She didn’t answer, full concentration on Katu—and on hoping the zebra didn’t panic and try dashing the wrong way.“Come on, baby cat,” she murmured, and told him to leap.
Azul screamed thinly as Katu left the ley line, arcing to the steep cliff side rising above them.They collided with a rock outcropping—sending black glass shards flying—bounced off, and landed on the far edge of the ley line.Too far on that edge.They teetered for an endless moment, half the jag hanging over the drop, Azul clawing at the upholstery as if it could save him, before Katu found his footing, clawing at the ley line and heaving them solidly back to the meat of it.
They sped up the hill, Katu as happy as any of them to escape the sudden canyon of mining doom.In the rear view, the zebra shook its head, then trotted over to the side to grab a mouthful of scraggly foliage, as if nothing at all had occurred.
Very carefully, Azul tucked the magic wand into one of Katu’s side pockets, letting out a long breath, saying nothing at all.Finally, as they made it to the top without further incident, coursing back toward the Thirteen, he took another breath, and said, almost philosophically, “I should have taken my chances with the fell wolves.”
~25~
Saved by the Ambrosia Station
They made itback to the Black Thirteen in good time.Dy had left in place the high white ley line she’d sorcelled up, thank the stars.Cha hadn’t liked contemplating what they’d do if the rural ley petered out, or went in a different direction.With the map globe still on the fritz, she hadn’t wanted to trust that the mine’s ley line would take them to the Black Thirteen, instead of to, oh, a slaughterhouse for human cattle.
Azul would be fine in that case, but Cha had no desire to end up as a steak.Not that such things truly existed, but she’d seen enough dramas on the topic to want to avoid that particular fear.
But, all turned out fine and they made it intact.As it was, they were more than an hour behind Big Betty when they hit the junction and spun onto the Black Thirteen, traffic much more sparse as daylight faded and the bottleneck from the backed-up border had thinned out.
Like magic—ha!—the marcasite channel lit up at that moment.“Goldilocks here.Nearing the depot.Bandit, you close?”
Cha debated lying about it.On the one hand, knowing they were so far behind her for the run around the depot would only send Dy into a frenzy of anxiety, which was never good for a sorceress who needed to keep a cool, clear head.On the other, Dy had that creepy, eyes-in-the-back-of-her-head maternal antennae for lies.She’d be angry at Cha for lying, and then anxious anyway when she dug the truth out.Cha sighed for her shitty luck so far.
“Bandit here.Good news is we stomped on that parasite that wanted in.Bad news is it took a while.”
An ominous pause.“What’s a while?”
“I’m back where I started.Sorry, babe.”
An even longer, more ominous pause.“I hate you.”
Azul tapped into the path-box.“Same, Goldilocks.Same.”
At least Dy chuckled.“Prince Charming, do you swear on whatever you hold sacred that this delay was unavoidable and in service of the job?”
Cha groaned internally.Dy either had forgotten or didn’t believe Cha’s hints about Azul maybe having more fae blood than he should.The fae didn’t take vows lightly.Odds were high he’d refuse to answer and, while that would be instructive, that wouldn’t help anything.“I already told you the truth,” she inserted.
“I want it from a neutral third party.”
“Hey,” Cha protested.“Don’t you trust your best friend?”
“No.”
Azul gave her a sly half smile, indicating he was tempted to mess with her.Cha glared back, baring her teeth, promising painful vengeance.He shook his head in sorrow, pursing his lips in disapproval.That shouldn’t have made her want to suck that lower lip into her mouth and bite it, but it did.What could she say?She was clearly a creature of her baser urges.They should all know that about her by now.
“I so swear,” Azul said into the path-box.“We’ll catch up in all haste.”
“All right then,” Dy said.“I’m back up to 36 minutes ahead of schedule.I’m going to juice up both Betty and me, let you get a bit closer for the depot.Don’t fuck this up for me, Bandit.Goldilocks out.”
“Forus,” Cha said to the silent path-box, then slid a glance at Azul.“This job is for both of us.And the kids.”
“You have children?”
She barked out a laugh.“Me?Nooooo.Can you imagine me, responsible for keeping small humans alive?”
“Now that you mention it, absolutely not,” he drawled, a hint of amusement in his voice.When she glanced at him, she caught a dimple in his cheek winking into existence like an evening star, though he still didn’t crack an actual smile.
Declining to take the bait, she tapped the map globe.It swirled promisingly, then gave up a shower of sparks and went black.Not sparkly Obsidian-magic black, but dull, dead, giving-up-the-ghost black.“Great,” she muttered.“I don’t suppose you can fix that, Mr.Magic.”
He gave the device a disdainful, narrowed look.“No.Who made that thing?”
