Chronicles of Steele: Raven 3: Episode 3 (3 page)

She
narrowed her eyes at him, and in forcing herself not to smile, she pursed her
lips. “What did you do?”

He
took a bite of the bread and leaned back, chewing wholeheartedly. “I explained
to the woman that we happen to be travelling with a doctor. I’d heard rumors
that the witch was safer and more reliable if she knows a doctor will be
checking on things after her. I made arrangements for our doctor to check on
the child’s well being immediately after her appointment.”

“But
won’t that stop them from calling on the witch and relying on the doctor
instead?”

He
stuffed the rest in his mouth and swallowed a quick cup of tea in one gulp.

Where
did the gentleman go?

“The
witch is considered a great apothecary and can often find cures a doctor
cannot. But the lady would appreciate if I’d bring the doctor in on the girl
after the wood witch’s visit. It makes sense to keep the doctor as a second
opinion.”

“So
you lied. We don’t have a doctor.” The words drudged up memories of her doctor,
and part of her wished he was here to play the part for her.

He
shook his head and picked up another piece of bread. “Colton’s a doctor. Our
team has two. Harry and Colton both.”

Raven
snatched the last piece of bread as he offered her the basket. “Really? Isn’t
that unusual?”

“Not
really. When choosing assignments, the guard always has one doctor or healer on
each team. Colton hid the fact he’d had a medical degree because he
specifically wanted to be in the strategic sector of the guard. It’s a little
known fact we have two.”

After
nibbling the bread and taking a sip of some of the best tea she’d ever had,
Raven spotted the waiter bringing the pheasant and chutney out with more bread.
Grant stopped the man before he left the table. He put some coins in the man’s
hand and said, “We’re in a bit of a hurry, man. This should be enough and
please keep the change.”

The
waiter opened his hand and found two silvers. He nodded vigorously, doing his
best to keep the smile from cracking on his lips. “Thank you sir. It will do
just fine.”

When
the waiter left, Raven leaned toward Grant and whispered, “I intended to pay
for my own meal.”

Grant’s
eyes grew wide and he shook his head. “I thought we were on our first date.”

Raven’s
jaw snapped shut and she felt the heat rush to her face. She pulled her napkin
to her mouth and wanted to hide behind it.

Grant
chuckled and leaned toward her, saying, “I’m just kidding, Raven. All meals on
this trip are covered by the Duke’s Court. Honestly, don’t fret.”

The
sudden urge to stuff the napkin in her mouth and scream struck her. Anger overcame
the embarrassment as she sat up straighter and breathed slowly to get a hold of
herself. Why did her heart flutter when Grant had said it was a date? Was it
hope? No. The only man she’d ever love rejected her and married another. She
couldn’t possibly have fallen for another man when her heart was broken. Raven
shook her head. His kind eyes studied her expression. Her eyes burned with
tears, and she quickly covered her face with her napkin.

His
chair scraped the hardwood floor as he rounded the table and knelt at her side.
“Is something wrong? What is it?”

Raven
wiped her eyes and sat straighter. She bit her lip and took two deep breaths.
After, she finally felt she could speak, she decided to exchange one weakness
for another. “I’m fine. I’m just really tired.”

He
patted her on the shoulder and smiled. “I can definitely understand that.”

She
nodded as he straightened and sat back in his seat.

“I
think we’ll have time for a nap before we need to be at the woman’s house.” He
stuffed a fork full of pheasant into his mouth, pointed the fork at her, and
continued with his mouth full. “I’ll even hire a carriage to take us there. It
will save time and energy, right?”

Raven
nodded. At the talk of getting rest, exhaustion settled on her like a blanket.
She ate a few bites of her meal before yawning. Now that they’d determined a
plan of action, she felt as though she might actually sleep.

They
were the first to arrive at the boat. Jack grinned when he found the two coats
still in the bow. He lifted one up at random and offered it to Raven. Her arms
were wrapped around her body, and her head was ducked down. The sun had sunk
just enough below the horizon that it painted the sky in streaks of deep
orange. With it, the wind whipped around them and increased the chill in the
air.

