CHAPTER 141

"Fuckin' bitch," he muttered as a dwarf buried her axe into War's skull.

Beth let out the breath she had been holding as she was pulled into the sky once more. She caught a brief glimpse of the board and saw that she and War had both lost forces, but she had come out ahead in the fight. It was still hard to think that this was a physical manifestation of a dice roll.

On each turn, the attacker could commit their forces to an assault, but had to leave one unit behind in their territory. Both the attacker and defender rolled, with the higher value winning. This meant that both sides could lose forces, and ties would always go to the defender. Luck was a fickle mistress, so it turned into a numbers game. With enough troops, an attacker could overwhelm even the toughest defense eventually. But should they overextend themselves, then their own forces became vulnerable.

War had attacked from South Africa, and Reggie currently held Madagascar. It was likely that the Rat King would come down on War's lone infantry and destroy them. This brought a grin to her face that was quickly wiped away when War pointed at her.

"Again!" He shouted, and then attacked another one of her territories.

This time she wasn't so lucky. She was in Egypt, and spent almost two hours trying to hide among the pyramids before War found her. The massive horseman cackled in delight as he brought his sword down on her head and ended their battle with blinding pain followed by darkness.

The cabin was quiet. After waking up from his dream, Mike had somehow been able to fall asleep for a few more hours. After a dreamless sleep, he woke to discover that he was alone in his room, which was a bit of a surprise. However, he welcomed the moment of solitude as he tried to gather his thoughts.

Emery had greeted him the moment Mike left his room, the imp wringing his hands in anticipation. He had prepared Mike a massive breakfast burrito smothered in green chile sauce along with a cup of coffee. Although puzzled by the absence of the others, he spent the next fifteen minutes greedily devouring the chorizo-laden meal in silence.

As he approached the end of his meal, Emery gave him a rundown of where everyone had gone. Yuki and Quetzalli were having a meeting with the owl out in the woods. It bothered him that he didn't know her name, but it brought to mind the idea that names were powerful tools for magic users.

Velvet was out getting food. With their temporary truce in effect, the Nirumbi had divulged where they had driven the prey animals to, and she was famished. Bigfoot had gone with her, which made him feel marginally better.

Dana was out in the barn. Emery had no idea what she was doing out there. On the roof, Abella stood with her wings opened wide, as if defiant in the face of the sun.

Glad that he hadn't been totally abandoned, he had Emery start him a new pot of coffee and then wandered upstairs while the imp stayed behind to clean. Despite the events of the last couple of days, Emery hummed a delightful melody as he cleaned the kitchen.

At the top of the stairs, Mike tapped the wood with his shoes. It didn't look anything like it had in his dream, and he stopped just short of going into Velvet's room. The door was closed, so he turned and walked down the hall to the other door. The letter E had been carved into the wood, so he left that one alone, too.

There was a small room at the end of the hall that overlooked the first floor. A few bookshelves were set up, populated mostly with books for running Dungeons and Dragons' campaigns. Curious, he looked through a couple of them, thinking back to the few times he had dabbled in role-playing games in college.

In the process of putting away a book, he caught a flash of color out of the corner of his eye. Walking over toward the railing, he saw that someone had drawn a picture in crayon on the wall just behind one of the supports. Using a nearby chair as a footstool, he stepped up onto the balcony, which let him reach the beam and pull himself up.

He was more than a little surprised at how easy it was to climb up into the rafters. Usually, such a maneuver would take a bit of huffing and puffing, but he slid into the space effortlessly. He was greeted by dozens of drawings done in crayon, tucked away from watchful eyes below.

They were mostly stick figures. He recognized Eulalie and Velvet right away, as well as Bigfoot. There was a man who must have been Darren, and then there was their mother, Ana. She was often drawn with an apron around her waist.

Had Velvet done these? Or had it been Eulalie? Looking around, he saw that the pictures were squirreled away in a few other locations, but these would be harder to get to. Climbing through the rafters of the house sounded like a dumb way to get injured, so he stayed where he was and just looked around.

What had living here for an entire lifetime been like? He wondered if Velvet and Eulalie had played tag up here, or maybe even an epic game of hide-and-seek with their father. As he listened to Emery humming, he didn't doubt that this was a place that had once been filled with love and laughter. It had seen so much violence in the last few days, it must have been jarring.

Down below, he saw Emery sneak a peek over his shoulder, then pull a silver coin out of a hiding spot and start polishing it.

The cabin was alive, just like the house. What kind of people had lived in these walls? What sort of deeds had the cabin witnessed over the years? Mike slid off the beam and casually hopped down from the railing to the floor. When he was halfway down the stairs, he saw the coin in Emery's hand disappear as if by magic.