Fate's Edge (The Edge #3) - Page 13
THE Wooden Cathedral was large and full to the brim. The mass of people should have made Audrey feel safer. The best place for a thief to hide was in a crowd, especially a crowd like this: well dressed, nicely groomed, seemingly law-abiding, and above reproach. Except that the gathering put out a strained, odd vibe. From the moment the Church of the Blessed people had ushered them into the bus, which had taken them to the Edge, the congregation was unsettled. Now, as they took their seats on the uncomfortable benches of the Wooden Cathedral, their agitation had reached the boiling point.
The church had only one center aisle, and Audrey had an aisle seat. People passed her, walking to their own seats, and their anxiety rolled off them like sweat. They spoke to each other, but no lasting conversations sprung up. Their faces were haggard, their eyes haunted. They fidgeted impatiently in their expensive suits and pricey dresses, grasping at their seats, searching with their stares the front of the church, where a lonely pulpit sprouted from a raised stage. Like a crowd of starving beggars who'd heard a rumor that someone was about to give out bread, the congregation waited, gripped by nervous tension.
She glanced at Kaldar, sitting on her left. His face seemed carefree, but his eyes, cold and alert, searched the crowd, evaluating it.
Armed guards waited by the door and near the pulpit. Nobody seemed to pay them any mind, as if being in the presence of men with rifles was the most natural thing in the world. Seth, their handler, explained to them that the guards are there because they had been seeing mountain lions in the area. The explanation seemed half-baked, but the guards made an effort to be cordial. They smiled, opened doors, waved at people. Most of the congregation, probably Yonker's regulars, didn't care, and if the few newcomers had any second thoughts, they kept their doubts to themselves.
Hell, if what George's book said was true, the people probably didn't see the rifles, as if the guards weren't even there. According to what they'd read, the gadget was designed by the Cult of Karuman specifically to convince its followers that Karuman's priests were avatars of their god. Followers of Karuman willingly sacrificed themselves to their deity; sometimes entire families burned themselves alive. The cult was now outlawed. How Ed Yonker had gotten ahold of a hundred-year-old relic was anyone's guess, but nothing good had come from it.
With each passing minute, the tension in the church grew thicker and thicker, electrified with anticipation and hysteria.
Audrey kept scanning the crowd, looking for the boys. They'd both heard a slight thud when the bus took off – Gaston landing on the roof – so he was here somewhere, but neither George nor Jack were anywhere to be seen.
She glanced back to the stage. Ed had spared no expense. The pulpit was rich mahogany. A heavy purple fabric embroidered with a golden cross draped the edge of the stage. Above it, pictures hung suspended from the ceiling in frames, all showing Yonker with various world leaders. She seriously doubted that there was a single un-Photoshopped image in the bunch.
"Is this your first time?" In the row in front of her, a young girl with bleached blond hair had turned halfway to her.
"Yes, it is!" Audrey tried to sound excited.
"I come here all the time. I'm a Blessed Maiden."
"What's that?"
"I help Preacher Ed connect with God." The girl nodded sagely. "He uses my body as a vessel."
Oh, Ed, you swine. "Are there many Blessed Maidens, or are you the only one?"
"There are eight of us." The girl smiled, her eyes innocent on the young face. "Don't worry, if Preacher Ed finds you worthy, you may be called to serve, too."
Yes, I'll slice his throat first. "That's nice."
The girl turned away. Audrey hugged her shoulders, crushing the fabric of the new yellow suit she'd bought for the occasion. It was just as expensive as the pink one, twice as ridiculous, and it bared so much of her breasts, she could cause a small riot. None of it made her feel better. She had a distinct feeling that their scheme wouldn't go well.
Her thoughts kept returning to the wyvern and Ling the Merciless and the little cat. Gaston had wanted to cage them, but she told him not to do it. If something happened . . . well, at least Ling wouldn't starve to death locked in a cage.
Kaldar's warm arms closed around her. He pulled her closer, leaning toward her ear, and kissed her neck, his lips hot, his touch reassuring. His whisper sounded in her ear, meant for her alone. "I have two magic bombs, and my sword is hidden in my jacket. I can carve my way through all of them. Nobody here will stop us. It will go smooth as silk. I promise."
Again with swords. "How will your sword stop a bullet?" she whispered.
"I'll show you. Relax, Audrey. You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I want you so badly, I can taste it."
She pulled back from him and saw his eyes, laughing at her. "In this yellow suit?"
