Vulcan's Kittens (Children of Myth Book 1) (21 page)

She stepped into a big, open room. Her headlight didn’t reach very far. She picked out shrouded shapes, but that was all. Blackie prowled past her, and into the darkness. She wasn’t worried, his eyes were better in the dark than hers.

She stepped back into the hall, then Daffyd called her name. “I’m here.”

“I think you’ll be more comfortable in an office. I think building a fire in the missile room would be a bad idea.”

She could not see him, but could imagine the grin that went with that little speech.

“Sounds better to me, too.” she admitted.

She retraced her steps up the hall. She half expected to see her own footprints in the dust, but there was no dust in the hall. Daffyd held a door open for her.

“You can see in the dark?”

“Of course. Welsh mining, remember?”

“Someday I want a story from you,” she told him as she stepped into the bare office. The floor was tiled. “I don’t think I can build a fire in here.”

“No need.”

He knelt on the floor and put his hands together. Murmuring so softly Linn couldn’t catch what he was saying, he slowly spread them apart and a small fire appeared, the flames flickering cheerfully in yellow and green. He stepped back and bowed a little. “We will be in the missile room if you need anything.”

Linn was left alone in the room with the fire. It gave off a warm glow, but, inspecting it as closely as she dared, she noticed that it floated about an inch off the floor.

“That’s it. I’m calling it magic.”

She took her pack off and sat next to the little fire, peeling off her already steaming layers down to her undershirt. There was nothing to hang them on, so she arranged them near the fire. She was reluctant to venture back outside. The Coblyns had work to do, which did not include bodyguarding a teenager. She’d sit tight until they were ready to go again.

Linn skinned down to her underwear, leaving her jeans to dry with her boots. She got up and walked around the room. It was square, and empty. Stains on the walls from moisture gave her the idea there had been shelves and cabinets, but they were long gone.

She pulled an energy bar out of her pack and nibbled on it. She was tired, and feeling rather let down. All that secrecy and everything had gone off without a hitch. She leaned on her pack and let the fire warm her, her eyes drifting closed.

She woke up with a jolt. She’d slid onto the floor, her head pillowed on her arm. Blackie was curled up along her side. She was stiff and sore. Her mouth felt like cotton. She lay still for a second, wondering what had woken her up. She could hear a faint murmur of voices through the open door.

Linn staggered to her feet. She didn’t feel rested. Everything that had happened over the last few days was weighing on her. She picked up her clothes and dressed again. They were dry now, and the little green fire still glowing cheerfully. She squinted at it. There was a little pink in the flames, now. Had she done that?

Not bothering with her boots, she padded down the hall, carrying Lambent’s sheath in one hand. She poked her head into the missile room. The Coblyns had lit more of their fires here, and the room was bathed in a strange green light. They all stood around an empty spot on the floor in a rough oval shape.

Linn backed out of the doorway silently, not wanting to disturb them. She walked back to her little room. She rubbed her temple with her free hand. She wasn’t sure what they were doing, and she wasn’t sure how this weapon was going to be deployed. She knew she couldn’t be told everything, but it was still driving her nuts.

Blackie was still asleep. She sat, cross-legged, next to him and drank water, hoping it would clear her head. People were dead. The children who had been traveling to Sanctuary had been lost to pain and terror. The entire human race was in danger. It was all coming down to twelve little green guys, her, and an oversized kitten.

Not that she was doing anything. Sitting in a moldy room and waiting wasn’t helping. She stood up and belted on Lambent, then pulled on her boots. She’d go check and make sure everything was alright outside. If all twelve of the Coblyns were working inside, no one was standing sentry. She knew how to charge a ward, so maybe she could set one.

She slipped outside into the fog. She wondered how long she’d been asleep and checked her watch. It had been six hours since they had arrived. Shouldn’t the fog have lifted? She looked around. If anything, it was heavier than it had been when they got here. Blackie joined her, bumping her hand with his cold, wet nose.

“Hey.” She rubbed his ears. “It’s spooky out here, don’t you think?”

He looked up at her and nodded. Linn felt her jaw drop. “You’re talking to me now?” There was a squeak in her voice.

He smiled at her, his fangs showing. Linn leaned down and hugged him. “OK, you’re so darn cute. Want to help me make sure no one is sneaking up on us?”

He nodded again, then walked off into the fog. Linn followed him just before his long, black tail disappeared. She quickly realized that if anyone was out there, she wasn’t going to see them. She almost bumped into a tree.

“OK, I’m going to try this,” she told Blackie.

She put her hands on the wet bark, feeling the roughness scratch her palms a little. She focused on the tree, startled to see it had a faint energy of its own. She couldn’t even read a color, it was so minute. She thought about setting a ward, concentrating hard. A spark of pink jumped into the tree and she jerked back at the sting. A tiny thread of power stretched from her to the tree.

Linn walked to the corner of the bunker. She knew she couldn’t set them all the way around it. She didn’t have much to give and it was just too big. She put her hands on the crumbling concrete and repeated the process. Afterward, she rubbed her hands to try and make the feeling come back.

Blackie licked her fingers.

“Ouch,” she told him. “No, not you. Every time I use power, it stings.”

He looked up at her, his fuzzy eyebrows bunched together. She read concern in his face.

“It’s OK. If anyone comes near the bunker I’ll know, once I set one more. Then I’ll stop.”

She walked to the far end of the bunker, picking her way around the rampant vegetation. She leaned on the concrete and took a deep breath. Blackie reared up and put his paws on her hands. She focused, seeing a spark of pink, but it didn’t hurt.

“I don’t know how you did that...” she told the cat. “But thank you.”

He hopped down and went off into the fog.

