The Magic Pact

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

At the end of the next three days, they arrived in Lawrence, Kansas. The two immediately caught sight of a small boy on a bicycle. But he pedaled away as soon as he heard the horses. Ken didn’t gallop after him, despite every interest in doing so. It could be a trap. Instead, she and Yuuki wandered slowly into the town, looking for signs of life. The only graffiti they saw was a single large scribble that, according to Yuuki, said “city not clear.”

Either the authors sprayed that on any town that hadn’t yet been checked, or they received some resistance when they arrived.

It wasn’t ten minutes of riding before they understood. A group of men and teenage boys rolled up to them in a diesel truck, armed to the teeth and wearing red shirts with camo pants. A gang, they both surmised. A gang strong enough to repel whoever left the graffiti.

Kenna remained calm. They may have more guns, but she had talismans. She could roast them all and call it a day if need be.

But what they wanted was information, so the two carefully approached, with Yuuki and her horse behind Ken. When the lead man, muscular in build, with a shaved head, motioned for them to stop, they did. “People who wish to travel through Lawrence must pay a toll.”

Ken smiled. “That can be arranged. We mean no disrespect. We saw a young boy on the way in but had no idea the city was largely inhabited.” Otherwise, the couple would have approached things differently, like sneaking in.

“Those are nice horses you have there,” the man pointed out.

“And nicer t**s!” shouted a man in the back.

She tried not to be unnerved, but she was. “Neither are for sale. But we have gold and weapons, which surely should be enough for passage.”

“You could keep your gold and everything else, if either of you agreed to meeting with my men—or me personally. Consensually, of course.” His eyes took a walk over her, and he licked his lips. “You sure are pretty. I’ve never been with a black girl before.”

She shivered. Not for fear of their own safety but for that of any other woman who tried to enter this place. “I said we’re not for sale,” she growled. “We can force you to let us pass, or you can take our generous offer. But you won’t lay a hand on either of us. We’re not interested.”

They heard a car pull up behind them, essentially blocking the two in.

But that only pissed Kenna off more. To get her point across, she swallowed her fear of flames and activated the fire talisman Na’fenn. She drew lines in between each group and the duo, careful not to burn any of the buildings. “You’re not being very cordial,” she called to them. “Fire is one of the weakest talismans I have. You do not want to meet the others.”

A different voice answered. He wore a uniform-like jacket that seemed to denote a high rank. “We heard the stones don’t work anymore. Why do yours?”

“I turned the other ones off. But not mine, of course.”

“How did you do that?”

“Are you going to let us pass or what? I really don’t want to torch your men—” Actually, she did. “—but I will if I have to. We will protect ourselves.” The flames rose three times higher before settling down again.

With a shaking voice, “Why are you even here?”

“We need information.” She gave him the whole spiel about looking for Moíra and explained they planned to teach her a lesson. With a second to think it over, she added: “And we would love to know who’s responsible for that graffiti out front. The hieroglyphs.”

The man almost seemed grateful that info was all they wanted. “I can’t tell you about the first part. Haven’t seen anything like that. But we know the folks that left that little message. It’s a military of some kind. They wanted to recruit us, by force. We didn’t really get their names, but we gave them hell. Eventually, they scribbled that and left.”

“Do you understand what it says?” She asked, already knowing the answer.

“Nope.”

“All right, let us pass.”

Eventually, the vehicles in front of them backed up and parted. As Kenna and Yuuki moved forward, the fire burned out just enough to accommodate them. New flames formed alongside of and behind them as they traversed the town. Yuuki promptly rode up next to her, as close as possible. The gang tailed them the whole way, looking more like a security detail than an actual threat. When they reached the city limits, Ken gave them a wave without turning.

They traveled well past sundown until they were far away from Lawrence. Ken used a small flashlight to guide their way. When she was certain they couldn’t have been followed, she signaled that they should set up camp. The moment Yuuki jumped down off of her mare, Ken embraced her. Tightly.

The two of them were never in any real danger, but somehow it still felt like it. More so for Yuuki, who looked positively terrified back in the city. Ken held her close. “I know,” she said truthfully. Just the threat of these men and what they wanted was enough. “They can’t hurt you. They can’t hurt us. They wanted to, but we didn’t let them.”

“You stopped them. I didn’t do anything. I couldn’t—”

“Don’t,” Ken cut in. “That’s why we’re a team. It’s my job to protect you when you need it. Those guys would’ve never touched you. Not ever.”

“I know, I just—they were so convinced—they—”

“They’re animals. Someone will put them down eventually. But right now, we’re far away from them. They can’t find us, and they won’t. And even if they could, it would be a fatal decision to try. Don’t let them get to you. They don’t deserve it.” She kept a firm hold on her, flanked on both sides by their mares in the dark. “I’ll stay up while you sleep tonight. Keep watch. Just to make sure.”

“But you haven’t been sleeping.”

“I’ll be awake anyway, so I’d rather do something important than just lay there.” She kissed her gently on the cheek. “It’s really not a big deal.”

It was, actually. Outside of her quest for the stem stones, she’d never done this much physical work on so little sleep. She knew it would catch up to her soon. But Yuuki’s peace of mind was more important. Those disgusting creeps made her feel like she wasn’t safe. So, Kenna would give it back to her.

First things first. She set up the tent while Yuuki held their flashlight. When she could go inside, Ken left only long enough to collect kindling. She used the starter with ease, got the fire going, and then quickly took a few steps away. She needed a private pep talk to go near it again. While Yuuki sat quietly in the tent, Ken fed the horses and then started in on a small dinner for the two. Neither of them felt hungry, but they needed to eat. She got some canned food into Yuuki through gentle coaxing, promising they could cuddle for a while until she fell asleep.

After some cleaning up of their camp, they crawled into the tent for a few hours. When Yuuki finally fell asleep, Ken left her in favor of sitting by the fire and watching for danger.

She fantasized about going back to the city to kill the men who frightened Yuuki. Hell, she thought about burning the whole place down. But it would be a few hours ride in the dark, and if Yuuki woke up and she was gone? It would be devastating. Besides, Ken needed to save her energy. It would be another long day tomorrow. And she would have to do it without any sleep.

* * * *

“Time to get up,” came a loud voice.

Her head raised quickly, only to be stopped by a painful and stiff neck. She was still sitting upright, but the fire had gone out, and she’d fallen asleep.

Moments later, she heard stirring in the tent. Yuuki appeared, kissed her, and took a seat at her side. “Thanks for looking out for me.”

Ken couldn’t bear to tell her that she didn’t stay awake. Instead, “It went out around dawn,” she pointed at the place where their fire had been. “I didn’t want to leave you.”

Shaking her head, Yuuki kissed her again. “No worries. I’ll start another one.”

As she went off to collect more wood, Ken rubbed at her eyes. “How long was I out?”

“Five hours,” said the Healer. “You needed the rest.”

Groaning, she got up rigidly, paced around for a little while, and then checked on the horses. “I needed to keep my promise.”

“I’m sure you would have woken up if anything bad came calling.”

“That’s not the point.”

The Devotee cut in. “Your loyalty to her is admirable.”

“It’s a distraction,” came from the Martyr.

“Shut up,” Ken told them all. She didn’t want to hear any of it. They were especially loud this morning, and she didn’t have the patience. She lied to Yuuki—let her down—and she felt like crap about it. The voices’ only positive use this morning was that they woke her up before Yuuki could see her sleeping on the job.

When Yuuki returned with firewood, they made and ate breakfast as quickly as possible. Before Ken knew it, they were back in the saddle and headed east again.