Crossroads Burning

by Nash, Layla

  We kept going west all day, and by midafternoon, the ley magic shivered and I had to pull my horse up. The others kept going for a good bit before they noticed I’d hung back, and all five turned to look at me.

  I pulled my horse to a stop the moment I felt the earth’s energy shift. Nope.

  The others went on a few more steps until they realized I remained behind, and Lincoln reined his horse around to look at me. “Is there a problem?”

  “That’s the tribe’s land,” I said, nodding at where they’d crossed into a forbidden zone. “I can’t go.”

  “What do you mean, you can’t go?” Hazel’s dark eyebrows arched as she rode back to where I waited with the horse and pack mule.

  “I’m not allowed. My family isn’t, I mean.” I started to untie the pack mule so I could hand it over to one of them. Luckily I still carried most of my own supplies, and I could ride faster without having to search for the damn drone. Somehow my horse found extra speed on the way home, regardless of how tired she pretended to be while heading away. “So this is where I leave you.”

  “You’re not allowed?” Lincoln seemed to only speak in questions around me, and I had to swallow a surge of regret. They’d find their drone and go on back to their jobs and lives far away from Rattler’s Run, but it was for the best.

  “There’s been a great deal of unpleasantness between the Lucketts and the tribe,” I said. I dismounted so I could retrieve some pasta and a bottle of water from the pack mule, then led it over to the border of the reservation so I could offer the lead to them. I couldn’t take it over to where they waited, though, and refused to budge even as all five of them stared at me. “We’re not allowed on the reservation.”

  “How can you tell this is the res?” Eddie didn’t seem quite as incredulous as the out-of-towners, though he still looked curious. “There’s no fence or sign or anything.”

  “I just feel it.” I gestured at my feet. “It’s right there. I’m not allowed, so I’ll turn back and you all can go on without me.”

  “We don’t have much farther to go,” Nelson said, holding up the little tracker that had been leading us around for the past week. “And there’s no one else out here. No one will know if you come with us a little way.”

  “I’ll know,” I said. “That’s enough.”

  Eddie nodded and came forward to retrieve the pack mule. “Sorry to see you go, Luckett. We won’t come back through the Crossroads, so we should be fine.”

  I caught my stirrup and swung myself back into the saddle, checking my saddlebags one more time. “You shouldn’t have any trouble, but if anything happens, just ride for the meeting house and ask for Luke Mankiller.”

  “Mankiller?” Mason’s eyebrows rose in polite disbelief. “That’s his real name?”

  “Yep.” I didn’t quite smile. “Ask him how they got the name. It’s a funny story.”

  “Oh yeah?” Mason glanced at his brother and the tracking device. “We can stop for lunch and you can tell us the story.”

  “It’s better when Luke tells it,” I said. “I always forget if it was two dozen or three dozen soldiers that his ancestor killed.”

  They blinked, and from Hazel’s expression, she didn’t know whether to believe me or not. I kept a straight face, despite that Eddie shook his head, and started to turn my horse away. “Although they also killed a lot of men from the rival tribe up the river. So it’s hard to sort out where the name originated. Still, Luke tells it better. Give him my regards if you want to get thrown off the reservation.”

  “Will do,” Eddie said. “Travel safe.”

  I lifted my hand to acknowledge the farewell, though I glanced back as hooves thudded against the dirt behind me. Lincoln rode up next to me and held out a snub-nosed pistol. “Take this with you. In case you need help.”

  I didn’t touch it, and my horse shook her head and snorted as his horse tried to make friends. “I’ll be fine. You keep it.”

  “It’s a flare gun.” Lincoln frowned just a touch, like he wasn’t accustomed to people refusing his assistance or orders. “Without good cell phone reception out here, we won’t know if you make it back to town okay. At least this way, you can fire the flare gun and signal if anything happens and you need us to find you.”

