The Wilds (Reign and Ruin 1) (17 page)

"Your time will
come. The Riders are on their way." I caught the warning look the
Lucan shot Marius, but the phrase was already ringing bells in my
head. The old man frowned and turned to me, cutting off the
questions already threatening to burst from my partially opened
mouth. "We cannot get you so involved, Maggie. If Cirrus were to
catch you it would not do to have you know too much."

"I think it's
in my own interests to know as much as I can," I replied
defensively. "I've heard about the Riders before." Did I? Or was it
registering from my life before Palet, the life of New York and
college and pop culture? I really couldn't say. "Is there some sort
of rescue party? A group fighting against the Reign Walk?"

Lucan had moved
out of the shadows and was gathering food and blankets into my
backpack.

"It's for your
own safety, Your Majesty. Just consider it Plan B," he said.

"If Plan A
doesn't work, you mean?"

"In which case,
we wouldn't want you sharing it with your new boyfriend," he
confirmed harshly over his shoulder.

Marius looked
at me sadly, drawing my glare away from Lucan's back. "Lucan is
right. You wouldn't have much of a choice. No secrets then."

No secrets. My
mind, his mind. My thoughts, his thoughts. It should have made me
feel better that there was a contingent plan. That must mean there
was hope if I lost, right? So why was it making me feel so
depressed? Probably because if there was a Plan B, it meant Plan A
might not be so guaranteed.

"Ready to move
out?" Lucan asked, handing over a very full pack. I nodded,
swallowing down a feeling of sick, and stood up from the table.
Marius looked at me and Lucan intently as I pulled on my
jacket.

"The Wilds
doesn't last for much longer. Go in the opposite direction of the
sun to find a way back into the Middle Canvas. But remember, Cirrus
will have others on the look-out for you. Tread carefully."

I opened my
mouth to thank Marius for his hospitality, supplies and lingering
feeling of doom when a series of light knocks sounded from the
downstairs. All three of our faces turned quickly towards the
noise. Lucan's eyes bulged and he took a step, but Marius placed
his hand very gently on Lucan's arm. He rose from the table slowly,
finger rising to his lips, and shuffled across the kitchen to the
top of the stairs.

Glancing back
at us, the look we saw was very clearly
Don't make any noise.
Stay upstairs.

Lucan moved his
body in front of mine, his large boots silent on the wooden planks
of the floor, and watched Marius descend downstairs. The rain had
now completely stopped and so the creak of the front door was clear
and sounded extremely loud. We heard muffled speaking, no words,
and then some footsteps into the entry room.

Silence.

Lucan's large
body tensed and he moved one arm behind him to grab my wrist. His
grip was like a vice and I didn't know where he thought we could
run. Upstairs? Every horror movie I ever saw told me that was a bad
idea. I felt suddenly very dizzy and realized I had been holding my
breath.

The
dreamcatcher around my neck throbbed once, just barely strong
enough for me to feel it, but I did. It was the first time I ever
felt it move, soft as eyelashes brushing against my skin. I gasped
and Lucan's head whipped quickly around. His eyes were as angry as
hell, telling me to shut.
Up
. But a moment later we heard
one pair of feet walking slowly up the stairs, heavier and less
confident than Marius's. Lucan cursed quietly under his breath and
tightened his fingers around my wrist.

The shiny top
of a bald head appeared, closely followed by a hulking body naked
from the waist up. He hovered at the top of the stairs, staring
into the kitchen with a light frown on his face. He shuffled
around, rocking from side to side on large feet, until his eyes
alighted on me and Lucan. It took a few moments for him to
register, but when it did his face split open in a wide grin.

"Painter's
niece?" he asked roughly.

"Who's asking?"
Lucan demanded, but the man ignored him and smiled even wider at
me. He thumped his chest with his fist and shifted side to
side.

"Necklace?
Maggie?" He grunted and thumped his chest again. So he was stupid?
Foreign? Whatever he was, his arms looked like they could crush my
head like a peach. So . . . shit.

Lucan stepped
forward and raised his fingers slowly. He closed them into fists,
showing them plainly in silent warning. The bald man stared at
Lucan's hands dumbly and his smiled faded. He knew a threat when he
saw one.

