Called, p.28
Called, page 28
part #2 of The Grey Gates Series
“On it,” Osvaldo said, and turned to where the drinkers were huddled against the wall.
Max watched as Khari and the others gathered around the hostages, as Bryce had called them, getting them to their feet and heading towards the doors. A few of them needed help. Hop, Killan and Joshua provided support without any complaint or hesitation while Gemma brought up the rear, scowling.
Osvaldo brought the two pilots across the room to Bryce, careful to skirt around the vampire. “They say that one of the people with robes has the keys to the chopper, and they can’t fly without the keys.”
That would explain why they hadn’t left, Max thought, and had to credit Queran and his co-conspirators with a bit of cunning, at least.
“Hot wire it,” Bryce said tersely. “We’ve no time to search this lot, and if the woman had the keys, I’m not going into the underworld to get them.”
“It’s been a while since I hot wired a chopper,” Osvaldo said, eyes gleaming in anticipation. He turned the pilots around and nudged them out of the building at the end of his gun, leaving Max blinking and wondering just when he had had to hot wire a helicopter before.
Bryce joined Max, watching the hostages and his fellow warriors leave, then tilted his head to the demon, vampire and remaining twin. “What about them?” he asked her.
Max looked around the faces that were all now turned to her, with a variety of expressions. “Lord Kolbyr was brought here against his will. If there’s space, we should offer him a place in the helicopter. The others can make their own way back,” she said.
Queran peeled his lips back from his teeth. “Full of surprises, aren’t you? No compassion for a poor, hard-working demon?”
“None,” Max confirmed. “You got yourself into this mess. I’m quite sure you can get yourself out of it. That goes for you, too,” she added to Hemang. “And Evan, when he wakes up.” She spared a glance for the unconscious chief of detectives. She had a vague idea that she should try to arrest them. Evan and Hemang, certainly. She was quite sure Queran would evade any attempt to arrest him. But she had a group of terrified people to get to safety first, and didn’t want Hemang or Evan anywhere near the people they had gathered as offerings.
The ground shook again, and another pillar cracked.
“Time to go,” Bryce said.
“Yes,” Max said, and headed for the door, her dogs with her. As she crossed the room, Kolbyr moved to join her.
“My dear Marshal, I am touched by your concern for my welfare,” he told her, managing somehow to bow while he was walking.
“Don’t be. I like fairness, that’s all. Can you get everyone loaded while I get my bag?” Max asked Bryce. She could leave without her pack, but she didn’t want to leave the equipment behind. And it also contained a very special soft toy that she thought Ynes might like to have back.
Not waiting for his reply, she stalked away across the open space, strides hampered by the shaking ground, and ducked into the undergrowth, finding her bag untouched. By the time she had retrieved it and was making her way back to the helicopter, Osvaldo had got the engines started and Khari and the others had got the hostages loaded. The pilots were involved in an animated discussion with Bryce outside the helicopter, though, suggesting they weren’t quite ready to leave.
Max came up to them to hear the words “overloaded” and “fuel allowance” from one of the half-drunk men.
“What’s the problem?” she asked.
“The helicopter can fly, we just don’t have enough fuel to get back to the city with the extra weight on board,” Bryce told her.
“Get to the oil field, you can refuel there,” she told the pilots tersely.
They looked rebellious, yielding under Bryce’s glare.
“Os, will you sit as co-pilot?” Bryce shouted over the helicopter’s engines.
Osvaldo simply nodded and settled into one of the pilot’s chairs. Bryce pushed one of the pilots towards the free seat, and dragged the other one to the back of the helicopter. There were a few rows of seats which were crammed full of the hostages, Lord Kolbyr having the row at the front all to himself as Max came up.
“Get inside,” Bryce told Max, “you and your dogs.”
“What about you and the others?” Max asked, shouting to be heard over the blades whirring overhead.
