Fury's Mantle Read online

  “Magic calms me down,” he said, looking at me.

  “Then it’s good you’ve got the store.” I glanced around. There didn’t seem to be any more zombies, although given the shelves of goods scattered every which way, it wouldn’t be hard to miss someone in the jumble. “Work in pairs of two. We want every medical supply that seems viable. Check expiration dates. Anything up to a year older than the date, we take.”

  Wheel dashed up top to check how Thor was doing, and to bring back the storage bags. He returned, a look of alarm on his face. “There are a lot of zombies up there, but Thor’s managing to hold them off.”

  “I’ve got news for you—there are more zombies on the way here, too. I just scouted ahead in the basement. There’s a broken door from what used to be the building upstairs. Looks like they can smell or hear us.” Zed pointed toward the far end of the basement, which was out of range of the light spell. “You might want to move it.”

  I nodded. “Get busy, people. Don’t bother looking at the dates, just fill these bags up.” I grabbed a bag and headed toward the nearest shelf. It was filled with bandages and supplies. As I swept armfuls into the bag, I wondered if the trip had really been worth it. Most medicines expired after a certain time. But then again, a number of things—like the bandages and splints and even some of the packaged foods still here—had long shelf lives. I quit worrying and just began filling my bag.

  As we worked our way through the shelves, handing bags to Wheel and Elan to run up to Thor, I suddenly heard something on the other side of the shelf that I was working on. I dropped my bag and quickly drew Xan, swinging around the other side. But it wasn’t a zombie I was facing. Instead, scrambling for a hole in the wall was a little girl. At least I thought it was a girl. I dove, grabbing hold of her arm and yanking her back toward me. She was clutching a pocket knife and she swiped at me. I caught her arm before she could slice me and squeezed just hard enough to make her drop the knife. She whimpered but then crumpled, as if resigned to whatever fate I had in store for her.

  I knelt, putting my sword on the floor next to me, and took hold of her shoulders. “What’s your name?”

  Her eyes widened and she shook her head, frantically trying to get away. Still, she made no sound. The fear on her face told me more than I needed to know.

  “Come on. There are zombies, but we’re taking care of them. We won’t let them get you.”

  She pulled at my grip, trying to break free, but I had a good hold on her. “Elan! Come here.”

  Elan popped around the corner, pausing as she saw the girl. “What did you find?”

  “She was headed toward that hole in the wall. She’s probably been living in there. Take a quick look, please.”

  As Elan knelt down to peek inside the hole, Jason appeared.

  “We’ve got to hurry. More zombies are on the way both down here and topside. We’ve got twelve bags of supplies, along with a few boxes of unopened survival rations. I’m not…” His words drifted off as he took in the scene.

  “Do you have any form of sleep spell? I want to sedate her so we can get her out of here without a problem,” I said.

  Elan popped back out of the hole. “Nest, all right. There’s food and a few pictures that are pretty beat up. Looks like she’s alone.”

  “We take her with us,” I said.

  Jason removed a small box from his pack. “I have some powder. It should work on someone her size.”

  The girl was still struggling, even though the look on her face told me she knew she was no match for us. But I didn’t want to take a chance on having her break and run. For all she knew, we were slavers or hungry for human flesh or in league with the zombies. She didn’t seem to be responding to what I said very quickly, and I wondered just how long she had been down here.

  Jason blew the powder in her face and a moment later, she collapsed in my arms, breathing softly. He picked her up, then turned back toward the exit.

  “We need to go,” he said, striding toward the door.

  Elan and I grabbed our bags and hurried after him. I could see Zed about to engage the nearest zombie. Behind that one, there were far too many heading our way.

  I shoved my bag into Elan’s hands and raced toward Zed and Wheel, sweeping up a bottle of booze that had rolled off one shelf near me and smashing the neck on the wall as I ran.

  “Grab an empty sack!” I held up the booze, the liquid splashing a little on the ground.

  Wheel picked up on my intention and grabbed a few more bottles of the alcohol, along with two of the spare sacks. He ripped them open and then broke the bottles, saturating the burlap. I dumped my booze on top.

