Dust + Ashes, page 19
Eddie gave her another pointed look. “His name is Tad, Tia.”
“So? He’s Tad Thomas. I read all about him.”
“Use your brain, kid.”
“What? What do you mean?” Tia said. Eddie chuckled again. “You’re a jerk.”
“Yeah, I am,” he snorted. His mirth faded quickly, though. He took a deep breath, exhaling his geniality and looked around, growing serious. “This isn’t where we need to be. You need to get us out of here.”
“How am I supposed to do that? I already tried and we ended up here,” Tia said. “And you can’t even walk without falling over. You have a fever.”
Eddie’s eyebrows raised. “Is that concern from my sworn enemy? I thought you wanted to leave me behind. Leave me tumbling through the void.”
“I do,” Tia said. “But I think I might be stuck with you. You’re like a bad penny: you keep turning up and I have no idea how to get rid of you for good. But, since I’m your ride out of here, that means you can’t hurt me.”
“So, you’d rather have me at full health and strength when we get back home?” He smirked at her horrified expression. “You’re so sweet, T. And don’t worry your darlin’, little head, I won’t hurt a hair on it.”
“You don’t scare me,” she blurted. “I told you, you’re lame. You’re nothing. Just a lame, old guy.”
For a long moment, the viel didn’t reply. His smile faded and he nodded, looking back toward the fire. “Right now, all things considered, I really can’t argue. But we do need to go. ASAP. Before we step on a frog or something and endanger the timeline.”
“Just shut up and get some rest. We’ll figure this out in the morning.” She stood and moved back to her blanket, pointedly ignoring him to ensure the conversation was over. She closed her eyes, feeling more exhausted from dealing with Eddie than from using whatever power she invoked to bring them here. She needed rest before she could try it again, of that she was certain. Idly, she wondered if Benjamin felt as drained as she did right now after each spell he cast? Considering the other ill effects he suffered every time he did, it was no wonder he was so grumpy all the time. She probably had it easy with just needing a nap.
She’d finally managed a doze, drifting in and out of consciousness, when she became aware of a rough, shuffling noise that, much to her irritation, drew her back to full wakefulness. Opening her eyes, she saw Eddie had moved closer to the fire and was hunched over it, intent on something in his hands. It was Karlsson’s journal. He growled, tearing pages from it, and throwing them into the flames. Tia’s heart leapt into her throat.
“Hey!” she cried, scrambling out of her blanket. “What are you doing? Stop it!”
“Dross! Sappy, sentimental dross! Stupid, romantic buffoon!” He threw the entire ledger. The flames leapt up, eager to devour its pages. With a squeak, Tia grabbed it out, burning her hand as she did. She threw it down on the dewy grass and doused the scorched leather with her foot. Eddie glared at her. “Why bother? Karlsson’s a nobody. A naive, romantic idiot! An absolute fool.”
Tia picked up the damaged journal and clutched it to her chest. She gaped at the viel, his grimy hands, the charred pages lost to the fire. “Why did you do that?” Something clicked in her mind. “You’re the reason I was never able to read the whole thing! You burned the missing pages.”
“Everything all right over there?” Tad called, standing from his sentinel position by the trees and peering back at them. Tia waved.
“We’re all right. He’s had another fit, but I’m calming him down,” she said, hoping she sounded as reassuring as possible. It must have worked because Tad returned her wave before settling back down again.
“Karlsson... what a stupid man,” Eddie muttered. “Lost everything, threw away his family, all for this... stupid, fleeting delusion. Strung along and ultimately murdered by an even greater naive fool who ended up a stooge to an indifferent god. How could he have just abandoned them?” Suddenly, the anger left his face. He slumped back as if noticing Tia for the first time, protecting the damaged journal from him. He gestured to it. “You read that nonsense?”
She nodded. “Read and practically memorized it. I thought there was something in it to help stop the... to help stop you. Some clue hidden in the founding of Hope Falls that could fix everything. But you’re right, along with everyone else who told me it was all nonsense. All dross.”
The viel made a disgusted noise. “Sounds like you wasted a lot of time.”