  I just wanted to get away from the group and the border of the reservation, so I took the flare gun and slid it into my saddlebag. “Right. And the resulting grass fire will lead you right to me.”

  Lincoln smiled instead. “You’re right. Try to stay upwind.”

  “Listen to you, talking like a real pioneer.” I chuckled and turned my horse away once more. “Good luck finding the drone.”

  “We’ll see you back in town,” he said, and it sounded like a promise.

  I knew I wouldn’t be there when they got back. I’d find something else to do as far from town as possible, for at least a week after I got home, so there wasn’t even a slim chance that I’d be tempted to sleep with him or fall in love with him or tell him more about us than he already knew. Giving me the flare gun was sweet in a practical kind of way, even though I had no real need of it. And I couldn’t use it even if I did—as I’d told him, a grass fire would be devastating. No need to give the ranchers even more of a reason to hate us.

  I nudged my horse and she set off at a steady trot, eager to get away from the other horses and people. She didn’t even like me, but the farther she could get from other people, the better.

  Even though she wanted to head straight back to town—with that unbelievable equine sense of direction, she knew exactly where her grain and stall waited—I turned her once more to the center of the Crossroads. We could reach it in a day or so, and I could check on the Luckett caves and all of our secrets within. We still didn’t know what Aunt Bess had done, even though she told us it was meant to free us from the binding. As much as I didn’t want to face it on my own, since all kinds of ghosts lingered around the cave, we hadn’t seen anything useful when all three of us went shortly after her burial. There was too much magic when we stood together, and it overwhelmed the more subtle fingerprints of our ancestors in the ley lines that collided right in the cave.

  There was nothing quite as unnerving as being completely alone under a wide open sky. It seemed like the land went on in every direction, uninterrupted by anything more than a small hill or one of the old buffalo wallows, without any hint of another soul. After more than a week surrounded by the chatter and conversation of a bunch of strangers, it was refreshing to listen only to the hush of the wind through the grass. I tilted my face to the sun and smiled, exhaling some of the tension and uncertainty that lingered from being around Lincoln and his team.

  I’d never been so off-balance for so long around a man. Even though there was something pleasant about the shivers and butterflies that attacked me every time he looked at me, I didn’t need the equally constant indigestion and tongue-tied mumbling.

  The horse flicked her ears back at me as I whistled, and snorted in derision. At least we hadn’t seen any signs that the dire wolves were around or any other magical disturbances waited. I closed my eyes and let my consciousness slide down and into the prairie where the ley lines waited, one of the massive east-west lines unfurling beneath my horse’s hooves. It would lead us to the cave, then we would head home. I smiled a bit to myself and nudged the horse to quicken her pace as the ley magic boosted both of our energy. The sooner I got home, the sooner we could figure out how to spend the money Lincoln owed me.

  Chapter 14

  I stopped for the night as clouds built up in the west. It was just my luck that it would rain the first time I had no one else to set the tent up for me. I hated putting up tents and tarps, and the horse didn’t look too pleased when I put her long lead on a stake so she wouldn’t wander off and leave me to walk home alone or call my sisters for a rescue. So I gave her some extra grain and got busy putting up the tent and building a small fire to boil water. A small spring nearby gave me fresh water, refreshing
ly cold to drink but slow to boil. I got the tent up and put everything else under a waterproof tarp to protect it from the rain.

  The clouds hung dark and low over the prairie as the sun sank behind the horizon, and for a few glorious minutes, the sky was ablaze with colors that lit the clouds from below.

  It didn’t last long enough.

  I pulled out my headlamp so I at least had enough light to boil up pasta and some of the dehydrated sauce, finishing off a bag of beef jerky for protein, and waited for the skies to open up. The air grew oppressive and lightning danced along the horizon, but I’d cleaned all the dishes and put away the equipment without a single drop of rain falling. At least without the researchers along, I could use magic to set a protective ward around my tent and the fire and the horse, burning sage and murmuring the spells as I walked around and around and around. It wasn’t as strong as when all three of us cast together, but it was good enough to keep curious foxes and other critters out of my supplies for the night.

