Firewalker (23 page)

“Breakfast, get a fire going,” Rowan said. There was no point in whispering now. “Lily, we need your strength. Can you handle this?”

“I'm okay,” she lied. “Light the fire.”

Rowan nodded once and looked at Tristan and Una. “Take off whatever clothes you don't want torn to shreds,” he said, shucking off his jacket and shirt. Too confused and frightened to question him, Tristan and Una did as he said.

Breakfast led Lily back into the boulders strewn about the bottom of the cliff. He tucked her among the stones as deeply as he dared, trying to provide as much cover as he could without hemming Lily in with so much granite that it would block her connection to her mechanics. Tristan, Una, and Rowan took position between them and the Woven. Breakfast kicked the snow aside with the edge of his boot and gathered what leaves and twigs he could and put them in a pile. He cussed a blue streak as match after match fizzled in the icy tinder.

“Breakfast?” Tristan said uncertainly over his shoulder as he watched the shadows in the treetops loom nearer.

Breakfast's f-bombs rained down on the tinder with more fervor, and somewhere between the matches and his explosive language a spark managed to catch as a dark body dropped from the trees and swung on huge knuckles toward Lily's three warriors.

“Sweet
jeezus
,” Tristan whispered, his mind struggling to come to grips with the monster in front of him.

Lily had never seen a simian Woven before, either. It looked mostly ape-like with its hulking shoulders, long arms, and short legs, but snake scales flashed between the clumps of longhaired fur and a forked tongue spilled out of its fanged mouth as it roared. Two more dark shapes thudded to the ground and barreled up behind their leader, hooting with excitement.

“Oh, please,” Lily begged, staring at the tiny flame Breakfast was nurturing, wishing she could make it grow faster. It still wasn't large enough for her to harvest any strength from it.

The simian Woven roared again, and Rowan charged out, howling like a wild animal himself, to meet it. The Woven balked. Lily felt
intelligence
inside of it as it knuckled around Rowan in a circle, sizing up this smaller but fiercer opponent. Rowan didn't back down or show even a flash of fear, although Lily could feel how terrified he was. Four more Woven dropped from the trees and crashed forward through the snow and underbrush to flank Lily's pitifully outnumbered coven.

Tristan and Una managed to gather themselves after the initial shock of seeing their first Woven and charged forward, trying to mimic Rowan's battle cry as bravely as they could. Rowan never took his eyes off the leader.

“Stand back, Breakfast,” Lily whispered. If the fire wasn't large enough by now, it would be too late anyway. Lily took a deep breath, pulling heat into her already-singed skin. A clap of air threw Lily skyward and kept her there, suspended in a pillar of moaning witch wind while she transmuted heat into force and fed it to her mechanics.

Their willstones gorged on the full power of the Gift. Breakfast rooted himself staunchly under Lily's dangling feet while Rowan, Tristan, and Una swept forward and attacked the Woven in a blur of flashing knives and bloodlust. A part of Lily went out with them. She could feel their bodies moving, leaping, and stretching as if she were wearing their physiques over hers like a cloak. She could feel her strength filling them up and spilling over into an ecstasy of rage. They slashed, tore, and crushed the Woven beneath them in seconds.

And right on the edge of her mind was that creeping temptation to take over her claimed completely—to possess every bit of them, even their dreams.

Rein it in, Lily. You must be strong and control it, or we'll turn on one another.

Lily's insides squirmed with guilt.

I will. I'm sorry, Rowan.

I understand—I really do. But you must not let it swallow you whole.

Lily released the loop of power and dropped into Breakfast's outstretched arms, limp as a rag doll. She was so tired and injured from the pyre that she could barely lift her head. Her mechanics gathered around the fire while Breakfast gently laid her on the ground. Tristan and Una were stark white under the livid streaks of blood painting their nearly naked bodies. They shook with shock over what they had faced, but more so over what they had done.

“Tristan. Una. Start gathering all the body parts and pile them away from the cliffs,” Rowan said gently. “More Woven will come to scavenge the dead.”

