Saul lifted his chin. “The people don’t believe everything that they are told. There are too many witnesses. Your departure alone will have aroused ample suspicion. You can’t expect me to minister to their fears.”
A small, spiny lizard darted across the Count’s path. Like a snake coiling back and striking, her gun was out.
Ka-blam!
Gabe jumped.
The shot blasted the lizard into smithereens. The thunderous sound echoed over the hard rocks of the valley. Smoke rolled from the end of the gun’s barrel.
The Count eyed the drifting vapors. “Where one life ends, another life begins.” Her eyes narrowed. She lowered the gun and let loose shot after shot. Lizard guts scattered and clung to the rocks. The valley became an angry storm. The smoking gun was empty. She opened up the cylinder on the revolver and dropped the cartridges on the ground. Using the bullets in her belt, she reloaded, and with a snap of her wrist, she locked the cylinder back into place. She made a thin smile at the both of them. “Oh, how I love that sound and smell. It’s like coffee in the morning.”
Hands covering his ears, Gabe felt for certain that he was going to die at that moment. If not him, then his father. With the gun resting on her shoulder, she walked right up to him, took him by the chin, and looked him in the eye.
“Do you know what fear is, Gabe?” she asked in the voice of a harsh but concerned aunt.
He shook his head.
“Fear is what keeps us safe. Do you want to be safe?”
Gabe tried to look at his dad, but she held his chin fast. Remembering what his father had told him, he tried not to speak at all. He had a feeling she would twist any answer he gave.
The Count shook his head for him and whispered, “Fear of me will keep you safe.”
Suddenly, his father spoke up. “Angela.”
She put the gun barrel on Saul’s temple and cocked the hammer back. “What did you call me?”
CHAPTER 14
The gun barrel sizzled the skin on Saul’s head. He remained still. “Apologies, Count. I just thought…”
She shoved his head with the gun then dropped it at her side. “You just thought? Don’t think, Saul. That’s your problem—you’re thinking too much. And don’t you dare mention my name again. Not alone. Not ever. We aren’t children who play in the dirt anymore. You made your choice, and I made mine. You could have been such a benefactor.”
Gabe didn’t have any idea what she was talking about, but he’d learned something: his father knew her on a deeper basis. That should have been a good thing, but judging by the scowl on her face, it wasn’t.
“You don’t need to try and terrify my son. He’s been through enough.” Saul rubbed the fresh burn mark on his skin.
“If you had done your job, Saul, he wouldn’t have wandered out here, would he? If he understood the horror beyond the walls, he wouldn’t come out here, would he?” She gave Gabe a look. “You need to use a heavy hand with him.”
“He’s been switched more times than you or I can count. He’s a boy. A curious one but harmless.”
“Dangerous is more like it.”
“You know what I meant,” Saul said quickly, as if he’d said something he wanted to take back. “Look, Count, there are four dead. The Dominion won’t have any more of it. You know how precious life is to them. The dragons shed men’s blood, not men. The law protects us.”
“The law protects those within the city walls, not without,” she said. “There are different laws for the savages out here.”
“That’s not how it is to be understood. A citizen is a citizen.”
With her back to him, she held the gun by her ear, half cocked the cylinder back, and clicked it over with her thumb. “I am the law out here. I am the law everywhere. If I say there is no blood law, then there is no blood law.” She gestured as if speaking to an audience. “Who is here to witness any wrongdoing? Maybe I will have acted in self-defense. Perhaps my own preservation is at risk.”
Sage turned his back. Now, no one faced the three of them.
Saul moved in front of his son. “If you have to take a life, take mine.”
She looked over her shoulder. “Oh, you want to be a martyr. I hate martyrs.” She turned to face him. “No surprise, Saul, oh man of the people. But I like the way you think. Perhaps it is the boy who should go. It would be better for him in the long run. They’ll say he’s cursed.”
Sticking his hand out, Saul said, “No, please. Certainly there is another way.”