She
eyed him hesitantly, but accepted the coat and pulled it around her, closing
her eyes. His gaze trailed up her arm and found the red band on the sleeve. It
was his jacket.

“Why
don’t you go ahead and lie down in the boat? I’ll keep an eye out for the
others.”

Her
eyes grew wide and she shook her head. “But you’re just as tired as I am.
Neither of us has slept. It would be unfair.”

Jack
smiled wider. Not one girl he could remember would have thought of herself as
his equal in strength and stamina. He’d never met a woman who would flatly deny
any weakness the way Raven tried to. He stood taller and lied. “When the others
get here, I’ll wake you. You can keep watch while the rest of us sleep. That’s
reasonable, right?”

She
nodded, suddenly looking much more tired. He helped her into the boat, and
probably couldn’t have counted to ten before her breathing evened out. While
she slept, her face softened. He kept watch over her and surveyed the ships.
Occasionally, he turned toward the street at the sound of a person or carriage
passing by. The rocky beach on which he stood remained deserted.

Jack
had to pace in order to keep himself awake. He counted three laps on the beach
before checking his watch and noticed that each time he checked, approximately
ten minutes had passed. After widening his circle a bit, he made it exactly
ten. Proud of himself, it helped pass the time, and at six on the dot, Monroe
strode up.

Jack
stopped. “Anything?”

Monroe
peeked into the boat at the woman who’d been asleep a little more than an hour.
He eyed Jack and shook his head. After jabbing a thumb in Raven’s direction he
asked, “How’d you do that?”

“Do
what?”

“How
did you get her to agree to sleep while you stayed awake? It’s not like her to
let her guard down in this way.”

Jack
shrugged and smiled. “She trusts me, I guess.”

Monroe
narrowed his eyes at him and opened his mouth to speak when Colton and Rupert
rounded the corner. Rupert called out in a loud voice as he approached. “Do you
realize how big this town is?”

Jack
gave him a stern look and pointed into the boat.

Rupert
furrowed his brows and only lowered his voice one tick. “How long have you been
here that she’s already asleep?”

Raven
stirred but didn’t wake. Jack grabbed Rupert by the shoulder and strode away
from the boat a little ways with him. Colton and Monroe followed.

Jack
spoke softly but sternly. “We’ve been here nearly an hour and a half. Did you
find any information?”

His
second-in-command put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes. Rupert’s jaw
pulsed at the top as he ground his teeth.

Colton
cleared his throat. “Actually . . . no. We found some who had heard rumors
about the witch’s arrival in town, but no one who even knew what she looked
like. All hearsay. We gained no new information whatsoever.”

Rupert
threw his hands into the air. “I don’t understand why we are letting that
criminal take a nap. Why did you arrive over an hour early while we continued
canvassing the streets? Is she better than us? Does she deserve special
treatment? I thought we were supposed to kill her on sight.”

The
ring of a blade being pulled from a scabbard interrupted his tirade, and Jack
turned around to find Monroe standing with his short sword drawn on the three
guards. Monroe narrowed his eyes. “No one will be killing this woman while she
sleeps.”

Jack
shook his head and grabbed Rupert’s arm as the man reached for the grip of his
pistol. “No. We need to work together on this. There will be no fighting and no
killing on sight.”

Rupert
yanked free of Jack’s grasp and crossed his arms over his chest. He shot a
malicious look at Jack and glowered.

After
a deep breath, Jack reined in his own anger. “Look. We got here early because
we found something worth reporting. Raven and I discovered an old woman with a
sick granddaughter. After overhearing a conversation about the child’s illness,
in which the Wood Witch was mentioned, I struck up a conversation with the old
woman.”

During
the pause, Rupert’s shoulders relaxed and he uncrossed his arms.

Jack
smiled, and tilted his head toward Colton. “I informed the woman that we
happened to be traveling with a doctor from New Haven.”

Colton’s
jaw dropped and he started to pace. “You did what? I don’t have any tools with
me, nor have I practiced medicine since college. It’s been five years since I
have even seen a patient. What have you signed me up for?”

