The Sisters of Reckoning by Charlotte Nicole Davis

Author:Charlotte Nicole Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

18

By the time they reached the Scorpions’ camp it was the small hours of the morning. They’d had to leave the wagon and the crank cannon hidden in the woods and continue the rest of the way on foot, covering their tracks as they went. They’d bought themselves some time by stunning anyone who might have pursued them, but it was inevitable that the law and McClennon’s raveners would pick up their trail come morning. Aster could not risk leading them back to Red Claw—the Scorpions had only agreed to shelter her on the promise that she wouldn’t compromise their safety.

Still, it was a hero’s welcome she and the others received when they finally returned home, Sam Daniels himself waiting to greet them at the base of the mineshaft. They caught him with his flask halfway up to his lips, his bright brown eyes widening at the sight of them as his grin lit up the dark.

“By the dead! I was just about to strike out myself to try and find you fools,” he said, standing to clasp their arms each in turn. “Did everyone make it back? Violet, good to see you again! Raven, thank the dead you’re all right. And you … you must be Derrick.” Sam paused in his warm welcome, considering the McClennon boy. Derrick looked about ready to drop—he was not used to hiking through the woods, let alone in the dark, and Aster had practically had to drag him the last mile as he jumped at every sudden noise or glimpse of the vengeants. His fine suit was quite ruined, his face soiled with soot and mud, his eyelids drooping with exhaustion.

“Evening,” Derrick said wearily, holding out his hand. “Or morning. Whichever.”

Sam clasped the proffered arm uncertainly, glancing at Aster. “Are you, ah, sure you got the right man? This one looks consumptive.”

“Oh, don’t worry, he always looks like that—” Clementine piped up, before Aster jabbed her in the side with an elbow.

“Derrick here’s had a hard time,” Aster said, clearing her throat. “We all have, actually. Can we be taken to the medical ward?”

“Of course,” Sam said, turning and waving for them to follow him.

The rest of the camp was dark and sleeping, but lantern light still spilled out from the windows of the medical building like a lighthouse on the midnight sea. The place was run by self-taught volunteers—Tansy was the closest thing it had ever had to an actual doctor. There was only one volunteer working the graveyard shift tonight, and he ushered them in with a look of silent surprise.

“Yes, yes, the girls have made it back all in one piece, more or less,” Sam told him brightly. “But they’ll still need to stay here tonight to recover. Do we have enough beds?”

Inside, there were a dozen beds lined up in two rows, and three of them were occupied. One with an old man, one with a child, and one with—

“Eli,” Aster said with an exhale of relief. He was propped up in his bed by a stack of pillows, his chest wrapped with fresh bandages.

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