While hers… she had to look to the future.
No Name Ranch. Home, once she got past the awful memory of the fireballs and rampaging insects. If she could survive the loss of Liam and the memories they’d made their together, she could make herself forget about this too.
She could force herself to forget about Alrick.
The idea was a physical ache in her heart. She’d known so much loss in such a short period of time…
Enough. No more self-pity.
“Are you all right?” Alrick’s deep voice broke into her thoughts.
She blinked, focusing on him. “Fine.”
“What about you?” He raised a brow.
“Me?”
“What will you do once this is over?”
Since his question so closely mirrored her own thoughts, she had a ready answer. “Run No Name Ranch. At least I have this future child to look forward to. My son, Lance. And of course, the man who will be his father.”
A brief cloud passed over Alrick’s face, gone so swiftly she might have imagined it. “Yes, there is that. Once I am named heir, I will need to find my own wife and get busy supplying the kingdom with children.”
The thought made her positively gloomy. She struggled to hide it, injecting a forced brightness into her tone. “Heirs of your own, huh?”
“Yes. Heirs of my own.” He didn’t sound overjoyed either.
They were a pair.
He sat beside her and drew circles in the dust. She watched him from the corner of her eyes and memorized his face. Finally, he glanced at her and caught her looking. She didn’t turn away.
“Don’t,” he said. That one word was enough. They both knew what he meant.
Focusing her attention elsewhere, she found herself searching for a glimpse of the black and white blur that was her dog. “I miss Kayo.” She had to swallow past the lump in her throat. “I don’t understand why that boy took him.”
“Maybe he’ll show up again, bring him back.”
“Do you think so?” She could only hope. “I guess that depends on whether the boy is good or bad.”
“True. Since we didn’t get to hear whatever the Mage was going to say about him, I guess we won’t know until we see him again. Though he didn’t seem evil to me.”
“Me either. He was so worried about the girl.”
“That entire incident puzzles me.” Jaw set in grim lines, he shook his head. “I don’t understand why he asked us for help, then disappeared before we could do anything.”
“And why he took my dog. What would he want with Kayo?”
Since neither had an answer, they fell silent again, continuing their sleepless vigil, waiting for dawn and whatever fresh threats the new day might bring.
Chapter Fourteen
A SHRILL screech woke her. Carly bolted up, heart pounding, stumbling for a weapon she could use against the threat.
“Easy.” Alrick sounded amused. “Look. The Mage’s hawk has decided to pay us a visit.”
She glared at him through bleary eyes. How anyone could look so alert and sound so damn lively after only a few hours of uncomfortable sleep, she had no idea. But he was right. Tinth, perched on a stout branch of a nearby pecan tree, opened her mouth and screeched again.
Carly rubbed her eyes. “Does she have to make so much noise? My head’s pounding so badly, if I didn’t know better I’d think I had a hangover.”
“Lack of sleep,” he said cheerfully.
She winced as the hawk cried out again. “You don’t seem to have suffered much.”
He shrugged. “I’m used to going without sleep. And the Fae don’t seem to need as much as you humans.” With these last words, he grinned.
Instead of swatting him, Carly yawned and looked at the bird. “No more screeching.” Tinth lifted a talon as if she understood, and unfolded her wings. Her wingspan was nearly as wide as Carly was tall.
Because she’d never seen a hawk up close and personal, she moved closer. “Do you think she bites?”
“She could, if she wanted to. Hawks are carnivores. The Mage wears his glove and carries her around on his arm, without her hood, and she seems content. When she hunts, she’s fierce. And fast. She eats small rodents and snakes.”
Again Tinth lifted her talon. Long, curved, and sharp, she seemed to be showing how she killed her prey. Her rust colored feathers were interspersed with white, black and gold.
“Pretty girl,” Carly crooned. She kept her movements slow and unhurried, not wanting to startle the giant bird. “I read somewhere their eyesight was eight times more powerful than humans.”