Gabe clutched at the sides of his father’s pants. He’d almost lost his father once in less than a day, and he didn’t want to lose him again. With his tongue cleft to his mouth, he tried to think of something to say.
“It will only take one of these bullets to put an end to the both of you. Seeing how I’ve wasted enough ammo, I’d just as soon kill two troublesome birds with one really fast stone today.” She lowered the gun to Saul’s gut. The hammer locked back with a click. “For the sake of the citizens, I’ll try to think up something good that they can swallow, seeing how they liked you so much. Oh, here’s an idea—I could say marauders overtook you. Now, that would be perfect. Just imagine, the mourning will go on for weeks, but the dragon games will wash their miseries away.”
Hugging his father’s waist from behind with his eyes sealed shut, Gabe tried to scream for mercy, but he couldn’t.
“Wait!” Saul blurted out. “We found something.”
“Speak quick if you wish to humor me, Saul,” she said. “I’ve a busy day ahead of me with this mess that you’ve caused. What is it?”
“It’s an egg. Not like the others. It’s special.”
Gabe opened up his eyes just in time to see the Count ease the hammer back and rest the weapon on her shoulder. “Special how?”
With a little nod of his chin, Saul said, “It’s just different in size and color.”
“And where did you find this special egg?”
“At the dragon’s belly. Sage missed it.”
“Sage! Come!”
The lanky man shuffled over on his sandals and came alongside her. Wrinkles formed between his eyes.
“They claim you missed an egg. Are you holding out on me?”
“Certainly not, Count.” Sage’s nostrils flared. “I didn’t miss any egg. I’m certain of it. I’m curious about his find as well.”
“Well, let’s see it then, Saul.”
“Not without some guarantees,” he replied. “I’d just as soon take my secret to the grave with me.”
“I’m sure your son will fill us in once you are dead. We have plenty of methods to extract it from him.” She holstered her gun. “You won’t want your son to go through something like that, now, would you? Just imagine him covered in insects. Big ones.”
Gabe clung to his father’s side, eyes averted from hers. He had no doubt in his heart that she’d carry out what she threatened. He took a glance back at the caves on the hill. If he had to run for it, that was where he’d head.
“My son doesn’t have knowledge of where it’s hidden. He can’t tell you what he doesn’t know.” Saul shifted his weight from foot to foot and almost fell down. He caught himself and braced himself against Gabe.
“You’re a clever man, Saul. You always have been.” She picked at the black paint on her fingernails. “An exchange of words, then. You give me the egg, you live, and your boy lives. But keep your lips sealed on this incident and follow my lead.” She walked up to him and opened the palm of her hand before him. “With Sage as my witness, do we have a deal?”
“We do.” Saul locked his fingers with hers. In a game of uncle, she bent his wrist back with a sneer. Straining, Saul said, “You still have it.”
She broke it off. “No, you still have it. Where is it?”
Kneeling, Saul set his pack on the ground and opened the neck of it.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Smiling up at her, Saul said, “Bluffing is more like it.”
“Clever,�
�� she said. “I don’t like it. It makes you dangerous.”
“I’m a dragon hunter—I’m supposed to be dangerous.” Saul upturned the pack, and the dragon egg rolled out onto the ground.
Touching her hand to her chest, she said, “Oh, my. That color. I’ve never seen the like.” She backhanded Sage in his gaping jaw. “You missed this?”
“I did not,” Sage said, holding his face. “I was thorough.”
Eyeing her with a shimmer of confidence, Saul said, “He missed it, but I missed it too. It seeped out later in the fluid.”
“Gut that dragon!” she ordered Sage. “If there’s another egg, you’d better find it. I want you elbows and ankles deep in that thing.”
“Me?” Sage said in astonishment.
“Yes, you! Go!”
Using a handkerchief, Saul started to scoop the egg back into the pack.
Wagging her finger in his face, the Count said, “Leave it right where it is, tricky man.”
Saul pulled back. Looking up at her with the sun in his eyes, he said, “I was just gathering it up for you.”
