Shadow City (10 page)

“I’m going to let you go,” she said softly. “I expect you to go straight back to your master. Don’t pass Go, don’t collect two hundred dollars. You go straight there. Got it? You owe me for not killing you. This is what I want in return. If you can’t do that, then tell me now, and I’ll gut you where you stand.”

His eyes narrowed with understanding, and he nodded slowly. Binding spells were tricky things. They usually came with compulsions that said you couldn’t betray your master or you’d die. But there were ways to think around those spells. Max had spent years perfecting the ability. She wasn’t asking the hunter to hurt his master. All she was asking was that he go home and report. He was pretty sure she was going to follow—that was the price he had to pay for being allowed to live. But knowing it for certain and thinking it was likely left a world of gray area to exploit. If he wasn’t certain, then he could tell himself—and his compulsion spells—that he wasn’t being followed and that he wasn’t committing any harm to his master.

“We will meet again,” he warned. When they did, he would try to kill her again.

Her brows rose with grudging respect. It took honor to admit that. He risked her changing her mind and killing him. “I know. See you when I see you.”

She pushed him away, and he paused to look at her once more before jumping down. He whistled to his wolves, and they started away through the grass. Next time, he’d be prepared for what she was. He’d expected someone softer, easier to take down. Now he knew better.

Max stuck the dagger in her waistband and grabbed the two swords. She went to the crevice where Scooter was still nestled. She squatted down. “You heard all that? I’m going to follow him. See who is holding his leash. You should be safe here.”

He nodded. “Hurry. He will not be the only one looking for me.”

“I can stay. Get you somewhere safe.”

He grimaced and shook his head. “There is nowhere safe here. Better you find his master.”

She glanced after the hunter and his pack of Calopus. They were fading quickly into the shadows. She had to hurry. She squeezed his hand. “I’ll be back.”

He lifted her fingers to his lips. “If I do not survive, make them pay.”

Her grip tightened. “You can do it yourself. When we get your parts back.”

His smile was pained. “So it is my hope.”

A thought struck Max. “What if you get one of them back? Will that buy you more time?”

He shook his head. “It’s too late. I must receive them all back at once in order to survive the ritual of return.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.” She sounded more confident than she felt. “Watch yourself. I’ll be back soon.”

She put one of the swords in his hand and bounded down off the rock in pursuit of the hunter and his Calopus pack.

He had headed left, along the creek. Max ran through the grasses, letting her predatory senses take over. There were too many strange smells and sounds. Everything sounded like a threat. She sped up until the grasses whipped at her thighs, trusting that the hunter would keep his word and wouldn’t be waiting to ambush her. She held the sword in one hand. There was no place to sheathe it.

She came to what appeared to be a massive vegetable garden, although she didn’t recognize half of what was growing. Paths crisscrossed it, and she found the one that the hunter had taken. She slowed to a jog and followed him. There were workers in the field. Some sang softly, and every so often, Max thought she heard the crack of a whip.

Someone blundered across the path ahead of her. The hulking beast walked on all fours. It looked like a dinosaur with thick red skin and knobs protruding sharply all over its back. It smelled of Divine magic. Around one leg it wore a tarnished silver circlet carved with arcane symbols. The creature plodded on without noticing Max, pulling a two-wheeled cart in its wake.

She trotted past. She left dirt and grass, crossing onto a cobbled street. She stopped. It was like walking onto a movie set made to resemble ancient Persia. The buildings were massive and made of stone and tile. Minarets and bulb-topped towers mixed with tall arches and domed buildings. The windows were tall and pointed. Reflecting pools marched with battalions of ornate free-standing columns inside lush gardens. Stone grillework, elaborate carvings, and ornate tile mosaics covered every surface. She half expected to see Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton wandering around in flowy robes and eating peeled grapes.

The sounds of stringed instruments and drums percolated through the air, along with smells of roasting meat and vegetables. Max’s stomach cramped. Traveling through the abyss had taken a lot out of her, and she needed to refuel. Later. First, she had to find the hunter and his master.

He’d turned to follow the broad avenue between the city and the park. Max went after him, ignoring the speculative looks she got. Her Prime was teetering on the killing edge, and power rolled off her in palpable waves. No one could mistake her for a weak human. Most gave way before her. Once she bumped into a gray-skinned man with pearl hair and eyes. He wore blousy maroon silk pants embroidered with ten or twelve bars of gold. Over them he wore a matching jacket. His chest was bare except for a gold chain and a heavy pendant. He looked at her, fury smoking in his eyes. Max could smell the Divine magic. It wrapped him in a choking blanket. She suppressed a groan. Just what she needed: a pissed-off wizard or sorcerer or whatever the hell he was.

“You have made a fatal mistake,” he said, his eyelids dropping. On top, another set of eyes was painted or tattooed. They blinked at her as he opened his eyes again. The gray man smiled. His teeth were just as pearly as his eyes, and they were all pointed.

Max sighed. Before he could do anything, she drove a fist into the bottom of his jaw. He went flying through the air, landing twenty feet away. He bounced and lay still. Time to go. She started jogging again, and soon the scent trail turned in to the city.

She lost track of all the wonders she passed. It was like a piece of every place that had ever existed or been thought of had come to Chadaré and dropped roots. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for anything. Magic was everywhere. In places, it was so dense it was like walking in quicksand.

Max stole a loaf of bread from a cart while the baker battled with a nearby competitor over who got to stand on that busy corner. It cut the edge of her appetite, but she needed a lot more.

She passed into an area that seemed impossibly more expensive than anywhere she’d been so far. There were high walls everywhere, and within, fantastic buildings rose. Spiraling towers of crystal soared. Massive trees grew together to form great castles in the air.

