Give the Devil His Due (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book Three) (48 page)

“Why?”

“Because I love him,” Elyssa said. “He led me to my death and treated me like a dog, but I love him. He never loved me back and I knew that. Unfortunately, I could see into his mind. I knew exactly what he felt for me. I thought it might change one day, but it only got worse. Far from growing to love me, he grew to hate me.”

“Do you know where he is now?” Kate asked.

“I have no clue,” Elyssa said. “I love him, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to keep letting him run my life. He was weak, though, so you don’t need to worry about him. He’s not going to trouble you anytime soon.”

“Did he ask you to come with him?”

Elyssa smiled sadly.

“Of course,” she said. “He said everything I could have wanted to hear. He knows me well, Kate. And he’s used it to his advantage every time.”

“Except now.”

“Yes,” Elyssa said, and for a moment, she looked triumphant. “I let him out, but I also told him to get lost. He wouldn’t be any help to you, even if you were going after Sanheim. But I wasn’t just going to be his lapdog again.”

Kate looked out at the sea of soldiers below them and waited.

“But that doesn’t mean I want to be yours either,” Elyssa said. “I’m tired of taking orders, tired of living my life according to someone else’s whim. Maybe it really is time for me to go.”

Kate looked at her for a long time. Elyssa could practically see what she was thinking — it would be easier to let her go. But for some reason Elyssa couldn’t fathom, Kate appeared reluctant to part ways.

“I understand,” Kate said. “I hope you don’t leave, but the choice is yours.”

“Why?” Elyssa asked again. “Why care about me at all? What do I even bring to the table?”

“Because your talk with Quinn when you tried to seduce him made an impression on me,” Kate said. “I don’t think you ever got a fair shake. And believe me, I’m a big advocate of second chances now. I’m even glad you let Sawyer go.”

“You eventually may regret it,” Elyssa said. “If we live, I don’t know what he’ll do.”

“Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Kate said. “You ask what value I see in you? I saw how you fought alongside Quinn. Even without powers, you’re formidable. You’re crafty and intelligent. I also know you cared for your
moidin
.”

“The ones you killed,” Elyssa said. “You butchered them after Quinn died, didn’t you?”

“How did you know about that?” Kate asked.

“Some of my
moidin
ended up as corpses in Halloweenland,” Elyssa said. “It wasn’t hard to guess what happened.”

“If it matters, I’m sorry,” Kate said. “I… wasn’t in my right mind. I lost Quinn and I let myself go. It’s no excuse, but I regret it with all my heart.”

Elyssa just nodded.

“I wish I could hold it against you,” Elyssa replied. “But I would have done the same. I’ve done plenty I regret.”

“Join us,” Kate said.

Elyssa thought for a moment.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I said I was done taking orders.”

“It doesn’t have to be like that,” Kate said. “The odds against us are huge. We don’t need followers, we need allies.”

Elyssa nodded.

“I’ll think about it,” she said.

Kate smiled.

“That’s all I can ask,” she said. “Just think quickly. We move out in a few minutes.”

*****

Kate turned to go, walking back toward the encampment to find Quinn. An interesting idea popped into her head.

You can’t be serious,
Quinn thought.
She might actually work for Sanheim, you know.

But Kate didn’t think so. And the beauty of her idea was that it took care of two problems at once.

Before Kate had gone more than thirty feet, she heard Elyssa catching up with her. She turned.

“That was quick,” Kate said.

“I’ve never run from a fight in my life,” Elyssa said. “We may have our differences, but I agree Sanheim is a threat and he’s got to go. If you’ll have me, I’m in.”

Kate stuck out her hand. Elyssa looked at it for a long moment and then shook it.

“Welcome to the team,” Kate said.

Suddenly, Kate’s idea looked even better. It was dangerous, risky and could blow up in their faces. But it could also turn the tide of the battle in their favor.

Chapter 38

When Janus crested the hill and looked behind him, he almost couldn’t believe what he saw. Their army stretched back as far as his eye could see in a line that was five men wide. They moved in tight, military formation, stepping together in a rhythm that was almost hypnotic to watch.

“I feel like I’ve gone back in time to the Civil War,” he said. “This must be what it looked like.”

Buzz stood next to him taking in the same view.

“Actually, this is considerably more impressive,” he replied. “Those armies had to worry about pesky things like food and supplies. Have you seen how quickly our guys move? It’s because they don’t need to sleep every twelve hours or stop to eat. Hell, they don’t even have to carry their own tents.”

“I guess an army of the dead has its benefits,” Janus said.

“It does indeed.”

Janus looked over at him, still surprised to find the youthful face looking back at him. He sounded like the old, grizzled Buzz, but he didn’t look that way. He looked even younger than Janus.

“We have a shot, mate?” Janus asked him.

Buzz shrugged.

“I don’t know, my boy,” he said. “From what Quinn and Kate saw, it’s clear we’re outnumbered. I estimate our strength at about 22,000, give or take. They might have ten times that for all I know.”

“Is that a long way of saying we’re going to lose?” Janus asked.

“No,” Buzz said. “Battles are hard to predict. You make a plan and it all goes to hell within the first minute. Numbers matter, but so do a lot of other things, including the strategy of the leaders, morale of the troops, equipment, tactics, the list goes on. I’ll tell you this, I've never seen an army so devoted to its leader, so anxious to please her.”

“Sanheim probably inspires a lot from his troops too,” Janus said.

“Love trumps fear any day,” Buzz said. “Trust me on that. In ‘Nam...”

“Here we go...” Janus said, but Buzz ignored him.

“… most of us didn’t even want to be there,” he continued. “We did what we were told only because we didn’t want to go to jail. The enemy, on the other hand, believed in its cause. In the end, it’s why we lost. Our heart just wasn’t in it. A battle is as much a test of wills as anything else. This fight... You asked me if we have a shot. Yes. It might not be great odds, but there’s definitely a slim chance we’ll win.”

