She nodded. “Afraid so. Let’s get moving before the cold seeps into our bones.”
I wasn’t cold, but I felt the lack of Sash’s body warmth. Maybe I was finding the replacement to the hole left by Alex and Jo. Perhaps I would never regain my independence but instead find something better.
I nodded at the wreckage of the truck. “If they retrieve the titanium, it’ll still be usable, right? Sheets of metal can’t exactly break.”
Sash stretched her arms above her head, her body making a sound like knuckles cracking. I grimaced in sympathy but she gave no indication of pain. “There’s no titanium in there,” she said.
“What do you mean? The shades didn’t get a chance to steal it.”
“The trailer was already empty by the time the wolf shifters broke in. They were as surprised as I was.”
“That makes no sense.”
Sash nodded grimly. “I have some questions for your friend Alex.” She twisted her body again to the sound of knuckles cracking.
For Alex’s sake, I’d have to make sure I was close to him when that happened.
Chapter 20
Thursday 06:15
The hike up from the valley floor was a nightmare. I hadn’t completely healed, and numerous trips and falls as well as grazes from stray thorns gave me a host of new injuries. Sash was better at navigating through the darkness, so I fell into a rhythm of following her.
As we reached the higher slopes and the first rays of dawn crept out from between the peaks, the climb became easier and Sash picked up the pace. Though tired enough to fall over, I wasn’t going to let myself fall behind. Instead, I made faces at Sash’s back, mentally complaining about her being a hard taskmistress.
I glanced up and saw a distant slash of white light cut through the darkness, followed by another, then another. I paused to listen and heard the distant rumble of traffic.
“Sash, hey, wait.” She turned around and I pointed out the road. “We are nearly there.”
She looked where I pointed, then nodded. “It’s not the highway we fell from, but it’s a road. We’ll be able to get a lift back to the city.” She indicated a rockface. “I bet if we climb up that, we’ll get pretty close.”
“Maybe.” I frowned. “I’m sure there are easier routes up too.”
“Weakling.” She took off running toward the base of the rockface.
“Stop!” I shouted, then shook my head and ran after her. The run got my juices flowing, and I sped up. Sash sensed me gaining on her, and she starting going faster, her feet sending clumps of dirt and small stones careening down behind her. I sped up, managed to overtake her and touched the rockface just before her.
I gulped in big breaths and grinned at her. She didn’t stop, reaching up to immediately start climbing. “Wait.” I grabbed her free hand. “A quick rest.” She looked reluctant. “Please.”
She turned her back to the rock and leaned against it. “A few minutes. I want to get to the prison asap.”
“We are going directly there? Shouldn’t we freshen up first.” By which I meant having a twelve hour sleep.
“Don’t you want to find out who sent the shades after us? And why we were sent to guard an empty truck?”
“It’s just I’d prefer to be alert enough to process what I’m being told.”
“Our job was to bring the truck to the construction site. We should let them know what happened. I can do it if you want.”
“If you can keep going, so can I.” Sash had been injured worse than I, she had to be at least as tired. “Can I ask you something?” During the hike up, I’d replayed the fight with the shades in my mind, and one thing in particular nagged at me.
“As long as it’s not too personal,” Sash said. “I was blabbing earlier about all sorts of stuff. It must have been an effect of my weakened state, because that’s not me.”
“You can’t fool me by shuttering up again. I know you now. I’ve seen inside you—the white of your bone, in fact. And not in a good way.”
“What did you want to ask?”
“You got the drop on Heff on top of the truck. I know you had a chance to take him out. And the same on the steps of City Hall. I’m thinking you aren’t the killer you pretend to be.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Yeah.” I gave her a gentle shove in the shoulder. “What was it like? I think big bad Sash isn’t as hard as she makes out.”
She didn’t return my smile. “If you are trying to convince yourself that I won’t kill you if the need arises, you are wrong. I will do my job.”
“You’ve already admitted that you’ll feel bad about it, though.”
