Lost Vegas Series

by Lizzy Ford

“How did you get here?” the chief’s son asked.

  “Her wolf,” Black Wolf answered for her. “Teleporting is one of their capabilities.”

  “I did not ask her to bring me,” she said. “I assumed she wanted me to be here. Perhaps to meet you both.”

  “You can accompany us into the city,” Black Wolf decided.

  “That is not the plan,” Diving Eagle countered.

  “It is my plan.”

  “It is not mine!”

  She looked between the two of them, sensing tension.

  Black Wolf made a derisive sound. Diving Eagle dismounted and approached, standing in front of her.

  “My allies are a day behind us. We wait and use the element of surprise then enter the city,” he explained. “It’s safer that way.”

  Tiana’s gaze went to the city. “I need to go now,” she said. “I have to find my brother and Aveline before you make your move, or they will be in greater danger.”

  “Tiana, you should not enter the city at all,” Diving Eagle’s voice was quieter. “You do not know what your father has planned for you.”

  Nothing good, she thought. “If you do not plan to attack until tomorrow, then I will be certain to return by then,” she said. She started to turn away, but he rested a hand on her arm. When Aveline touched her, she did not notice. Not so with Diving Eagle. His simple touch felt unusually intimate.

  Tiana looked up into his dark eyes.

  “You do not have to do this,” he said.

  “Find my brother and friend?”

  “No.”

  Tiana flushed, embarrassed he had somehow read her intentions. It was not the first time he understood words she did not speak. “How do you do that?” she muttered.

  “My father has gone to the spirit world and passed his gift to me.”

  She stepped back, fear flashing through her. “You can see what he did.”

  “Yes.”

  She stood perfectly still while he gazed into her eyes, waiting to be judged.

  “If I saw the madness, you would not be alive,” he said, amused.

  “That brings me little comfort,” she admitted. “Do you see what your father did?”

  “I can never know that answer,” he replied. “But I can see you believe you will never leave the city, once you enter it.”

  Tiana swallowed hard. She did not want to acknowledge this fear, let alone hear someone else speak of it aloud. “I hate that place,” she said with rare vehemence. “It will not let me go. Ever!”

  “Freedom is not what you want.”

  “I do not like this new gift of yours,” she replied and lowered her eyes. “How can you know the secrets of my mind when I do not?”

  “This is no secret,” he replied. “If you valued freedom above all, you wouldn’t have agreed to return with me. Which means you value something more than freedom. It’s logic not magic.”

  “Maybe I do.” Her thoughts were on her brother and Aveline. “Maybe I want to be more than a duty to someone, to be accepted for what I am, maybe even cared about. Genuinely.”

  Diving Eagle said nothing.

  “I am sorry for your father’s passing and any pain you are in,” she added. “He gave me a gift before I left. I will return it, if you desire.” She pulled the small pouch out of the satchel containing the feather and bracelet. She handed it to Diving Eagle.

  He opened it and paused, staring into the depths. For a long moment, he did not seem to breathe.

  “If they are of value to you, it is only right you keep them,” she voiced.

  Diving Eagle withdrew the feather and shifted forward, pinning it to her hair. When he reached up, his sleeve fell away from his wrist, and she spotted the turquoise bracelet circling it. He withdrew the identical bracelet from the pouch and took her hand gently, sliding it over her fingers to her wrist.

  “My father’s foresight is beyond my understanding,” he said and dropped his hands.

  She touched the feather in her hair, affected by the quiet reverence in his tone when he mentioned his father.

  “These were gifts,” Diving Eagle lowered his arms. “You must keep them.”

  At his quietness, she lifted her gaze again. His hard, planed features were impossible to read.

  “He knew what you were when you met him, and I am only now understanding.”

  “What am I?” she ventured, uncertain she would like his answer but desperate to know his thoughts about her without understanding why.

  “You’re a warrior.”

  “Do warriors fear the battles they face?”

  “At first, yes. But when you fight for a cause greater than yourself, you discover strength you did not know.”