“We’ll ride on the landing skids,” Bryce said, an unexpected grin crossing his face. “Haven’t done that in a while. Don’t worry, we’ll manage. Up you get,” he said. He shoved the pilot in, next to Kolbyr, and then offered a hand to Max. She accepted, not wanting to fall flat on her face with the combination of the shaking ground and the pain running up her leg. His hand was warm and firm under hers, anchoring her to the here and now after all that had happened. As she took her place, shoving her backpack under her feet, Cas and Pol leapt in, crowding against her, the whites of their eyes showing. They hadn’t travelled by helicopter before.
The doors shut, cutting off some of the noise, and the vehicle lifted into the air, less smoothly than Max had expected. She leant towards the windows, seeing Bryce, Khari and Joshua settling themselves on the helicopter’s landing skids on her side as the vehicle lifted.
And not before time. As they rose into the air, Max saw enormous cracks appearing in the earth below, fissures disappearing into the depths of the world. And a small figure staggering out of the building, something in his hand. Hemang. And it looked like he was holding a weapon of some sort.
There was a flat crack from somewhere close by and Hemang fell back. Max started, then saw that Bryce had his weapon up on his shoulder, Khari and Joshua each holding onto him. Max closed her eyes, rubbing her hands across her face. There had been too much death today. Far too much. She had tried to give Hemang a chance to survive. A slim one, but a chance nonetheless.
She scrubbed the tears away, conscious of the people crowded around her. They were alive. They had been gathered together in that building for the purpose of being used as offerings in the dark magic ritual, and they were still alive and free. That was a victory she could hold on to.
Chapter twenty-nine
Faddei and Vanko were both standing on the old concrete apron of the oil field when the helicopter descended in the first light of day. From what Max could see, they barely blinked as Bryce and the other warriors jumped off the landing skids as the helicopter slowly descended to the ground, but they did gape in astonishment as the doors opened to reveal not just Lord Kolbyr but also ten exhausted, filthy people and a child clinging to her mother so tightly that Nati struggled to get down from the helicopter, her fellow captives lending a hand.
As the former hostages got out of the helicopter, Max dug into her bag and pulled out the lilac bear, holding it out to Ynes. The girl grabbed it and started crying. Then Nati cried, and most of the rest of the former hostages joined her as Faddei barked orders, which resulted a few moments later in people pouring out of the main building with blankets and bottles of water, taking the hostages in hand.
Max watched some of the Marshals, oil crew and scientists escorting the captives into the building, not surprised to find her face was wet again.
“Looks like you’ve had quite an adventure,” Faddei said to Max, voice loud as the helicopter engines were finally shut off.
“Yes,” Max agreed.
“Was that the girl you were looking for, and her mother?” Khari wanted to know, stopping nearby, Joshua beside her with his arm around her shoulders.
“Yes,” Max said again, smiling. “They seem to be in one piece, at least. Thank you for your help,” she added.
“Does this have anything to do with the hill collapsing?” Faddei asked. “Half the crew was up on the roof watching it fall at first light.”
“It’s gone? Good,” Max said, sounding more fierce than she had intended. She pushed aside a slight twinge of guilt remembering that Hemang, Evan and Queran had still been in or near the building when they had left it. If anyone could survive, it would be Queran. And she wasn’t sure how much sympathy the Raghavan twin or former chief of detectives deserved, as they had been planning to sacrifice people and bring Arkus into the daylight world.
“I’ll want to hear all about it,” Faddei said. “After you’ve had a shower and some rest.”
“Shower?” Max said, mind sticking on that one word. “You got the showers working?”
“And hot water, too,” Vanko confirmed.
“Oh, my,” Max said, almost crying again. After her trek through the Wild and the awful night, the idea of a hot shower and being truly clean was a miracle.
