Cold Fire (52 page)

The cursed fool did not budge. “I’m not leaving you behind.”

A shadow quite inverse to the size of its human form loomed over us like a thundercloud.

“This has all been quite illuminating and much more diverting than my usual hunt.”

My sire’s right hand fell like fate on Vai’s shoulder. With his left, he grasped the chain and slipped the now-clouded ice lens into his palm as he might admire a lovely flower, then closed his fingers over it.

“I will take him now. You’ve done well, Daughter.”

I raised the machete. “You will not! He’s not the one I mean you to take.”

“Whenever did I give you the impression that your wishes, desires, or intentions mean anything to me?” His grasp had paralyzed Vai.

He glanced up at the sky toward the hunters and killers who, when he called, would sweep down to rend and dismember their prey. No human on the ground could see them; perhaps humans could not see the Master of the Wild Hunt either, not really, for he walked half in and half out of the world, perceived as fear and hunger but not truly seen.

The dusting of snow evaporated in a wave of rising heat. I was caught between an immensely powerful fire mage who was about to kill me, and the Master of the Wild Hunt, who was about to kill the man I loved. I could not fight, and I could not run. I had to think with my mind.

For the truth was, why would my sire appear as a good-looking young male? Why would he even care how he looked? I knew something about dealing with vain men.

“Father,” I said, “I know you do not hold me in any affection, but I am the weapon you forged, the one you alone can wield. Are you going to let that fire weaver destroy me? It makes you look careless. It makes you look weak. But I guess you can’t stop her.”

Killing fire pinched at my heart in that instant. I reached for Vai so that touching him would be my last memory before death consumed my flesh and mind.

My sire exhaled. Luminescent snow winked into existence, obliterating the heat. The white flakes were so scintillant they dazzled and blinded. My heart beat on, untouched.

He murmured, “Fire is the serpents’ weapon. You know how I hate and loathe serpents.”

Ice crackled across the stones.

“Kill her.”

The clamor of the hunt dusted down over us as his words released them. They flowed out of the heavens like nightmare, surging forward in a squall of sleeting rain whose icy touch cut skin and caused blood to flow. Deadly hounds loped down the risers, biting and clawing as they passed. I could not tell if they were solid or merely the shadows that haunt dreams, but their touch spread like poison. Hulking dire wolves snarled, and hyenas laughed mockingly as Expeditioners and Taino alike were eaten up by stark fear, even the disciplined soldiers.

Many people tried to run, but the crush was so great they only trampled each other. Others froze, unable to move. A few tried to fight, blocking with arms or clubbing with rifles or slashing wildly with their ceremonial spears. Yet they could do no damage to the sleek cats and men with animals’ faces who pushed through the ball court. A cloud of wasps stung, each touch raising a drop of blood. Bats swooped through, accompanied by silent owls. A red-gold-and-black-banded snake slithered over my sandaled foot; tiny frogs with skin as bright as jewels hopped alongside.

All swarmed toward the cacica’s platform.

“Son,” said my sire. “Did you not hear me? Kill her.”

With a glance at me as if to apologize, Rory sighed. He bent, and he flowed. Where a man had stood, a huge saber-toothed cat leaped in silent beauty. The change came so swiftly that people running across the ball court to escape the hunt had no time to break out of his path as he bounded to the platform.

The cacica was no fool. Nor was she a coward. She faced the hunt as she drew deep into the fire, but before she could release it, the great cat drove her down beneath claws and teeth. He snapped her neck with a casual shake.

He, my amusing, insouciant Rory. He was his father’s son.

The pack—wolves, snakes, cats, hounds, wasps, raptors, all—converged on the body, rending and tearing.

I had to look away.

The ball court was in chaos, the crowd streaming every which way. The Taino soldiers blocking the ends of the playing field had fled. People stampeded for safety, leaving broken and sobbing wounded behind. A few pockets of order held ground, among them Prince Caonabo who had not panicked but instead had taken advantage of the chaos to cut the bonds of his twin. Juba took the knife from his brother and ran to free the other prisoners. A ceremonial spear in hand, Caonabo approached the raised platform with soldiers at his heels. A shadowy hound loped past, a head hanging from its jaws by long black hair.

Then huge glittering flakes of a heavy snowfall obscured the scene, making it seem I, my sire, and Vai were alone in the world.

My sire opened his fingers. The chain and ring had crumbled into rust. When he blew on his hand, the red dust dispersed like chaff into the blowing snow. Touched by that dust, my machete corroded and deformed as rust bloomed on the blade, creeping up as if to engulf and consume my flesh. I let go. The blade shattered when it hit the ground.

He lifted Vai with one arm and shoved him into the coach.

“But you have this night’s blood!” I cried as I scrambled in after Vai.

The door slammed shut behind me like the hammer of fate, leaving my sire outside and us within, his prisoners. A whip snapped. The coach rocked as the horses pulled us upward.