Jack
shrugged. “It’s not much. You look the part. You talk like a noble. You speak
their language and know how to give people what they want.”

“But
the child is sick for real, Jack. What if I make things worse, or even bar them
from seeking real medical attention? I can’t have this kind of responsibility
on my conscience.”

“The
Wood Witch has an appointment at the house in Grandview at nine-thirty. She’s
never late according to this woman. We are supposed to be showing up at
ten-thirty, but we’re going to be there by nine-fifteen.”

Monroe
pushed his blade back into its sheath. “From here to Grandview is about an
hour’s walk, so we’ve got nearly an hour and a half before we must leave.”

Jack
yawned. “A little more, actually. It only takes fifteen minutes by carriage,
and I have hired one to pick us up here by nine.”

Rupert
looked suddenly very tired. “So that’s two and a half hours to kill.”

Monroe
pulled an apple from under his rags and took a big bite. He spoke with his
mouth full and chewed. “I suggest you three get some sleep as well, then.”

Jack
narrowed his eyes. “Are you offering to watch? Aren’t you tired as well, old
man?”

Monroe
stopped mid chew and smiled. His salt and pepper beard had become wet on the
chin from the apple. “I slept last night in the shed with Nikki. When she
started the barking, it woke me. I’m far from completely rested, but somehow I
feel I’m better off than the three of you.” He nodded toward the boat and said,
“Or her.”

Jack
yawned, disinclined to argue. “Speaking of Nikki. Where is she?”

Monroe
grinned. “I left her with a friend I have in town. A dog like her wouldn’t
quite fit into this hunt now that we’re out of the woods.”

Jack
nodded. He sat on the rocky shore next to the boat and leaned against the
peeling paint. The other two guardsmen did the same. He pulled off his
waistcoat and balled it up. When he felt this tired, he knew that he could
sleep in almost any position. The last vestiges of the sun formed an amber glow
through the murky clouds on the horizon. On the other side of the sky, the
stars began making an appearance. Empty smokestacks pointed to the sky, their
flames extinguished for the day.

The
wind picked up, and for a moment, Jack wish he’d had his jacket to cover up
with. But the moment he closed his eyes, sleep overtook him.

An error is not a mistake unless
nothing is learned from it.
If one learns to keep from erring again, it becomes an experience.

T
HE SCREECH OF scraping metal woke
Raven with a start. She gasped and jumped up, losing her balance and catching
herself when the boat rocked. Without the gaslight streetlamps casting their
eerie glow, the shore would have been black as pitch. A brown hardwood carriage
came to a stop on the road directly in front of the boat. The shift in the boat
caused the three guardsmen to wake and stand as well. Grant didn’t wake her,
like he said he would.

“Taxi?”
The coachman tipped his tweed hat as he pulled the mechanical horse to a stop.

Raven
winced. She’d never liked the metal horses in the first place, and after being
with Darius for nearly a month, she’d begun avoiding them more.

Grant
rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he lifted a hand toward the coach. “Yes, I
ordered the cab. Give us a moment.”

The
coachman nodded and dismounted from the driver’s seat.

He
pulled the waistcoat over his shoulders and looked to his men who were getting
themselves organized and straightened. Monroe stood at the driver and made
polite conversation. Grant stepped up to Raven and offered her a hand out of
the boat. Slightly dizzy and disoriented, she still held the jacket folded over
her arms. When she turned to put it back in the boat, he put a hand on her
shoulder. “I think we’ll wear the full outfits tonight. The nobles in Ipswich
don’t have a problem with guardsmen from New Haven.”

Raven
nodded and asked, “Why didn’t you wake me?”

He
smiled. “Monroe claimed to have gotten some sleep in the shed before the Wood
Witch attempted escape. He offered to keep watch.”

The
wind blew a chill through the air, and the sky looked black with a foreign
glow. Only a few stars were visible through the gaslight of the city reflected
in the hazy clouds. Raven couldn’t imagine zeppelin-living high society over
the city of Ipswich.

