Whatever had been here, whether it was my imagination or whether it was something real, it was gone now.
Even Excalibur seemed to realize we were alone. It went dark in my hand.
Rather than slip it into its scabbard and leave myself unarmed, I tucked it beneath my armpit as I hoisted the small table up to my hip.
I backed out the door with the table resting against my thighs. I didn't tear my eyes from the doorway for one second. I left my grandmother's ancestral door wide open as I pushed the table up into the wagon. The door jamb was ragged splinters where I'd busted in and the bottom hinge had pulled out. I saw a rusted screw nestled against a small pebble on the stone stoop.
"Lock the door when you leave," I said to the empty space. "Wouldn't want the wrong sort squatting in here."
Nothing came for me. The house looked alone and forlorn. An aching tug in my solar plexus indicated I knew this was the last time I'd willfully come back here. The beast on my step, wafting in the dark corners had claimed it whether it was truly there or not.
I didn't fancy searching through the entire house. If it was still somewhere wrapped around something as smoke, it could stay there for all I cared. I wasn't coming back.
I climbed back onto the bench of the wagon and turned the horse toward the beaten path that headed into town. I half expected the thing to meet me on the path at any moment. I imagined it was much how Sadie had felt as she'd recounted her journey and that nagging feeling of being stalked. But nothing met me in the entire trip. Nothing jumped out at me. Nothing made a sound in the woods. It was almost as though everything had gone silent as it listened along with me for the threat.
I sat tense and rigid the entire way, and only when I pulled into the only road into the town, did I relax.
Strangely enough, my wagon wasn't the only one entering the town when I returned. I noticed in the distance three more wagons and several horses heading our way. And when I pulled through the gate of the town, there were at least half a dozen new horses hitched and hobbled outside of the communal barn.
A coach ahead of me spit out a well-dressed couple and two young children. They stood in the street looking out of place and entirely vulnerable.
I hauled over the wagon and jumped from the bench to hobble the horse. Something was up, something that had changed during the hours I'd been away.
"That's the third new family today," said a familiar voice from beside me.
I spun to see Marlin standing with his arms crossed over his chest a couple of feet away. His beanie cap was pulled down over his ears and he was wearing a T-shirt that was as black as the day it was made, but with a big emblem on the front that looked like a large maple leaf. The words said In Gord we trust.
His music maker was conspicuously absent. He'd passed the player to a boy the day we'd entered the mine shafts and attacked the men Hunter had left to ambush us. I wondered if he decided to let the boy keep it.
"The third family?" I said to him. "Where are they from?"
He shrugged. "All over I'm guessing. According to Myste, they've been traveling for a week or more."
I stared down the family and watched them group together, pointing out different places and shake their heads or alternately nod. Whatever they were doing here, it seemed they had some idea what they were after.
"What do they want?"
Again he shrugged. "To move here, I guess."
I shoved my hands in my pockets. "Move here? Did they say why?"
He gave me a direct stare that managed to look both serious and teasing at the same time.
"What am I?" he said. "Your personal secretary? You want to know, go ask. I've already wasted too much time making sure people have beds to sleep in."
He was referring no doubt to the chore Lance gave him of settling the farmers who had been ousted out of their homes by the fire Hunter set.
Like it or not, he was right. If people were going to start flooding into the town, I needed to know why. And then I needed to find them a place to stay.
"I can't ask them myself. I need a shower," I said. "I stink."
"Just a bit pissy," he said. "With a hint of sweat." He made a motion, sweeping his hand toward his face as though it were a bouquet fragrance, then he smiled broadly.
"I've smelled worse."
I sighed.
"Better than smelling shitty I guess," I said and turned my eye to the couple, knowing there was no time like the present. Stinking or not, I had to find out what was going on.
I tugged down my teeshirt. My pants might have dried, but I had no doubt the urine smell had gained pungency as it dried.
"Don't go away," I said, poking him with a finger. "On the point of my heady fragrance, I need to ask you something."
"Again?" He rolled his eyes. "I'm weary with all the answers already."
"You're weary from spending too much time with those nymphs," I said. "And don't pretend you didn't enjoy that."
He shot me an embarrassed glance. He'd managed to magic up some much needed rain to help us with the forest fire by striking a bargain with water nymphs, and then again when we faced a much greater threat with the black magic that came after. I could only guess at what they asked for in return, but he still looked a bit ragged around the edges, like a dog tending a bitch.
"I mean it," I said. "Don't leave."
I sighed. The last thing I wanted to do at the moment was meet and greet a bunch of people I didn't know. It was bad enough putting myself out there for folks I'd met. I had to turn something on inside me that was usually set to snooze.
Even so, I moseyed over to the couple. The woman pulled the kids close around her legs when see saw me striding toward them. I wondered if they had seen the wanted posters Hunter had put up all over the nation as a means to smoke me out of hiding.
Judging by their reaction, I reckoned they had made the connection between that picture and myself easily enough because whoever had sketched the terrible picture had also made a point of drawing a perfect replica of the scar running along my forehead. I didn't bother painting it with ocher or woad anymore. The town had evidently accepted me the way I was and I had no need of it.