  She listened, fascinated by his insight. “Do all warriors wear these to battle?” she asked, lifting her wrist while her eyes went to his wrist.

  Diving Eagle looked away. “Only one warrior ever has.”

  “Did he win?”

  “At great cost.”

  Tiana nodded. The idea she was entering the city for the last time left her wanting to weep for the Freelands, and freedom, she would never see. She fought herself, refusing to allow someone as brave as Diving Eagle witness her tears.

  “I cannot go with you now,” he said. “But if you stay until this evening, I can. I do not want to see you hurt.”

  If ever she had heard these words, she never thought they would come from him. Part of her felt the war with her father would be over long before the Native led his people into the city for the attack. At the very least, she hoped this to be true. The Diné had lost one chief this day. They would not lose another if she could help it.

  Tiana shook her head. “I have to go,” she said softly. “For them. For me. For you.” She glanced over her shoulder. Black Wolf had already ridden away without waiting, unconcerned with anyone’s agenda but his own.

  “I will say a prayer for you,” Diving Eagle replied. “Take my horse.” He pulled a knife and sheath free from the small of his back and handed it to her. “If you find your father before I do, drive this through his heart.”

  She accepted it with no small amount of surprise.

  “It is has been purified and blessed. Do not use it on you,” he added firmly.

  She accepted it.

  Tiana waited for Diving Eagle to say more. He did not. She turned away from him. He helped her mount and handed her the reins to the mule. Wishing she knew what to say, Tiana wracked her mind for the right words. None revealed themselves.

  She nudged the horse forward and started towards the city she loathed. She sneaked a look over her shoulder. Diving Eagle was watching her, frowning and troubled. Tiana straightened and toyed with the bracelet. That it was important enough for him to wear one, too, meant more than she thought it should.

  The butterflies in her stomach turned to stone when her focus shifted ahead of her, to the city surrounded by smoke. Black Wolf did not wait for her or stop. She did not share his eagerness for death.

  Drawing abreast of him, she glanced over to see if he were as worried as she was. If anything, the skinwalker seemed pleased. The skinwalker was forever on his own version of events. She did not ask why he smiled and instead, focused on not turning and fleeing the closer they went towards her father.

  Black Wolf pulled a cloak off the back of his horse and tossed it to her. “He will sense you, but let’s pretend he might not notice you crossing the threshold into the city.”

  Tiana accepted it and pulled it on then tugged up the hood. Her father’s capabilities were less well known than her own, which she did not understand much at all. But if he were able to track people like she could, he was probably already aware she was close. What was his plan?

  “If he senses me, can he sense you?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” the skinwalker said.

  “How do I find my brother and Aveline, if my father knows I’m here?”

  “I have an idea.”

  She waited.

  Th
e skinwalker did not expand on his claim but continued riding with a small smile on his face.

  Had he, too, gone mad? He understood how magic worked better than she did, but his goals … she had never understood what he wanted at all.

  A little lost, Tiana decided to stick with him until she had a better plan for finding Arthur and Aveline. Her brother’s presence in her mind came from the direction of their home, but Aveline? She stretched out her senses, seeking her friend without feeling her at all.

  They entered the shroud of smoke and fog. Only the darker color of the ground was visible; she could not even see the skinwalker. Tiana covered her mouth and nose, disgusted by the idea she was breathing in what remained of the people her father had burned. The clouds were thick enough, it took her five minutes to pass through them before they began to thin, and the city materialized.

  The smoke here as more of a fog that hung low enough for wisps of it to cling to buildings and horses. The city was quiet. The few people in the streets did not remain outside long and darted between buildings.

  Tiana and Black Wolf walked slowly into Lost Vegas. The scent of wood and flesh burning made her nose wrinkle. Tiana tugged her shirt up over her nose and left it there. The skinwalker appeared unconcerned. Instead, his gaze was pinned to the west of them. As soon as they reached the first intersection, he turned left.