"I love the yellow suit," he told her. "I love your face, your eyes, your breasts, your ass, I love it all."
Impossible man. "We're about to get killed, and you're fantasizing about my ass?"
"I can't help it."
"You're insane," she whispered. Her tension evaporated into the air.
"The boys," he whispered back.
George and Jack, scrubbed clean and dressed in identical plain white T-shirts and sweatpants, came down the aisle, led by Paul. George looked calm. Jack's eyes were huge and wild. The crowd's mood was probably wreaking havoc on his nerves.
"Boys!" Audrey rose and waved.
Paul stared at her cleavage for a long second, then pushed the boys forward.
"There you are." Audrey made a big show of hugging first George, then Jack, whispering the same thing into their ears, "Get ready to run."
The kids sat next to Kaldar. Paul turned away.
"Aren't you staying for the sermon?" Audrey asked.
"No. I have some errands." Paul headed up the aisle. Other camp staffers were leaving as well. A couple of moments, and the church doors began to close behind them. Audrey watched the light between them shrink with a sinking feeling.
The doors clanged closed. They were locked in.
FROM his position at the root of a large pine, Karmash peered at the men with guns shutting the church doors. The camp sat on the side of a hill, and from his vantage point, Karmash had an excellent view of the entire place. He'd observed both Kaldar Mar and the red-haired woman enter the church and had released an enhanced message bird the moment Karmash had seen Kaldar's face.
The priest had a small but solid compound. Karmash personally counted twelve guards, quite a force. Two went inside the church, two remained by the church doors, and the rest filed into a log house on the far left. None of them would present a problem.
Cotier scuttled down the pine trunk, descending from the branches like a lizard, with his head down. Muscular, quick, the scout was an odd creature even by the Hand's standards: brown and green pigments swirled within his skin, and as he paused on the trunk, his face mimicked its colors and rough brown pattern. His voice came out as a low, slightly sibilant whisper. "What are they doing?"
"It appears they're locking them in."
"That's not good."
"Thank you for stating the obvious." He had no idea what the Edgers were doing, but whatever it was, it required armed guards and barred doors. In Karmash's experience, that was never a good combination for the party that was being locked in.
"Should we do something?"
Helena was really too permissive with her crew. Agents under his command never questioned his decisions in such a manner. Karmash weighed the choices at hand. The real question was what would piss Helena off more, acting against her orders or losing Kaldar Mar to some Edger insanity.
Nobody bothered to question the winners. If he delivered Kaldar Mar, all would be forgiven. He might even be commended for taking the initiative.
The two guards took position by the doors, brandishing their rifles.
If he screwed this up, there would be no coming back.
Karmash gritted his teeth. He couldn't take a chance on losing Kaldar. That would be unforgivable, and Helena wasn't known for her mercy.
He shrugged off his camouflage cloak. Mura stepped out from behind a tree trunk, her orange skin bright against the greenery despite camouflage paint. Karmash nearly winced. True, as a slayer, Mura was never meant to be used in a forest setting, but her skin was almost fluorescent. She would've never made the cut in Spider's crew. Helena's standards clearly differed.
To the left, Soma emerged from the underbrush and crouched. Thick, monstrous muscle sheathed the hunter's frame. His hair dripped down his back in long blond rolls, matching the crest of fur running down his spine. The hunter raked the forest floor with his enormous claws. His gaze bored into the two guards below.
"Soma," Karmash called.
The hunter didn't answer.
"Soma!"
The man slowly turned his head and peered at Karmash with pale eyes. His face showed no expression; it was like looking at a wolf.
"Do not kill the male. Helena needs him alive. Do you understand me?"
Soma didn't answer.
"Do you understand?"
Soma glanced at Cotier. The scout gave him an understanding look. Fury boiled inside Karmash.
"Don't look at him. Answer me!"
"He can't," Cotier said. "He gave up his power of speech for the glory of Gaul. He understands."
Karmash growled under his breath.
"Would you like me to take out the guards?" Cotier asked.
"No." Karmash started toward the camp.
THE choir filed onstage, their faces rapt, lit up with inner joy. Their voices blended into one. "Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah . . ."
The side door opened, and Yonker walked into the aisle. He wore a black business suit. A crimson Superman-like cape perched on his shoulders, held in place by a gold cloak chain. Her gaze fastened on the chain. The Eyes of Karuman. They hadn't gotten the emitter exactly right, but they were close, very close.
The crowd gasped.
Yonker raised his arms.
