Windburn(29)

Beside us, a car roared by, its lights blinding me before throwing me into night blindness. I covered my face with one hand. “I can, but it’s a strain. How do they live like this?”

“They don’t know anything else, Lark. You probably thought the same thing when you were in the Pit.” Cactus took my hand and we started toward the Tower again.

“Maybe, but the Pit at least was natural. This is anything but.”

Peta was between us, keeping up easily. “Not true. The cement is made up of tiny particles that are of the earth, as are the buildings and even the car that went by. Humans have gotten good at manipulating the elements around them and bending them to their will.”

We took our corner and kept moving as cars zipped past us and the fumes choked my lungs. Cactus seemed less bothered by what was going on than I was. He grabbed my arm as he pointed to the skyline above the buildings that crowded around us.

A plume of smoke swirled up, a hint of orange glow coming from underneath it. Damn, that was in the direction of the tower.

“Move, she won’t stick around with that going on.” I was running before the words were out of my mouth. We burst around a final building and skidded to a stop.

The tower was actually a large square with four main towers. The front two were on fire and humans poured out of the buildings. Cactus grabbed me. “This is our chance to get in and out without being noticed.”

“Are you crazy?” I made a face at him as he tugged me along.

“Only for you, Lark.” He smiled at me and my heart gave a traitorous thump. “Come on, I can protect you from the fire. We can grab your Tracker and be done with this.”

I glanced at Peta. She gave me a subtle nod, which was all I needed. I raced after Cactus. We pushed our way through the growing crowd. There were men holding a long snake-like thing that shot water out of the end of it.

“You can’t go in there!” one of the humans shouted. We ran harder, dodging their efforts at stopping us. Cactus let out a laugh, and I had to admit, his recklessness made me giddy. Like we were kids again sneaking tarts from the kitchen and running from the cook. We were through the main gates and into the courtyard before we had to stop.

“Where now?” Cactus asked.

Behind us, the men ran toward us. Worm shit and green sticks. “Can you slow them down, please? I need to figure this out!”

He flicked a hand, red lines lit up his arms, and flames raced out along the ground bringing the humans to a screaming halt. They shouted at us, but we ignored them.

Peta shifted into her snow leopard form. Her green eyes narrowed as she stared around us. “I can protect you from the heat better this way.”

“Shouldn’t need protecting, Peta. We’re here to talk to the Tracker, not fight her.”

She snorted. “Did you not get a fist slammed into your jaw only a few minutes ago? And that was by a mildly irritated Tracker.”

My lips twitched. It couldn’t be all that bad. Trackers might be a bit rough around the edges, but I doubted they were going to go out of their way to cause trouble. My jaw might disagree with me on that, though.

We wove our way through the buildings, and it didn’t take long to realize all the doors were locked. Except one.

At the top of the northwest tower, which was only beginning to burn, a single door was open as if in invitation. No, that was being too kind; what we saw was no invitation, but an invasion.

I ran a hand over the jagged edges of the door frame where they’d been ripped off. The metal hinges were sheared in half and the door was nowhere to be seen. Unless the tiny splinters littering the floor were what was left of it.

I stepped inside as Peta let out a low snarl.

“What?”

“I smell something rather alarming. Troll shit.”

The fetid stench curled up my nose as she spoke. As if the human sewers had spewed up after festering in heat for a year. “Mother goddess, that is horrid.” I put a hand to my nose as my eyes watered. Forcing myself to step further into the room, I dropped my hand and looked around. The room was laid out simply, a table with a few books on it, two chairs, and a window on the far side. Glass covered the window frame as if blown inward. Two strides and I stood at the window. Blood splatter covered the frame and a fingerprint on a piece of glass still left in the window drew my eye. I put my own hand up to mimic it. Several strands of long dark hair caught on the top of the window frame. “She jumped out.”

“She would have died,” Cactus said.

I peered out of the window to the cobblestone below. “No body.”

“Doesn’t mean she didn’t die. Maybe the trolls got her.”