by Jocelyn Fox
The paramedics wheeled away the unconscious clerk as Ross described how she’d awakened to Mayhem growling at the window, and she saw the hand clawing at the glass. Then she heard him at the front door and she shouted at him that she had a gun…She let a few tears slide down her face as she told the officer how the man had somehow opened her front door, maybe she’d left it unlocked accidentally, she didn’t know, but she yelled at him to stop and get back, and then she fired. She mentioned that she’d stopped at the gas station earlier that day on her way through Cairn, and she’d seen the guy behind the register watching her.
“Do we need the techs out here to process the scene?” the youngest-looking policeman asked the one interviewing Ross, who shook his head.
“Pretty cut and dried. Home invasion, self-defense. The guy’s gonna live, no reason to waste department resources.” The officer looked at Ross. His businesslike tone gentled. Ross estimated him to be in his late thirties, early forties. “Do you want to come get checked out at the hospital?”
Ross swallowed and shook her head. “No. No, I’m good. He didn’t touch me, he…” Then she glanced at her hands. “Um, but I didn’t wear gloves when I pressed the gauze to his shoulder.” She cursed in her head and then sighed. “No open wounds or anything though so I should be okay.”
“They can start you on a preventative course of meds if you come in now,” said the older policeman almost kindly. “Especially since it sounds like the guy might have been a drug user.”
The other officer muttered something about worthless junkies. He crossed his arms and watched the second pair of policemen pull away in their marked car, lights no longer flashing.
“I’d really like to just take a shower and get some sleep,” said Ross honestly. “Unless you need me to come in to the station or take any evidence from me.” She held up her bloodstained hands, hoping that they didn’t want any evidence. A quick swab with a special kit would show that she didn’t have gunpowder residue on her skin from firing the Glock…but if she showered, it was a moot point. She tried to reel in her racing mind; the officers already seemed sympathetic, and she didn’t even know if they used the residue kits in the field.
The older officer considered. His nametag read Anderson. Ross let him have a moment to think, and then hugged herself, despite the blood on her hands, as though she were cold. “Officer Anderson, thank you so much for responding to the call. All of you. I thought…it was scary. I didn’t know what was going to happen, when I realized he was probably on drugs.”
Officer Anderson nodded. “Just doing our job, Miss Cooper. Is there anyone you can call to come and stay with you?”
“I have Mayhem. My dog.” She smiled. “If the guy had taken one more step toward me, she’d probably have gone after him.”
“Well, let me just call into the station and get the go-ahead to close this up.” Officer Anderson nodded brusquely and walked a small distance away, lowering his head to speak into the radio transmitter clipped to the collar of his uniform.
“You sure you’re all right?” the younger officer said. He was good-looking in a generic way, blonde hair combed to one side, only a few inches taller than Ross. She wondered if he got teased for his lack of height as she read his nametag: Burch. Then she swallowed and nudged her mind back on track.
“I’m a little shaken up,” she admitted, “but I’ll be okay.” She leaned back against the house. “It was just…creepy.” She shook her head. The disgust in her voice was real. “I wake up and some crazy guy is clawing at my bedroom window. That’s creepy.”
“I probably would’ve shot him through the window,” Officer Burch said in a conspiratorial tone, leaning slightly toward her.
She took a deep breath. “I couldn’t see him clearly. I didn’t…I didn’t want to shoot him if I didn’t have to.”
“You have more trigger discipline than some cops I know,” he replied, and she couldn’t tell whether he was joking. He walked casually down the porch and glanced through the living room window. “You said you’re here by yourself?” A different light entered his eyes as he turned back to Ross.
The couch. He’d seen the couch made up with a pillow and blankets. “Yeah.” She smiled a little sheepishly. “I like to have a pillow and blankets when I watch TV. I fell asleep last night watching some reruns.” She shrugged and fervently hoped that he couldn’t see the men’s boots by the door. “Didn’t clean it up when I went to bed.”
Officer Burch smiled. “Just have to cover our bases. You sure you don’t want us to check the house for you?”
“I’m good, thanks,” she said, smiling in reply. “Mayhem does a pretty good job of letting me know if there’s strangers around.”
As if on cue, the Malinois’ black and tan face appeared in the living room window, her ears perked and her tongue lolling out of her mouth. The dog looked like she was grinning at the mention of her name. Ross shook her head and chuckled, thanking the dog silently for the diversion. “Just look at that face. I can’t even yell at her for being on the couch.”