  “I’ll spark it after you throw them!”

  Wheel wrapped a rock in the sacks to give them weight, then heaved them in front of us as Zed jumped to the side. I conjured up just enough of a spark between my fingers to leap to the sack. The alcohol ignited, and the sacks burst into flames, spreading along the length of the cloth.

  “Run, Your Majesty,” Zed said, pushing me toward the door.

  I dodged out of the way as Zed and Wheel smashed a crate of the booze onto the burning sack, breaking the bottles with the impact. A massive flame roiled up as they turned to follow me. The zombies couldn’t get through the firebreak and we managed to scramble up top and slam the door behind us, locking it again with the padlock.

  Thor had called down lightning from the clouds, and it struck near the zombies that were coming toward us on the streets.

  “Into the chariot!” Thor jabbed his thumb toward the chariot and we scrambled in. When we were all there, Thor slammed the door and we were off, the goats racing like thoroughbreds.

  I leaned back against the wall of the chariot, then looked over to where Jason was sitting with the little girl. She was asleep, draped next to him, curled up beneath a blanket.

  “Who do you think she is?” he asked.

  “Can she hear us?”

  “No, that powder will knock her out for a while. Probably a good thing. I doubt she’s slept much over the years.”

  I turned to Elan. “What did you see in her nest?”

  Elan handed us a couple of faded photographs. “Just these. Looks like maybe her family?”

  The pictures showed what looked like a family—a woman holding a baby, a man, and a teenaged boy. “Maybe her parents and brother?”

  “Could be. She looks about eight or nine, so the tsunami had to have come through about the time this was taken, if that’s her as a baby. She couldn’t survive on her own at that point, so her family—or at least somebody—had to have made it for a while to take care of her.”

  “We’ll only know if we can get her to communicate. There was nothing else in her nest?”

  Elan shook her head. “No. Well, food wrappers and empty water bottles. She was obviously living off what was stored in the basement.”

  Weary, and feeling jarred because of the zombies, I lay down on one of the cushions and closed my eyes. Before long, I had drifted off.

  WHEN I WOKE up, the chariot had stopped. Everybody was outside except for Elan, who was watching over me. I blinked and rubbed my eyes as I sat up.

  “I had no intention of sleeping that hard. I’ve been extra tired lately and I don’t know why. So, where are we?” I squinted, looking around.

  “We’re on the edge of Wild Wave Inlet, near the World Tree. There’s a ferry coming from the Arbortariam to pick us up. Thor contacted Jerako. Meanwhile, we’re keeping a low profile so we don’t attract more zombies. It’s about three p.m. Took that long for Thor to navigate through the city. It’s a mess, he said. Torn to pieces. There’s nothing left here, Fury.” She hung her head. “Seattle truly is a city of ghosts.”

  I stretched, then cautiously stepped around the bags and scattered blankets to the door. We had descended an embankment to the edge of the water. The foliage along the side of the ravine was thick and lush. The others were keeping watch, and I saw
Jason standing with the little girl in hand. She looked confused, shading her eyes from the light.

  I walked over to them, and when she saw me, her eyes lit up—just a little bit, but enough that I knew she recognized me as safe.

  “How is she?” I asked.

  Jason glanced down at her. “She seems calmer. She hasn’t let go of my hand since she woke up. She hasn’t said a word, either.”

  I knelt, moving slowly so I didn’t frighten her.

  “Hi. I’m Fury. Do you have a name?”

  She looked at me for a moment, biting her lip. I wasn’t sure if she had understood me.

  “Can you understand me? Do you know what I’m saying?”

  She paused, staring into my eyes, then nodded.

  I frowned. “Can you speak?”

  Another moment, and then she shook her head. She pointed toward her throat, lifting her chin so that I could see a long pale mark across the flesh. I blinked. It looked like an old knife wound, and I nodded at Jason to take a look.

  A moment later, Elan joined us. I turned to her.