Raven
set a hand on Grant’s shoulder. She hated to ask a favor or for special
treatment, but she needed to get out of her dress. “Could I have a moment alone
in the carriage?”

Grant
raised his eyebrows but nodded.

She
smiled and hopped into the carriage. It wasn’t that she really needed a place
to change, as she already wore her change of clothes under the travelling
dress. Modesty wouldn’t allow her to pull it over her head and embarrass the
group. The dress weighed her down, and she felt freedom in her black breeches
and button top. After a moment’s breath, she hopped back out of the closed
coach. She rolled the dress up, threw it into the bow of the boat and pulled
the crossbow and sword from under it. She finally felt like herself.

The
five of them loaded into the carriage. Raven sat between Monroe and Colton. At
least she didn’t sit next to Captain Grant. The thought of them in such close
proximity made her excited and uncomfortable at the same time. She didn’t like
the feeling.

Over
two bridges and a short stint through a mile of hilly countryside, they arrived
in Grandview. The coachman opened the door and they piled out. Monroe helped
Raven from the step and she blinked hard. Each of the small mansions had a
zeppelin tethered to the ground at a low altitude. She shook her head and
marveled at the stupidity. Never tell a noble they can’t do anything. They will
try all the harder to prove you wrong.

Snow
covered the ground all about them, though only about ankle deep. The pure white
powder suggested that Grandview lay upwind of Ipswich. Grant rubbed his hands
together in the sudden cold. “We’re a bit early, which is good. We’ll start
toward the woman’s manor, Earl’s Head.”

The
carriage pulled away, leaving them on the flat, even stones of Grandview’s street.
They started up the hill toward the grey house. The snow on street and walk had
been cleared. Up and down the street, lamps lit the walkway, though no one
seemed out and about.

Colton
fastened the buttons on his coat and asked, “So what is the plan?”

Together,
the four men nearly huddled together to strategize. Raven strolled just behind
them, keeping an ear tuned to their conversation while she scanned the area for
anything unusual. Really, the first thing they needed to do was get out of the
open, in her opinion.

Grant
continued to walk at an even stride up the hill. “I suggest we spread out and
surround the house. Stay in hiding. Colton and I will approach the house to
determine if the witch is more than punctual. The rest of you will keep your
distance.”

Rupert
nodded, his eyes on his captain. “What do you suggest we do if the witch
arrives?”

“Capture
her. She doesn’t need to see the child first. We can make any arrangements
necessary after the woman is caught.”

Raven
huffed a little louder than she meant to, attracting every man’s attention.

Grant
raised his eyebrows. “Do you have something you’d like to add?”

She
swallowed, her eyes darting among the four of them. “I’ve confronted this woman
twice and became debilitated both times.”

The
men nodded and Grant’s eyes widened with recognition.

Raven
continued, pointing toward Grant. “You were incapacitated, as well. My question
is how do you suggest we capture this woman?”

The
men nodded.

Monroe
cleared his throat. “It is my understanding the witch is most powerful in her
own element. Her house. The woods. These are places from which she draws energy
and stores it.”

It
made sense. A general consensus murmured through the group.

“Here,
out in the open, the woman would be at her weakest. And proximity makes a
difference as well.” Monroe pulled a small crossbow from under his rags. “With
so many of us keeping our distance from her, I don’t believe she’d find it as
easy to enervate us all.”

“A
much better plan,” Raven said with a smile, unsnapping the crossbow from her
back.

They
reached the front of the house. Colton and Grant nodded and started up the
walkway. Monroe headed to the west of the house, Rupert headed across the
street to bring up the rear, and Raven stayed to the east. The top of the snow
had iced over and crunched under her feet. She checked her chronometer as she
walked toward a copse of trees. The hands and numbers on the face of her watch
had been painted with luminescence and glowed in the darkness. It was nearly
nine-thirty and still no sign of the witch.

She
hunched down in the thicket, keeping an eye on her watch. Grant came around to
her side of the house, peeking in the windows as he went. When he finished
checking through all of them on the first floor, he started for the woods to Raven’s
right. He called out as he went in a low voice. “Raven?”

