The Keep of Fire (6 page)

“What was that, Travis?” a soft voice said behind him.

Travis turned around. He hadn’t noticed when her music had stopped.

“Just some herbs,” he said.

Deirdre picked up the cup and held it under her nose. “I know a little about herbal medicine—my great-grandfather was a shaman—but I don’t recognize this leaf.” She looked up. “What do you call it?”

“It’s—” He had to bite his tongue to keep from saying
alasai
. What would he tell Deirdre if she asked what language the word was from? “It’s called green scepter, I think.”

“Where did it come from?”

“I got it through Jack Graystone.”

Deirdre studied him, then shrugged and set down the cup. Travis let out a breath between his teeth.

“I’ll go make sure the kegs are full,” he said.

It was edging toward evening when Sheriff’s Deputy Jace Windom stepped into the saloon.

As the day wore on, contrary to what Travis had expected, a number of locals and regulars had wandered through the door of the Mine Shaft—although the place was still only half as full as on a typical
night. However, Travis was grateful for everyone who had decided to come, and he would have given them all free drinks, except no one would let him.

Jace tipped her hat as she reached the bar. “Evening, Travis. I just thought I’d stop by and see how business was doing.”

Her gaze flickered to a figure hunched in the corner, and Travis knew the real reason she had come to the saloon. When would Jace and Max decide to tell him what he already knew? He didn’t understand why they hid their feelings for each other. But secrets were strange things, and the reasons people kept them stranger yet.

Travis poured the deputy a cup of hot coffee. “Did you learn anything yet, Jace?”

The deputy took a deep swig of coffee, then shook her head. “No one was able to positively ID the stranger. And there wasn’t much left for the forensics lab to work on. This is a mystery we might never solve.” She set down the mug. “But if it helps to know, my guess is that he was under the influence of an illegal substance when he came in here. LSD. Heroin. Electria.”

Travis topped off her coffee. “Electria?”

Jace nodded. “A new designer drug. It started showing up on the coasts about a year ago, and it’s been working its way in ever since. Gives the user a feeling of extreme euphoria. The reports say it can also induce a sense of invulnerability. Whatever the John Doe doused himself in, my bet is he didn’t think it would really hurt him.”

Travis shuddered, and shrill words echoed in his mind.

In the end, fire shall take us all.…

No, the deputy was wrong. The man had known he would burn. Besides, a drug couldn’t explain the melted footsteps.

Travis took a bottle of water from the chiller and
slid it toward Jace. “Would you take this to Max? The doctor says he’s supposed to keep his fluids up.”

Jace took the bottle and headed toward the corner of the saloon. Travis followed her with his eyes, then his gaze dropped down to the dark splotch on the floor.

“The Immolated Man.”

Travis looked up at Deirdre. She was wearing only a white tank top with her black jeans, but her skin still glowed from the heat. The tattoo above her collarbone glistened like jade: a serpent eating its own tail.

“What do you mean?” he said.

She met his eyes. “It’s an archetype, one that shows up in many different myths and cultures. The Immolated Man. The Burned God. The Sacrificed King. Again and again myths tell about a man or woman or god who is consumed in fire.”

Sickness rose in his throat, but Travis forced it down. “Why? Why does that story get told so many times?”

“I don’t know for certain. It’s about transformation, I think. It’s like the Phoenix or Shiva or the Christ.” Deirdre brushed a finger across the serpent tattoo. “You have to die to become something new.”

Travis’s gaze drifted back to the scorch mark. “But become what?”

“That’s up to you. In the end, we must each choose what we become.”

With that, Deirdre picked up her mandolin and returned to the small stage to fill the saloon with music.

Travis sighed, then grabbed a tray and started rounding up used beer glasses. He halted as movement through the open door caught his eye. Outside, a vehicle drove slowly past the saloon: a black sport utility with tinted windows. A logo was emblazoned on the side of the vehicle—a crescent moon that
merged into a capital letter
D
. Travis read the words that followed it:

He recalled the commercial with all the smiling people, the one that didn’t seem to be selling anything, and once again he frowned at the odd slogan. He had always looked forward to the sense of possibility that the wind brought. But sometimes possibilities could be frightening things.