  My skin prickled as I checked the campsite once more, scanned the darkness for any reflective eyes hunting me, and made sure the horse was secure and safe. Then there was nothing to do but climb in the tent and get ready to sleep.

  I tried not to freak myself out as I sat in the tent with my headlamp and stared at the slope of the tent fabric right over my face. There was nothing like being in the dark, all alone, and wondering if monsters lurked outside the thin fabric. At least the horse would alert me of anything untoward. She didn’t tolerate predators or magic.

  I drifted off, snuggled up in my sleeping bag, and didn’t dream. It felt like an eternity and just a blink when the horse snorted. My heart jumped and I sat up, staring into the darkness like widening my eyes enough would give me night vision and the ability to see through my tent. I waited, listening for anything other than the rampaging beating of my heart, but nothing stirred.

  Static crackled in the air. The horse snorted again, her irritation growing, and I thought I heard her stomp a hoof into the ground in warning. My fingers curled around the stock of the rifle and I moved slowly to shoulder it. Getting out of the tent without getting tangled up and making myself more of a target would be the trick. If it were regular wolves out there, I could scare them off. If they were dire wolves, it was already too late. And I didn’t want to run into anything else that would be skulking around the Crossroads in the middle of the night.

  The radio wobbled a little as I held it up, trying to call to Eddie or anyone else, but there was nothing but static and my cell phone didn’t fare much better. Which meant I was on my own. I tucked the flare gun into the pocket of my jacket as I bundled up as tightly as I could without disturbing the tent. At least if I set off the flare, Eddie and the others would eventually find the camp and figure out what happened to me.

  I drew a touch of magic up through the ley lines, though it wouldn’t do me much good unless I knew what I was trying to hex, and reached for the zipper of the tent. Hopefully the wards still held so I had some breathing room. I said a quick prayer to the Mother and all my ancestors, looking for intercession by the Luckett ghosts, and dragged the zipper down to scan the area right outside the tent.

  The horse had her head up, ears pricked forward, and watched something in the distance, but nothing had disturbed the grass circle around the tent. I clambered out, clutching the rifle, and held my breath as I turned slowly to scan for danger. Static crackled again but there were no lightning flashes, and I couldn’t see clouds in the dark sky. No stars winked. It felt like everything waited, breath held on the inhale, and tension coiled slowly at the base of my spine.

  My chest ached and I finally had to breathe, straightening. A wind whirled through the grasses, making them rustle and rush around us. Far away, something growled.

  I went to the horse and checked her rope, glad she was still tied securely, and made sure there was a round in the chamber of the rifle. We’d managed to learn enough about loading ammunition to put silver on the bullets, so we could more effectively kill the dire wolves and other magical beasties. It was expensive as hell, particularly with as fast as we were going through ammunition that year. My nerves settled as I looked out at the darkness and more growling started to vibrate in the air. There was something about the inevitability of being attacked that made the night a little less nerve-racking. It was the silence that really frightened me.

  But I couldn’t fight in the dark, not really, and the headlamp battery flickered and started to die as magical beasts drained away the energy. The ley magic would draw them closer, acting as a beacon to whatever dire wolves roamed the Crossroads. I could either see what I shot at and risk having to shoot at more of them, or take my chances in the dark without ever seeing how big of an obstacle I faced.

  I shook my head and reached for the magic, coaxing it into a tall, thin lantern beam that rose from the center of my wards. It glowed, illuminating the surrounding prairie, and I sucked in a breath as the growls converged around me. The horse snorted and fought the lead, whinnying as she half-reared, and I rushed to catch her halter. We were both screwed if she took off, and not just because she’d break my wards and let the beasts come after us.