Vai blinked, shaking himself as if motion and will had just returned. “I understand now. Your sire is the Master of the Wild Hunt.”

“And I hate him!” I cried as I tried to open latches and shutters, but they were all locked.

“Of course you do, love.”

I flung my arms around him, and then we were kissing with the passion of the condemned.

“This is certainly more interesting than the last time you two were in the coach together.”

I broke away to glare at the thin gremlin face with its winking gaze and straight line of a mouth. “Shut your eyes!”

Vai drew back, looking startled. “Catherine?”

“I’m talking to the latch! Prying little beast! I’ll throw you in a furnace and melt you!”

“Catherine? Did you hit your head?”

“Didn’t you hear what it said?”

“What makes you think I let him hear me?” said the latch with a smirk. “But if he weaves me a pretty illusion first, then I’ll close my eyes and let you do that other thing in private.”

“Catherine, as much as I would love to keep kissing you instead of hearing you rave on about furnaces, we need to do something
now
.”

The door to the spirit world was opened from the outside. The gulf of the sky yawned, for we rolled through the void of heaven. The hunt coursed away into a swirl of lightning and black cloud. As calmly as if he were entering the coach from a street corner, my sire stepped in.

I threw myself across Vai to shield him. “You said there would only be one sacrifice.”

My sire sat opposite us, raising his eyebrows as Vai set me to one side. Vai left his arm around me but did not speak. We faced the Master of the Wild Hunt together.

“By the terms of the contract, we can take only one,” replied my sire. “We have taken this night’s blood. But that doesn’t mean I can’t take a prisoner across to the spirit world with me. I’m going to find out what it was this magister did that he oughtn’t to have been able to do.” As he spoke, his human face slowly congealed into the mask of ice. “Which means that in addition to assuaging my terrible curiosity, I can release you, little cat, from my service. As long as he resides in my palace, I need only tug on the leash to bring you crawling back.”

He leaned forward and pressed a hand on Vai’s chest, his touch the embrace of ice.

Then he flung me out the open door.

Into the sea.

The warm salty water closed over my face, but I did not have the luxury of panic. I pulled to the surface and breached just as I realized two sharks were circling, drawn by the scent of my blood. My rage and hate leaked like poison into the water, and perhaps that was why they did not dart in for the kill. Or perhaps because they recognized a kinswoman. For they stayed away, merely keeping an eye on me as I floundered toward shore.

It seemed inevitable that I waded to shore at the jetty almost exactly where Drake had dumped me the first time. The few men working the piers turned to watch me emerge from the sea with my blouse and pagne plastered to my body, revealing every curve and mound. My blood streaked one leg. When I glared at them, they backed away.

I halted on the revetment next to baskets filled with fresh catch, slippery pargo with their red tails and little cachicata. Behind, the sun had risen two hands above the horizon, the dawn feed done and the wind no more than a soft breeze. The wide flat expanse of the waters in their constant shimmering reminded me of the trolls’ mirrors. At least I had saved Bee.

The sky shone so blue it looked flat; wisps of cloud trailed off the highlands. I scanned the roofs and smoke of the city but saw no sign of the Taino airship fleet. Indeed, there weren’t many men on the piers. The streets had a peculiar emptiness, as if most traffic had drained off in the face of a coming storm. The few men gathered into clumps to whisper and stare as I dripped across the boulevard and walked into the deserted carpentry yard. Only three people worked there, despite the early-morning coolness. The two men set down their axes and hurried under the shade of the shelter’s roof, where the Taino boss was leaning over her table making tallies in her accounts book. She looked up, saw me, and said something in Taino to them. They bolted out the back as she straightened to greet me.

“The maku’s perdita,” she said in the local speech.

“Could you ask me a question, please?” I said.

She had the Taino habit of looking at you directly and without fear. “What manner of question shall I ask, Perdita?”

The thrill that coursed through my heart made me smile, not with joy but with resolve. “That was the right one. What day is it? What happened to the Taino fleet?”

“In the Roman calendar, ’tis the third day of November. As for the other, here is the story as I heard it. Three nights back, when the cursed Council surrendered Expedition to the Taino cacica, a witch flew down out of the night, turned she own self into a big black saber-toothed cat and killed the cacica, then tore her to bits and threw she head in a well. That witch was surely angry because the cacica had stolen the maku fire bane the witch loved. Yee suppose that could be true?”

“No, not quite like that. But what happened afterward?”

“The witch flew off with the maku.”

“I mean, what has happened in Expedition?”

“Why, the wardens took control of Council House. Yesterday Gaius Sanogo was elected by unanimous vote as president of the committee that shall sit to write a charter for an Assembly. An Assembly we shall now have. ’Tis long past time, if yee want me opinion on it. As for the Taino, they cannot trouble us until they sort out they own rule. If Prince Caonabo wish to inherit he uncle’s duho, he and all that army must return to Sharagua.”

