Brimstone and Lily (Legacy Stone Adventures) (20 page)

“Sorry, fella. Maybe next time.” A tour around the house showed me that we were still safely alone. I saw no sign of Roberta or Ernie, so they were still off spying. I hoped they made it back in time and without running into any trouble. I knew that they’d been taking care of themselves for a long time, but my new dream had me spooked, not least because I had no idea what any of it meant. For all I could tell the whole thing foretold disaster for them.

After going back into the parlor to check on Tyrell, who slept like a

righteous man or a very comfortable villain, I tiptoed out back again. Finding Al still okay, I crept into the windowless tool shed, the farthest building away from the house, and latched the door. I didn’t want any surprises while talking to Jasper.

“Wake up, sleepyhead,” I said in a semi-loud voice, tin cup in hand. I preferred speaking aloud to him when I could. It made me feel like Eddie, or something resembling Eddie anyways, still stuck by me.

“You’re a fine one to talk,” Jasper said, the tin cup flowing out into the silvery shape of Morphageus. It sprouted cartoony little hands and feet, then hopped out of my grip to do cartwheels around the dirt floor. “Have any good dreams lately?”

I scowled at him. “Was that you?”

He held up his cute little hands in mock outrage. “Me? Oh, lordy no! How you wound me, child!”

“What was it, then? I can tell it’s like the other dream. That one came true, near as I can tell. What does this one mean? Where does it come from?”

“Dream interpretation’s somethin’ you’ll have to work out on your own. I’m
in
your head but I’m not
of
your head, if you catch my meanin’.” As he spoke he leapt up to the rafters and started swinging while humming a playground tune.

Sighing, I grit my teeth, then tried to relax. “Well, what about where they come from? Are they just dreams that come with the Stone, or is somebody makin’ ‘em happen from the outside?”

“The Stone doesn’t cause dreams or visions by itself. It only magnifies the Warden’s natural gifts.”

“Meanin’…?”

“Meanin’ that you already have the Sight, even if it’s so slight that you ain’t aware of it, or you have the talent for receivin’ the thoughts of others.”

“Which is it most likely to be?”

He dropped from the rafters with a back-flip and wrapped himself around me as if we were about to waltz. His tiny warm hands probed my skull in a motion like phrenology. “Hmmm. Offhand, I’d say the second one. You’re gettin’ messages from somebody who has the Sight.”

“You can tell that from gropin’ my head?”

“No. I can tell that from the fact that you have no idea that a dozen men are about to attack the house.”

16/ Hellfiend Legion

He pointed his giant pistol right at my face. It was like staring into a railroad tunnel. Any second I’d see the bright light of the locomotive.

Then I wouldn’t see anything else.

I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow at Jasper. “Uh-huh.”

“Would these lips lie?”

“You ain’t got no lips.”

“Well, read ‘em anyway… ‘a-dozen-men-are-about-to-attack-the-house!’”

I sighed. “I was just out there, you know. Didn’t see nothin’, didn’t hear nothin’.”

Jasper’s blade spread out into a big shiny eye, then a silvery ear. “And that logically means…what, Miss Stone-Warden-for-a-Day?”

After scrunching up my face and thinking, I said, “They were waitin’ outta range. Somebody in the house called ‘em in when me and you came in here.”

The sword clapped its adorable little hands. “Clever girl!”

I smacked my palm to my forehead. “I knew we couldn’t trust that Reb!”

“What now?” asked Jasper. He acted like he was my tutor or something.

“We sneak out and see what’s up. Romulus is still snoozin’ in the house. Don’t want to let him get caught nappin’.” I felt the Stone, but it lay quiet. “No magick or monsters so far. Are they just ordinary men? Not Bullies?”

Jasper jumped into my hand, his hands and feet disappearing in mid-air. “Let’s go find out.”