  “Can you take her back to the chariot and give her something to eat and drink? I want to talk to Jason alone for a moment.” I nodded at the girl, and Elan caught my meaning.

  “Of course, Your Majesty.”

  At that, the little girl jerked and looked at me, blinking. Elan took her hand and led her back to the chariot. I turned back to Jason.

  “Someone, at some time, cut that little girl’s throat. It looks like a clean cut, not jagged, and it healed up, so either she’s the luckiest kid on the planet, or someone else sewed her up before she could bleed out. I wonder if there’s any way to ever find out the story. But it also may answer why she can’t speak. Her vocal cords may have been severed during the attack.”

  “When she woke up and saw all of us sitting around, she scrambled close to me, but after a while, when nobody reached for her, she seemed to calm down. Elan also found a toy stash on one of the shelves, and she picked up a doll that still looked intact. The girl looked at it, then at Elan like she had no idea what to do with it.”

  “I have a feeling she hasn’t been a little girl for a long time. She probably doesn’t know what ‘play’ is.” I sighed. “We’ll have to have the healers work with her, see if they can help her.” I glanced at the water. “How long till the Greenlings get here with that ferry?”

  “Probably an hour or so.”

  I shaded my eyes to keep the drizzle out, then glanced back at the ravine. “How far to the World Tree?”

  “Too far. Don’t even think about it.” He paused, then put his hand on my arm. “Kae, the world’s all topsy-turvy but remember, we’re family. You have to let some things go. You have to let them be. This city’s done for. It was already done before the tsunami. The government was corrupt, people were dying. Their deaths were just slower than they are now. It’s time to build new, on top of the ashes.”

  “I wonder…” I was feeling cold and shivery and bleak. “I wonder if we should bother rebuilding at all. Why? Just so someone can come along and bring it all down again? You’d think we would have learned the first time, but nope. Lyon and his bunch, and the government as well… So many would-be despots and dictators who ignored history and thought that this time, they would be able to control forces over which nobody has control.”

  Jason wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “I know, Kae. It’s a harsh world and I’m pretty sure it will get a lot harsher before anything evens out. But there are good people in the world, and you and Tam are good leaders. You’ll lead Willow Wood in the right direction.”

  “I hope so,” I said. I paused as an energy I hadn’t felt in a while crept into my mind. The next moment, my inner Trace screen lit up. An Abomination was nearby, tracking on a course right toward us. “Crap. Abom! Get everybody in the chariot.”

  Queet, are you there?

  I am. I see it, Fury. It’s a big one, in-body. It’s taken over a zombie and it’s coming this way on the run. Apparently, it can make the zombie’s body move a lot faster.

  Hell and high water. All right. We’re taking it.

  Are you sure?

  Yes, I’m sure. We have no choice. Scope it out while I tell the others.

  As Queet whisked off to scout out the Abom, I turned to Thor and Zed, who were anxiously standing in front of me. Jason was busy ushering the others back to the chariot.

  “There’s an Abom coming in this direction. While I doubt it can hurt Thor, it can take out everybody else. And it won’t leave. It can sense the life force here. It’s taken on the body of a zombie, so it’s not going to be easy to take down.”

  “You want my help?” Thor asked.

  I hesitated. “That would be useful, but what about the others? We can’t just leave them locked up in the chariot. I’m going to have to shift the creature over to the Crossroads in order to take it out. So draw me a good-sized cross in the dirt, please.”

  Zed shook his head. “I can’t let you do this, Your Majesty. His Lord Tam would kill me if something happened to you.”

  “His Lordship Tam knows that my duties to Hecate include taking out Aboms and that when one is near, I have to go after it. This thing is coming our way. It will be here before the Greenlings arrive with the ferry. And it won’t budge if it thinks a free meal is around.” I slapped my thigh, bringing my whip to bear. “You can stay if you want, but don’t get in the way. You can’t take the zombie down in the usual way. I have to find the soul-hole to destroy the creature.”

  Fury, incoming! It’s on the perimeter and coming over the edge of the embankment.