She sighed. Back to the empty room for however long it was going to take. She looked up at the gray sky, thinking she might see the sun burn through. It certainly was lighter out. She knew she’d feel better when the fog was gone.

They couldn’t leave until nightfall, anyway. She wondered where Grampa was, and Bes, and Sekhmet. She knew they couldn’t die... but she also knew now that they could be terribly hurt. She walked back inside the bunker.

The Coblyns were now standing around a visible missile and a clean patch on the floor. The open space must have been... They had broken through whatever her grandfather had done to hide it from the military when they had abandoned this facility. They were still chanting, though, and she wondered what, exactly, they were doing. Repairing it at the atomic level? Her stomach rumbled.

Backing away from the door to not startle them, she thought about food, patting her stomach. She had enough materials on hand for a couple of spartan meals, and the Coblyns were going to need a break soon, she was sure.

It made her feel better to do something. She cut sticks and rigged a tripod for her little cooking pot. Soup would be warm and good in the damp bunker. Water, vegetable chips... she wished she could gather some fruit from the woods that surrounded the bunker, as she knew she’d find guava and mangoes easily. Wandering in the woods was right out, though.

She set bouillon cubes and dried noodles aside to wait for a boil. They might have to eat out of the same pot. She didn’t have bowls. Hopefully the Coblyns had spoons, because she didn’t have those, either. She picked up a scrap of wood, sniffing it for bitterness. It didn’t smell bad. Linn started to whittle a spoon with her belt knife, which with the five-inch blade was tricky.

Blackie padded in and dropped two chickens at her feet. Linn laughed. “Wow! Thank you, big guy. Are these your first kill?”

He stood there smiling at her. She ruffled his ears and praised him lavishly. “These will make lunch much nicer. You’re amazing!”

He plopped down near the fire and started to wash his paws. Linn took the birds outside to clean them. After skinning them and burying the waste deep enough to keep it from scavengers, she carefully washed her hands in a pool of water that had collected in the corner of the courtyard. She’d use alcohol to kill germs, but the yuck she wanted off her skin.

Back inside, she boned the birds. They were skinny little things. Hawaii was plagued with feral chickens, and Blackie had just helped reduce that population. Even without much meat on their bones they would add lots of flavor to the soup.

She didn’t hear Daffyd until he started to laugh. She looked over her shoulder at the Coblyns, who were standing in the doorway. She smiled and waved at the pot, “Lunch!”

She was sitting cross-legged by the fire, stirring the noodles. She held up the makeshift spoon. “I hope you guys brought your own spoons. I have two, now.”

Now all the little men burst into laughter.

Chapter 29

Sekhmet stood on the endless plain in human form, the wind whipping her skirts around her legs. She brushed the hair out of her eyes, adjusted her bow and quiver, then turned to Steve and hissed, “Tell me again why we are fighting like this?”

He looked morose. “Don’t ask me. I’d give my left dew claw for an AK-47 about now.”

They stared across the field at the line of the other army, all dressed as they were in ancient garb and carrying period weapons. In the center of the field, the generals had met for a parlay.

“They can’t let go of the past,” Sekhmet said slowly, feeling sad. “We’re doomed to do this over and over, you know.”

“We’ve had this conversation a couple of times,” he growled.

She looked at him as he stared intently out over the dead brown grass. It was autumn already on the High Plane. If he had been in cat form, his tail would have been twitching. She put a hand on his arm.

“Sorry. I know we think alike. Most of us on the side do...”

She let her vision widen to include the line of immortals past him. Waiting patiently to run, screaming, out on to the field of battle and inflict pain and damage on one another. Only to do it again and again. Sometimes she wondered if the humans had it inverted. This was hell, not heaven.

She looked back out to where the generals were riding back to the lines. Heff didn’t look happy. She lifted a hand in salute to him and he veered over to cross the lines where they were. “We go at them in the same old way?” she greeted him.

“I’ve just spent two hours trying to convince them otherwise. And the last three months...”

She could hear his fatigue and see it in the slump of his shoulders. She patted his leg. The unicorn he was riding reached around to nip at her hair and she swatted him affectionately. Heff managed a little smile.

“As much as this sucks, using the backup weapon would be worse.” She stretched to loosen any kinks, preparing herself for combat. “Maybe our victory up here will satisfy them down there.”

Heff nodded. “That’s my hope, too. Otherwise...” He looked across at the lines of beings. “This is just stupid.”

“We’re ready when you are, General, to fight and even die if need be.”

He looked sharply down at her, caught by her phrasing.

“That’s a mixed blessing,” he replied gruffly. She knew he didn’t want to do it either, not this battle, but especially not the weapon they now had below. He nodded at Steve, who nodded back. Then he rode off without a backward look, his back straight and unwavering.

Sekhmet sighed. “Let’s do this,” she muttered to herself. Scooping up her helmet, she slid it on over the cushioning braids she and Steve had done that morning. She stole a look at him. He was always so focused before a battle, but this morning they had been able to forget it all in her tent, shut away from this reality.

She squared her shoulders and stepped into the chariot, nodding curtly at her driver and stringing her bow. She had adopted the Hyksos style of war more millennia ago than she cared to recall. This was something that fit her like a well-worn boot. The dual natured goddess shed the last remnant of the gentle Hathor and became fully the embodiment of wrath and vengeance.

She drew her short sword and held it high. The sun glinted off hers and hundreds of other blades that would ride or run at her side.

“Aduro!” she bellowed. This had all started with Haephestus, after all. With his imprisonment of his mother until she agreed to free him. And he had showed them all a way to live, not just to rule with iron power. All up and down the line, her cry was echoed. Truly, they were about to burn...

The chariot rocketed forward, Sekhmet moving easily with the motion, completely in balance. She sheathed the sword and nocked her first arrow, waiting...