“It must be, to be able to see mice so far below on the ground.”
Shifting her weight from side to side, Tinth screeched again.
Alrick frowned. “I wonder what she’s trying to tell us. Usually red-tailed hawks only call out when soaring or defending their nest.”
“Defending their…” Carly looked over her shoulder. “I wonder if she’s trying to warn us.”
Standing, he turned a slow circle, scanning the perimeter. “Damn Warlord. His attacks have been getting closer and closer together.”
“Great.” Out of reflex, she scratched at her arms. “I wonder what kind of bug or reptile he’s going to use next.”
“Look.” Alrick pointed skyward. “I don’t think the next menace will be insects.” To the north the morning sky looked black. To the east, the sunrise was obliterated by flocks of birds. Black birds, crows, and mockingbirds flew towards them from all directions, settling in every treetop. Their screeches and chirps and cries filled the air, becoming a deafening roar as their numbers continued to multiply.
“Oh God, he’s been watching Alfred Hitchcock!” Carly groaned. “If those things attack all at once, we’re goners.”
From her perch, Tinth watched the sky, lifting first one talon and then the other.
“Normally, other birds fear her. But she’s only one hawk against so many. She won’t be able to help us much.” Moving fast, Alrick began to gather sticks. “Help me. We have a minute before they get here. We’ll build a fire. We can use flaming torches to try and keep them away.”
She scrambled to assist, all the while keeping an eye on the fearful, darkening sky.
Together, they dumped their bounty into a pile.
“Enough?”
Alrick nodded. Producing a flint from inside his pack, he produced a spark. The wood didn’t catch.
The cacophony of birds grew louder.
“Hurry.”
He tried again. Another spark. This time the dry sticks caught immediately. A small fire flared and began to burn. Feeding it twigs, Alrick quickly had a healthy blaze going. He’d kept out a few larger branches for them to use as torches.
The flock drew closer.
“Here, take this, just in case.” He handed her one. “I want you underneath me. In case some of them make it past my torch, my body will shield you.”
The flock was only seconds away.
Still perched on the branch, Tinth lifted herself to her full height and once again unfolded her wings.
The sky above them was full of birds. Wheeling, diving, circling. None approached. Yet.
“I can’t let you do that.” She hefted her stick. “Side by side, dude. We fight them together or we go down together. None of this `shelter the poor girl’ stuff.”
Alrick stared. “You refuse my protection?”
Oh geez, wounded male ego. More birds, circling, cawing. “We don’t have time for this.”
Tinth screeched and launched herself into the air.
Above them, birds swirled. The hawk dived at as many as she could, scattering them briefly, but despite her size and ferocious nature, she simply was outnumbered.
Stabbing his stick into the fire, Alrick drew his sword. When he had the torch blazing, he handed it to her, and repeated the process with the other. Raising his sword in one hand, he looked hard at her. “Get ready then.”
Her own torch gripped ti
ghtly, she raised it and nodded. “I am.”
A flock of crows burst loose from a throng. Moving in a swirling, black cloud, they dipped as one and attacked.
Teeth bared in a grimace, Alrick leapt to greet them. He swung his sword in a shining arc, torch blazing.
Carly braced her feet apart, mimicking him. The birds surrounded her. She waved her torch, the stick connecting with one, the fire with another. The smoke blinded her for an instant and she concentrated on keeping the space around her clear. She wished she had her Winchester. One shot and she’d bet the damn birds would scatter and go away.
As if her thoughts were a gunshot, the crows parted, retreating. The swirling throng of birds broke up, flying fast, flying away, their cries fading in the distance.
The quiet was so sudden, so absolute, it felt like a blow. Disoriented, Carly turned once more, still holding her blazing stick out.
All at once, the birds had gone. Except Tinth, who continued to circle in the clear, blue sky. Her screech from high above them was a welcome sound.
“What the…?” Slowly, Alrick lowered his sword. “What scared them off?”
