They rode on. Black remembered other plains like these, dry wastelands east of Mourne she’d swept in the aftermath of a Gorgoloth raid. The Revengers flew in on airships and rode in on Ebonbacks, great tusked reptiles like dinosaurs with serrated horns and bony tails, and gathered survivors to be taken to Black Scar as prisoners.
They thought we were there to help them. They’d been attacked and had lost their homes, and they thought since we’d driven the Gorgoloth away we were there to rescue them.
She remembered their faces, remembered the tears in their eyes. If there was any justice in the world, she hoped when she died she’d go straight to hell for the things she’d done.
What am I doing here? she wondered. Am I trying to do something right? Am I trying to help one of the only people who ever believed I could be human again?
Does that make me noble, or just pathetic?
They rode through fields of yellowed tusks that protruded from the earth like curved stakes. The bones of some mammoth beast lay half-buried in the pale sand. Frozen lichen and molded rodent remains lay piled in the shell of its mouth.
Pools of brackish blood had frozen like jelled paint. The horses climbed and descended, climbed and descended. The shattered ground was a sea of broken bones.
Danica fell into a pattern as they rode. She wound her spirit tightly around herself to fend off the cold for a few minutes, then sent him ahead to scout the area ahead for any hidden creatures.
The taint of old magic hung thick in the air. Just riding through those dead hills was like breathing in burning fumes, and the scent soured the stomach and clawed the throat.
Creasy held up his fist, which was wrapped in a tattered glove and connected to his cloak with strips of wolf-hide, and motioned for everyone to stop. The dark runes on his darker hand pulsed with ethereal light.
Black’s spirit was out tracking, and moments after Creasy raised his hand she felt what alarmed him: multiple living presences in the distance, as well as some non-living. She signaled Kane to come with her as she dismounted and moved ahead to take a look.
Their horses stopped just short of a ridge that overlooked a massive hole in the earth. The ridge circled around and vanished into a broken forest to the north, while to the south it descended to a lake of pale and polluted water. Directly ahead, the ridge curved upwards before it spilled into the crater.
Black and Kane crawled on hands and knees through white sand. They saw a stream of smoke that stained the sky like an oil smudge. Black heard the grind of machines and the guttural growl of inhuman tongues. The dirt beneath them was littered with shards of bone and metal. By the time they made it to the edge both she and Kane were covered in pale dust.
The bowl-shaped crater was largely barren. The ground was unnaturally dark soil that stood in stark contrast to the rest of the landscape. Thick holes in the sides of the crater led to unseen depths. The ground was wrecked and torn and bore the look of something that had been recently tilled. Mounds of loamy soil had been overturned and sat in thick piles that oozed some dark and earthy fluid.
Danica smelled oil and exhaust. The air was filled with the sound of grinding metal and the choke of engines. Something had rotted there, something unnatural, and very old.
This is getting worse by the minute.
A low tower made of bone and metal moved across the floor of the crater. Its spindly metallic legs resembled those of a great crab, and the device dragged chains that tore the earth loose in its wake. Thick plumes of smoke billowed out of its exhaust ports. A thick ring of curved iron spikes, like the spines of a great crown, circled the apex of the tower. Bladed barbs covered the surface of the vehicle.
A squad of human soldiers trailed the tower. They were all armed with M4A rifles and wore mismatched body armor. Their skin was camouflaged and masked with dark soil and dirt, and they walked with care.
A mage walked with them, a sort of warlock captain. He was young and lean, with short blonde hair and pale skin covered in runes and tattoos. His black cloak stayed clean in spite of the mud, and he watched the ground carefully, as if suspicious of it.
There were still more sentries by one of the holes in the crater wall.
The bowl of earth was easily the size of a corn field. The mercenaries would spot the team coming from a mile away if they dropped into the crater from anywhere except where the ridge sloped down from the forest…and the only way to do that without being seen was to navigate through the forest itself. Considering the trees abutted the southern tip of Wolfland and were bound to be patrolled by more mercenaries, even that approach was going to be risky.
Danica had the sense she’d beheld the scene before: the dark soil, the red sky, the arcane machines and the smell of tainted thaumaturgy. Something was disturbingly familiar about it all, and no matter how she tried she couldn’t shake the feeling she’d been there before. It was like she’d glimpsed the entire scene in a dream or read about it in a book. Half-remembered details floated at the edge of her thoughts.
She sees the fold in the sky. The liquid mirror that isn’t there, a wavering reflection between worlds.
Kane motioned Black to move back. They retreated a few yards from the edge of the crater. Black signaled Ash that they were okay, and to stay put. She was glad Cross had taken the time to teach them all how to use the Southern Claw hand signals.
“Ok, what the hell is that thing?” Kane asked her.
“I have no idea. It reminds me of some of the technology we had in the prison…”
“That Crujian shit?”
Black nodded.
“But not exactly like it,” she added. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s some bastardized version of Sorn tech.” They heard the engine churn and the clawed legs grind and clang.
“What are they looking for?” Kane wondered out loud.
Black checked her compass and pulled out the hand-drawn map they’d made of the area, which had the coordinates for the excavation site.
