“My subjects are scared and angry,” the king replied. “Prince Wuhaib is more popular than even Lumin Nasaaf. They cry for Ghul blood.”
“And you intend to give it to them?” Callan asked. “I thought you were the ruler of the Shaitans, not the other way around.”
“Why not try diplomacy first?” I asked. “If there are rogue Ghuls wreaking havoc, the rulers might be interested to know that. If there were Shaitans causing harm in other parts of the realm, wouldn’t you want to know before another caste of warriors showed up on your border?”
The king didn’t seem offended by my impertinence. At this point, he appeared to lack the energy for any powerful emotion. “As it happens, I had my legate send two emissaries to the Ghul capital. I await their response.”
“So the warriors at the border are just for posturing?” Callan asked.
“They are prepared to do what is necessary when I give the order,” the king replied. “I have been advised…” He stopped talking and sighed, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. “It is what must be done.”
Queen Enova moved to stand in front of us. “It is not safe for you to remain in this realm. I believe that you intended to free Lumin Nasaaf and I know my husband believes it, too. We grant you the freedom to return to your home, Cerys Davies.”
I cut a quick glance at the king. He seemed to stare off into space, completely disinterested in the fact that I was being released.
“The queen is quite right,” Zane interrupted from his place at the edge of the garden. “You should not be here. We do not need the wrath of your realm upon us on top of everything else should anything happen to you. We cannot take the risk.”
He would’ve happily swung the blade that severed my head the last time I was here. Now he was worried about the wrath of my realm? How quickly things change when war is on the horizon.
“But I haven’t found the responsible party yet,” I blurted. I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to argue. They were letting me go. I knew I should take the opportunity and run back to Spellslingers. Even Riffat was studying me with a look that questioned my sanity.
“You only needed to prove your innocence,” the queen said. “We consider the evidence of jihoon to be sufficient.”
“Technically, I still killed him,” I said. “I triggered his death by trying to free him.”
Callan wound his arm around mine. “Thank you, Your Majesty. We hope you’re reunited with your son very soon.”
“Yes, we hope for the same.” I noticed the king’s despondent expression and a lump formed in my throat. By the gods, that look in his eyes was achingly familiar. My parents had looked the same after the death of my brother. It was the kind of grief that triggered irrational acts—like turning to necromancy to bring back a beloved son. I had no doubt this impending war was a response to grief more than anything else. By all accounts, King G’lur was a reasonable and benevolent ruler. Stronger emotions were dictating his actions right now.
“Riffat,” I said suddenly remembering. “My wand.”
Before she could make a move, a guard came running into the garden. His cheeks were flushed and he was out of breath.
“What is it, B’lao?” the king asked.
B’lao paused to draw breath. “Your emissaries have returned, Your Highness.”
“So soon?” the queen asked.
“Perhaps they have come with news of our son,” the king said. His smile was strained, despite his positive tone. He was worried.
Two horses rounded the corner and their hooves pounded across the garden, scattering flowers as they went. Mounted guards followed quickly behind them, shouting. I couldn’t understand the problem until the emissaries drew closer. It was only upon closer inspection that I noticed their heads were missing. Bile rose in my throat. Someone screamed.
“This is a disgrace,” Zane said heatedly. “To show such disrespect, Your Majesty.” He waved his staff at the guards in anger. “How could you have let them through? Wrangle the horses and clean up this mess or your heads will be next.”
Queen Enova stood perfectly still with her hand pressed flat against her chest. She appeared to be in shock. “I always believed Ghuls were no better than barbarians, but this confirms it.”
“What if this is what they have done to our son?” the king murmured. He seemed equally shock by the Ghuls’ response.
“What did your message say?” I asked.
Zane whirled around on me. “This is none of your concern, witch. You have been granted your freedom. Take advantage of the king’s benevolence while it is still offered to you. We cannot afford any more deaths.”
“He’s right,” Callan said tersely. “We should go.”
