Snow on Cinders (The Tallas Series Book 2)

by Cathrina Constantine

  “This isn’t some turkey shoot.” Doogan planned on going into Tallas free of burdens and culpability. “Let me straighten you out.” His eyes steeled over the men. “Rooney’s one of their best physicians, and he’s been shot. Not that I’m anything special, but they’ll need someone with experience. So I doubt Pomfrey will have me killed anytime soon. And you guys, on the other hand, are expendable. Mediators will shoot you on the spot, and I can’t let that happen.”

  “Are you trying to tell us that you’re going back, to stay?” Barantha asked.

  “I’m inferring if I get captured. I’ve thought of all kinds of scenarios.” He braced his back against the wagon and crossed his arms over his chest. “My priority is to help Fulvio and his informants. If it wasn’t for them, well...” His gaze skirted over them. “How many of you are alive today because of the specialized medicine and food Fulvio has supplied? How many times have his informants risked their lives to get him in and out of Tallas?” His heart thumped like a banging gong. “It’s payback time. Time to get them out of there.”

  “What informants are we talking ‘bout. We thought it was only you, Doogan?” Tanya inquired with people nodding wanting to know the answer. “Who’s been helping all these years?”

  “I’ve been there through it all,” Doogan remarked, “but so has Goshen Quigley. We’ve learned where Fulvio’s been getting his info from inside of Management. He even kept this spy disguised, even from me, until recently, and that’s been coming from Paniess Addler.”

  An intake of breath rallied round.

  “The Elites’ daughter?” Tanya looked surprised. “Doogan, it’s a trick. Why would she want to help us?”

  He scratched the scruff along his jawline and peered past the group. Keeyla was standing alone; arms knotted behind her back. “If Fulvio trusted her all these years...well then, we have to trust her, right? The last call we received was from Pomfrey. He’s making Paniess face a firing squad, marking her as a traitor. It’s his obscene approach, proving to citizens that no one is above the law, no matter who or what.” Keeyla shook her head and turned away. Guilt-ridden his throat tightened.

  “Your piss-poor plotting is gonna get us all kilt,” Smelt said while walking frontward, dividing people. “You go in there alone and then what? You gonna take on the Mediators by your lonesome and save everyone and bring Fulvio back, alive? What’s got into that thick skull of yours? You’re a knucklehead just like yer ole man.”

  “Believe it or not,” Ennis said, arching his brow. “Smelt’s right. You need reinforcements. And since we haven’t quite voted on a democracy, I say we storm Tallas with guerilla warfare. It’s the only way.”

  “That’s a good plan, but—” interrupted by an outbreak of high-pitched screams, all bodies jolted toward the noise.

  Swan, her arms swinging like a paranoid bird, screaming and racing toward camp. “Help! Help! Down by the river! Look!”

  Fabal and Knox harmonizing hysterical shrieks hedged from a whirlpool of blue and brown, dueling beasts. What appeared to be a two-headed bear plowed Tibbles into the dirt. People gasped, flabbergasted at the sight. A savage growl cracked its two mouths, baring dagger-like teeth. The two-headed creature pounded its massive chest in defiance.

  Sluggish and seemingly harnessing strength, Tibbles gained footing and grew in stature on his hind legs. Matching his opponent with an ear-piercing roar, Tibbles bombed into his adversary. Both bears plunged into the river discharging a volcanic spray. In the midst of vicious snarls and slashing talons water raged like a plaguing typhoon. Guttural bellowing rattled the air as the aggressive beasts battled it out.

  Long-legged Doogan was in the lead sprinting toward the action, carrying his rifle. “Fabal, Knox. Get out of there.” The cry of the people running behind him was smothered by the melee transpiring in the river.

  “Dad, shoot him. Shoot!” Fabal fretted, pumping his arms.

  As Doogan neared, he steadied his rifle to his shoulder. Though he was hard pressed to pull the trigger and fire into the convoluted mass and lowered the barrel.

  “What are you waiting for?” Knox yelled.

  Less than thirty feet from the combat, people lined up to gape. Keeyla carted a weeping Fabal into her body. “Help Tibbles. Somebody has to help.”

  “If I shoot I might hit Tibbles.” Doogan sounded irritated. He maintained his rifle in a ready position.