The vehicle rolled up Elk Street and out of sight, and Travis went back to collecting empty glasses.

Deirdre Falling Hawk stepped out of the Silver Palace Hotel, her black biker boots beating a war-drum tattoo against the planks of the boardwalk.

It was almost time.

She slung her black-leather jacket over her shoulder and surveyed the empty expanse of Elk Street. It was early, and the sky was a dull steel bowl. However, already the coolness of dawn was beginning to lessen. Right now she was comfortable in her white tank top and black jeans. In an hour, no more than two, she would be sweating.

Deirdre slipped a hand into her pocket and felt the small square of paper she had found last night, tucked into her hotel message box. There was a need for swiftness. All the same, she took a moment to lean against the boardwalk railing and greet the day. Too often in the hurry and action of their lives people forgot to halt for a minute and say a prayer, or contemplate a great question, or simply look at the world. But no matter how urgent things became, she
always remembered to stop and steal a moment for herself. As far as Deirdre was concerned, the world could do with a little more ceremony.

She gazed forward and let herself
be
. Henna had drawn the fire from deep in her close-cropped black hair, and her one concession to makeup was a line of kohl that outlined her smoky jade eyes. A cross dangled from one ear, and an ankh from the other. Against the hollow of her throat rested a yellowed bear claw that her great-grandfather had given her the day he died.

Bear will give you strength, little one. Do not forget him when you are alone and afraid
.

She brushed the claw with a finger and smiled. The blood of three Indian tribes ran in her veins, and she could trace her lineage to the legendary hero Cuchulain—or at least so her Irish grandmother had claimed. But she wasn’t just where she had come from. She was where she was, and where she was going. And she had a new tribe now.

Deirdre stepped into the street; her Harley was parked around the corner. It was nice to be able to leave the bike out without having to worry about it. Not like Paris or Athens. Definitely not like London. She straddled her hog, then started it and wheeled down the street in one seamless sequence. A helmet would have been a good idea; she usually wore one. But not here, not today. Today she needed to feel the wind tangle its fingers through her hair. Lovers were fine, and their caresses sweet, but the wind would never abandon you.

Square false fronts flashed by, then the town was gone, and it was only two-lane and mountains before her. As she rode, Deirdre let the last few years drift through her mind. She had been on many journeys since she last set foot in Castle City, and she had seen many wonders. She had prowled through catacombs beneath the Tower of London. She had meditated in
the stony company of Notre Dame’s gargoyles. She had climbed the jungle pyramids of Tikal, had stood small and humble beneath the dome of the Hagia Sophia, and had gazed into deathless eyes in silent Egyptian tombs.

Yet, despite all the sights she had witnessed, nothing filled her with awe like the Colorado mountains. Theirs was no human beauty, limited and ephemeral, carved by mortal and imperfect hands. The mountains were great and ancient, and they did not need people. All the same, they were generous with their wonder. No sight she had encountered in all her travels gave her songs like the mountains did. It was good to be back, if only for a short while.

Deirdre cruised down a flat stretch of blacktop. Up ahead, a rusty speck grew rapidly into a car—a faded Volvo with crumpled bumpers. Inside, the shadow of a driver hunched over the steering wheel. By the time Deirdre recognized both vehicle and driver, they had flashed by. She glanced over her shoulder. Behind her, the Volvo slowed, then turned off the highway and headed down a dirt road. The car disappeared behind an outcrop, leaving only a plume of dust to rise like smoke into the dull morning sky.

Where was Max Bayfield going at such an early hour? He should have been home resting. These last days his burnt hand had seemed only to get worse, not better. Deirdre hoped Travis’s partner was all right; pain could make people do strange things. She almost considered going after him, but she had other duties that beckoned her.

She turned her gaze forward just in time to lean into a sharp curve. The valley floor fell away, and the highway bore her up into a twisting canyon. Last night she had told Travis not to expect her at the saloon that day, that she was going to the Medieval Festival. And maybe she would go there later, so her words would not become lies and, like cursed arrows,
fly back to strike her. But it was not to the festival that she was going now.

