“I see your concrete finally set,” she said.
“Mhm.”
“In that case, you should consider being very nice to me during the next few days.”
“Why?”
“You’ll be needing gasoline for your cement mixer and you’re over your limit. Again.”
Bloody woman. “Are you telling me that with all that beer and all your eyelash fluttering, you couldn’t con that old man out of some money?”
“I don’t con! I conduct business by selling a quality product.”
Johanna emerged from the tower and walked in their direction.
“How much?” he asked.
“We’re going to make about eighty-seven grand after expenses on the Red Guard order,” Elara said. “Another twenty in the next few months if he comes back for seconds. And he will. Oh, and five hundred dollars from him personally.”
“Five hundred bucks? What the hell did he buy?”
Her eyes narrowed into slits. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“So we made sixty-seven thousand five hundred,” he said. “Not bad.”
“How do you figure that?”
“I bought two 50 Cal Gatling Guns from Rufus. Ten K each.”
She stared at him, stunned.
He braced himself. “We need the guns, Elara.”
“And you just made that decision without me?” Her voice was so sharp, he wanted to check himself for cuts.
“A 50 Cal GAU doesn’t sound like a firecracker. It sounds like a jackhammer, because it fires up to 2,000 rounds per minute. It’s belt-fed from the ammo box and it will turn a vampire into hamburger in less than two seconds.”
“Damn it, Hugh.”
“We’re both stronger during magic. The Gatling guns will guarantee that Nez doesn’t attack during tech.”
Johanna reached them and waved. Elara turned to her. “Yes?”
“Boy is awake,” Johanna signed.
Fear flickered across Elara’s face. She blurred and then she was at the tower door, thin tendrils of white magic snaking through the space she had just occupied.
There was something the boy knew she didn’t want Hugh to know. Hugh broke into a run. Ten seconds to the door, another twenty to clear the stairs. He burst into the hallway and sprinted to the room.
The door stood wide open. He heard Elara’s voice, soft yet insistent.
“… never do it again. I understand why you did. I’m not upset with you. But you must promise me to never do it again.”
“I promise,” a young male voice answered.
He’d missed it. Damn it.
Hugh walked through the doorway. The kid lay in bed, still pale from the loss of blood. He let his magic slide over the boy’s body. The vitals looked good, though, for how complicated the patch job was. Elara sat on the edge of his bed. She glanced up at Hugh’s approach.
“You’re making eyes at my wife?” Hugh asked.
The kid went a shade paler. “No, sir.”
“Hugh!” Elara turned to the boy. “He’s joking.”
“Tell me about the village, Alex,” Hugh said.
He heard quiet footsteps in the hallway. Deidre. The footsteps stopped.
Alex licked his lips. “Deidre likes the forest. She goes off sometimes and doesn’t come back for a while. We heard dire wolves howling, so when it started getting dark and she wasn’t back, Phillip, her dad, asked me to go look for her. I’m better with the woods than he is. I don’t get lost.”
“Does she usually stay out past sunset?” Elara asked.
“No. She always comes back before dinner, but this time she didn’t, so everyone was worried. It took me awhile, but I found her. We were heading back, but…”
He fell silent.
“Take your time,” Elara told him.
“Deidre didn’t want to go back. She kept stopping. I just had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Every step I took toward the village it was like a big hand I couldn’t see was pushing me back. So, I told Deidre to wait and climbed a tree to try and see anything.” He swallowed. “There were soldiers and monsters in the village. Killing everyone. They pulled them out of the houses, and killed them right there on the street, and laid them out like cordwood. Like they weren’t even people. They killed kids. Little kids. They took Maureen’s baby and slit her throat.”
He stopped and looked at them.
It confirmed what they already had known.
“What happened next?” Elara asked.
His voice shook slightly. “I told Deidre to climb the tree and stay there, and then I circled to the north, because the wind was blowing from the south. I had my bow with me.”
“What was the plan?” Hugh asked.
“I wanted to get Courtney out,” he said. “She’s my girlfriend. I was climbing over the wall when a monster saw me. I shot it and it died.”
“Where did you shoot it?” Hugh asked.
“Through the eye,” Alex said.
“He’s a very good marksman,” Elara told him softly.
“It was a lucky shot. As soon as it went down, one of the soldiers blew a horn. They couldn’t see us, but somehow they knew it was dead. So I ran. I didn’t try to go and get Courtney. I just ran. Deidre was waiting for me, and then we ran together. They shot at us through the woods. I got hit twice, and then I don’t remember it that well. I just kept running.”
His voice faded.
“You saved Deidre,” Elara said. “You survived.”
Alex looked at her. “I ran,” he said. “I left Courtney to die.”
“No,” Elara said. “You did everything you could.”
“I ran like a coward.”
He had to fix this or they would lose a steady pair of hands with a bow. The kid didn’t need forgiveness. He needed direction and purpose.
“You’ve got two days,” Hugh said.
The kid’s gaze snapped to him.
“In two days I need you up and moving. Once you’re up, go to the barracks and find Yvonne Faure. She will evaluate your archery skills. If you do well enough, you’ll be given a bow and assigned to the auxiliaries. For every bastard you shoot down, another Courtney will live.”
He turned and walked out. Elara followed him.
Deidre sat on the stone floor in the hallway, her back to the wall, her arms locked around her knees. She looked up at him. “I want a bow.”
Elara crouched by her. “What about your aunt and uncle?”
Deidre shook her head. “I don’t want to go with them. I want to stay here.”
“But they are your family.”
“I don’t know them. I want to stay here. It’s safe here. Can you make them let me stay?”
“We will ask.” Elara sighed. “But they are not here now, so let’s worry about this later.”
“Do I still get a bow?”
“Why do you want one?” Elara asked.
“So I can kill the monsters if they come here.”
“A bow can be arranged,” Hugh said.
“Have you ever shot a bow?” Elara asked.
“No.”
“Don’t worry. Hugh will teach you. But if you decide that the bow isn’t for you, come and see me. I may teach you some things as well.”
“Go downstairs and wait for me,” Hugh said. “We’ll see about getting you a bow.”
The child jumped to her feet and dashed down the hallway. He watched her go. There was something disturbingly familiar about the look in her eyes, like a small feral animal backed into a corner. Rene used to look like that.
“We have no legal standing,” Elara said. “We can’t keep her.”
“We can bargain,” Hugh said.
She eyed him. “Do you actually care, Preceptor?”
“Don’t know the meaning of the word,” he said.
Hugh leaned against the step leading from the upper bailey to the keep and watched Stoyan stab the armor on a wooden mannequin. Or rather he watched Stoyan try. The centurion executed another beautiful slash. The blade glanced off the breastplate. The two Iron Dogs who were Stoyan’s second and third watched him.