by Devon Monk
Shard LeFel’s eyes went wide with horror.
“Can’t kill a man more’n three times, devil,” Jeb Lindson said. “Said it yourself. You plain can’t kill me no more.”
Mr. Shunt seemed just as shocked as Shard LeFel and stood, weighing his options. Cedar barreled into Mr. Shunt and tore into his neck, shaking and breaking it. Then Cedar ripped Mr. Shunt apart, limb from limb, stringing bone and guts and metal out of him like pulling the meat out of a crab, until Mr. Shunt stopped moving, stopped twitching, stopped ticking.
It took no more than a minute before Mr. Shunt was reduced to a mess of cracked bits. It took a few seconds more before Cedar could reclaim enough of his mind to realize Wil, Mae, and Elbert were still trapped. Trapped by the Strangeworks.
Cedar attacked the first Strange, sinking teeth into its head and throwing himself backward, twisting off the head with the strength of his jaw.
The Strange wriggled and shrieked and sprang open like a popped seed. From that bloody mess, the little child Elbert tumbled out onto the floor.
Cedar paused just long enough to be sure the child was breathing, then ran to the next Strangework.
“No!” Shard LeFel screamed. “Release me. Fall to the ground and worship me.”
Cedar glanced at him. The door was closing, and Shard LeFel was not walking through it. Jeb Lindson was there instead, big hand wrapped around Shard LeFel’s throat, holding him one-handed in midair above the door. With a vicious smile, Jeb Lindson lowered Shard LeFel just enough, the tips of his boots slipped into the door, before he yanked him up again.
“Only gonna do one thing, devil,” Jeb said. “Gonna kill you, me and this dead iron. And it’s only gonna take me the one time.”
Jeb used one hand to smash the ball matic into the Holder at the head of the doorway.
The Holder exploded in a roll of thunder and a blast of lightning. Seven distinct bits of the device flew straight up into the night and then whisked across the starry sky faster than anything on this earth.
Cedar was on the next Strangework, biting, killing, twisting, destroying, until it disgorged his brother, Wil, who was broken, bloody. But he still breathed.
Cedar Hunt wasn’t done killing yet.
He threw himself at the last Strange. And this time, it was Mae who fell from the monstrous creature, Mae who took a hard, shuddering breath, pulling the gag from her mouth and the barbed wire from her throat.
Jeb Lindson lifted Shard LeFel away from the closed doorway in the floor, his huge hand crushing LeFel’s windpipe. Jeb Lindson laughed and laughed, his ruined face drooping with the effort to smile as he dragged Shard LeFel behind him over the rubble of the train car and down to the ground outside.
Shard LeFel scrabbled, reaching for the door, reaching for the stairs, trying to scream through a throat that could do no more than gurgle.
And then Jeb stopped laughing. “For Mae,” he breathed. “My Mae.”
Jeb pounded LeFel’s face methodically with his fists, breaking his beautiful features, snapping his elegant neck, cracking his graceful back, then every other bone in his body, before crushing his skull and digging his brain out with his knuckles. Just for good measure, he pounded the bloody scraps of Shard LeFel with the metal ticker, until all that remained of him was pulverized into a fine mash.
“Mr. Hunt?”
Cedar looked away from the bloody spectacle.
Rose Small stood on what was left of the platform, her rifle smoking, her goggles pushed up, little Elbert hugged close against her hip. She was dirty, singed, a little bloody. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her smile so brightly.
Rose assessed the damage to the railcar. “Don’t know if you can jump down, and I wouldn’t advise you to drop too close to Mr. Lindson. He’s of a powerful single purpose right now. Can you make it here to the platform next to me?”
Cedar took a step, looked back at Mae, who had somehow pulled herself up on her feet and was walking, a bit dazed, toward Rose. Cedar nudged Wil until his brother gained his feet and blindly followed him. The door in the floor was closed, the white light gone. Cedar knew he’d need to break that door, maybe burn it down, but could not summon the effort, nor could he begin to think of the method to do so.
He was suddenly very tired, very much in pain, and very hot. All he wanted to do was lie down and lose himself to the soft, luxurious promise of sleep. What was wrong with him?