He slumped back into his blanket. Despite his vehemence, he still looked ill, his harrowed, deathly pale face cast in stark shadows by the firelight. It gleamed in his eyes, shining from the shadows of his sunken features. Sucking in a breath, he hissed it out between gritted teeth, trying to regain composure, and Tia was suddenly struck by his resemblance to Sarah—the pinched skin around and between his green eyes, the look of tight-lipped restraint as if he were blocking out some deeper pain. It was exactly how her sister looked when trying to ignore the Greater’s influence—when she was trying to maintain control of herself. In that moment, the familial resemblance between father and daughter was uncanny.
“There’s nothing there,” he said. The gleam left his eyes, turning them stony instead. “Trust me.”
“How do you know?”
“Something Lily said to me while we were in the Rend. I tried to stay with her, to protect her, but she was justifiably spooked around me, and we got split up for a while. She saw... something while she was on her own.”
“Which was...?”
It seemed to take a good deal of effort for Eddie to muster his next words. “Me. She said she saw me being tortured. Ripped apart and put back together over and over. Except that didn’t happen. I was fine. Never in any danger the entire time we were apart. I was looking for her, to protect her from the Greater, which kept threatening me with all the nasty things it would do to her if I couldn’t find her fast enough. So stupid. If it wanted to, it could’ve just done it—I mean we were in its realm, and it has all that omnipotent power.” He barked a grim laugh. “But it was screwing with me. Like it always does. Such a kidder, the Greater.”
Tia frowned, thumbing through the damaged journal. She noted the fresh, grimy prints she made on the bottoms of the pages and stopped. “Maybe it was screwing with her, too? Making her see things that weren’t real?”
“Maybe,” Eddie said. “Maybe that’s all it was.” He motioned toward the book in her hands, eyes going dark. “You’re really going to hang onto that?”
“Well, no. But it can’t be destroyed. Like I said, I’ve read it. In the future. Can’t step on a frog or burn a journal.” She frowned, another revelation bubbling up in her mind. “Because it ends up in the Blackwing Archive ab initium.” Her wide-eyed gaze turned toward the silhouette of Tad sitting at the edge of the fire, back to them. Dreamily, she said, “Thaddeus. Tad is short for Thaddeus. Leapin’ lizards, Tad Thomas is Thaddeus Edwards.”
“And, bingo, she’s got it,” Eddie said, yawning and settling back into his blanket.
I’m Edwards’s man, he’d said, and Tia sat back, the revelation pushing the rest of her worries to the back of her mind. Tad had taken Karlsson’s alias as his own name, shedding the one he’d been born into slavery with. He’s a good man. For a long while, Tia marveled at her ancestor, before she too finally settled down.
“WAKE UP. WHO ARE YOU?”
Her eyes flew open, and she squeaked as she saw the barrel of a rifle jab toward her. Behind it, a young native woman was glaring at her. Two burly, native men stood behind her, along with several others, miners and natives both, lingering a few paces back. It was lighter, the sky gray with a pre-dawn glow, and the campfire had died down. Tad was nowhere to be seen.
“Answer me, child,” the woman said. “Where’s Tad?”
Suddenly, a Chinese man pushed his way between the other miners and stopped, cold fury in his dark eyes as he saw Eddie lying prone by the fire. He snarled, withdrawing a knife from his belt, and dashed at the sick man.
“Shui gui!” he cried. “Shui gui!”
“Whoa, Kang!” Tad appeared from the trees holding a snared rabbit. He dropped it and intercepted the Chinese Crow, holding him back. “Calm yourself. It’s Mr. Edwards and his daughter. He’s alive! He made it out of the mine!” He looked at the native woman. “Truth, put the rifle down—”
“Not Carl,” Kang said, glaring at Eddie. “Shui gui.”
Tad went still then. His eyes flicked from Kang to Tia, to Eddie, and finally back to the woman. “Truth? Is that so? Both of them?”
The woman gazed at them as if seeing through them, drifting back and forth several times before settling on Tia. Suddenly, Tia felt as if she were under a spotlight. Heat suffused her face. The woman’s black eyes were peeling her apart and scrutinizing every fiber of her being. She gripped her amulet to steady herself. Then, the woman’s expression relaxed, its intensity fading, and she shifted her rifle’s aim to Eddie. She nodded toward Tia. “She is not. Bring her here.”
