Alban and Marum both nodded in agreement.
Nate then looked at Rachel as tears filled her eyes. Neither of them said anything before he leaned in and kissed her on the lips. He didn’t care what the others thought. For all any of them knew, this was the last time Nate would ever see her. Figured he might as well give a proper goodbye.
He took a couple of steps back when he and Rachel separated reluctantly. He looked at the group one last time before opening The Book of Life.
His eyes then fell to the words on the page in front of him. They were blurred, but he felt himself being pulled into it, just as he had with that book he’d been hired to steal for Tyler Montgomery. He wondered what was in store for him here, this book within a book.
Then, he was gone.
Joe
Winter, 903 A.O.M.
Waiting wasn’t as difficult as it had been before. Before, they didn’t know what to expect. Now, they had Slaughter Okoro where they wanted him.
The Renegades set out after the gang when their scout told them they were on the move once again. Slaughter and his band of fifteen men set out eastward. Clive freely admitted that he had no clue what was beyond Aleya to the east, but apparently The Way had pointed Slaughter in that direction.
The group traveled slowly on purpose, not wanting to give away the fact that they were following the Okoro gang. If they came within shouting distance of Slaughter and his men, the chase would be finished and they would be forced into a premature standoff. The standoff couldn’t happen until Slaughter had the book in his hands. Then, Joe or one of the others would kill him. Then they would have what they had journeyed so far to get.
Joe wasn’t too nervous that he had eight men against Slaughter’s fifteen. The Renegades had an advantage worth at least ten men: surprise. If the Okoro gang had their backs turned when Joe and his group came up on them, Joe would be able to take out six of them before they even turned around. That, of course, was assuming that it worked out the way he had it in his mind. The problem with this entire scenario was that they didn’t know if Slaughter had to fight his way through an army of elves, or if he had to dive deep into a bog to get to a key, that led to a door, that led to another door, and so on, and so forth. He finally supposed that if worst came to worst, they could always kill Slaughter and his men, and take his guidebook from him. From there, they could continue the journey Slaughter had started. In either case, they were close, and The Book of Time was within his grasp.
He thought about the old book Slaughter used in his quest to guide him. He thought about the safety deposit box it had been in at the bank in Somerled. The box had belonged to Tyler Montgomery, which didn’t make any sense to Joe. He supposed that at some point in the last six years, Tyler Montgomery could have found a guidebook which led to one of The Ancient Books, and put it in a safe place—a bank in some random city. But it just seemed too coincidental to Joe, almost as if he was supposed to find it for some reason. He wasn’t beyond the belief that there was some magical power at work in all this. This had all been because of magic. Who was to say that it wasn’t magic that led Joe to Tyler Montgomery’s box in the first place?
Joe smiled at the thought, though it didn’t make him happy. It was a book in Tyler Montgomery’s safety deposit box that sent Joe to Galamore in the first place. It was a book in Tyler Montgomery’s safety deposit box that brought him deep into Elf Country. It seemed that Tyler Montgomery, wherever he was, had far too much influence in Joe’s life. Joe decided then and there that he ought to look for the man sometime soon so he might explain himself. Or at least explain how Galamore even existed.
They found the Okoro camp quickly enough, along with a multitude of tracks leading down a path away from it. The riders moved in silence, their gazes fixed ahead, their hearts pounding wildly. Joe and Clive led the group while Edric brought up the rear. Some of the men rested a cautious hand on their guns, though there was no apparent threat around them. Each of them knew there was a chance that some of Slaughter’s men might trail behind to see if they had been followed. Those scouts might either try to fight off the pursuers or dash ahead to try and warn them. In any case, Joe and the rest of them kept their eyes and ears open, watching for any sign of scouts.
The morning crawled slowly into midday, the noon sun drifting into evening. The enormous trees throughout the forest showed no sign of thinning, but the path before them narrowed considerably. The farther they moved away from the city, the more likely it became that they might run out of road altogether, or that it might end at a small settlement miles and miles away.