Quick as
lightening, the large man's hand flashed forward and grabbed
Lucan's fist in his own. I watched Lucan's eyes pop wide as a sick
cracking sound resounded through the air. It sent waves of nausea
into the pit of my stomach as the man squeezed Lucan's fist
together harder to break the bones. I started to scream as Lucan
roared in agony and the large man roared back, showing toothless,
purple gums. The pain forced Lucan to his knees as I screamed to
the man to stop.

Hurried
footsteps rushed up the stairs and a beanpole of a man ran into the
room. He saw the angry man-child roaring at Lucan, who was
clutching his broken fist, and sighed in exasperation.

"Timothy! For
fuck's sake, can you keep the noise down?" He stepped over Lucan
and slapped the man's bald head sharply. Timothy stopped roaring
immediately and smiled like a little boy given a Christmas
present.

Lucan rose up
quickly from the floor, keeping his hand to his side, and backed up
into my corner. The thin man looked at us guiltily.

"I am so sorry
for Timothy. He is as stupid as a sack of turnips and doesn't know
his own strength. I heard he broke his mother coming out, split her
right in half." He made a tearing sound with his teeth and I
inadvertently flinched. "Could wrestle an elephant without breaking
a sweat. Hung like one, too but don't tell the ladies or I'll never
get lucky again." He laughed and ran his fingers through the slick,
black hair combed back over his head. "But you must be Maggie! It
is very nice to meet you at last."

"Where's
Marius?" I asked.

"Who am I?" he
answered, totally ignoring my question and wiggling his dirty
fingers in the air. "I am Leof, renowned trapeze artist for the
Circus That Came."

"Well, you can
leave anytime," Lucan growled. Leof looked at Lucan down his nose
and chuckled.

"Oh, does the
big man want a band aid for his paper cut? I bet you just hated
looking like a little bitch in front of your stead." His laugh
tinkled gleefully through the kitchen. I watched as Timothy looked
blankly from Leof to Lucan, a line of drool rolling down his chin.
"Speaking of . . ."

He clicked his
fingers and, not missing a beat, Timothy grabbed Lucan's arm and
forced it behind his back. Lucan gasped and tried to swing a punch
with his good hand, but Timothy only grunted through his dumb grin
and pushed him harder into the floor.

In the midst of
the chaos, I thought to make a break for the stairs, but before I
had escaped a few feet Leof pulled a pistol from his pocket. He was
quick, like he had been doing it all his life, and I suddenly found
it nearly shoved down my throat. Lucan groaned and stopped
struggling as I stared down the mouth of the loaded gun.

Leof pushed the
cold metal into my cheek and casually reached his hand down my
shirt to pull out the dreamcatcher. His rough skin brushed my
breast as he took his time finding the flat, gold circle. He
lowered the gun to consider it curiously as every swear word I ever
knew ran through my brain. I always thought that if someone pulled
a gun at me I would face them off with cool composure and a smart
comeback. Guess I thought wrong . . .

"You're not
going to make any trouble, are you?" he asked softly. His breath
smelled of black licorice. I shook my head. "Good. This is really
nothing personal, you know. It's all part of the Reign Walk."

He backed off,
letting the necklace drop from his fingers, and motioned for me to
walk down the stairs. I whimpered as the gun poked the back of my
head and tried to stop my legs from shaking. From behind me I heard
Timothy drag Lucan to his feet and follow us down.

"Mind the dead
old man bleeding out on the floor."

My stomach
twisted with bile as I saw poor Marius pushed into a corner, his
throat slit so deep it showed white bone. His eyes stared up
emptily, shocked and accusatory. I looked quickly away, because I
was sure that look was meant for me. The blood had spread halfway
across the tiled floor and it took us a minute to gingerly pick our
way around the slow moving puddles.

Our little
group started to walk down the beach. The waves broke far from our
feet and seemed to grow smaller and look farther off the longer we
walked. Pretty soon, it was hard to even hear them crashing on the
shore and if I glanced back over my shoulder, I could barely see
the speck of illumination that was the lighthouse.