Keeping her flaming torch raised just in case, Carly searched the tree tops. “I don’t know.” They looked at each other. They both noticed the ominous, gathering clouds at the same time.
“The weather.”
“Crap.”
Now what? So far they’d had a tornado, a flash flood, and a couple of fires. What else could a vengeful nature throw at them?
The sky turned green. It seemed they were about to find out.
“Let’s go.” Alrick tossed his torch to the ground and stamped out the flames. Grabbing hers, he did the same before scooping great handfuls of dirt to toss on the fire. That out, they ran to the horses. Carly threw herself up on Merry, unassisted. Urging her into a lope, then a gallop, they thundered away from whatever repercussions the magic might have caused.
They rode hard, they rode fast. They kept going until the horses were lathered and even then they only slowed to a jog. Though clouds continued to gather and the odd green cast of the sky deepened, nothing happened.
“Do you think we escaped it?” Out of breath herself, Carly let Merry walk. Alrick did the same with TM.
“I don’t know.”
“It’s been awhile.” She couldn’t help glancing over her shoulder. “Have you ever timed these things to see how long the interval is between magic and weather?”
He looked at her like she was crazy. “No. But we’ve ridden far from where we were. I’m hoping the weather will be confined to that area.”
“Though I don’t like the clouds, I don’t hear anything. So far, we always hear it first.” She listened again. “No rumbles, no roars, nothing. Maybe we did escape it.”
A chunk of ice fell from the sky.
Then another.
Hail stones.
They were the size of quarters.
“No such luck,” Carly said. “We’d better find shelter.”
“It’s just hail.” He caught a piece and turned it around in his hand. “The horses aren’t worried.”
“Just hail.” She shook her head, brushing away another small ball of ice. “Right now this might seem harmless, but the way our luck’s been running, they’ll get bigger. Around here when we get a hail storm, I’ve seen some serious damage. They can be dangerous.”
Hail pelted the ground. The horses grew skittish. Carly had to fight to keep Merry from bolting. Alrick had similar trouble with TM.
“Dangerous—.” He shut up when an ice ball the size of an orange took out a tree limb. “I see.”
“They can get even bigger than that. I’ve seen them the size of grapefruits.” She looked around, praying they were near some caves or something. Nada. “Damn it, there’s nowhere to hide.”
TM reared as a hailstone struck him. The ground was covered in white.The sound of falling hail grew to a roar. They stung as they pelted her and Merry.
“We have the forest,” Alrick shouted, TM dancing, the whites of his eyes showing. “Over there. Come on.”
The forest. As they rode pell-mell towards it, Carly shouted at him. “What about falling tree limbs?”
“If I have to choose between getting hit with a block of ice or dodging a tree branch, I’ll take the wood anytime,” he yelled back.
He was right. Carly had seen the kind of damage large hail could cause. Not only was it capable of taking out windows and roofs, she’d seen hail stones go through metal car doors.
They’d reached the line of trees. Quickly she urged Merry into the woods, Alrick and TM close behind. As they crashed through the undergrowth, she waited for her eyes to adjust to the shadowy dimness – with the clouds blocking out the sun, the added darkness provided by the trees made riding into the forest like riding from day to night.
“Keep going north.” Alrick pointed.
“But the storm came from the north. We’ll be going towards it, not away.”
“Through it,” he corrected. “Otherwise, it’ll simply follow us. Maybe we can escape that way.”
As they plunged deeper into the thicket, the sound of the hail thrashing the trees faded.
“Sounds like we’re outrunning it.” Alrick brought TM to a halt. Beside him, Carly did the same with Merry.
Under the canopy of leaves, the center of this forest felt isolated, remote. “This feels like we’re in another part of the state,” Carly said. “I didn’t know the hill country even had places like this. These trees feel more like east Texas, or at least east of here, like Conroe or Cut-N-Shoot.”
“Cut-N-Shoot?”