When she made her way out of the shower room and into the dining room, light-headed from the heat of the shower and the luxury of clean clothes, she saw more miracles all around her. Some of the rescued hostages were sitting at tables with bowls of soup in front of them, still huddled in the blankets that they had been given on arrival. Others had clearly made use of the showers and were in clean clothes, more bowls in front of them, settled at tables with members of the oil crew and a couple of the scientists, looking around with slightly dazed expressions. Nati and Ynes had been among those getting clean and Ynes was sitting tucked against her mother’s side, the lilac bear hugged close. Max’s mouth curved up as she saw Cas and Pol nearby, lounging oh-so-casually on the floor. Clearly, they had not given up their guard duties. Or perhaps they were simply hopeful for some scraps from the nearby diners. Max thought they would be out of luck. From the way the former hostages were eating, she would guess that they hadn’t been properly fed in their captivity.
The pair of pilots had been settled at their own table, on the other side of the room from the hostages, and there was a pair of armed law enforcement officers keeping a casual watch on them. Max wasn’t sure how involved the pilots had been in the dark magic plot, but it seemed no one was taking any chances with them. She approved.
Aurora came through the door beside Max and paused, looking her over. “You look dead on your feet,” the older woman commented.
“I feel it,” Max said. She had taken the opportunity when she was in the shower room to look over her bruises. The ones on her leg, across the pink scars, were the worst, but she had plenty of others, including several impressions of fingers on her arm. She needed rest. Badly. “I’m just here to get some food, then I’m going to find a place to sleep.”
“Ben and I have been bunking down in one of the offices. We’re used to a lot more quiet than fifty other people around us. We’re on day shift, so it’s empty right now. You’re welcome to use it,” Aurora said. “If you don’t mind the dog hair.”
Max laughed, her chest lightening. She hadn’t been looking forward to sleeping in the communal room. She had a lot of fresh memories that would almost certainly disrupt her sleep for weeks and months to come. “Thank you, that’s really kind.”
“No worries. If you’re wanting some food, better be quick. That soup is amazing,” Aurora said, and headed out of the room again.
Max looked after her, heart swelling as she realised that Aurora had simply come to check in on Max and make the offer of a quieter place to sleep. For a long time, she had believed that she didn’t have any people she could truly call friends, telling herself to be content with her quiet life. She had a job, she had Cas and Pol, and colleagues that she respected, and who respected her. That should be enough. More than enough. And now, standing in the doorway of the makeshift dining room, she realised she had far more than that. True friends. She might not see them that often, but Aurora and Ben, Alonso and Elicia, and Malik, were all friends. Far more than she had ever had in her life before, and her quiet, empty life suddenly felt very full indeed.
Then Nati spotted Max and lifted a hand to wave. Ynes saw her, too, and detached herself from her mother, running across to Max to hug her legs, looking up with a face covered in breadcrumbs and butter. “Thank you for finding Polly,” she said.
“You are most welcome,” Max said, guessing that Polly was the bear. She gently unwound Ynes’ arms from her leg, trying not to wince as her bruises ached. Ynes tucked one of her hands into Max’s instead and tugged her across the room to Nati.
Nati looked as exhausted as Max felt, but her eyes were bright.
“Thank you, Max,” she said. “I thought we were going to die there.”
“How did you come to be there?” Max asked, curious.
“It was stupid,” Nati said, ducking away from Max’s eyes.
“I know about Ivor,” Max said. “I went to see him.”
“Oh,” Nati said, colour rushing into her face. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Max said, taking the free seat at the end of the table, next to Nati. She saw a couple of nods of agreement from a Nati’s fellow former captives.
“You’re not the first one to fall for a charming smile,” an older woman said, her voice low and rich. Her mouth tilted up in a wistful smile, eyes distant as if she was remembering the past. “And he gave you a beautiful daughter, so it’s not all bad.”
“That is true,” Nati said, hugging Ynes closer to her. She managed a smile, eyes bright with unshed tears. “Well, to your question, I was trying to find the warehouse. I didn’t think he would look for me there. But there was something awful in the mists. I couldn’t see what it was. Not exactly. Looked a bit like a man, but I knew it wasn’t.” That sounded like the Darsin, Max realised, chills running across her skin as she realised how close Nati and her daughter had been to the predator.
