Shatter (The Children of Man)

by Elizabeth C. Mock

  “Hey now, Chance, we’re keeping the ladies waiting behind us,” he whispered into the stallion’s twitching ear. “You don’t want to get shown up by Rani now do you?”

  With an indignant whinny, Chance picked his way up the unstable hillside. Caleb chuckled and slapped his horse’s neck affectionately.

  “You vain beast,” he said with a disbelieving snort.

  “Just like his master,” Talise’s voice drifted from beside him as her nimble mare, Rani, passed them hugging close to the cliffs. “We still heading the right way?”

  “Yeah,” Caleb said increasing the pressure of his knees to make sure Chance stayed ahead of Rani. “But you saw the remains of that camp. He’s not traveling alone any more.”

  “Worried things’ll get complicated?”

  “Nothing stays simple, babe. You know that.”

  “I can always dream,” she said with a wink as she bent low over Rani’s neck and whispered something, which caused the mare to gather her muscles and surge up the incline past Chance.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” Caleb said to himself, because Talise had already cantered out of earshot and had nearly crested the top of the ridge.

  With a sharp squeeze of encouragement, Chance bolted up the hill sending chips of stones and dirt tumbling behind him. Though Rani had more agility than Chance, she could never hope to match his strength or endurance and he overtook her easily. Talise sat motionless as Rani pranced back and forth in agitation at the top of the ridge.

  When Caleb pulled Chance up next to her, he said, “You cheated.” When Talise did not respond to his accusation, his gaze swept the cliffs and surrounding forest. “What is it?”

  Talise pointed ahead of them where the cliffs turned to the right. “Can’t you smell it? It’s coming from over there.”

  Closing his eyes, Caleb felt the slight breeze drift across his face. The wind brought with it the hint of an odor, a vaguely sweet odor that he could never forget. With a curse, he pulled his kerchief off his head and untied it.

  “Corpses up ahead,” he said as he draped the kerchief across the bridge of his nose and knotted it behind his head with a harsh tug. Leaning forward, the metal of his rifle grazed his left knee as he lifted the gun free of the saddle and pointed its barrel toward the ground as he checked the chamber for cartridges. Satisfied that the magazine was full, he placed the rifle back in its holster.

  Already having removed the black kerchief tied around her forearm, Talise yanked some of her curls as she pulled the black cloth down to settle it across her cheeks. Nodding to her, Caleb unholstered his revolver and pushed back its hammer with a click as they rode toward the bend. Though not overtly armed like her companion, who resembled a walking armory, Talise had more knives tucked out of sight than all of Caleb’s weapons combined.

  As they reached the bend they saw the first of the bodies and Caleb thanked the Light that Talise had alerted him before the stench hit them unprotected. Riding around the carnage, Caleb did a full circuit of the surrounding area before returning to her. He nodded in confirmation that they were alone and released the hammer before returning the revolver to his hip. Dismounting, Caleb thumped Chance on the flank to reassure him. Though surrounded by corpses, Chance stood calm and still as he waited for his rider. Like his rider, he was accustomed to the smells of death.

  Stacked under some low brambles the bodies had been stripped of any possessions that were light enough to carry. Caleb knelt next to the pile. “All their easily accessible gear and money is gone. Someone was very thorough.”

  “Look at this, babe,” Talise said pointing to the blood streaking the ground and the cliff face. Blood had pooled just under the cliff, but before it had dried, it had smeared. “Whoever this belongs to didn’t stay here.”

  “Yeah, but look at how much blood there would have been,” Caleb said crouching next to the spot. “That person couldn’t have lasted long.” As he tracked the direction of the blood, he noticed it went toward a series of caves further ahead. “Or at least couldn’t have gone far. Not with an injury that cost that much blood.”

  “Do you think our boy was here?” Talise asked straightening to look over at the bodies.

  Caleb nodded, brushing his fingers over the bloodstains. “Yeah, but he couldn’t have done this by himself.”

  “You sure about that?” Talise asked with an arched eyebrow.

