Hallowed Ground

Chapter Twenty-Six

Three whiskey bottles sat on a flat rock about twenty yards away. Mariah stared at them, waiting. Somewhere, she knew he was watching. She felt his eyes on her. She closed her eyes and sank deeper into the moment. She'd practiced this until her mind blurred with fatigue. Her feet were sore from standing too long on the hot sand. Her throat was parched.

Where was he?

A slight breeze brushed a stray hair across her cheek. She ignored it. Something else moved. She didn't hear it, exactly, rather, felt it and reacted.

Moving so quickly her hand blurred she gripped the hilt of one of the three knives on her belt with her left hand, drew it and flipped it so she caught the blade between thumb and forefinger. Whatever she had sensed was moving. She snapped back her wrist, and sent the blade slashing through the air. At the same moment she dropped her right hand to the butt of the revolver, flipped it up, and, working the hammer with her now empty left, fired three quick shots.

The bottles shattered one after the other in a spray of glittering glass.

She turned, gun still drawn, and dropped into a crouch.

Balthazar stood, smiling at her. He held the blade of her knife like it was some poisonous viper. He flipped it back at her and without thought she caught it, just before it would have struck her face. She spun it and slid it back into its sheath.

Only when she released the hilt did she start to shake. The pistol felt suddenly heavy in her grip, as though it had taken on the weight of all the lives it had and would one day claim, and she flipped it back into the holster. She turned away from Balthazar then, and stared at the shattered pile of glass that had been the whiskey bottles.

"That is it," Balthazar said, walking over to stand beside her. "That is what I have been trying to bring you to. It felt good, didn't it? Admit it girl, to yourself at least."

"It didn't feel good, or bad." She said. "I didn't feel anything at all. I just...reacted."

"That is the truth of battle. There is very little time for thinking, it comes from here," Balthazar said, touching his gut, "and from here," he cupped his balls. Tapping his temple he went on, "This up here only gets in the way. It rushes to think ahead, act, react and counteract. In the battles facing you, that delay will get you killed. It is as simple as that. The most dangerous of nature's predators kill instinctually, not methodically. If you linger, take even a second to examine your target, you will die another death, one that I cannot rouse you from."

She glanced at him and frowned.

"I didn't die," she said.

"Well, my dear, you'll never really know the truth of that, will you?" Balthazar asked. His voice held that faintly mocking tone she'd come to expect whenever she showed the slightest hesitancy or resistance to him. "The fact is, you are alive now, and in the moment you fired that gun you were more alive than you've been at any other point in your life. Deny it all you will, it is the truth. Do you have any idea how fast you were, girl?"

"No," she said. She met his gaze levelly. "I don't care. I don't want to be fast, or to shoot...none of it. I just want my baby."

"All things in their own time," Balthazar said.

He turned then and started off across the sand. Mariah had to hurry to catch up with him. They were only a short walk from camp, but it was blisteringly hot. A heat haze shimmered on the horizon. They'd been standing out there for hours, the sweat puddling at the base of her spine. She tried to remember how many attempts she'd made. She couldn't. A dozen? A hundred?

Each time, he'd come up behind her. Once he yanked her hair so violently she went down backwards and landed on her ass, hard. Other times he'd slapped the side of her head and left her ears ringing, or simply stolen the knife from her grasp. Each time she failed he shook his head, frowned, and walked away. Each time he'd tell her to focus, to cut the world from her mind and step sideways into another place where she existed alone with her target. She'd tried and failed. Tried and failed. So many times she wanted to scream at him that it was impossible, that he was asking too much of her and that she wasn't what he thought she was, or who he thought she was.

When she’d complained of hunger and thirst, he'd ignored her. Her throat was parched, and she felt weak. Despite this, it was hard to deny the sense of accomplishment she felt. As they approached the wagon, he moved ahead of her without seeming to hurry his stride. She tried to keep up, but somehow, no matter how quickly she moved, the wagon, and Balthazar, grew more distant.

She slowed her steps, and then stopped. She grew very, very still. The desert around her stretched out endlessly, as it had always done, but somehow it was different. She listened carefully, then, not hearing anything beneath the low murmur of the breeze, she closed her eyes. In that instant, she sensed it, and she moved. It was all instinct, no thought. She dropped to one knee, drew the pistol, and spun to her left. The hammer was already thumbed back but before she could pull the trigger, something slammed into her and knocked her sprawling.

She rolled with the motion, drew one of the knives, and threw.

The air was split by a shrill scream. It sliced into her temples like a driven ax and slammed her backward. Somehow she kept her grip on the pistol. Instinct again - she raised her hand and fired. A second, weaker scream rose from her unseen foe. She rolled to her feet.

A man - no not a man - the vague form of a man, writhed in the sand. Its skin was dark gray, and black fluid leaked from the hole in its temple where her knife was buried to the hilt. She took no satisfaction from its pain. She walked towards it. She leaned down, gripped the hilt of the knife and drew it free with a soft grunt.

The thing lifted its head from the sand and glared at her. One claw-like hand dug into the desert as it tried to draw itself forward. Mariah took another step closer, and this time she did think as she aimed the gun between its eyes. She watched it staring malevolently back at her, watched it crawl inch by wretched inch until it was no more than ten feet away her, and fired. The thing shuddered, its head hit the sand, and then it was still.

