CRAVE (22 page)

He looked miserable, but that didn’t make Dandy any less perturbed.

“Why would you do something so stupid, Crave? Don’t you get that it’s a punishment for both of us?”

“Yeah. Of course I get that. I never should have said yes. And I’m sorry. It was really, really dumb and I would never do anything like that again, but it’s done and I can’t undo it.”

“You don’t have to do it. You agreed it’s stupid. Just say you didn’t mean it.”

Dandy would never forget the disappointment she saw on Crave’s face.

“A male who doesn’t pay his debts is not a male who’s worthy of you, Dandelion.”

She studied his miserable face and wanted to comfort him more than chastise him. “What did you say Gore would have to do if you won?”

“I said he’d have to go naked for three days even though it’s snowing.”

When Dandy saw an image of that in her mind, she started giggling. “In that case I guess it’s a good thing for all of us that you lost.”

Crave’s forehead smoothed out when he saw that she was going to take it well. He pulled her into a goodbye kiss she’d never forget as long as she lived and said, “I’m so lucky to have you.”

Then he let her go. He spent the next month looking at her longingly from a distance, but he never got close enough to speak. He wasn’t the sort to break a pact he’d made with himself.

When Charming passed Crave and his crew on the way back to Newland, he stopped to ask how they’d fared.

“He’s not budging,” Scape said. “Won’t even respond to insults.”

“That means he’s serious,” Leo said.

“So what are you still doing here?” Charming asked.

“We’re his crew.”

Though Charming hadn’t reached the age of active duty when the Rautt battle took place, he related to the camaraderie expressed by Leo on a level that was born of something deeper than experience.

“You’re burning. And there’s not enough water for you.”

“Then go get us some,” Leo said. Charming made an exasperated sound. “By the way, you look like shit. Who did that to you?”

Charming looked at Crave. “Guess.” Crave’s entire crew responded by laughing. “Smell that?” Charming sniffed the air.

“What?” Scape said.

“Exiled cooking in the middle of the wasteland because they’re too stupid to get out of the midday desert sun.”

Charming revved his bike and pulled around so that he was directly in front of Snow’s path. “Here. Take this.” He jerked off his shirt quickly and handed it to her. “Your skin is going to be permanently scarred from burns if you don’t. Put it over your head so it shades your face.”

She came to a stop and took the shirt gratefully. “What about you?”

“I’m gonna go too fast to burn.”

She snorted.

He looked back at the others. “I’ll be back with water and stuff to put on your skin and things with hoods. But just so you know, I think you’re all as crazy as he is.”

“I can live with that,” said Scape.

Charming rode straight to the Bike Barn scaring a small gaggle of geese out of the way and leaving stray feathers flying.

Race and the other mechanics looked up.

“Fuel me up. Get the tanker ready to go. I need somebody to ride fuel out to salt flats,” Charming rushed out. “Load up oil lamps, too. As many as you can carry.”

Race didn’t ask why or demand an explanation. He saw that Charming’s tone and expression were urgent. So he got to work.

Charming ran to the Weavers Barn, plowed through the main door, and left it standing open. He grabbed the first person he saw, Cam, and asked, “Where’s Flora? Is she here?”

“Yes. In the kitchen.”

Serene was in one of the classrooms, observing, when she saw Charming flash by through the glass that gave a view of the hallway. She slipped out quietly and followed him to the kitchen.

Everyone in the kitchen had stopped what they were doing to listen to Charming talk excitedly to Flora.

“…
staying out there. They’re already burned. So I need something to soothe the damage already done and keep their burns from getting worse. I also need something they can put on to shade their faces, but it can’t be hats because it’s windy and their hands have to be free to ride.”

While Charming talked, Flora got up, hurried to the south wall cabinets and began rifling through her stash of potions, ointments, salves and poultices.

“Get that basket up there,” she said to one of the student helpers observing the spectacle.

Charming continued with his list while she gathered things together. “Dandy said for me to ask if you have something we could put in water for Crave. Something that would help him retain fluids?”

She stopped what she was doing suddenly and straightened, like she was reviewing a catalog that resided only in her head. “Yes. I do have something like that. Dandelion thought of it?”

“Yes.”

“Hmmm.”

Charming was so intent on his purpose he hadn’t realized Serene was in the room until she spoke up.

“What’s going on?”

He turned toward the sound of her voice. “I was coming to see you next. Crave won’t be talked out of this. I tried. His crew tried. He’s dug in. So they’re staying.”

“Staying?”

“Yeah. They said if he’s doing it, they’re doing it.” He waved toward Flora. “That’s what this is all about. Trying to keep them from being permanently scarred from the burn.”

“What about Dandelion?”

Charming’s mouth tightened slightly. “She won’t talk to him. She said if this is what he needs to do, then he needs to be left alone to do it. She said to support him with water and not feeling alone or something like that.” Serene nodded solemnly. “Race is getting the fuel trailer ready. I’m taking stuff to put on skin, water for Crave that’s…” he looked at Flora, “got stuff in it.” Flora nodded confirmation of that. “Now all I have to do is figure out how to take them clothing that forms a tent.”