But these newcomers didn't know me except what they read on that poster. That meant they were probably terrified of me before I even looked their way. They no doubt thought I was out to take over the entire world, starting with eating their children.
It made the prospect of introducing myself harder still, but I stuck my hand out toward them in greeting long before I reached them. Kind of a defense mechanism. If they turned away from a friendly gesture, it gave me time to melt away into the crowd without too much of a scene.
I didn't realize how nervous I really was until the mother visibly relaxed and let her hand fall away from the young girl's shoulder.
I gripped her hand first in favor of the father and gave it a gentle pump.
"Skye Shadow," I said. "Welcome to New Denver."
The man sidled up closer, subtly easing his wife and daughter out of the way. The woman, I noted had a red welt on her cheek and my fists clenched when I let go her hand as I imagined what marks might be on the children as well. My gaze trailed to his hands, searching for cuts or abrasions.
"Seems like the semaphore lines are accurate," he said as he regarded me. He had sandy colored hair that fell over his brow in a way that had him pushing it aside almost irritably.
I wasn't sure I liked the tone. I automatically widened my stance.
"What's that?" I said.
"Semaphore lines," he said. "A bunch of signals made with flags –"
"I know what they are," I snapped. "But what do you mean that they're accurate?"
He stole a glance at his wife.
"They're saying that there is a new leader here in new Denver," he said. "That this place has taken a stand against Hunter. Now I know what they meant when they spelled out Skye and Shadow."
He stuck out his hand.
"Your name," he said. "That's r
ight?"
I nodded. "That it is," I said. "But what is this about a new leader and New Denver."
His hand fell next to his thigh when I didn't immediately shake it. His daughter edged closer to him, and for a second I felt ashamed of my suspicious nature. I felt worse when she cowered from my feeble smile.
"You've had it good here," he said looking around. "Hunter sees you as a sort of daughter or something."
I wasn't sure I liked the tinge of jealousy in his voice. Or the accusation.
I shoved my hand in my pocket. "Hunter Wolf does not see me as a daughter," I said. "Of that I can assure you. He tried to have me killed as recently as yesterday."
He looked me head to heal, running an assessing gaze over me. The woman cozied up to him and put her arm around his waist.
"She doesn't know, Caleb," she whispered.
I looked in her direction. "What don't I know?"
"How bad everyone else has it," she said. "If Hunter Wolf was trying to kill you and you're still alive, then you don't have it half as bad as the rest of us do. Where we're from, if he wants you dead, you die."
I furrowed my brow as I looked at her. "And that's why you're here?"
She nodded. "We figured the safest thing to do was leave our town and find one that had it better. Word is yours is that town."
I heard the ruckus sound of wheels and horse hooves behind me and looked over my shoulder to see that the wagons and horses I'd spied earlier had arrived at the gates.
Marlin, who evidently had been watching my progress and failure, sidled up next to us. He knelt down to offer the girl a flat of fruit leather, mumbling something about not paying attention to the scary lady because she didn't get out much and hadn't learned how to act around people.
I rolled my eyes, simultaneously annoyed at him for making me look stupid, and myself for not thinking of being nice to the kid.
He stood up after passing another flat to the boy then addressed the wife.
"Really," he said. "Skye is only brusque on first meeting. Once you get to know her, she's just a pain in the ass."
"Are you done?" I said.
He shrugged. "Not especially, but it's best they know exactly what to expect." He stuck his hand out toward the man. "She means well, though," he said. "You won't find a woman more ready to lay down her life for you."
I heaved a sigh and kicked his foot.
"Apparently, we're getting more company," I said.
The woman put her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "I'd say you're about to get an awful lot of company."
I stole a look at Marlin who kept his expression carefully placid, but I noted his fingers waggled along his thigh. He was tapping out some unheard rhythm and I wondered if beneath his beanie he had found a way to play that music without the ear buds.
I nudged him with my elbow and he startled, like he'd been preoccupied.
"Think you can gather the Order?" I said. "Everyone. We'll meet at the charred table before dinner. We're going to need to figure out how to handle this influx."
I addressed the couple.
"You might want to stop at the brothel," I said, watching Marlin pivot on his heel and walk backwards up the street, waggling his fingers at the kids as he went. "Middle of the day, it serves as a watering hole more than anything, and the kids look like they could use a bowl of soup."
"Is it true?" the woman asked.
"Yes," I said. "You won't see a single adult rated show this time of day. The kids' eyesight is safe."
"No," she said. "I mean about you."
Her blond hair cascaded over her shoulders as she tossed her head to use the breeze to move her hair off her face. "That you plan to rule the entire nation?"
I laughed without meaning to and she looked so insulted I bit down on my lip to stop it.
"From this little town? I'd have to be insane."
The man gathered his family together and nudged them toward the building with a large painted sign that said: No holes barred. I grimaced as I noted the way the woman eyed it.
I was about to jump back into the front of my wagon when the man turned to face me.