The pair of burly natives obeyed, moving swiftly toward Tia. One grabbed her arm and started dragging her away from Eddie.
“Hey,” Tia cried. “HEY! STOP!”
At this, the viel groaned and rolled over. He saw the rifle pointed at him, at Tia being dragged away, and froze. “Aw, beans. What’s happening now?”
“You are a monster. The enemy,” Kang snarled. “You are not Carl. Not Mr. Edwards.”
Eddie perked up, hamming up the Victorian dandy. “Of course I am.”
“A lie,” Truth said.
“Show us the mark.” To punctuate this, the Chinese man tore back his threadbare shirt revealing a tattoo on his breast. It was less detailed, but the same, familiar design Tia had seen on Benjamin. All of the gathered people began pulling back sleeves or collars to reveal their own marked skin. Each was emblazoned with the crude, black rendition of the Crow sigil.
“Show us the mark,” Kang repeated, insistent. Eddie made no move. “You are not Carl. No more lies. We know lies.”
Eddie shrugged, dropping his act. “Fine. No, then. I am not Carl.”
Tad’s face turned to a mask of lament. “I knew it. I didn’t want to believe it, but I felt it in my bones! I knew you were lying! They got to you, boss. They made you a demon.”
“Nha’aitk,” one of the native’s spat.
They began dragging Tia away again. Tad moved to help them, but the woman stopped him. She shook her head, holding up a hand.
“He is not Carl, but he is not nha’aitk, either.” She looked around. “He is lost. A restless spirit. We must banish him. Set his spirit to rest. But the girl, you must bring her here.”
The burlier of the men holding Tia shook his head as he shoved the girl forward. Truth put a hand on Tia’s shoulder and handed the man her rifle. He raised it and stepped protectively in front of them, keeping the weapon trained on Eddie. “No. It is nha’aitk. It must be destroyed.”
A wicked smile crossed Eddie’s face. Before he could move or reply, however, Truth turned Tia toward her. Time seemed to slow as she grabbed a leather cord tied around her own neck and pulled it from her tunic. Tia gasped, recognizing the trinket hanging from it. It was the same carved stone that she was clutching. Opening her hand, she revealed her own amulet. The woman nodded.
Lifting her hands, Truth exhaled, and a curtain seemed to fold over them, like wings. The rest of the party vanished, leaving Tia and the native woman alone. The abrupt solitude was broken only by a sullen kraaawk of a large raven circling overhead.
“I see your past and your present.” The woman’s mouth didn’t move as she spoke, but her voice thundered, reverberating through Tia’s chest. “I see a future in you, Tia Edwards.”
“You have the same amulet as me,” Tia said.
Truth smiled. “You do not belong here. You are lost. Drifting. But you must bear witness.” She indicated the raven as it alighted upon a branch jutting from a dead cedar tree. It cocked its head at the pair of them.
“To what?” Tia asked, drawing the woman’s attention back to her.
“Blood connects us. Directs us. Binds us. The blood commands power, and the blood is power.”
“Whose blood?” Tia asked. The woman held out her arm. Bursting from the tree, the raven swooped down and perched upon it. It nipped her hand, drawing a scarlet cascade that stained her fingers and dripped to the ground, pooling there. Rivulets streamed away from the central pool, spreading out so that it formed a crimson design not unlike the one etched on the amulet.
“Whose blood?” Tia repeated. The mystical curtain began to fade, and she could hear the arguing from the camp growing louder again as it did. A large, black wolf stepped from the trees at the edge of the clearing and slunk toward the nearest rivulet of blood. It lapped at it greedily, keeping a wary eye on the humans.
Dropping her arm, Truth loosed the raven at it. The bird torpedoed the beast, raking its shaggy fur with razor-sharp talons and pecking its ears as it settled onto its shoulder. Then, it rubbed its feathered head against the wolf’s neck, wiping its beak clean of blood.
