Butcher Bird

Lulu shivered in her light cotton jacket. "I'm seriously dying over here." Spyder took off his leather jacket and draped it across her shoulders.

"What about one of those caves?" asked Spyder. "We can do like the other night, start a small fire and stack some of this scrub over the entrance. Maybe cover it with our coats."

"It's still dangerous," said the Count. "What do you say, Shrike?"

"If nothing else, moving around and gathering brush will warm us. Do you see anything yet, Primo?"

"No, ma'am. Whatever your decision about a fire, I'm going to stay here and watch the moon."

While Primo and the Count kept track of the sky, the others began pulling the dry, shallow-rooted brush from the loose desert soil and piling it in a nearby cave. While Lulu and Shrike broke up some of the brush into kindling, Spyder spread their coats over a pile of brush at the cave opening. Count Non volunteered a heavy wool cloak that he pulled from his weapons bag.

When he'd covered the entrance, Spyder slipped inside, trying not to disturb any of the brush that kept in the light. Kneeling next to Shrike and Lulu, he struck a match and lit the kindling they'd laid out. The sticks caught quickly and the little cave filled with light. The heat came up more slowly, but in the frigid night, they felt their skin begin to warm and it felt good. Spyder leaned into Shrike as Lulu huddled up on the other side.

Lulu pulled off her blindfold. "All they can see is the fire, right?"

"Yeah. They won't know where the fire is," said Spyder. "We having a good time yet?" Spyder asked.

"Shit, this is better than dinner and a spanking," said Lulu.

From outside the cave came Count Non's voice. "Sorry to disturb you, but you should come and look at this."

"Who should?" called Lulu.

"All of you."

"Dammit."

They crawled out of the cave slowly, gloomily, leaving the warmth behind. It felt even colder and more miserable now that they'd had a few minutes of comfort. The three of them remained huddled together as they went to where Primo and the Count were waiting.

Spyder followed the men's gaze upward to the night sky. "It's the moon," he said. "Been there. Done that."

"Look beyond that peak," said Primo.

"Oh man," Spyder said.

"What is it?" asked Shrike.

Spyder felt Lulu shiver.

"Two moons," Spyder said. "There are two moons in the sky."

Shrike lowered her head, but didn't say anything.

"Who has the juice for this?" Spyder asked.

"The Brotherhood, perhaps," said Count Non. "Perhaps the Black Clerks, though I've never heard of them doing anything remotely this mad before."

"It could be a confederacy. Two or three of the groups wanting to stop us could have combined their powers," Shrike said. "This is bad."

"There's something worse," said Lulu, looking back at the cave.

Spyder turned and saw that the fire had ignited some of the brush by the entrance. The whole cave was burning like a merry beach bonfire on the Fourth of July.

"If someone's looking for us, I think we just sent 'em a flare," said Lulu.

"There's something in the flames," Primo said.

Black, moiling smoke slid from the cave, up the mountainside. But a slower, heavier smoke hung white in the air, turning in slow motion tornadoes. Things coalesced inside the spinning whirlpools, shape-angled, skeletal. A glimpse of bared teeth. A sharp arc of metal. Heavy, restless boots.

"Soldiers," said Spyder. "Primo, that cave we want is above us, right?"

"Yes, sir. Up the mountain."

"Maybe we should go now."

Spyder took Shrike's hand and they ran up a narrow switchback that cut back and forth across the face of the Kasla Mountains. Coming from far behind them, Spyder heard the clattering of metal and leather. He hoped the smoke soldiers were slow, or still smoky, so the mountain wind might blow them away. As the group ran, however, the sound of the soldiers' weapons came closer. Shrike pulled away from Spyder and ran back down the mountain, her sword up and ready to strike. Spyder was frozen in place, his mind a blank. What was she going to do against a soldier made of smoke? But when Shrike made her first slash, Spyder saw the blood and heard a scream. He realized that while the soldiers might have come from smoke, they were now just flesh and blood. He, Primo and Count Non charged down the hill while Lulu opened up behind them with the four-ten.

Spyder sent a couple of the soldiers off the edge of the trail as they tried to avoid the spinning Hornet, while the Count gutted one, then another of the smoke soldiers. Spyder saw other soldiers forming at the foot of the mountain. While the others attacked the remaining few pursuers, Spyder grabbed Shrike.

"Do you know any magic to make the wind blow harder?" he asked.

"One spell."

"Use it."