  The bears tumbled onto the bank, water draining from their fur splashed the ground, blood red. One of the enemy’s heads locked its jaws onto Tibbles’ shoulder, crushing and grinding. Their combined energy staggered them to an upright stance. A vicious Tibbles batted his arm, ruthless claws sliced through the other head, blinding the bear. Unleashing a riotous squeal, the beast released its jawed grip and twisted backward.

  At this juncture, a hail of gunfire smoked the air as Doogan, Ennis, Smelt, Clayton, and Garth pulled their triggers. The two-headed bear seemed stunned, though still standing baring teeth, then dropped like a lead plank.

  Fabal broke from Keeyla’s embrace. What took everyone by surprise was Tibbles diving to the ground and hurtling toward a surfeit of trees bordering the riverbed.

  “Fabal,” Doogan called, “wait! There must be something wrong. Don’t follow him.”

  Keeyla and Tanya harvested the children while the men, filled with trepidation walked toward the dead bear.

  “But we want to see why Tibbles is running away,” Swan whined. “Where’d he go?”

  “Yeah, why’d he run into the trees?” Knox yanked his shoulder from Tanya’s hold. “We have to go after him.”

  “He wouldn’t run for no reason,” Fabal said. “He might need help.”

  “Tibbles might be hurting, and a hurting animal can get ornery.” Keeyla guided Fabal to the dead carcass. “It’s best if we leave him be for a while. He’ll come back.”

  “But, Mom.” Fabal pouted, jutting his chin. “Tibbles might need doctoring.”

  Keeyla issued him a ‘don’t mess with me eye.’

  “With winter coming,” Garth said, “this pelt will make some warm boots and coats, right Keeyla?”

  “Not to mention the feast we’re having tonight.” Smelt buffed his hands together in anticipation. “Bear meat, tasty.”

  ***

  “My friend, how you holding up?” Fulvio lovingly patted Zennith’s neck, rectifying his friend wasn’t faring well. They lingered on the plateau at Three Rocks overlooking the basin, and Tallas. The horse hoofed the stony soil.

  Over the past day, the wounds on Zennith’s chest, buttocks, and legs had a bloody stream. As much as he tried he couldn’t stem the flow, Fulvio feared the worse. The horse’s strength was draining away, and Fulvio’s heart was bursting.

  “I’ve good news. Now is your chance to rest. I go on foot from here.” He dismounted accompanied by a protesting whicker. “No, you’re not going any further. I want you to graze in the upper meadow that we just passed and if you hear anything suspicious hide in the woodlands. When I return, I’ll have company. You need to gather your strength for the long haul. Do you understand?” Fulvio unleashed the girth belt and removed the saddle and the harness and laid them on the plateau’s surface.

  He wrapped his arms around the horse’s trunk-like neck. Pressing his cheek and nose into his hide, he dragged in Zennith’s powerful scent. “Give me two days and then,” his voice croaked, “return to Doogan.”

  The horse nickered in his ear and engaged his head over Fulvio’s shoulder.

  “I love you too.” Tears flooded Fulvio’s face, salting his mustache and dripping into his mouth, tasting brackish. After a firm squeeze, he said, “Now, go, my friend.” Unraveling his armed embrace, he petted the horse’s rear quarters and turned away.

  Zennith refused to budge and poked Fulvio in the shoulder with his muzzle.

  Whop, whop, whop, whopping, noisily the heliocrafts engines rumbled over the landscape.

  “It’s the Mediators.” Slinging off his hat, he sho
oed Zennith away. “Go,” he ordered. “Get to the meadow and hide in the woods.” Doleful, he appraised Zennith’s tired flight along the cliffs ledge and into the surrounding meadow. In haste, he collected the saddle and harness and managed to dive over the ridge and into the undergrowth. Lying prone in a shrub, he watched the helio fly overhead.

  He hid the saddle and harness under a juniper shrub and made a mental note as to its location. “I will be back for you Zennith, and you better be ready,” he said with fervor as wet tears embedded his eyelashes. He donned the holstered Glock over his shoulder and picked up the rifle.

