Dreamlands (14 page)

Murphy didn’t want to use the flashlights because we would be too easy to see.

One minute we were alone, and the next we were surrounded by monsters. Murphy did something that was smart and stupid at the same time: he tried to shoot one of them. Not that I blamed him; if something was popping out of nowhere in our business, then it got shot. But what sucked was the fact that none of our weapons worked. The look on his face would have been funny if it wasn’t for the fact that we were defenseless.

Mixed in with the monsters were men who were dressed funny with big nasty swords. Not that I was really worried about them, but I had just found out that my nice submachine gun was nothing more than a club now. I felt really pissed and embarrassed about being overpowered by a posse of extras from a bad costume epic. The monsters were Reavers, and I didn’t know too much about them besides their name. I was a point-and-shoot guy and could barely tell one monster from another at times.

All I knew about these were that they were clever fuckers. Most monsters were just eating machines, but not these guys, and it wasn’t because they had no mouths. They always seemed to pop up at the wrong time and place―and not just at the gate at Boylston Street. I had done a little research about them, trying to find out who the chick had been. I learned about Reavers, not that there was much to learn about them. There was nothing about her.

The muscle boys didn’t seem to be in charge of the damned things, since they looked like they were working together. Not that I could really know, because none of these people spoke English. All I knew for sure was that we were screwed. They surrounded us quickly, and while Murphy wanted to fight, the rest of us were willing to take a wait-and-see attitude. I didn’t like surrendering, but I followed Wolf’s lead when he dropped his gun and put his hands up. McGann was still looking freaked out, and Romejinoff was useless. Combine all that with the lack of firepower, and it made Wolf’s move the smart one.

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“Fucking gooks,” Murphy muttered.

“I hope that they don’t know fucking English, or they might get pissed at that one,” I hissed. He gave me a dirty look.

“Japanese,” Wolf said. “Samurai. You don’t want to anger them.” The posse didn’t bother grabbing our weapons. They were quite content to just herd us in the direction they wanted us to go. They all had this look about them, like they could kick your ass before breakfast without even working up a sweat. I ended up helping McGann a bit because she was stumbling worse than I was. They were marching us at a steady pace through the countryside, and gradually we were walking on paths someone seemed to be taking care of. They were in better condition than the roads in Boston, but that wasn’t hard. Potholes were thicker than shit and fucking deep on Boston roads, like small cars would disappear in them deep.

The rain started again as a mist that was more annoying than anything else. I was getting chafed by my wet clothing, which was a little heavier than I wanted my clothes to be, because this place was like fucking sauna.

“You okay?” I whispered to McGann.

“Just tired,” she said.

I tried not to snort, since she looked like shit. “Something to do with your mojo?”

She looked at me. It was supposed to be a secret that McGann was the company ’path. I knew by accident. I knew Murphy knew, but I didn’t think anyone else did. I didn’t blame her for not wanting people to know about it, because even with the rules the ’paths worked under, you got paranoid about the stray thought at times. Like the one I occasionally had of her covered in whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

She was hot, even if she had more testosterone than most of the guys in the organization. And she was my boss, but that didn’t stop me from having fantasies about her.

“It might be,” she finally admitted after thinking about it for a while.

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“Tell me if you need anything,” I said.

She nodded, which showed me she was closer to a breakdown than she would admit, to depend on me for something.

We walked for a while before we got to any sign of civilization.

The posse marched us into a walled compound. The outside walls were tall, about eight or ten feet, and I thought they were made out of a mixture of plaster and something else. Tough enough to stop any animal or monster that might wander around randomly, and I wondered what was out there that was worse than Hákarl. Or it might have just been the style of building, since I didn’t know shit about architecture.