Nobody laughed. Nobody called him out or ridiculed his outfit. An older woman in the back row began to weep. The man in front of them rocked back and forth, mumbling, "Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus."
Dear Lord, what sort of madhouse is this?
Yonker began his procession down the aisle. People reached out, crawling over each other to touch his hands. Fifteen feet.
How exactly would Kaldar pull this off in plain view? She had to shield them from the rest of the audience somehow.
Twelve feet.
Six.
Audrey hopped off her seat, putting an extra bounce into it. Her breasts went up and down in the satin cage of her bra, and Yonker stared down her cleavage. She held out her hands, smiling her big smile, tears glistening in her eyes. Yonker held out his hands, and she hugged him, sliding her hand under his cape to grab his ass. Ed's eyes widened, and he pulled her closer.
"Excuse me." Kaldar rose. His arms covered hers and he gently untangled her from Yonker's chest. "My wife is getting too much into the spirit."
"That's fine." Yonker waved his hand magnanimously and went on to the podium, his chain intact.
That hug lasted barely five seconds. Not nearly enough time to exchange the chain. The realization sank in like a heavy stone to the pit of her stomach. They had failed.
KARMASH strode to the house on the left, where the murmur of voices announced the presence of people. The three operatives followed him.
"Where are you going?" Cotier murmured, a step behind.
"We need sword meat."
"There is only one Edger man and one woman."
Karmash was getting tired of this constant opposition. "You haven't fought the Mars. I have. We'll need a shield of bodies between us. Trust me on this."
The door loomed in front of him. He punched it open and walked into the room. Eight men stared at him. He noted rifles on the walls. As he'd surmised, they were the rest of the priest's guards.
Karmash reached into his pocket and dropped a handful of gold coins on the table. A small ransom. A quiet sound fluttered through the room as six men simultaneously sucked in their breath.
"I'm hunting a man," Karmash said. "He's in your church trying to kill your priest. I need this man alive. Help me apprehend him, and this gold is yours."
AUDREY landed in her seat and leaned over to Kaldar. "What's the plan, C again?"
Kaldar slipped his arm around her, pulling her closer, possessive, and toyed with her hair. "No need for Plan C. I've got it."
"What?"
He eased his jacket open, squeezing the lining with his hand, and she glimpsed the outline of the chain in the secret pocket. "How . . . When?"
"Trade secret, love." He smiled at her.
Damn it, but the man is smooth. She leaned over and kissed the corner of his mouth.
"Careful now," he murmured.
Ed Yonker climbed to the pulpit and raised his hands. "Brothers and sisters!"
The crowd stared at him, rapt.
"Listen to me and heed my words."
The crowd stared. Someone cleared their throat.
"Today I bring you the Blessed Light!"
The crowd watched him. Yonker frowned. Alarm squirmed through Audrey. Something must have usually happened during this part of the service, and it was clearly not happening. George leaned to Kaldar and whispered urgently. Kaldar leaned toward her. "The gems are supposed to emit light when hit with magic."
"I don't suppose you can do emotion-manipulation magic?" she whispered.
"No."
Audrey eased her feet out of her spiked heels.
Yonker touched the chain. His face turned bright red with fury.
A man jumped up on the right. Slicked-back hair, pale, where had she see him before? The recognition popped like a soap bubble in her head: Magdalene's receptionist, Adam, with the weird haircut. He'd pulled his hair back off his face, and it had thrown her for a minute.
The pale man pointed at them. "They stole it! They took it!"
Magdalene had double-crossed them.
"Kill them!" Yonker bellowed.
"Cover your ears!" Kaldar hurled something toward the pulpit. Audrey clamped her hands over her ears.
The guards yanked their rifles off their shoulders.
A brilliant white light exploded between the benches and the stage, followed by a clap of thunder that punched through her hands straight into her eardrums. The church shook. The pictures danced and crashed to the floor.
A dozen people screamed at once. Men and women jumped from their seats, pushing each other out of the way in a rush to get out, concealing them temporarily from the guards. Audrey jumped to her feet and pushed her way into the aisle, trying to brace against the crowd so the boys could exit. Jack somersaulted over her head and landed in the center aisle, his eyes on fire with glowing amber. George ran along the bench like a tightrope walker. Jack grabbed her right arm, George took her left, and they pulled her to the doors. Kaldar brought up the rear.
The white light turned orange as the photographs and the purple brocade at the altar caught fire. The choir fled. Yonker didn't move. He simply stood there, bewildered, looking at the flames.
