Page 38 of Blood Red Woes

Three stories up, I climb to the peak of the roof and stand straight only when I’m sure I won’t fall. And what do my eyes see? A whole lot of dead people crowding the streets from where I am upward in the city, all the way to the gates around the stairs that lead to the castle—which is still a good distance away.

“It appears they’re not inside the castle,” Rune states the obvious. “If we reach the castle, we should be safe.”

“Yeah, unless there’s an angry empress waiting,” I mutter with a frown. I lower my gaze to the zombie-like people. They crowd each other, standing so close it’s a literal sea of decaying faces. The bones that poke out of some of them aren’t charred or blackened, which tells me something different happened here.

Though I can’t see any, I don’t doubt there are kids amongst the adults. All dead. All turned into whatever those are. It’s enough to piss me off.

Rune speaks with a delicate tone, “You can’t help them now. Whatever happened to them is not something you can fix.” He says something I already know, but it still irritates me, and I don’t appreciate hearing it.

“How could this happen?” I ask, glancing all around again. It’s like everyone who’s here is crowding these streets, not the streets near the outer gate. Even in death, they want to be as close to their empress as they can.

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

I straighten up and let my eyes find a path along the rooftops. These homes are so close together it should be easy to jump between them. Magical parkour for the win. The homes don’t lead right to the closed metal gate that separates the actual castle from the rest of it, but at least it’ll bring me closer.

I start running along the ridge of the roof, and when I reach its end, I leap. I easily clear the space between the homes, where a side-street cuts between them, golden magic twirling around my feet in intricate, sizzling patterns.

Where would I be without this magic? Shit out of luck. I guess I should be thankful for Rune, as much as he probably wouldn’t want to hear it.

Wait. Scratch that. Hewouldwant to hear it. He might not have a body, but his ego is just as big as any man’s.

Ignoring the hundreds upon hundreds of dead people packed like sardines on the streets around me, leaping from building to building is actually kind of fun. Using magic to propel me, I can jump pretty damn high—and when I land, it softens the impact on my ankles.

With each building cleared, I get closer and closer to the castle. The zombies, the blighted, whatever you want to call them, watch me but don’t try to follow. I wonder if that means they can’t climb. If that’s the case, I guess it makes sense that the castle’s inner gates are closed to block them out.

Still, that means the empress lasted longer than her people. I don’t want to fight a bitch, but if I see her, I might not be able to hold back. I have a lot of things to say to her.

I make it to the closest building near the large metal gates that block the walkway up to the castle’s front doors. The castle itself has another wall around it, which is why the inhabitants of the lower district are locked out.

Standing at the edge of the last house, I’m still at least fifty feet away from the gate, and between here and there are countless of faces, watching me, waiting for me to fall.

“Okay,” I say as I try to think of another plan. “How to get there from here? It’s way too far to jump, even with magic.”

“Yes,” Rune agrees with a harrumph. “And I suppose you would like to avoid a fight.”

“If possible, yeah.” My eyes scan the gate. The gate is probably twelve or so feet high with thick metal bars. An idea comes to me, and I glance down at my hand, at the glowing tattoo. I don’t know if it’ll work, but all of my other ideas worked so far, so why not this one?

I crack my neck in an overly dramatic gesture as I tell Rune, “Get ready for this.”

“What are you—” Rune doesn’t have the chance to finish the question because I do it.

I aim and act like I’m catching something as I jump off the roof. A glowing magical band of light appears in my hand, a lasso hooking me to the gate and pulling me with it. The magic would’ve brought me right against the gate, but with a jerk of my wrist I change the angle of trajectory, and I continue sailing through air, up and over it. I clear the gate with room to spare, and I land on my own two feet as the magical slingshot-slash-lasso dissipates.

I let out a chuckle of disbelief. “I can’t believe that worked. Call me Wonder Woman, because I kick some freaking ass with this magic shit.”

“Wonder Woman?” Rune echoes, thoughtful. “Is that someone I should know?”

Now it’s my turn to groan. “Forget it.”

I crane my head back as I study the castle before me. After what looks to be about a hundred steps, the castle’s front doors sit, closed and unwelcoming. With a glance behind me, I wonder if Fred even got this far. If he did, how would he have made it through that gnarly, dead crowd?

I start up the step, my nerves a mess. “What, uh, what’s the plan if we come across Empress Morimento? Maybe going through the front door isn’t the best idea.”

“There doesn’t appear to be guards,” Rune says. “Perhaps the castle itself is empty and we will find what remains of Frederick LaRoe.”

“Or maybe she’s sitting somewhere in the shadows, waiting to pounce on me the moment I walk in.” I don’t want to fight some grand empress, but Rune better be ready to kick some ass with me just in case.

“I suppose we won’t know until we are inside.”

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