The Wolf's Quarry

by K. T. Harding

  He offered her his hand. “Not now. We’re going back to the house.”

  She let him raise her from the ground. “I understand. We both need to change our clothes.”

  “We’ll do that, and we’ll go back to the Gingerbread House. I don’t think Layton will bother us again, not with all three of us together.”

  Raleigh’s head shot up. “Three?”

  He didn’t smile. “We’re going back to get Dax. He’s coming with us to the Guild of Martial Arts.”

  “When did you decide that?”

  “Just before.”

  “When?”

  He shrugged. “You were right. You always are. I’m such a stubborn clod I never want to admit it, but you’re always right. We need him. Layton hitting me like that, the wolves attacking us just now—we would have been so much better off both times, and even at the Guild of Musicology, if we had just one more person. We’ll take Dax. It can’t hurt, and he just might be some help to us.”

  Raleigh stared at him. She couldn’t believe she was hearing right. “What about all your objections? What about keeping him safe after you worked so hard to get him out of Hinterland? What about keeping him away from the Guild? You were so dead set against it, and now you flipped your lid.”

  He indulged in a small grin. “You were right all along. He’s made for combat. Do you know he reminds me of myself when I was younger? No one could stop me from going into combat. I yearned for it. My father tried the same way I tried with Dax. It didn’t work. I would have found other people to train me if he hadn’t given in and done the job himself. Dax needs a firm hand, and no one can give him that better than you and me. I only hope we get back to the house before he takes a notion to go off on his own.”

  Raleigh struggled to her feet. “All right. If that’s the way you feel, we better get going.”

  Without a cab to drive them, they faced the long trek into the night back to the house. Raleigh didn’t mind the walk, though. Her mind raced in a thousand directions, and Bishop’s hand holding hers gave her courage. He was with her. He finally gave way to the inevitable. He was taking Dax into Hinterland.

  They found the house dark and cold. Mrs. Mitchell left a note saying she went into town to visit her daughter’s family. She wouldn’t be back until late.

  Bishop crumpled the note and tossed it in the fire. “It’s just as well. She would have my head if she saw me taking Dax.” He cast a scowl around the kitchen. “Well, go get him. Let’s get this show on the road.”

  Raleigh scampered away to her room. She changed into fresh clothes before she went hunting after Dax. She didn’t find him in his room over the carriage house. She didn’t find him anywhere in the house or in the stable. That left only one possible place he could be.

  She didn’t take the lantern down the stairs to the armory. She wouldn’t need it. As she expected, she found one burning on the hook. Dax squatted in the corner. He didn’t look up from a leather roll spread out on the ground. He laid one weapon after another inside it.

  He cast a glance up at Raleigh when she came in. “I’m leaving. I’m going my own way, so don’t try to stop me. I won’t hang around here to be insulted and lied to anymore.”

  She crossed the room and touched his shoulder. “You’re not staying here anymore, Dax, because you’re coming with us. We came back here to get you. We’re going to Hinterland, and I don’t know when we’re coming back. We might never come back, and you’re coming with us.”

  He shook his head. “You won’t take me with you because Bishop won’t let you. We’ve already been through this.”

  She squatted down next to him. She cradled his face in both hands and lifted his head to peer into his eyes. “He told me to come and get you. We’ve got a lot of preparation to get ready for this fight. We’ve got to arm you, and then we’ve all got to decide how we’re going to go about it. We’re attacking an impenetrable stronghold, and we need you with us. Do you hear me, Dax? You’re coming with us. You’re not hanging around here anymore. This is it. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for.”

  Doubt flashed across his face.

  Raleigh burst out laughing. She couldn’t stop herself pulling him toward her to give him a friendly embrace. “Wrap all that up and bring it upstairs. We’ve got to get you armed, and we can’t waste any more time down here. Come on. We’re already late.”

  She didn’t trust herself to stay down there with him one more minute. She raced up the stairs two at a time. She ran all the way to Bishop’s office. Bishop looked over his shoulder at her. He wore a perfectly starched white shirt, a new frock coat, and clean boots. Not one speck of dirt marred his fingernails to show he’d just gotten into a fight against those wolves. “Is he coming?”