  Taking the sheer decline with prudence, he knew exactly where to hideout until the sun set, and then to Goshen’s.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Unable to lift the weighty beast, they decided to skin its pelt and butcher the creature near the river. Men and women had constructed a crude stretcher using logs and binding them with rope. They stacked the meat and pelt, leaving nothing to waste. By taking turns, they heaved the stretcher to be stored in the recently excavated root cellar. The glorious morning had frittered away evolving into a dreary late afternoon.

  “I guess we’re not taking off,” Ennis said to Doogan. “This is taking too long.”

  “I’d really like to leave sometime today.” Not embellishing, Doogan glanced east to the bleak firmament. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “I’m coming. I know the insides and out of the village as well as you.” Ennis wiped bear entrails on his pants. “What’s your plan and I’ll tell you mine.”

  “I thought—” His sentence severed by the appearance of Tibbles trundling in and another white bear in his wake. “What the hell!” He snatched his rifle, which had been leaning against the wagon and ran.

  Precise, like a troop of ragtag soldiers, the men wielded their guns at the furry white interloper. Tibbles sensed danger and immediately sprang to his hind legs and raised his arms in surrender. “Rrrfff, rarrrr, rrrrifff....” He then stepped in front of the white bear like he was defending the animal.

  “Tibbles!” Fabal shouted. He scooted and hugged the bear’s knees.

  “Fabal,” Doogan warned, targeting the creature. “Get away.”

  Fabal rotated towards the men and circled his arms behind his back, continuing to hold onto Tibbles’ leg. “Put down your guns. He’s found a friend.” Tibbles large paw came down and pet the boys head. “Tibbles would never hurt us.” Fabal beseeched with his eyes. “Or bring anyone in camp that would hurt us.”

  The white bear in the background made a raspy sound and thumped onto its rump like a child, its legs sticking straight out.

  “Tibbles,” Doogan spoke. Beady eyes found him. “This—friend of yours...is the animal safe? Can I trust it not to hurt anybody?”

  Tibbles fully understood and after a significant headshake, his nostrils flared as he snorted.

  “That means he’s not going to hurt anyone,” Fabal translated.

  “You speak bear now kid?” Smelt said. His arm rose and pointed his gun at the white bear.

  “Dad. Please.”

  “Stand down, guys.” Doogan lowered his rifle. “What’s your new friend’s name?” Tibbles cocked his ears, lifted his arms and shrugged. A spurt of laughter lightened the tension.

  “Snow!” Swan blasted. “She’s white as snow.”

  “How do you know it’s a she?” Fabal’s nose crinkled peering at her. “It should be Thor or something cool like that.”

  “Thor?” Swan giggled. “Nah, Snow.”

  “I kind of like Swan’s suggestion. Snow.” Keeyla flipped her long hair over her shoulder and smiled at Doogan. “And the bear is quite a bit smaller than Tibbles and, by the way he’s acting, I bet it’s a girl.”

  “What’d you mean by the way he’s acting?” Knox asked. He gaped at the white bear that was now lying curled on the ground like an immense cat, and in the process of napping.

  “He’s smitten,” Keeyla said. “Look at his face, the way he’s looking over his shoulder at her. He’s protecting her.”

  “Okay, okay, enough of this lovey dovey crap,” Smelt groused. “Let’s have us some bear meat. I’m famished.”

  “What about Tibbles?” Fabal asked. He detached his hands from the bear’s leg and showed them the glossy redness on his palms. “He’s bleeding.”

  “I’ll take a look,” Doogan said, “if he’ll let me.” He motioned to Tibbles to follow him. “Come with me.” The crowd began to thin, going back to their work.

  Tibbles body fluctuated from going and staying while looking at the white heap curled on the ground. “Arrmp”

  “Dad, he’s afraid of leaving Snow here.” Fabal realized the bear’s concern.

  “Cripe. If she wakes and doesn’t see Tibbles, who knows what would happen.” Thinking, Doogan roughed his hand over the back of his head and hooked it over his neck. “After I suture those wounds, I want Tibbles to take Snow out of camp, at least until she becomes familiar with us.”

  “Roooff.” Tibbles slunk to his haunches.

  “He said okay.” Fabal again decoded the bear’s response.

  “It’s getting late,” Ennis said keeping pace with Doogan. “And we need to gas up before we take off.”

  “Gas up.”