“Well, that’s what we’re here to find out,” she said. She checked and double-checked her readings against the map. “This is definitely the spot.”
Kane cursed under his breath.
“Where the hell is Cross?”
“He’s alone. He may have found a way to sneak inside.” Black bit her lip as she mulled things over. “We’ll have to do the same. But not from this direction.”
She looked around. They were out of sight of the men down in the crater, but any sentries in the forest or down at the waters would be able to spot them easily.
“We need to get everyone out of sight,” she said. “I think our best bet is to approach through the trees.”
“Danica…have I told you this sucks?”
“Yeah. You mentioned it.”
“We lost our ship, we lost Grissom, we have no clue what the hell it is we’re going up against…and still no Cross.”
Kane pounded his fist in the dirt. He looked as exhausted as she felt. Her back and head ached from days of travel. Life had become decidedly more physically taxing ever since she’d met Cross, not to mention infinitely more difficult.
And yet here you are. Because you know you’re better off with them. Stop fighting it.
“God damn it…” Kane said again.
“Are you done?” she barked quietly. “Because if you don’t mind, I’d like to get moving. Cross is here somewhere – maybe down in those tunnels, or maybe he’s not hiding, like we thought, but he’s a prisoner – and I’d like to find him before it’s too late. We’re not going to get any of that done with you moaning.” She was ready to bark at him to move, to command him, but she remembered doing that to him before, back when he’d had no choice but to obey her. She didn’t want to go there. She was trying her best to erase that dynamic from their relationship.
She took a breath.
“Mike,” she said quietly. “Come on. Eric needs our help.”
Kane stared at the ground.
“This sucks, Dani,” he sai
d. He had never looked so haggard. Kane looked as if he hadn’t slept for days: his eyes were shallow and red, and he looked ten years older than he actually was. It was getting to him, all of it. She had no idea he’d taken Cross’ vanishing and Grissom’s death so hard.
He’s taking it at least as hard as I am. I’m just better at hiding it.
“I know,” she said. “I know. But we have to make it better now. We can’t just sit here and wait for things to fix themselves. We have to move.”
Kane looked at her, and then back at the team. Ronan motioned and mouthed what the fuck? at them.
“I’m scared shitless, Dani,” Kane said. “I keep thinking about Ekko. I remember…what it felt like to lose her…” Tears welled up in his eyes, and he angrily clenched his teeth.
She wanted so badly to tell him things would be all right. But she knew he’d never accept that. Not from her.
“Focus,” she said. “Let’s do what we came here to do.”
He nodded.
“Hell yes,” he said. “Let’s do it.”
FOURTEEN
GATE
They moved through the forest as quickly and as quietly as they could.
Creasy took his leave. He had his own troubles to deal with back at Wolftown. Black offered to escort him back, but he refused, as they knew he would.
“Good luck to you,” he told them. “Find your friend.”
He left them after he helped them find a relatively safe route to the trees. That crater, he said, had been there long before Wolftown had ever been formed, and it was likely some sort of damage left over from The Black.
The team’s trek through the forest was anything but quiet. Mounds of dead leaves and cracked branches clogged the path, and spindly tree limbs and ancient logs made travel difficult. The forest floor beneath the canopy of dry leaves was grey and cold and littered with small holes and scorch marks. The trees extended as far as the eye could see to the east and north.
Black sent her spirit ahead to scout. Without a warlock, they were blind to nearby threats, but she hoped that her and Ash’s spirits could at least give them some sense of what lay in the distance, and the team would just have to stay on their toes.
Kane took the point, followed by Black, Ash and Maur, while Ronan brought up the rear. There was no question they’d miss Grissom’s artillery as soon as things turned heavy, but without him, the logical part of Black’s brain reasoned, they maybe had a better chance of staying stealthy, which in this situation could prove to be just what they needed.
You need him here. Don’t try to sugarcoat things, you bitch.
The frozen wind came at them hard and fast. Leaves flew across their path, and Black heard whispers through the dead forest, the long lost spirits of whatever life had been burned out of the region. The air was thick with the scent of wolf musk and animal droppings, and when the wind shifted and came from the west they smelled arcane industrial smoke from the crater, as well as an older scent, something like smelted iron and burning earth. They crouched low as they advanced and used the twisted undergrowth to mask their movement.
They came across hanged corpses that dangled from the trees. Their faces were bloated and purple, and their legs and hands had been chewed down to gristle that had dried in the winter chill. Their armor and clothing were of the city-state of Fane, and they looked recently dead.
The team moved on. They kept their guns trained on the forest. The sounds of the walking tower echoed from the crater.
Kane motioned for them to stop. Black’s spirit raced back to her with such force it almost knocked her over. There was a pair of sentries ahead, likely positioned to discourage approach from that direction.
Kane signaled everyone to remain quiet, handed his M4A1 to Black, and ducked down so he could move forward through the trees. She was going to call out to him, but by the time she realized what he was doing he was already too far down the path for her to risk saying anything out loud.
God damn it.