“Maybe.” She faced me. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Off the record. I won’t hold it against you whatever you say.”
“Be careful. That’s like signing a blank check. You wouldn’t know what I’d come out with.”
“What do you think about Walker and the sentinel order?”
I tensed. “This feels like a test.” One that could be dangerous.
“It’s not a test. You can be truthful.”
I bent down and picked a stone off the ground, then threw it into the darkness. It pinged off a tree trunk. I threw another, that one disappearing without a sound. Being honest might be a bad idea, but I couldn’t lie to Sash after what we’d just been through together. “I’m not sure exactly what to think. At times it feels like Walker could be worse than the shades. And do I even have a choice? Perhaps it’s better if I don’t think. I’m sure Walker would prefer if I don’t. Just do as he orders, or die—aren’t these my only options?”
“Go on,” Sash said when I lapsed into silence. I tried to read her expression, but she kept her face blank.
“The thing is, though, that I hate people being possessed. I hate the thought of it happening to anyone.” I remembered the gray nothingness to which Jerome tried to banish me and shuddered. “To be in stuck in limbo like that, no longer in control, perhaps watching an elemental use your body to do terrible things.” Of course, I had deliberately caused Duffy to become possessed, one of the things I’d done that I had to learn to live with. “Jo almost lost herself to an elemental, and now I find myself unable to help the three orphans in Gorlam’s. Walker is a hard man, but a lot of what he does is aimed toward preventing possessions. What he did—what you all did—to Bobbit wasn’t right, but the purpose behind Walker’s actions is...” I was drifting off topic. “I guess I still haven’t answered your question, have I?”
“What about that elemental around your neck? I told you on the plane that I might be able to rid you of it, and you haven’t followed up on that.”
Jerome, any thoughts? He was still keeping quiet. “I guess the relationship between me and my necklace has fallen into the it’s complicated category.”
Sash straightened. “Let’s get going. It’s nearly full morning.” She grabbed hold of a jutting out rock with her left hand, then swung her legs to a foothold a few paces up. Without missing a beat, her right hand swung up and grabbed a handhold a pace higher.
It was a display of ridiculous skill and athleticism, better by far than what the best freestyle climber in the world could do. And she had been severely injured just hours earlier.
As I followed her, I started out tentatively, not wanting to test my newly healed body with another fall. It didn’t take long, though, until I was matching Sash swing for swing. I forgot about my doubts concerning Walker, forgot about my earlier agony, and lost myself in the joy of what my body was capable of.
At times, being a sentinel was awesome.
Chapter 21
Thursday 07:30
Sash got the taxi driver to drop us off on Harris Avenue.
We’d been lucky enough to flag one down almost the instant that we’d reached the road. The taxi driver, seeing our dirt covered clothes, had given us a strange look but hadn’t questioned us. Disappointingly, Sash had climbed into the front. I w
ould have preferred for us to snuggle up together in the backseat. On the journey back into the city, I had almost drifted asleep on several occasions, but I jerked awake each time.
“Why are we stopping here?” I asked Sash, getting out of the taxi to join her. Harris Avenue abutted the grounds of the Collier Mansion, but the main entrance was on Dorset Street.
“It’s a long way around on the roads,” she said. “Why do that when we can just go this way?” She jumped up, grabbed hold of the chain link fence and flipped herself over.
“I’m too tired for this shit.” Nevertheless, I followed Sash’s example in vaulting over the fence.
She led the way through the trees.
“How come you know the layout of the estate so well?” I asked Sash. “I lived here as a vagabond for several months and never entered via Harris Avenue.” She wasn’t even from Lusteer.
“Part of our job is protecting this prison build, so I’ve examined the layout in detail.”
Of course she had. “I’ve been preparing also, just in a different way. By watching episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
She smiled. “I used to watch that a bit. Guilty pleasure.”
“No need to be guilty. It’s a quality show.” I held up my palm. “Joss Whedon high five.”
