Blind Salvage (16 page)

Across from us stood ogres in every color possible. Like a bag of skittles, see the fucking rainbow that would like to taste you after roasting you on a spit. This couldn’t be good, yet they weren’t trying to kill us.

“The Roc—” I started to ask, and Grey boy cut me off.

“Time for answers later. We have to move our asses if we’re going to all get out of here alive.”

Dox ran to my side, the distinct imprints of teeth all over his neck and shoulders. At least he’d had some fun. “Rylee, you… .”

I shoved him to get him going. “We couldn’t wait.”

We took off, running blind down the mountain in the dark, night having fallen fully as we’d fought Orion. The ground around us shook, and a blasting spurt of lava erupted out the side of the mountain, three hundred feet to the left of us.

The ogres covered the ground in leaps in bounds, literally jumping and letting gravity taking them further down the mountain with each stride, snow flying up around their feet as they landed. An explosion behind us spurred me on. Out of the frying pan we were, and into the big-ass fire.

A crackling sizzle reached my ears, but I didn’t turn around.

“It’s hot on our heels, get your fat, monkey sucking asses moving!” Dev shouted, and the ogres seemed to find a new gear. Liam didn’t scoop me up, but Tin did, snagging me around the waist and throwing me on his back. I clutched around his neck with my arms, and stood on the thick edge of his belt.

Then I looked behind us, sucking in a sharp, horrified breath. The entire top of the mountain was crumbling inward as the lava burst up and out. Brilliant red and orange geysers of liquid death shot into the starless sky followed by massive billows of black smoke illuminated by the lava that spilled down the mountain toward us. With each passing second the lava drew closer, eating up everything in its path.

“We aren’t going to make it,” I yelled, hoping that their mages had some way to help us.

Two of them turned around long enough to toss a spell, that to my eyes, did nothing.

“They pushed the gases in the other direction,” Tin said. My understanding of volcanoes wasn’t at its peak, but I did recall something about a flow of gas and rock that outpaced even the lava. I looked back, and all I saw was the red flow of death. I suppose that was better than the alternative of choking to death on fumes and
then
being consumed by the lava.

Grey boy glanced over his shoulder. “Head for the lake.”

As one, the ogres turned, angling toward the lake that surrounded the base of the mountain. Though it had taken us hours to climb Mt. Hood, riding ogre-back on the downhill took mere minutes. We were out of the snow now, but the ground was sloppy and wet, thick with ash, and a red ogre to the right of us lost his footing, tumbled and fell.

The lava caught him, swallowed him in one gulping wave, leaving behind his hand reaching up for a second, the fingers blackening before the lava even touched them.

I swallowed hard, heart pounding, my adrenaline racing and there wasn’t a damn thing I, or anyone else, could do.

The sharp incline leveled out and the gang of ogres thundered into the forest. Like a living thing, the lava flowed ever onward, devouring everything in its path. This was what Orion did, with a few words? With a gesture and a single spell when his host’s body had a broken neck? Son of a fucking bitch, he was as bad as all the prophesies made him out to be.

Maybe worse.

Thank the gods he was done.

Tin leapt over a downed log, and my feet slid off his belt, leaving me dangling from his back. All thoughts of Orion fled as I fought to hang onto the bounding ogre, the vision of what had happened to the red ogre who’d gone down seared in my mind. That would be a seriously bad way to end this salvage.

“Tracker, if you fall, I can’t stop,” Tin puffed out.

“Got it,” I barked out. Shit, I was sliding; there was nothing I could hang onto, his slick bare skin giving me no traction whatsoever.

There was nothing for it. I either fell from his back in a heap, or I leapt and had a chance at keeping my feet under me. As I slid down his back, I pushed to the side and hit the ground running.

In seconds, the lava was at my heels, kissing the backs of my boots, heat rolling up and around me, stealing the air I needed. Liam dropped back to my side, grabbed my hand and jerked me forward as a gulp of lava rolled ahead of the rest of it.

We burst through the bush into the parking lot where Dox’s truck sat waiting for us. But the trail ran parallel to the edge of the flow of the lava; the truck was going to be toasted. The lake it was.