He glanced at the sky behind Rose Small. It was no longer dark and star-caught, but instead blushing with pink. How had dawn come so soon? Rose was helping Mae to sit, and looking over both Mae’s and Elbert’s injuries.
Dawn was on its way.
Rose glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “That’s good, Mr. Hunt. You’re almost there. Mae and Elbert are torn up pretty bad, but they’re mostly whole. A fair bit better than I reckon they should expect to be.”
The slide of dawn and the grip of pain blurred Rose’s words and made her seem far away. He wanted to go to Mae, to touch her and know she was safe, but he could not move. So he listened to Rose Small’s words and knew they meant safety and tending. Cedar lay down to rest. Then the moon drained away, taking the wolf with it and leaving him free to be a man once again.
Rose Small did not avert her eyes as Mr. Hunt slipped his wolf skin and stretched out into his bare naked self. It didn’t take long at all for him to turn from wolf to man, and he made no sound, gave no indication that it hurt.
He simply was looking at her from a wolf’s eyes, then rolled his shoulders, stretched his legs, arched his back that had three bullet wounds clean through it, and was kneeling in his man form. Near as she could tell, he fell asleep right there. The wounds in his back started mending some, even as she watched, though they leaked a strange black oil.
She looked over at the other wolf, who regarded her with eyes the color of old copper. He limped over and laid himself down next to Cedar.
“I’m supposing you’re not just a wild animal,” Rose said as she took a step toward Cedar. “But seeing as how everyone here is still bleeding, I think we’ll need to find some water and shelter before folks in town come looking for what all the noise was about.”
She shifted the pack on her back, sliding her arm out of one strap. The wolf closed his eyes, and seemed to fall asleep just like Cedar.
“Well, don’t that beat all?” Rose knelt and pulled her blanket roll off the bottom of her pack and unrolled the wool blanket—one that she had bought from Mae—over Mae and little Elbert.
At that touch, Mae seemed to come to, brushing back her hair with bloody hands, and fixing Rose with a clear-eyed stare.
“Jeb?”
“He’s here, as much of him as can be.” Rose nodded to where Jeb knelt, unmoving, above the gory mash that had just a moment before been Mr. Shard LeFel.
Mae moved the blanket so that it was wrapped around Elbert, and handed the boy to Rose. Then Mae walked down what was left of the train-car stairs, toward what was left of her husband.
“Husband? Jeb?”
Jeb raised his head. “Mae?” The word was a sigh, almost unrecognizable from what was left of his mouth.
“I’m here, my love.”
Jeb struggled to stand, finally pushed onto his ruined leg and broken ankle, steadying himself with will alone.
Mae was smiling as if an angel had just descended from heaven and landed there in front of her.
“Oh, Jeb.” She stepped right up to him and put her hands in his, while he looked down at her, love and devotion shining from his eyes.
“My Mae,” he said. “To have and to hold.”
Mae nodded. “Yes, love. Always.” She glanced at his shackles, running her fingers along the cuff of one of his hands, looking for a way to release him, while he looked at her in adoration.
Jeb held perfectly still as she worked her hands around the shackles, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t find a way to release them.
Finally, Jeb pulled one hand out of hers and gent
ly placed a single finger beneath her chin, tipping her face upward.
“Mae,” he said again. “My wife.”
Even though her face was tipped, her eyes were closed. The gloss of tears ran a clean line through the blood on her cheeks. She took a deep breath and finally opened her eyes.
Sorrow and pain cast fleeting shadows across her features as she studied the shredded remains of the man before her. Then she smiled.
“It’s going to be all right, my love,” she said, her voice hitching. “You’re going to be just fine. We’re going to be just fine.”
The sky grew brighter, the sun pressing just below the horizon’s edge.
Jeb shook his head and softly drew one thumb across her cheek, as if he had done so a thousand times before, wiping her tears away. “It is too late for me. Has been for some time. We know that.”
“No,” Mae said. “Don’t say that.”
“What should I say, my Mae?” he asked.
