Part 12 (1/2)
But as she and Dez, both lightly s.h.i.+elded by his magic, slipped past the locked entrance gate for the third night in a row and followed the cow pastureflanked road to the trading post that marked the trail-heads, it bothered her that they hadn't been able to pinpoint Keban. h.e.l.l, they hadn't even caught a whiff of him. Granted, the winikin had been trained to disappear, and he would have gone deeper under once he knew Dez was after him, but still. It didn't feel right.
”Come out, come out, wherever you are,” she murmured as they pa.s.sed the trading post and took the ice cave trail, the details gone green behind her night-vision goggles. She was very aware of Dez, sleek and solid beside her, his movements predator-smooth in the darkness. Despite her best intentions and the fact that they had been strictly hands off over the past three days, focusing on the job, his taste and the way he had felt inside her seemed burned into her neurons. ”Can you sense him?” she asked, voice sharper than it needed to be.
He shook his head. ”I'm not getting a d.a.m.n thing.” Which could mean that although Keban's potions couldn't knock him out anymore, they could still camouflage the winikin's scent trail . . . or it could mean there was nothing to sense.
”He'll be here,” she said as they moved off again. He had to show up. Not that they wanted to fight for the two-faced mask, but they needed to get their hands on the white G.o.d's head and the red skybearer, too. And they needed to do it before Iago got wind of the weapon's existence. The Nightkeepers had the black star demon safely locked up behind a heavy, magic-cloaking ward, but still.
White, red, black, yellow, she thought, because they were expecting the two-faced mask to be made of yellow stone. Once she had figured out the trick of what they had taken to calling the compa.s.s artifacts, Lucius had come up with another layer to the symbolism: In Nightkeeper lore, each direction was a.s.sociated with a color and certain traits. Black-west was the power of shadows and dreams, as well as the ability to shake things up. Which was Dez in a nutsh.e.l.l, and explained why he had connected so strongly with the star demon, but hadn't felt the same pull to the white G.o.d's head, which represented truth, integrity, and the winds of change. Red-east represented inspiration, pa.s.sion, and flas.h.i.+ness; no doubt he'd click with the skybearer statue when they got their hands on it. Not so much the two-faced mask, though, because yellow-south was connected with patience and balance, neither of which was his forte.
He was trying, though-or he seemed to be. In the days since their post-s.e.x showdown he hadn't given her any new reason to distrust him. He was still stubborn and p.r.o.ne to shortcuts, but he listened to her, argued patterns with her, and had even won a few of those arguments, reminding her what it was like to debate someone who thought so far outside the box. But through it all she had been aware that a part of her was standing back and watching him, trying to figure out whether it was real or part of an act, even one he wasn't aware of putting on. He'd always had a knack for talking himself into doing what he wanted, after all.
”Look,” he said, pausing to point through a spot where the dark tree branches gave way to the horizon. A streak of light crossed the night sky. Then another. The meteor shower had begun.
She suddenly was very aware of being alone with him in the darkness, attuned to his breathing and the soft click of his weapons as he s.h.i.+fted his weight and glanced over at her. But all she said was, ”We should go.”
”Yeah.” But he looked at her for another long moment before he moved off toward the covered wooden staircase that led down to the cave. She followed him down, nearly piling into him when he stopped on the first landing and turned back to her. ”Listen. If this turns into a firefight . . .”
”I'll stay close to you so you can s.h.i.+eld me.”
”But if you can't get to me, or if things get really bad, I want you to call in the cavalry.”
She raised an eyebrow, trusting that he would see the move with his augmented vision. ”What happened to 'I need to do this on my own. We can't involve the others'?”
”You happened,” he said. And suddenly, the air between them held more than just the s.h.i.+eld magic.
”Don't,” she said, then couldn't get another word out, because he was lifting a hand to brush a strand of hair away from her face and tuck it behind her ear.
”It's one thing to risk my own life, another to risk yours. I couldn't . . . I don't want you hurt again because of me.”
Her heart went thudda-thump and her breath thinned in her lungs, but she lifted her chin. ”It's my choice to be here. I'm not your responsibility.”
”Promise me you'll call for backup if things get hairy.”
She nodded, because what was the point of arguing about something she was already planning to do? ”I promise.”
Without another word, he turned and moved ahead of her, pulling his .44 as he headed down the stairs toward the cave mouth, which was a huge, rounded opening the size of a highway underpa.s.s. Pulling her .38, Reese followed. And as she did, she told herself not to make the moment into something more than it really was. Which was nothing, really. Or at least nothing that could truly matter.
The air changed, the temperature decreasing with each step as they pa.s.sed into the cave and descended the final short flight of stairs to where a wide observation platform overlooked the frozen lake. The night vision robbed her view of color, but it was still impressive. The frozen surface was roughly circular, edged with jumbles of rock and curving cavern walls that dripped with more ice, some of it in icicles, some as cascading waterfall formations.
