by Becca Andre
“He’s…happier.”
Briar took her attention from the mules to give her a frown. “Why do I get the impression you’re angry about that?”
“Because it’s an artificial happiness.”
“And I’m guessing I’m to blame.”
“What other explanation is there?”
“Do you hear yourself?” Briar demanded.
From the boat, Eli shouted, “Headway!”
Briar reined in the mules. “Pull in the towline,” she said to Kali.
The other woman huffed, but did as told.
Briar continued their conversation as they worked. “From the moment you met me, you’ve given me grief. Maybe it was the ferra thing at first, but hell, you’d never even met a ferra. And now you’re mad at me because Perseus is happier? I’m starting to think that there’s nothing I can do that will please you.”
Kali crossed her arms. “Why would I want you to?”
“We have a lot in common. I feel we should be friends, but I can’t seem to get past this irrational hatred you have of me.”
“So it’s all my fault.”
“Um, yes?”
Kali dropped the towline at Briar’s feet. “I think you can take it from here.” She turned to go.
“Wait.” Briar left the mules to graze along the edge of the towpath. To her surprise, Kali stopped and waited on her in the shade of a large maple tree. “Would you please tell me what’s wrong? Where does all this animosity come from?”
“I’ve always been angry. Ask anyone.”
“I’m asking you.”
Kali huffed, but didn’t answer her, gazing off into the trees that bordered the towpath ahead of them. A little farther down the towpath, the Monroe Basin sparkled in the fading sunlight. If it was later, the basin would have made a good place to stop for the night.
Briar took a breath, ready to prompt her again when Kali tensed, her demeanor suddenly alert.
“What is it?” Briar asked, instinctively lowering her voice.
“I see a boat.”
Briar followed her gaze and glimpsed a boat hull through the trees between them and the basin. “It’s probably someone tying up for the night.”
“Are you saying that to convince me or you?” Kali asked.
Briar eyed the boat, trying to make it out through the trees. Like Kali, something about it set off her internal alarm. Perhaps because it was a good place from which to ambush them.
“Shall we check it out?” she asked Kali.
For the first time since she returned, Kali smiled. “I think we should. If we ignore it and continue on, we’ll be passing right in front of it, correct?”
“That’s right.”
Kali nodded and started for the trees. “Then let’s do it.”
Briar glanced at her boat, but she could no longer see it behind the gates of the lock. She hesitated for just a moment, then hurried after Kali. Leaving the cleared area around the towpath, they walked into the trees, moving quietly through the leaf litter.
They were almost to the basin when the trees thinned enough for Briar to get her first good look at the boat in question. It was the River Shark.
Briar caught Kali’s arm and pulled her to a stop behind a large buckeye tree. “It’s him.”
“I saw,” Kali whispered, leaning against the tree beside her. “What do you want to do?”
Briar wanted to point out that Kali had just deferred to her, but now was not the time. Briar peeked out from behind the tree. There was no one on deck—except the mule team munching hay in the cargo hold. Why would Darby be wasting his hay when there was grass nearby? Unless he needed to be able to move fast. Perhaps to attack a certain canal boat that would be crossing in front of him shortly. But would he really attack now that he knew that Grayson was a ferromancer? Maybe he had something else in mind.
“I don’t think there’s anyone on board,” Kali whispered, interrupting her thoughts. “It’s too hot to be relaxing in a cabin.”
Briar eyed the smoke rising from the stovepipe in the aft cabin. “I suspect his daughter-in-law is on board preparing dinner, but I think you’re right otherwise. I bet they’ve moved closer to the canal to watch for us.”
Kali glanced in that direction, a speculative look on her features before turning to Briar. “It seems we’ve been given an opportunity.” Excitement kindled in her dark eyes.
“Indeed.” Briar couldn’t subvert her smile as she eyed Darby’s boat. “Can you sense soul iron?”
“I need to get closer.”
