Peyton grinned. “Because the crew were rude.”
“I’m rude all the time, and I… Well, LA is pretty arid.” She shrugged.
“Not arguing, but you weren’t some new asshole showing up and screwing with a local and powerful… Well, I guess we’d call him a wizard or something like that, but the aboriginal dude they pissed off had serious magic.”
“Strong enough artifact would do it. Those things are like magical storage facilities. What? I grew up around magic. Trifling magic, but still.” Lily played with a long lock of grey hair. Somehow, on her it only made her look younger.
“Look who’s making a contribution. Now I know something’s up.”
Shay glared at Peyton to get him back on track and off Lily. She had only known the teenager a short time but the girl clammed up even tighter when cornered.
“Fine,” said Peyton. “Where there’s a will there’s a way. He teleported the entire damned ship into the center of the country to punish the Portuguese for killing some of the locals, and they died. A lot of that stuff was covered up until the truth of Oriceran came out.”
Shay shook her head. “If they all died in the middle of the desert, how does anyone even know about them?”
“The captain was a wizard. He wasn’t as strong as the guy he screwed with, but he had a few toys at his disposal.” Peyton held up a finger. “Artifact number one, a magic quill made from a raven’s feather. You dip it in magic ink and write on a special piece of paper, and the message appears in another place, far away.
“Our client recovered a copy of some of the communications between that wizard and his boss in Lisbon, and that’s how we know the details.” He held up a second finger. “There’s a magic compass that you can adjust to track different things. Like instead of pointing north, it can point toward the nearest land.”
“I have that. It’s called GPS.”
“Sure, but it was cool back in the day.” Peyton shrugged. “And he’s still willing to pay a million for it.”
“A million dollars,” whispered Lily, her eyes widening.
“Junior Tomb Raider, that’s a small job.”
“What else?” Shay was tempted to reach out and thump Peyton to keep him on track.
He held up a third finger. “A lantern that uses oil, but somehow doesn’t use it up.”
“It’s an eternal lantern?”
“Yeah, basically.”
Shay furrowed her brow. “Pretty low-key when you think about it. I’m used to these guys wanting some ridiculous zombie rod or shit like that.”
Lily took a step back and bent backward into a handstand, balancing easily on her fingertips, still talking. “That’s something I’ve never seen before. Zombies were supposed to be a myth.”
Peyton leaned down to talk to her. “Not a myth.”
Shay watched how easily Lily was moving. It was as if she had to keep moving to work off some of the energy. All the training was making her even more graceful and athletic. Look out Ice Witch. Shay felt a shudder pass down her spine and made herself snap back to the present.
She was glad she was hitting the road on another mission. Stop thinking about Brownstone, a hormonal moody magical teenager and a partner who was brilliant and a loose cannon all at once.
“I looked into the client,” Peyton said. “The guy’s been trying to get people to do the job for cheaper, but no one would go into the cursed lands for what he was offering. Also, several previous expeditions have ended up…not coming back.”
“And you don’t have the location from the satellite images? No patterns in the distortion?”
Peyton shook his head. “We have the terrain, but not the ship. I’ve combed through the research, and I’ve located some likely spots from surviving eyewitness accounts. The place has always been dangerous, but it wasn’t quite as dangerous before.”
Shay groaned. “It might not even be there. Are you fucking kidding me?”
“He’s willing to pay ten percent down just for you to try.”
“Really? Guess it’s time for a little walkabout then.”
Shay took note. Not once did Lily ask to go. Yeah, something was definitely up. She reminded herself that the teenager had survived just fine on her own till recently. She would let Shay in when she was ready, and Shay would hope that was soon enough.
Shay’s horse clopped along, and she smiled at the pleasant breeze. Back in the States spring was close to giving way to summer, but the magic of hemispheres provided a more tolerable autumn vibe and even a few clouds as she rode through the sparsely vegetated red sand and dirt of the Outback. Red-orange sandstone outcroppings rose from the land to break up the monotony. She wouldn’t want to live there, but the sweeping vistas provided a nice bonus.
She pulled out her satellite phone. Useless. It wasn’t just a crap signal. It wouldn’t even turn on. She’d brought an external power supply to try and beat the strange energy-sapping field, but it didn’t help.
The scariest thing about a cursed desert for a modern person is that it kills their phones.
No vehicle, no phone, and a lot of slow travel. Her horse was reliable enough, but she had remembered why she didn’t like riding horses. For all their majesty and beauty, they were crap factories. Getting used to the smell was taking some time.
Shay chuckled. “At least I’m not riding behind anyone.”
She fished her map out of her backpack. Without even a normal compass, she needed to be careful. She might not have been some circa 1750 Royal Navy sailor, but she knew enough about following the direction of the sun and Southern Cross to get her going in what should generally be the right direction.
The detailed topographical map also provided several useful landmarks to guide her travel. If she were zooming along in a truck, it might be more of an issue, but the casual pace of the horse gave her plenty of time