The more hills they climbed, the more cautious they became. Joe would trot ahead of the group until he could barely see over the crest in order to keep their pursuit hidden. Usually, he would be met with nothing but more trees and a long, winding road. This time, however, he saw them. The moment his eyes caught a glimpse of one of Slaughter’s men, he ducked down and wrenched his horse back down the hill, waving for his companions to stand down. Clive looked behind him and raised his arm in the air to signal for the others to hold.
When Joe reached them, he realized that he had been holding his breath. He let it out with a heave and it took him a moment to catch it again.
“They’re just over the hill,” he whispered as the men gathered around him.
“Fifteen of them?” Clive asked.
“Looks that way,” he said. “There’s a small cabin at the end of the road. I bet you a silver dollar that’s where they’re headed.”
“Then that’s where we need to go,” Clive said.
“Now, wait just a minute,” Edric said, holding out a hand. “What if this is just one of their many stops? What if they get whatever information they need to get and then their path continues?”
Clive shook his head. “It don’t matter. By this point we can just pick up where Slaughter leaves off.”
“What if he don’t have the book?” Joe said, raising a new possibility. “Either of them. What if he memorized how to get to it?”
“I don’t know,” Clive said.
Edric seemed nervous. “Why not?”
“Would you memorize it?” Clive shot back.
“Maybe,” Edric said.
“No,” said Joe. “You’re right. I wouldn’t.”
“It’s a gamble,” Clive said, “but I think we oughta take them now. Might be our best chance.” He looked around at the other men in the group, each of them staring at Clive, waiting for him to make the decision. “We’ll spread out. Form a circle around them. I’ll give Slaughter one chance to give up the book, then when he don’t, we shoot them all.”
Joe nodded at this, and he looked at Edric. “It’s the best plan.”
Edric didn’t say anything, though he glanced back, almost as if he were making sure no one was behind them.
Joe didn’t want to think about it too much. His mind was racing and so was his heart. He knew it was going to be a bloodbath. All of them knew it. Slaughter wasn’t the kind of man to give up so easily, even if it meant his life.
“You boys ready?” Clive asked, looking all around.
“Let me approach them,” Joe said.
“No.”
“Listen to me,” Joe said with clenched teeth. “You’ve seen what the future holds. There ain’t no reason you ought to be the one who rides to the front.”
Clive studied him a minute. “You sure you want to do that?”
Joe nodded.
“All right,” Clive said, sighing.
“I bet Slaughter’s going into that small house,” Joe said. “He’ll probably leave most of his men outside.”
“We’ll have your back,” Clive said.
The two men stared at each other for another few seconds, almost to give the other a chance to come up with a different plan. When nothing more was said, Joe pulled on his horse’s reins and kicked softly.
The other men in his group spread out, quiet as shadows as they guided their horses off the road in both direction
s. Joe stopped just before reaching the crest of the hill, knowing that the guards would see him the moment he overtook it. He knew he had to appear calm and collected. Perhaps even lost. It was doubtful the men outside the cabin would recognize him. Most in Okoro’s gang had only seen him when he was beaten up and barely breathing.
The gang wouldn’t fire on him until they knew he was a threat. At least, that’s what Joe anticipated. Slaughter and his men were an unpredictable bunch. There was no doubt Joe was putting his life on the line by riding up to them innocently. But he trusted in what his friend saw all those years ago. He trusted that he would at least survive to the moment when he opened The Book of Time and traveled back to meet Clive. Past that, he didn’t know and he didn’t care. That was a worry for another day.
His ascent over the hill was slow but steady. Joe had predicted correctly that Okoro would go into the cabin and leave a group of soldiers outside to stand guard. And those soldiers spotted Joe immediately as his horse slowly walked toward them. Without hesitation there were about ten guns pointed at him as the guards yelled for him to stop, warning whoever was inside the cabin that someone was approaching.
