Blind Salvage (14 page)

The trail ended against the shoreline of a lake as we rounded what turned out to be the final corner. There was a bit of an opening, suitable for turning around, but that was it.

Cranking the wheel, I turned the truck, and then backed it up so the bumper was against the tree line so that at the very least, we would have a quick getaway. Just in case.

I snorted, hell, who was I kidding? There was no doubt that a quick getaway was going to be a necessity. I opened the door and slid out, my feet landing in a big puddle I couldn’t avoid.

“Freaking awesome.” I stepped out of it and slammed the door behind me, the sound echoing around us. I could feel the heat of Liam’s glare, didn’t need to look over my shoulder to know his eyebrows would be drawn sharply over his eyes.

“You want to ring the dinner bell while you’re at it?” His voice was low, but it still carried across to me. Without turning around, I flipped him off. He was right, I was wrong; we both knew it.

Tracking Calliope, I turned my face upward, toward the mountain hovering in the distance. Terror suffused her and leaked through her threads into me. Sweat broke out along my spine, soaking through my t-shirt in a matter of seconds.

“Let’s go.”

Liam brushed past me. “I’ll lead, you navigate.”

I ran my hands over my weapons quickly, thought about going back to the truck for my crossbow. No, if we had to climb the whole mountain, I needed to pack light, and if Liam shifted he wouldn’t be any help with a stack of weapons. Sword, whip, and smaller blades were all I could carry and hopefully all I needed.

The snap of a twig brought my head around. Bushes and trees surrounded us on three sides. Ahead of me, Liam had stopped walking and was eyeing up the same bush I was, a bush that seemed to melt and move.

A grey skinned hand large enough to palm two basketballs pushed the foliage away, and through the bush stepped the biggest damn ogre I had ever seen. Twelve feet, maybe better, his face twisted in a snarl that turned his human-like features into something out of a horror movie. Covered in a light chainmail, he held a sword that had been obviously sized up for him. Fuck, the thing was at least five feet long, maybe even six. His muscles rippled like water flowing over rocks as he lifted his sword, using it to point at me.

“You think to trespass on these lands?”

Calliope’s fear spiked again, which made me reckless. At least, that’s what I’m going to blame for what I said next.

“I don’t see any signs, nothing that says ‘Stay the fuck away.’ You should put some up if you don’t want anyone here but your big grey ass.” I lifted an eyebrow at him, cocked my hip and put a hand on it. Really, there was nothing else to do. He wasn’t going to let us pass without a fight, so no need to be submissive to him. Liam let out a soft groan as three more grey-skinned ogres slipped in around us. Well, this was not good. Maybe I should have been polite. Too late now.

A light rain began to fall and the air went still. The ogre didn’t say anything, just cocked his head to one side, before whipping his sword into the air and letting out a roar that I
felt
as the reverberations hit my chest. Not that I let it last long. There were times to fight and there were times to run.

This was a time for the latter.

Spinning on my heel, I ran for Liam, who waited the split second it took me to reach him, and then we were sprinting full tilt along a narrow trail that wound along the base of the mountain.

Liam stayed behind me and I didn’t dare look behind. I knew we couldn’t keep this up, knew that they would run us, or at least me, into the ground.

“Tell me you have an idea.” Liam leapt up beside me as something hammered into the ground behind us.

“Working on it.”

“Work faster.”

My brain felt scrambled with the adrenaline and I fought to remember all I knew. From what Dox had said there were components of all the ogre tribes around here. From what I knew—and was obvious with the violet and black skinned species—very few of them got along. I let Calliope’s threads go and Tracked ogres as a species, pushing the ones behind us away to focus on what was in front of us.

Shit,
right
in front of us! But there was nothing there that I could see … I grabbed Liam and ducked sideways as a red-skinned ogre literally appeared out of nowhere. He swung a mace over our heads, connecting with the grey-skinned ogre that had been closest on our heels.

The mace buried into the grey’s chest, but I didn’t pause long enough to see what happened next. We were on a side trail and I spread out my Tracking, taking into account all the ogres around us.

“Ah, fuck,” I whispered, knowing Liam would hear me.

We were completely surrounded.

T
he thing was,
I was pretty sure I could lead us around them; the trick would be to stay downwind so they couldn’t smell us. I put a finger to my lips and Liam nodded. Behind us the fight raged, drawing the ogres around us closer, tightening the noose around us. For the moment, they’d forgotten about the intruders, too intent on fighting one another. Score for us.

I dropped to the ground and shimmied forward, the muddy ground cold and slimy. The muck slipped through my jacket zipper, like a pervy old man’s wandering hands. Damn it all, this was disgusting. The bush covered us, hiding us from above, and the mud should have helped with our scent. Then again—

A foot the size of my upper body landed in the muck beside me, squishing up and through the bare, jet-black toes. I dared to look up.

Thank the gods the ogre didn’t look down, just took another step toward the fighting, leaving us behind. Liam squeezed my leg and I continued forward, Tracking ogres, dodging them all.

