Saved By Valor

by Justin Sloan

  “Right, it’s too far for your eyes.” She pointed. “There, just past those hills, there’s smoke coming from the trees. A likely crash site, I’d say.”

  “The grayish blur?”

  She nodded. “Keep up. We’ve got to get everyone moving.”

  They hustled back down to camp, and were just heading down the spine of the nearest hill when they came across three ragged men with horned helmets sneaking toward the camp.

  Cammie glanced at the sailor with a raised eyebrow, then at the men. When she noticed the ax in one of their hands, an old pistol in another’s, she decided that was a good enough to take them down.

  “You wanted to see how a Were acts in the morning when she’s pissed?” she whispered.

  He looked at her with wide eyes and shook his head.

  “Well, too bad.” She stepped forward with a smirk, slowly removing the coat and then the blouse underneath. She didn’t want to rip them, after all. “Oh, boys!”

  When the three would-be attackers turned, their jaws dropped at the sight of the half-naked woman.

  “I don’t suppose you’re here to steal, rape, and pillage?” She slipped out of her pants.

  “This one’s making it easy,” one of the men muttered to the guy on his right, nudging him with his elbow.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  The man laughed, hefting his ax onto his shoulder with one hand and starting to undo his zipper with his other. “Your friends will die, sure, but you might be just about to earn your ticket as my eternal love slave.”

  Cammie rolled her eyes at how lame these guys were. “I was so hoping you’d be a fucking ass-munch.” At the look of anger that crossed the man’s face, she smiled and leaped forward, transforming into her wolf form in the process.

  The man yelped, stumbling back, but it was too late for him. She tore out his throat, then looked up at the other two.

  One lifted his pistol to fire, but his friend had booked it so the pistolier turned and ran too, blindly shooting toward her over his shoulder.

  She growled and pursued a few steps, then stopped, turning back to the sailor who was crouched on the ground. He had been holding his head as if that would protect against bullets if one happened to hit him.

  As she transformed to human, he looked at her in awe.

  “Ever wonder what a vampire does to a man he catches ogling his naked woman?” Cammie asked, holding a hand out for her clothes.

  The sailor quickly snatched them up and gave them to her, turning away as she dressed. “You…weren’t serious, right? About the vampire thing?”

  “As long as I don’t catch you eyeballing me like that again, you’re safe.”

  “Th-thank you.”

  She finished buttoning her blouse, then threw on the jacket in time to see several of the sailors running over, led by William.

  “We heard a scream,” William said, “and gunshots.”

  Cammie gestured to the mangled corpse on the ground nearby. “There were two more, but they escaped. I imagine there’s a larger group of them nearby, but we don’t have time. I know which direction Valerie went.”

  William nodded, but told his men, “Station a team on the periphery until we’re about to go airborne, just in case.”

  “Roger that,” one of the men responded, then he and two others took off to gather more.

  “I don’t think they’ll return,” Cammie stated, wiping blood from her mouth.

  “Me either,” William replied, trying not to notice that she now had blood on her jacket sleeve, “but one can never be too cautious in a new land.”

  She nodded, giving him that.

  When they reached the ship, she was pleased to see that they were nearly ready to set sail, and that Royland had Kristof tucked in on the ship, ready for some sleep.

  “The boy was up half the night talking about how excited he will be to get home,” Royland said, leaning against her and wrapping an arm around her waist. “I’ll miss the little guy.”

  Cammie grunted, but he was right. “If it were up to me and no one else, we’d keep him.”

  Royland gave her an exasperated look, then nodded to Elroy, who was sleeping at the boy’s feet. “Maybe he’ll let us keep the dog.”

  “No, thanks. I don’t need the competition.”

  He frowned. “Um, yuck?”

  “Just saying. Aren’t I bitch enough for you?”

  “You’re feisty,” he argued. “Just enough for me to be perfectly happy.”

  She gave him a peck on the cheek. “Listen, I think I know which direction Valerie went, though I have no idea why she wouldn’t have come back. Maybe she’s off to take on this whole continent by herself.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past her,” he frowned, “but I’m pretty sure she would’ve told us first.”

  “Me too.”

  “If only we had one of those comm devices.” He went to the window, just out of the way of the ray of light shooting through it, and stared at the fjords. “Assuming hers is still working. At least Sandra will know what’s up. We could head back there when this is over, worst case scenario.”

  “No!” Cammie covered her mouth, glancing at Kristof, who was still asleep. He didn’t stir. Lowering her voice this time, she hissed, “I’m not leaving her here.”

  “I said worst case scenario.”

  “And I said no. That’s not happening.”

  He nodded. “Then tell the team to get moving, because it looks like we have company.”

  “You’ve gotta be shitting me.” She went to the window, anger flaring at the sight of specks moving across the hill—specks she knew had to be people heading for them.

  “I hate this whole not-being-able-to-go-out-in-daylight business,” Royland remarked.

  “Got a sniper rifle somewhere aboard, I’d bet.” Cammie nodded at the window. “Think you could manage without singeing your pretty skin?”

