Firewalker (32 page)

“Okay. I can deal with that,” Una said, keeping it together. “But what the hell is
that
?”

She pointed up into the sky where a winged creature darted and spun. Lily had seen a few of them in Salem, but they seemed more popular here in Baltimore. They looked like tiny dragons, and Lily knew only rich people could afford them.

“That's a pet drake,” Rowan said in an offhand way. “The big drakes are grown by the Covens to defend the air space over the Thirteen Cities from flying Woven. They're useful. But the little ones are just pains in the asses for everyone except their owners. Nasty little biters.”

“Then why do people get them?” Una asked. “Apart from the fact that they're gorgeous.”

Rowan shrugged. “To prove they can afford to pay for the license the Covens require to own one. Even tame Woven are taken very seriously, and every one is meticulously documented.”

“That makes sense,” Una said, her eyes still glued to the little drakes.

“In Salem they're considered too flashy by most,” Rowan added distastefully. Lily could tell he didn't like them. Rowan didn't trust any of the Woven, not even the supposedly tame ones.

“Where do they grow them?” Una asked, staring at the jewel-like creatures with open envy.

“They're grown in the Stacks, like all of the bio-assets the Covens provide the cities,” Rowan replied. He suddenly frowned, ending the conversation. They were coming to the city gates, which were surrounded by guards. “Lily. Hide two of your willstones,” he whispered.

Lily did as he said and saw his eyes unfocus in the telltale sign of mindspeak. Lily looked up at the colossal wall surrounding Baltimore, and understood. Once they went through those gates, they wouldn't be able to contact Tristan and Breakfast.

“They ran into some trouble. Some idiot mistook Breakfast for an Outlander and picked a fight. Of course Tristan jumped right in,” Rowan said, looking very much like he wanted to strangle the both of them.

“They better hurry,” Una said under her breath, picking up on the situation as quickly as Lily did.

They were swept up into the line leaving the city. Unfortunately, it was a short line, and they found themselves facing the guards before Tristan and Breakfast had joined them.

Tristan. Breakfast. It'd be great if you showed up about now.

“That's some willstone you got there, Outlander.”

One of the guards had singled out Rowan. His eyes flicked over to Lily and Una, inspecting their stones. Una had a medium-size smoke stone. It wasn't huge, but it was almost black in color. She was obviously strong.

“You.” Another guard approached Lily, looking quizzically at her rose stone. It was medium-size like Una's, but rich in color and complexity. “I've never seen a stone like that.”

“I'm weird,” Lily retorted.

“What happened to your shoulder?” Both the guards were flanking Lily now, drawn to her.

Lily reminded herself that these were soldiers. They'd probably felt the Gift from their witch, most likely the Lady of Baltimore, and they could sense that Lily was even stronger than she was. Their eyes were hungry and their faces hopeful. They were craving the Gift. Lily felt unsafe.

“We ran into some Woven last night. Came into town to buy med supplies for our tribe,” Rowan answered for her. His tone was quiet and he was positioning himself between Lily and the guards. So was Una. Lily could feel too many eyes resting on her. “Our tribe is waiting for us,” Rowan said evenly.

The guards couldn't keep noncitizens inside the walls. The city guards had plenty of rules about which Outlanders they let in, but they were generally more concerned about getting all the Outlanders out. City law required that all noncitizens be outside the wall by nightfall. They didn't like it, but unless the guards had a reason to arrest them, they had to let Lily's group pass.

As soon as they were through the gates, Una let out a gusty breath. “I thought we were going to have to fight our way out,” she said.

“Another minute or two and we might have had to,” Rowan replied.

“What did they want from Lily?”

“Power,” Rowan replied simply. “Think about it, Una. Since Lily claimed you, how often have you craved her strength?”

Una's gaze dropped and she frowned, troubled.

“It's okay,” Rowan continued. “You learn to recognize it for what it is and control it, like any other kind of desire. Only people with weak character allow it to control them, like those guards.”

