Book 4 - Chapter 45 - A Distant Figure (1/2)

Cloudhawk stooped and picked up the dull pieces of crystal from the dirt.

Azura stood by his side with a belly full of questions, but did not give voice to any of them.

These people and their relationship was too complicated for her young mind to comprehend. Cloudhawk and Adder obvious respected one another, so why did they have to fight? Cloudhawk obviously cared a lot for Luciasha, so why did they treat each other like strangers?

She’d experienced so much on her journey, so much of which she didn’t understand. So many vivid figures who were strong and brave and persistent and remarkable… but so much of them was a mystery. Azura could only commit them to memory, and let the years to come give her the answers.

Her gaze was on Cloudhawk, who she knew was struggling with what happened. Adder’s words had struck something in her teacher, as did Asha leaving without saying a thing.

Still, he managed to squeeze out a gentle smile her way. “What are you thinking about, you little punk.”

“How can you still smile?”

“You think I should cry?”

Azura thought for a moment. “I guess smiling is better.”

“All that from Adder was just wishful thinking.” Cloudhawk ruffled the little girl’s dirty hair. “I’m not the sort of person to go too crazy like that. It’s a pity, though. He had the potential to shine much brighter.”

“What are we going to do now?” Azura asked.

Cloudhawk put the ghost mask over his grinning face. When he answered his voice was coarse and guttural. “Keep up!”

***

Revenant led Luciasha and the remainder of Adder’s men northward for several days. Strangely, every time they were running out of water they discovered that someone had left canteens by the side of the road full of clean, fresh water.

Whenever they came upon a group of monsters, they would discover them slaughtered before anyone had to draw a weapon. Even a fool could recognize that they were being watched over on their path.

But who? It didn’t take much to guess.

Several times Revenant wanted to seek him out, but she didn’t have the skills to do so. She also tried quickening their movements to leave him behind but never could manage. Every time she lifted her head she saw a tiny yellow speck flitting overhead.

After a while she came to accept it.

What was Cloudhawk doing? Was this his way of trying to ease his guilt? Was he secretly making the way easier for Asha? It didn’t matter, she wasn’t strong enough to face Cloudhawk face to face anyway. After all, Adder had died at his hand.

Let him follow, then. She was curious how long he’d stick around.

Luciasha also knew, for their trek would not have been this easy without the help of someone strong like Cloudhawk. She didn’t know how to process all that had happened.

Did she hate Cloudhawk? She did, and she didn’t. Luciasha didn’t have an answer.

What right did she have to hate him? Cloudhawk had saved her from a brutal death in the wastes. Without him her body would be rotting in the burnt remains of Lighthouse Point with Coppertooth and all the others.

But it was also true that two of the most important people she knew in life were dead because of Cloudhawk. She remembered Coppertooth hanging from the lighthouse. She didn’t even know where Adder’s body was.

Coppertooth’s death was indirect, though. Perhaps Cloudhawk wasn’t to blame. But Adder? He’d been such a good man, with great dreams!

After three years Luciasha had come to feel deeply for the bar owner, her foster father. He’d treated her like his own daughter. She still couldn’t accept he was gone forever, and that the one who killed him was the man she saw as a brother.

They passed another group of mutant corpses. A dozen or so, one at least ten meters long.

Against monsters like this they’d have lost a few of their crew, even fleeing. Even Cloudhawk likely had to struggle to clear it from their path.

The vast, empty wasteland stretched out around them in all directions. Nothing, no trace.

Where was he? Was he hiding in some dark corner, watching her now? Was he hurt? Luciasha couldn’t help the tears from gathering at the corner of her eyes. Why was he being so stupid! How long was he going to keep this up?

Dusk fell.

They came upon an oasis just as the final rays of sunlight were fading on the horizon.

It was no more than a couple hundred meters from one end to the other, and in the center was a crescent shaped spring. A few fruit trees cropped up sporadically by its banks, and they discovered that someone had already built a roughshod fence around the place. It was small, and out of the way, but this small settlement still had all the fixings.

There were a couple hundred people living around the oasis, and although remote they still had a small inn for the occasional visitor. The shabby lodgings had a brazier in the center next to which sat a lame and tumor-laden proprietor. He heard them approach, and lifted his head to greet them with a glint in his eye.

He was pleased to find that the two women were free of tumors or other scars of the wasteland. Their skin was soft and white, their bodies toned. A rare sight indeed!

Revenant scowled. There was a flash of cold light, and a dagger appeared buried an inch in the wood of the counter.

The innkeep felt a tremble run through his body. He hadn’t realized she was a fighter, so he gave her an apologetic look before shouting angrily over his shoulder. “Shitheel, get your ass out here! We have visitors!”

The one called Shitheel came when summoned. He didn’t look at all like his name implied.

His whole body was covered in dark red tattoos, and his hair was a crop of stiff red spikes. He had a tough face and was blind in one eye, and the second he walked over the place filled with his presence.

However, his temperament was completely out of sorts with his appearance.

He was timid, almost cowardly, like a mouse surrounded by hungry cats. He looked around in a perpetual state of fear and even his knees shook.

Luciasha frowned at Revenant. “Those look like Highwaymen tattoos. Is he one of them?”

Revenant shook her head to reveal she didn’t know.