Shadow Borne (10 page)

"Let's hope you're wrong." I balled up the
bloody clothes and the rags, both the wet and the damp one, and
hurled them over the fence and onto my front yard, intending to
pitch the entire mess into the trash in the morning.

"I'm not wrong." Aranu said without turning
around. "If that thing had been mutated–and what other explanation
could there be–others would have been, as well. If Kahn and the
Lahuel have that kind of capability, why stop at one?"

Why indeed. "Damn." He was right, though. It
was looking more and more like the best we were going to do was
damage control. That and hope to hell the remaining fences didn't
fail anytime soon. "Well." I shook out my blanket and spread it
evenly across the ground. "I'm going to bed. This day is officially
over." I grumbled. "Right now."

Aranu left the edge of the fence and came to
a stop next to my make-shift bed. "You're sleeping out here?"

"I've slept outside before." I needlessly
pointed out. Nearly everyone Aranu and I knew had slept outside at
one time or another and some, like Aranu himself, even preferred a
pallet on the hard ground to sleeping on a bed. Once I had even
seen him fall asleep on the thick branches of a large Gildwood
tree.

"If you're worried about the Coatyl in the
woods, I can take you to the dome. Juliette and Tara are probably
still up swimming. I'm headed that way to camp, anyway." He held
out a hand, which I ignored.

"Thanks, but I'm not afraid of the Coatyl."
That was sort of a lie. "I'd go to the dome if I really wanted to."
That was definitely a lie. "Besides, I'm too tired to go any
further than right here." I patted the cold, hard ground beside the
dark blue blanket.

"Yeah?" He frowned, staring down at me for
another long moment.

"I'll be fine. Thanks for carrying the
Coatyl though." I said, feeling guilty all over again for the way I
had snapped at him earlier during the changing of the guard.

"I've got to wake the men." he said after a
full minute had passed.

"That's probably a good idea." I agreed.

"I don't want to leave you."

"I'll be fine. I am fine. Go."

"Do you want me to send anyone your
way?"

"Nope." I told him. "I'm going to sleep
right now. I'll be at Mark and Claire's in the morning."

"Good," he said. "I'll rally the troops and
meet you there."

I nodded and turned onto my side, wrapping
myself in the blanket. His footsteps crunched across a handful of
stray leaves that had blown across the ground near the fence and
then nothing. Silence. He was gone.

I let out the breath I'd been only dimly
aware of holding and shivered in the black night, wishing it were
dark enough to block out the sight of the bag that lay a few feet
away. But thanks to Juliette's washing skills, the burlap sack had
been bleached until it was almost as white as the Coatyl had been
and even in the dark the thing stood out, though it was mostly the
outline. But it was enough to know it was there. Three feet
away.

I gripped the edge of the blanket and rolled
over to put several more feet of distance between the bag and
myself. I had lied to Aranu, I thought, because there was no way I
would be able to sleep tonight. But I yawned and within minutes the
gentle shimmering, pulsing illumination of the fence, closer now,
had lulled me into a deep, peaceful sleep. My dreams, though, were
anything but.

My feet barely
touched the ground as I raced through the forest. I had to run, I
had to get away. They couldn't be allowed to catch me, to bring me
back. A harsh sob burst from my throat and the sound was alien, not
me. Not me. Not me.

But it had come from
me...and then there was another and another until my breath was
coming in painful gasps. Claire. I'd left Claire behind. I needed
to go back and save her. I didn't stop, or even slow my pace, but
continued to tear through the uneven ground of the forest. I wanted
to be brave, like Claire had been for me.

In my head, I was
running back the way I'd came, I was crouching stealthily in the
leafy vegetation that rimmed the eastern edge of the heavily
guarded outpost. I was waiting until nightfall and I was breaking
Claire out of that evil place. We were running through a moonwashed
night, our freedom intact. In my heart, I was a hero.