“Thanks,” Janus said. “How very inspiring. Do me a favor and don’t use that speech on the troops, okay?”

“Come on,” Buzz said. “Quinn wants to discuss tactics. He wants the senior staff up at the front.”

“Senior staff? I could get used to that,” Janus said. “Can you believe how we ended up here, Buzz? I mean, not that long ago your biggest concern was how to avoid Rebecca’s wrath and have enough stories to fill your section. Now we’re leading an army of dead soldiers against the devil himself.”

“You didn’t mention the most important part,” Buzz said.

Janus looked at him with a confused look on his face.

“Now I have an amazing girlfriend,” he said.

“Yeah, Buzz, that was definitely the most important part,” Janus said.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll meet the right girl one day,” Buzz responded.

Janus scowled at him.

“Hey, who’s to say I haven’t already?” he said. “Come on, let’s go.”

*****

Kate and Quinn walked side by side at the head of the column, almost touching. Kate found it hard not to hold his hand, but thought it would look strange for a general to be publicly canoodling with her right-hand man.

“You sure this is a good idea?” Quinn asked again.

“I think we can trust her,” Kate said.

“I’m glad one of us thinks so,” Quinn responded. “If she didn’t betray us to Sanheim, then someone did, since he seems awfully well informed of our plans. He’s been one step ahead of me the entire way.”

“He could just find you predictable,” Kate said.

“Gee, thanks honey,” he said. “Now I feel much better.”

“My point is that there may not be a traitor,” Kate said. “That should make you feel better.”

“Maybe,” Quinn said. “I’m still not sure handing Elyssa more power and authority is the way to go, even if she isn't working for Sanheim.”

“We need to make a show of good faith,” Kate said. “She’s proved helpful. She has no love for our enemy. This could work.”

“And it could go disastrously wrong.”

“I need some way to control them, Quinn,” Kate said. “They’re unpredictable, violent and aggressive.”

“Well, when you put it that way, it sounds like a great fit for Elyssa,” he said. “Why on earth would I think it’s a bad idea?”

“I’m serious,” Kate said. “I can’t watch them like hawks. They need someone who will.”

“We could let Janus take charge...”

“He’d be eaten alive and you know it,” Kate said.

“Do you mean that literally?” Quinn asked in a concerned tone. “Do they eat people?”

Kate gave him an uncertain look.

“I actually have no idea,” she said.

“Okay,” Quinn said. “You win. Let’s do it. But when it ends up backfiring and getting us all killed, I'm going to say 'I told you so.' I just want that on the record now.”

“Duly noted,” Kate said. “Next, I think we need to...”

A harried Clinton Hatcher came running up.

“Ma’am,” he told Kate. “The scouts have reported back. They’ve spotted a large group of people moving to the northeast of our position. It looks like they’re heading toward the same destination we are.”

“How large?” Quinn asked.

“About 3,000,” Clinton said. “And pretty close too. If we don’t deviate from our position, we should encounter them in an hour or less.”

“Were your scouts spotted?”

Clinton looked uneasy.

“They assure me no, but...” he drifted off.

“What?” Kate asked.

“They're from a Georgia regiment, Ma’am,” Clinton said. “And they aren’t known for their discretion. They can get a bit reckless from time to time.”

“Okay,” Kate said. “Anything else they can tell us? Are they sure it was they were people and not creatures?”

“The scouts said people,” Clinton said. “Though they did say some monster appeared to be leading them.”

Quinn perked up.

“Did they say what the monster looked like?” he asked.

“A spider, sir,” Clinton replied. “It looked like a giant spider.”

Quinn breathed a sigh of relief.

“Looks like Spider-Man is here to save the day after all,” he said. “Go ahead and send the scouts ahead to make contact with the spider. Let him know we’re here, if he doesn’t already.”

Clinton nodded and departed. Quinn looked back at their own army and saw Buzz and Janus running to meet them. As he watched them, an idea occurred to him. It was unpleasant, but it felt like the truth.

That can’t be right
, Kate thought.

Quinn didn’t respond, but smiled as his two friends walked up.

“What’s the plan, Stan?” Janus asked cheerfully.

“It’ll wait,” Quinn said. “I was going to hatch out a strategy, but we’ve got something more important to deal with.”

“What?” Buzz asked.

“Reinforcements,” Quinn said.

*****

Kate called a halt to their column when they saw the cloud of dust approaching. She and Quinn waited as the new troops got closer. Quinn was practically giddy at the prospect of more help arriving. He was willing to bet that the one thing Sanheim wasn’t counting on was any additional assistance.

But as the new arrivals came into sight, Quinn’s optimism faded. The approaching men and women were hardly warriors. They looked bedraggled and beaten down, as if they had been walking for days and nights without rest. Far worse, their eyes were unfocused and aimless. They weren’t zombies, but they might as well have been. There were certainly a lot of them. But Quinn’s hope that they would prove critical in the battle ahead was fading fast.

The one person he was glad to see, however, was Parker, who came crawling toward them at the front of the line. Quinn still found him incredibly creepy to watch, his arachnid legs moving in a sickly fascinating way. He remembered the black ichor that dripped from Parker's face and shuddered.

You’re so squeamish
, Kate teased him.

Okay, I'm afraid of spiders. Are you happy?

Still, Quinn walked out in front of the group and extended an enthusiastic greeting as Parker drew closer. Kate joined him and stood at his side. Parker held up a single black, hairy leg and his ragged troop shuffled to a stop. Parker moved toward Quinn and Kate, looked at them with eight eyes, and bowed low. Or at least that’s what Quinn thought he was doing.