“That you’ll stay with me. Always.”
Jeb cupped the side of her face in his bloody hand. “To love and cherish,” he said.
“I do love you,” she said. “I will always love you.”
“The vow,” he said, his voice soft, sad. “Say the vow, my beautiful wife. To love and to cherish.”
Mae searched his face. “To love and to cherish.”
“Until death do us part.”
“Until death do us part,” she whispered.
Jeb took a deep, shuddering breath. “I love you,” he exhaled, “always.”
He bent to her, and she stood on tiptoe. They kissed gently, husband and wife for one last moment as the sun burned bright over the horizon.
Sunlight poured down over them, cloaking them in a golden veil while they kissed. Then Jeb Lindson faded away, shackles falling to the earth, until he was nothing but dust that glinted on the wind, gathered up and carried in a rejoice of morning birdsong, to the sky.
The widow Mae Lindson stood for a long, long while, face tipped up to the glow of the eastern sky, her eyes closed as if she could not yet find the strength to look upon the world now that her husband was no longer upon it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Rose Small knew the new day would bring new people out to find them. And if the town had wanted to burn Mae as a witch before, she knew once they got an eyeful of this mess, they wouldn’t wait for a slow flame to kill her this time. It’d be the noose for all of them, and it’d be fast.
She had found the water barrels and washed up Elbert. He wasn’t talking, but he didn’t let go of her hand. Eventually, he’d seemed content to sleep while she kept him propped on her hip. The wolf and Mr. Cedar Hunt slept, and Mae finally let Rose lead her to one of the water barrels so she could wash her arms and face.
Rose walked back to where Cedar Hunt slept, and pulled her canteen from her belt and sloshed the water a bit. She uncorked it, took a long drink to soothe her smoke-burned throat, and steady her nerves.
“It’s time we be going, I think,” she said, though she didn’t know who among them was listening. “We’ll need to get little Elbert back to his family and the rest of you somewhere out of the town folk’s eyes.”
Cedar Hunt stirred.
He slowly sat, and Rose watched as a cool breeze brought him to realize he was naked, except for the blanket she had covered him with. He situated the blanket around himself so it covered him in a more civilized manner.
Rose did the proper thing and looked away until he got himself decent. When she looked back, Cedar Hunt had one hand on the wolf who was still drowsing, and was looking out across the rubble, taking in the damage around them. He looked sorely exhausted. Sounded it too.
“Clothes, and food, if we have them,” he whispered hoarsely.
“I can find that for you. You’ll be all right, then, here with the wolf?”
Cedar looked back at the wolf and a serene sort of ease crossed his face. “I’ll be fine. The boy?” he asked, as if dredging deep dreams.
“Shook, but breathing. And Mae’s whole too. Mostly.” Rose nodded. Cedar Hunt’s gaze followed to where she still stood near the water barrels, face tipped to the sky. He swallowed hard and looked away.
Then: “The Madders?”
Rose shrugged. “Ran off into the night as soon as that device flew into bits.”
“Ah,” he breathed. Cedar closed his eyes, and drowsed, sitting.
Rose shook her head. There was no one but herself to take care of things. It wasn’t easy, but she managed to round up a horse and wagon and hitch them up, while still juggling little Elbert. Mae wasn’t in her full senses, but climbed into the back of the wagon, and thank God and glim, Elbert was content to curl up with her.
It took a little more coaxing, but Rose got Mr. Hunt and the wolf into the wagon too. As a last thought, Rose set the railcar on fire—just the one that had held the doorway and those wicked Strange. She wasn’t sure if there was enough fire in the world to destroy that evil, but wasn’t about to leave it out here for folk to find.
She climbed up into the wagon, kicked the brake free, and flicked the reins, guiding the horse away from the rail. The wide cleared area up and down the rail looked like a battlefield. Broken metal, steaming piles of gears, coils, and tubes, carved eerie shadows in the early-morning light. The still forms of dead rail workers sent a chill up her spine. That could just as well be her on the ground, could be Mae or little Elbert. She held tighter to the rifle and headed up the tracks and around the slight curve in the hill. She’d go to Mr. Hunt’s cabin, figuring it was the only home among them that was still standing, and not in plain sight.