Officer Burch grinned. His partner had gone back to the car to check something in the computer; he hooked his thumbs in his belt. “We always had Labs growing up, but I’ve heard great things about Shepherds and Malinois.”
“Doesn’t the Cairn Police Department have a K9 unit?” Ross asked, seizing the opportunity to change the subject.
“Yeah, but you can imagine it’s a struggle with funding….” Officer Burch elaborated for a few minutes, prodded along by Ross’s strategic questions. Finally, his partner returned from the police car.
“Just got approval to close up shop. No crime scene tape or anything,” said Officer Anderson with a fatherly smile to Ross.
“That would have really given the neighbors something to talk about,” she replied. Then she sobered. “Did you get an update from the paramedics? Is the guy gonna be okay?”
“You’re a better person than I am,” Officer Burch said, shrugging his shoulders at his partner’s warning look.
“Paramedics said that he was stable when they dropped him off at the hospital. He’ll have to have surgery to get the round out, but it didn’t hit anything major from the looks of it,” Officer Anderson said.
“Good.” Ross sighed in relief.
“Those burns though…that’s some weird sh – stuff. Weird stuff,” the older policeman said.
“I wish I could be more helpful.” Ross looked up at them earnestly.
“You’ve given us all the information we need,” said Officer Anderson. “And if you’re all right, we’ll be on our way.” He walked down the steps of the front porch, heading toward the car.
Officer Burch leaned in a little closer to Ross, so close that she caught a faint whiff of his pine-spice aftershave mixed with body odor. Her stomach turned uneasily. “Next time just aim center of mass,” he told her in that same friendly voice. “Do us all a favor and put another meth-head out of his misery.”
Ross went very still. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she replied sweetly, forcing a smile. The policeman held her eyes for just a second too long, and then he followed his partner down the steps, leaving the scent of pine and sweat in his wake. Ross put a hand out to steady herself on the wooden siding of the house, drawing in a shaky breath, a tidal wave of exhaustion crashing over her as she stared at the blood staining her front door and wondered what new, tangled world she had just entered.
Chapter 15
“Did you know?” Tess stared at Vell. The Vyldretning stood before a crackling fire in her quarters, still dressed for the council. “Did you know that the bone sorcerer was already in the mortal world?” A coil of dread tightened in her stomach.
“I suspected,” said Vell quietly. She faced Tess. “But I didn’t know for certain. I needed Mab to confirm it.”
Tess unbuckled her sword belt and threw herself into one of the chairs, staring at the fire with the sheathed Caedbranr laid across her knees. “So you were playing me just like you were
playing her.”
Vell sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose between two fingers. “Please don’t be difficult, Tess.”
Tess snorted. “Right. I’m the one being difficult.”
“What would you have me do?” demanded Vell, spreading her hands and taking a step closer to Tess. “I can’t confide everything to you, Tess. There’s already talk in both Courts about the Bearer being an instrument of the High Queen.”
“Better they think that I’m an instrument of the Vyldgard than of the Seelie or Unseelie Courts,” countered Tess. She took a deep breath and looked into the fire for a long moment. “You’re right. It was just a shock.” She shook her head. “I don’t like it when Mab shocks me. It reminds me of when I was first at Darkhill.”
“And she invaded your head,” finished Vell. “I know.”
“How?”
“Finnead.”
Tess rubbed the smooth leather of the Caedbranr’s scabbard. “I don’t know how anything works in the mortal world.”
Vell chuckled. “Don’t be melodramatic. Of course you know how things work in Doendhtalam. It was your world for over twenty years, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” answered Tess grudgingly, “but what I mean is that I don’t know how my powers work there. I don’t even know if I’ll have powers.”
“I think it would be a bit silly to have a Bearer as emissary to the mortal world when her powers are useless there, don’t you think?” Vell arched an eyebrow as she unpinned the golden net from about her hair, shaking out her dark tresses.
“I thought the Queens’ Named Knights were their emissaries,” muttered Tess.
“Are you hungry?” Vell asked, hands on her hips.
“What? I…no, I’m not hungry.” Tess stared at her best friend in confusion.
“Sometimes you get irrational when you haven’t eaten, and I was wondering if that’s what this was,” said the High Queen, unbuckling her wide woven belt with nimble fingers and shedding the surcoat worked with golden runes.
Tess groaned. “You sound like Robin.”
