off the map when they reported back. The goal would be to find one that wove its way through to the other side, and we'd ambush Colton Musk and the Rubies Hunter had left behind.

  Cut them off from us so they couldn't use the tunnels against us.

  "And we'll cave the tunnels in as we retreat," Lance said but it was a hushed tone he used.

  "It's likely the tunnels aren't viable," I said. "It could be that the tunnels themselves kill those men as easily as it could their salvation."

  I swallowed down the nausea that was rising in my throat. This would be a tricky operation. I wasn't even sure if the tunnels were working and possible let alone asking men and women to risk their lives to find out, then to risk them again to fight Hunter's army.

  Was I ready for that? Could I keep the concern and worry for their safety out of my decision to do this thing?

  "It's risky," I said.

  "But it could buy the town precious months to prepare for Hunter's army. We need that time."

  We did. If Hunter had left Colton to gather supplies and build an encampment, then he planned to come in force when he did come. Even a day could make a difference.

  "Is there another way?" I said. "Are we missing something? Are we grasping at this chance in foolhardy earnestness?"

  I was terrified it was a trap like the fire had been.

  "We'll use volunteers only," Lance said and God love him, he reached across from his horse to touch my knee. The contact solidified why I was doing this at all instead of just leaving the city.

  Because I did care. And everyone, including me, deserved to live in a free nation where justice was just and life was lived.

  And if those things had any value, they were worth the risk. Just not the risk of innocent lives.

  "I'll go," I said. "No volunteers. No men and women. I'll tap the tunnels."

  "You can't," he said and reined his horse in front of Gentry.

  "The hell I can't," I said. "You elected me leader of this town, and that's what I intend to do. Leaders lead. Even if it's into the bowels of Hades."

  I didn't say that might just might be where I was going.

  -10-

  Every shaft cut through the mountain from the same entry point and I'd wondered aloud why we didn't just blow up the main tunnel instead of inspecting each one, but Lance reminded me that we needed to be sure there wasn't another entry point or a landslide that had opened one of them up somewhere that we didn't see.

  I planned to spelunk the tunnels myself. After a heated argument during a meeting of the charred table, when I declared that the person doing the ordering should be the person taking the risk, Marlin muttered something about me being an idiot.

  The table withstood much pounding of fists after that, not all of them my own.

  We argued about who should enter the tunnels and who should set the box of explosives at the mouths of the viable shafts. We argued about how much to put where. We argued about how long it should take and when we should start.

  It was exhilarating.

  The cook had to bring in several pitchers of sweet tea before we came to a compromise and in the end, we decided I would head a team of three into each shaft and tunnel to assess their viability.

  Lance and Gal accompanied me despite my protests that of all the people available they should be the ones who remained behind because they were the best fighters. If something happened during investigation, we'd be risking three able warriors.

  We each took an entrance, a gas lamp, and a copy of the map and worked our ways through, crossing off the lines on the map at approximately the spot the tunnels caved in.

  It was tough, smotheringly hot work, but every time I came back out into the sunshine and heard Marlin's voice counting down the tunnels we had left to check, I felt better. One down, one more to go, was my motto and I tried to do the most of the work so save the efforts of the other two.

  It was a vain effort because most times, Gal out distanced me.

  It was several days before we knew that exactly three tunnels were passable; all of the rest of them had collapsed somewhere along the way. Two of them stopped at some half point and opened up into branches.

  And so we worked those two, each taking a direction until we knew that they didn't open up on the other side of the hills.

  That left one remaining and to my eye,
it didn't just seem the most likely, it was the only one traced in red ink. We left it to last because we suspected it would be the one Colton planned to attack from if he did, but we needed to be sure the others weren't also a way for him to surround us and take us unaware while we neutralized the main threat.

  It was a chilly morning, four days after the initial spelunking trek, that the same three stood in front of the mouth of that very tunnel.

  Outside, it was raining. A crowd of townsfolk had driven to the quarry behind us either on horseback or in wagons. Several wagons had been pulled into a tight circle on the quarry floor in front of the main mining shaft.