“How close do you need to be to dissolve his soul iron propeller?”
“I have to touch it.”
Briar bounced on the balls of her feet. If they were going to do this, it was now or never. “All right. Come on.”
Kali flashed her a wide grin. “Right behind you.”
Taking a deep breath, Briar led Kali from the cover of the trees and ran to the water’s edge at the stern of the boat. Glancing in the direction of the towpath, she didn’t see anyone, but Darby could be within the trees and out of her line of sight. That didn’t mean that she and Kali couldn’t be spotted.
Carefully, Briar climbed down the bank and lowered herself into the waist-deep water. It didn’t take a lot of water to float a canal boat, especially an empty one. Wading around the stern of the boat, she gripped the top of the rudder and stopped to wait for Kali.
“I feel it,” Kali whispered as she stopped beside her.
Curious, Briar reached below the water, her fingers following the smooth wood of the rudder. Sinking deeper into the water, she feared she might have to go under when her hand bumped against what felt like fan blades. The propeller.
Briar jerked her fingers away, fearful of it turning on. “It is here,” she whispered, rising to her feet.
“You doubted me?” A hint of Kali’s frown returned.
“Not at all. It’s just that touching it made it more real to me.” She shrugged. “It’s bigger than I expected.”
“That doesn’t matter.” Kali sunk deeper in the water as she followed the rudder downward.
“Do it quickly,” Briar advised. “It concerns me that someone could turn it on.”
“You’re worried for me?”
“Of course. I don’t dislike you, Kali. I never have.”
Kali’s dark gaze held hers. “Uh-huh.”
“Oh sure, you piss me off. Frequently,” Briar whispered. “But if I’m honest, I…admire you.”
“Don’t bullshit me.”
“I’m serious. You go toe-to-toe with ferromancers. Farran didn’t scare you at all, whereas I nearly peed myself.”
The corner of Kali’s mouth quirked, but her expression turned serious as she continued. “You didn’t let it show.” She rose to her feet. “Much.”
Briar made a face at the quip, then nodded toward the rudder. “Can you dissolve it?”
“I already did.”
“Really?” Briar looked down, but couldn’t see anything through the murky water. Though she noticed a steady stream of bubbles on the water’s surface around the rudder. “Where are the bubbles coming from?”
“The controlling mechanism was fed through the side of the hull. I dissolved it, too.”
Briar smiled. “So Darby has not only lost his propeller, he now has a hole in his boat.”
“A small one,” Kali clarified, though she still looked pleased.
“You’d be surprised how even small holes can be a real hindrance,” she whispered. But this hole might not prevent Darby from following them—the traditional way. An idea forming, Briar brushed her hand across the front of her waistcoat.
Lock?
A stir of movement, and he emerged from her pocket and climbed up to her shoulder. He leaned out to look up at her with a soft questioning whirr.
She imagined the small hole in the boat and her wish for it to be a larger one. Can you do something?
Lock answered by leaping to the top of the rudder. Then he scampered down the wooden surface and disappeared beneath the water.
“What are you doing?” Kali whispered, her look suspicious. Perhaps she thought that Briar doubted that the propeller was dissolved.
“Making the hole larger.” She winked.
Kali grinned in approval.
Briar returned her attention to the area around the rudder. Were the bubbles more pronounced? Would Darby’s daughter-in-law notice? And where was Lock?
Briar shifted her weight from foot to foot, glancing around as she waited. She had no way to truly judge the time, but it seemed to be taking much too long. Oddly, it wasn’t the fear of discovery that made her nervous. It was the length of time Lock was underwater. She knew he was a mechanical construct with no need to breathe, but that didn’t stop the anxiety running through her.
Suddenly, a violent torrent of bubbles rose up from the back of the boat, churning the surface of the water. Briar was about to call Lock back when he poked his little head out of the water. He climbed up the rudder, pausing while still half submerged to shake the water from his silver wings, then he sprang to her shoulder.