From behind us, the sounds of the fight escalated as more ogres were drawn to the blood. Like sharks, but instead of a feeding frenzy, they were in a fighting frenzy. When they were a half-mile behind us, and there were no more ahead of us, I stood, mud sliding down the front of my body.

Liam wasn’t faring any better, his clothes stained a dark brown slop.

No words, I just reached for Calliope’s threads. Fear, brilliant and untamable, sung through her and into me. I didn’t let go of the ogre’s threads. As soon as they quit fighting, they’d remember us.

I worked my way back to the trail, checked my weapons, and then set out at a jog. Liam tucked in close beside me, our strides eating up the ground.

Around us, the forest dimmed. Too early for the sun to be setting … I looked up and stopped running.

The Roc skimmed silently above us, his shadow the cause of the loss of light. Grey-green mottled leathery skin, claws on the tips of his wings, big nasty claws on his back feet. His head was long and narrow, teeth jutting out of the partially opened jaws.

“Good gods, he’s as big as Blaz,” I whispered. Liam didn’t answer except to push me forward. He was right, this was not the time to be pointing and staring when there was little doubt we’d be dealing with the big fucker soon enough.

From behind us, the ogres’ fighting went silent as the Roc passed over them. Settling back into a jog, we continued to put distance between us and the ogres. Ahead of us, I could sense nothing but the unicorn foal, and thank the gods not a single damn ogre. About damn time we had a bone thrown our way. Lady luck might be fickle for the rest of the world, but I was pretty sure she had it out for me and my friends.

The incline took a sharp upward turn, but neither of us slowed. Calliope was up ahead, the Roc scoured the skies around us, and there was a colorful mess of blood-thirsty ogres behind us. Yeah, there was going to be no slowing down for us anytime soon.

A sudden, jarring shot of pain ripped through Calliope and into me, dropping me to my knees. Liam’s hands caught me on the way down.

“The foal?”

I nodded, struggled to breathe, struggled to convince my body it wasn’t my pain but another’s. A few seconds passed and I had it under control, the pain a steady distant throb. She was still alive, but whatever happened to her was bad enough that the terror slipped into despair. Calliope was giving up. The sky darkened as a bank of clouds skittered in front of the sun. A reminder that we had very little time to make this salvage happen.

“We aren’t going to make it to her in time, are we?” Liam’s question caught me off guard, the words setting off a trail of anger down my spine.

“Don’t. Just don’t.”

I pushed him away from me and started back up the trail, forcing myself to keep a steady pace despite the incline. The rain made the slope slippery, and the higher we climbed, the colder it got until the rain wasn’t rain anymore but a snotty slippery slush.

An hour passed, and then another, and it seemed that we weren’t getting any closer. My legs shook with each step, and even Liam was breathing hard. Two hours, jogging straight up a mountainside, was not something I did on a regular basis.

Worse though, Calliope was slipping, the despair stealing away the fight in her to survive.

I refused to believe that Liam was right. That we wouldn’t make it in time.

Hang on, Calli. Just hang on.

There was a pause, like someone taking a breath on the other end of the phone.

And then a bright shining thread of hope swirled between us. No words, no thoughts, just an emotion so warm and full of life that it took everything I had not to give a fist pump. Ah, fuck it.

I jammed my fist into the air, then put my head down and powered up the next fifty feet.

“She’s alive … and she knows we’re coming.”

“That’s great. But we have a problem.” Liam caught up to me and spun me around. Maybe two hundred feet behind us, the ogres had caught up. How the hell had they snuck up on us? I’d been Tracking them!

The red-skinned ogre gave me a wave of his fingers and a wink I could see even from that distance.

It took me a second to put two and two together. Of course, certain ogres had magic and if the Lighteaters could mess with my abilities, masking their presence, then likely the ogres could too. And the triplets had known right away what I was and what I could do.

Apparently, my secrets were out.

With a single finger, I waved back.

Laughter rumbled through their group and up to us. We were in trouble. They were too close, and … .

There was no sound as the Roc curled around the mountain. The ogres froze, stilling their huge bodies. Between a Roc and a horde of ogres, which were we more likely to survive?

“Trust me.” My eyes met Liam’s for a brief second, as I plucked a small blade from my boot, then spun and threw it toward the Roc as it drew close, the blade not doing any harm as it caught the beast in the belly.

But it got its attention. Oh, shit did it ever.

The Roc arced toward us, mouth open, wide eyes trained on us without blinking. There was no sound though, no growl, no thunderous roar. Not even a whoosh of wings. If I hadn’t been looking at the big bastard, I wouldn’t have known it was there.

“Dodge the teeth, but let it catch us!” I yelped, as we scrambled out of the way, just barely dodging the open mouth.

“Good idea, Rylee!” His sarcasm was not lost on me. Liam grabbed me, pulled me out of the way of one claw. But we couldn’t dodge the other. Which was exactly what I was hoping for. Kinda.