But the logical part
of my brain that was somehow still capable of sane, rational
thought told me I'd be assaulted...again...and sold as planned, if
I were caught creeping near the guard shacks. My muscles screamed a
protest, I had no weapons, everything...hurt. Another sob escaped
and I dodged a fallen tree, kept running. I couldn't fight them.
I'd be lucky to outrun them. In reality, Claire was gone, out of
reach–for now, anyway. I'd seen one of them hit her, seen her
crumple, out cold, before I'd done what she'd ordered, what she'd
sacrificed herself for–I'd run. I couldn't help her. In reality, I
was a coward.

But maybe I could
make it back to the village, or to the dome. If I could just get
home, I could get help, send help, for Claire. My numb brain
wondered what was happening to her right now and I felt my heart
stutter painfully. Earlier, I'd lied to them, convinced them she
was worth more money if they didn't touch her, but what about now?
After what she'd just done, would they care how much gold they got
for her? Would they kill her now, because of what she'd done for
me?

A fine, silvery mist
made my vision hazy, disoriented. The river was coming up, just
over the next rise. It wasn't deep but it would be cold. I had no
shoes, nothing except a short, torn dress but there was no other
choice. I would have to cross the river because I refused to stop,
backtrack, and head west to skirt around the water. No, I couldn't
stop. And then the decision was out of my hands as I leapt into the
rushing tide.

Icy water swirled
around my ankles, and then my calves as I waded deeper, all without
breaking stride. So cold. A rock, sharp and impossibly large,
gouged into my bare foot and I went down, hard. My hands shot
forward to brace the fall, but it was too late. My left wrist
slicked over slimy, dark algae and black water rushed forward, over
my face. I gasped and inhaled a mouthful of the cold torrent and
struggled to find footing. I did look back then. Behind me, the
woods had fallen grimly silent.

Something was
coming. Get up. Move. Lurching forward, I gripped handfuls of rich,
muddy clay at the riverbank, and my heart pounded painfully in my
chest as the wet soil began to slip through my fingers. Rushing
water sluiced past me, trying desperately to suck me back into its
ever-moving path. Muscles rigid, I dug in deep with one hand and
with the other, managed to grip a protruding tree root and propel
myself up and out. Run.

Immediately, pain
lanced through my ankle and up my leg. No, no, no! I made it ten or
fifteen steps before the leg gave out and I went down, braced on my
hands and knees in an awkward crouch. Behind me, the demons that
chased me were closing in. I didn't have to turn around to know
this; I felt it in the chill at the back of my neck. Something was
coming for me. The guards? An animal? The more rational part of my
brain recognized the possibility that it was beast which pursued me
now, not man. Did it matter? I couldn't run anymore, couldn't even
walk. My heart thumped and stuttered and shimmery black fragments
danced at the edge of my vision. Failed...it was all for nothing. I
would never see Mike again. Never see Claire again, she'd given her
life for this. The light was fading and the ground rushed up to
greet me. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, so...sorry...

***

"Aries?" The voice invaded my consciousness,
soft and slowly insistent. "Ari, it's time to wake up now."

I think some part of me realized,
instinctively, that the whispered, musical voice belonged to
Juliette.

"I'm up." I gasped, ripped from the
nightmare. My eyes flew open and bracing one hand on the ground, I
pushed myself into a sitting position. But I didn't feel up. It was
too damn early and I'd had too little sleep. I felt like I'd spent
the entire night running for my life instead of just reliving that
long-ago nightmarish day through my dreams–again.

The sky in the horizon, over the small patch
of Grandview that was visible far in the distance to my left, was
just now becoming tinged with a delicate pink. The forest was still
a sort of smoky pearl gray shade. Droplets of morning dew shone in
the fragile half-light around us and flowering ivy had just begun
to open to the day. The familiar woodsy scent filled the air, a
heavy, full, tangible thing and slowly I began to find balance.
Shoving off the dream, I took stock of my surroundings.

Oh yeah. It was definitely too damn early.
After so many months, all the late nights must have been taking
their toll on my body because right then the ground was looking
pretty good, no matter that it was hard as a rock and forget that
the bottom of my blanket was becoming damp with dewdrops.