“Nice work,” she whispered.
He puffed out his chest and shared a burst of triumph.
She bit her lip to keep from laughing.
The sound of what might have been a door banging open echoed across the water.
“Crap,” Kali whispered at the same moment a female voice shouted for Darby.
A surge of alarm was followed by a tingle of static as Lock became the necklace.
“Let’s go,” Briar said, though the command was unnecessary as Kali was already scrambling up the bank.
Heart hammering, she followed her, slipping several times on the muddy slope as she struggled to get her footing. Kali reached back and caught her arm, helping her regain her balance. With her help, Briar was finally able to climb up on the bank and regain her feet.
Kali released her arm as they turned toward the trees—and came face to face with Dale Darby.
Chapter 15
Two more men jogged up behind Darby, one was his willowy son and the other a large crewman Briar didn’t know, but she didn’t bother to study them. Her attention was on the revolver Darby trained on her and Kali.
“What’s she doing here, Da?” Darby Junior prompted.
Darby’s eyes narrowed as he looked Briar over. “So you’ve got a ferromancer, too. Is that what this is all about?”
“I have no idea what you’re referring to,” Briar said.
“Don’t be coy.”
“Dale, the boat’s sinking,” his daughter-in-law shouted from the boat.
Darby cast her a frown before glancing at his son. “Go see what she’s fussing about.”
Looking a bit annoyed to be called away for such a mundane reason, the son hurried off to do his father’s bidding.
“Sabotaging my boat again, Briar Rose?”
“Just paying you back, you son of a—”
Kali sprang forward at that moment, surprising Briar and Darby both. He tried to turn the gun on her, but Kali caught his wrist and shoved the gun aside. Continuing forward, she jabbed her fingers into his prominent Adam’s apple and he doubled over, gagging.
Darby’s crewman joined the fray, coming to his captain’s defense. Kali was unable to finish with Darby as she was forced to duck a punch from his beefy crewman.
Briar had an instant to wonder if Darby had hired the bigger man as an opponent for Eli, before Kali was forced to jump back to avoid a second punch. Unfortunately, the distraction gave Darby a chance to recover enough to straighten and lift the gun.
“Kali!” Briar lunged for Darby, but her shout didn’t distract him as she’d hoped. Intent on his target, he leveled the gun on Kali—not seeming to mind that his crewman was in the line of fire.
Lock! Briar pictured the last time they’d fought armed assailants and how he’d protected her.
Static tingled around her throat as the necklace changed form, but Briar had already committed herself to the action, and threw herself between Darby and Kali.
“Stop!” Briar lifted her hands as she faced Darby.
Darby’s eyes widened as he stared at her and in her peripheral vision, she could see what looked like liquid metal rolling down her arms and body, morphing into shiny silver armor as it went.
“What the—” Darby didn’t get to finish the expletive as Briar rushed him, throwing a powerful punch to the face. The blow connected, laying Darby out in the grass.
Briar turned to Kali to find the woman staring at her with wide eyes. Briar had forgotten that Kali had never seen this particular trick of Lock’s. Unfortunately, Darby’s big crewman wasn’t as impressed. He caught Kali by the arm and jerked her back against him.
Kali threw an elbow, landing a solid blow to his ribs.
He grunted, then captured that arm as well. “Stay where you are.” His eyes locked with Briar’s. “Or I’ll break her in two.”
“Lock?” Briar prompted.
The armor rolled off her and an instant later, the little metal dragon was perched on her shoulder. He gave her a questioning whirr.
“What the hell is that?” the man demanded.
I need a distraction, she thought at the little dragon.
Kali’s dark eyes met hers, seeming to understand.
“Remove his eyes,” Briar commanded and Lock leapt into the air with a metallic screech.
“No!” The man lifted his hands to ward off Lock, releasing Kali and stumbling back.