  Caleb whistled sharply. His mount trotted toward the cliff face and bucked his head. With a grim smile hidden by his mask, Caleb pounded Chance’s neck. “That one died by red magic.”

  Talise’s eyes brightened. “Looks like we just found out more about his little friend. Now things are getting interesting.”

  “It’s more than that,” Caleb said as he swung into the saddle. “Someone else who wasn’t with those poor dead blighters caught up with our boy and his friend here.”

  “They said they weren’t hiring anyone else to bring him in,” Talise said her eyes and mood darkening as she vaulted to Rani’s back. “Do we have competition?”

  Shaking his head, Caleb turned Chance toward the caves. “Doesn’t look like another hunter to me.”

  “So, we have two mystery guests and we don’t know if the boy survived this fight. The bounty did say that they wanted him alive, right?”

  “Like I said, nothing stays simple.”

  Kade paged through the leather book, but the words were still the same regardless of how many times he read them. He tossed it on the ground. Leaning his head back on the wall of the cave some of the dirt showered his shoulders as he tapped his thumb against his arm and stared at the bright forest outside.

  No one had ever described Kade as compliant and this forced inactivity had frayed his nerves to the point of snapping. As a direct result, he now sat alone listening to the dripping of water echoing from the depths of the cave.

  After her collapse, Faela and Kade had reached an uneasy truce. As their injuries continued healing, they had little energy left over and most of the time Kade just slept. While awake though he continually fought the increasing urge to satisfy his curiosity about her, but she provided no openings. This morning over breakfast he decided to make one, which was why he now sat alone in the cave.

  While his breathing had improved, his injury still throbbed and, now, felt agonizingly itchy. With the recovery of his bag, he had already mended the tears in his and Faela’s overcoats to keep his hands busy, but he had finished that project yesterday, which left him alone waiting for Faela’s temper to cool with nothing constructive to do.

  He stopped drumming his thumb and grabbed his whetstone from his bag and tossed it straight up. Catching it out of the air, he removed his knife and started sliding the edge of the knife down the stone in short, quick strokes that only stopped when he flipped the blade to sharpen its opposite edge.

  Lost in the rhythm of metal against stone, Kade’s eyes shot to the entrance of the cave and he reversed his grip on the hilt so its edge faced out paralleling his forearm. Within the same heartbeat he crouched on the balls of his bare feet. He felt a stab of pain and his breath rattled in his chest from the sudden movement.

  The intense light that streamed into the mouth of the cave created even darker shadows inside. Moving within the veil of those shadows, Kade inched toward the entrance and tucked his body against a hollow created by centuries of water erosion. It was shallow, but with the aid of the shadows and the brightness of the day, it should be enough.

  He kept his knife arm relaxed and he waited. Though the intruders said nothing, Kade heard their approach and counted only two. He saw a large silhouette of a man pass in front of the cave at the furthest point from him.

  He led with a revolver as he stepped into their camp. Backlit by the sun, his face was obscured, but beyond that hindrance he wore a black kerchief. He signaled over his shoulder and his companion entered close to Kade’s hiding place. Gauging their movements, he knew he had to strike first if he were to have any chance against them in
his current condition.

  Without another thought, he struck. In a single movement he pinned the companion’s arms to her sides with one arm and pressed the blade of the knife into her throat. “Who are you?” he asked in a flat, but commanding voice that compelled obedience.

  His captive remained still; even her heartbeat remained calm and steady. Before Kade had uttered a word, the man across from him already had his gun leveled at his head, but Kade was no fool. He kept his captive’s face positioned so it shielded his own, which proved complicated given her short stature.

  “You okay, babe?” the man asked in a bored, even lazy tone muffled by the cloth, but his amber eyes burned.

  “Never better,” she answered with equal disinterest. “He’s injured. Fairly severely if I’m any judge.”

  “Do you want help or just an audience?” he asked releasing the hammer of the revolver before holstering it.

  “I always want an audience,” she said with excitement as her wrists and ankles glowed with golden light.