“You’re Taino.”

“No, gal. I’s an Expeditioner, born and raised. Some say yee killed the maku. Did yee so? Or only fly off with him?”

I raised my eyes to the heavens, so bold and vast and fathomless, like the face of the ice. “I never had wings. I was only the arrow my sire loosed to find his mark. And so the hunt drank the cacica’s blood, and then its master stole my beloved to keep me on his leash.”

I shut my eyes. In the spirit world, the length of a kiss might stretch to three days. I pressed a hand over my locket and felt the pulse of the chain that bound us. The only thing that could break it now was death, and Vai still lived.

I opened my eyes to surprise the Taino woman with a look of wry pity on her weathered face. “Shall yee like somewhat to eat or drink? Juice, or rum? Guava, perhaps?”

“I am not an opia, although I do like guava. I’m not a witch, either. But I would take a shot of rum and a cup of juice, with thanks.”

The rum was potent enough to steady me, and the juice soothed my aching throat. The boss offered me more juice, which I drank.

“Cat?” I looked up to see Luce, chest heaving as she ran up. “Cat!” She hugged me so hard it squeezed the air from my lungs.

Aunty Djeneba proceeded with less haste and more dignity toward us, accompanied by one of the men who had fled the carpentry yard. She spoke briefly with the Taino boss. Her mouth creased down as she turned to me. “Well, Cat, yee have turned up again.”

“Like a three-days-dead fish,” sniveled Luce, releasing me to wipe her eyes.

I couldn’t speak. I knew I was about to start bawling.

“I can see yee need to clean up and get fresh clothes,” said Aunty. “Luce, yee run and fetch Kayleigh. Cat, yee shall come home with us until Kofi-lad can come from the meeting down at Council House. He have spoken to us about those things which happened. I hope yee shall forgive me harsh words to yee.”

Heart full and throat choked, I whispered, “Yes.”

Then I bawled anyway on the way to the boardinghouse. A shower revived me. Clean clothes made me feel almost human. A platter of Aunty’s rice and peas and a slab of fried pargo with several more cups of guava juice sweetened with lime and pineapple restored my will, as if such humble gestures were magic. Because they were.

I was considering a second platter of rice and peas when Kofi and Gaius Sanogo arrived.

“Were you working for him all along?” I demanded of Kofi as he and the commissioner sat opposite me. “Are you secretly a warden?”

“I’s standing for the Assembly, when it come time for the vote,” said Kofi. “As for the other, I’s sure me own tale is no stranger than the one I hope yee mean to tell us now.”

“There is a lot of it you won’t believe.”

“That would be a change,” teased Kofi with a laugh that coaxed a smile from me.

“I’s willing to pass me own judgment,” said Sanogo.

The entire household as well as a few of the regulars gathered to listen. It took me two cups of the potent ginger beer to work myself past my instincts and my training to actually tell them things I would normally have kept silent about. But I managed it. With Luce sitting beside me and holding my hand, I told a short version of the tale. Even with the things I felt obliged to leave out, it was the most I had ever told anyone at one time except the night I had spent in Vai’s arms. When I was finished, they replied with a measured silence. I could not tell if they believed me, thought I was quite deluded, or reckoned I was merely the most outrageous liar they had ever met.

“Oh, Cat!” sighed Luce. “What shall yee do now?”

I met Kayleigh’s stricken gaze. “I will get him back. I promise you.”

She nodded, then turned her face into Kofi’s shoulder.

I addressed the warden. “What happened to General Camjiata?”

Sanogo’s pleasant smile had the bracing effect of a piece of ice sliding down my back. “Jasmeen threw the man out of the town house. She owned it through one of she clan’s holding companies. We never knew it belonged to she. That is why we never suspected her.”

“She threw him out?”

“He could offer her no profit if there was none to support the Europan war. I believe the man bides at the Speckled Iguana. We shall send he and any who wish to go with him back to Europa.”

“Pay for the whole ship and all?”

“More than one ship,” said Kofi. “He have signed up five hundred men for he army.”

“We’s happy to pay for him to leave,” said Sanogo, “and good riddance to hotheaded young fools and they arseness.”

“What of Prince Caonabo and his bride?”

“Yee cousin? She I have not seen, although I hear she await the prince at the border. As for the prince, I must go back now, for the committee meet with him this afternoon to seal the First Treaty anew.”

“Why should the prince want to renew the treaty? Wouldn’t possessing Expedition’s factories, university, and port strengthen his position? Especially if he has to fight over the succession?”

“A fight over the succession is no small thing. He have no time to bother he own self with Expedition right now. But it also happen, as yee said yee own self, Cat, that a place like Expedition serve the Taino better as a free city than under Taino rule. Prince Caonabo is young and untried, but to me he seem a pragmatical sort of fellow. We shall see if he succeed, or fail.”