That was all the same as it had been last night and the night before. Now, though, there was also a line of starscript glowing blue-white on the far wall, where the ice ended and the stone began.
Adrenaline kicked through her at the confirmation that they were in the right place at the right time. ”Nice,” she whispered under her breath, feeling a beat of optimism.
Dez swung over the railing. ”Come on, let's take a closer look. Keep an eye on the door for me, though.”
”h.e.l.l of a door.” The cave mouth was a huge, gaping opening with multiple time-worn rock trails leading down. It would be far too easy for Keban to find a sheltered position up there and shoot down into the cave. Which is why I'm sticking close to the guy with the magic, Reese thought. She traded her .38 for the heavier firepower of the autopistol as they walk-slid across the frozen pool to the other side, then climbed over jumbled rocks to the starscript. Two outcroppings protruded slightly out into the pond; one was marked in blue-white starscript with half a man's face, the other with half a screaming skull. Behind them on the wall, running roughly between them, was a squiggling, serpentine line.
Dez kicked at the ice between the two marked stones. ”Doesn't look any different than the rest of it.”
”The cave adds ice every year. Depending on when the artifact was hidden, it could be pretty far down.”
”Lucky for us, we've got-”
Without a buzz or hum of warning, the air cracked nearby and twenty men materialized in the center of the cave. Or not men, Reese saw even as she pivoted and brought up her autopistol, blood icing at the sight of glowing green eyes. ”Makol!”
They wore long loincloths, quilted armor and feather-trimmed demon-faced masks, and they carried buzzswords-wooden staves edged with spinning black blades that could detach like throwing stars. Her heart seized on a crazed thought of OhmiG.o.d they're real, but then Dez shouted something and amped his s.h.i.+eld to a blue-white latticework of energy, snapping her out of her shock.
She fired a panicked burst through the s.h.i.+eld and a makol sprayed black blood and went down writhing. And for a second she froze, flas.h.i.+ng back on another cavernous s.p.a.ce, another gunned-down body lying twitching on the floor in a pool of blood.
”Reese!” Dez jerked her behind him and let rip with a blast of purple-white as their attackers spread out and rushed the s.h.i.+eld, swords buzzing a high-pitched bee swarm of sound. The magic tore into the oncoming line, knocking back three of the makol, who went down twitching. ”Reese! There's too many of them. Make the call.”
She jerked from her paralysis and slapped her armband, but nothing happened. There was no little red light, no acknowledging beep. No reception, d.a.m.n it. ”We're too deep underground! We need to get closer to the door!”
”Wait. Close your eyes.” Dez grabbed her, stripped off her goggles and got an arm around her, so her face was pressed into his chest and covered with the edge of his coat. Then electricity raced over her, through her, and the world went bright white as he unleashed a ma.s.sive bolt of magic into the ice near their feet.
The blast was deafening. The ice heaved beneath them, cracking and tilting, and she clung to him without meaning to.
Then he let go of her, shoved the goggles into her hand, and snapped, ”Get the mask and we'll make a run for it.”
For a terrifying second, she was lost in a surreal world of pitch blackness lit only by luminous green eyes and his s.h.i.+eld magic. Then she jammed the goggles into place and everything snapped back into focus: The makol had concentrated their efforts at one point on Dez's s.h.i.+eld and were trying to hack through with their swords. He stood opposite them, channeling lightning with one hand and firing an autopistol with the other, keeping them off balance and floundering. Bleeding.
”Move!” he bellowed.
Reese moved.
Spinning to where he had blasted away the ice and part of the rock near the starscript, she dove into the ragged chasm he had created. Her night vision was blurry at close range, but her fingers found a lumpy object wrapped in frozen cloth. She tried to pull it out, but the cloth tore and her fingers brushed a smooth, sleek, and intricately carved artifact. The mask! She fumbled, trying to get hold of it.
”Reese!” His voice cracked with the strain of holding the s.h.i.+eld.
”Almost there.” Her fingers found an edge and the disk popped free. ”Got it!” She lunged to his side, held it out. ”Here.”
”Keep it.” He jammed the autopistol into his belt and grabbed her free arm. A tingle ran through her at his touch, a sign that his magic was running hot. He grated, ”Close your eyes on three. One. Two. Now!”
She slammed her eyes shut as he let rip with a huge bolt of magic that cracked and crashed, and made her hair spark with static.
”Come on!” He dragged her to a stumbling run over the torn-up ice, tightening the s.h.i.+eld spell around them.
She caught disjointed glimpses of makol bodies, ripped limbs, black blood.
”Don't look,” he ordered roughly, pulling her to his side and trying to block the sight with his body. But she could still see the carnage, smell the blood.