They waited. Ronan looked angry, but Black was sure that had more to do with the fact that Kane was the one doing the killing, and not him. Maur grumbled softly to himself and fidgeted with his mini-Uzi, while Ash sent her spirit back to make sure nothing approached from behind. They were just as worried about Bloodwolves as they were about alerting their mysterious adversaries.
Kane returned just two minutes later, moments after Black sent her spirit out to find him. It quickly discovered the two life forms were gone. Kane had blood on his arms, and it wasn’t his.
“Machine gun nest,” he said quietly. “200 yards away, right over the tunnel entrance. We should be able to get down to the crater from there.”
As Kane promised, the machine gun nest was right at the edge of the trees, concealed from plain site by the angle of the ridge above the tunnel entrance a good thirty feet below. The bodies of the two sentries had been pulled to the side and covered with a tarp they’d used to conceal their position.
Black realized they never would have seen the nest from the ground or even from the other end of the ridge, and the Browning M2, which was mounted on a massive folding tripod, would have made life difficult for her team had they tried to approach across the crater floor. Kane checked the weapon to make sure it was in working order.
“This is going to be fun,” he said.
“I doubt it,” Black said quietly. “We still don’t know what we’re dealing with, but we should be able to get a better idea now that we’re at the tunnel. Ronan, watch our backs. Maur, get the explosives ready.”
Black and Ash moved as close to the edge of the nest as they could, and they could almost see the ground below. The steep grade would allow them to slide right down to the crater floor. The tower walker was a few hundred yards away, but thankfully it moved in the other direction, with its entourage of mercenaries in tow.
Ash sent out her spirit, while Black kept hers close by. The air went cold. A phantom wind blew into the crater. Ash’s hair lifted and her eyes glazed white. Her breaths turned to cold steam.
Unlike Danica, Ash was a true tracker, and she could deploy her spirit out to considerable distances so it could uncover details of what lie ahead, but that method of arcane scouting only worked if there was no interference. Unfortunately, Ash quickly discovered arcane residue from some substance they couldn’t identify that suffused the area and made it difficult to get any accurate arcane readings. Still, she reassured Black she’d still be able to gather information…it would just be difficult.
Whatever they’re looking for doesn’t want to be found, Black thought. Whatever it is that’s causing this disturbance is probably the same substance they’re trying to unearth.
Less than a minute after she’d sent her spirit out, Ash’s eyes snapped open.
“I found Cross,” she said.
“Holy shit, he’s here?!” Kane said excitedly.
“Is he all right?” Black asked.
“It’s hard to say. Whatever meteoric substance made this crater interferes with spirit activity. I think it also…distorts things.”
Black watched Ash carefully. She was confused.
“What do you mean, ‘distorts thing’?”
“It…it’s hard to explain. I get the sense that…I’ve been here before. Even though I know I haven’t.” She looked at Black. “Do you know what I mean?”
She looks through the doorway. She sees the ship on the shore near the black keep, and the shadow of a woman, a haze of dust and particles of onyx glass. She sees a rusted sky and a cold crater, and something inside of it calls to her, something ancient and frozen, a shard of alien debris. It does not belong there, on their world, in that time.
“Yes,” she said. “I can’t explain it, but I have a feeling whatever it is, it’s the same thing that got Korva kicked out of The Revengers. She was digging for something. Searching for something.” Get a hold of yourself. “How many soldiers are there?”
“Another half-dozen, not counting those men in
the field,” Ash said. “I think I sensed undead, as well, but not vampires. Something else.” Ash stared off into space for a moment. “It’s hard to get a feel for what, though.”
“Who cares?” Kane said impatiently. “We need to get down there.”
“Cool it, Mike,” Black said. She peeked over the ridge and spied the walker in the distance. “I wish I knew what the hell they were looking for.”
She looked into the trees. Her spirit felt hot against her skin. Something deep in her stomach clenched tight, a sense of fear.
They were close to something powerful. Something that shouldn’t have been tampered with, and she knew that Korva was responsible. Black ran through scenarios in her mind and tried to recall Korva’s tactics and capabilities. She thought of the last firefight they’d had there in the Bonespire, and she went through everything that had gone wrong.
She couldn’t afford to lose anyone else from the team, but she had trouble envisioning a plan that didn’t get them all killed.
“We have to get inside,” she said. “We have to find Eric. But I don’t want to get caught in a cross-fire.” She looked at Kane, and signaled for Ronan to close in with them. Maur had prepped both of their C4 blocks. Ash called her spirit back.
They all looked at Black, expectant and waiting. They trusted her, in spite of who she was, in spite of what she’d been. They waited for her to tell them what to do, to get them through this charge into the jaws of death.
I’m not who you think I am, she wanted to tell them. I don’t deserve your trust. I don’t deserve to have you put your lives in my hands.
But, right then, she knew she didn’t have any choice.
“What do we do, Chief?” Kane said with a smile. She met his gaze, nodded, and told them her plan.
Black, Ronan and Maur moved towards the edge of the hill, belly-down and silent. They crawled over 200 feet away from the machine-gun nest and waited for Kane’s signal.
Soulrazor (Blood Skies, Book 3) Page 15