  A dozen men stood around us in a cluster, holding hammers, swords, and knives. They demanded to go with us while their families huddled close together looking alternately proud and terrified.

  "I won't take any innocent man in with us," I said. "Only the warriors. Only those who fight for a living or understand battle."

  In my mind's eye, I was reliving the fire and Hunter's attack. If this failed and we died trying to reach the mountain through the tunnels, if we attacked Colton and his men, I wanted to make sure it wasn't for nothing. I wanted to make sure there were men left behind who could resist Hunter's army when they came.

  I turned to Marlin.

  "Get as many of these townsfolk as want to, into Dallas's caves. Send someone back to town to put the rest of them on alert. Anyone infirm or young goes."

  Rather than do as he was bid, Marlin pulled the earbuds and wires from his shirt pocket and tossed the music player to a young kid standing nearby. "Hold this for me," he said with a wink before turning back to me.

  "You're not going without me," he said.

  The kid juggled the player in his hands before finally slipping the earbuds into his ears. His eyes went wide with surprise and then he settled down on a rock, arms folded over his knees. He smiled happily, lost in the music.

  "I need you here," I said to Marlin. "Not shambling around in the dark for twelve hours or more."

  "What's time to a creature like me," he said.

  "No." I shook my head. "You're not going."

  "But I already gave away my music maker so I won't lose it." He pouted. "And Gal is going." He pointed to where the smithy apprentice stood with her sword poking up behind her shoulder and a knife on her thigh.

  "Gal is a fighter," I said. "We talked about this at the meeting."

  "You talked about it," he argued. "I never agreed."

  He crossed his arms over his chest and I noticed he'd slimmed down even more since the fire. He almost looked beefy in a muscular way, not in a chunky one.

  "What about Myste?" he said. "She's not going. Let her do that boring stuff of herding the sheep."

  He pointed sideways to where Myste stood with her Shadow Hood pulled over her head. I thought she'd picked an odd time to put it on, in essence, outing herself to nearly the entire town.

  "Myste has already volunteered to herd the sheep," I said around a grin that tugged at my mouth.

  "In that getup?" he said, sounding aghast. "They'll think she's the grim reaper."

  "All the more reason for you to stay," I said.

  Marlin's mouth twitched as he considered the fact that he'd just reasoned himself out of the journey.

  He scowled and kicked at the dirt of the quarry floor.

  Lance tossed a pebble at him.

  "Skye is right," he said. "It's going to be dangerous enough just getting through the shaft, let alone neutralizing the threat on the other side."

  Marlin tugged at the hem of his hoodie, a faded black thing with the words: No dress rehearsal this is our life printed on it.

  He lifted his chin stubbornly.

  "All the more reason for me to go," he said. "You need me."

  With that, he headed to the shaft's entrance as though it was already decided. Lance reached out to hook him by the hem of his hoodie to stop him.

  Marlin spun around so fast, I almost didn't see him move except for the blur of material as he brushed the back of his hand against Lance's cheek.

  Lance let out a howl and grabbed his face.

  It was far from funny, but I laughed anyway; it was a good reminder of the things Marlin could do.

  Maybe we could use him.

  "He might as well come with us," I said to Lance and Marlin let go a whooping noise that made me startle. I glowered at him.

  "This isn't a picnic we're going on," I said. "You know that."

  "I do," Marlin said.

  Lance glowered at him as he rubbed his cheek with the back of his hand.

  "Hunter left Musk and his men behind to kill us. Then they plan to invade with a large army. They want to make a lesson of us."

  Gal grumbled to herself and gripped her blade tighter. I thought I heard her say over my dead body and I had to look at the ground to keep from responding. This was serious. It might end with many dead bodies.

  Marlin wouldn't be dissuaded.

  "I'm going," he said." I know the risks."

  Lance squared his shoulders, working the muscles as though he were shrugging off a heavy blanket. I watched Gal do the same. All three of us had been in the corridors of the mine and we knew what we were facing, but it seemed he wanted to remind himself. Maybe he wanted to pump the adrenaline through his body.

  "Ok," he said. "It's time. It's going to take us at least the day to travel through. It's going to be hot and it's going to be smothering."