A bench collapsed in the other row, knocking a knot of bodies to the ground. The closest guard was closing in, clubbing people streaming to the doors with the butt of his rifle. A long, slender blade flashed in Kaldar's hand.
He does have a sword. Audrey blinked.
The guard took aim, almost point-blank. Kaldar sliced, someone howled, and the flood of people hid them from her view.
The crowd crashed against the church doors. They held. People smashed into Audrey, pushing her forward into the writhing mass of bodies clawing at the door. We'll get crushed, flashed through her head.
A loud yell, savage and inhuman, overtook the desperate cries of the crowd. The doors parted, and for a moment Audrey saw a giant man, silhouetted against the light, enormous muscles bulging on his arms. He leaped aside, and people spilled out of the church, into the sunlight.
"Go!" Audrey pushed the boys forward. "Go, go, go."
The press of the crowd carried them outside. They burst into the open, running past two men with rifles. A guard on the right, a big thick man with a short beard, cursed. "Thin the crowd! Thin the crowd, or we'll lose him."
The man next to him raised his rifle and fired into the crowd. A dark-haired man dropped to the ground. On the other side of the church, another gunshot popped. A man screamed.
They were shooting at their own congregation.
The bearded guard raised his rifle.
Oh no, no you don't, you sick bastard.
Audrey sprinted and hit him, ramming him hard with her shoulder. The man went down. Jack landed on top of him with a guttural snarl, ripped the rifle from the guard's hands, and smashed the butt into the man's head. The other guard stumbled back, jerking his weapon up.
George's eyes ignited with white. Tiny streaks of white flash, bright like lightning, rolled from his hands.
The guard dropped the rifle and took off.
People still ran from the church. Kaldar and Gaston were nowhere in sight.
The kids were looking at her. They had to get a car. Audrey whirled, looking around. Yonker's Jeep Cherokee was parked on the side of the church. "Jack, grab that rifle and follow me!" She sprinted to the Jeep, her bare feet barely touching the ground.
THE exit beckoned Kaldar, a glowing rectangle of light. He walked up the aisle, light on his feet. Behind him, two men writhed in pain. Farther still, behind the low wall of fire, Yonker screamed curses from the pulpit.
A peculiar calm claimed Kaldar, the smooth serenity that always came to him in battle. His family was old, rooted in a half-forgotten time when wars had pushed elite warriors of the old Weird kingdoms into the pit of hell that was the Mire. Their blood flowed in his veins. His uncle was a man of the Old Ways – his sword was death on the battlefield. Cerise was one, too. His brother Richard was one as well. And so was he.
The blade had been a part of Kaldar's education since he could stand on his own two feet. He didn't like to kill unless he had no choice. Not even Murid's death had changed that. But he was raised to find peace within the slaughter, and that peace sustained him now.
A bullet whistled by Kaldar's ear. On the left, a young man, barely old enough to hold a rifle, tried to reload his weapon with shaking hands. Kaldar ducked and threw a knife. The blade sank into the wall next to the guard's head. The boy dropped the rifle.
"Run!" Kaldar called.
The guard scrambled outside.
"You!" Yonker snapped out of his daze and screamed like a stuck bull. "Stop him!"
A man lunged at Kaldar from the right. Large, muscular, but sadly too slow. Kaldar rolled his blade over the man's left thigh. Blood gushed. Kaldar leaned away from the man's punch and sliced the other thigh. The man croaked something and went down like a log. Kaldar skirted him and kept walking. Three guards burst through the doors, ran down the aisle, saw him, and halted. The blond man on the left looked at the two bodies behind him. "Holy shit."
"Shoot him!" Yonker howled from behind the flames. "Shoot his ass!"
Kaldar looked at their faces. "Let me pass, and you will live."
"He said to take him alive," the man on the left said.
"Fuck that." The older of the men jerked his rifle up.
Kaldar flashed. The magic flared from him in a blue sheath, shielding him. The guard's bullet ricocheted and bit into the wall.
Kaldar ran forward.
As one, the guards fired.
"HOLD on!" Audrey stomped on the gas. The Jeep roared and jumped over the threshold into the church. She saw Kaldar in the aisle, three armed men opposing him, and slammed on her brakes. Kaldar's face was so relaxed, she barely recognized him. The Jeep skidded to a stop.
The guards fired. A glowing blue wall surrounded Kaldar. The bullets impacted on it with weak ripples and bounced off. The light imploded, sucked back into Kaldar's blade.