Birdsong, late to the morning, had started up slow, but now filled the air. Rose took a deep, full breath, wishing the new morning could clean her of the long night’s pain and fear. But it would take more than a clear dawn to take away this horror. It had been a hard night. Still, her friend was alive, and so too were Mr. Hunt and Elbert. She was grateful for that. Grateful she had lived to see the day.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Cedar Hunt swung down off his horse with a grunt, Elbert in his arms. The bullets had not been properly dug out, but Mae Lindson had done what she could to clean his wounds of the Strange black bugs and oil. There wasn’t time for more. They’d all decided to leave town and head east together, but they’d gone first to Cedar’s house to give Mae Lindson and Wil a roof while he brought Elbert back to town.
Well, while he and Rose Small brought Elbert back to town. The girl had refused to stay behind and had instead ridden alongside him, saying she’d stand up for his character against the crowd if needed. It had not gone beneath his notice that she brought along her shotgun and her goggles fitted tight against her bonnet.
Though she’d been cheerful about it back at the cabin, she’d had no choice but to cut her hair just below her ears, evening the ragged edge the fire had left behind. He couldn’t help but notice how often her fingers wandered to tuck it behind her ears, or drop it forward to try to hide the burn on her cheek and neck, which had thankfully not blistered.
The townsfolk were riled up and skittery, holding to clumps in the street and talking about the happenings of last night—from the witch burning to the rail explosions, likely caused by some sort of malfunction of the strange matics and tickers under LeFel’s lock and key. The townsfolk had quickly cleared out of Cedar’s way once they saw him come riding. Word of the night’s fight with the matics out on the rail had come to town, probably from the surviving railmen.
Cedar didn’t know whom they had painted as in the right or the wrong, nor if any of the men had spotted Rose, the Madders, or Mae, and truth was, he didn’t much care. He’d be riding east. East to see Mae Lindson safely to her sisters she’d left at the coven. Then east to find the universities, the scholars, the devisers, who might know of a way to break the curse he and his brother still carried.
Rose Small stubbornly insisted she wanted to go east too, and when both women had stood side by side a
gainst him, he knew there wasn’t a man born who could convince her the road was no place for a lady such as she.
But looking around the town at the suspicious gazes the men and women cast at him, and in equal measure Miss Small, he got to thinking Hallelujah might not be a place for a lady like her anymore either.
They had ridden straight through to the blacksmith’s shop, and word had preceded them.
The blacksmith strode down the main road, his wife beside him.
At the first sight of Cedar and the bundle in his arms, Mrs. Gregor cried out with joy.
Cedar was careful to hand the boy to her, after he dismounted, but Mr. Gregor interrupted his intent, and took the boy his own self. He unwrapped him and pulled up his shirt to reveal his back, scratched and weeping with small punctures, but not bearing the mark of the pentagram Rose Small had told Cedar had been carved into the Strange changeling.
“Papa!” the boy cried, catching the big man in a hug. It was the first word Cedar had heard out of him.
Mr. Gregor pushed him back gently and looked up at Cedar, then Rose. Then he looked quickly away.
“Elbert,” the big man said gently. “This is important, now. Tell me your middle name.”
“James. Like Uncle.”
Mr. Gregor nodded. “That’s right, son. That’s right.”
Mrs. Gregor sobbed, and pulled her son into her arms.
“Go on and take him inside, Hannah,” Mr. Gregor said. “I’ll be there soon.”
Mr. Gregor waited until she was gone, the door not only closed but locked behind her.
“The boy doesn’t seem to remember the last few days,” Cedar said. “A blessing, I think.”
“I can’t be more grateful,” Mr. Gregor said around a catch in his throat. “Mr. Hunt. Name your price and I’ll give it to you gladly.”
“I’m not a man who needs many things. And I’m set well enough.”
“You must take some payment,” he insisted.
Cedar didn’t want to take anything for a job he had already gained so much from—finding his brother. “What happened to the changeling Shard LeFel brought you?” he asked.