  “We can’t exactly sneak into Tallas with the helio. The engine will echo off the walls of the basin alerting Mediators stationed all over the territory.”

  Doogan’s feet stalled. Attaching his hands on his hips, he eyed Ennis. “I’m not sneaking in.”

  ***

  Presently, Fulvio observed the change of guard at a tall iron gate. The gate obstructed the expanse of a major highway, which before the final days had united the north and the south. He needed to cross over it and onto the other side. His head veered to the right, staring over his shoulder toward the wastelands. In the twilight, a vast array of burgeoning trees and greenery was endeavoring to heal the decimated land. In the far-flung recesses past the roadway, the world still appeared mangled, corrosive machinery and uninhabitable buildings. He thought back thirty years—when scarcely surviving they had discovered the basin, unscathed by nuclear warfare.

  Fulvio’s scrutinizing gaze returned to the gate. Two Mediators seemed to be in a serious conversation, now was his chance. He ducked low and scurried along the tarry road into the concealment of the trees. He craned his neck around a tree trunk. One Mediator was peering through the chain-link.

  As the Mediator unbolted the lock, Fulvio’s pulse danced like a monkey on speed. Swinging open the gate it broadcast a strident abrading noise. He signaled to the other man to remain on sentry. He carried his rifle in a ready to fire pose and guardedly stepped over the road.

  Ensuing through the tension, Fulvio’s coiled nerves de-tensed as the Mediator circled and shrugged, shaking his head to the man at the gate.

  “Must’ve been an animal,” the Mediator said standing outside of the fence-line. Venturing back, his head swerved around like a lighthouse.

  Fulvio then noticed brightness coming from one of the Mediators hands. The Mediator had either received a message, or they were making a call on their cellular. It was the latter because the Mediator put the device to his ear. Clicking off the cell, he whispered something to the other. Then they quieted, and each Mediator began to patrol along the fenced blockade.

  Fulvio slipped further into the wooded domain and began his intended route to Goshen’s.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  “You better eat something.” Keeyla handed Doogan a plate of fire-roasted bear meat and made herself comfortable next to him. Her feet didn’t quite touch the ground sitting in the doorway of the helio. “I can almost see the cogs clunking in that brain of yours.” With her fingers, she shredded a piece of meat and placed it on her tongue. “Do you remember our first kiss?” He looked at her, his face filling with an epic smile.

  “What brought that up?” he said while chewing. “Are you trying to distract my thinking?”

 
“Yes—and no.” She ground the meat with her teeth. “Well. Do you?”

  “I’d never forget it.” He swept her golden hair tinted like a strawberry over her shoulder. “You whacked me in the face.”

  “You took liberties.” She stifled a giggle.

  “I just kissed you.”

  “It was an experienced kiss, and I was naive and an amateur.”

  “So that got me whacked?”

  “Yes.” Her hand reached for his thigh and applied pressure. “I didn’t understand all those feelings. I didn’t have a mother to guide me through those years, and Dad was clueless as far as handling a teenager.”

  “You were hard to resist.” Doogan placed his hand over hers. “You nursed me day and night after the scourging. Bathing my back with such tenderness. At that time, do you have any idea what you were doing to me?”

  “I was trying to help you.” She sounded innocent. “Everyone thought you were going to die, and I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

  “You’re lucky all I did was kiss you. I wanted you every single day.” He drew close to her hair and inhaled. “All the while you were leaning over me, I breathed you in. You always smelled like fresh sunshine. You still do.”

  Using his forefinger, he tipped her chin up. Doogan kissed her softly on the lips.

  “Is my heart singing,” she said, “or is that music coming from somewhere?”

  “Oh my God.” He hopped up and rammed his hand into his pocket. “Fulvio said he’d call when he got to Tallas.” He touched a spot on the cellular. “I’m putting it on speaker, but don’t say anything until we know for sure it’s him.”

  “Fulvio?” A female’s voice came over the cell. “Fulvio, are you there? I don’t have much time.”

  “Paniess?” His brow creased. “It’s Doogan.”

  “Doogan?” She sounded relieved and happy. “I’m calling from Gee’s cell. It’s great to hear your voice. Are you alright?”

  “Yes. What’s happening?”

  “At the moment Pomfrey has me locked in my bedroom. I’m not allowed to leave.”