Mariah stared at it, about to ask Balthazar just what the hell it was, and then the ground around it erupted. She scrambled back, all thoughts and questions gone as the survival instinct kicked in. Talons and tentacles slashed through the earth, sending rock, sand, and grit flying in all directions as it whipped up a swirling dust devil from the elements. Mariah watched in sudden horror as the thing she'd shot was yanked downward, swallowed. It shredded and bled and fell to pieces under the onslaught of whatever gripped it. The earth opened, just for a second, and then it was gone.

Mariah looked up to find herself standing beside the wagon. A few feet away, Balthazar stood watching her carefully.

"And once and for all you know it's a part of you, girl," he said. "No more denying what you are. You did very well, though he nearly got you."

"He?" Mariah said. "What...was that?"

"His name isn't important, trust me," Balthazar replied. "We had an arrangement that ran its course...unfortunately. I am a man of second chances when the luxury allows. I gave him an opportunity here. It appears that he has failed a second time, though his loss is very much your gain, if you follow."

"He..."

Balthazar raised a hand to silence her.

"Do not be dense, my dear, it doesn't suit you. It was a test. A challenge. A mark of your character. I had no doubt you would pass it, but if I'd told you to expect it, you would have doubted yourself. Doubt leads to thought, thought leads to failure. Now you know. It's a part of you - the focus, the speed. When you need it, it will be there."

"But he..."

"Is not your concern," Balthazar said, his words ringing with absolute finality. "He left his life behind long ago - yours stretches out before you. Come. You will be hungry, and I have one more gift."

Balthazar rounded the end of the wagon, and with little other choice, Mariah followed. When she reached the far side, she found the campfire, just as she'd found it so many times before. There was no comfort in it this time. She looked at the chairs lined up just outside the stone circle. She inhaled the rich aromas of the coffee steaming in its pot on the hot stone and a pan of meat and vegetables simmering over coals. It was all so familiar and yet all so wrong. She felt the weight of the gun on her hip. Was that it? Was that what had changed? Or was it more, something deeper? Was it her? Everything else looked the same, after all.

No, there was something else - a rod protruded from the low flames, but she couldn't make out what it was.

"Sit," Balthazar said, gesturing as though she were a mutt to be commanded.

She did as he told her, suddenly starved, parched, and bone weary. The stiff chair was more comfortable than any bed she'd ever known at that moment. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She only intended to rest for a moment, but almost immediately her thoughts drifted.

"You have almost everything you need," Balthazar said. His voice was soft, but his words filled her mind. She didn't open her eyes. She listened to him and to the soft crackling of the fire beneath his words.

"There is one thing left that I'd like you to have - a gift. I can't always be there to look over your shoulder in case something goes wrong, as I was in the desert. You will need to know when your enemies are near, and you'll need to know how to find me if things get out of control."

Mariah opened her eyes slightly. Balthazar stood by the fire. He was poking at it with a long branch. She was so tired she felt as though she might fall asleep and stay that way for days, but at the same time she was afraid she'd miss something vital - that she might already be missing it by her inattention.

Balthazar stepped away from the fire and moved toward her. He done it countless times, leaving the fire with the pot steaming with coffee in his hand. But he wasn't about to pour coffee this time. She started to rise, but grew disoriented as he leaned in closer. She felt him slip long, slender flingers under her forearm. She started to ask a question, but it never reached her lips.

Balthazar gripped her arm so tightly it sent a shock of pain through her body. Her eyes flashed open - too late. He pressed something into her flesh. It seared. She gasped, writhing in the seat as she tried to arch up and away, but he held her both tightly and easily. The hot metal bit into her flesh, and the gasp became a full-blooded scream.

She lashed back and forth in his iron grip but there was no escape. He pulled the branding iron away and tossed it toward the fire, but she was in no state to care. Every nerve in her body screamed in pain, white-hot light flashed behind her eyes. He leaned in close and began to speak into her ear. At first she couldn't understand him - it was a babble of shapeless words and formless sound - and then something changed. She fell silent, stopped struggling, and opened her eyes.

Balthazar stepped back and smiled. There was no pain, but burned into the flesh of her forearm was a strange symbol. It looked like three circles, forming a triangle. Each of them had a trailing tail, making it look as if the entire thing was almost circular. She turned her gaze to his, eyes wide.

"When your enemies are near," he said, "you'll know because it will burn. When I am near? It will grow very cold. This, of all the things I have given you, is the most precious gift. When the heat flares in your arm, do not think. It means you are in danger, and you must act. It will save your life."

He stepped closer, and she hissed. It felt as though she'd plunged her arm into icy water. He stepped away again. "Now you will recognize me. It's time to eat, have some coffee, and rest. There will be work for you soon enough."

She started to speak, but again he held up his hand to silence her. This time he cocked his head, as though listening to some far away sound. He stood like that for a long moment, and then he smiled.

"It seems," he said, "that you may be tested sooner than I thought." He licked his lips, as though savoring the thought. "Something unexpected has begun. Eat. We will travel by night."

With that, he turned and left her. Mariah brushed her fingers across the puckered skin scarred by the brand. There was no pain, but it was deep. The scent of roasting meat reached her, and she was wracked by sudden hunger pangs.

She rose, took her plate, and moved to the fire.

Far away, a wolf howled. She stood still, listened.

There was a reckoning at hand.

She just needed to be certain she understood the stakes, and that when the time came she was strong enough for the payoff.

She ate furiously, shoveling the food into her as though it was her last supper.