Give the Devil His Due (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book Three) (35 page)

The carriage seemed to absorb the moonlight coming from above them. Kate opened the door, but Kieran appeared reluctant to step inside.

“This is it?” he asked. “We’re leaving now?”

A figure in a gray uniform appeared next to Kate.

“Ma’am,” he said. “We’re ready to depart when you are.”

“How are the troops?” Kate asked.

“Ready,” Clinton replied. “We’ll follow you to the ends of the earth.”

“Good,” Kate said. “Because that’s where we’re headed.”

At that moment, there was a strong breeze that rustled the tree tops. Kieran was alarmed and looked around, expecting to be attacked again. But Kate put her hand on his arm. New creatures came out of the woods before them.

Kate counted three at first, their skeletal faces giving off a greenish glow. Their long, white hair dragged on the ground as they came forward. Then six more emerged behind them, and finally another row of six emerged. Kieran looked at Kate in surprise.

“Please tell me they’re friends of yours,” Kieran said.

As one, the wraiths knelt before Kate.

“We come to serve,” the first wraith said.

“We come to fight,” the second one added.

“We come to be set free,” the third one added.

Kate smiled at them, but Kieran still looked anxious.

“These are wraiths,” he said. “They’re the terrors of the supernatural world, Kate. Every evil poltergeist you’ve ever read about — it’s one of these things.”

“I know what they are,” Kate said.

“Do you?” Kieran asked. “They’re evil, Kate. Not just a little, but a lot.”

Kate took a long look at them, seeing how hungry these creatures appeared. They survived by feeding on the pain and suffering of others. They had long since forgotten what it felt like to be human. But that made what she was doing all the more important. She needed them — they would provide an element of surprise and ferocity against Carman and Sanheim. But they also needed her.

“Maybe,” she said. “But everyone needs a shot at redemption.”

She looked Kieran in the eye.

“Don’t you agree?” she asked pointedly.

He held her gaze and then slowly nodded.

“Yes. I suppose you’re right.”

“Good,” Kate said. She turned to the wraiths. Many more had emerged from the woods as they had talked. They blended into the darkness and were hard to count, but there were more than enough. “You’ve done well.”

The first one kneeling on the ground looked pleased.

“You are the last,” it said.

“You are the last,” the second one repeated.

Kate glared at the third one, who made a coughing noise and said nothing.

“I am the last,” Kate finished. She raised her voice to the throng of spirits around her. “I am the last, and this is the final battle. Will you follow me?”

The wraiths stood up and were silent, but their green eyes pulsed and gleamed as one. The ghosts of soldiers began to flock around them, a mix of the blue, the gray, and others. Kate noticed that some uniforms looked much newer, like desert camouflage, while others were far older, possibly from Roman times. Her call had gone out far and wide.

The soldiers surrounded Kate and started to cheer. She turned into the banshee and gestured again toward the carriage. Kieran climbed in and waited for her to follow. Instead she spoke to the spirits one last time.

“Tonight, we set you free,” she said. “Tonight, we go to war with hell itself!”

The shouts in the night were deafening.

Chapter 28

Janus stared at the massive hill in front of them, then turned around and shrugged.

“Sorry, mates, I have no bloody clue where to go next,” he said finally.

The fort loomed far above them at the top of the hill — but it wasn’t clear how they could get up there. Even rock climbing was out of the question. The bottom half of the hill was nothing but dirt and mud. They might be able to conjure up some climbing equipment, but there was no way to attach it.

Quinn had been worrying about the problem ever since it became clear that the fort lacked a stairway up to its walls. He had hoped Janus would know a way. Instead, they were forced to walk all the way around the hill, a time-consuming process that only confirmed there was no direct way up.

“Maybe we could all join hands and think about an escalator?” Janus said. “Seriously, I’ve got nothing.”

Quinn looked at Parker, but the giant spider creature didn’t appear to have ideas either. He was trying to spin a web to the nearest rock, but falling well short. Quinn was a little relieved at that. He wanted to get to the fort, but he didn’t relish the idea of being hauled up there in a cocoon.

“You know that’s impossible,” Carol said. “An escalator is far too complex.”

“How about an extremely tall ladder then?” Janus asked.

“Good luck with that, sugar,” she replied.

“Well, does someone else have a better idea?” Janus said. “Cause pissing all over mine is fun and all, but I’d like to get on with it.”

Quinn looked over at Elyssa, but she didn’t even seem to notice the problem. She was looking back over her shoulder, as if at any moment she might just leave. Could she be a traitor? She certainly had motivation and opportunity when they slept. And since defeating Kyle, she had been distant and isolated. Maybe Sanheim had gotten to her after the cornfield fight. Quinn had seen him then. Was it so hard to imagine that he paid her a visit while she dreamt? It might also explain her bungling attempt to seduce Quinn. It might have been his scheme instead of hers.

“Quinn?” Janus asked.

The question brought Quinn out of his thoughts and he looked away from Elyssa.

“Sorry, what?” he asked.

“The bloody mountain, mate,” Janus said. “We’re all just standing around and staring at each other. But unless we learn to fly, we’re not getting anywhere.”

Buzz picked up a stick from one of the twisted trees nearby. It looked almost like a wizard’s staff, with the wood bent in patterned circles. All the tree branches looked like that here — warped and ancient.

Buzz began poking the stick into the mud and walking around the hill again.

“Come on, Buzz,” Janus said. “It took us hours to make a circle. You really think poking it is going to help?”

“You asked if anyone had a better idea,” Buzz said. “In war, when one strategy doesn’t work, you try another, my boy. We spent the entire time trying to find a way up. It seems clear to me now that’s not how we get in. And if we can’t go up, we have to...”