“I will meet you at the gateway with your wand and escort you to the royal portal,” Riffat said. She disappeared before I could object.
“Tell the portal operator where you would like to go and he will adjust the settings to get you to the nearest point,” Zane said. “There are not as many options as there once were, but we should be able to accommodate you.”
Callan bowed his head. “Thank you.”
“We can’t leave,” I said, as Callan and I walked to the gateway. “This isn’t right.”
“It is right because you’re not guilty, Cerys,” Callan said. “We should get out of here before an all-djinn war breaks out. It isn’t safe for us to linger.”
“We have to stop the war,” I said.
His eyes bulged. “Why? You saw the Ghuls’ response. Don’t insert yourself into their politics, Cerys. Trust me. It’s a very bad idea.”
“It’s not political,” I countered. “The Ghuls were probably insulted by the king’s demands.”
“Being insulted doesn’t make it okay to murder the messengers,” Callan argued.
“No, of course not, but I don’t think Ghuls are responsible for any of the missing djinn, do you? You heard Yessica—they’re more straightforward. This whole fight is based on a false assumption.”
Callan gripped my shoulders. “Lemon drop, I think you’re the smartest, most capable woman I’ve ever met, but I don’t know what you’re thinking right now. We can’t stay. We have no monkey in this circus.”
“We can’t just go back and do nothing,” I said. “The fighting could become widespread. What if it spills over into our realm and triggers a Third War Between the Realms?”
Callan dragged a hand through his hair. “I have an idea. It might not be enough to stop the war, but it could help solve Lumin’s case. That would mean something to you, wouldn’t?”
“Of course it would,” I said. I hated that Lumin’s death was getting lost amidst the chaos of impending battle. It didn’t seem right. Right now, nothing did.
“Good. What we need is already at my office.”
I drew a shaky breath. “Okay then. I guess we’ll ask the portal operator to send us to Terrene.”
Chapter Thirteen
Mona and Kendall were mid-argument when we arrived at the League office. Apparently, someone broke the coffee machine and decided not to come clean.
“We need to interrogate everyone in the building until we get a satisfactory response,” Mona said firmly.
Randall kept his focus on the computer screen where I could see that he was involved in a riveting game of solitaire. “Let’s save hammer time for actual criminals, okay?”
Callan cleared his throat to get their attention.
“Welcome back, wanderer,” Mona said. “Enjoy a nice holiday with your girlfriend?” Before I could object, Mona cracked a smile. “I’m kidding. I know where you were. I assume it all worked out since you’re both standing in front of me with all your limbs attached.”
“It worked out in that Cerys is alive and free,” Callan said, “but we’re not done with this investigation. You still have the samples from Lumin Nasaaf, right?”
Mona and Kendall exchanged quizzical glances.
“Of course,” Mona said. “We followed protocol.”
Mona grimaced. “Hard to forget. Henry had to scrape it off so that we could focus on analyzing the bones for identification purposes.”
“He analyzed the gunk to see if we could identify it, didn’t we?” Kendall said. “Came up empty.”
“We need him to take a closer look at the gunk,” Callan said. “It’s called jihoon. Separate any blood from it and see if we can identify who the blood belongs to.”
Kendall scratched his head. “Uh, I’m going to wager it belongs to the djinni that died.”
“Have Henry break it down further,” Callan said. “You’re going to find someone else’s blood in there. Guaranteed.”
Mona clicked on her phone. “I’ll tell him right now.”
“Great, thanks,” Callan said. “While Henry’s working on that, I need to check the database for a djinni called Martyn. He’s half Ghul and half Shaitan. His grandmother thinks he may be in Terrene.”
I leaned against the werewolf. “That’s good of you to remember.”
“We made a deal,” Callan said. “Whatever Riffat thinks his chances of being alive are, I’m not shirking my pledge to the old lady just because she lives in a remote cave in another realm.”