Kaldar struck. Light, graceful like a dancer, he cleaved the first guard's arm. It fell off. Kaldar kept moving, so sickeningly fast, she had no chance to be shocked. He spun, moving as if his joints were fluid, sliced the second man's chest, his blade going through the muscle and bone like a hot knife through butter, swept past him, and thrust his blade backward, into the small of the third guard's back.
The three men dropped.
Kaldar turned toward her and smiled. It wasn't his usual smug smile. His face was at once sad and at peace. Audrey wasn't sure who this man was, but she knew she hadn't met him before.
The corners of Kaldar's mouth drooped, and the smile turned into a scream. "Get out! Get out now!"
"Kids, out!"
They scrambled out of the car. She shoved her door open. A large metal dart smashed into the hood and shivered, stuck upright, its end glowing. Audrey grabbed the rifle and dived out of the vehicle. Behind her, the car exploded in a flash of white magic. The explosion punched the inside of her head, and her skull rang like a gong being struck. Suddenly, everything was quiet.
The world swam.
Move, move, move. To stay in one place was to die. Audrey scrambled away, blindly. Someone caught her and carried her off. Pain bathed her legs. It hurt to breathe. The haze dropped from her eyes. She realized that she sat propped against Kaldar's body, his arm around her. He had grasped an arrow sticking out of her thigh and was pulling it out.
She couldn't feel her legs.
The two boys crouched next to her. Everyone was looking at the door.
A giant man with pale hair stood in the church's doorway. She'd seen him before, peering at them over the blond blueblood's shoulder as the wyvern carried them off. Karmash, she remembered.
The giant stared at them. A dark-haired man crawled over the top edge of the doorway and moved up the wall onto the ceiling like a fly. A woman crossed the threshold. Her long, tattered cloak fluttered about her. Her hood was down, and the exposed skin of her face was a bright, unnatural orange. Her hands held twin narrow swords.
A third man stalked through the church entrance. Or at least he might have been a man at some point. This creature looked more like a beast. Massive, slabbed with heavy muscle, he crouched in the doorway, his huge claws digging into the wood.
The Hand had found them. Kaldar's lips moved, but she heard nothing. George nodded, his pale face smudged with dirt.
On the ceiling, the lizard guy had crawled all the way over and paused, directly above them. His skin turned pale brown, matching the wood beams. Jesus Christ.
Karmash pointed at them.
The freak on the ceiling let go and swung down, hanging as if his feet had suckers.
"Now!" Kaldar barked. She didn't hear him, but she read his lips.
The lizard man's hands glowed. She blinked and realized his fingers held darts, the same kind that had pierced the hood of the Cherokee.
The darts rained on them and dimmed behind a glowing white translucent shield. George's eyes bled white lightning. It spilled from him in long, twisted ribbons and fed the semicircle. Ripples pounded the flash shield. The floor around them shuddered. George clenched his fists.
It's possible to die from expending too much magic, George's voice said from the recesses of her memory.
The darts kept pounding the shield.
George, kind, quiet, calm George. She looked at him and knew he would rather die than stop shielding them.
Her hands were full of something. She was still holding the rifle. She checked the magazine. One shot left.
The lizard freak couldn't shield and hurl the dart at the same time.
"Drop it!" she yelled, hoping her voice held. "Drop the shield!"
Kaldar looked at her. Understanding sparked in his eyes. He yelled something.
George shook his head. Blood spilled out from the corner of his mouth.
Kaldar's voice snapped into a rigid mask. He was biting off words.
George took a deep breath.
This was it. One shot. She made it, or they died.
The shield vanished. Audrey fired.
The lizard man's head exploded in a wet blossom of blood and pale chunks.
The last dart fell straight at her. Small price to pay . . .
Kaldar lunged. His sword slashed in a wide arc, its edge shining bright blue. The two pieces of the dart fell harmlessly on the floor.
Suddenly, sound exploded in Audrey's head, as if someone had the volume turned up all the way and had just pressed the unmute button.
"Mar!" Karmash roared. "Face me!"
Something smashed into him from behind. Karmash flew forward, rolled over, and jumped to his feet.
In the doorway, Gaston landed on the carpet. His black hair spilled over his shoulder like a mane. His eyes flared silver, reflecting the flames. Muscles bulged on his exposed shoulders. He looked demonic, like some prehistoric monster.
Karmash hesitated, unsure.
"The Mar family says hello," Gaston growled.
The giant roared and charged. Gaston leaped, catching Karmash head-on. They collided and rolled down the aisle.
