Burned
Page 106

I finally have the whole seat to myself!
I sink into it gratefully and stretch my legs as we settle back to wait for the details of his reconnaissance mission to finalize our plan.
Three hours later Ryodan’s back with a second SUV, and bad news. Christian is indeed chained to the side of a mountain, about a half mile from here, a thousand feet above a rocky crevasse. Although Ryodan located a spot accessible by vehicle where we can conceal it near the Highlander’s location, as we feared, there’s no way to get to him from below.
Ryodan estimates he’s roughly two hundred feet from the top of the sheer stone face. There are cables driven into the backside of the mountain, a modified path for hikers. Ascent is possible. Descent will make us targets, except for me, of course.
Unfortunately, when I touch people, they don’t turn invisible like my clothing and food, so I can’t get everyone back down that way. Nor do I have any desire to have these particular five people clutching pieces of me for hours.
“Why did you acquire another vehicle?” Drustan asks.
“Backup plan. If something goes wrong and we need to split up.”
“Wise decision,” Dageus says.
According to Ryodan, the Hag has built herself a nest on a splinter of rock opposite Christian, about a quarter of a mile away from where he’s chained. While Ryodan watched, she swooped in, flayed him from breastbone to groin, then returned to her nest to resume her gruesome knitting.
“Exercise in futility. One would think she’d cease doing it,” Jada says.
“All is not governed by logic,” Ryodan says. “Though you like to pretend it is.”
“Fools and the dead are not governed by logic. Survivors are.”
“There are biologic imperatives, like it or not,” he says. “Eating. Fucking. For humans, which you are, sleeping. For her, knitting.”
“I eat. And sleep. Fucking is only relevant if one intends to reproduce. I don’t.”
“Christian,” I remind. “Stay on point.”
“The point is I don’t need any of you,” Jada says. “Give me the spear. I’ll return in two hours.”
We all ignore her.
Ryodan says, “The bitch actually lances him then sits on him like an insect on a cocoon, taking her time collecting his guts.”
“Bad for him, good for us,” I say. “The problem with the Hag has always been getting past those damn legs she uses as weapons. That’s how we get close enough to kill her.”
“What are you suggesting, lass?” Drustan says.
Jada says swiftly, “I’ll kill the Hag first, then rescue Christian.”
Ryodan says, “The Hag is nested like an eagle on a splinter of stone, impossible to scale.”
“I could,” I say. “I’m invisible.”
“Physically impossible,” he clarifies, “it’s hundreds of feet, straight up. Nobody’s climbing that needle. That’s why she chose it. We’re going to have to kill her somewhere else.”
“I’m the logical choice to kill the Hag,” Jada says. “I have the cuff of Cruce. She can’t harm me.”
“I will make the descent down the face of the cliff, invisible, and give Christian the spear,” I say coolly.
“The Hag hunts by echolocation; she targets her prey by sound,” Jada says. “Visibility is irrelevant.”
“Fallacy,” Ryodan says. “Although she has no eyes, she employs both visual and auditory guides. When she targeted Christian on the abbey’s grounds, he wasn’t making noise.”
“You don’t know for a certainty she can see,” Jada disagrees.
“You don’t know for a certainty she can’t,” he says.
I say, “Once I give him the spear, the next time the Hag attacks, Christian can stab her while she’s resting on him. Then we free him. I’ll wear the cuff to be certain I won’t be harmed if she attacks while I’m climbing down to give him the spear.”
“You’ll wear the cuff the day you can take it from me,” Jada says coolly.
“You’ll use the spear the day you can take it from me,” I return just as coolly.
“It’s a solid plan,” Drustan says to Jada. “More so than yours.”
“Agreed,” Ryodan says.
Jada says, “You fail to consider anatomical limitations. Ryodan said Christian is chained, both hands, arms spread wide. With which free hand do you expect him to stab the Hag?”
I open my mouth then shut it. Well, damn. “How are the chains fastened?” I ask Ryodan.
“From what I could see, driven in with metal rivets.”
I shrug. “I pry one free.”
“You aren’t strong enough,” Jada says.
I bristle. “First of all, I am, but second, I have a few bottles of Unseelie flesh on hand for just such emergencies.” Loath though I am to eat it again, I never leave home without it. All weapons, necessary.
“Walking on the wild side, Ms. Lane?” Barrons murmurs.
“And you think the Hag won’t notice someone freeing one of his hands,” Jada mocks. “Or that he’s suddenly hanging from only one.”
“We go at nightfall. He may be strong enough to hold himself by clutching rock, or I drive a spike in for him. It’s doable. How quickly is Christian healing?” I ask Ryodan. If he’s in bad shape, hanging on could be difficult. “When do you think the Hag will next attack him?”