The coach started forward and rumbled over the cobblestones at a brisk trot. Raleigh leaned back to find Dax glaring at her. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Done what?”
“Hired another boy to drive you. You should have told me you had to arrive in a coach this morning. I would have done the work.”
The smile evaporated off her face. “Listen, son. Where we’re going, you might not come back. You might stay in Hinterland, or you might…. well, anything could happen. We need another stable boy and coach driver, and Mrs. Mitchell said Hiram needed a good place. Now please stop arguing about it. You’re getting as bad as Bishop. If you really want to be useful, you can show him exactly how to do everything, but I need you concentrating on Hinterland. That’s your work now.”
The coach jostled to a stop, and Raleigh climbed down onto the wooden sidewalk in front of the big dark building. Dax got out, and when they knocked, a wrinkled old black man opened the door. “Good morning, Sultan. Would you show our young friend here where to keep the coach and horse while we visit Ms. Cross?”
Sultan bowed. “Of course, Miss.”
“Thank you.”
Sultan threw the door open wider. “Go right into the parlor, Miss. I’ll announce you as soon as possible.”
“Thank you, Sultan. This way, Dax.”
She led him into the green parlor off the entrance. Dax smoothed down his coat lapels and shrugged while he took in the luxurious surroundings. “I don’t feel right in a place like this.”
“Now you understand why we had to arrive in a coach. We couldn’t show up covered in dust.”
Sultan reappeared. “Ms. Cross will see you now.”
“Thank you, Sultan.”
Raleigh and Dax followed Sultan up the curved staircase. Dax looked down at the tiled entrance hall and whispered to Raleigh. “Who is this lady we’re going to see?”
“If you remember nothing else about her, remember she’s a Guildsman of the Martial Arts—a high one, too. Don’t let your guard down around her for a second.”
Sultan showed them into the sitting room upstairs. As usual, Angela Cross stood in front of the fireplace in the most expensive gown Raleigh ever laid eyes on. She smiled at Raleigh and Dax. She never gave their clothes a passing glance.
She extended her hand to Raleigh. “How wonderful to see you again, Miss Douglas. I’m honored you would bestow a visit on me.”
“It is I who am honored to visit you, Miss Cross,” Raleigh returned.
“Please,” Angela interrupted. “Call me Angela. Any friend of Bishop’s is a friend of mine.”
Raleigh pressed her hand. “Actually, it’s because of Bishop that we’re here.”
Angela cocked her head. “Really? What about Bishop?”
“I know you’re retired,” Raleigh began. “I don’t know how much you know about what goes on in Hinterland, but Bishop and Dax and I attacked the Guild of Martial Arts. When we were here last time, you told Bishop the Guild had their training auditorium curtained off with workmen coming in and out. They were keeping a very unique twen hidden there, and we captured it.”
“Yes, I know all about it,” Angela replied.
“Then you know my brother Ethan Douglas detonated a device that leveled the building. Do you happen to know where the Guild is assembled nowadays?”
“The Guild set up a temporary headquarters in Kaldkirk. That’s another city south of Pernrith, near the ocean, but that was only temporary. I know the senior Guildsmen held a convocation to decide where to set up their new permanent headquarters, but I haven’t been back to Hinterland to find out what they decided. Why do you ask?”
Raleigh shrugged. “Just an idea we had. The people looking for the twen were all highly-placed Guildsmen from all Ten Guilds. We thought we might check out the new Martial Arts headquarters to try to track them down. That’s all.”
“I could send a message to Pernrith to find out,” Angela offered. “I could let you know.”
Raleigh stiffened. “Actually, there’s something else I came here to talk to you about. It’s Bishop.”
Angela’s eyes popped open. “What about him?”
“We just went and visited Rianne, the new Alpha of the wolf people in the forest. I’m sure you know her.”
“I know Rianne very well.”