For a split-second, the wolf appeared at peace with the raven. But, just as the vision faded completely, it snapped, catching the bird in its bloody fangs and dashing it against the ground. Tia flinched, her breath catching in her throat. Suddenly, they were back. The bird and the wolf were gone. Around them, men were yelling, calling for Eddie’s head. One of the miners brandished a smudge of sage at him. Kang stood beside the miner, uttering in rapid Chinese, the cadence of which sounded like a spell. The burly, native man with the rifle gave Truth an expectant glance, as if awaiting further instruction.
Eddie was nonplussed by all of it. He coughed and waved the smoke from the smudge away.
“Amateur hour,” he muttered.
Gently, Truth pushed Tia toward him. “You do not belong here, my child,” she intoned. The Crows fell silent at her words. “Wayward spirits,” she went on, louder now, and touched her amulet again. She held out her free hand to Tad and he moved beside her, taking it, their fingers entwined. Seeing this joining of hands, an understanding bloomed in Tia’s mind; a deeper connection being forged between them, and herself. “Now, begone!”
Truth pushed her palm outward, and something slammed against Tia’s breast. Her own amulet dug into her skin, almost burning as it pressed into her, forcing her back. She slipped sharply, falling back, out of the world and out of time, and into the Between once more.
25th of May 1851
MY LOVE SUSAN,
Ill luck and worse has beplagued us these last few days, so I must be brief, as things in camp are in disarray. I am unharmed. Reggie is still missing.
The attack on the camp has left the barracks burnt, and a handful of men injured. Fortunately, no one was killed, but a few are unaccounted for, including Mr Kang and Mr Thomas, which means there is no one with any medical training to attend the injured. Archie has managed to get Graves and his men clearing and rebuilding the barracks and is instructing them to set up more fortified defenses. Mr Lafferty is quite upset over his cousin’s disappearance, and his camp has now split between continuing work to clear the cave-in (which is believed to almost be through!) and keeping watch for another attack. Several of Mr Kang’s lot have abandoned their mourning to search the nearby woods for their missing leader. I will join them shortly and shall update when I return this evening.
We have found Mr Kang and Mr Thomas and the others that were taken, thankfully, all unharmed. They came out of the woods at sundown, claiming that they were released after being treated peaceably, though they would not share more on their captive experience, and all seemed rather eager to rejoin the effort to find Reggie. Graves has been incredulous, the useless man, thinking we should merely start digging again in one of the unaffected shafts, and believes that Reggie must be dead by now.
Miraculously, despite it being a week on since the collapse, nearly everyone else in the camp believes our leader to still be alive, though I remain sick with worry. The gall of our mutual friend! If I were like him or dear Lizzy, perhaps I could bring myself to pray, but...
Perhaps I shall ask Archie to do so for me.
That bloody man better be safe, but, oh, how bleak are my thoughts of late.
Your beplagued one,
Ned
Chapter Thirteen
The Broken Thread
TIA TUMBLED HEAD-OVER-heels, before managing to right herself. As before, she tried to make sense of the threadspace as it resolved around her. The tangled threads trailing off her, each a bond she had forged with a person she loved, streaked off into the endless distance behind her, mingling with other, unconnected threads. Among them, her own red-gold thread was a beacon in the dark, a lead to her reality. Following it back had led her into her family’s past, tracing her Edwards’ bloodline to its first fateful encounter with the viels. Now, she followed it forward, away from the convergence with those sickly, corrupted threads, and hoped to find some indication of her proper time and place.
Mere moments had passed since she’d been shunted back into the threadspace when she became aware of the shadow tracking her again. It raced for her, split into snaring ribbons, and cast them towards her.
No!
She jerked away as its snares latched onto one of her threads, a midnight blue one, and tugged her back. The snagged thread began to hum, as if trying to shake free. Blackwing, Tia thought. I need to get back to the last place I was in my own reality, to Blackwing! The thread hummed louder, vibrating against Tia, and affecting the thread next to it, a deep, royal violet one. It began humming as well. She snatched it, missed, and swung off-kilter, away from the shadow. The violet thread split open, revealing another exit, and she aimed for the opening, desperate to get free.