  She nodded in breathless excitement. He was coming. Dax would come. He waited all these years for this. He wouldn’t fail to come.

  A few long moments passed before Dax came stumbling up the stairs. He carried his bundle in his arms. Bishop frowned. “What’s all that?”

  Dax looked at Raleigh for help. “It’s my weapons.”

  Bishop snorted. “Put it down on the chair over there.”

  Dax dumped the leather roll on the chair, and a pistol and a set of handcuffs tumbled out. They banged on the floor, and Raleigh snickered.

  Dax hurried to pick them up, but Bishop waved his hand. “Just leave it alone and come here. I need a brain right now.”

  “I thought you said you wanted to go to the market to ask somebody something,” Raleigh told him.

  Bishop shrugged. “I changed my mind. With the three of us working together, we should be able to take on the Guild.”

  Raleigh glanced at Dax. So Dax made all the difference. Whatever or whoever he was, he must be unimaginably powerful to make such a difference. Would Bishop use Dax’s power, or would he continue to keep his young protégé in the dark about his true nature?

  Bishop spread a large sheet of paper on the work table. “This is a lay-out of the Guild building. This is the front entrance, and there are side entrances here, here, and here. Now, like you were saying, Raleigh, if we could create a large enough and convincing enough diversion, the Guildsmen would attack the diversion and we could get inside.”

  “Where’s the auditorium where they’re keeping the twen?” Raleigh asked.

  “The what?” Dax asked.

  Bishop rounded on him with bared teeth. “I don’t have time to explain everything to you now. You’re here to fight. Got that? You’ll just have to keep your ears open and get up to speed as best you can. Maybe on the next job you’ll understand everything from the beginning. For now, just listen and don’t interrupt.”

  Dax shot Raleigh the brightest smile she ever saw. The next job! He was going on the next job, too! He was in. He was part of the team.

  Bishop pointed to the drawing in front of him. “The auditorium is here, on the main floor.”

  “Good,” Raleigh replied. “Then it shouldn’t take too much for us to dash in, grab the twen, and get out while the Guildsmen are still busy sorting out the diversion.”

  “What’s the diversion we’re going to use?” Dax asked.

  Bishop folded the drawing. “I don’t have the first clue. Who’s got a plan?”

  He looked back and forth between Raleigh and Dax. Raleigh looked back and forth between Bishop and Dax. Dax looked back and forth between Raleigh and Bishop. No one said a word, and no one came up with any brilliant plan for a diversion.

  Bishop smacked his lips. “Well, this is just great. Some slayers you two turned out to be. We need a diversion. We need something massive to set the whole Guild attacking something that’s not there. Where are your brains?”

  “Maybe we should just go,” Raleigh suggested. “Maybe something will present itself on the way, and we don’t have time to stand around here staring at each other while we figure it out.”

  Bishop’s shoulders slumped. “All right. If that’
s the way you feel, we can go.”

  “We’ll need to arm Dax,” Raleigh reminded him.

  Bishop lovingly smirked at Raleigh. “Don’t you think I know that?” He glared at Dax. “I’m going to show you something you don’t know about. I’ve kept this hidden from you, boy, and I did it for your own good. Don’t make me regret this decision. Do you understand?”

  Dax stood up straight. He never backed down from Bishop again. “Yes, Sir.”

  Bishop turned on his heel and stomped off to his bedroom. Dax cast a questioning glance at Raleigh, but she only nodded and smiled. She and Dax followed Bishop where he stood in front of the fireplace.

  He waited until Dax got into the room before he took down the picture that hid the combination lock to his hidden wall cache. Dax’s jaw hit the floor when the wall swung back to reveal the magical weapons Bishop got from Pernrith.

  Bishop thrust weapons of all kinds into his hands. “There isn’t time to program grenades for you. You’ll just have to make do with these until the next job. Here, hold this.”

  Bishop took a long pipe off the rack and stood it on end next to Dax. He took down four pipes in all.