They were still far away, and Joe hummed to himself loudly, pretending not to hear the men who meant to kill him if he got any closer.
He had already done his job well. None of the guards looked off to their sides or deep into the woods to try and spot anyone to their flanks. Their eyes were fixed ahead, wide and angry.
“Stop moving!” the lead soldier screamed out when Joe was only about a hundred feet off.
This time Joe looked up at them, allowing a startled look of surprise to spread across his face. “Oh, I’m just passing through, gentlemen. I didn’t even notice you there.” He forced a laugh that didn’t feel natural.
“Find another way to pass through,” the guard said.
“Oh, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Joe answered. “You see, the place I got to be is that way.” He pointed past the men toward the woods beyond, despite the obvious fact that the road ended at the cabin. “I’ve got a friend who lives deep in the forest. I only know how to get there by passing by this here cabin.”
The lead guard pulled his rifle up to his cheek and closed an eye as he aimed at Joe. “I’m gonna give you about three seconds to turn your horse around and start moving.”
Joe stayed where he was, unflinching.
“One…two…” The man didn’t get to three before his brains flew onto the ground next to him. The other guards scrambled for cover, but Joe already had bullets in three of them.
The other Renegades rode in like a Crimson Army cavalry as they encircled the cabin. Joe jumped off his horse, not wanting to be a target, and sprinted toward the cabin.
Gun in hand, he fired two more times, and the bullets hit their mark. There were more guards inside the cabin, however, and a few of them fired through open windows, taking down three Renegades in a second.
Joe swore and took cover behind one of the giant trees. He scanned the area, looking for each of his comrades. To his left, he spotted Clive taking cover behind a fallen tree with another man next to him. On back a little ways was Edric who was crouching low.
He looked for the others, but the only Renegades he could see other than the three were on the ground, dead or bleeding out. He swore silently as he reloaded his pistol. “One little charge and we lose half our party,” he said to himself.
He spun from the tree and let off a shot, hitting the first man in the window right between the eyes. Bodies littered the ground, and blood flowed from each man. Joe glance toward Clive again and saw the guard next to him get shot in the shoulder. The initial shock of it brought the man up to his knees as he reached for the wound, but he didn’t have time to register his mistake before a bullet split his skull.
Now, the only Renegades left were Clive, Edric, and Joe. As Joe leaned his back against the tree, a sinking feeling nearly overtook him. How had they lost so many so quickly?
Joe tried to count the number of Okoro’s men on the ground. He thought there were ten of them, but he couldn’t be sure. He was pretty sure two had been shot on the inside. That left at least three. He dared to look past his cover and saw just two men at two different windows, scanning the area for more enemies.
Sweat dripped down the sides of his face as his heart raced. He needed a diversion. If Clive could get their attention, Joe could let two shots fly and the men would be dead before they hit the ground. He looked back toward Clive who stayed low.
“Hey!” Joe shouted.
Both Clive and Edric looked his way. Joe didn’t say anything, but he raised his gun in the air and jerked it downward a few times, motioning to them to fire their weapons. Edric didn’t acknowledge him, but Clive nodded in understanding.
The Warlord looked down at his gun and reloaded the cartridges. Then, with one more affirming nod at Joe, he lifted his gun in the air and started firing.
Joe didn’t hesitate. The men in the window turned their sights on Clive and Joe dispatched them within half a second of each other. The men fell back, and Joe stayed in position, watching for any movement in the shadows beyond the windows inside.
“We clear?” Clive’s voice echoed from behind him.
Joe didn’t answer. Instead, he stepped forward, not daring to blink as he walked over the carnage of the last minute. If Slaughter Okoro wasn’t dead, then he’d be inside, probably huddled with a gun pointed at the door. That meant Joe had to be ready.
He paused when he got to the door. He could hear muffled footsteps behind him as Clive and Edric walked steadily toward the cabin.