At last, she came to a wall at least twice as high as any other. It was made of red and cream stone. There was a small door on one side, and the trail dead-ended there. Max stared up. She should be able to jump it, with the help of the feather Tutresiel had given her. But what was on the other side?

There was no way to tell. A mist hung over the interior like a jeweled cloud. Max ran her fingers lightly along the wall and yanked away, shaking her fingers as magic vined up her arm and down into her chest. It was sticky and searching. She wasn’t going to be able to jump up on top and peek over. She grimaced.

There was no way to find out who lived inside without spending some time watching the entrance, and she didn’t want to leave Scooter alone any longer. It had already been hours since she’d left him. She’d have to find them a bolt hole somewhere close and then start spying.

I
T WAS ANOTHER THREE HOURS BEFORE SHE RETURNED
. On the way, she managed to steal a spicy meat sandwich, a bag of roasted nuts, and three sweet rolls. She ate them all, needing the calories if she was going to help Scooter. She hadn’t yet figured out what they did for money in Chadaré, but she was going to have to get her hands on some soon.

As she walked back into the park, she noticed a fire burning like a bright blossom not far up the avenue. Right near where she’d slugged the gray-skinned man. She winced. As much as she hoped he hadn’t started it, something told her that he was perfectly capable of throwing just that kind of mean tantrum. She sighed and turned away. Nothing she could do about it. Hopefully he hadn’t hurt anyone on her account.

Scooter sat up when she returned. Nothing seemed to have come sniffing around while she was gone.

“Well? What did you find?”

“A big house with a nasty ward system.”

“That’s all? You don’t know who lives there?” He sounded both disappointed and accusing.

“Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out. But first, we need to find a place to hide, some money, and some food. Not necessarily in that order.”

“I have gold and gems here. Hidden, for when I came back.”

“Thank goodness. Anything else useful you’ve got stashed away?” she asked as she carried him back down to the grass and set him on his feet.

“Yes. Back then, there were factions of us squabbling over how to build the city and control it. I knew I could be attacked at any time. I just never thought my friends would be the ones to turn on me.”

“I know all about how that goes,” Max said, thinking of Giselle. She and the witch had been college roommates and friends long before Max knew that Giselle was a witch. On the night of Max’s twenty-first birthday, Giselle had gotten Max drunk and started asking questions: What if you never had to grow old? What if you could be superstrong? What if you never got sick? So many questions, and all of them had seemed so stupid, so harmless. Max had agreed to all of them. The next thing she knew, it was a month later, and she’d woken up on Giselle’s altar, no longer human.

For years, the betrayal had driven her half insane with the need for revenge. But all that had changed when the Guardians had targeted Horngate. Then Max had discovered her priorities had shifted.

She pulled away from the memories, shaking herself. Old news. But she understood Scooter’s bitterness. And if she could help him get his body parts back and get revenge, she would. No matter what it took.

“I don’t suppose you have any good ideas for hiding spots?”

“I prepared to have to hide as well. If the wards have held all these years, then we will be safe enough.”

“Tell me where we’re going.”

Getting there was not easy. There was no way to tell what was north or south or east or west, and many of the city’s streets and landmarks had changed over the centuries since Scooter had last been there. When he started to veer away from the place where the hunter had led her, she pulled him to a stop.

“Got anything in this direction?” But there was no good way to show where she meant. “If six o’clock is where we came into the park originally, then we want to go toward ten o’clock.”

He frowned and then nodded. “It is not in the . . . wisest . . . part of town. Too many eyes.”

Max blew out a breath. “The trouble is, it takes forever to cross the city. The closer we are to where the body snatchers might be keeping your parts, the better. You said you have little time left. We can’t waste it.”

He nodded thoughtfully, then sighed. “Agreed. Take us toward twelve o’clock. We can hide in the Torch-march. Be warned that they will probably be looking for me there especially.”

“Why especially?”

His mouth tightened and his expression turned faintly roguish. “History,” was all he said.

Again with the cryptic
Max left it at that, since she had no choice.

She kept them in the park for as long as she could. Twice she had to fight off hungry little critters, but she didn’t want to encounter the gray-skinned man or anybody like him. It was not long before her stomach began growling.

“I don’t suppose you have a candy bar hidden in that robe of yours?” she asked.

Scooter shook his head. “I’m afraid not.”

The area on the far end of the park was definitely cut from a different cloth than the rest of the city Max had seen. It looked industrial and postapocalyptic, along the lines of
Escape from New York
. A tall iron fence marched in both directions. Who did they want to keep out? Max wondered. Or maybe they wanted to keep someone in.

There were towers everywhere. It looked like a pincushion. Between them was strung a jungle of rope bridges and Tarzan vines. There were gondolas and other floating vehicles slipping between the spires above and below the network. A few of them looked like—No, they
were
animals. Dragons, gryphons, giant birds, and plenty more she couldn’t identify.

“I haven’t seen any flying vehicles until now,” she said, describing what she saw to Scooter. “How come?”

“It was part of the struggle between factions. It is difficult to guard against attacks from the air, and complete privacy becomes next to impossible. So it was outlawed in the city.”

“So why here?”

“This is the Torchmarch. Here, anything goes. From your description, it is much larger than it was. It didn’t used to reach the park.”

“How do we get in?”

The corner of his mouth lifted in a pained grimace. “The question isn’t how to get in; the question is how to get out alive. This is no place for the helpless or the hunted.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers. And we don’t have time to be picky.”

“Indeed. Time is . . .” He let out a sigh and sagged against Max. She caught him around the waist.

“Scooter? Scooter!” His head tipped back over her arm, his hood falling away. Blood ran from his forehead down over his eyes and into his hair.

Max scooped him up. She had no idea where his hidey hole was, but she had to find someplace safe. Time was most definitely running out. Fast.