Loki's Wolves - Armstrong Kelley L. - Страница 33

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“Well, then.” Fen snorted. “Looks like Goth Barbie and Ken are loaded, too.”

Matt shook his head. “We walk in there and they get nervous again, we’ll end up needing to deal with police. I’m guessing if they’re looking for me in Lead, they’ll be looking here, too.”

Fen gave Matt an appraising look. “Not a bad point, Thorsen. So now what?”

With surprise, Laurie realized that Fen was still looking to her to lead them. “I don’t know.”

After a moment, Fen suggested, “We need to move away before someone reports us for loitering.”

The house was near the cemetery, and the twins were obviously fond of it, so the three of them decided that the best thing to do was tuck in there and wait. Either the twins would come back, or when they went somewhere else in Deadwood, Laurie could find them. It didn’t help with the convince-them-to-join-the-fight part, but convincing them meant finding them first.

SIXTEEN

MATT

“UNMARKED GRAVES”

When they got back to the cemetery, Matt couldn’t resist the chance to take a look around, so he said they should walk through and make sure the twins weren’t already there. Fen grumbled that the twins had been right up front last time and Laurie’s hound-dogging had led to their house, but Matt insisted. Finally, Fen bought it and followed him inside.

They passed through the black gate. Matt walked into the cemetery proper, moving at a decent speed, but after the fourth time Matt stopped to read a sign, Fen growled.

“What?” Fen said. “Are you prepping for a history paper, Thorsen? Those twins aren’t hiding in that sign.”

“There are almost four thousand marked graves in here,” Matt said, reading. “And that’s only a third of them. Lots more are unmarked.”

“They’re not hiding in one of those, either,” Fen drawled.

“I’m just saying it’s interesting.”

“Interesting?” Fen scowled. “It’s a cemetery.”

“In Deadwood.” Matt swept a hand across the hills, dotted with graves. “Think how many of these guys died in gunfights at high noon. Isn’t that cool?”

Laurie laughed softly. “I don’t think it’d be too cool if you were the one dying.”

“You know what I mean,” Matt said. “It’s a cemetery from the Wild West. That’scool.”

He looked down the hill toward the town of Deadwood at the base. Trees blocked enough of it that if Matt squinted he could picture it the way it should be, with saloons instead of coffee shops and gambling dens instead of casinos. He was relaxing now, for the first time since leaving Lead. He’d messed up there. Really messed up, and he’d been sure Fen and Laurie would figure out he wasn’t the leader they needed. But they’d just carried on. So now he was relaxing, feeling more like himself. Even kind of feeling like he was around friends.

“Deadwood was the last frontier,” he said. “I remember reading letters on it for a project, and someone said they didn’t fear going to hell because they’d been to Deadwood.”

“Why was it the last frontier?” Laurie asked as they resumed walking. Fen rolled his eyes, but she gave him a look and said, “I’m interested, okay? As long as we’re here, might as well get the unofficial tour.”

Matt smiled. “I can do that. Never been here—my parents don’t approve of Deadwood, past or present—but I know all the stories. They called Deadwood the last frontier because the town itself wasn’t even legal. The land was supposed to belong to the Native Americans, but General Custer found gold here and that started a gold rush, which started the town of Deadwood. Because it was illegal, though, there wasn’t a whole lotta law and order, not until Seth Bullock—a Canadian guy who became the first sheriff—came along.”

Matt continued with the tour as Fen trailed along behind, shaking his head.

As they walked, Matt managed to find all the famous graves—Wild Bill, Calamity Jane, Seth Bullock, Preacher Smith, and Potato Creek Johnny—but they didn’t find the twins. And they took so long getting to the back of the cemetery that they then had to search on the way out, in case the twins had come in during the meantime. Fen complained about that… and about the fact that Matt continued to stop for things he’d missed the first time, including Potter’s Field. He explained to Laurie that was where most of the unmarked graves were.

“I’m going to put youin an unmarked grave if you say one more sentence with the word deadin it,” Fen muttered.

“Does that include Deadwood?” Matt said, grinning.

“Yes.”

Matt laughed, but Fen had a point. They really should get back to the front of the cemetery and watch for the twins.

They found a place to hide behind a monument and waited. An hour passed. Then another. Dark began to fall. Matt was out stretching his legs when he heard something cracking and snapping. He looked up to see a flag whipping in the wind.

“See something?” Laurie whispered as she crept out from behind the monument.

Matt shook his head. “Just the flag.” He squinted up at it in the twilight. “It’s weird. They don’t lower it at sunset like most places. I read that they leave it up twenty-four hours a day and—”

“Are you at it again?” Fen said. “I swear I’ll find you a nice empty grave if you keep it up.”

“I’m not too worried,” Matt said. “Cemetery’s full.” He thought of stopping there, but really, it was fun to push Fen’s buttons sometimes. Especially when there wasn’t much else to do for entertainment. “You know, though, there actually might be some empty graves. Back in frontier days, they’d bury prospectors here, and then sometimes their families would find out and want the bodies sent home. Except, of course, by that point, the person had been dead awhile, so digging them up and mailing them would be pretty gross. They’d just send back the bones, which meant they had to boil—”

“Hey!” Fen jabbed a finger at Laurie. “You think she really needs to hear this?”

“Actually…” Laurie began.

“No.” Fen swung his scowl on Matt. “Shut it, Thorsen. Or I’ll shut it for you.”

“Before or after you put me in the empty grave?”

Fen growled. Matt grinned back.

Laurie stepped between them. “He’s baiting you, Fen.” She turned to Matt. “Stop that.” Then to Fen. “You stop it, too.”

“But he started—”

Her look silenced Fen, and she stalked back behind the monument. Matt and Fen followed. As Matt stepped behind the monument, though, he thought he heard something. He looked around. When he didn’t see anything and turned away to ignore it, he felt a… brain twitch. That was the only way he could describe it. Like the weird sense of someone watching you, except it wasn’t the hairs rising on his neck, it was a pingin his brain that said Pay attention.

Then he really felt the ping as his amulet jumped and began to heat up. He opened his mouth to say something, but wasn’t sure what exactly to say and leaned out from the monument instead, peering into the growing darkness. That’s when he saw two figures making their way toward the cemetery.

Norns? Valkyries? Trolls? His amulet had reacted to all three. As the figures drew closer, though, he saw that it was the twins—Ray and Reyna. So he could detect descendants, too? That hadn’t happened before. Maybe it was a new power.

He tapped Laurie on the shoulder and pointed. She saw the twins and murmured that they should wait until they got closer. Fen shuffled impatiently, but he didn’t argue.

Matt wasn’t sure what to make of the twins. They weren’t the kind of kids you saw in Blackwell or Lead or even Deadwood. Not that there was anything wrong with being different. He just… he didn’t know what to make of them. That meant he didn’t know how to talk to them or how to convince them to join the fight.

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