  “You sense or seek someone?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Not my father,” she murmured, noting their direction was opposite of the side of the city where her brother was located.

  Black Wolf led them deep into the inner city, past entire wards of buildings recently turned to ash, and through narrow streets tucked between dilapidated buildings where no one spoke or emerged to challenge the strangers.

  He drew to a halt in front of a sagging building that appeared to be abandoned and dismounted.

  Tiana studied it critically. Before she could ask him what he sensed, when she felt nothing, Black Wolf reached up and hauled her off the mule. He released her when she was on the ground then took both mounts and tied them to a column at the front of the building. He walked in.

  Tiana shivered. It was unnaturally quiet and foggy. She hurried after the skinwalker into the building. The wooden flooring was cracked and sunken in and creaked loudly when she moved across it. She peered into two rooms, both of which were trashed and dark and smelled of something awful. Tiana followed the skinwalker more closely as he moved through the building. He paused at points before continuing.

  They reached the last doorway in the bottom floor, and he stopped again. A crooked door filled most of the space of the doorway. She sensed his magic flex and roll outwards.

  As if in response, something from behind the door growled low and deep. Tiana inched away, not certain she could trust the skinwalker not to lead her into a trap of some sort. He opened the door, displaying the dark room beyond, and motioned for her to enter.

  Tiana hesitated, looking at him hard.

  “It’s not in my interest to murder you before you help me complete my mission,” he said and took her arm. He pushed her through the doorway.

  Tiana. This time, it was not her pup that called her name.

  “Aveline?” she replied, puzzled. “Are you –” Before she could complete the sentence, something large, warm and fuzzy had tackled her to the ground. Tiana hit with a thump and grunt. The weight on her lifted, and a large muzzle pushed at her insistently. The animal purred loudly and pawed at her.

  Tiana sat up, struggling to differentiate between the animal and the rest of the objects in the dark room. A flicker of energy soared away from her to the ceiling before erupting in dazzling light.

  The black panther pawing and nudging her became visible. Tiana froze then recognized the necklace dangling from the animal’s neck.

  “Avi!” she exclaimed and wrapped her arms around the panther. She hugged her friend hard.

  Aveline nuzzled and pushed her again, made circles and leapt in the air in place.

  “She is stuck.” The second voice was unfamiliar.

  Tiana climbed to her feet amid Aveline’s excited activity and gazed at the middle-aged Native woman standing halfway across the room. She was surrounded by trash, broken furniture and other refuse – but she stood apart from everything, untouched by the refuse of this world. Realizing she was staring, Tiana blinked.

  “What do you mean stuck?” she asked.

  “The Hanover leader turned her into a beast. She cannot turn back on her own.” The woman’s sharp eyes were in direct opposition of her frail form and wild hair.

  “Skinwalker,” Black Wolf said. He pushed Aveline aside, an elder setting a boundary. His attention remained on the woman. “You summoned me.”

  “I did.”

  “What is going on?” Tiana asked, glancing between the two of them.

  “The form we saw at the end of your vision. It was her,” Black Wolf replied.

  Mother, Aveline said into Tiana’s head.

  Tiana gasped.

  “I am her mother,” the middle-aged skinwalker stated. “I have spent the past hundred years imprisoned by that family.”

  “Is he as fierce an opponent as I have heard?” Black Wolf asked.

  “No one can face him.”

  Black Wolf smiled.

  “I was as foolish as you once,” the female skinwalker said. “Listen to me when I say no skinwalker can defeat him.”

  “I can,” Black Wolf said. “With her help.” He motioned to Tiana. “She is his heir.”

  The female skinwalker’s face hardened when she looked at Tiana. “Then you are more of a fool than I thought. Hanover enslave skinwalkers. The Hanover’s are powerful, but they lack what we have: one foot in the spirit world. They use us to maintain a crack in the barrier between our world and the spirit world. You think you have brought her here, but she has brought you to use you.”

  Tiana felt three pairs of eyes on her. “I do not understand any of this,” she voiced.