  “What are they?” Raleigh asked.

  “They’re rocket launchers. We’ll use them to blast a hole in the building, just as soon as we figure out what the diversion will be.”

  “How will you carry all this stuff on the zeppelin?”

  “You’ll see.”

  He took piles and piles of weapons off the shelves. He packed Raleigh’s and Dax’s pockets with every contraption under the sun. Then he stacked them on his bed. When he took out more weapons than the three of them could possibly carry, he arranged them all in a mountain on the floor, along with the rocket launchers. “Now stand back and watch.”

  He took a tiny square device off the shelf and pointed it at the mountain. He pressed a button, and the whole enormous pile zipped into a solid black square the size of a loaf of bread. He picked it up and handed it to Dax. “You can carry this, but you’ll have to get dressed. You can’t go to Hinterland looking like shoe-shine boy.”

  Dax flinched. “I don’t have any other clothes.”

  Bishop went to his closet and buried his head inside. He came out with a suit on a hanger. He thrust it at Dax. “Put this on. It’s always been too big for me, and I never had a chance to get it adjusted. When you finish putting it on, go get two gun belts from the armory. You can wear them cross-drawn like Raleigh’s. Then you’ll be ready to go.”

  Dax hurried out of the room. A moment later, the kitchen door slammed. Raleigh studied Bishop’s brooding face. “He’s ready for this. He won’t disappoint you.”

  “It’s not him I’m worried about. It’s us. If anything happens down there, he could turn into….” He didn’t finish.

  “He could turn into what?”

  Bishop turned away. “I don’t know what he could turn into. He could turn into a danger to us. That’s all I’m saying.”

  “If that’s true, maybe he’ll be an asset in this assault.”

  Bishop lowered his voice to a murmur. “He might wind up being the diversion we need.”

  Raleigh’s mouth fell open. Was Bishop saying what she thought he was saying? Did he plan to unleash Dax’s hidden nature on the Guild of Martial Arts? Is that why he agreed to bring Dax along in the first place?

  He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t stoop to such a low tactic as that. Would he? She couldn’t think about that. She hurried to her own room to strap on her armor and ready her own weapons. When she came out, she met Dax coming into the kitchen from outside.

  She never would have recognized him. He wet his hair and slicked it back from his forehead. The suit Bishop gave him fitted his broad shoulders, and the pants made his legs look longer than usual. They brushed his boot tops, and the waistband set off his narrow hips. A clean shirt buttoned up to his neck.

  Two gun belts draped around his hips, and the pistols stuck out under his coat. Except for his lighter hair and eyes, he could have been a younger copy of Bishop. His eyes flashed around the room, and his whole body tensed with muscle under his clothes. He prepared himself to spring at the slightest provocation.

  Before she could say anything about how good he looked, Bishop came downstairs in his frock coat and hat. He didn’t appear to notice the change in Dax. “Are you both ready?”

  Raleigh adjusted her bow across her back. She shifted her breastplate so it fitted snug around her shoulders. “We’re ready.”

  Bishop faced Dax and held out a cube. “Take this. You fire it by pressing these buttons.”

  Dax took it out of his hand. “I know.”

  Bishop’s eyes flashed fire. “How do you know?”

  “Raleigh showed me. She showed me the disc, too.”

  Bishop’s face contorted, but he spun away. “All right. Let’s go.”

  Dax and Raleigh hurried after him. “Where are we going?”

  He shot back over his shoulder. “We’re going back to the Gingerbread House. It’s the fastest route to Pernrith.”

  “But it’s the middle of the night,” Raleigh argued.

  Bishop didn’t stop walking. “Then we won’t have to worry about anybody jumping us or trying to stop us.”

  Chapter 24

  Bishop strode out of the kitchen, but no carriage waited for them in the driveway. Bishop headed down the long hill toward the road. Raleigh and Dax exchanged glances, but neither voiced the questions nagging their minds. No carriage? The Gingerbread House? Did Bishop intend to walk there in the dark?