“A town near Conroe. Liam had family there.”
He nodded. “To me, this forest feels a lot like Rune. Like home. Let’s keep going.” He urged TM forward.
As they moved on, the light grew brighter. Above them, Carly could see blue through the twisted branches and undamaged green leaves. The underbrush thinned, and ahead she saw what looked like a sunlit pasture.
When they emerged from the thicket into the field, a scattered herd of grazing cattle dotted the brown, grassy, landscape.
“We’re on someone’s ranch.” Shading her eyes from the now bright sun, Carly looked for the ranch house. She saw nothing but rolling hills and cows. Trees to the south of them, ranch land to the north.
“I don’t like this.” Alrick frowned. “We’ll be too exposed. This is too open.”
“We can’t continue north.” Carly pointed to the hills. “There’s sure to be a ranch somewhere that way. Most people don’t take too kindly to trespassers.”
“Have you noticed everything has come from the north? Someone or something, doesn’t want us to go that way. I say we press on.”
She stared. “Are you saying you think the Warlord’s been controlling the weather too? Can he do that?”
“I don’t know. But I have noticed a definite pattern.”
“What’s north? What difference does it make what direction we travel?”
He shrugged. “Maybe your future husband lives that way.”
Future husband. Shaking her head, she studied the hills north of them. “Then by all mean, let’s keep heading north.” Without waiting for a reply, she and Merry moved forward.
They rode on in silence for a few moments, the only sound the quiet clip-clop of the horses’ hooves.
The sun blazed directly above them in the summer blue sky. Waves of heat shimmered off the land, heat that seemed magnified after the quiet cool of the forest.
“I’d like to get back where there are more trees.” Alrick broke the silence. “We’re way too exposed here.”
She nodded. “This would make the Warlord’s task of finding us much easier, though where we are doesn’t seem to matter. He just shows up irregardless.”
“We’ve covered a lot of ground since the bird attack and hail storm.”
“Far enough?”
He shrugged. “We can only hope.”
They found a l
eaning, three-sided shelter and they stopped to rest. Near the shelter was a salt lick and a half-filled, metal, watering trough. A rusted spigot on a steel pipe fed it. “Definitely someone’s ranch.”
“At least we can water the horses and replenish our own supply.”
“And we can let them graze.” Carly touched her stomach. “Speaking of which…”
“I know. You’re hungry.” He grinned. “I could use something to eat myself. Wait here.” He rode off in search of food.
Dismounting, Carly led Merry to the water and let her drink her fill. Holding the lead rope loosely, she let the mare forage in the grass.
A few minutes later, Alrick returned. He took care of TM first, giving him water and letting him graze near Merry. There was a small, fenced enclosure near the shelter and they turned the horses loose inside it.
They went to sit inside the shelter itself to take advantage of the only shade. Still, the heat was relentless.
“All I could find was pecans and a few apples.” Spreading out the simple bounty on a rock, he sighed. “Pickings are limited in a place like this.”
Carly grimaced. “I never thought I’d say this, but I’d kill for a bowl of green beans or a hamburger and fries.”
“Me too.” Alrick chuckled. “Not the hamburger, obviously. But a salad or a nice pot of red beans and rice would taste good about now.”
“Red beans and rice? I didn’t know you ate Cajun food.”
He raised a brow. “Why shouldn’t I? Like humans, the Fae come from all over. We also like fried rice, fortune cookies, spaghetti, and sauerkraut.” He bit into an apple with a resigned expression and chewed slowly.
The food litany made Carly’s mouth water.
“I miss coffee,” she reminisced. “And bagels with sour cream. A grilled cheese sandwich, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, garlic toast with butter.”
He swallowed, then played along. “Banana pudding. A steaming bowl of vegetable soup. Lasagna.” Handing her an apple, he reached for the nuts. “A peanut butter and jelly sandwich.” Using a rock, he cracked the pecan shells one by one and handed half the meat to her.
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