The grey-green talons closed around us like a bear trap snapping shut, crushing us against one another, and clamping on us in a breath-stealing squeeze. With a sudden, ear-shattering screech, the Roc soared back above the mountain. From below, the ogres still didn’t move, but I could see the smiles on their faces. They thought we were toast. The Roc’s wings moved silently in the falling snow, its body shivering. Three wing beats and we had climbed almost to the top of the mountain.

“Rylee, please tell me this is a part of your plan. That you have a plan.” Liam squirmed against the Roc’s claws that held us tight.

I smiled over at him as the top of the mountain drew closer and the Roc began to descend to a depression between two plateaus near the snow-covered peak. The air was thin, cold, and not suited to the Roc’s nature.

“Actually, this time I do. I was tired of walking.”

His jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”

The Roc gave us a squeeze and then it was landing. With a flick of its talons, it sent us tumbling over the thick crust of hot snow … wait, what the hell?

I didn’t have time to wonder at the hot mush below us. We had a Roc to deal with. Before I could get to my feet, Liam scrambled to my side and wrapped his arms around my body, holding me to the ground.

“The ogres didn’t move and it didn’t see them.” Our bodies sunk into the hot mud and I stared, silent and unmoving, at the Roc who tipped its head sideways, not unlike Eve when she was considering something. Two steps toward us, head cocking again, eyes blinking, the triple eyelids fluttering closed one after another and then opening back up one at a time. Creepy fucker.

It let out a screech, three feet from our heads. My eardrums rattled, and it felt like the left one might have popped, but both Liam and I held still. Held our breath. Sunk deeper into the uncomfortable hot mud.

Damn, this was like some sort of
Jurassic Park
remake. The big leathery bird held its head there, waiting for us to give ourselves away.

The Roc stepped back, giving up on it meal. Or so I thought.

It strode to the far side of the overheated area and settled down into the mud. But no, it didn’t close its eyes. It stared in our direction, eyes wide and again unblinking. Several minutes passed, and my ears slowly stopped ringing.

“Liam.” I kept my voice pitched low and soft, and the Roc didn’t twitch.

“Yes?”

“Not how I imagined my day going.”

“Really? I expected something along these lines. I’m actually surprised it’s mud and not shit we’re up to our necks in.”

I shouldn’t have found that funny, not with how dire our situation was. Yet there I was, sides shaking, fighting the laughter that bubbled up.

Liam’s arms tightened on me. “Track Calliope.”

I did as he said, and the contact with her threads sobered me like a dash of cold water. She was still hopeful, but the pain coursing through her made her weak, the fear that had slipped away from her was building once more. But close now, she was right below us, inside the mountain and so damn close.

Well shit, how the hell were we going to get out of this? Sucked down in the mud, I knew that getting out would be hard and would slow us enough that the Roc would have no problem picking us off.

“There’s a drop down into a lower level, and the opening is too tight for the Roc,” Liam said. “I think we can make it.”

He was right. An opening the size of a small car was close enough that potentially we could make it through before the Roc snapped us up.

“Not unless we slow him down.”

Which we could if we gave him something nasty to chew on. A plan, yes a plan, formed quickly. Shit, it wasn’t perfect, but it was all I had.

“Can you reach either of my swords?”

Under the mud, Liam worked his hand up to one of my swords. “Yes.”

I reached back through the thick mud and grabbed the other handle. “We pull them as we stand, and when he gets his mouth close to us—”

“Rylee, you’re crazy, you know that?”

“Yeah, I do. But it’ll work.” Gods, I hoped that I was right, that it would indeed work.

Liam let out a slow breath. “I hope you’re right.”

Gods help me if I ever lost Liam; there would never be another like him, no matter what Doran said.

“On the count of three.” I tightened my grip on my sword. “One, two, three.”

In tandem, we lurched upward, the mud not only slowing us down, but throwing us off balance. The Roc shot forward, mouth open wide, eyes staring wide.

Our timing, though, was perfect even if our balance was off. Liam’s blade shot upward for the top jaw as mine sliced down and through the bone and cartilage, the spelled blades driving through with ease. Teeth shattered, blood gushed and the Roc backpedaled, mud spraying all over us. We scrambled, fighting against the mud to get to the opening and the drop.

But I wasn’t looking forward, my eyes trained on the flailing, bleeding Roc, and when Liam missed the step down, I tumbled after him. Stairs cut into the mountain rose up to smash into me as I slid down them, the mud coating us acting like a fucking slippery slide.

The stairs curled and I got a glimpse of something bright red and bubbling, a swirl of a brown cloak and a flash of Calliope’s bright white coat.

We hit the ground and Liam was on his feet first. “Rylee, you aren’t going to believe this. Hell, I can’t believe it.”

I rolled to my feet, sword still in hand, and turned to see what he was talking about.

He was right, I didn’t believe it. Not for one second.