“Then you know she used to have something going on with Bishop. I’m sure it was nothing as serious as your engagement to him, but she has kept track of his career all these years through word of mouth in Hinterland. I’m sure you were doing the same thing after you broke off your wedding arrangements at the last second.”
Angela’s cheeks colored, and she turned away. “You are as adept as he is at uncovering people’s private secrets.”
Raleigh marshaled her resolve. She couldn’t stop now. “One of the hammaslahti that attacked the Guild building caught Bishop in its jaws. It was still holding him when the building blew up. He died in front of me—in front of us.”
Angela’s head snapped around, and she gasped out loud. “Bishop—dead!”
Raleigh nodded. “Rianne seems to think he’s still alive. She says she would have heard if he was dead. I’m sure you would have heard the same thing, especially since you’re a member of the Guild he died trying to defeat. I can hardly believe he’s alive after what I saw, but I figured you would know better than anyone if he was dead.”
Angela jerked inside her pristine dress. “Why, no! He isn’t!”
Raleigh froze. “He isn’t?”
“Of course not, my dear! What on Earth made you think that?”
Raleigh shot a glance at Dax. “But we saw….we thought…”
Angela’s laughter rang through the room. “My dear sweet girl! You’ve been tearing yourself apart all these months thinking he was dead? He’s very much alive. I can promise you that.”
Raleigh wanted to explode out of her skin. “Well, where is he? Is he hurt? Why didn’t he come back? Why didn’t he contact us to let us know he was all right?”
Angela waved her hand. “Oh, I don’t know why he does anything, but he’s very much alive. I visited the temporary headquarters in Kaldkirk once, and he was there.”
Raleigh took a rapid step across the room. She stopped short of attacking Angela and wrestling her with both arms. “What was he doing there? Was he all right? How did he get there?”
Angela turned suddenly serious. “I don’t actually know what he was doing there. I didn’t actually see him myself, so I can’t answer any of those questions. It was right after the explosion, and the whole Guild was in chaos. I only heard he was down in the conference room with the Chairman. I had to leave without seeing him.”
Raleigh paced around the room. This couldn’t be happening. Bishop couldn’t be alive. “How did he get there?”
“I told you. I don’t know.”
Raleigh stopped in front of Dax. “We have to find him. We have to get him back.”
“They could have moved him anywhere,” Dax replied. “They could have handed him over to the cabal and be moving him around from one Guild to the next.”
Raleigh shook her head. “It’s the twen they want. They stole his father’s notebook, and then they captured him, but they can’t do anything without the twen.”
“What do you want to do?” Dax asked. “Do you want to take the twen with us when we go….?”
Angela’s delicate laughter interrupted them. “Here’s another one, just like the other one. I swear I don’t know where Bishop comes up with all these people as crazy as himself.”
Raleigh turned to her. “Angela, you cared about Bishop once.”
“I will always care about Bishop,” Angela replied. “I loved him, and I never stopped loving him. I love him now as much as I ever loved him when I agreed to marry him.”
“Then help us,” Raleigh exclaimed. “You know more about Hinterland that we could ever learn. Help us find him and bring
him back.”
Angela started to shake her head, but Raleigh rushed up to her and murmured in her face. “I know you loved him once, and I know you’re retired now. Bishop was injured in the building before it exploded. What if the Guild hurt him? Don’t you think he’s worth you coming out of retirement to help him? Don’t you think he’s done enough good in his life to deserve you putting your feelings aside?”
“I couldn’t put my feelings aside,” Angela told her. “It’s because of my feelings that I would help you.”
“Please, Angela,” Raleigh breathed. “I know almost nothing about Hinterland, and Dax knows even less. Please help us.”
Angela turned away. She shot Raleigh a sidelong glance and looked away again. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“No, I don’t.”
Angela raised her eyes to Raleigh’s face. “You love him, too, don’t you? I can tell by the way you talk about him.”
“Of course I love him. I thought I would die when we lost him.”