  I thought I heard Marlin moan.

  Lance cut his eye at him. "Did you want to come or not?"

  Marlin cast his eyes downward and I thought I heard Myste chuckling from where she stood.

  "By Skye's count, we should make it to the side by midnight. If we keep moving. If we keep our rest breaks minimal." Lance said, repeating the information we'd discussed in the meeting.

  "We'll be exhausted," Lance said. "It won't be easy."

  Gal stepped toward me.

  "Doesn't matter," she said. "I'll either die defending the town today or I'll die defending the town next week. Either way, I don't plan to go down easily."

  "Hopefully you won't die at all, None of us will," I said. "We'll rest when we arrive. We'll eat. Then we'll attack pre-dawn while they're still asleep."

  Lance, Marlin, and Gal nodded.

  I sucked in a breath. It was time.

  The journey would not be pleasant. And the ending on the other side would not be either. But this one fight might make the difference later. We needed that time. We desperately needed the months it would take to prepare for a full out war.

  I'd already tasked Sadie and her ponies with spreading the news. Chas had gone with her to bear witness to what was happening and what was really being done by Hunter.

  If I took the best of our fighters through this tunnel to the other side, there would be few left to defend the town if we failed.

  But I needed them. Even with Excalibur and the spelled bow and arrow, alone, I wouldn't be enough to take on all of those men.

  That's why we would wait until the dawn to slip into the camp.

  We'd make quick work of the men on the other side while they slept. I agonized over what needed to be done, but that was the truth of it.

  It needed to be done.

  We would retreat and blow up the entrance to the cave, cutting off their clandestine entrance into the town.

  I shot a look at the little boy listening to Marlin's music maker. I told myself I would see him again. I told myself I would ask him which song was his favorite.

  Then I headed into the darkness of the mountain.

  It was stuffy and it was dark. Carrying the lamps made the darkness seem a little less absolute, but nevertheless, we could see only a few feet of in front of us.

  We didn't bother to go under the cloak of silence at first. We stumbled along, mumbling to each other. Talking about normal and everyday things. What the day had been like at the forge. How good the breakfast was before we'd set out.

&nb
sp; It made things seem less frightening, like it was an ordinary trek we made with no chance of death looming over us.

  By my count, we had been walking for a few hours when I realized that I heard something ahead of us.

  I held my hand up and out across the narrow tunnel. Everyone stopped behind me. The sound of their straining to listen was acute.

  "Men," Marlin said from beside me. "Several of them."

  I strained to see his face in the shadows. He was right. And I knew it. I flicked my gaze toward Lance. He too knew the truth of it. So did Gal.

  We wouldn't have the chance to slip out of the tunnel in the middle of the night and put an end to the uprising on that side.

  It was coming to us.

  -11-

  I barely had time to pull Excalibur from its scabbard on my back before the onslaught came at us. Someone dropped their lantern and it cast moving shadows on the shaft walls that danced with the shapes of men that rushed us.

  I yelled out that we should form a line across the shaft. Keep them from getting past us at all costs.

  I couldn't tell how many men rushed us. I couldn't see very far down the tunnel. I only knew four men went for Lance. He parried expertly but fell backwards as the full weight of men pressed upon him.

  Gal met two more and another three came at me. The bow and arrow was useless in the short confines of the shaft, but there was enough room to strike out with our swords and blades.

  I knew Excalibur would move where it needed in order to block whatever thrust came at me.

  Each time Excalibur bit out into the air and contacted skin, I reeled beneath the emotional onslaught it brought it.

  When it blocked a blow, it rang with a hum that reverberated up my elbow. Each quiver of muscle magnified the images that raced through my mind. A child crying for its mother. A dog dying in the street. Someone's throat being slashed.

  Blood flowed in those images and each held an intense emotion that was almost too much to bear. Sometimes it was pleasure. Other times it was revulsion and shame.

  When I had fought Hunter, those feelings had been intense but they had been solitary. It had been one man's emotions and buried memories that I'd contended with. I had thought it the result of Excalibur's magic blending with that of Hunter's blood blade.