Endless Knight (The Arcana Chronicles #2)(33)

“Which force will reach us first?” Jack asked. “How long do we have?

“I’ll get a real-time estimate.” She murmured something to the bird on her shoulder. It unfurled its wings behind Lark’s head, bouncing on its thick legs. It even had a little leather helmet.

Any chick who carried around a bird of prey with a little helmet was cool in my book. Oh, man, I really hoped she didn’t intend to kill us all. “Can you see through the hawk’s eyes?”

“She’s a gyrfalcon. And yes.” In a flash of feathers, the falcon took off from Lark’s slim shoulder, soaring up into the rainy sky. The bird’s size blew my mind, its wingspan at least four feet.

Lark’s gaze grew blank, her eyes beginning to sparkle red—the color of an animal’s gaze caught in headlights. When her head and body canted to the side, like a kid playing airplane, I realized her senses and the falcon’s had married. They were changing directions in flight.

Again: cool.

Moments later, Lark blinked, her eyes clearing. “The Bagmen’ll be here around midnight. I forecast the Teeth’ll show about the same time.”

“Both of them?” In four hours.

Finn crossed to the wolves. They growled, but he ignored the warning.

“Don’t!” Lark cried. “They’ll kill you. They’re war wolves—”

After a hesitation, they began licking his outstretched hand. Lark’s jaw slackened. Score one for Finn.

“These guys have seen some action, huh?” Turning to Lark, Finn said, “So our choices are either to fight a horde of zombies and a cult of cannibals—or to risk running a booby-trapped mountain pass in the pitch dark?”

Her tough-girl fa?ade back in place, Lark smiled, showing sharp canines. “Bingo. There will be at least five dozen of the cannibals mobilizing. Double that in Baggers.”

“Then we make a stand here,” I said. I’d been ready before. Now I saw no choice.

Jack muttered to me, “A word.” He squired me some distance away. “I don’t suppose you’ll run with me, give that sheer rock face a try?” When my gaze fell on Matthew, Jack bit out a curse. “Always with coo-y?n. He could’ve warned us about this, could’ve steered us out of this valley.”

“He told me he’d let us know when we stepped off the correct path.”

“Does this feel correct to you?”

“I’ve asked him to use his powers as little as possible. I hoped it would make him clearer.”

Jack motioned for Selena to join us. She did, still shaking her head. Matthew followed her. Finn made apologies to Lark, then hastened over like we were huddling up.

“Well, Matthew?” I asked. “Give us the skinny on her.”

He whispered, “Basement.”

Huh? “Does she mean to do us harm?”

“Good. Bad. Good. Bad. Good. Good. Bad. Bad. Good. Bad. Good—”

“I get the picture,” I said, interrupting. With a sigh, I brushed his wet hair off his brow. “Thank you, sweetheart. We’re going to figure this out.”

Jack asked us, “You think this fille’s telling the truth?”

Finn glanced to Lark and back. “Totally.”

“I think she’s a little liar.” Selena might’ve lowered her bow, but she kept an arrow strung. “I don’t believe a word of this.”

“Yeah, but you don’t trust anybody,” I pointed out.

“I trust you,” she said, surprising me. “I believe you will do what you say and not lie to me.”

I frowned with realization. I kind of trusted her too.

Selena tilted her head at me. “Do you think she’s telling the truth?”

I couldn’t be certain. But I knew I’d have to chance it—because we needed numbers. We could turn this game, but only if we attracted more players to our movement. “I think we have to take a leap and trust her, for no other reason than to grow our alliance.”

Selena rolled her eyes.

“I have to look at the big picture on this,” I explained. “Plus, what she says makes sense. We know the Bagmen are closing in, and we tripped the cannibals’ alarm.” Everyone was listening to me again, like I was a leader. Screw it; I owned it. “If we believe these things, then we should assume there’s a booby-trapped canyon. So the next step is deciding which of the options she presented is the least likely to get us killed.”

Finn said, “I think we should stay and use our powers.” Glancing at me, he added in as nice a way as possible, “You might, uh, have trouble getting down a rocky canyon?”

Another dafuq? look from Jackson. “Worry about yourself—I’ll carry her ass if I have to.”

I laid my hand on Jack’s chest. “He’s right. We should use our powers.” And my MO was to lie in wait.

Or maybe I just didn’t want to risk a bear trap snapping any of our leg bones in half.

“Then we’re going to need Lark’s wolves too,” Finn said. “I say we call her over.”

We all gazed at her. The falcon had just returned to land on her shoulder, shaking off its feathers. She rubbed her nose against its beak.

“You’re kidding, right?” Selena looked aghast. Just as I hadn’t trusted her, Selena didn’t trust Lark.