  Kade’s eyes narrowed as he felt the build up of yellow magic in his captive. Only one person he had ever met used yellow magic offensively. Peering through her dark curls, he examined the man across from him and found what he sought. A long ragged scar peeked out from under the man’s auburn hair. As he felt his captive’s muscles gather, he knew it was too late to say anything that could stop her. Stepping to the side, he released her and tossed the knife to the ground. The metal sparked as it hit the rocks.

  Holding his palms at chest level, he prepared for her attack. The woman pivoted on her closer foot like a dancer and launched into a twirl that whipped that leg up and around in a golden arc that would have shattered his jaw had it connected, but it didn’t. Kade diverted the impact with his forearm as he swerved back, but the momentum still jarred his shoulder and knocked him into the wall of the cave with surprising force given her size.

  Shaking his head to clear the spots blinking in front of his eyes, Kade let himself slump to the ground and said with a whistling hiss, “Hail, Talise. It’s been awhile.”

  Tugging the cloth off his face, Caleb said, “Kade? Thrice-damned darkness, what’re you doing here, mate?”

  “At the moment, bleeding on the ground. You?” Kade asked with a pained grin as he rubbed his chest. “Darkness, Talise, remind me not to pick a fight with you again.”

  “Oh, Lior forgive me,” Talise said dropping to his side. “I didn’t realize it was you, Kade.”

  “That was pretty much my intention.” Kade coughed, but luckily there was no blood this time. He hadn’t damaged Faela’s repairs. He silently thanked the Light for small mercies. He didn’t want to face her wrath after wrecking what she had mended.

  “Damn, you look like death,” Caleb said. “What happened?”

  “I ran into some bandits, then your wife there tried to decapitate me. Got sloppy, that’s all.”

  Caleb whistled. “You must’ve. I thought I taught you better than that. Now you’re making me look bad in front of my woman.”

  “I think we came across the remains of your friends a little while back,” Talise said with a fiendish smile. “But don’t listen to a word he says. He doesn’t need your help to look foolish. He does just fine on his own. Don’t you, babe?”

  Caleb struck an indignant pose. “Do you see how I am thus abused? I don’t know why I put up with you, you Deoraghan wench.”

  “I’d remind you,” she said smiling with a pure sweetness, “but we’ve company.”

  “Talise, I’m shocked and appalled at your lewd behavior.”

  “That’s not what you said last night.”

  Accustomed to their banter, Kade ignored it. “When did you get my message?”

  “Message?” Caleb asked crouching in front of Kade. “Who’d you leave it with?”

  “At your cabin, I left it at your cabin.” His head still felt fuzzy. “I was just there last week.” His palms flat against the floor, Kade scooted himself up into a sitting position. “You didn’t get my message?”

  Talise shook her head and tucked some of Kade’s hair behind his ear in a maternal gesture. “It’s been weeks since we’ve been back to the cabin, love.”

  “Then why’d you come looking for me?” Kade still looked confused.

  “I think you addled his head a bit, imp,” Caleb said with a chuckle watching Kade’s eyes lose focus for a moment. “We weren’t looking for you, mate. We’re on a job.”

  At those words, Kade’s eyes darkened, though his posture remained relaxed. From their first meeting in the clearing, Kade had known Faela was running from something, but the thought that someone wanted Faela enough to hire Caleb and Talise Murphy sparked a flash of anger in him.

  While he did believe that she would have died without his help, he knew with just as much certainty that he would have died without hers. She could have left him. After his discovery of her secret, all instincts of self-preservation should have forced her to leave, but she hadn’t. She had stayed. He was grateful to Faela for saving his life, but this protective reaction troubled him.

  Caleb didn’t miss his reaction either. “Who’s our bounty to you, Kade?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Kade tried to shake the unease in his stomach. “I won’t get in your way.” But the words sounded flat even to him.

  Talise and Caleb shared a look, but chose to take Kade at his word. He was not a man easily swayed. Once he had chosen a course, he rarely deviated.

