Crown of Ash (Blood Skies, Book 4) (3 page)

When I first met you, I thought I was going to have to kill you
, she thought. 
Now I owe you everything. 

“Come back, Eric,” she said softly.  She knew he couldn’t hear her.

After a time she left him there,
and
she
closed the door behind her.

Gouts of steam erupted into the air.  Human traffic packed lanes filled with caged animals, livestock, tables of linens and knives, fruit stands, watch vendors, fortune-tellers and soothsayers.  People
were
dressed in a motley assortment of loose clothing, tunics or capes, sandaled feet or combat boots, exotic and colorful cloaks that looked like peacock’s feathers or somber grey and green work fatigues.  Small dirigibles loaded with goods soared overhead.  Rickety wagons barreled down the street.  Mutated horses and homunculi servants brayed and keened in the background.  The team passed through drifts of tobacco and alcohol, fruit vapors and burning meat.  Danica smelled linseed oil and beeswax, smelted copper and roasted corn. 

Her spirit kept to the background and quietly skirted the periph
ery of her thoughts while they
passed through the bustling city-state.  Kane and Ronan kept their eyes alert.  They were all exhausted and on edge, but everyone
was ready
.  They were in dangerous territory, and she knew she could count on them. 

Blacksand was a port-city.  It was a crossroads – a means to getting elsewhere. 
Travelers of all sorts stalked the corridors of Blacksand looking for buyers or wares:
Rakzeri merchants, Vuul pirates
,
nomads
from the
distant islands of
Nezek’duul
with their filed teeth and frost-white eyes
.  Waters lapped against dark pylons
in
a bay filled with iron and steel ships weigh
t
ed
down with
weapons and
slaves.  The s
andy streets were awash with liquor and blood. 

Danica, Kane and Ronan moved through the streets with determination
.  They’d left
Maur back at the
hotel
with Cross
and
a lot of
guns
.  The one thing they hadn’t left there was
Cross’
s
wea
pon, the mysterious fused blade
Soulrazor
/
Avenger
,
a
rcane swords forged from
opposing energies
.  They knew little about the blade save for the fact that the separate pieces had been forged from the power of two opposing deity-like forces, and that it had somehow allowed Cross to survive long after he should have been dead.
Danica carried the hybrid blade concealed beneath her armor coat. 

They came to an open market, a junk station filled with piles of refu
se:
old engines, batteries, scrap metal, hoses and tubing, mounds of ball bearings and rubber tires.  All of those goods had been pushed into monstrous mounds next to wide wooden tables
,
where scruffy
and
grease-stained men with goggles
and
workman’s aprons h
aggled with mechanics and metal-
yard workers.  Some of the negotiations were closer to screaming matches.

A small building made of stone and steel stood
at
the
far
end of the junkyard
.  T
he door opened
as Danica and the others approached
. 

Her spirit boiled against her skin.  She sensed presences above, fast-moving figures with razored jaws and iron-capped wings.  Shadows came into view.

“Incoming!” Kane yelled.

A trio of
grey-skinned
gargoyles
unfurled
their wings over the
scrap yard
. 
S
teel harpoons and straps of dark armor
reflected the dull light of the orange sun. 

Kane fired at them with an M14A, and Ronan dodged to the edge of a pile of debris and shot up
at them
with his MP5.  The g
argoyles were startlingly quick, and
somehow dodged the barrage
of bullets
with ease.  The roar of gunfire was deafening.  Shell casings clattered
in
the dirt. 

Danica smelled hex fumes in the air.  Whispers
came at
her
with the force of
an iron
wind. 

The gargoyles weren’t alone. 

She narrowly avoided a blazing missile of shrapnel. 
Metal wreckage exploded in hex flames behind her, and heat washed over her body. 

Danica’s
spirit
moved
around her wrists and fused into a shield of force. 
A second
missile exploded
against the barrier
. B
i
ts of smoking steel rained to the ground.

A
mercenary warlock unfolded
out of
the shadows.  His spirit camouflaged him, made him
fade
in and out of sight.  He seemed two-dimensional, a paper enemy.  His eyes glowed like burning cinders.

Kane brought one of the gargoyles
down
with a stream of gunfire.  Another
darted forward and clawed at Ronan.  It flew back and
came in again
,
a
nd
the swordsman
deflected its attacks with his katana. 

The merchants and shoppers in the scrap-yard had fled. 
Panicked n
oise
echoed everywhere
.

The warlock turned and vanished again.

Damn it!