The orange woman slipped out of her cloak. Chain mail covered her body from neck to mid thigh. She dashed toward them, leaping over the overturned broken benches.
"I believe this is my dance." Kaldar flicked his sword and lunged forward, blue magic flaring about him in a flash shield. They collided. Steel rang against steel, and Kaldar and the woman danced across the ruined church like two whirlwinds.
The beast man stared at Karmash and Gaston, locked in battle, then looked at Kaldar and the orange woman. His gaze fastened on her and the kids. A predatory focus claimed his face. Oh shit.
"Run!" Audrey tried to get up, but her legs were still numb. "Run!"
"No." George shook his head. He was bleeding from his nose and his mouth.
Jack just stood there. He looked so young and lost. In shock, Audrey realized.
The beast man charged toward them.
"Run! Save your brother, you idiot!"
George thrust his hands out. Magic pulsed from him. The nearest corpse in the aisle jumped to its feet and clamped onto the beast man, trying to rip him apart. Another corpse joined the first. The third and fourth followed. They clawed at him, gouging the skin, ripping at his hair.
He ripped one dead guard off and hurled him aside. The body flew across the church and crashed against the wall.
"George, I order you to go! Do you hear me! Go!"
George's hands shook with strain.
The second corpse fell into the aisle, torn to pieces. The beast man kept coming.
Twenty yards.
The third corpse fell apart under the savage blows of the massive claws.
Fifteen.
The last body flew, knocked aside. George pulled a dagger from his belt.
The beast man tensed, gathering himself for the final leap.
An inhuman howl ripped from Jack's lips, a terrible mix of anguish, pain, mourning, sorrow, and rage. The scream built on itself, pounding at her, growing louder and louder. The horrible sound clawed at her ears, pierced her chest, and crushed her heart, squeezing pure panic from it. At the far end, Gaston and Karmash paused. Kaldar and the orange woman lowered their blades, their faces shocked.
Magic burst out of Jack. Audrey couldn't see it, but she felt its touch. It burned her for the briefest of moments, but in that instant she stared straight into its wild, savage face, as if the primordial forest full of man-eaters yawned and swallowed her into its black maw studded with cruel fangs. Fear gripped her, and she cried out.
Jack's scream vanished, cut off in mid-note. The thing that used to be Jack, the terrible wild thing, grinned, its fangs bared in maniacal glee. It pulled two daggers from its waist and sliced the beast man. The Hand's agent moved to counter, but he was too slow. The Jack thing carved a chunk of flesh off his side and laughed.
George landed next to her. "It will be okay," he whispered.
"What's happening?"
"Jack is rending. Changelings do this sometimes so they don't become unhinged. It will be okay."
Blood sprayed from the beast man. The thing that was Jack laughed and laughed.
"Just don't move. He won't kill you if you don't move," George said.
In the aisle, Gaston and Karmash ripped into each other, throwing pews around with superhuman strength. Three minutes later, Kaldar sliced the orange woman in half. The top of her slid one way and the bottom the other, but Audrey no longer had any emotion left to spare. Kaldar walked over to them and sat next to her. His arms closed around her. He held her, and together they watched Jack stab the lifeless stump of the beast man's body. He carved it again and again, hurling the bloody chunks of muscle like it was play sand.
The feeling slowly returned to her legs. Kaldar said something about a temporary paralytic agent, but she couldn't concentrate enough to pay attention.
At some point, Gaston joined them. He was bloody and bruised, and his arm stuck out at an odd angle, but the fingers of his left hand had a death grip on the pale hair of Karmash's head. He sat next to them, cradling it like a watermelon. They watched Jack together.
The fire had died down to nothing. The coals turned cold. Ed Yonker had long since gone.
Jack swayed and sat down, his gore-covered arms limp. George stood up, walked over to him on shaking legs, and hugged him. Jack looked at his brother's face, looked back at the ruin of the corpse in front of him, and began to cry.
THEY found a Chevy van in the deserted camp. Kaldar drove. Gaston sat next to him in the passenger seat. Kaldar had forced Gaston's dislocated shoulder back into its socket, and now the boy held Karmash's head with both hands. Audrey cradled Jack. He had stopped crying, but he still looked like death.
They were bloody, bruised, battered. Everyone hurt.
"This is what it's like to fight the Hand," Kaldar said. His voice held no mirth.
The boys didn't say anything.
"Tomorrow, I will buy two tickets," Kaldar said. "We'll put you on a plane in the Broken. You will land in a large airport, then another plane will take you to a smaller airport not too far from where you grew up. You will e