  “Why aren’t you in Montdell, love?” Talise asked in concern. “What was so important that you went to the cabin?”

  Kade didn’t bother to mask the tortured ache reflected in his eyes. “I need your help.”

  *****

  Chapter Seven

  Water engulfed Faela’s head, blurring the world around her into muddled swathes of color. The watery barrier dampened all sounds of life as if they were trying to reach her from the depth of a cavern. Lifting her face out of the clear stream, she whipped her hair back like an unrestrained animal, tossing water droplets in every direction. The liquid streamed down her back, soaking her, cooling her instantly.

  When she had stormed out of the cave, she had given the excuse that she needed to get clean, but more than anything she needed space and she needed to think. She had spent the last few hours making her way up the vertical rock face to the east of the cave. The physical challenge had pushed all other distractions from her mind and she was able to focus. Once she made it to the top, she was drenched in sweat and her mind was clear. She knew what she had to do.

  Below the cliff, she flopped down on the grassy bank and closed her eyes reveling in the breeze that chilled her skin as it dried the water. Her muscles burned pleasantly from the exertion of the climb. Almost feeling content, she hummed a bawdy tavern song she had learned from her brother as a little girl. When her father had caught her singing it, he had been furious. The void in her chest tightened at the thought of her father.

  The melody dropped into a minor key and its tempo slowed as it carried her thoughts to Sammi. Since the attack, she had directed her energy toward healing, which left nothing for their daily visits. He squealed as she touched his mind with hers. She simply enfolded him in impressions of affection and love. I'm sorry I've been gone so long, lamb.

  Sammi just babbled and showed her images of cats, and a stuffed lamb she had left him, and of Ianos sitting at a desk, the skin of his face drawn as he coughed. His thoughts turned warm and solid when he thought of Ianos. Faela smiled.

  Sammi was very fond of her former teacher and mentor. Faela barred her concern at Ianos' appearance from her son and held his mind close and touched it with a farewell kiss. Mama loves you, Sammi.

  Faela released the contact with regret. All she wanted was to float in her son's innocent joy and wonder about the kittens he had seen. She leaned over and stared at her hazy reflection in the water. Just as she could not escape her eyes, she could not escape her own memories.

  Splas
hing the water to dispel the image, she stood. Faela had fought with herself all morning as her body fought with the cliff, but she had finally resolved her conflicted feelings. “Kade should be fine on his own now. It’s time I left.”

  Faela slipped her clothes back on and tied her hair into a knot on top of her head. Walking back to the cave, she heard voices and saw two horses tied to a fallen log. One of the voices was Kade, while the others held familiar timbres. Faela circled around the horses until she could see within the cave without being seen herself. Kade sat propped against the wall as he gestured to a man and a woman both dressed in black whose backs faced her.

  Kade spoke in rushed, low tones. “I don’t know how deep it goes in the Order, but many feel it is the only solution to the chaos that followed the war. But the price they are willing to pay is too much.”

  The man in black cut off Kade. “You can stop skulking out there, girl.”

  Wary, Faela approached, her footfall had been light enough that the passing breeze should have masked it entirely.

  The look of regret in Kade’s eyes made her freeze.

  “I’m sorry,” was all he said.

  Faela felt her lips go numb. Nikolais had found her.

  “For what?” the man asked confused. “Who’s the wench, Kade?”

  The man turned toward Faela and she made a choking noise as her voice caught and she took an involuntary step backward, her eyes wide in horror. Caleb stared stupidly as if he had just been slapped, then stood clumsily and marched over to Faela who took another step back.

  He grabbed her shoulders halting her retreat and shook her. “It’s been a year, a year. Where in the nether-blasted depths of darkness have you been, Ella?”

  Kade was on his feet to intervene, when Talise grabbed his elbow to stop him. He looked down to question her, but when he saw the tears glistening in the corners of her eyes, he felt more confused than before.

  “Caleb?” Faela’s voice sounded like a lost little girl. She stood frozen looking up at his furious face as silent tears streaked her cheeks.