With one hand, Joe held firm to his pistol and with the other he reached for the doorknob. He twisted it slowly and let it creak open. The room beyond was dark and he couldn’t see well. But the light through the door revealed a few dead bodies on the ground. None of them was Slaughter.
He stepped through the doorway, looking in every corner, every crevice where there was a shadow. At the back of the room, there was an older man sitting on the floor, his back leaned against the wall. Blood trickled from his mouth as he covered a bullet wound over his chest with his hand.
Joe kept his gun ready, but he walked toward the old man and knelt down. “Where is he? There was another man in here. Where is he?”
The old man blinked twice then coughed, blood sputtering from his lips in driblets. “You lawmen?” he managed to ask.
“We’re after the man who’s missing,” Joe said. “He’s trying to get to a book and we aim to stop him.”
The man nodded slowly. “There’s a trap door in the back room.” The man started to cough uncontrollably as blood filled his lungs.
There was no more information to get from the man. Joe guessed this was his cabin. Why The Way would have pointed Slaughter Okoro to this place was a mystery to Joe, but the man must have been guarding something important. Surely The Book of Time wasn’t here. Wouldn’t it be in a more secure place?
But if a person never had The Way, he couldn’t know that The Book of Time was out here.
Joe charged toward the back room and found the open trap door. A ladder led down into the dark below. Where the cellar led was a mystery.
“You’re not going down there,” Clive said.
“Could be a passage,” Joe said. “Might even have an exit somewhere we don’t know about. We can’t take that chance.”
Clive swore.
“You two stay up here,” Joe said. “I can take care of Slaughter.”
“He might not be alone,” Clive said.
“You know it’s better if I go alone,” Joe said. “It’s safer this way.”
Clive considered his words for a long moment, then finally he shook his head. “I didn’t come this far to sit up here and wait for you.”
Joe sighed and stared at Clive for a long moment. “That’s up to you, I guess.”
Clive turned to Edric and instructed him to stay up top in the house and watch for any sign of Slau
ghter making his way out a hidden exit. With one last nod at Edric, Joe and Clive descended the ladder into the darkness.
The two men couldn’t see a foot in front of their faces as they moved steadily forward. The piercing thought of accidentally running into Slaughter’s knifepoint in the darkness made Joe keep a hand stretched out in front of him at all times.
The tunnel was cold, and the two of them said nothing as they moved forward, the only sound being their nervous breaths that seemed to have no escape from the walls of dirt around them. The tunnel was shorter than the two men, so they had to move hunched over like some ghoul that thrived in darkness such as this.
When they finally saw the lamplight, Joe couldn’t tell if he felt relieved or nervous. The light gave him something to focus on, but it also meant that Slaughter Okoro was there, probably with a guard or two. Joe took only some comfort in his quickness with his pistol.
He couldn’t tell how long this tunnel was, for the pitch blackness coupled with the fear of what was ahead disguised the number of footsteps taken. They could have traveled a mile or thirty feet, he didn’t know.
As the two Renegades neared the light, Joe felt a steady hand rest on his shoulder, bringing him to a stop. When he looked back, Clive’s face was little more than a shadow, but he could see the reflection of the lamplight in his eyes.
“Let’s take to the walls,” the Warlord whispered.
Joe nodded at him and pressed his back against the left dirt wall while Clive went to the right. When they were set, Joe nodded at Clive and the two of them started moving again, sliding their backs along the wall, their guns ready to fire at the sight of any movement ahead of them.
Joe was ready neither for the gunman who stepped in front of the lamp nor the deafening boom that nearly burst his eardrums as the shots rang out, kicking up dirt near their feet.
Joe swore and let off his own shot, sending the man to the ground. It seemed that the tunnel led to a slightly larger room, all of it reinforced with old boards which were beginning to rot in the damp earth.
The Outlaw's Quest (Keeper of the Books, Book 2) Page 28