"One more thing," he said, pulling his hat from his head and holding it in front of his chest. He twirled it in a way that made me think of the way characters in the western stories I read might do when nervous.
"Is it happening here too? The woods, I mean."
"What's that?" I said.
He cast a glance past the town gate and beyond into the paths that ran to Old Denver, through an hour's worth of forest and fields. I hadn't been to the old library in a week or more and it unnerved me to think less than a few days had passed since my life had changed so much it was nearly unrecognizable.
"The trees," he said. "The weeds. The stones." He jerked his chin at his wife who collected the children hastily and made for the brothel. "You saw the mark on her face, my wife. You saw it right?"
I lifted my chin in anticipation of having to call out some sort of bullshit when he tried to lie over his abusive tendencies.
"I saw," I said simply. If he wanted to thread a lie through a needle, let him try.
"The woods tried to kill us," he said.
-3-
It was the last thing I expected him to say and if I hadn't just faced down my own death at the jowls of a fierce looking god-knows-what, I might have been inclined to brush it off. As it was, I tended to at least assume he'd met up with the same beast I had. Perhaps it had been nothing but a scathing wisp of smoke with teeth and claws when it attacked them and he didn't know it for what it was.
My skin prickled all the way down my back at the thought of it. I had to resist the urge to touch the girl's cheek and look for similar marks.
"Go get a bite to eat," I said, my hand scratching at my leg until it found a hole in the pants to poke into just so I wouldn't give in to the temptation to turn the girl's face to mine. "Once you've been fed and watered, someone will bring you to the Musk estate. It's where I live." I jerked my chin toward the brothel. "We'll try to figure this out together."
The father sent me a short nod then gathered his family together into a tight group as he headed toward the brothel. I watched them go with a sense of dread weighing down my shoulders. If that thing that had attacked me was capable of existing in multiple places at once, then how could I be sure anyone was safe?
How could I be sure I'd even got away from it at all?
I chewed the inside of my cheek as I scanned the street, thinking how marvelous it was that the various shops and barter stalls had managed to open up for the day and pretend everything was normal after the trauma they'd experienced over the last week. They were blissfully ignorant of the dangers that might be breathing down their necks now.
The baker's stall puffed smoke from its chimney as the wood fire no doubt blazed inside. The fragrance of baked breads and honey buffeted the street with each breeze. A stray dog tried to steal a piece of deer jerky from the butcher's stall and, obviously having no heart to hurt the thing after all was said and done, the butcher let a piece drop from his grasp as he straightened the baskets.
Even Dallas's street rats ambled about the streets without seeming to have a care for whether they were recognized. They had all helped the town by stockpiling grain and fruit and letting the more vulnerable of the population seek refuge in their caves. And yet, they acted as though it was business as usual, with them grifting and lifting from pockets.
The most remarkable thing about it was that none of them paid me more mind than that stray dog that darted in around the stalls. They let me be. Me. A mercenary who had brought the worst into their town and then wielded Excalibur to rid the town of it.
They accepted me. Someone lifted a hand in greeting now and then as the barterers went about their business, but they didn't make of me, and I appreciated that. I had worried once they elected me as their leader, that they would overrun me with problems or with resentments. That they'd look at me from slitted eyes while they dec
ided whether I was worth it.
Maybe I had proven myself to some extent, but would I decide to upturn their apple carts once more to allow dozens of strangers into their town after what they had experienced? Would they go along with it if it meant having to house and feed that many more mouths when they knew Hunter was gathering an army to squash us once and for all?
Maybe that was what I should have said to the man and his wife. Tell them that even we were living on borrowed time, despite how it looked to the casual stranger.
I kicked a pebble across the street made of old hunks of aged asphalt and it skittered toward the communal stable.
I noticed Myste ambling into town from a side street. She had taken to wearing her Shadow's hood now, and even if she didn't pull it over her head, it made a statement to those who knew what it stood for. They didn't send me nasty glances, but one or two older folk did to Myste and she glared at them in return.
Not that she cared. The commander of the Order of Shadows had a vow not to cause any strife or enter into any fight. She had a calm about her that must have come from that dedication. It was one of the reasons I asked her to remain as one of my knights when even Sadie wanted to throw her out.
Marlin approached her. She nodded quickly, then scanned the street and when she caught my eye, she clapped her hand down on Marlin's shoulder before heading off in the direction of the estate.
Marlin turned heel and gave me a salute across the street before following her. I guessed she was the last of my knights to contact. I didn't know how he managed so quickly, but Marlin was Marlin. He managed lots of incredible things.
I had just decided to follow him back to the estate myself, when the wagons that had followed me into town spilled more people onto the street. As though they knew exactly who I was, they beelined for me and crowded around, pushing and shoving and demanding attention.
I tried to keep Myste's demeanor in mind and replicate it while I answered their questions and listened to their stories, but with each person, the horror became more apparent. The stories were similar.
Queen of Skye and Shadow complete box set : Queen of Skye and Shadow Omnibus books 1-3 Page 24