“Go down,” Quinn finished. “You think the entrance is hidden at the base of the hill somewhere?”

“It makes sense,” Buzz said. “There has to be a way in. Maybe some in this world can fly, but most can’t.”

Quinn nodded. He searched the trees nearby until he found a fallen branch and picked it up.

“All right,” Quinn said. “I’ll go left and Buzz goes right. Whoever finds a door starts shouting. Any questions?”

“More of a criticism,” Janus said. “It’s going to take all damned day to do this. We don’t have the time.”

“As you said earlier, do you have a better idea?”

“I still think a giant ladder would work,” he responded.

Quinn rolled his eyes and jammed the stick into the dirt. He watched Buzz do the same. The group appeared to naturally divide in half. Buzz, Carol and Parker went one way, while Elyssa, Janus and Quinn went the other.

Quinn took turns handing the stick off periodically to his two companions. They moved slowly, trying to ensure that somehow they didn’t pass right by the entrance. Elyssa worked mostly silently while Janus paused every few minutes to complain when it was his turn.

Quinn dug the stick deep into the mud, hoping to find something hidden behind it. But the only thing he felt was more mud. He hit something solid a few times and always felt a surge of hope. But they were just small rocks — not even big enough to get a foothold on so that someone could climb higher.

“How long have you two known each other?” Elyssa asked when they had been going for an hour. Quinn kept hoping he would hear Buzz shouting. Pretty soon they were going to be close enough to meet up again, and he had no idea what their next plan would be if this failed.

“Since high school,” Janus said. “I moved to Virginia when I was about 16. Most people found me a bit... odd.”

“You are a bit odd,” Quinn said. He kept prodding with his stick.

“Yeah, but I was his kind of odd,” Janus finished. “Anyway, except for college and a brief period when Quinn moved downtown to cover Capitol Hill, we’ve hung out ever since.”

“It must be nice to have such a long-lasting friendship,” Elyssa said.

Quinn took a break from jamming the stick into the mud to cast her a sidelong glance. She’d never shown the least interest in their personal histories before, so why in the world was she asking this now?

“It’s legendary,” Janus said. “He’s Han Solo and I’m Lando Calrissian. Best buddies to the end.”

Quinn arched an eyebrow and gave Janus a questioning look, but he ignored it.

“I don’t know who they are,” Elyssa said.

“You never watched Star Wars?” Janus said.

“I had no use for such trivialities,” she replied.

“Well, these guys were lifelong best friends,” Janus said.

“I think their relationship was a bit more complex than that,” Quinn said.

“Seriously, if you didn’t watch movies, what did you do for fun?” Janus asked Elyssa, apparently wanting to change the subject.

Elyssa leered at him, pushing out her chest a little bit.

“Oh, I knew how to have fun,” she said.

Janus blushed a deep red, but Quinn didn’t notice. His stick had caught on something. He initially assumed it was another rock, but as Elyssa and Janus talked, he started scraping away mud. What lay beneath didn’t look like rock at all. Quinn dropped the stick and started scraping away with his hands. Both Elyssa and Janus stopped and looked over at him.

He kept pushing mud aside until a definitive shape emerged. Quinn looked in triumph at part of an iron handle.

“I think I’ve just found the door,” Quinn said.

*****

Janus went running ahead to find the others, while Elyssa and Quinn worked at uncovering the door. It was slow going as it was apparently buried beneath several inches of caked-on mud. Clearly, no one had entered this way in a long time.

As he worked, Quinn turned to Elyssa.

“What was that about?” he asked.

“What?” she said.

“You asking about our friendship,” Quinn said. “Since when do you give a shit?”

“I was bored,” she said and shrugged.

“I know you better than that,” he replied.

Elyssa gave him a cold, hard stare.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” she said. “You don’t know me at all. Nobody ever really knows anyone.”

“I thought that too, until I met Kate,” Quinn said.

She let out a short, unpleasant laugh.

“Oh please,” Elyssa said. “You think she didn’t hide things from you? I know what the mental connection is like, but it doesn’t tell you everything. Trust me on that. You only knew what Kate chose to share. You don’t know her and you don’t know me.”

Quinn stopped working on the door for a minute to look at her.

“You really believe that, don't you?” he asked. “I may not know everything about Kate, but I know enough.”

“You’re so bloody sure of yourself,” Elyssa replied. “And yet from what I can tell, you’re making this all up as you go along. You don’t even know if the man you’re searching for is really here. We’re going to die, Quinn — again. Sawyer and I thought we had Sanheim all figured out, but he was one step ahead of us the whole time. Just like now.”

“What would you have me do?” Quinn asked. “You want to give up? I’ll grant you I’m improvising, but what choice do I have? If I’m going down, I’ll go down fighting. But I have to believe we have a chance.”

“It’s too late,” Elyssa said. “You and Kate should have joined with Sawyer and me last year. The four of us could have taken him. But now the choices you made have doomed us all. You can’t escape your past. I learned that the hard way.”

“There are good reasons we didn’t join you two. But I’m not going to rehash that fight, because none of that matters. All that’s important are the choices we make now. We can still win, Elyssa. I know that in my soul.”

Elyssa shook her head and looked down at the ground.

“I wish I could believe that,” she said.

“So believe it,” Quinn answered.

Before she could respond, Quinn heard shouting. He looked back to see Buzz, Carol and Janus headed their way. Parker followed in their wake, and the sudden sight of him still made Quinn shiver.

“Come on,” he said, waving. “We’re still trying to get this thing open.”

They could make out the thin frame of the door in front of them. Quinn grabbed the newly freed handle and pulled, but the door didn’t budge. Elyssa grabbed hold and added her weight to his and they both pulled, but nothing happened.