The canyon opened up, and the two lanes of asphalt funneled into a narrow bridge. Deirdre veered onto a pull-off and brought the Harley to a halt. Years ago, this had been her favored place to find a moment of solitude. She hoped it would grant her the same now.

She drew something out of the Harley’s saddlebag, then walked to the edge of the pull-off and gazed down a slope of tumbled boulders. In her memory, Granite Creek rushed over those rocks in a hurry to reach the ocean. Now a trickle oozed between the boulders, and mosquitoes clouded the air over pools of standing water. All the same, there was beauty in the slender aspens that clung to the sides of the creek bed. She glanced up, made sure she had good exposure to the southeastern sky, then lifted the object in her hand—a slim phone—and flipped it on.

Deirdre touched one button and held the phone to her ear. Three seconds later, a voice from another part of the world answered.

“I’ve made contact,” she said.

The voice spoke several careful words. A thrill coursed through her, and she gave a slow nod.

“Yes, I suppose it would be. A Class One encounter. If you’re right.”

Now the voice was sharper.

Deirdre winced, then licked her lips and forced her voice to remain even. “That’s what I’m here to confirm.”

A question. She ran a hand through her short hair. High above, a hawk wheeled against the sky.

“No, I haven’t verified anything. Not yet. But there was something—a medicinal herb. He used it to make an analgesic tea for his business partner. I know a fair amount about herb lore, but this was not a plant I recognized.” She nodded. “Yes, I saved some of the
leaves from the cup. I’ve already couriered the specimen to the London Charterhouse for testing. It should arrive today.”

She listened for a few seconds more—the plan had not changed. The voice started to conclude.

“Wait,” she said. “There’s something more. There was … there was an incident at his place of business. Spontaneous combustion. Four days ago. There was no ID for the victim, but it was a textbook example. I think it might be related to the others.”

She listened, then nodded. “Yes, it is. But I’ll have opportunity for more observation. I helped him reopen the saloon after the incident, and he expects me to check back.”

Another question, and this time it was Deirdre’s voice that contained a note of annoyance.

“No, I haven’t forgotten the Third Desideratum, or the Vow for that matter. I’ve been watching, or doing what an old friend would do, and that’s it.”

A few more words from the phone. They were not conciliatory. She forced herself to breathe.

“If you think that’s wise.”

There was a click, and the connection was closed. Deirdre pressed a button and lowered the phone. So it had begun. There was no turning back now. She could only hope she was doing the right thing.

But it is right, you know it, Deirdre. You knew it when you swore the Vow in London. To Watch—To Believe—To Wait. This is how it has to be
.

Deirdre sighed. If she hurried, she could still be at the gates of the Medieval Festival when they opened and save herself from being a liar. She turned to head for the motorcycle—

—and stopped in mid-stride.

“Hello,” the girl said.

The child’s voice was high and clear, silver against china. Deirdre blinked, mouth open. The girl before her appeared to be eight or nine years old, her dark
hair pulled back from the pale cherub’s cameo of her face. She wore an old-fashioned dress of black wool and equally old-fashioned buttoned shoes.

Deirdre glanced up. Her Harley was the only vehicle in sight. But how had the girl gotten here? How had she approached across ten yards of gravel without making a sound? And what did she want?

“To watch,” the girl said. “To believe. To wait.”

Deirdre sucked in a breath. But the girl had only overheard her conversation, that was all. Deirdre must have spoken the words aloud.

“Are you lost?” she said.

“No,” the girl replied in her lisping voice. “Are you?”

Instinct prickled the back of Deirdre’s neck. Stories echoed in her mind, told beside a fire by her greatgrandfather—spirits that haunted stones, shadows that spoke from trees. The sun had crested the canyon rim, but twilight still clung to the girl’s dress.

“I don’t understand,” Deirdre said.

Purple eyes bored into her. “Seek them as you journey.”

Deirdre found herself crouching down to meet the girl’s eyes. “What do you mean? Seek what?”