We were escorted through a small gate room area, which almost freaked me out when I realized archers were drawing a bead on us when we spilled out into a huge courtyard. I mean huge, because the place looked bigger than the Public Gardens, even with the poor light and the mist. There were lanterns all over the place, and I could see a handful of smaller buildings and a sprawling one with a tower off in the distance, besides the big one in front of us. Everything was one story except for the tower. Weird. One of the guys who captured us wandered off, but the rest of them stayed to keep an eye on us. I guess he was getting whoever owned this place. They were all staring at us, and I was pretty sure they didn’t see a lot of blacks or Europeans here.

“We are so fucked,” I muttered.

Murphy looked at me like I was nuts. “I’d figured it out before this,” I said harshly.

Wolf was looking around, checking the place out. Murphy was doing the same. McGann was shivering, and I moved closer to Romejinoff.

“Be useful and keep an eye on McGann; if the shit hits the fan, pair up with her,” I said. “And get off of Wolf’s ass, it’s the worst place to be in a fight, trust me.”

She looked at me like I was something nasty she had stepped in but nodded and moved to McGann’s side. I moved closer to Wolf.

“We have such a fun fucking job,” I said.

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Murphy shot me a dirty look.

Wolf shrugged. “This looks vaguely familiar,” he muttered.

“It’s a nice place, but I still don’t want to be here,” I said.

There was some sort of commotion in back of us, and I turned to look. Some tall guy was walking through the front door like he owned it, with a woman beside him. He looked pissed off, and she looked cute, like a little doll, with what she was wearing. Both of them looked dressed up in fancy duds, while his were some dark color, hers were eye-catching bright colors, even in the bad moonlight. She had some sort of white crap on her face and enough weird wooden stuff in her hair for three women. I guess it was some sort of jewelry. They hadn’t bothered with an umbrella, but their clothing didn’t look wet. I wondered where the hell they had been, because this place didn’t look like it had anything like a nightlife. We had checked the place out, and this was about the only sign of civilization for miles, besides little huts even I figured farmers or serfs lived in between fields of rice or whatever they grew here for crops.

The man stopped, and one of the Reavers wandered over to them with the head of the posse to talk to him. I guess he owned the place. I nudged Wolf, and he turned around.

“I guess that someone is having a bad night,” I said. “Or he doesn’t like unexpected company.”

I wasn’t surprised to see that the Reaver moved so it was standing between us and the chick. After a minute of talking, they all started to walk forward. The chick was taking these tiny, weird steps, swaying slightly. I noticed that her shoes were high, like bad pimp shoes from the seventies. Romejinoff was sneering, and for some reason that pissed me off. I knew there wasn’t a lot that woman could do in a society where swinging a sword was a guy thing, but Romejinoff wasn’t one to throw stones about shit like that. She could be his sister or his wife, so Romejinoff shouldn’t be such a bitch about things. I was surprised that one of the Reavers was hovering over her like a fucking nanny and she was cool with it. The chick stopped for a second to stare at us and then started moving again, the head guy herding her away from us outsiders, like we were going to hurt her or something.

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“The Japanese don’t have a high opinion of other races and cultures,” Wolf said quietly.

I snorted. It would be nice to see Murphy getting the shit he usually handed out. “It isn’t the first time that I was considered an ignorant nigger,” I said.

Wolf looked confused. Some shit doesn’t get understood, no matter how long you were in the country, and Wolf didn’t understand racism at all, from what I could figure out. We all waited in the compound for a couple more minutes before being “escorted” into the big building. If the wait had been to make us nervous, it worked.

KENO

I WAS ashamed that I had broken down like that, but Inue had been hissing threats, and Inuta was just so
big
! I panicked and had a feeling that they were going to drag me off someplace that wasn’t nice and hurt me.

“I apologize for my unseemly behavior, Samojirou-sama,” I whispered when we arrived back at Tamazusa’s compound. We were outside it, which surprised me.

“I was hoping,” he started, “that things would not get that far. I am going to have to invite their mother to tea and discuss her sons’

shocking lack of manners.”

“But I―”

“Inue-sama frightened you,” he said kindly. Samojirou leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “And you have been doing so well!

Okita-san mentioned that you have been getting better when you spar.”