Rowan suddenly stopped and put a hand on Una's shoulder. It was the first time Lily had ever seen Rowan touch Una outside of their sparring sessions, and for a split second Lily was worried that Una might push his hand off, but she didn't. She trusted Rowan.

“Remember, Una,” he said, “we receive the Gift to defend our witch, not for our own pleasure. It's a privilege, and it should be a rare one. You have enough character to control yourself—I have no doubt about that. Or about you.”

Una smiled up at Rowan gratefully, and Lily couldn't help but be moved by how much love and respect had grown between them. Rowan was like a brother to Una now. He'd earned that right. As Lily watched this touching exchange between a mentor and his student, she couldn't help but adore Rowan even more. Nor could she help but remember with a pang that he had probably learned the skill of compassionate leadership from his father.

As they moved across the large field that separated the walls of Baltimore from the surrounding forest, Rowan and Una grew silent and tense. Woven could be anywhere. They found a small clearing, and Rowan instructed Una to build a fire.

“We'll wait here for Tristan and Breakfast to catch up while you and I heal Lily,” he explained while he opened his pack and began taking out his cauldron and herbs.

Lily sank gratefully to her knees. Her shoulder was still throbbing. “I'm going to try to find Caleb and your Tristan,” Lily told him.

Rowan nodded while he worked, his nimble hands laying out the tools he would need. His lips softened in a small smile. He loved being a mechanic. Lily had to force herself to concentrate; she could have stared at him the rest of the day.

She reached out and felt for the particular energies that were Caleb and Tristan. She could feel their relief and their happiness at hearing from her. “They're close,” Lily said. “Can you reach them, Rowan?”

His eyes stared at nothing for a moment. “Not yet.”

Lily sent Caleb and Tristan an image of exactly where they were.
We're outside of Baltimore
, she told them.

We're only a few miles away from you. We'll be there soon.

Lily relayed their message to Rowan, and he smiled with her before becoming serious again. Rowan set the cauldron onto the fire and turned to Una.

“I'm going to teach you how to heal a dislocated joint,” he told her, and the lesson began.

The ritual was over quickly, and it was a bit different from when Rowan and Tristan had healed Lily's broken ankle all those months ago. The mineral-and-herb brew that bubbled in the cauldron was similar, but this time Rowan had Una use the power in her own willstone to direct the heat of the brew into Lily's shoulder instead of having Lily do it as he had with her ankle.

Una willed the heat to form microscopic fingers of energy, which utilized the elements in the brew to rebuild the damage in Lily's shoulder. Not even witches could create something out of nothing, and having the iron, calcium, and collagen in the brew was essential to create new cells and heal an injury. Energy alone wouldn't do it.

Una understood the principles easily enough, but she had some trouble following through. Her true skill was fighting, not healing, but she managed to pull it off. As they worked, Lily noticed that Rowan's smoke stone took on a slightly reddish hue while Una's nearly black stone could not. Rowan's stone was more flexible than Una's. Lily made a mental note to mark which of her mechanics' stones could change color to fit the different tasks of magic. This was supposed to have been a lesson for Una, but Lily found that she was still learning as well.

“Good job, Una,” Rowan said as they packed up their silver knives and their hunks of ore. “You'll—”

Rowan suddenly broke off and stood, his eyes flying to the trees and he unsheathed his long knife.

Lily. Give us strength.

The Woven were on Una and Rowan before Lily could even draw the heat of the fire into her body. Coyote-like shapes burst out of the underbrush and launched themselves at Lily's mechanics. They had impossibly long tails, and when Rowan grabbed one of the Woven by the throat, the snarling creature used that tail like a whip, lashing its tail overhead, and whipping Rowan across the shoulder and back. His wearhyde jacket was slashed open, and blood slicked down his back.

Lily's witch wind turned the breeze into a moaning storm. She was tossed six feet into the air and immediately sent power exploding into Una's and Rowan's willstones. But she didn't stay airborne long.

Lily felt a distinct
presence
react to her display of magic. It was not unlike the fear and awe that she could sense when she heard people scream the word “witch,” and then she felt a tearing pain in her left forearm as she was pulled to the ground. A huge white coyote Woven, the largest in the group, pinned her to the forest floor and loomed over her.