Angela sighed. “Then I will help you. What would you like to do first?”
Chapter 10
Dax and Raleigh waited on the sidewalk. Both wore backpacks on their backs and carried every weapon they could get their hands on. Dax paced up and down with his hands on his hips. “What if she doesn’t come?”
“She’ll come. You can’t expect her to stand around here in the damp.”
He paced back down the sidewalk and came back. “Why can’t we just go by ourselves? Why do we need her in the first place?”
Raleigh laughed at him. “If she doesn’t come, we will be going by ourselves. Frankly, I’m glad to be going with her. I never went to Hinterland alone before, and I don’t want to. She knows everything there is to know, and she’s a Guildsman of the…”
“I know, I know,” Dax chided. “She’s a Guildsman of the Martial Arts. So you keep telling me, but I don’t see why that should make so much difference.”
“She’s been trained in combat since she was tiny.”
“So have you.”
Raleigh bit back a smile. “I’ve never seen Angela Cross in combat, and I don’t aim to. I’m sure she’s every bit as deadly as every other Guildsman. I’m just glad she’s on our side and not against us. We’ll have enough Guildsmen after us before this thing is through.”
Dax growled and stomped back down the sidewalk. When he came back, Raleigh asked, “Aren’t you the least bit glad Bishop is alive?”
He gaped at her. “Of course I am.”
“Then you should be happy we’re on our way to bring him back.”
“I am.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Nothing.” Dax shrugged. “I just thought…you know, I just thought it would be you and me on this trip.”
Raleigh stared at him. Of course. All these weeks, they shared the lonely pain of living without Bishop. Now here came Angela Cross to break up their little twosome with her fine clothes and her expertise.
Dax probably looked forward to going to Hinterland alone with Raleigh. He probably looked forward to facing the challenges and mysteries and difficulties there, just the two of them with their guns and their wits.
Before she could say anything, a brilliant red coach trundled up to the sidewalk. Angela got out in a crisp grey traveling costume just as elegant as her usual gowns. A feathered hat perched on her head, and immaculate grey gloves covered her graceful hands.
Angela cast her disarming smile on Dax and Raleigh. “So here we all are. Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
Raleigh nodded. “I’m sure.”
“We better go then.” Angela stepped forward.
“Don’t you want to bring any weapons?” Raleigh asked.
Angela stared at her. Then she broke into gales of laughter. “My dear Miss Douglas…”
“If I’m going to call you Angela, you better call me Raleigh.”
Angela stuffed down her laughter. “Raleigh, my dear, I’m better armed than you are. I’m certain of that.”
She strode past Raleigh with her hoop skirts swaying. Raleigh watched her walk away. She couldn’t see anything but that traveling suit, but she took Angela at her word. Angela was a Guildsman of the Martial Arts. She wouldn’t undertake this mission without coming armed to the teeth. She must have every weapon in the universe stashed under her suit.
Angela crossed the sidewalk and breezed through the swinging saloon doors into the Gingerbread House. Her bootheels pounded the wooden floor, and all conversation died when Dax and Raleigh entered behind her.
Angela swept the crowded saloon with her quick eyes. She marched across the room to the nearest table where a tall man in a nice suit scanned her up and down. “Hello, Layton.”
He bowed and touched his hat brim. “Miss Cross.”
Angela nodded to the black chalkboard on the far wall. Thousands of white marks festooned its surface. In big letters to one side read the words, The Wolf’s Wall. “Have you started taking bets on Dax yet?”
Layton blinked at her. “Who?”
Angela laughed out loud. She swept her skirts around in a circle and strode the rest of the way to the back corner of the saloon. She pulled open a door, and Dax and Raleigh followed her through it.
The trio trotted down the stairs into the open field. No one said a word until they came to the village. Raleigh shaded her eyes from the sun. Its rays glinted around the white curves of a zeppelin gliding down to land. She walked faster. “Come on. We’ll miss it.”