“Is her name Agnes, by any chance?” Kendall asked. “I have an aunt that fits that description.”
“She’s not a werebear,” Callan said. “She’s some kind of mystic Ghul we met in the djinn realm. Her family fled Terrene after the Second War.”
“She gave us the intel about jihoon,” I said, “which reminds me, I need to send a message to Robin to check the AMF system.”
Kendall wheeled his chair away from his desk. “Feel free to use mine.”
I winked. “You might want to save your progress on the game first.”
He smiled and clicked a button. “So you think the victim put up a fight and might have drawn the perp’s blood?”
“Not quite,” I said. “The blood is what makes jihoon deadly. It acts as a catalyst.”
Kendall whistled. “So somebody didn’t want that djinni to talk. Ever.”
“Didn’t want him to be able to reveal who put him there if he were ever found, I would imagine,” Mona added.
“Maybe. I wish we’d uncovered a strong motive in the colonies,” I said. “There was nothing concrete.”
“It sure helps when you need to identify a perp,” Kendall agreed.
“We’ve talked about it a lot this year at the academy. That if you understand the motive, it helps you understand the suspect. Maybe figure out their next move and stop them.”
“Glad you’re learning useful stuff over there,” Kendall said. “Warden Armitage teach you that?” He smirked at Mona. The Amazon had been in a romantic relationship with the warden years ago, but they’d broken up because each refused to relocate for the other. They’d been briefly reunited after a field trip in Terrene ended in a mass murder investigation.
“This is Professor Lurch. Armitage offers a lot of practical knowledge, though,” I said. “That’s the whole point of having wardens handle field trips and clinic, for that real world experience.”
“I suppose he’s good for some things,” Mona said quietly.
“There’s a more pressing issue,” I said. “The Shaitan king is about to go to war with the neighboring colony. Is there anything we can do to stop him?”
Mona and Kendall directed their attention to Callan. “A war, buddy?” Kendall asked.
“The king blames Ghuls for kidnapping his son,” Callan explained. “His response is purely emotional. We were in Ghul country and we came across a roaming band of the ugly suckers, but I don’t see them doing anything strategic.”
“A war between the colonies when there’s been peace for so long.” Mona inhaled deeply. “I understand your concern, but the fight is between castes in the djinn realm. It isn’t our jurisdiction or the AMF’s.”
“But it’s unjustified,” I argued. “The king doesn’t know for sure what’s happened.”
Callan placed a supportive hand on my shoulder. “Mona is right, Cerys. No one in the other realms will make a move on the djinn realm. It would be a violation of the Accords.”
“I’ll let my AMF contacts know,” Mona said. “They’ll appreciate the intel, but I guarantee they’ll only monitor the situation from a safe distance.”
“There’s a reason we were such an oddity there, lemon drop,” Callan said. “Their realm is closed to outsiders. They don’t want us interfering, even if we’re trying to prevent hundreds or even thousands of djinn deaths.”
“It doesn’t matter what our intentions are,” Mona agreed. “Good or bad, the djinn in that realm govern themselves with no input or involvement from us. They’ve always been fairly insular, even when they mixed more readily with other realms.”
“Even within the colonies there, they were insular,” I said. “The Shaitans only mixed with Shaitans. The castes were highly discouraged from intermarrying.”
Kendall shrugged. “That’s their way, Cerys. Packs can behave similarly. You think the wolf pack would be pleased to know Callan here is googly-eyed over a witch?”
Callan flinched. “That’s one of the reasons I like being a lone wolf, Kendall. I don’t worry about pleasing anyone with my choices.”
“But the pack isn’t going to start a war because of it,” I said.
Kendall flicked an imaginary piece of lint off his sleeve. “Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on the situation. What if Callan were the alpha of a high-ranking pack and there was some upstart beta that wanted to unseat him? Callan’s romantic attachment to a witch would be the primary reason he was deemed unsuitable as a leader. That beta would do everything he could to manipulate the hearts and minds of the other pack members, so that when the time came to act, he’d have enough support.”
