Unseen

I reached my motorcycle and considered the rifle. It was a fine weapon, but I suspected that traveling with it slung across my body wouldn’t win me any thanks from the highway patrols. With a certain regret, I stripped it of bullets and tossed it into the underbrush. A quick burst of power encouraged the bushes to grow up and around it. It wouldn’t be found for some time, if ever.

I kept the bullets, which might come in handy. I sealed them in an i

Luis was on speed dial. I called, but it rang five times and then his recorded voice—still warm and friendly in this virtual contact, at least—invited me to leave a message. “Watch your back,” I said. “Someone either inside or close to the school has a Dji

“That won’t do you any good,” said a voice from behind me. I dropped the useless corpse of the phone and rolled off the bike, then up to my feet facing the Dji

“You lied,” I said. “On the Mother, you lied.”

“No, I didn’t. Every word I said to you was true. The Warden was guilty. And I wanted him dead.”

“But you sent me into a trap. You knew Pearl’s men would be there.”

“That was the plan, to draw them out,” he said. “And I trusted that you would escape without assistance.”

“Trusted?”

“Hoped perhaps is a better word. Yes, I hoped you would escape. As you have.” He studied me for a few silent seconds. “You’ve killed those who came against you. Without much regret.”

“I never feel much regret,” I said. “That’s the legacy of being a Dji

“I’m not your enemy. I was put in a position that made it impossible for me to refuse to send you to that place, or to help you once you were there. You understand?”

I did. Dji

“I didn’t fulfill my part of the bargain,” I said. “I didn’t kill Harley.”

“He’s still dead.” Rashid shrugged. “I consider that you achieved the objective as it was worded. And I’m prepared to fulfill my obligation to you. You still want the children saved, I assume.”

“I do,” I said. “But I’ll want something more, to right the balance between us.” He bowed a little in silent agreement. “I want the name of the person within the school compound who passed word of when I would be leaving. This couldn’t have been done without advance warning. Your part, certainly; you can go anywhere you wish. But Pearl’s men had to be put in my path, and that takes timing.”

“Clever Cassiel,” Rashid said, and sighed. “I can’t tell you that.”

“Can’t,” I repeated. “Not won’t?”

He didn’t affirm or deny, simply looked at me with those fiercely glowing eyes, as expressionless as an owl. A bad feeling grew within me.

“Does this person,” I said, “possess a bottle within which you’re bound?”

No response, which was in itself a response. Someone in the Warden compound had a bottle, and had found a way to bind a True Dji

“Were you bound by your own consent?” I asked. It was an important question; some Dji

Rashid bared his teeth. “No,” he said. “Not by my own consent.” Tricked, then. Ambushed and overcome. There was a fire in the violet eyes now, eerie and full of impotent anger. “I can’t help you, Cassiel.”

“I know.” Dji

“I can.” He shrugged. “It still won’t do you any good.”

“Just do it. Thank you.”

“You’re not going back to them? Even knowing this?”

I shook my head. “The reasons I left are even more important now. Luis will find the traitor. I have to go on.”

“And if he can’t?” Rashid asked. “If I’m ordered to kill those children, I won’t have a choice. I don’t wish to do that.”

“I know,” I said. “But I know Luis. He won’t hesitate to protect Isabel, at any cost. If you can find any way to delay, to exploit any weakness in your master, take it. If you give Luis an opening, he will free you. I know he will.”

Rashid bowed his head. “As you say.” He didn’t seem convinced.

“Are you going to keep our agreement? Are you going to save the children who were abducted?”

He flashed me a sudden, blinding smile. “I will,” he said. “Be safe, Cassiel. Watch for others. Your friends may not be your friends.”

As he’d been the closest thing I still had to a living friend among the Dji

Gone.

I had no doubt he would fulfill his promise to me. That meant children saved.

All in all, a morning on which I’d won.

It still felt like a hollow sort of victory, since Rashid, despite all his evidence of freedom, was held captive, and a potentially deadly weapon against those I loved.

But I couldn’t turn back. I couldn’t.

I drove through the day, and well into the night beyond the snow line, until I was too tired to continue. I slept curled on a bed of leaves and pine needles, warded against the cold by layers of more forest litter. It was not a comfortable rest, but it did the job. I woke with the earliest songbirds, did my toilet duties (a thing that had ceased, finally, to horrify me), and washed my face and hands in a cold stream that left me tingling and shivering. I drank as much as I could hold, then got back on the motorcycle for another long day’s ride.

At noon I spotted a roadblock on the freeway ahead, and slowed to assess the situation. It seemed simple enough—an overturned semi truck, with its contents spilled over half the lanes of traffic. Unfortunately, its cargo had been living—cattle, probably destined for an unpleasant end in the slaughterhouse. Some had seen an earlier demise than pla

Simple enough for me to edge around the mess and keep going, but there was something in it that stopped me. Wounded men roused little in the way of pity from me, unless they were i