“What of the prisoners who were going to be executed?”

“They all vanished in the night.”

“Even Prince Haübey? The one they call Juba?”

“That man likewise.”

“No doubt with the aid of his brother. It’s good to know Prince Caonabo has his flaws. I’m not going back to Salt Island, Commissioner.”

“I would not try and make yee. The prince he own self told me yee cannot be called a salter if there was never any teeth in yee to begin with.”

Kofi said, “What shall yee do now, Cat?” Then he laughed at my expression. “Me apologies, gal. I knew better than to ask. Yee’s going after Vai. Good fortune to yee with that.”

“Come with me to the Speckled Iguana, Kofi. I could use your support.”

He rounded up Vai’s other radical friends. We walked the fifteen blocks to the Speckled Iguana on empty streets that reminded me of the night I had staggered there in the company of Bala and Gaius and come home with Vai. The streets right around the Speckled Iguana were crowded with young men and their bundled possessions waiting with the look of restless wanderers who think it long past time to hit the road. They watched us walk past as if we were enemies approaching under truce. I climbed the steps with Kofi, and he was a good companion to have, being large, sturdy, and with those wicked scars to show he had survived worse than what you could dish out.

In the common room, a man I did not recognize worked the bar, but he knew me as soon as he saw me. He indicated the door that led to the back. My companions made a path for me through the staring, silent crowd. I ducked behind the bar and pushed open the door into the room in which Drake had killed one man to save another.

In fact, Drake was the first person I saw as I entered, for he was standing to the right of the door. The chamber in which he had healed a dying man was now pristine, decorated with long tables covered with red-and-gold floral-embroidered cloths and runners of magnificent Iberian lacework down the centers. Every seat was taken. People stood all the way around the room as well. At the far end, the general sat at the head of the longest table with a number of broadsheets creased and stacked at his left hand. I recognized Captain Tira and, to my surprise, Juba, standing behind the general like aides. I recognized the young Keita merchant who had railed against the commons at the dinner party. To the general’s right, in the seat of honor, sat the proprietor of the Speckled Iguana. He was wearing the gold-braided uniform of a high-ranking officer.

My cane hung from a cord looped over a bracket in the wall.

Everyone turned to look at me as the general raised his cup as in salute.

“I hear the Wild Hunt took him,” said Drake with a sneer. “The sad fate of many an arrogant bastard of a cold mage. But I must say, he really deserved whatever he got.”

Just out of principle, I punched him, and he went down on his backside, although to my disappointment, not one person snickered. Indeed, a kind of many-throated gasp was inhaled throughout the room as heat spiked and the ornamental candles ranged along the lace centerpieces caught flame. A strange glamour flickered, and the flames snapped out. Drake rose with a peculiarly disturbing smile on his face, as if he had a surprise for me that I would not like. I suddenly remembered that I ought to be frightened of a man who could burn me alive and had been willing to do so before. But I was not afraid, not right now with my fury at what my sire had done still red-hot. He stepped back as Kofi shouldered up beside me and crossed his arms.

The general took a swallow from his cup and set it down atop a bold headline announcing the declaration of a new government for Expedition Territory. “So, Cat, have you come to join my army? I could certainly use a spy of your abilities. I’ve worked with Hassi Barahals before and hope to again. Or you could join my Amazon corps, as your mother did.”

“I’m married.”

He sighed. “I know the Wild Hunt took him. My condolences at his death. I have suffered a similar blow.”

I had no desire to mock his grief for his dead wife. Nor did he need to know what I knew. So I cut to the chase.

“I am here to reclaim my sword.”

“Are you?” he asked with a faint smile.

“I am.”

He raised an eyebrow. “An answer to a question.”

“You can give it to me, or I can take it. But I’m getting it now, because I hear you’re leaving soon to invade Europa with five hundred men.”

“One thousand one hundred and thirty-four, to be exact. We may lose or gain a few before the ships sail. I have new recruits, and old guard.”

I could not help myself. I laughed. “You’re going to conquer Europa with one thousand soldiers?”

He lifted his cup as if in toast to the fifty or so people crowded in the chamber, all of whom watched him raptly. “I started with fewer in my first command.”

“You lack a woman who walks the dreams of dragons.”

“I have Bee’s sketchbook.”

“How did you get that?”

“She gave it to me before she went to her wedding.”

“I don’t believe you. I think you stole it like you stole my sword.”

He let this accusation pass. “I also have a fire mage.”

“One with no scruples,” I said.

“As the Roman poet said, ‘The end justifies the means.’”

“A Roman would say that!”

The door into the back courtyard opened. A young man stepped into the chamber wearing a frightfully garish dash jacket of purple fabric printed with stylized orange and black stones. “Cat? I thought I heard your voice.”