Angela held her back. “We don’t want this one. This one is going to Pernrith. We’ll catch the next one to Hallbreck.”
They hiked three abreast up the road and through the village. The zeppelin flew away long before they got to the landing site, and they stood around waiting for more than an hour before the next zeppelin arrived.
Angela held her hat to her head with one hand and dashed for the passenger car under the vehicle’s round body. She, Dax, and Raleigh got into their seats, and the crew cut the zeppelin loose. It sailed into the air and turned north into the towering snow-capped mountains.
Dax stared out the windows, but during the ride, a little girl sitting across from him took an interest in him. When he turned around to sit straight in his seat, she moved into the seat opposite so he had to look straight at her.
Dax studied her for a while. He raised his eyes and looked over her head, but she didn’t back off. She moved into the seat next to him and stared up at his face. He smiled at her and went back to looking straight ahead.
When he didn’t pay attention to her, she tugged his sleeve. He turned to look down. “What?”
She broke into a toothy grin. “You’re one, too, aren’t you?”
“One what?”
“Xaehm.”
Dax wrinkled his nose at her. “What?”
“Xaehm. You’re one, too. I can always tell.”
He faced front. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She held out her hand in front of his face. In front of his eyes, her skin changed to greenish scales. Her fingers fused together into one heavy club foot. That foot might have belonged to some prehistoric lizard.
The girl grinned again, and stuck out her tongue. A long, forked yellow tongue slithered out and whipped the air in front of Dax’s face. The girl laughed and sucked it back into her mouth with a loud gulp. She waved her hand in front of his face and it became as pink and perfect as ever. She flexed her fingers and shook out her wrist. “You’re Xaehm. Now you do it.”
Dax frowned at her. “Do what?”
“Change into something. Show me what you can do. I play this game all the time with my friends. I turned into something. Now you take a turn. It’s fun.”
“I am not turning into anything. I just want to sit here in peace. Now leave me alone.”
She stared up at the side of his face. He looked straight ahead and pretended not to
see her, but he couldn’t ignore her when she jumped up in front of him. In a flash, she changed into a huge bellowing kataract. The beast lowered its head between its shoulders and thundered into Dax’s face.
He shrank against the wall and squeezed his eyes half-shut against the noise. The kataract craned its neck and showed its curved fangs. Its eyes sank into its head.
Raleigh’s hand flew to her blade. She rocketed out of her seat when a stout woman in a tweet jacket and full-length skirts turned around from a seat across the car. She called over her shoulder. “Amelia! How many times do I have to tell you?”
The kataract collapsed in on itself. It stood upright, and its neck arched back to straighten, and the little girl took the monster’s place in front of Dax. She shook her head. “It could have been fun.”
She walked away and sat down next to the woman. She sat with her back to Dax and didn’t even look at him for the rest of the journey. Dax shuddered. He rubbed and compressed his hands between his knees.
Raleigh covered his white knuckles with her fingers. “It’s all right. She was trying to be nice.”
Dax looked away. “I don’t want to be anything like that.”
Just then, the zeppelin banked between two precipitous mountain crags. It soared through narrow defiles, and the air entering through the car’s seams turned frosty. “Look,” Angela told them. “There’s Hallbreck.”
The sight of the city sent chills up Raleigh’s spine, but she couldn’t help admiring its majestic green towers. At least she wouldn’t get stuck here.
The zeppelin landed on the roof, and the party entered the city. Angela led them down several flights of stairs, but they said nothing to anybody until Angela exited by the same crude door near the stables that Bishop used.
Angela halted. “This is where I stop and you take over. I don’t know this terrain as well as you do. You’ve been here before and I haven’t.”
Raleigh stepped forward, and the other two fell in line behind her. Thus began one of the most arduous experiences of Raleigh’s life. They trekked over razor-sharp mountains and through ravines thick with foliage. Briars ripped their clothing, and the sharp stones underfoot cut them when they lay down at night.
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