4
Cat walked out of their well-lit “safe” zone and into the dark after her husband. The giant wouldn’t be able to see in the dark any better than Cal could, so he had no special advantage other than his size. At least, that’s what she hoped. Cal could handle a larger assailant. He was the best hand-to-hand fighter in the NYPD. But everyone could use a little extra help. Cat kept her finger off the shotgun trigger; she didn’t want to accidentally shoot her husband.
A few yards away from the pyres, the meadow was tranquil. It belied the actions going on around it. The earth was a solid black mass. She wouldn’t see a mouse if it walked right up to her. The clouds from earlier in the day had moved on, the stars were out in force-spectators to the drama unfolding on the world stage below. Cat could see the top of the tree line along the edge of the meadow. She had forgotten how many shades of black were possible in the country.
In the distance, sparks and powerful flashes erupted, illuminating the tree line and revealing the two mages in heated battle. Cat was comforted that the centaur was still alive. The light also revealed two large silhouettes grappling about twenty-five feet ahead of her. The pyrotechnics died, but she was already halfway to her husband as the light faded.
Lelani let out a scream that made Cat freeze. She thought for a moment that the centaur might need her help more than Cal, but she made the difficult decision to look after her own first-and damn the guilt.
She walked south of the men to keep the camp’s fires behind them; that way she could see them better. The giant had gotten the advantage over Cal, who was on his back with the big guy sitting on him. But Cal had a vise grip on his wrists, so he couldn’t hit. The giant’s arm was weak, torn up from the shotgun wound, and bled down. They were at a stalemate.
Cat came up to within a few feet, cocked the shotgun and aimed at the giant’s head.
“Get the hell off my husband,” she said.
The giant slowly did as ordered and backed away with his hands up.
Cal got off the ground and joined his wife. Another cry of pain from the sorcerer’s battle echoed in the night. This cry was deeper… a man’s voice. And then that part of the wood went still.
“Guess your man wasn’t as good as you thought,” Cal said.
It was hard to read the giant’s expression in the dark. When Cal moved to relieve Cat of the shotgun, the giant rolled to the ground, disappearing into the darkness.
Cal fired where his adversary had been. After two shots, the gun clicked empty. Cat heard his footsteps crunching in the snow, heading toward the forest. The giant ran past where the mages had fought, then broke through a row of bushes in the tree line and was gone.
Cal and Cat followed. Cat tripped over something big on the ground. It was the centaur.
“Wait!” Cat told her husband.
“I have to go after him,” Cal said.
Cat felt around her fallen companion’s body and found the bolts that were lodged into her. She was warm and still breathing. Cat’s hand came away wet and sticky. “Lelani’s hurt.”
Cal dropped beside her and looked the young mage over. He cradled the centaur’s head in his hands. Her clavicle was broken in the same place the bolt hit her earlier in the day. There were several other knives and small bits of metal protruding from her. She breathed in rapid pants.
“If we pull these blades out here, she’ll bleed to death before we reach the tree,” Cal said. He looked out in the direction the giant had fled. “Cat, can you get Lelani back to Rosencrantz?”
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“After that guy.”
Cat couldn’t stand the thought of Cal in that pitch-black forest alone with that monster. More so, she didn’t want to be left alone in the meadow.
“How am I going to get a four-hundred-pound centaur across this meadow without your help?” she said.
“We can’t let him report to Dorn,” her husband responded.
“It’s pitch black in that forest, you’re bleeding, and you can’t even see five feet ahead of you,” Cat insisted.
Cal stared into the night like a wolf that’d lost his pack.
“We won,” she emphasized.
“Barely,” Cal said. “Most of these guys clearly got here recently-no guns, no body armor-they were still using crossbows and daggers. Luck won’t always be on our side.”
Cat’s attackers were scary enough without the modern weaponry in their arsenal. She did not think it could get any worse than it did this night.
“We’re going to need Seth and Ben’s help to get her back,” Cal said, acceding to her wishes.
Cat looked inside Lelani’s satchel. Something cold and cylindrical popped into her hand. She pulled it out. A flashlight.
“This thing won’t shoot lasers, will it?” she asked.
“Only one way to find out,” the cop said.
She clicked it on, and there was light. Cat surveyed the immediate area. The beam fell upon the other mage a few feet away who lay facedown in the snow.
“Cal, look.”
Cal took the flashlight from his wife and examined the area around the fallen sorcerer. The footprints of a seven-foot man were around the body. “Our friend stopped here first before taking off into the woods. Cat, hand me one of Lelani’s arrows from her quiver.”
Cal gingerly searched the dead mage’s pockets with the arrow. It clinked on something metallic in the inside jacket pocket. He pulled out a small, heavy metal canister with symbols on it.
Cat came up behind her husband and put a hand on his shoulder. “Cal, we have to get her to Rosencrantz,” she urged.
He shone the light on the canister. It bore the infamous black and yellow symbol for radiation. Around the symbol it read, Danger! Fissionable Material. Property of Indian Point Nuclear Facility.
Cal and Cat gave each other worried looks.
“What the hell is Dorn up to?” he said.
5
Seth climbed down and went to check on Ben. The old man was next to one of the pyres brushing himself off.
“What’s the score?” Ben asked him.
“I think we’re okay, old-timer.”
“In that case it’s pasteles and rum by the fire in PR.”
“Ben! Are you done getting your butt kicked?” Helen asked from the trailer door. “Get back home, now.”
Seth and Ben smiled. Helen had earned the right to nag after this night.
Their smiles turned to abject fear when they realized a gnoll was on the roof of the trailer just above Helen. Before Ben could warn his wife, the creature reached down, grabbed Helen, and hauled her over the top of the trailer. It jumped off the roof on the other side and took off into the north meadow with Ben’s wife.
“Helen!” Ben screamed. He hobbled after them as fast as he could.
“Ben, no!” Seth shouted. The old man did not heed him. Seth looked for Cat, but she was gone. Seth didn’t know what to do. It was madness to go out there and face a nocturnal creature in the dark. But what choice did he have? The phrase What is good? popped into his head. Ben had delved into the realm of the amateur philosopher by questioning absolutes, but what Seth knew for sure was that abandoning your friends to the darkness was definitely not good. He had abandoned people who needed him all his life. It was second nature to him, and he needed to end it. Seth looked around for a weapon and spotted Ben’s ax. He grabbed it, lit two rolled-up magazines and pocketed a few extra ones, picked up a can of kerosene, and followed Ben into the night.
Ben wasn’t hard to locate. A few yards away from the trailer, where the grass met the snowline, he gripped a small hunting knife and yelled into the winter night, “Helen!”
“Ben, keep it down.”
“Those things have night vision, punk. You think it doesn’t know where we are?”