  That’s exactly what he did. He strode down the darkened streets. Nothing but the streetlights saw them pass until they came to the saloon. Bishop peered through the front window into the dark.

  “How are we going to get in?” Raleigh asked.

  Bishop stepped off the sidewalk. He groped under the wooden planks and came up with a skeleton key. “The previous owner was a friend of mine. He gave me this and told me I could come and go as I pleased. I hid the key here in case I ever needed to get inside when he wasn’t around. He died suddenly, and the place changed hands. No one ever found out I still had a key.”

  “Don’t they notice someone breaking in all the time?”

  He slotted the key into the keyhole in the door. “This is the first time I’ve used it, and we’ll hide the key and lock up so no one finds out.”

  Dax and Raleigh stood back while he unlocked the door and held it open for them. They slipped into the deserted saloon and waited while Bishop hid the key under the sidewalk and locked the door once more from the inside.

  When he secured everything and erased all evidence of his presence, he led the way to the back door. Now Raleigh led Dax down those mysterious stairs in the air. To her surprise, she found the field still flooded with light. In that part of Hinterland, the sun still stood at the zenith. Maybe it never went down, and that part of Hinterland always stayed bright as day. She would never know.

  Dax stared at everything with his eyes bugging out of his head. Raleigh and Bishop had to drag him by both arms toward the zeppelin and hold him fast while the machine took off into the air. Once airborne, he pressed his nose against the glass the same way the young boy did. He stared at every flash of color with his eyes fixed and glassy. He couldn’t take the scene in fast enough.

  At this hour, they had the zeppelin to themselves. As soon as it landed among Pernrith’s alabaster towers, Bishop conducted them back to the same tavern, where he rented two rooms upstairs.

  He showed Dax and Raleigh into the larger room overlooking a different square than the one where the zeppelin landed. He pulled up a chair by the window and sat down at the table. “Do you see that building over there?” He pointed to an imposing edifice dominating the square. “That’s the Guild of Martial Arts. That’s the building we have to get inside, and you two are going to come up with a plan to get us inside. Any ideas?”

  Dax and
Raleigh looked at each other. “We’ve got the rocket launchers,” Raleigh remarked. “All we really need is the dozens of fighters to rush in and occupy the Guildsmen while we steal the twen.”

  “We haven’t got dozens of fighters,” Bishop returned. “We’ve got enough weapons for three people, and even that doesn’t hold a candle to what the Guild has inside.”

  “What about Pringle? Would he have anything we could use?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like the projector you were talking about—something that would give the appearance of dozens of fighters rushing in.”

  Bishop shook his head. “Forget about projecting. These are highly trained warriors. They won’t be fooled by any projection. Whatever goes in there has to be the real thing. It has to threaten them in a serious way or they’ll see right through it.”

  Raleigh shrank in on herself. She couldn’t think of anything. She’d come up with countless devious stratagems in her time. Why couldn’t she think of one now? Okay, so she’d come up with devious stratagems to defeat laenteglos and ula’ree and kataracts—never the best fighters in all Hinterland. No one could defeat them.

  Bishop turned. “What about you, Dax?”

  Dax gulped. “Me?”

  “Yes, you. You’re on this mission. What do you have to say for yourself? Any brilliant ideas on how to break into the Guild of Martial Arts?” Bishop chuckled to himself at the end of these rhetorical questions. He didn’t really expect a greenhorn like Dax to come out with any brilliant ideas. Dax was a third wheel.

  Dax didn’t notice the chuckle. “What about some creature around here?”

  Bishop’s head whipped around from the window. “What?”

  Dax waved his hand over the streets. “This place is crawling with creatures, most of them a lot bigger than us and ten times more dangerous. Why can’t you incite them to attack the Guild? All you’d have to do is make a hole in the building and somehow herd them into it. They would keep the Guildsmen busy for hours. They’d be far too busy to notice us walking in and taking…whatever it is.”

  Bishop stared up at him. His face hung limp and unresponsive off his bones. All at once, he jumped out of his chair, snatched his hat off the table, and strode out of the room. Dax glanced at Raleigh. “What did I say?”