  She fought my hold and I set my heels, unwilling to put down the rifle, though my stomach dropped to my feet and I almost fell to the ground myself. The beasts that roared out of the night weren’t dire wolves as I’d feared, but as I stared at them and tried to remember to breathe, I wondered if they were far worse.

  They looked like dire wolves, five times larger than a normal gray wolf, but there was a glint of intelligence in their eyes as they stalked the perimeter of my ward that made them far scarier than any dire wolf I’d faced. I swallowed a knot in my throat and reached for the flare gun. The others were definitely too far away to help, but... I’d feel better if I knew they had a chance of seeing the flare and might magically appear just in time to save me.

  The red flare arced into the night sky, making me blink, and for a long time illuminated the surroundings even more than my ley magic light. I brought the rifle up and aimed, hoping the horse didn’t bolt as one of the beasts charged at my ward. The horse whinnied in pure terror again, pawing at the air, as the wolf-beast snarled and snapped closer to her before peeling away to disappear beyond the shadows cast by my light.

  My hands shook as I aimed and concentrated on my breathing. I couldn’t waste any bullets. There were at least four or five of the beasts, possibly more since it was almost impossible to tell them apart. The beasts hunted with a cleverness I’d never seen even with magical beasts, and they seemed fearless even after I fired and a bullet hit home. The beast didn’t yelp and didn’t even slow down as blood streaked its side.

  I exhaled and refused to let it distract me. It wasn’t enough to deter them, but with enough silver and bullets, maybe I could make it a fairer fight. I whispered and tried to unspool more magic for when I ran out of bullets. The horse snorted and jerked at the stake tied to her lead, and I raised my voice in the hopes that it might settle her.

  More growling rose and fell and I glanced over my shoulder, my heart dropping to see more of the beasts. At least four of them waited behind me, another few racing back and forth in front of the horse to keep her unsettled and draw my attention away from what the four did behind me. They couldn’t actually be that smart. I shook my head and wished the radio worked, so I could at least tell Eddie what happened.

  The air crackled and the wind kicked up, and far away I caught a hint of something burning. Maybe the flare had actually started a grass fire. Great. I’d either be torn apart by wild beasts or burned to death. Fantastic. I didn’t think the horse could outrun either, not with me on her back, but she’d probably stand a better chance on her own. If the wards broke, I needed to set her free. There was no way in hell I could stay on her bareback, and I didn’t dare put the rifle down long enough to get her saddled, if she’d even let me get close enough to do so.

  I kept shooting, hitting wolf after
wolf, and though some of them looked bloody, none slowed down.

  The world closed down to just my rifle and the wolves and the border of the ward, punctuated with the horse’s panicked neighs and snorts, and the acrid scent of burning grass.

  Lightning flashed and the magic lantern flickered, giving a strobe light effect as I struggled to keep my footing as I moved around the tent and gear and fire and the horse.

  And then the rifle only clicked and clicked, the magazine empty, and a knot of panic welled up in my chest. I’d used at least thirty rounds against six hell beasts, and they hardly even slowed down.

  One charged the ward right at the horse and she bolted, tearing the stake from the ground and careening through the tent before she raced into the darkness. The wards collapsed and then the wolves leapt at me. I swung the rifle to beat one of them and dragged up magic at the same time, stumbling and almost falling.

  Desperation had always been the engine of my creativity. I didn’t have enough time to think, much less plan, and the magic flowed through my feet and up to my hands and brain and then I was shouting. Words of power passed my lips and boomed into the laden air, parting the smoke and the darkness to find the beasts. One collapsed but another jumped and then white-hot pain erupted in my shoulder as its teeth sank into my flesh.

  I howled and jammed my other hand against its chest, slamming magic at it, but the teeth remained even as the body went limp. The weight of it dragged me off-balance and threw me to the ground. I stared up at the dull sky as my lantern faded and the rest of the beasts circled closer.

  From somewhere in the ley lines came a ripple of support. A rising tide of familiarity and knowledge. A whisper through the darkness... Rise, daughter. Fight.