Iron and Magic (The Iron Covenant #1)(76)

“Oh that.”

“I reassured him that I was aware of that.”

“I bet you did.”

“You know,” Elara murmured thoughtfully. “He is kind of handsome. In that older grizzled veteran way.”

“Rufus the Ashes? Sorry to disappoint you, but he’s happily married.”

“Really?”

“For about thirty years now. Marissa likes splitting people with her axe, so I would think twice if I were you.”

“You’re making this up,” she said.

“Go ahead. Test the waters. Just don’t come running to me when she shows up here looking to make you a head shorter.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I wouldn’t run to you if you were the last man on Earth.”

He smiled at her, leaned closer, and murmured, “You did yesterday.”

Elara actually growled. A real growl, under her breath, but still a growl. He almost laughed.

“I see your concrete finally set,” she said.

“Mhm.”

“In that case, you should consider being very nice to me during the next few days.”

“Why?”

“You’ll be needing gasoline for your cement mixer and you’re over your limit. Again.”

Bloody woman. “Are you telling me that with all that beer and all your eyelash fluttering, you couldn’t con that old man out of some money?”

“I don’t con! I conduct business by selling a quality product.”

Johanna emerged from the tower and walked in their direction.

“How much?” he asked.

“We’re going to make about eighty-seven grand after expenses on the Red Guard order,” Elara said. “Another twenty in the next few months if he comes back for seconds. And he will. Oh, and five hundred dollars from him personally.”

“Five hundred bucks? What the hell did he buy?”

Her eyes narrowed into slits. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“So we made sixty-seven thousand five hundred,” he said. “Not bad.”

“How do you figure that?”

“I bought two 50 Cal Gatling Guns from Rufus. Ten K each.”

She stared at him, stunned.

He braced himself. “We need the guns, Elara.”

“And you just made that decision without me?” Her voice was so sharp, he wanted to check himself for cuts.

“A 50 Cal GAU doesn’t sound like a firecracker. It sounds like a jackhammer, because it fires up to 2,000 rounds per minute. It’s belt-fed from the ammo box and it will turn a vampire into hamburger in less than two seconds.”

“Damn it, Hugh.”

“We’re both stronger during magic. The Gatling guns will guarantee that Nez doesn’t attack during tech.”

Johanna reached them and waved. Elara turned to her. “Yes?”

“Boy is awake,” Johanna signed.

Fear flickered across Elara’s face. She blurred and then she was at the tower door, thin tendrils of white magic snaking through the space she had just occupied.

There was something the boy knew she didn’t want Hugh to know. Hugh broke into a run. Ten seconds to the door, another twenty to clear the stairs. He burst into the hallway and sprinted to the room.

The door stood wide open. He heard Elara’s voice, soft yet insistent.

“… never do it again. I understand why you did. I’m not upset with you. But you must promise me to never do it again.”

“I promise,” a young male voice answered.

He’d missed it. Damn it.

Hugh walked through the doorway. The kid lay in bed, still pale from the loss of blood. He let his magic slide over the boy’s body. The vitals looked good, though, for how complicated the patch job was. Elara sat on the edge of his bed. She glanced up at Hugh’s approach.

“You’re making eyes at my wife?” Hugh asked.

The kid went a shade paler. “No, sir.”

“Hugh!” Elara turned to the boy. “He’s joking.”

“Tell me about the village, Alex,” Hugh said.

He heard quiet footsteps in the hallway. Deidre. The footsteps stopped.

Alex licked his lips. “Deidre likes the forest. She goes off sometimes and doesn’t come back for a while. We heard dire wolves howling, so when it started getting dark and she wasn’t back, Phillip, her dad, asked me to go look for her. I’m better with the woods than he is. I don’t get lost.”

“Does she usually stay out past sunset?” Elara asked.

“No. She always comes back before dinner, but this time she didn’t, so everyone was worried. It took me awhile, but I found her. We were heading back, but…”

He fell silent.

“Take your time,” Elara told him.

“Deidre didn’t want to go back. She kept stopping. I just had a feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Every step I took toward the village it was like a big hand I couldn’t see was pushing me back. So, I told Deidre to wait and climbed a tree to try and see anything.” He swallowed. “There were soldiers and monsters in the village. Killing everyone. They pulled them out of the houses, and killed them right there on the street, and laid them out like cordwood. Like they weren’t even people. They killed kids. Little kids. They took Maureen’s baby and slit her throat.”