“Big monster,” Ynes confided, looking up from her mother’s side. “Bad monster.”
“Yes, there was a very bad monster on the docks,” Max confirmed gravely. “But it’s gone now.”
“Thank the Lady,” the older woman said, putting the two fingers of her right hand onto her heart. “I could hear that thing at night. Hunting.”
“It’s not going to hunt anymore,” Max said.
“Dead monster?” Ynes asked, eyes bright.
“Very dead,” Max confirmed.
“Well, we heard that thing prowling around, and then we saw the helicopter and a few people getting into it. It was stupid, but we hid in there,” Nati said.
“We got promised all sorts of things to get in the helicopter,” one of the men said. “Jobs. Food. Clean clothes. We were told it was dangerous.”
“But we’re used to dangerous,” the older woman finished for him, shaking her head. “It sounded too good to be true. Should have known it was a trap.”
“Who made the promises? Shivangi and Hemang?” Max asked.
“No, not them. The other fellow, the one with the orange skin and white teeth,” the older woman said.
“You seemed to know him,” the man said, a touch of hardness in his face as he stared at Max.
“Queran. He’s a demon. Not a friend,” Max confirmed, nose wrinkling in distaste. “I’d really prefer not to know him at all.”
“By the time we realised we were being kept prisoner, it was too late,” the man said, shoulders slumping. “We were in the Wild, and none of us knew the way home.”
“We’ll get you back to the city,” Max promised.
“And back to the warehouse,” the woman said, face and voice grim. She didn’t seem to be looking forward to the prospect. With winter approaching, Max could understand that.
“We’ll see,” Max said. Shivangi and Hemang’s actions couldn’t go without some kind of punishment, she thought, and the Raghavan family holdings included a lot of wealth and housing. Something could surely be done to provide for the homeless people.
Two long days later, they were all back in the city, the convoy returning through the Wild with no more interference from the demon. The helicopter had left the day before, taking the former captives, pilots and Lord Kolbyr back into the city along with Radrean, who had been almost forcibly escorted to his seat by Bryce. Max couldn’t help but wonder what stories Radrean would spin when he got back to the Order, not just of his own heroic deeds, but also of her - the Order’s most infamous former apprentice. She tried to tell herself that she didn’t care. It was partly true. She didn’t care about his opinion of her. Not in the least. But she found she did care, quite badly, what Bryce thought of her.
Between wondering what lies Radrean was telling and keeping watch from her position in truck five, Max found plenty of time to wonder how Nati and Ynes were doing. They were being taken back to Alonso and Elicia, and Max could only hope that Nati’s former boyfriend would be discouraged from looking for them there by the knowledge that the Marshals’ service was taking an interest in them. That was assuming that Ruutti hadn’t already found a reason to arrest the boyfriend.
Max had far less pleasant things to turn over in her mind, too. Whether Audhilde had managed to identify the victims in the Darsin’s nest. The fact that Queran seemed to have found willing co-conspirators to open a portal to the underworld. The question that Queran had thrown at her, in the middle of the struggle. What are you? A question that Max had turned over in her mind a thousand times since then. The only answer she had to give - that she was human, and could use magic - didn’t quiet the echo of Queran’s voice.
And then there was the girl she had failed to protect. Just one of several that the Huntsmans had killed, according to Audhilde and Ruutti. The weight of responsibility settled on her shoulders. She hadn’t prevented the girl’s death. She wanted to do what she could to prevent other deaths, and the chief of detectives wouldn’t be there to interfere with her any longer. Audhilde and Ruutti might not welcome outside questions, but she didn’t think they would turn her away, either.
After the almost anti-climatic journey back, the full tankers arrived back at the city’s refinery, which had been their starting point. All their personal vehicles were there, along with more heavily armed members of law enforcement. The protection was in place to keep watch while the crude oil was refined into usable fuel. It seemed that the tension in the city had only grown in the few days they had been gone. Max wondered how long it would take for the city to calm down again, now that the fuel reserves were restored. Or even if the city would calm down.