Tristan and Una blindly followed Rowan's order. Rowan turned to Breakfast. “Well done,” he said. “It takes a strong man to resist and stay behind. Not many can do it.”

“I'm a lover, not a fighter,” Breakfast replied, a watery smile tilting his lips.

Rowan laughed under his breath while he rubbed his bloody hands in the snow to clean them. “Climb the cliff and scout out a cave for us to sleep in tonight. Light a fire when you get up there. Watch out for Woven along the way.”

“Breakfast, wait,” Lily said. She transmuted a little more energy for him to take with him on the climb. “Be safe.” He gave her a shaky look, then vaulted up the icy cliff face.

Rowan took his cauldron from his pack and started scooping snow into it. He put the snow-filled cauldron on the fire and stared at it while he rubbed salve onto Lily's singed skin. Luckily this time she was not too badly burned.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, staring at the melting snow in the cauldron. “You need salt.”

“Not yet,” she whispered, every muscle relaxing under his hands. “Too tired.”

“They did well.”

“They're scared out of their minds.”

He paused before responding, the fire popping and sending sparks and smoke up into the early morning light. “They should be.”

When Tristan and Una returned, Rowan told them to drink from the cauldron first, and to the use the rest of the water to wash before they put their outer clothes back on. Blood would attract scavengers. They silently obeyed him, relieved to have someone to take charge and tell them what to do. Lily could feel that they were on the edge of losing it, and the last thing they needed was too much time to stop and think. The group struck camp, climbed the cliff, and joined Breakfast in one of the Witch Caves. They piled into one big heap and fell into an exhausted sleep together.

When Lily awoke, she could hear urgent whispers. Tristan and Una were sitting by the fire in the mouth of the cave, talking. Lily could feel that Rowan and Breakfast were not with them.

“They've been gone too long,” Una said.

“Rowan knows what he's doing,” Tristan replied. “He'll look out for Breakfast while they hunt. I guess we're all going to need to learn how to hunt and gather now.”

“Yeah. This is our life now,” she said, incredulous. Una sighed. “I still can't believe it. I can't believe what I did,” she said.

“I know,” Tristan replied in a leaden tone. “I tore one of them apart with my bare hands.”

“Me too.” Una pulled her knees against her chest, hugging herself tightly. “And it felt so good,” she said, her voice small.

Tristan nodded. “If it had been a person in front of me I would have done the same.” He groaned. “I've never felt anything like that. Never felt so”—he paused, searching for the right word—“
fulfilled
. And I hate this about myself, but I want more.”

“I know. I'm disgusted with myself, but I crave it, too. All that power. Tristan, are we sick?” she asked tremulously.

“No, you're not sick,” Lily said, sitting up. She stood and joined them by the fire. “The Gift is what it is. It's always a struggle not to give in to it.”

“What's it like for you?” Tristan asked, a curious smile narrowing his blue eyes.

Lily swallowed. “I feel what all of you feel combined,” she replied, leaving out that she also felt the temptation to possess every one of them.

“So what's it like fueling a whole army?” Una asked.

Lily thought about it, seeking the right way to put it. “Like being a mighty river, I guess. I could grind down mountains or wash whole cities out to sea. It's a lot to take in.”

“If you're the river, are we the fish?” Tristan guessed, smiling. Lily smiled back vaguely, not really agreeing or disagreeing. “You could show us, couldn't you? You could share your memory of it with us,” he pressed.

Lily sensed Tristan's hunger. Restraint had never been his forte, and she was grateful that she was the one in control of her awesome power—not him. But, she wondered, how would she use that power if Rowan weren't there to remind her not to give in to it? She looked out the mouth of the cave and changed the subject. “They're almost here,” she said, feeling Breakfast and Rowan before she could see them.

They came back in the late afternoon with a dead rabbit, and Rowan immediately began to teach them how to skin it.

“I know this is probably a dumb question, but why go hunting?” Una asked. “Why don't we just eat the Woven we already killed?”

“They're poisonous,” Rowan answered. “Only Woven can eat other Woven.”

“Seriously?” Lily asked, surprised. “How can that be? There are so many different breeds, you'd think some of them would be edible.”