The sand grew
drier underfoot and blue patches appeared in a clear sky no longer
obscured by storm clouds. Suddenly, the heat hit us like a furnace
blast and we all had to momentarily stop our march. Leof looked
around us at the desert of the Wilds.

"So, we're
out," he said simply, staring into the sun. "That was a lot simpler
than finding our way in."

This is all
my fault
. I must have gotten as far as ten feet into the Walk
before being captured. Twice.
At this rate
, I thought,
I
might as well just stand still and hope I can yank the pocket watch
before he sees it coming.
Never mind having a plan and an army
or even a trick up my sleeve.
Just stand still and blindly make
a grab for it.
Less people would get killed that way.

And it was
sunny, which meant my third day was officially over. The time
didn't seem to run the same here, which was hardly fair. But as I
stared up at the blazing sun, the dreamcatcher throbbed again
against my chest. Three days down, Three to go.

The heat was
almost suffocating and near the beginning I had to stop and be
sick. All that blood and Marius's eyes. How long would it be until
someone found him? Lucan was sweating in his long sleeved shirt and
his hand was turning a mottled purple color. As hopeless as I felt,
I couldn't help running escape plans through my head.
Realistically, if there was one that actually stood a chance Lucan
would have made a stab for it already. And Timothy was too much of
a risk, lumbering along behind us like a small steam train.

"How did you
know where we were?" Lucan shouted ahead to Leof at one point.

"It was the
only dream around for miles," he answered, pulling out a compass
from his brown suede jacket and analyzing the landscape. "And when
we saw you had vacated your post, well . . ." He started to stroke
the pistol up and down my spine and I heard Timothy giggle. "We
assumed you had teamed up. Everyone is looking out for you. We were
just lucky enough to find you first. Your brother is going to be so
pleased to see you."

It wasn't long
before we climbed over a dune and spotted a blotch of red on the
sand, some half mile away.

"Home sweet
home," Leof declared. Timothy clapped his hands excitedly. "I
thought that we would wander through this heat for eternity."

"I would like
think that wasn't a possibility," I said.

"You would,
wouldn't you?" Leof cooed and nudged me forward down the other side
of the dune.

It didn't take
long to reach the dream. As we got closer the red blotch
materialized as a large circus tent swirled in azure blue. A flag
waved in the breeze and every so often the wind would hit the tent
hard enough to make the tarp material fold in on itself, sending a
loud crack into the air.

Stepping into
the entryway, I had a few moments to allow my eyes to adjust as the
other three trooped in. The inside of the tent was wreathed in
shadows and the air was mercifully cooler. The small circle of sky
at the top threw a beam of sun across the pounded sand floor,
illuminating the ring of seats circling the performance area. They
had an empty, lonely feeling, like the sounds and memories of
happier, more colorful times haunted the shadows around them.
Mounted on the sides of the ring were torches, unlit now but meant
to pierce the darkness for the night showings. By all appearances,
someone kept up this circus. But at this moment, there was no one
there.

On the other
side of the dimly lit chamber, another entrance was open. It didn't
lead outside, but to a darker room where, presumably, the
performers sat to wait for their entrances. That, or the place
where I would be taken to die; either or.

"Now what,
Leof?" Lucan said as we all turned to him. Leof smoothed a comb
through his hair and lowered his pistol to the sandy floor.

"We've been
told to wait out here," Leof said, pulling out a stick of licorice.
He threw one to Timothy, who was bouncing up and down on his heels
like a kid in line at the amusement park. He caught it clumsily and
stuffed the whole string happily into his mouth. "Maggie, on the
other hand, should keep going into the next room," Leof continued,
tearing off a bite and chewing through a small smile.

Lucan moved to
join me in front of the dark entrance, but didn't get very far
before Leof pulled him roughly back. "Not you, white knight," Leof
drawled. "You and that backpack can stay right here. If you're good
I might even give you some candy."

Timothy
laughed, sending spittles of black slime down the front of his
shirt, and I felt the backpack slide off my shoulders. Hot,
licorice breath wafted over my bare neck as Leof pushed me sharply
forward with two fingers.