  “The shots might wake the boy, but sure.”

  She laughed. “You really do have a soft spot in that old-ass heart of yours, don’t you?”

  “My heart’s healthier than anyone else’s here, I’ll have you know. Old-ass, indeed.”

  “Only old-ass people say ‘indeed’ at the end of a sentence.”

  “So you’re calling me a cradle robber, basically?” He rolled his eyes. “Just get out there and find me that sniper rifle, jail-bait.”

  “Jail…what?”

  “A term from the old days, referring to the younger one in a situation with a couple where one’s—”

  “Not important. I get it.”

  He frowned but couldn’t hide his smile, and she blew him a kiss as she ran off to find him a weapon. Soon they were ready, him at the window, her on deck shouting commands along with the two captains, though hers were focused on the disposition of those with guns.

  The would-be attackers were now aware they had been spotted, and had taken cover behind a group of rocks.

  One man stood, waving an overshirt in the air.

  “Nobody shoot until I say so,” Cammie ordered. “What the hell do you want?”

  The man shouted back in Norwegian, so she turned, eyes searching for the sailor who was originally from Norway.

  He rushed forward, out of breath, and leaned against the railing. “He asks who we are and what we did with their people.”

  “Tell him we didn’t touch his people, and that we’re looking for…” She glanced at Kristof. “What was the name of his city again?”

  “Trondheim, and I’ll tell them.” He shouted back, conveying the message.

  After a bit of back and forth, including yelling from both sides, the sailor pointed. “They claim it’s half a day’s ride that way.”

  “Half a day?” She considered this, then saw William approaching. “You heard?”

  He nodded. “That could be where she went, thinking she’d meet up with us there after doing whatever else she needs to do.”

  “You,” the Norwegian said in broken,
heavily accented English. “Go. Home.”

  Cammie turned back to him, frowning. “We can’t do that.”

  “Go. Home.”

  “Tell him we’ll go home, but have business in Trondheim first.”

  The man listened, then shouted something before disappearing back behind the rocks to confer with his companions. Cammie gave a nod to William, asking him to be ready in case the man came back shooting.

  However, a moment later the man stood and motioned someone else forward. It was a teenage girl, likely seventeen or eighteen, with short-cropped blonde hair.

  “My name is Lillian,” she said. “You may follow us.”

  “Follow you where?” Cammie asked.

  The girl looked exasperated and discussed the issue with her companion, then said, “To Trondheim, of course.”

  This was unexpected. Cammie turned to William, then waved Reems over. She could see concern etched on each of their faces as well.

  “What do you make of it?” Reems asked when he stood beside them.

  “Could be a trap,” she answered. “I don’t like the idea of all of us leaving the one spot we know Valerie will come back to, but if we left some behind with these people knowing our location, it’d put the people we left behind at risk.”

  “It could be just you,” William said, “but at this point you’re our strongest day-walking fighter. It might not be smart to arrive in a new location without you.”

  “Agreed.”

  “We have no reason to trust them,” Reems said, “but they also have no reason to trust us. Maybe we should tell them about the downed ship, see if they’re upset or relieved once they see what it is, and then we’ll know which side they’re on.”

  “Not a bad idea.” Cammie turned to the translator and nodded. “Pass that on.”

  While he did so, and the others discussed the possibility that they could be led to the wrong city, Cammie reminded them that it was Kristof’s home. He would know immediately, and tell them if something was off.

  She glanced over, watching the strangers as their man relayed the message. There was interest, maybe excitement, but no anger toward them. Mistrust, yes, but it didn’t seem to her that these people were giving them any reason to treat them as enemies.

  “Let them know there’s a working ship there,” she told the translator. “We’ll help them get it off the ground.” At the look she received from Reems, she added, “We have to show these people we’re here to help, not cause trouble.”

  He nodded, though she could tell he didn’t feel at ease with the idea.

  “Send ten men with me, and tell them we’ll fly in their ship. You all will follow.”

  “But you—”

  “I can handle my own damn self,” she interrupted. “If they try anything, I’ll slaughter the lot and we’ll have two ships. Nothing lost.”

  They all agreed, and soon she found herself heading off to join the locals, fingers crossed in the hope that they weren’t stupid enough to try anything.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Norwegian Fjords

  Everything looked the same here, with the damn fjords creating hill after hill and more bodies of water to cross than Valerie was happy with. One or two hadn’t been a problem, but this was getting absurd.

  One thing was clear to her though, as she stared up at the blue sky with its fluffy clouds slowly floating toward her. She had gone the wrong way.

  More than once she had attempted to course-correct, to make sure she was heading back inland, maybe south. She figured that was the direction she had come from, but nothing looked the same. It didn’t help that they had set the airship down between some hills in a spot where nobody could see them—including her.

  Now she felt as if she were walking aimlessly. It had been hours. `

  At one point she came upon a stream, where she stopped to wash her hands. She found herself just wanting to sit, not because she was tired, necessarily; just bored with movement. For that moment, she just wanted everything to freeze around her and wait until she was ready.