“Who’s that?”
“The show’s creator.”
“I’m not that into the show. I just like it.”
I let my hand fall. No high five for Joss Whedon. None for me either. “There’re two kinds of people in the world,” I said. “Those who appreciate Joss Whedon’s genius and those who haven’t yet discovered it.”
“Two types of people. Geeks and those who know the difference between reality and their favorite TV shows.”
Ouch. “I have a few friends who are trying to come to terms with recent events by watching Buffy.”
“That’s stupid,” she said. “Are they going to start roundhouse kicking shades and hope they disappear into dust?”
“Better than milk baths.”
“Why do conversations with you have to turn weird?” She stepped between two trees and came to a sudden stop, and I stumbled against her.
I stepped around to stand beside her. We’d emerged out of the trees, and I blinked several times, trying to take in what I was seeing. The last time I’d been on this estate had been before the mansion had burnt down, so I didn’t expect things to be the same, but I certainly hadn’t expected this much of a difference.
Several giant metal poles holding arrays of bulbs angled downward—giant stadium lights—were placed at regular intervals. They had clearly allowed the work to continue all night. The bulbs were still lit but, with morning well advanced, they no longer made any noticeable effect on the ambient light.
At the far end of the estate, all that remained of the section of forest which had held the treehouse I’ve lived in had been reduced to a pile of stripped tree trunks. A fleet of bulldozers and diggers were churning the last few green patches into mud.
Where the mansion itself once resided had changed the most. Hundreds of workers swarmed over the area, and already a compound was taking shape, with a large metal structure half built.
“This isn’t right,” I said.
“Why?” Sash asked.
“They shouldn’t just be getting started—this looks like it’s been worked on weeks. And is all that metal they are using titanium? Shouldn’t they need the shipment we were supposed to escort in?”
“Look out!” Sash nodded over my shoulder.
I turned. A wolf shifter stalked forward, his shoulders hunched over, his long arms swinging low, almost reaching the ground. He came to a stop, flexing his claws and unleashing a high-pitched howl.
I stumbled a few steps back, then realized he wasn’t alone. I swiveled around. Two other wolf shifters were also approaching. I swallowed hard as a giant snake slithered through the mud toward us. Its skin was yellow with black and red rings. Bright coloring normally indicated poison in snakes, but in this instance I figured the coloring meant a fire shade. The snake shifter lifted his head high and opened his mouth to show fangs like daggers.
Sash's double bladed staff sprang into existence, I summoned my fireswords, and we stood back to back.
“These are guarding the prison, right?” I asked Sash.
She nodded. “They must be.”
A screech caused me to look up, where I saw an eagle shifter circling low enough that his talons grazed the top leaves of the trees.
“We are on your side!” I shouted out.
One of the wolf shifters snarled, and they all edged closer. My back pressed firmly against Sash’s back as the circle closed around us. “They don’t look friendly, Sash.”
A huge black furred beast bounded down the slope. A bear shifter. He rose on two legs, a giant shaggy head taller than the rest. He roared, and one of the wolf shifter moved aside to let him through.
The beast shambled forward. The fireswords trembled in my hands. My gaze flickered across at the snake, whose head shifted from side to side, and up at the eagle overhead, then back to the bear. If they attacked, would we be able to hold off all of them?
Smoke swirled around the bear, and between one step and the next the beast became man, and Nathan, Harriet Ashley’s square-jawed, wide-shouldered bodyguard, stood before us.
“Nathan!” I exclaimed. “I’m glad to see you.”
He didn’t look glad to see me. “Why did you sneak in by the back fence?”
I realized he was completely naked. He was almost as hairy in man form; thick black hairs matted his chest. I very deliberately kept my gaze high. “We are just taking a short cut.”
Nathan frowned. “You expect me to believe that?”
“Hmm.” Now that I thought about it, I didn’t believe it myself. I glanced across at Sash.