With the searing heat behind us, the multi-hued Gang of ogres dove into the lake, swimming out into the open water. I caught sight of Calliope being floated between Dox and the grey boy.

And then I dove in, the icy water sluicing over my head. I floated for a minute under the water, looking back the way we’d come. The lava hit the shoreline, flowing into the lake, lighting it up from inside.

A pair of red swirling eyes hardened in the lava, as the water cooled the deadly flow.

“We are not done yet, Tracker. I will have your soul yet. Yours, and the souls of all you love.”

I kicked myself to the surface, anger searing my synapsis. “And that’s your mistake, Orion. You can threaten me, but threaten those I love and you will regret it beyond the grave.”

T
he ogres were
in high spirits, having no problem with the winter-chilled, glacier-fed lake. I, on the other hand, was freezing. My eyes drooped with each breath I took, fatigue dragging me down.

While the ogres splashed and played, exultant from having outrun the lava, I swam to Dox, each movement of my arms and legs causing shivers of cold-induced pain to ripple through me. Liam kept pace with me, seemingly as unaffected as the ogres by the cold. Before I could speak, Dox slung an arm around my waist and gave me a hard squeeze.

“Thank you, Rylee.”

I looked up at him. Even through my wet clothes and the water, I could feel his body heat, which I was intensely grateful for. “Thanks for what?”

“I would never have come back without you needing to be here for a salvage, and I would have missed out on this. On the fight, and seeing the triplets again. On Sas. For the first time, I finally belong, I’m finally home. I don’t know if you can understand what that means to me.” He grinned down at me, a new light in his eyes. I understood what it was to want to belong, to finally find that place. I glanced at Liam over my shoulder. Yeah, I really did understand. I gave Dox a nod.

“I’m happy for you. And glad you came too. Our asses would have been fried up there without your help.”

Teeth chattering as a wash of cold water thick with ash swirled between us, I pointed at the shoreline. “But we have to get me and Calli out of this lake, or it won’t matter that we dodged the hot sauce.”

He nodded, gave a holler, and the triplets swam over to us, helped to get us across to the far side. Ash floated down around us, coating the lake’s surface. It stuck to my face and neck, and as we stepped out of the water it clung to every piece of us.

As much as I wanted to complain, I didn’t. We’d survived something that should have taken us out. Would have died without the help we’d received. Which still made no sense, but I wasn’t going to remind them that they were on the hunt for us.

The triplets got a fire going within minutes and I crouched beside it, peeling out of my jacket. Calliope lay beside me, her legs tucked under her and as close to the fire as she could get. The firelight flickered and danced against her white coat. I ran a hand over her back, and she turned to look at me, gold nubbin catching the light.

Thank you, for saving me.

I smiled and gave her a tired nod. “Just try to avoid Rocs in the future.”

She bobbed her head.
I will do my best.

Crouched beside her, I stared out at the lake, all of the ogres still hanging out in the water except for Dox and the triplets.

“What happened?” I turned my face up to Dox, who stood over me.

“You mean after you left without us?” He growled.

Lop laughed, slapping his hands on his thighs. “That was fucking wicked awesome, woman. If you were an ogre, I’d be banging the hell out of you.” His brothers were nodding in agreement.

Liam slowly stood, every line of his body tense. Lop held up his hands. “Easy wolf, I said IF. She’s too fucking puny for my taste. But that took balls, to head into hostile territory without help. Ogres like a good, strong woman. None of this pansy ass, ‘I broke my nail’ shit.”

Liam relaxed, then snorted. “No, it takes a stubbornness that one day is going to get her hurt. But if I ever get tired of her, I’ll let you know.”

My jaw dropped and the triplets fell over themselves laughing. Even Calliope let out a soft nicker.

“It wasn’t that funny,” I grumbled, but I bit the inside of my cheek. Not for one second did I think Liam would ever get tired of me. Gods, I hoped not.

Dox dropped to a crouch beside me. “You killed the Roc, that’s why they were willing to help.”

Dev crawled toward the fire, stretched out on his belly. “Yup, you did what no ogre has been able to. You got rid of the big bitch of a bird. The ogres are in your debt.”

“What they say is true.”