  A squirrel ran by, stopping to stare at her before skittering off. She was familiar with squirrels from her younger days, but couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen one. Now that she thought about it and was paying attention, there were a couple birds chirping in the distance too.

  This was a place of beauty in many ways that the American continent didn’t have any longer. Even the way the sunlight danced across the grass as the leaves blew in the wind above was worth watching, and for a moment she was lost in its mesmerizing dance.

  More than that, she found herself daydreaming, imagining herself and Robin running through these woods, throwing each other around on the grass. Maybe they’d be sparring, maybe a shoulder strap would come off…and maybe one thing would lead to another.

  She smiled at the thought, even if it brought sadness. Not that she could blame Robin. They had set out to find her family, to rescue them, and they had succeeded. That was all the woman had wanted, so it shouldn’t have come as any surprise at all that she had stayed with her family instead of heading off on a romp across the ocean to fight for justice.

  Justice was Valerie’s job. She needed to stop expecting others to drop everything to jump on board with her plans.

  The word woman echoed in her head, as it related to Robin.

  Woman… Valerie contemplated how the term fit Robin. At some point, she realized, it was how she had started thinking about her. Maybe it was because she was so deadly, so stoic, so mature? Or maybe it was the times in which they lived. while on some level she understood that Robin was young, on other levels it seemed like she was as much a woman as Valerie herself. Hell, in this world you were a woman the moment you had to start defending yourself against the crazies out there.

  Odd how these thoughts hadn’t really come up at the time, but now that she contemplated it, she wasn’t sure how to analyze her feelings.

  It was time to move on, figuratively and literally, so she stood and continued the journey.

  More fields, more hills, more woods. But now she had something to think about, something to distract her.

  Finally she spotted a shimmer in the distance, causing her heart to skip with excitement. She wasn’t sure, even with her enhanced vision, but thought she saw a reflection of light. That was all—it could have been a lake, it could have been anything, but the way it came out of nowhere at an angle gave her reason to believe it might have been a window opening.

  She darted forward, scrambling up the nearest hill, and stood at its peak to get a better view.

  Aside from the gorgeous view of more fjords, rivers, and lakes with flooded ruins from what she guessed had been rising water levels after the Great Collapse, she didn’t see much. The view took her breath away, and she marveled at the incoming fog when she turned to look west and saw the coast.

  Judging by the direction she had just come, in relation to the ocean, and where the airship had sailed from, she could estimate where she was supposed to be. Unfortunately, she was nowhere near that spot.

  She was fairly certain the place she had seen the reflection wasn’t too far off, maybe somewhat north.

  Funny how she could totally dominate in a fight, but felt like a lost child in a situation like this. But this wasn’t the first time she had been outside her comfort zone, and she was determined to steel her emotions and kick ass here like she did on the battlefield. A punch to the nose there was the equivalent of finding high ground here to get a good view, a slice to the throat like ascertaining which direction she needed to go.

  She decided she was going to slice this beast’s neck and devour the blood, metaphorically speaking. No more aimless wandering.

  But first she had to be sure she was attacking the right enemy. One didn’t strike randomly in a fight, but placed well-aimed strikes. Therefore she stared, focused on making the best decision she could with the information she had at hand.

  Maybe she needed to go to the city. If the oth
ers had somehow figured out where they were, that would be their destination as well. In that case, heading there would be her best chance to meet back up with them.

  She took off at a run, no longer feeling aimless once she put her mind to it. As much as she sometimes liked to think of herself as a lone wolf, this wandering business had taught her that only went so far.

  Her legs carried her on and on, until she started wondering if there was a certain point where her legs would just stop working. If so, it certainly hadn’t yet come. She was vaguely aware of a sense of exhaustion, but it really didn’t affect her as it once had—especially now, when there was a chance of seeing her friends again so soon.

  Valerie stumbled into a clearing of grass, one that led to a stone wall and an iron gate. She paused here, figuring it was best to approach as a friend rather than a foe.

  A man appeared at the gate, hands on the bars. He spoke in Norwegian, and Valerie reminded herself to someday take advantage of the fact that she had a long time to live and try to learn languages other than French and the common tongue, English.

  Holding her hands out to show she was unarmed, she said, “I’m not here for trouble. I’m lost, and looking for my friends.”

  The man leaned against the bars, staring at her. After a moment, he remarked, “This is an odd place to find oneself lost.”

  “You don’t get many tourists then?”

  “Tourists?” The man laughed. “Lady, someone comes here to be a tourist, they die.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  He shook his head. “We don’t kill them. It’s the gods who get them.”

  “I keep hearing about these gods.” She took a step closer and was glad to see that he didn’t react. “Thing is, where I come from there are no gods. When you say it, do you mean the word in a literal sense?”

  He considered her, then motioned her forward. When she was a foot from the gate, he lowered his voice and said, “You ask me to blaspheme, and the gods have ears.”

  “Ah,” she whispered, “but it’s only blasphemy if you say you don’t believe they are gods at all.”

  He shrugged, leaning back now. “You need a room? Food?”