Death's Rival (38 page)

I caught Hoop’s eye and gestured to the edge of the woods. The taciturn man followed
when I walked away, and listened with growing concern to my tale of the miners. I
thought he might curse when I told him of the teeth marks on the bones, but he stopped
himself in time. Cursing aloud near a hellhole was a sure way of inviting Darkness
to you. In other locales it might attract seraphic punishment or draw the ire of the
church. Thoughtless language could result in death-by-dinner, seraphic vengeance,
or priestly branding. Instead, he ground out, “I’ll radio it in. You don’t tell nobody,
you hear? I got something that’ll keep us safe.” And without asking me why I had wandered
so far from camp, alone, he walked away.

Smoke and supper cooking wafted through camp as I rolled out my sleeping bag and pumped
up the air mattress. Even with the smell of old death still in my nostrils, my mouth
watered. I wanted nothing more than to curl up, eat and sleep, but I needed to move
through the horses and mules first. Trying to be inconspicuous, touching each one
as surreptitiously as possible, I let the walking stick’s amulet-handle brush each
animal with calm.

It was a risk, if anyone recognized a mage-conjure, but there was no way I was letting
the stock bolt and stampede away if startled in the night. I had no desire to walk
miles through several feet of hard-packed snow to reach the nearest train tracks,
then wait days in the cold, without a bath or adequate supplies, for a train that
might get stranded in a blizzard and not come until snowmelt in spring. No way. Living
in perpetual winter was bad enough, and though the ubiquitous
they
said it was only a
mini
–ice age, it was still pretty dang cold.

So I walked along the picket line and murmured soothing words, touching the stock
one by one. I loved horses. I hated that they were the only dependable method of transport
through the mountains ten months out of the year, but I loved the beasts themselves.
They didn’t care that I was an unlicensed neomage hiding among the humans. With them
I could be myself, if only for a moment or two. I lay my cheek against the shoulder
of a particularly worried mare. She exhaled as serenity seeped into her and turned
liquid brown eyes to me in appreciation, blowing warm horse breath in my face. “You’re
welcome,” I whispered.

Just before I got to the end of the string, Hoop sang out, “Charmed circle. Charmed
circle for the night.”

I looked up in surprise, my movements as frozen as the night air. Hoop Jr. was walking
bent over, a fifty-pound bag of salt in his arms, his steps moving clockwise. Though
human, he was making a conjure circle. Instinctively, I cast out with a mind-skim,
though I knew I was the only mage here. But now I scented a charmed
something
. From a leather case, Hoop Sr. pulled out a branch that glowed softly to my mage-sight.
Hoop’s “something to keep us safe.” The tag on the tip of the branch proclaimed it
a legally purchased charm, unlike my unlicensed amulets. It would be empowered by
the salt in the ring, offering us protection. I hurried down the line of horses and
mules, trusting that my movements were hidden by the night, and made it to the circle
before it was closed.

Stepping through the opening in the salt, I nodded again as I passed Audric. The big
black man shouldered his packs and carried them toward the fire pit. He didn’t talk
much, but he and Thorn’s Gems had done a lot of business since he discovered and claimed
a previously untouched city site for salvage. Because he had a tendresse for one of
my business partners, he brought his findings to us first and stayed with us while
in town. The arrangement worked out well, and when his claim petered out, we all hoped
he’d put down roots and stay, maybe buy in as the fourth partner.

“All’s coming in, get in,” Hoop Sr. sang out. “All’s staying out’ll be shot if trouble
hits and you try to cross the salt ring.” There was a cold finality to his tone. “Devil-spawn
been spotted round here. I take no chances with my life or yours ’less you choose
to act stupid and get yourself shot.”

“Devil-spawn? Here?” The speaker was the man who had griped about the workload.

“Yeah. Drained a woman and three kids at a cabin up near Linville.” He didn’t mention
the carnage within shooting distance of us. Smart man.

I spared a quick glance for my horse, who was already snoozing. A faint pop sizzled
along my nerve endings as the circle closed and the energy of the spell from the mage-branch
snapped in place. I wasn’t an earth mage, but I appreciated the conjure’s simple elegance.
A strong shield-protection-invisibility incantation had been stored in the cells of
the branch. The stock were in danger from passing predators, but the rest of us were
effectively invisible to anyone, human or supernat.

Night enveloped us in its black mantle as we gathered for a supper of venison stew.
Someone passed around a flask of moonshine. No one said anything against it. Most
took a swallow or two against the cold. I drank water and ate only stewed vegetables.
Meat disagrees with me. Liquor on a mule train at night just seems stupid.

Tired to the bone, I rolled into my heated, down-filled sleeping bag and looked up
at the cold, clear sky. The moon was nearly full, its rays shining on seven inches
of fresh snow. It was a good night for a moon mage, a water mage, even a weather mage,
but not a night to induce a feeling of vitality or well-being in a bone-tired stone
mage. The entire world glowed with moon power, brilliant and beautiful, but draining
to my own strength. I rolled in my bedding and stopped, caught by a tint of color
in the velvet black sky. A thick ring of bloody red circled the pure white orb, far
out in the night. A bloodring. I almost swore under my breath but choked it back,
a painful sound, close to a sob.

The last time there was a bloodring on the moon, my twin sister died. Rose had been
a licensed mage, living in Atlanta, supposedly safe, yet she had vanished, leaving
a wide, freezing pool of blood and signs of a struggle, within minutes after Lolo,
the priestess of Enclave, phoned us both with warnings. The prophecy hadn’t helped
then and it wouldn’t help now. Portents never helped. They offered only a single moment
to catch a breath before I was trounced by whatever they foretold.

