Extinction Agenda

Chapter Twenty-Six

Slovakia

Eight hours later

They’d driven north using whatever roads they could find after leaving Hungary. Judging by the ease at which the Amriany made the crossing, the guards who’d checked their paperwork were accustomed to letting them pass no matter what they were carrying or who was with them. Paige and Cole weren’t surprised by that, since Skinners knew plenty of officials at various U.S. borders who were sympathetic to the cause after a near miss involving some supernatural creature or another.

Almost immediately after driving into Slovakia, the weather felt colder. Other motorists were more difficult to find and signs of life in the buildings they passed was hit and miss. Cole hadn’t seen many Half Breeds in the fields or gargoyles in the skies, but the fear he felt in the few people they did find as well as the strange statues he spotted along the side of the road were evidence that it hadn’t been long since they were visited by either of those creatures.

After covering over fifty miles of nondescript highway, the view from Cole’s window shifted to a wall of dead browns and dirty whites. There was just enough snow on the ground for it to have fallen anywhere from a day to a month ago. The trees were tall and close together, giving the area a stark, lonely quality. After another fifty miles or so, the trees formed walls on either side of the road, and the few buildings they passed were either dark or completely boarded up. “What’s the deal with this place?” he asked. “Does anyone live here?”

“This village was abandoned a year ago,” Nadya replied. “Werewolf attacks.”

“A year ago? Why didn’t anyone say anything?”

“They’ve been saying it for generations. Nobody listens. Now, their complaints don’t matter. Once the gargoyles were stirred up, it’s become difficult for anyone to live here.”

“I saw a few lights on back there,” Paige said. “Must be some people sticking it out.”

“Cheap rent,” Nadya said with a shrug. “Times are hard.”

They continued driving. Eventually the road became a dirt path and then a set of shallow ruts. By then all traces of civilization were far behind them. In those surroundings, it seemed strange to Cole that Nadya was on a cell phone. The sight of her speaking to the little device appeared as out of place as a television set in an Old West saloon.

She hung up and tucked the phone away. “Ira is alive and he’s here.”

“Good thing,” Paige said. “Especially since I wasn’t about to make the drive back empty-handed.”

“Sophie and our clan are the ones who are at risk. We’re supposed to get the permission of at least two other clans before bringing anyone to this place. Considering you are Skinners, we probably would have needed agreement from all of the clans to avoid any problems.”

Cole turned away from the continuous loop of trees flashing past his window. “We still don’t even know where here is.”

“You wanted to see Chuna.” Using a short sweeping motion with one hand to encompass everything in front of them, Nadya said, “Chuna is here.”

“What is Chuna?” Paige asked. “Nobody will say anything other than he’s the one who has a direct connection to the Torva’ox. Is he one of your blacksmiths? Is he even a he?”

“Not blacksmith,” Milosh grunted from the passenger seat. “Chokesari.”

“You were so much better when you were asleep.”

“How can I sleep when you keep talking about one of the most sacred members of the Amriany like they put shoes on horses?”

“So anyway,” Cole said, “the nymphs talked about Chuna as if he was more than just a choke-a-sarry.”

Milosh wanted to correct his pronunciation but didn’t. Cole figured he was close enough or the Amriany was just tired of griping.

“Chuna is a spirit of the earth,” Nadya explained. “Some call him a demon. And no,” she said to Paige, “I’m not sure if Chuna is really a he or she. What I do know is that he is very old. Older than humans. Older than Full Bloods. The only thing older than Chuna and the others of his kind may be the Torva’ox itself.”

“What’s the connection between the choke . . .” Knowing he couldn’t pull off the pronunciation without making it sound like a bad Bela Lugosi impersonation, Cole switched gears by saying, “Between Ira and Chuna?”

“Ira’s craft requires him to be close to the Torva’ox,” Nadya replied. “To forge things like the Jekhibar or even a Blood Blade, he must use what Chuna has left behind.”

“Gross,” Paige muttered. “And you call Skinners savages for putting blood into our mixtures?”

“That’s fair enough,” Nadya said. “But you should know that the first to break away from the clans and make the voyage to the New World, the first who would become Skinners, were fluent in this craft as well. It’s how they got started in putting these things to use. And it’s not as gross as using blood or wearing skins with flesh still attached.”

Milosh sat up and adjusted his seat, abandoning all hope of drifting back into sleep. “And not nearly as savage as swinging sticks embedded with teeth and claws.”

After scolding him with a short-lived glare, Nadya slowed down so she could follow the vehicle in front of her onto an even rougher stretch of ruts worn into the cold dirt. “In recent years, Chuna has become angry. Impatient. Still, Chuna knows where the Torva’ox flows, and when it flows close to buried metals or certain kinds of stone, a skilled Chokesari can use those in his craft. A Chokesari must know where to find Chuna. Since the Vitsaruuv were sent after him, the closer to Chuna he goes, the safer Ira would be. The Weshruuv keep their distance from Chuna’s kind.”

“But you guys have a working relationship?” Paige asked.

“No. We keep our distance as well. But this is an extreme circumstance for all of us. After what the Weshruuv did during the last Breaking Moon, I have a feeling Chuna will not mind helping us extract some form of payback.”

They drove for another half hour before the ruts simply wandered into the forest as if the grooves in the ground had grown sick of running side by side. The Amriany parked and climbed out of the SUVs. After emerging from the second vehicle, Waggoner looked over and received a reassuring nod from Paige. It was going to be a long hike, so each person only took what they could carry on their back.

Cole wondered if Daniels was making any progress. He hadn’t been able to connect to a network for some time. The Amriany’s phones held out a bit longer, but even they’d become nothing more than glorified clocks. With no modern conveniences to distract him, he carried his gear as well as all the thoughts racing through his head into the woods. It was tough to decide which was heavier.