I turned to see the rest of the ogres emerging from the lake, water glistening on their many-colored hides. They were surreal, the lava still erupting on the mountain behind them, the dark night above, and the reflection of the lake. The scene was damn near poetic.

Grey boy crouched beside me and held out his hand. “I am Sla, and I speak for all the ogres, all the Gangs. You are welcome here, Tracker. And we will stand with you when the time comes.”

I swallowed hard, and set my hand in his. “Just for killing the Roc?”

He smiled down at me. “Killing the Roc was the sign that you are the one who will lead us into battle.”

Oh, no. Not this shit again. “Nope, sorry, that isn’t going to happen; we threw him into the pit.” I tossed a twig into the fire, to illustrate my words.

Sla shook his head. “It is not so easy to kill a demon. If it was, there would be none left. You took away the body he possessed, nothing more.”

“How do you know all this? Are demons a past time hobby for you?” I lifted an eyebrow at him. Dox groaned softly, but Sla didn’t seem to mind my attitude.

He flopped to the ground and stretched out lengthwise as if he, and all the other ogres, hadn’t tried to kill us just a few hours past.

“We have prophecies too, though you will not find them in any ogre-skinned book.” His eyes flicked up to mine and I gave him a nod. No point in denying it. He shrugged. “If an ogre is stupid enough to be skinned alive, they deserve it.”

The ogres around us gave a resounding rumble of agreement.

“More to the point, you are the sign that the final battle is coming.
When the Roc dies and the lava flows, the battle is nigh.
” He eyed me up. “I’d hoped you’d be a bit more intimidating, though. The triplets speak true, you are rather puny to be a hero.”

I really didn’t like the direction of this conversation. “Orion isn’t coming back. There is not going to be a gods-be-damned battle. And I am no one’s hero.”

Dox put a hand on my shoulder. “You have their loyalty, whether you want it or not.”

I shook his hand off and stood. I didn’t know what to say, how to stop them from believing these prophecies. Or to get them to see that it was over, that Orion was done. So I walked away from the group to the edge of the firelight, where Liam caught up to me. “Hey. We’re alive, they aren’t trying to kill us, and we have Calliope. Don’t throw a fit because they want to believe in something that scares you.”

I could have slapped him. For telling me the truth and for pointing out that I was afraid. I didn’t do fear well, never had.

“You aren’t the one being set up as some gods-be-damned savior of the world. I’m nobody, just a Tracker. That’s it. There is nothing more to me. I don’t have any special powers; I don’t have any magic. Hell, if we’d been a little longer crossing the veil at the castle, I would have died. I am not cut out to be in any prophecy. If it comes down to me and Orion, he will win!”

Note to self: when anger is flowing, try to recall that you might be a lot louder than you realize. Like as in yelling at the top of your lungs.

All the ogres stared at us in the sudden silence after my outburst. I closed my eyes, shame flooding me. Liam stepped back, his face shuttered from any emotion. “I’m going to go and find a vehicle. Try to stay out of trouble while I’m gone.”

“Liam, wait.” I started after him but in an instant, he disappeared into the bush.

Once more, I’d screwed things up.

“Good fucking job, Rylee,” I muttered to myself. “Good fucking job.”

I made my way back to the fire and flopped down beside Calliope. I wished Alex was there to break the tension. Or Pamela to point out something good and beautiful. I Tracked Alex first, pinpointed him in a heartbeat. Almost directly east of us, his threads were strong and healthy, but he was afraid of something. Not totally unusual with Alex; he could sometimes get spooked by his own shadow.

Then I Tracked Pamela.

While she was in the same place, she was bruised and scared. I sat up straighter and Tracked Eve. No, this couldn’t be happening, not when I was all the way on the other side of the continent. Eve’s threads, I could barely feel them, weak and fading fast.

Eve was dying. I shot to my feet.

“Dox, go help Liam—we’ve got to go. Now.”

The ogres around us rustled, Sla stood slowly. “What is it?”

“One of my wards is dying. I have to get to her.”

I reached out and put a hand on Calliope’s neck.

Warm and dry, her coat was silken under my fingertips. “Calli, do you have any way at all that we can reach your tribe, let them know that you’re okay?”