Serene looked around the room, crossed her arms around her middle, and said, “How is Crave shading himself?”

“He took a blanket. He wears it like a tent with the hood hanging in front of his face.”

“That’s it then.”

“What?” Charming and Flora both asked at once.

“They’re going slow, right, because Crave is walking.”

“Yeah. Slower than normal walking even.”

“What we need is two people on every bike. The person riding behind can hold the tent up for both of them.”

Charming looked off to the side. “It could work. Makes the most sense, because a person can make adjustments for wind and angle of the sun. I need nine people. Four to go ride behind Crave’s crew, four to carry them out there, and one to ride behind me.”

“Eight. You need eight.”

Charming nodded his head. “Get ready. I’ll find eight volunteers, get the blankets, and make sure that Race is loading drinking water as well as fuel.”

“I’ve got a better idea.” She looked down at her wrap-around skirt. Picking up the hem and shaking it, she said, “We’ll need the blankets at night, but during the day our skirts will be better. They’ll keep the sun off without trapping all the heat in with us.”

“You’re on your own getting skirts,” he said.

Two of the teenage females who’d been helping in the kitchen said, “We’ll do that. We’ll get skirts and bring them to the Bike Barn.”

Before he could say thank you, they’d darted away.

Serene slammed into the house, as rambunctious as the boys she’d raised, and went straight to the first floor bedroom she’d shared with her mate since she was pregnant with Crave.

She wasn’t expected back until late afternoon, so Free ambled in to see what was going on. She’d thrown clothes all over the room rummaging for riding leathers and was now pulling them on.

“What’re you doing?”

“He’s going through with it, Free. His crew’s out there and Charming says they’re not leaving him. Maybe he feels like he has to do this thing, but his friends are right. For once, he’s not going to be alone.”

The shades were drawn and the room light was dim, but she saw emotion pass across Free’s face. He turned and left without a word while she pulled on motorcycle boots, gathered up her four wraparound skirts and plundered the upstairs rooms for blankets.

When she stepped out onto the porch, arms full of makeshift shade, Free was waiting for her, straddling his magnificent black bike that was the envy of Exiled. He hadn’t ridden since Carnal had been killed, but he looked like he still knew what he was doing.

“If you’re goin’, you’re ridin’ on the back of my bike. Just like always.”

She rewarded him with a smile that made him forget all about her facial scars and see the real beauty that was his Serene.

There’d been a time when there would have been plenty of people in the Commons who were available on a moment’s notice, but these days most were working. Charming told Race he needed to find volunteers in a hurry.

“Goose can take care of gettin’ the trailers stocked and ready to go. I’ll head on down to the city and round up the rest.”

Charming knew that, if Race took it on, it was as good as done. So he mentally checked that off his list. He turned to see his parents coasting up beside him.

“I see you’re busy gettin’ things together,” Free said. “I think we’re goin’ to head out a little early. Kind of see things for ourselves.”

“Sure. We’ll be right behind you. You may want to put some of Flora’s stuff on your skin first.”

Serene held up a small jar. “Already done.”

“Okay. See you out there. If he’s moving at the same pace, he should be right at the southern edge of the salt flats.”

Free nodded and said, “Take care,” just before he pulled away.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The salt flats covered sixteen square miles of the barrens between the Farsuitwail valley and Fosterland. The ribbon that Crave had to cross was about three and a half miles wide. He reached it at the hottest part of the day which was both good and bad news.

The good news was that the salt was easier to walk on than sand. The bad news was that it absorbed heat and held it, which meant that the temperature of one hundred twenty-one degrees in the sun felt more like one hundred thirty-one. Compounding that was the fact that Crave had some open wounds on his face, courtesy of Charming. That meant that a breeze carrying grains of salt was as bad as any torture the Rautt had devised.

Even those who had no open wounds felt the sting of salt in their eyes, which stung and blinded and caused continual watering.

If they’d been taking a vote, the crew would have opted to wait until it was cooler to cross, but they weren’t a committee. They were accompanying Crave to hell if that’s where he was going and couldn’t be deterred. And looking at the stretch of salt in front of them, they realized that wasn’t just a figure of speech.

It was going to be brutal. But not as brutal as the years of guilt they’d each suffered, wondering if there was some way they could have changed the course of events that resulted in Crave’s capture by the Rautt.

Each of them had been over it thousands of times in their minds, but the result was always the same. Crave had been taken. They’d been spared.

Leo’s neck swiveled so he could see behind them when he got that eerie intuitive feeling predators sometimes get when there’s a good reason to turn around.

“Got company comin’ in,” he said.

At that everybody but Crave turned. They couldn’t tell who it was at that distance, but they knew there was something odd about the sight because, at that distance, it appeared that a rider bore down on them with brightly colored wings billowing in the breeze he made as he flew across the sand.