After a couple of long deep breaths I opened the door and my ears. Grass rustled outside, to the north and east of the house. Since the shed sat to the southwest, that meant that we were covered by the house for the moment. No sound or movement came from inside except Tyrell’s snoring.
Is he fakin’ that after sendin’ these guys to us? Or is there somebody else out here helpin’ ‘em?
Since I hadn’t spotted anyone yet it made sense to be cautious, so with a thought I made the sword into a black shield and held it in front of me. Whoever advanced on the house had discipline. No one spoke, laughed, coughed, or otherwise betrayed themselves. If they carried weapons, and times being what they were I had to believe they were armed to the teeth, they were all careful not to let any metal noises give their positions away. If it weren’t for my magicked ears I’d never have known they were there.

Easing behind the shed and sidling to my left, I crept behind the square stone well and peeked around the corner to get my first look at the attackers. Three of them were in view now, tiptoeing through the apple orchard just north of the house, about thirty yards away. They wore pieces of Federal blue and Rebel gray uniforms, mixed with civilian shirts and hats. Not a single one of them looked liked he’d bathed or shaved in weeks. All carried muskets with fixed bayonets and all had the hard look of professional soldiers on a do-or-die assault.

“Renegades,” I said in my mind to Jasper. “Deserters from both armies. They mean to cut our throats and take whatever they think we have.”

No time to warn Romulus. I could see another three following twenty yards behind the first bunch. Beyond them, a bit further from the house and on the side we’d first come from that afternoon, six more were coming on. This was all up to me. No help would come from Marshals or seagulls or anyone else. And I had to do it quick and quiet or they’d all rush me at once. I had my doubts that even Morphageus could beat those odds.

“Jasper, listen real careful to what I want to do.” I laid things out for him in the few seconds we had while sneaking around behind the first six attackers. He agreed that it was not only possible, but would be fun.
Easy for him to say, he won’t end up dead if things go wrong.
I swallowed hard, broke into a run, and did it.

The only warning the three in the rear had was the
boing
of a giant spring as Morphageus bounced me into the air like he’d done against Venoma. By the time they’d turn to see what went on behind them, the spring had flowed up my body to my arms and shaped itself into honest-to-goodness bat wings. My belly lurched.
Jiminy! This is crazy! I’m flyin’! We’re higher than our hayloft back in Maryland.Maybe this is a really stupid idea.
With Jasper’s aid I shakily glided down onto the Renegades from twenty feet up while they were still peering into the darkness where the sound had come from. As I landed without a sound, every muscle tensed for a crash, one wing thumped into a head, another into a neck. As the third turned to see what had dropped his comrades, the hilt of Morphageus laid him low with a one-two to the belly and skull. Whipping around to crouch behind a tree, I tried to stop my terrified panting and my stomach churning. This wasn’t like Bully-fighting. I’d just hurt real people. I’d felt their bones crunch. The other three had turned around at the sound of my assault. As they came toward me I reminded myself that they couldn’t see me in the dark, but I could see them.
Okay, then. No time to whimper. Let’s go.

The nearest one went down with a surprised gasp as the boomerang bounced off his noggin and returned to me. When the man beside him crouched down to check on his condition, a silvery fist flew out of my hand and boxed him to sleep. By this time the last renegade had realized that he was under attack and had raised his musket. But I was beside him in the gloom now, and Morphageus snapped his gun in two like a dry twig. When he tried to run, the magick blade snaked around his throat to choke him into dreamland.

All of it had happened in thirty frantic seconds. I dropped down into the tall grass at the edge of the orchard. Six down, six to go. I knew that later I’d upchuck from the terror of it all, but right now the Stone seemed to protect me from the worst of normal feelings. Good thing, too, because now the other deserters knew that something had gone wrong with their careful plan. Their leader, a bulky fellow with a heavy cavalry saber in one hand and a Colt revolver in the other, looked straight at me and froze.
So much for hidin’ in the grass.
With a hiss he snapped the sword in my direction. All of his men turned as one unit and rushed me, silent as death. Pretty good simile, considering the circumstances.

I should’ve been in a total panic, me a little girl and them hard desperate killers. But it felt like the Stone put out a calming energy that slowed things down and gave me time to think. What I thought of was to run into the thickest part of the orchard, a new long shield hanging off my shoulder. It covered every inch of me from head to toe while weighing less than my coat did. Up till now the renegades had valued silence over anything else, but there was no telling when they might abandon that in favor of shooting.