  I whirled at Queet’s warning, motioning for Zed to get back.

  There it was, slipsliding its way down the ravine toward us. I assessed its movements as I watched. It was moving faster than the zombies moved, by a good sight, and the light in its eyes was aware in a way that zombies’ eyes weren’t. There would be no good end to this unless I managed to dislodge the Abom from the body. Even then, I’d play hell because if I could hit the soul-hole and send the Abom packing, the zombie body would probably revert to its former status, and that in itself provided a major danger. I needed to take it to the Crossroads where it couldn’t attack anybody else, but I needed backup. Backup that Queet couldn’t give me.

  I quickly turned to Zed. “Listen, I need to take this out on the Crossroads. Somebody has to go with me because once I tackle the Abom, I won’t be in any shape to take on the zombie.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Thor said.

  I stared at the god. “But who’s going to watch over everybody here?”

  “Zed’s a good man and Hans will stand in my stead. You have a top-notch team here, Fury. Use them to your advantage.” Thor held my gaze and I realized that he saw through me. I didn’t want to put anybody in danger. Coming back to Seattle had been my idea, and if anybody bit the dust, I’d be responsible.

  “Everyone on this team volunteered, Your Majesty,” Thor said, so softly I almost didn’t catch his words. “You are not an executioner, regardless of how you feel at times.”

  I let out a long breath and turned to Zed. “Get Hans from the chariot. Watch over everybody until we get back. If the Greenlings arrive, don’t wait too long before leaving. Trust me.”

  Zed winced, looking like he’d rather do anything else in the world except obey me, but he finally nodded. “Very well, Your Majesty.”

  I turned to Thor. “Can you get to the Crossroads yourself, or do you need a lift?”

  “I can land there, Fury. Lead on and I will follow. I drew your cross over there.” He pointed toward a long gash in the dirt where he’d marked out a cross. The arms were about five feet wide each, which gave me a good area in which to work.

  I headed over to it, keeping my eye on the Abom. As Zed and Hans stationed themselves in front of the chariot, I held my whip in my right hand, and prepared myself for the jump. I’d been out on the Crossroads recently wi
th Hecate—she kept me at it to make sure I didn’t stumble when I needed to cross over. But it had been awhile since I had taken an Abom with me.

  Queet, are you ready?

  I’m ready. Does Thor know where to go?

  I’m not sure, to be honest. I glanced over my shoulder. “Meet us at Hecate’s cauldron on the Crossroads. Do you know where that is?”

  Thor nodded. “I can find my way. I’ll be there.”

  I turned back to the Abom, waiting until it saw me and sped up. I was candy to a baby. Aboms could sense me, even as I could sense them. I stood poised, waiting as he neared the cross. The moment he stepped into the circle surrounding the crossroad, I swept my hands up over my head and clasped them together, holding the whip between them. I focused on Hecate’s cauldron as everything around me began to blur, and then we were out on the Crossroads.

  THE CROSSROADS WAS a realm of perpetual mist and fog, a place where all worlds met and all paths crossed. The Elder Gods worked here, and some of them were endemic to this space. Hecate was bound to this realm, more so than in Olympus. Mercury and Hermes passed through on their errands. Janus, the god of two faces and gateways, skulked in the shadows, as well as Papa Legba, the master of Voudoun through whom all requests must come for those who followed his path. Time didn’t exist here, and yet all times met and mingled in this place.

  As I landed, my gaze first fell on Hecate’s cauldron. At the center of a Y-juncture, the massive cauldron sat near a yew tree that sheltered a bench. A signboard sat near the cauldron, which read:

  Stand at the Crossroads

  State your claim

  To seal the deal,

  Strike the flame.

  I had never kindled a fire in the cauldron, since I was already bound to the goddess. But others came to chance a request, and see what the Lady of the Night had in store for them.

  I stood, my breath visible in the air. To all directions, on all sides of the roads, fallow fields stretched as far as I could see, littered with undergrowth and rocks and filled with dried grasses that sang in the wind, their susurration a mournful melody.