Danica’s spirit coiled around her like a hungry serpent.  His touch
chilled her skin
.  She shuffled her feet in the dirt,
and moved
careful
so as
to avoid tripping on any debris.  The yard felt wide open, and
she
realized how exposed she was.  Her back tensed with anticipation of an attack. 

She heard the stone breath of the gargoyle moments too late.  The
warlock had masked
the creature’s
presence
. 
It suddenly
loomed over her
with outstretched claws and massive teeth
.

The moment Danica turned
around
the mage
shifted
into focus
just
off
her right
flank
.  Light caught on his dark cloak, and she saw a bandolier filled with explosives and knives.  His spirit coiled into a
n
ice
stake
that he
held like a spear
.

Danica ignored the gargoyle
and
launched her spirit at the warlock
.  Red energies exploded in a
shower
of razor sparks.  The warlock’s cloak caught on fire, and
the
spirit missile
he’d prepared to cast at Danica
detonated in his
own
hands.  His body exploded in a blaze of ice, flame and blood.

A sharp crack sounded
, and t
he gargoyle fell to the ground at Danica’s feet.  She looked up and saw a handful of armed
soldiers
who
’
d
emerged from the small building. 

Jade, a young and attractive woman with vaguely
Asian
features and incredibly long
and
silken dark hair, stood at the head of the party.  She wore a simple blue-black cloak and riding pants, a loose white shirt and a number of rings.  Her eyes sparkled with magic, and Danica immediately took note of the witch’s spirit, a hostile male force that circled her like a caged tiger. 
Black’s
spirit bristled, and though the two tensed and
tested
one another
,
Danica held hers back and used him to make sure
there weren’t any more threats approaching
.

The on
ly other newcomer that
Danica recognize
d
,
Sol
,
stood with his
gun still smok
ing
from whe
n
he’d
shot
the gargoyle.   He was a mountain of a man, a half-Doj with dark skin and dark eyes, short cropped black hair and muscles like iron.  He wore a tight armor vest and flak pants, and even though he smile
d wide
his eyes burned with malice. 

Sol and Jade were enforcers for Klos Vago, a member of the large cartel of slave traders and smugglers known as
T
he Shard.

“Mr. Vago sends his regards,” Jade said politely.

“Who the hell
were
these guys?” Kane asked angrily
as he gestured at the corpses
.  Gargoyle blood covered his chest. 

“Bounty
hunters
would be my guess,”
Ronan
said. 
He wiped his katana off on the one of the bodies.

“Again?”
Kane said.

“Yes,” Jade answered
.  “Again.”

“Which means we need to get
out of
Blacksand,” Danica said.  “I trust that’s why Vago want
s
to meet
with us
?”

“
A
ctually
, he
sent us to give you
the
details of the
last
job he’d like
you to do
before he helps
you
get home,” Jade explained.  “L
isten…
we should
really
get indoors…”

“What do we have to do?” Kane interrupted.

Jade hesitated, and looked at Sol.  He shrugged. 

The city
around them
had
more or less
returned to normal.  Minimal damage had been dealt to the scrap yard, and
automaton slaves moved forward in a rush of whirs and buzz
to scrape up the
debris
.  The sky drowned in thick red clouds, and Danica smelled sea salt on the wind.  People outside the scrap yard went about their business – if the battle had bothered them, they didn’t show it.

“You two,” Jade said to Kane and Ronan, “will fetch your friend Maur and come with
me and Sol
.  We’re going to investigate some trouble near
the
arcane barriers north of the city.”

“What are we looking for?” Ronan asked quietly.

“Vampires,” Sol said
with a smile
.  “Ebon Cities forward patrols.  We don’t want them around, and they can’t seem to take the hint.  You help us out with our problem, and the boss says he’ll help you out with yours.”

“Wait a second…” Black said.  “Where am
I
going to be during all this?”

“Mr. Vago fears it would be too great a risk to send you out with your teammates,” Jade explained.  “
Especially since
the soldiers of Black Scar are here
in the city
looking for
you
.”

Damn it.

“Black Scar…” Kane said.  “Dani…”

“Wouldn’t it make sense to send her
away
from the city if she’s the one they’re looking for?” Ronan asked.

“Mr. Vago doesn’t think so.  We’re certain they’re watching anyone who leaves the city, and they’re…”

“
Probably t
racking my arcane signature,” Black said bitterly.  She looked at Kane and Ronan.  “
And if they’re doing
that
, there’s a good chance they’re also
giving
my signature
out
to
the
mercenaries they’ve hired, which explains
why
both
these guys and those Vuul
were able to find us
once I got out in the open
.” 
You shouldn’t be surprised.  You knew your past would catch up with you sooner or later. 
“
Shit.”