Annoyed,
Raven rolled her eyes and snapped a twig between her fingers to get the
lummox’s attention.

He
whipped his head toward her and smiled as he crunched through the snow. She
watched the brightly lit area around the house and up the street as far as she
could. Rupert was easy for her to spot in the woods on the other side of the
road. His dark skin should have made it easier for him to hide, but the
well-lit neighborhood didn’t leave many shadows except in the trees. Across
from her, on the other side of the house, Raven was happy she could see no sign
of Monroe until he made a movement for Colton to join him.

Dawn
and dusk were the worst times for seeing in the dark. The lights in the neighborhood
of Grandview made it most like twilight.  Her eyes strained against the falling
night, but it wasn’t dim enough for her night vision goggles. A carriage turned
up the road, pulled by a single, white, flesh horse.

The
clip clop of the horse’s hooves on the flat stone as it pulled the plain open
cart up the hill echoed through silent neighborhood. Grant crouched next to her
behind a bush. “It’s the witch. She really is timely—it’s exactly nine-thirty.”

Raven
pursed her lips, and motioned for the captain to stay quiet with a nod. Her
hand sought the right bolt among her arrows. An alchemist friend of her
father’s had fashioned a wide, grappling net out of spider wire and attached it
to one of her bolts. She pulled the net-bolt into her crossbow and set it
against the trigger. It fit into the bow and would begin to spread the moment
it left her crossbow. Her jaw tightened. For now, she didn’t want the witch
dead.

The
small carriage pulled to a stop, and the coachman hopped down to open the door
for the passenger. A hunched woman took his hand and wrapped a shawl over her
head. Raven began counting the woman’s steps. In order for the grappling net’s
full effect, she needed the woman standing in a certain five foot section of
the walkway to the house.

Raven
deliberated her breathing, willing herself to remain calm and trust her
calculations. Grant shifted position at her side and broke her concentration.
She shot out an arm without looking and grabbed him by the shoulder. She
whispered a single word both for herself and for him. “Wait.”

He
settled back into his crouch and tsked. Her eyes searched the area and found
Rupert striding across the lawn of the house across the street, making a line
directly for the witch. Still hunched over with her shawl wrapped around her
head, the woman didn’t see the guardsman yet, but the carriage driver started
and stepped in front of Rupert. The coachman’s voice was gruff and
commanding—it bounced off the walls of the homes just as the horses’ hooves had
on the flat stone. “What? Now see here, sir.”

The
witch stopped and began to turn. Raven bit her lip and bolted from the woods.
The sword on her back caught on something and unsnapped. It fell to the snow.
She didn’t hesitate, but continued, focused on her target. If the witch
determined what was happening because of Rupert’s presence, she’d never come
into range of the grappling net. Raven needed to bring the net to her.

She
leapt across the snow, making quick measurements in her head keeping her aim
trained on the old woman. The witch’s back remained to Raven as she rushed
across the snow. Just as the witch turned completely toward Rupert, she began
removing the shawl. The moment before she turned in a way so she saw an
attacker in her periphery, Raven pulled the trigger on her crossbow.

Jack
gasped as the reaper next to him proved again her incredible speed. Just when
he’d gotten used to her being only a woman, she proved to be so much more. Her
hair flew behind her as she held the crossbow in front of her impossibly still while
her legs pumped wildly. The gaslight cast a halo glowing about her head.

After
a moment’s distraction, Jack leapt to his feet. He started after her through
the crunching snow. Across the other side of the walkway, Monroe and Colton
broke from the woods. An arrow whistled through the air and a black net
unfurled toward the witch. The witch had only enough time to turn her head in
Raven’s direction before the net wrapped around her.

No
matter how much the woman struggled, the net ensnared her further. The coachman
ran for them yelling, “What’s this? What are you doing to that woman? Cease at
once!”

Rupert
grabbed the man and spun him around. “This is an arrest. I’m not wearing this
jacket for warmth alone. Pay attention, man.”