No bullets came my way. I was lighter than they were, and in better physical condition, since I hadn’t been living rough like them. Scampering into woods like a bunny, I put a little distance between us, zigzagging between the trees.
I need the perfect tree, preferably one that don’t talk. Hey, this’ll do.
It had a dense coat of leaves, but also had a strong horizontal branch about eight feet off the ground. Heavy footsteps pounded behind me, sounding closer than they really were because of my wonder-hearing. I’d already let Jasper know about the new plan and he was ready. My arm tugged the shield from my back. By the time my hand flashed forward and up Morphageus had become a thin steel cable with a grappling hook on its far end. It snaked around the branch and bit hard. My momentum and lots of pulling jerked me up onto the limb in a flash.
Good thing me and Eddie climb trees all the time.
Wiggling against the trunk to hide in the foliage, I waited for my pursuers.

They came at a trot, in a skirmish line, several yards apart, two to my left right below me and three farther to my right. The one who’d sent them after me stayed about thirty feet back, weapons ready. In a normal battle that arrangement made sense, since a cannon shell would likely cause a single casualty, instead of wrecking the whole formation. But in this situation all it did was put them too far apart to gang up on me. Before they could become aware of that, I took a deep breath and struck.

My silvery metal bullwhip snapped down, wrapping around the closest soldier’s arm. I yanked with all my might. His musket stayed where it was, but the rest of him crashed hard into the trunk of my tree. Shaking the whip loose, I boomeranged his companion and then looked to my right. Things had happened so fast that all they knew was that two of their men had vanished. They threw themselves onto the ground. Now I heard the unsettling sound of muskets being ratcheted to full-cock.
Guess the silent treatment’s about to end, then. Now what?

Still choosing to make no sound, their leader pointed up at my tree. He crouched back far enough that he could see everything that had happened. Good night vision, too, it seemed. I couldn’t let his men react and start shooting. Three bullets at once might be more than I could defend against. Jasper-springing up and out of the apple tree, I bat-winged again, soaring over the tree closest to the trio. The instant I landed Morphageus flashed in both hands, angry scarlet runes glowing along its blade. With every bit of strength my body could muster I swung the magick sword. It bit into the lower trunk of the twenty-foot tree. I felt no more resistance than from cutting a cattail. With a snapping creak the apple fell over like a lady fainting from a too-tight corset.

Right onto the three alarmed renegades.

Lots of panicked yelling commenced. Silence was no longer golden. From the sound I guessed that one of the attackers wouldn’t be talking for a while but that the other two more than made up for him. They clawed at the branches that pinned them to the ground. One caterwauled that his shoulder had been broken and the other screeched for help from his sergeant.
Sergeant? Oh, their leader. Where’s he?
I whipped around to where the sword-wielder had been a moment before, my shield up and ready to take a pistol ball.

Nothing. He was gone.

I spun in all directions, using my magicked sight to see if he was trying to flank me. Nope. He rushed back north as fast as his legs could get the job done. In a second I lost him as he crested a low ridge and disappeared, probably heading for the nearest tavern. I imagined him drinking half a bottle of whiskey and telling some barkeep about the tiny monster that had bested eleven grown men with guns.

“Whoo!” Jasper hollered. Lucky that only I could hear him. “Verity the Valiant! You are the Stone-Warden Extraordinaire, girl!”

I sagged down into the grass like a soggy rag, all my battle-born strength sapped. Shivering, I curled up into a ball, hands over my ears to block out the yells of the men under the tree. Other voices joined them, as most of the renegades I’d clobbered struggled into wakefulness. They groaned about their injuries and started moving north. Some crawled, some stumbled to their feet. None paid me any mind or even looked like they knew where I was. They just wanted to get away from the awful nightmare that had laid them low. Me, too.

“I don’t wanna do this,” I moaned to Jasper and to anyone else who might be able to read my thoughts. “Monsters, magicians, runnin’, fightin’, flyin’—flyin’!--hurtin’ people…I wanna go home.” I blubbered into my dirty coat sleeve, Morphageus on the ground in front of me, a tin cup again.