Page 31 of Merciless
Fear and awe mingled together in my chest. “Who’s here?”
The woman’s robe moved at the shoulder. She extended one arm toward the ground while the movement slowly made its way down toward her wrist, the loose fabric rippling from what hid underneath.
“What the…fuck!”
I stumbled back toward the wall when a fucking rattlesnake slithered out from under her robe to the floor. Its forked tongue darted out, tasting the air, while its unblinking eyes regarded me curiously.
Don’t be afraid, my son. I will not harm you or your friend.
“This is Quetzalcoatl,” the woman said. At my blank expression, she added, “I call him Q.”
“You have a companion god,” I said, watching the snake glide across the floor to Reaper. “Like…us.”
The woman nodded, both of us watching now as Q’s long body moved over Reaper’s chest and abdomen. “He’s a god of wisdom and knowledge. I think it’s because of my bond with him that the Sha doesn’t detect my disloyalty.”
Q’s head inched toward Reaper’s face, tongue flicking out mere inches away from his mouth and nose.I can hold him back from the underworld temporarily, but he needs more healing than I can provide.The snake swung his head toward me.You have not harnessed the bonds between your companion gods and your fellow humans. Why?
“I don’t understand,” I admitted. “Harnessed them how?”
Ah. You don’t know. Then I suppose neither do they.The snake slithered off of Reaper’s chest and paused next to the robed woman.I will return, daughter.
“Return?” the woman repeated in a panic. “Where are you going?”
These bonded humans lack the knowledge of the potential they wield. With harnessed bonds, they may be able to rescue these two, and put an end to the Sha.
“Will the Sha detect me if you go?” the woman asked.
No. The bond between us protects you. Be patient and trust in us. Trust in the humans that will come.Q slithered toward the barred door.When I return, you will know.
The serpent god then left the cell and disappeared.
Twelve
GUNNER
Ididn’t tell anybody I went scouting alone, and as my bike's shocks groaned and protested over the rocky terrain, I realized that was probably a mistake.
Mari or Jandro would have wanted to come with me, but we couldn’t risk losing any more of us to the Sha’s black swarm. General Bray was trying his best to keep it together, but he was clearly distraught at potentially losing another son. And truthfully, army escorts with me would have drawn attention or slowed me down, neither of which I wanted.
We kept bashing our heads against the wall, circling back to square one, then getting pissed off at the lack of options again. The longer we sat around coming up with bad ideas, the longer Reaper and Shadow suffered. Everyone knew we were running out of time and getting no closer, which only angered and worried us more.
Every time I brought up checking out the New Ireland compound with Horus, Mari or Jandro shut it down immediately. It was too dangerous. I could end up taken too.
But I had Horus’ eyes, a rough sketch of the compound’s interior pieced together by what Mari’s dad could remember, and we had no other options.
Still, it probably would have been smart to have left a note.
I left hours ago, so they had to know something was up by now. I just hoped they weren’t following me out this way, for their own safety.
Horus was silent, a dark speck in the sky as I rode across the desert terrain below. He almost never spoke to me in the way he did with Mari or Shadow. It didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. The falcon god and I were always in sync somehow, without spoken language between us. Even when he wasn’t on my shoulder or in my line of sight, I always seemed to know instinctively where he was. When I needed him, he was there, ready to take flight. Like early this morning when I snuck my bike out of the garage, he was waiting for me on a fence post like he already knew where we were going.
As I approached the compound, I started looking for a spot to camp out, several miles away from New Ireland. It wasn’t like I needed to see anything with my own eyes. Getting too close risked being caught anyway—seeing them meant they had a chance of seeing me.
Roughly five miles out from the border, I spotted a large cluster of boulders that would do nicely for cover. Horus was already flying ahead of me by the time I stopped and got to work camouflaging myself and my bike.
“Thanks for the tip, Blakeworth,” I muttered, rubbing some dirt on my forehead and cheekbones before covering my mouth, nose, and hair with a hood and mask. I’d brought a few different options and picked the ones that blended best with the landscape surrounding me.
Hiding my bike proved to be a bit more difficult, as there wasn’t a lot of vegetation out here for me to cover it. Finally I was able to wedge it mostly out of sight between two boulders, which would have to do.