If Lolo had called with a warning tonight, it was on my answering machine. Even for
me, the distance to Enclave was too great to hear the mind-voice of the priestess.

I shivered, looking up from my sleeping bag. A feasting site, now a bloodring. It
was a hazy, frothing circle, swirling like the breath of the Dragon in the Revelation,
holy words taught to every mage from the womb up. “And there appeared another wonder
in heaven; and behold a great red dragon. . . . And his tail drew the third part of
the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the
woman. . . . And there was war in heaven: Michael and his seraphim fought against
the dragon; and the dragon fought, and his seraphim.” The tale of the Last War.

Shivering, I gripped the amulets tied around my waist and my walking stick, the blade
loosed in the sheath, the prime amulet of its hilt tight in my palm. Much later, exhausted,
I slept.

* * *

Lucas checked his watch as he slipped out of the office and moved into the alley,
ice crunching beneath his boots, breath a half-seen fog in the night. He was still
on schedule, though pushing the boundaries. Cold froze his ears and nose, numbed his
fingers and feet, congealed his blood, seeped into his bones, even through the layers
of clothes, down-filled vest, and hood. He slipped, barely catching himself before
hitting the icy ground. He cursed beneath his breath as he steadied himself on the
alley wall. Seraph stones, it’s cold.

But he was almost done. The last of the amethyst would soon be in Thorn’s hands, just
as the Mistress Amethyst had demanded. In another hour he would be free of his burden.
He’d be out of danger. He felt for the ring on his finger, turning it so the sharp
edge was against his flesh. He hitched the heavy backpack higher, its nylon straps
cutting into his palm and across his shoulder.

The dark above was absolute, moon and stars hidden by the tall buildings at his sides.
Ahead, there was only the distant security light at the intersection of the alley,
where it joined the larger delivery lane and emptied into the street. Into safety.

A rustle startled him. A flash of movement. A dog burst from the burned-out hulk of
an old Volkswagen and bolted back the way he had come. A second followed. Two small
pups huddled in the warm nest they deserted, yellow coats barely visible. Lucas blew
out a gust of irritation and worthless fear and hoped the larger mutts made it back
to the makeshift den before the weather took them all down. It was so cold, the puppies
wouldn’t survive long. Even the smells of dog, urine, old beer, and garbage were frozen.

He moved into the deeper dark, toward the distant light, but slowed. The alley narrowed,
the walls at his sides invisible in the night; his billowing breath vanished. He glanced
up, his eyes drawn to the relative brightness of the sky. A chill that had nothing
to do with the temperature chased
down his spine. The rooftops were bare, the gutters and eaves festooned with icicles,
moon and clouds beyond. One of the puppies mewled behind him.

Lucas stepped through the dark, his pace increasing as panic coiled itself around
him. He was nearly running by the time he reached the pool of light marking the alleys’
junction. Slowing, he passed two scooters and a tangle of bicycles leaning against
a wall, all secured with steel chains, tires frozen in the ice. He stepped into the
light and the safety it offered.

Above, there was a crackle, a sharp snap of metal. His head lifted, but his eyes were
drawn ahead to a stack of boxes and firewood. To the man standing there. Sweet Mother
of God . . . not a man. A shadow. “No!” Lucas tried to whirl, skidding on icy pavement
before he could complete the move. Two others ran toward him, human movements, human
slow.

“Get him!”

The first man collided with him, followed instantly by the other, their bodies twin
blows. His boots gave on the slippery surface. He went to one knee, breath a pained
grunt.

A fist pounded across the back of his neck. A leg reared back. Screaming, he covered
his head with an arm. A rain of blows and kicks landed. The backpack was jerked away,
opening and spilling.

As he fell, he tightened a fist around the ring, its sharp edge slicing into his flesh.
He groaned out the words she had given him to use, but only in extremis. The sound
of the syllables was lost beneath the rain of blows. “Zadkiel, hear me. Holy Amethyst—”
A boot took him in the jaw, knocking back his head. He saw the wings unfurl on the
roof above him. Darkness closed in. Teeth sank deep in his throat. Cold took him.
The final words of the chant went unspoken.

A
BOUT THE AUTHOR

Faith Hunter
was born in Louisiana and raised all over the South. She writes full-time and works
full-time in a hospital lab (for the benefits), tries to keep house, and is a workaholic
with a passion for travel, jewelry making, orchids, skulls, Class III white-water
kayaking, and writing.

Many of the orchid pics on her Facebook fan page show skulls juxtaposed with orchid
blooms; the bones are from roadkill prepared by taxidermists or a pal named Mud. In
her collection are a fox skull, a cat skull, a dog skull, a goat skull (that is, unfortunately,
falling apart), a cow skull, and the jawbone of an ass. She would love to have the
thigh bone and skull of an African lion (one that died of old age, of course) and
a mountain lion skull (ditto on the old-age death).

She and her husband own fourteen kayaks at last count, and love to RV, traveling with
their dogs to white-water rivers all over the Southeast.

CONNECT ONLINE

www.faithhunter.net

facebook.com/official.faith.hunter

A
LSO BY
F
AITH
H
UNTER

The Jane Yellowrock Novels

Skinwalker

Blood Cross

Mercy Blade

Cat Tales
(a short story compilation)

Raven Cursed

Have Stakes Will Travel
(a short story compilation)

The Rogue Mage Novels

Bloodring

Seraphs

Host