“Okita-san is just being kind,” I said. “It’s only because he has been helping me.” I titled my head back to look at Samojirou. Okita FELICITAS IVEY

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had gone out of his way to reassure me that it was okay to hit the others back, that I could do the best I could, and that they wouldn’t get mad at me. I had finally started believing it a couple of weeks ago.

Samojirou smiled and motioned to my knife. “And you should put that back where it belongs,” he said. “I hope that you will not object to a small walk before we go home? I know that the gardens are delightful, but there is something about nature at night that is pleasing too.”

“I would enjoy that,” I murmured.

So that was why we were outside the walls. The night was nice, a bit damp though. I wasn’t too hot, even under all the layers I was wearing. The trouble would be toddling along in my high
geta
on the rough paths. But I thought that was some of the reason Samojirou wanted the walk. It was an excuse to touch me without scaring me. We walked, Samojirou making snide comments about the other people at the party, which eventually got me giggling. I know, guys didn’t giggle, but dressed like this, I giggled. We weren’t too far from the estate when Samojirou stopped with a small frown.

“Someone has been through here recently, and it does not look like someone who belongs here,” he said.

I wasn’t worried; he still had his swords, and I had my knife. We quickened the pace, though, until we arrived at the compound. I couldn’t see what he had, but his night vision was much better than mine, because he wasn’t human anymore. Samojirou strode into the place, and Okita hurried over to meet us.

“Tamazusa-sama felt someone gate into her territories and sent us and the Reavers to check it out in case there was some sort of trouble.

We found those outlanders. One is dead, buried in the woods, killed as he arrived by their magic,” he told Samojirou. “We brought the others back here, as she wanted.”

One of the Reavers moved closer to me, standing between me and the strangers, spreading its wings a little, so they couldn’t really see me.

I knew that it was to protect me and was oddly touched. I didn’t know when they had stopped being scary monsters; I didn’t know what they 99

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did with or for Tamazusa, but a number of them were always there. I couldn’t tell them apart, but that didn’t seem to matter. There was always one with me, looking out for me when I was not with Samojirou.

“My lady’s plans are always wise,” Samojirou said. “And will she talk to them?”

“In a few minutes,” Okita said. “We are waiting, to put them off guard.”

“I will join her,” Samojirou said. “She is in the main hall?” Okita nodded. “Give us five more minutes or so before you bring in the outsiders,” Samojirou instructed.

Okita nodded again, and we started walking to join Tamazusa. I wondered what I was supposed to be doing. Did they want me there?

Or in Samojirou’s quarters? What was the Reaver guarding me for?

Granted, these were the first people who didn’t belong here, like me, who I’d seen. They were probably a threat, since they were outsiders. I had figured out that people who weren’t part of your clan or your group weren’t to be trusted. It was strange that Tamazusa had brought me home like she did, without restricting what I could do. I thought she knew I was harmless.

I passed by, trying to get a look at them without looking like I was gawking. I had a lot of practice at this from my time in Boylston Street. I stumbled when I realized two of the men were Wolf and Mason. It was hard to tell, because they were in armor, but it was them.

I wondered how they had gotten here. I recognized Murphy after that, and then McGann and Romejinoff.

I waited until we were out of earshot before I spoke. I knew I should feel bad about telling Samojirou about the others, but with the exception of Wolf and Mason, none of them had ever shown me any sort of kindness. I owed them nothing.

“Samojirou-sama,” I whispered. “I know the ones who are in the courtyard. They are from the place that I had been before here.” FELICITAS IVEY

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Samojirou stopped and looked at me, frowning. “They are some of the ones who abused you?”

“Yes,” I said, “and no. Mason and Wolf, they tried to be nice. I think that it was because they felt bad about what had happened.

Mason, he brought me coffee and didn’t want anything in return, and he protected me from the others, the mean TCs. Wolf… he tried to be nice, but there wasn’t a lot that he could do. He talked with me, though and kept me company when he didn’t have to.”