She shook her head.
No. I would have done so on my own if there was some way.

I put my hands on my head and clung to Eve’s threads. So far away, I was so god damned far away. Calli’s father had said they would wait for us. It had only been three days; surely they wouldn’t have hurt Eve? Fuck!

If only there was a way I could jump the veil … my eyes snapped open and I stared into the flames. Faris had said I could learn. Maybe. I paced in front of the fire, my mind racing as I struggled to remember exactly what Faris had done. The triplets spoke with their heads bowed together, and Sla made a motion with his right hand that sent the rest of the ogres melting into the darkness.

“Where is it you must go?” Sla asked. “Perhaps one of our magic wielders could help you.”

“You got a place to cross the veil close by?” Hope flared. If there was a place we could cross the veil that would take us at least closer to North Dakota, we might have a chance.

Sla nodded slowly. “Yes, we have such a place. Though I do not know if it will lead to where you need to go. Our entrance leads to a castle.”

Hell yeah, that was what I wanted to hear. “How close is it?” I gathered up my jacket, slid it on over my damp clothes.

The grey ogre stood slowly. “An hour from here, a little more if we go slowly.”

I did a quick check of my weapons. “And if we hurry?”

Dev bent and scooped Calliope into his arms. “Come on, enough dicking about. Let’s go.”

“Wait, Dox can carry her; you aren’t all coming, are you?” Please tell me I hadn’t acquired a Gang of ogres.

Dox and Liam stepped out of the bush as I was trying to figure out how many ogres were coming with us. Apparently, Sla and the triplets had appointed themselves my newest bodyguards. Liam took charge, slipping once more into Agent mode. “Rylee, stay tight with me; Dev, you and Tin trade off if you need a break from carrying Calliope.” The two ogres gave him a salute. “Lop, you bring up the rear, Sla and Dox take the lead.”

Surprising the shit out of me, everyone did what they were told. Sla and Dox set a fast pace, crashing a path out in front of us. Jaw tight, I held Eve’s threads and struggled not to let her pain affect me. Her life leached from her, and I knew she had hours at best. Whatever damage had been done to her, it was bad enough that her natural healing abilities wouldn’t be fast enough. She needed someone to heal her.

No one ambushed us and we made it to the entranceway through the veil in less than half an hour. A massive cedar tree that had to be at least twenty feet around was our destination. Split in the middle, cored out by fire, the black opening beckoned. With my second sight, the entrance was clear as day and more welcome than anything I’d ever seen.

“Rylee, you ready?” Liam touched my shoulder. I nodded.

Sweat drenched even in the cold night air, exhausted from the day’s events, I struggled to hold onto Alex’s and Pamela’s threads alongside Eve’s.

And then Pamela’s threads shimmered like a candle being blown on. Not dead, but across the veil, the gods only knew where.

“FUCK!”

Their voices clamored over me while I fought the nausea that rose in my gut. “Just go, get through the veil.”

They did as I said and we all stepped through the veil, the tingle of it sliding over my skin. The cedar tree opened into an inner courtyard that I hadn’t seen.

And Pamela’s threads were suddenly clear as a bell.

“PAMELA!”

There was a scuttle of feet, and then, “Rylee, I’m here!”
And then her threads disappeared again. This time though, they were gone, like as in across a body of water gone.

Motherfucking vampire, I was going to kill Faris. He was the only one that would have the balls to snatch Pamela. But why did he want her? Or was it just another way to control me?

Eve’s life dimmed again and my feet stilled. There really was no choice; Eve had to come first.

“Hang on, Pamela. I’ll come for you,” I whispered, turning away from where I’d heard her call out. We bolted through the castle to the exit we needed. I knew where we had to go, which doorway would take us to the mineshaft in the badlands just outside of Bismarck.

“We’ll need light, grab some of those torches.” I pointed to the walls as I ran. No time, there was no time to waste.

Hang on, Eve, just hang on.

We had to cross paths with the bloodshed of the red caps. Their bodies were putrefying, maggots crawling over them, their eyes pecked out by the carrion eaters.

“What the hell happened here?” Dox breathed out, gagging on the thick air.