She ran her long fingers over her chin with her dark eyes fastened on the egg. “This is quite a find. Quite a find. Is it unmolested?”
“My skin hasn’t touched it, Angela, er, I mean, Count.”
She batted an eye at him. “You best keep it right.” Her glare landed on Gabe. She stood inches from his face. That penetrating look went right through him. “What about you, Gabe? Did you touch it?”
He held her gaze, and through sheer force of will, he managed to nod his stiff neck.
“Uh-huh.” She backed away. “You know, Saul, I wasn’t going to kill you or your son.”
“Sure you weren’t,” Saul said.
She sort of laughed. “I just wanted to see if you’d pee your pants. Remember that time, Saul?”
“I do.”
“Death is such a messy thing,” she added. “No, I just had to make sure I had your full cooperation before we returned, but if I was convinced that I didn’t, I was going to leave you out here as food for the marauders.” She took off the rose-colored handkerchief that hung over her neck and picked up the egg with it. She gave Gabe another knowing stare. “This is going to be interesting. Very interesting, tricky men.”
CHAPTER 15
Late in the day, Saul and Gabe were escorted back to the compound. It was oddly quiet the entire way back, and Gabe’s father hadn’t said a word to him. It left him feeling uncomfortable. For the time being, the Count seemed satisfied, even though Sage hadn’t found any more dragon eggs in the belly of the leather-scaled beast. His robes had suffered for his efforts, and he had lizard slime baking all over him. He stank, too, and marched in the back after the Count ordered him to move downwind of the rest of them.
Traversing the huge hillside from another angle just below the fallen bridge, they made their way to the top and entered the tunnel. The stiff winds howled through the passageway, but Gabe found comfort in its shade. He ran his hands over the broken cars he passed. His finger wiped the clots of dust, revealing bright-red glass underneath.
They emerged on the other side of the tunnel. The guards squinted against the setting sun. Some of them slid their goggles on. Others didn’t. Gabe and his father left theirs off.
In a commotion, several of the guards started pointing back at the compound. Thick black smoke was spooling upward from within the high walls.
The Count marched forward. “Spyglass! Who has the spyglass?”
The guards cast nervous glances at one another.
“Am I to understand that none of you idiots brought the glass?”
No one moved.
The Count let out a growl. She glanced at Saul as he adjusted the lenses on his goggles. “Give me those!”
He tossed them toward her, and she snatched them out of the air and put them on. Her men gathered around her as she took a high point on a cluster of sand stones. Her fingers adjusted the lenses. With her lips twisted in a sneer, she said, “It seems that one of the hunters has let the dragon out of the bag. Why am I not surprised? When I figure out who it was, I’m going to sew his lips shut. Fools.” She tore the goggles away and flung them into the dust. “Let’s go!”
Gabe fetched the goggles. He blew the dust off and handed them back to his father. They began the brisk march back to Newton. His father only said one thing to him on the way there. “Stay close.” There was an ominous tone about it, as if they might be separated. It didn’t sit well with him. The stink of burning rubber and oil filled the air. He wiped his nose on his sleeve.
Less than fifty yards from the northern gate, the group came to a stop. The Count gave Sage and a pair of guards some orders. The three men raced into the compound. Several minutes later, Sage returned with one of the guards. The Count bent her ear to his lips. Her brows started to crease.
She walked right to Saul. “It seems that the hunters’ mouths are even bigger than I expected. The citizens have heard everything. I am betrayed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that the truth has come out,” Saul said.
“The truth is out that your son left the city and brought doom on the heads of four of our fine citizens, Saul!” Her nostrils flared. She shook her head and lowered her voice. “They’ll look to me for justice. They will demand it. I have to deliver it.”
“Gabe isn’t guilty of anything aside from leaving the compound,” Saul argued. “You know that! There should be consequences for his departure, but not for the deaths of those men!”
“Don’t you raise your voice to me, Saul.” She rubbed the black handle on her gun. “I should have left you in the desert, but it’s too late now. You will bear witness with me, Saul. Follow my lead. Do you understand?”