She was unfazed by Nathan’s hairy nakedness. “We figured we’d check what the security was like.”
Why hadn’t Sash told me that initially? “The truck was ambushed,” I told Nathan. “We came to report.”
“We know.” Nathan glanced upward. “Go get the jeep.” The eagle shifter tilted as he changed direction, and he headed back toward the compound. I noticed for the first time that the eagle wore blue robes. I looked around at the other shifters. Like Nathan, the snake wasn’t wearing anything, but the wolf shifters all wore loose robes—some animal shapes had to be easier to clothe than others.
“The rest of you, return to your patrols,” Nathan said.
The giant snake lowered his head down the ground and slithered away, churning up mud as he went. The wolf shifters disappeared into the trees, leaving Sash and me alone with Nathan.
I shifted awkwardly, making sure my gaze didn’t roam. “So,” I said. “Here we are. Standing here.” Some of us naked and hairy, some not. “The prison. It’s... it’s further along than I expected.”
I wanted to accuse Harriet Ashley of lying to us, but something about having a muscular naked man in front of me made me non-confrontational.
“Bringing in Transkey was a mistake,” Nathan said. “Since we did that we’ve had nothing but trouble.”
“How are you so far along? I thought everything was kicked off Monday. And that was only the planning stage.”
“We started planning months ago and broke ground several weeks ago. We just tried to keep the higher ups who knew down to a minimum.”
“How is that even possible?” I asked. “Did the mayor know? Surely you can’t start building a prison without the city giving the okay.”
“If we could have, we would have. We didn’t start discussions with his office until as late as possible.” Nathan made a face. “Once the politicians get involved...” He shook his head. “City Hall has more leaks than Brimstone has elementals.”
“So when you started you just kept City Hall in the dark. What if they didn’t agree?”
He shrugged. “I guess we would end up with a field of mud and no idea what to build
on it. That wasn’t going to happen. We could see what was coming.”
“Did you even have rights to build on this estate months ago when you started planning?”
“Alex Collier was involved from the start,” Nathan said.
Of course he was. I nodded up at the stadium lights. “You’re working both night and day?”
“We knew the shade community would react when they found out, which gave us a narrow window to build as fast as possible. Once we have titanium walls and defenses in place, it’ll be much less vulnerable to a shade attack. Plus, the lights are a permanent part of the compound, helping to secure it and to prevent escape when the prison is in operation.”
“You talk about the shade community as if you aren’t part of it. If I hadn’t just seen you transform...”
“Shades who prefer confrontation to integration are in the majority,” Nathan said.
An open-top jeep pulled up along side us. The driver’s blue robes told me he was the eagle shifter in human form, though nothing else about the short slim man with a greasy smirk suggested he could turn into a giant eagle.
“Get in.” Nathan jerked his thumb at the jeep.
Sash climbed into the front seat. I got into the back alongside Nathan and was glad when he pulled a pair of trousers and shirt out of a backpack.
To avoid seeing too much flesh while he was maneuvering himself into the clothes, I looked out the side of the jeep, watching the buzz of activity across the construction site. Harriet Ashley and her team had done amazingly well to keep an operation as big as this quiet as long as they had.
I was still full of questions, so once Nathan got his trousers on, I faced him again. I had to shout to be heard over the jeep’s throaty engine roar. “You don’t seem to be short of titanium!”
“We were short until very recently!” Nathan shouted back.
No thanks to us. “So the truck we were guarding was what? Bait?”
“No one at City Hall knew the details of that delivery!” Nathan shouted.
The jeep hit a hollow and bounced into the air, and I had to grip the side to stop myself been thrown out. The track continued bumpy, preventing further conversation. As I digested everything Nathan had told myself, I felt myself grow angrier. It was becoming clear that Sash and I had been sent out into the mountains as a decoy. Heff and his shifters might had led the attack that sent us off that bridge, but they weren’t ultimately to blame. No, that responsibility lay with those we thought allies.
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