* * *
At seven, Hibla came to get us. We followed her down the road to a narrow mountain path that led north, to a low mountain thrusting up like a dragon fang north of the castle. The western half of it had been blasted to make room for the railroad, and layers of rock thrust out of the sheer cliff. The path reached the mountain and turned into a paved sidewalk that dived into the mountain’s forested side.
Trees rose on both sides of us, not wild growth but carefully cultivated greenery, cut back to please the eye. Every few feet there would be a stone step. Short feylantern torches glowed on both side of the path, with bright sparks of deluded fireflies dancing around them. Unlike the lavender feylanterns in the castle, these were yellow, a color mages in Atlanta fought for but couldn’t achieve. Magic wrapped around us. Hugh went all out.
The path climbed up, turned, climbed up again, and turned again . . . We kept zigzagging up the mountain until finally we came to a small sitting area: a wooden bench with a table and some meat and bread under a wire hood.
“You and I will wait here,” Hibla told Derek.
“If anything happens to her, you’ll die first,” Derek told her.
Well, that settled that.
I climbed farther up the path. The greenery parted and I saw a large table set under the trees. The trees on the west side had been sheared and an evening sea stretched before me, azure and beautiful, as the sun slowly set into its cool waters.
Hugh sat at the table. He wore jeans and a black T-shirt. Lord Death at his most casual.
He rose and smiled at me. I sat across from him on the north side, while he sat on the south. My back was to the path. Argh.
“Nobody will be coming up,” he said and raised a bottle. “Wine?”
“Water.”
“You don’t drink much,” he said.
“I drank too much for a while.”
“I did, too,” he said, and poured two glasses of water, one for himself, one for me.
The table held three platters: fruit, meat, and cheese. Everything a growing warlord needs.
“Please,” Hugh invited.
I put some cheese and meat on my plate.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” He nodded at the sea.
It was. There was something ancient about it, something impossibly alluring. Thousands of years ago, people gazed at the sea just like we did now, mesmerized by the pattern of evening light on the waves. They had their own dreams and ambitions, but at the core they must’ve been just like us: they loved and hated, worried about their problems and celebrated their triumphs. Long after we were gone, the sea would still remain, and other people would watch it and be bewitched.
“The Volkodavi are lamassu,” I said.
“I know,” he said.
“When did you find out?”
“When I saw one fly out of your medmage’s room. The Volkodavi have a good reputation back in Ukraine, but I’ve heard some stories. People disappearing. Monsters eating human bodies. I put two and two together. They came out of nowhere a few years ago, took over the local pack, and then the strange shit started.” Hugh cut a piece of meat. “Your father hates the breed. He says they were badly made. I think they could be useful under the right circumstances, but they have very little discipline. Hammering them into usable soldiers would be difficult. You’d have to get them from childhood, and even then there is no guarantee.”
“You’re talking about them like they are pit bull puppies.”
“Not a bad analogy, actually. It would take a few generations to breed the crazy out of the lamassu. Why bother? A properly trained German shepherd can kill as well as an undisciplined pit bull, and it’s a lot easier to handle.”
This conversation was getting under my skin. I drank my water.
“I like it here,” Hugh said.
“It is beautiful.”
“You should stay,” he said. “After Desandra gives birth and the Beast Lord takes his pack home. Have a vacation. Live a little, swim in the sea, eat delicious food that’s bad for you.”
“I’m sure it would be a glorious vacation right up to the point where you serve my head on a silver platter to Roland.”
“For you, I’d spring for gold,” he said.
“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“Are you actually planning to fight him?” Hugh leaned forward.
“If it comes to it.”
Hugh put down his fork and walked to the edge. “See that rock down there?”
I got up and stood at my edge of the table. He was pointing at a jagged boulder jutting from the side of the mountain.
Hugh opened his mouth. Magic snapped like a striking whip. An invisible torrent of power crashed into the rock. The boulder broke into shards.