No! They have Lily! Caleb, Tristan—help me, brothers!
Rowan called desperately in mindspeak.

Lily had no weapon and no idea how to defend herself, so she did as Rowan had done and grabbed the Woven by the throat to keep it from biting her. As she dug her fingers into the creature's neck she felt something hard buried under its skin. Lily pinched the lump between her fingers and felt that odd presence again. She decided that the presence wasn't a mind, but a collective of minds—
inhuman
minds that had no language. The eyes of the pale Woven above her widened, and the idea of distinct smells lit up a quiet, long-forgotten section of Lily's brain. Lily recognized each scent as a being, and each being belonged to this pale Woven.

For half a second, images blurred through Lily's thoughts. She saw Una hanging above her from a tree branch, slashing down at her with a knife. Then she saw Rowan straddling her and pushing a knife into her heart. Then she saw Caleb running her down on horseback. Lily only recognized the dizzying sensation for what it was because she'd felt it once before—when Rowan had taught her how to make a mind mosaic.

Lily suddenly felt an urge to jump to her feet and head toward the place where the sun sets. The pale Woven broke eye contact and wrenched herself away from Lily desperately. She sent out a howl, and her pack retreated into the trees to the west.

Still reeling from having her mind splintered into multiple perspectives, Lily blinked her eyes and tried to steady herself. She placed her palm down hard on what she thought was a wall and heard a thumping sound. When her eyes came back into focus, Lily realized that she was smacking Caleb's meaty chest. He'd picked her up and he was moving her closer to the fire.

“Caleb,” she said, smiling through the pain in her left arm. He smiled back, his white teeth gleaming brightly against his dark skin. “It's really good to see you,” she said, resting her forehead against his.

“Sorry we're late,” he said, hugging her carefully.

Tristan was already bent over Rowan, helping him remove his blood-soaked clothes. He looked up at Lily and smiled warmly. “Hi,” Tristan said simply.

“It's good to see you, too,” she told him. “Even though I've
been
seeing you,” she added with a grimace. The other Tristan gave her a strange look, but Rowan interjected.

“You'll see in a second, Tristan,” Rowan said through a groan as he peeled off what was left of his shredded shirt.

“Who's that?” Caleb asked, pointing to Una. Before she could answer, Breakfast and Lily's Tristan caught up with them, already apologizing before they had even reached the clearing. They had a couple of bruises and some scraped knuckles, but they didn't look anywhere near as banged up as Rowan did. He scowled at the two of them, and probably added a few choice words in mindspeak that Lily wasn't privy to.

Introductions and explanations were made while Una and Caleb put salve on Lily's and Rowan's cuts. Although Lily's bite wounds and the lashing that Rowan had taken cut deep, they were still only flesh wounds. With no broken bones, severed nerves, or torn ligaments to mend, the salve did its job quickly. It wasn't nearly enough time for the two Tristans to absorb the fact that they had just met themselves.

The two Tristans sat across the fire from each other, both of them looking like they'd just seen a ghost. They were mirrors of each other, except that Rowan's Tristan had streaks of red and black paint on his face, indicating that he had become one of Alaric's elite fighters, like Caleb.

Lily knew how disoriented both Tristans must be feeling, but she didn't want to bring up right then what she'd felt when she met Lillian. She was still too emotional about what she saw in Lillian's last memory and she knew that if she focused on it now, Rowan would be able to pluck the thought out of her mind easily. Instead, she thought about the pale Woven.

“Do you guys think Woven can mindspeak?” Lily asked, seemingly out of the blue. Everyone stared at her. “You know, with their relatives if they're pack animals. I'm wondering because that pack of Woven seemed really, like,
together
. Mentally, I mean.” The more she talked, the more worried everyone looked.

Caleb finally spoke up. “A good pack animal is part of a whole. He follows his alpha without question. I guess that could look like they're reading one another's minds.”

“Well, has anyone ever tried to mindspeak with a Woven?” she asked.