Chapter Thirty-One

 

Kuma sat alone in the darkness with the cannister of Eclipse. The surface of the pond had stilled. He'd been so high from their fight against the Blue Daggers thinking he'd have solved the problem that had vexed his father for so long and now his heart was twisted with pain.

But he had a task to finish, even if it was without his friends. When his father had told him about the scraps of their youth, when friends had fallen to enemy blades, it'd sounded heroic and a little bit romantic. Now, with the ashes of his failure resting heavily on his heart, it felt like devastation.

As he lifted the silvery cannister, a huge bubble of air hit the surface. His hopes were dashed when nothing followed. He waded into the water, reaching out with his amber, but the dark liquid blocked his senses beyond a few feet below the surface. He listed around as a great weight formed on his chest. Kuma dove in, swimming into the water a dozen feet, but not able to see through the murky depths or sense his friends, he returned to the shore.

Kuma left while he still could, making haste with barely any consideration for his own safety. He knew his headlong rush through the Undercity was a mix of grief and reckless desire to be punished for his hubris, but he didn’t care. He'd known Camina and Tick longer than anyone except for his cousin Yara, and she didn't count. They'd given each other their first bloody noses, climbed the starwall together, and given blood oaths to protect each other in a scrap.

Despite knowing the dangers that lurked in the shadows—the demons, forgotten creations of Hall mages, and other dangerous outcasts—he'd never thought it'd be one of them to take his friends down. He'd always expected it to be the Drops, or another clan. To die by the blade, not by a watery doom.

He wasn't far from the Machi when he sensed a group at a crossroads ahead. Kuma threw himself into a cubby and prayed to the shadows that they weren't paying attention, or that they were friendlies. He focused his amber in their direction, but they were right at the edge of his range. He smelled a cigarette burning. There were a few of his clan that smoked. Should he reveal himself or move closer to find their identity? Once he did, he'd be exposed to their ambers and if they were the enemy he'd have a hard time escaping. He was near the western entrance to the Machi. No one else but Razor should be in the area. He was being foolish. He should hurry and take the cannister to his father to put a stop to a potential war between them and the Drops.

He was so focused on the group ahead that he didn't hear those behind him until they were in the same cavern. If they had ranged weapons, they had the drop on him. Kuma spun around to find two familiar faces staring back at him, still wet from their incursion into the pond.

The joy that wanted to leap from his lips was tempered by the nearness of unknown others, but he hurried across and threw his arms around them, tears flowing freely down his cheeks.

"I thought I'd lost you both," he whispered.

Camina put a hand on Tick's shoulder. "He managed to keep the tentacle beast from crushing us outright until I figured out how to do the opal trick like your uncle and cook the creature from the inside. Once I gave it a good hot-fist, it released us and we swam back to the surface. It's a good thing we can hold our breath for a long time. I'll have to thank ol' Frog Lips when I see him next."

"What were you doing?" asked Tick. "You looked like you were meditating over there."

"There's a group ahead in the tunnels. Something about them seemed off. Didn't feel like Razor."

"Let's check 'em out," said Camina.

Together they crept ahead until they were near enough to identify the other group. Kuma felt much safer surrounded by his friends. Once he heard them speak, he knew their identity. Crows. He signaled to his friends, but they'd already confirmed what he had. What were they doing so near the Machi? If it were a mixed group he might understand, but a patrol made entirely of Crows was unusual enough to concern him.

Plan?

Kuma thought about it before answering. They couldn't reach the western entrance without passing the group of Crows. He made the gesture for "approach with caution." Camina held up the handguns she'd taken from the Blue Daggers as her answer.

There were six Crows at the juncture, sitting in a small cavern that had been widened years ago. An electric lantern hung above them.

Kuma was able to reach the edge of the warm light before they noticed him. They stiffened to alert, grabbing weapons, but not pointing them at him.

"Hey," said Kuma casually with his hands empty.

He stood in the dim shadows, forcing them to squint. If this had been a guard post of Razor and they'd been this distracted, the entire group would have earned a week of punishment with Uncle Brazio. Their surprise was met with questioning stares between them. He kept his amber alert.

"It's Kuma, right?" asked one of the Crows, trying his best to act informal.

Kuma stayed to the center of the tunnel. He made a gesture to his friends at the same time he felt the will of the Crows hardening.

"What's going on?"

More glances were followed by an awkwardly obvious gesture from the leader.

"We're, uhm—"

Before they could bring their weapons around, Kuma dropped to the ground. Camina started firing before a single Crow could squeeze a trigger. She killed five and the sixth ran, but she took him in the back down the side tunnel.

"Nice shootin'," he told her.

"Dumb fucking wayhos."

"Well, we either averted a problem or started a war with our allies," said Kuma, staring at the bodies.

"This doesn't feel good," said Tick, staring at the open-eyed Crows.

"No, it doesn't."

"Let's keep moving."

After grabbing the cannister of Eclipse, they hurried towards the western entrance, but stopped when they heard gunfire. Kuma crept forward alone and used his amber to sense the way forward. What he "saw" made him want to scream.

"The war is already started," said Kuma upon return.

Camina screwed up her face. "With the Crows? Fuck."

"I'm afraid so."

"Let's hit 'em in the back."

Kuma shook his head. "I sensed a lot of Crows ahead. At least a hundred, probably double that, and they're all heavily armed."

"What the fuck?" asked Camina.

"Let's go to Big Dave's Town," said Tick. "If the Machi is being hit, then we need to find others to take it back. Isn't that what your father would counsel?"

Camina shook her head vehemently. "We should hit 'em with whatever we got. Let the shadows take them. It's what your uncle would do." Her lips squeezed white. "But it's your call."

They were both right about his father's and uncle's takes on the situation. Niran never rushed into danger. He always planned and strategized while trying to minimize casualties. His uncle had made a career on rashness. Even before the stones the stories of his reckless adventures—dragging his brother into countless dangers—were legendary. But wasn't it his father's caution that had gotten them into this mess? If he'd taken his brother's advice the Undercity would be a much different place. On the other hand, rushing into a heavily armed and massively outnumbering group of Crows seemed suicidal.

Niran or Brazio? What kind of clan leader would he be? Either? Both?

"Kuma. We need to do something and fast," said Camina.

He closed his eyes. He'd come so close to losing his friends just an hour ago. Kuma wasn't afraid to die, but living without them seemed like pain eternal. Sending them into the fray would only end in tragedy.

"To Big Dave's Town. It's the strategic choice."