Briar expected her to put space between them, but instead, Kali spun to face him, but she didn’t throw a punch. She kicked him. The powerful blow took him in the stomach, bending him double with a pained grunt. With his head now in striking distance, she followed up with an elbow to the ear, knocking him to his knees.
Briar snatched up Darby’s dropped gun and aimed it at the man. “That’s enough.”
“Are you talking to me or him?” Kali asked.
“Him, but it’s not very sporting to continue to beat on a downed opponent,” Briar answered.
Lock returned to her shoulder and gave her a questioning whirr.
“Yes, that goes for you, too,” Briar told him.
“What are you?” the big man glanced between them from his knees.
“Scourge,” Kali answered.
The man’s eyes widened and Briar decided not to correct Kali.
“Da?” Darby Junior had started across the gangplank, but pulled up short when Briar turned the gun on him.
“When your dear ole Da wakes, you’re going to tell him to cease and desist,” Briar said.
Darby Junior frowned, not looking particularly enlightened.
“Stop and go away,” Kali clarified.
“As for you,” Briar turned to Darby’s crewman. “I’d advise you seek employment elsewhere. You don’t want any part of this.”
Lock screeched from her shoulder and the guy actually flinched.
Kali’s dark eyes danced with amusement and it was all Briar could do not to laugh.
“But if you need further encouragement,” a familiar accented voice said, “I’d be glad to provide it.”
Briar pulled in a breath and looked back to watch Grayson walk over to join them, Perseus a step behind him.
Grayson stopped beside her and without comment, closed his hand over the gun. The metal grew warm, but not as hot as she would have expected. Instead, it tingled, tickling her palm as large clumps of liquid metal fell from her fingers to land in the trampled grass.
Darby’s big crewman stared at the display for a moment, then he scrambled to his feet and ran
off into the trees.
Kali crossed her arms. “Was that really necessary?” she asked Grayson. “Briar and I had matters in hand.”
Grayson didn’t answer. His attention had shifted to Darby who still lay in the grass at their feet. His gaze lifted to Darby Junior who had retreated to the boat, his wife standing behind him, frowning at them.
“I think we’re done here.” Briar stepped around in front of Grayson and laid a hand on his chest. “They won’t be going anywhere. Kali dissolved their propeller and Lock put a hole in their boat.”
Lock straightened on her shoulder and gave Grayson a proud whirr of confirmation.
Grayson’s cool demeanor finally cracked and a smile curled his lips. “I believe your mistress is a bad influence,” he told the little dragon.
Lock answered with an indignant screech of metal on metal.
Shaking her head, Briar turned away from Darby’s boat and gestured for the others to follow her. “You can argue about it later,” she told Grayson and Lock. “I have an appointment to keep.”
Grayson gave Darby Junior a parting glare, but to Briar’s relief, he followed her into the trees, along with Kali and Perseus.
“Seriously, we had the matter in hand,” Kali said to Perseus. “You didn’t need to come rescue us.”
“It wasn’t so much a rescue,” Grayson answered for him. “We became concerned when our mule drivers wandered off.”
“It was just Darby,” Briar said. Although, once he pulled that revolver things had gotten a little more complicated than she would have liked. But she didn’t want to admit that to Grayson and Perseus.
“Darby wasn’t our concern,” Perseus said.
Kali stopped and faced him, crossing her arms. “I made a promise, Perce.”
“It was my doing,” Grayson spoke up. “I noticed you two were gone and suggested we go look for you.”
Kali turned her frown on him. “Are you covering for him, ferromancer?”
“Not at all,” Grayson answered easily. “You weren’t where you should be and Eli had that look in his eye like he wanted to thump on me, so I thought it in my best interest if I came to collect you.”
Kali’s eyes met Briar’s and she lifted her brows.
“Yes, he’s a terrible liar,” Briar agreed. “But I suppose we should just accept that they cared enough to come looking and leave it at that.” Briar started walking. “Though you’d think by now they would accept that we can take care of ourselves.”