Rowan shrugged. “I don't know why they're poisonous, they just are. Believe me, plenty of starving Outlanders have wished it were otherwise, and have died because it isn't.”

Lily looked away while Rowan pulled the rabbit's skin off in one brisk tug, like he was peeling a tube sock off a foot.

“It doesn't make sense. Gorilla meat isn't poisonous, and snake meat isn't poisonous, but Woven gorilla-snake meat is?” Something about it bothered Lily and she couldn't let it go. “Nature doesn't work like that,” she said, frustrated.

“They're not from nature,” Rowan replied, raising an eyebrow. “Remember, they were made by witches.”

“They were made by witches to build cities and haul heavy loads, and basically play the role that machinery plays in my world. Why would they also be made to be poisonous? Why go through the trouble of engineering them to be poisonous for no good reason?” she argued. She accidentally glanced down at the skinned rabbit and covered her mouth, gagging.

Rowan stifled a laugh at her reaction and shrugged again. “I don't know, Lily. Maybe there
is
a reason. We just don't know what it is.”

While the rest of them shared what little rabbit there was, Rowan gave Lily a few olives from a jar he had brought in one of the packs. The salt in the brine restored her more than the food.

“Feel better?” Rowan asked. Lily nodded. “Good. We should stay here one more night to rest and leave early tomorrow morning. Can you contact Caleb and Tristan?” Rowan glanced quickly at the Tristan to his right. “I mean,
my
Tristan. The one from this world.”

“I'd have to leave the cave,” Lily said.

“Tomorrow. I don't want you out there in the dark,” Rowan said. “I tried reaching them to find out where Alaric is while Breakfast and I were hunting, but they were too far for me to reach them.”

“You want to go straight to Alaric?”

“The sachem should know you're back before anyone else does.” He gave her a wry smile. “You did claim several
thousand
of his braves. He's going to want to know where you are.”

“I'll try in the morning,” Lily said. She noticed that Tristan was frowning uncomfortably. “You okay?” she asked him.

“It's just weird,” he replied. “The thought of meeting myself is just mind-blowing.”

“Yeah,” Lily agreed, looking down. “It changes everything.”

The thought of Lillian chased through her mind. Although Lily wanted to avoid dealing with it, she knew that Lillian's latest memories had changed her.

Lily didn't see this struggle between Alaric and Lillian as a battle between good and evil anymore. Lillian hanged hundreds, but Alaric was prepared to nuke millions. Alaric hadn't actually perpetrated mass murder the way Lillian had, but he had considered it. There was no right answer anymore; no one Lily could follow without question, but she'd still have to choose between them soon. Now that she was back in this world, Alaric wouldn't simply allow her to keep his army of braves and not use them. Eventually, he would ask her to fuel them in the fight against Lillian and the Thirteen Cities. Lily wondered how many thousands more would die, and for what reason? To stop Lillian, who was only fighting to stop a potential nuclear war? Lily looked over the fire at Rowan, patiently showing the group how to make a rabbit snare, and didn't know what her answer to Alaric would be.

She couldn't even discuss it with Rowan. His answer would be automatic, and his feelings of betrayal understandable. It was one thing to talk hypothetically about how the good of the many outweighed the good of the few, and quite another when one of those few is someone beloved. When Rowan thought of Lillian, he thought of his father hanging on the gallows.

The sun set, sucking the light from the sky. Night was darker and deeper here than in Lily's world, and even stubborn Una had to give up on trying to make a snare when she couldn't see her own fingers anymore. Everyone was too exhausted and too rattled to want to stay up late anyway.

“I'll take first guard,” Rowan said. “Who wants second?”

“I'll do it,” Tristan offered. “Wake me when you get sleepy.”

Lily curled up between Tristan and Una, sensing that Rowan had taken first guard because he was too anxious to sleep. Rowan was back in his deadly world with four people who had no survival skills, and Lily knew he felt that the enormous responsibility to keep them all alive was on him.

We'll be okay, Rowan. We'll find your tribe tomorrow and you won't have to worry so much about us.