The fresh air around me had finally shed its
midnight chill and I wanted to let myself fall back into the little
blanket-nest I'd created and go back to sleep. Juliette cleared her
throat and I groaned. "I take it you didn't drop by for a cup of
coffee."

"Aranu came to the dome about an hour ago
and told us what happened. You have coffee?"

She sounded hopeful and I used both hands to
shove my bangs off my face to study her, noticing for the first
time that beneath the luminous skin and wide jewel-tone eyes, she
looked pretty tired herself. "No, sorry Julie, I don't." I climbed
to my feet. "Come on, we can get a cup in town on our way to
Claire's."

Juliette paused in glancing warily toward my
house. "We're going into town?"

"Yes, we are. There are a few things I need
to do this morning."

"Oh." Juliette frowned at my house again.
"Right now? It can't wait?"

"No. It can't. Do you see something over
there?"

"Huh?" She spun toward me, then glanced back
to the cabin and caught her bottom lip between her teeth. "No," she
finally said. "Well. Maybe. I didn't want to say anything without
knowing for sure but I think I may have seen a shadow at the broken
window. It looked like it was moving, but I don't see anything
now."

"Let's check it out."

"No!" She grabbed my arm and pulled me to a
stop before I could get my other leg over the fence. "Please, let's
just go."

"Yeah, okay." I nodded after a moment. She
looked scared, we needed to get moving, and there was probably
nothing over there, anyway. "Can you head to town with me right
now? I don't want to take up too much time." Not that I was exactly
jumping at the bit to meet the rest of Claire's family, and my
stomach kept knotting up whenever I thought of seeing Mike
again.

"I'm all yours. We can leave for town right
now and with everything we've got to do today, the sooner the
better if you ask me–uh–Aries?"

I shifted under the dead weight of the
burlap sack and blew a stray hair from my face. "What?"

"Is that the Coatyl?"

"Yes."

"You're taking it with us to town?"

"Yep." I started walking through the uneven
ground of the forest, leaving Juliette to follow. Predictably, she
darted into the tree line and ran to catch up.

"Shouldn't we drop it off with Mark and the
others first?"

"No."

"But you can't take that thing to town." She
tucked a shiny strand of light brown hair behind her ear and
frowned.

"Sure I can." I smiled.

"But–"

"Relax, Julie." I rolled my eyes skyward and
veered to the fork on the right side of the path that appeared at
the end of our quarter mile long jog through the uneven ground of
the forest.

"If we didn't have to carry that thing with
us, we could fly." Juliette grumbled.

"It's not that far of a walk." I said
easily. "We'll be there before you know it."

Juliette continued to mutter all the way to
the edge of the town square, mostly about Coatyl and flying and
stubborn nymphs. And then she stopped dead in her tracks. "You
can't take that into town." She gaped.

"Why not?"

"Because it's a dead body in a bag?" she
practically screeched, then glanced around in horror to see if any
passerby had overhead her outburst. "Leave it here." she implored,
whispering now.

"No." I adjusted the dead Coatyl so that it
rode more evenly across my shoulder and briefly considered wearing
it across both shoulders like a very macabre version of a mink
stole. The damn thing wasn't exactly light and the side of my neck
and left shoulder were beginning to ache. Only the knowledge that
Juliette would probably faint–and then I'd have to carry her
too–kept me from attempting to move the thing. For now, anyway.

"You are not bringing that with us."

"Look Julie," I sighed, exasperated now,
"either you come with or you stay here in the woods. The Coatyl and
I can handle my business and have coffee without you. Come to think
of it," I added, crossing Main Street and heading briskly toward
Tenth Avenue, "the Coatyl would definitely be a quieter
companion."

Juliette made an indignant
sound and then was silent for so long that I knew she had decided
to stay behind in the woods after all. Who could blame her? Lugging
a dead Coatyl through the middle of town
was
a little embarrassing, but
leaving it behind had been out of the question. It was too
important to leave untended and at the mercy of chance; we needed
to study it. Well, I amended, slowing in front of a row of shops
with antique brass fixtures on the narrow wood and glass doors,
Mark and Bob needed to study the Coatyl, and probably Claire and
Mike as well.