  Aveline gave a mournful moan Tiana did not understand, but her mother seemed to.

  “I don’t care what you think on this topic,” the skinwalker said. “You cannot understand what one of our kind endures at the hand of the Hanover’s. The three of us are the last of the skinwalkers.”

  “The spirit armies are real,” Black Wolf said thoughtfully.

  “Whole armies have also disappeared directly into the spirit world when they attack the Hanover’s,” the female skinwalker said. “And yes, he can call upon the spirits of soldiers to fight for him, but it is rare for even a Hanover. The cost is great.”

  “I am not like my father or his predecessors,” Tiana said quietly. “I want Hanover rule to end.”

  “It cannot end when someone with your power exists.”

  Tiana swallowed hard. Deep down, she knew this. But it was difficult to admit to herself how true it was. “It is why I came to the city. I have to end this. All of it,” she whispered.

  Aveline nudged her. Tiana managed to smile down at the panther.

  “I will never trust a Hanover,” Aveline’s mother said. “Did you steal that from her as well?” She indicated the bracelet Tiana wore.

  Tiana glanced down at the bracelet she had found among Aveline’s belongings in her room. It bore the same symbol as the one on the skinwalker’s medallion around his neck.

  “I took it for safekeeping,” she said.

  Aveline was looking at her.

  “It was in an envelope you carried to my room,” Tiana explained. “It belonged to your mother.”

  “It was all I left with her father,” Walks With A Limp snapped. “Leave it to a Hanover to steal my Avi’s only memory of me.”

  Tiana frowned and removed the bracelet. She placed it around Aveline’s paw, and the furry assassin nudged her.

  “I am sorry,” Tiana said to her.

  Aveline nuzzled the bracelet. This time, she sent Tiana a picture in her mind. She saw Arthur and the secret
passages.

  “My brother freed you,” Tiana said. “We are not like our father.” She reached out to Aveline and buried her hands in the panther’s soft fur. Without knowing how, Tiana closed her eyes and willed Aveline to return to her human form. The fur beneath her hands grew shorter and vanished, until her palms rested on the bare back of her friend.

  Tiana opened her eyes.

  Aveline rested on the floor, naked and shaking. Tiana covered her with her cloak and stepped back, thrilled to see her friend again.

  “I … trust her,” Aveline said. She hugged the cloak around her and stood, facing Tiana. “You’re late.” She looked down at the bracelet around the wrist of her bear paw, and a flicker of unhappy emotion crossed her features before vanishing.

  If Tiana had to guess, Aveline was not pleased to have her bracelet back. Tiana smiled. “I did my best.”

  “Where’s Rocky?”

  “Quiet. Tell me more about these Hanover abilities,” Black Wolf said in irritation.

  Aveline took Tiana’s arm and led her away, where they could talk. In as few words as possible, Tiana explained where Rocky was and about the attack planned the next morning.

  “Your brother’s in prison,” Aveline reported. “How do you plan on disabling your father before the Natives attack the city?”

  Tiana shrugged.

  Aveline glanced towards her mother and then back. Rather than happy, she appeared pensive. “She might know how to help,” she said. “She’s serious about vengeance on the Hanover’s. I don’t care if your father is killed, but you and Arthur are different.”

  “Arthur is,” Tiana allowed. “But Aveline, if I die, too, we must consider it an option. My father was once a good man. Our deformities corrupt us.”

  Aveline shook her head. “I don’t believe that. Even if it’s true, you can choose not to use your power. Whatever we decide to do, you won’t end up like your father.”

  Tiana did not have the heart to object when she saw the determination in her friend’s eyes. “We will need to act quickly,” she said. “Tomorrow morning, the Diné will attack the city. My father likely already knows I’m here, and I have to save Arthur.”

  “My mother says she can block his ability to find us.”

  “I noticed that, too,” Tiana said. “Black Wolf can absorb my magic. I think your mother knows more about my father’s capabilities than anyone else in existence. We will need her help. Do you think she will agree to help?”