He gave Gabe a grim look and nodded.
“That son of yours is neck deep in trouble,” she said. “But I can’t have this thing escalate. I make you no guarantees, either. You’ll have to convince the people. I’ll do what I can with the Dominion, but chances are, they’re going to make an example out of him. Sage!”
The envoy of the Dominion rushed over, bowing. “Yes, Count.”
“Spread the word within. We’re going to meet in the pavilion. I will speak. And see to it that Malak and his hunters are not present. I’ll deal with those jackals when I call for them.”
“Yes, Count.”
“Guards,” she added to the hard-faced men. “Keep them safe. If anyone gets froggy, don’t hesitate to bust them.”
They waited. Gabe could hear the angry chants and howls coming from within the compound. The citizens wanted answers. They wanted blood. Hemmed in by the guards front and rear, he took his father’s hand. It was the only time in his life that he was glad to have the guards so close. They were actually protecting him from an angry mob that—based on the chants —wanted him hurt, or even worse, dead. Never in his life could he have imagined that someone would want to kill him. Only moments earlier, he’d been looking forward to returning home to the sanctuary of the compound, but now his legs were noodles. It didn’t even register that his feet were moving over the ground.
“You’re going to be fine,” his dad said in his ear. “Stay close.”
Nothing seemed to register over the next several minutes. His dad’s hand was on the back of his head, keeping it down. All he could hear were the angry shouts and screams of a frenzied horde. He covered his ears. Why is this happening to me? He wanted to crawl back into a dark place somewhere and die.
Ka-pow! The thunderous crack of a gunshot silenced the boisterous crowd.
Looking up, Gabe realized that he was deep inside the walls of the compound in the pavilion. It was an amphitheater-type gathering place. A series of cut-stone arches made up the exterior entrances. Metal beams looped over one another, making a high, vaulted ceiling covered in a stretch fabric. A platform was front and center, surrounded by wooden steps that led up onto an enormous stone pedestal. He and his father stood at the bottom.
At t
he top, the Count holstered her gun. There was a dangerous look in her eyes. When she spoke, it filled the entire chamber. Hundreds of people stood within, and over a thousand more crowded outside of the archways.
The Count raised her bare arms. “I leave for hours, and we have this! Wreckage! Carnage! Madness! Civil unrest is still a crime, people!” She dropped her arms. “You dare burn your own resources? It is a punishable offense!”
Someone from the crowd yelled out, “Murder is too!”
Instantly, the crowd began to chant, “Blood spilled for blood shed! Blood spilled for blood shed! Blood spilled for blood shed!”
CHAPTER 16
The Count pulled out her pistol, held it high, and without firing a shot, she yelled, “Shut up!”
On command, the people quieted.
“Look at you! Look at all of you! I bet my bullets there aren’t three of you who can tell the same story! All you have heard are rumors! Speculation! Lies!” She strolled back and forth on the platform with the pistol resting on her shoulder. Facing the crowd, she smiled out of the corner of her mouth. “Tell you what. Why don’t I let you tell me what happened?” She started pointing her fingers at different faces in the crowd. “Bring me him! Him! And her!”
The guards shoved through the crowd. They roughly grabbed the people the Count pointed out and dragged them onto the stage. All three shriveled underneath her iron glare.
The Count slung her arm around a hapless-looking man with little hair and even less chin. His eyes blinked without control. He started sweating profusely.
“Tell me, rioter. Why are you rioting?”
“Uh,” he stammered. “I don’t know.”
“‘I don’t know,’ he says!” She shook her head. “Isn’t that a good reason to destroy the little that we have?” She shoved the man off the stage and approached the woman. “Katy, isn’t it?”
The woman nodded. She kept looking up at the Count and back at the ground.
“Tell me why this riot is happening.”
With her fingers digging into the palms of her hands, Katy said in a soft, shaking voice, “A boy killed five people.”
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