“What would happen if he didn’t?” I asked.
Kendall pretended to slice his neck. “It’s kill or be killed. Don’t need a war to have bloodshed.”
I shivered. The more I learned of the world, the more brutal it seemed. “I feel like there are more pieces to the puzzle than what we have right now.”
“Well, obviously,” Kendall said. “Even if you had all the pieces, you might not be able to stop what’s already started. Once the fighting begins, it’s a testosterone fest.”
“Unless King G’lur is right about the Ghuls’ involvement,” Mona pointed out. “Then we have all the pieces we need and should leave them to sort it out amongst themselves.”
I thought of Riffat and the other Shaitans we met along the way. Kystra. Even Yessica. Some of them might not survive.
“We can’t do nothing,” I said.
“We’re not doing nothing,” Callan replied. “Henry is going to analyze Lumin’s remains and we’re going to see if we solve that piece of puzzle.”
“Okay, but Lumin is already dead. There are djinn that are still alive. That we can still help,” I insisted.
Callan’s fingers curled around my shoulders and he pressed his forehead against mine. “You can’t take care of everyone, Cerys,” he said gently. “I understand your motivation. I do, but you cannot save everyone. Life doesn’t work that way.”
My chest tightened. “There has to be more we can do. What if Henry’s report only shows Lumin’s blood? What then?” We’d end up helping no one. Not Lumin. Not Pytor. Not Prince Wuhaib. What good was being a powerful earth witch under these circumstances?
“I’ve got a friend who’ll talk your ear off about the Djinn Accords and the Second War, if it’ll help you feel like you’re being proactive,” Kendall said. “Name’s Gene. He spends vacations researching old portals. Goes to rural places like Windy Corner, Mountainview, Hell’s Point…”
“Good Goddess. I’d hate to be married to him,” Mona said.
“You’d hate to be married to anyone,” Kendall shot back. “That’s why you’re not with Armitage, remember?”
My brain latched on to something Kendall had said. “Wait, did you say Mountainview? Where is that?”
Kendall rubbed his chin. “If memory serves, I think it’s in West Virginia near the Pennsylvania border. Or it used to be called that. You know humans. They change names of places as often as they change hairstyles.”
“What are you thinking, Cerys?” Callan asked.
“Chancellor Tilkin was there earlier this year, trying to resolve a dispute,” I said.
Mona pointed a pen at me. “That’s right. There were multiple reports of magic use in the area but no evidence of the reason. Then they just stopped. It was causing concern.”
“Kendall, would you mind if we paid a visit to your friend?” I asked.
“Hell no, he’d love the company,” Kendall said. “You’ll find him at his shop in Beaumont. It’s called Illuminati.”
“Sounds intriguing,” Callan said.
Kendall snorted. “You can let me know after you’ve been there.”
Illuminati was not as intriguing as the name implied.
It was a lamp store.
“Kendall didn’t say his friend is a djinni, did he?” I asked. The store carried all manner of lamps and other light fixtures.
“Well, his name is Gene and he sells lamps for a living,” Callan said. “I think the answer is obvious.”
“Welcome to Illuminati. How can I help light your world today?” A man with stark white hair and a smooth olive complexion hustled over to us.
“Are you Gene?” Callan asked.
“I am. Gene of the Lamp, they call me.” He chortled at his own joke.
“I’m Callan and this is Cerys. We’re friends of Kendall’s,” the werewolf said. “We’d like to talk to you about portals.”
Gene shushed him loudly. “You can’t come barging into my store raging about portals.”
I glanced around the store. “But there’s no one else here.”
“How can you tell?” Gene said, gesturing widely. “Look at all these lamps. They might block your view.”
Callan folded his arms. “Is anyone else here?”
Outlaw: Spellslingers Academy of Magic (Enforcer of the East Book 2) Page 13