Vell grinned and moved to the table, pouring khal from the copper kettle. “In any case, you’ll probably need this. We have a lot of preparations to make over the next day.”
“A day still feels like too long,” said Tess, standing and accepting the cup of khal. She left the Caedbranr leaning against the chair by the fire, feeling oddly light without its weight on her back or at her hip.
“It will seem very short,” said Vell. A stack of books anchored one side of the table. She ran her finger down their spines until she found the one she sought. “All right. Ailin and Gawain have been helping us in our research. I’ve asked them to come by in an hour, so I want to make sure you understand how we’re going to be building the Gate.” She flipped open the leather-bound book, thumbing through the thick pages. “It’s going to be a Summoned Gate. It’s a compromise between the Great Gate and the portals that were used by the Seelie and Unseelie in their own lands.”
“Also called a warded Gate?” Tess made it a question.
“Yes. One and the same. It’s a Gate that remains open, but it isn’t accessible to anyone wishing to travel from the mortal world into Faeortalam unless they have the proper Summons.”
“It’s a locked Gate and the Summons is the key,” said Tess in understanding.
“Exactly. The Summons will also have three different components, and you need to employ them at precisely the right time in order to make it work.” Vell slid the book toward Tess.
“All this information is just readily available in these books?”
“Not readily available. They were under lock and ward for centuries. And I’m sure the Sidhe Queens would have killed anyone trying to open a Gate.”
Tess sipped at her khal, reading the pages marked by Vell. A frown creased her brow. “So…I have a question. We just talked about this bone sorcerer, about how he uses flesh and bone to amplify his power. How is that any different than most of the spells that you’ve done, or I’ve done, for that matter? We’ve used our blood countless times. And the Summons requires blood, too.”
“We’ve always used our own blood,” replied Vell without hesitation. “It’s different. You can use your own blood to augment your workings. There’s never been a law against that. It’s when you start taking blood from unwilling victims that it crosses over into bone sorcery.”
“So blood magic is not necessarily bone sorcery,” said Tess slowly, mulling the explanation over in her head. It made a strange sort of sense. She looked at Vell. “Is what Arcana did bone sorcery?”
Vell pressed her lips into a thin line. “Do you mean wearing my sister’s body or healing your brother?”
“Both, I guess.”
The Vyldretning shrugged. “I don’t know. Perhaps. But even if it was, she’s gone, and Liam is alive because of it.”
“It could be a slippery slope,” murmured Tess, feeling a prickle of morbid fascination. It was a feeling similar to the interest she’d felt after her discovery that she could Walk to the Gray Cliffs and bring a soul back from the brink of death. But retrieving a spirit meant Walking, and she hadn’t Walked since the battle at the Dark Keep. She had no intention of Walking anytime soon, either.
“Why do you think bone sorcery is outlawed?” Vell raised an eyebrow.
“Point taken. All right, so this Summons has three parts…” Tess bent over the centuries old text before her and committed its details to memory, talking through the spell with Vell to make sure she understood every part.
Ailin joined them after what seemed like a very short hour. The Seelie Queen’s Vaelanbrigh spoke easily with the High Queen and the Bearer, his pale eyes bright with the Fae-spark as he explained the preparations that the Named Knights undertook before venturing through a Gate into the mortal world. He showed them the runes that they inked upon their skin to protect them against the sickness caused by the amount of iron in the mortal world; Tess amused him by asking why they didn’t just get them tattooed on their bodies.
“Not all of us are so well suited to have such permanent decoration on our bodies,” he said with a smile, motioning to Tess’s arm, where her emerald war markings surged out of her sleeve and onto her hand in a complex pattern. “But if we start making longer trips into Doendhtalam, it’s an idea worth considering.”
“Would it have to be a special kind of ink?” Tess asked musingly.
Vell tapped the table with two fingers. “We have precious little time, Tess.”
“Focus. Got it. I’m focusing.” Tess sat up straighter and looked at Ailin, waiting for him to continue. They worked for another hour before the Seelie Vaelanbrigh was satisfied that he’d imparted the necessary basics. He gracefully took his leave and Tess sat back in her chair, rubbing her temples.
“That was a lot of knowledge.” She sighed. “My head hurts. Why isn’t Finnead teaching us all this, by the way?”
“I’ll verify everything with him while you’re asleep,” said Vell, “but he’s struggling. He truly believes that the Lethe Stone will destroy the princess, and it’s nearly driving him mad.”
“So he doesn’t want me to go into the mortal world,” Tess said softly, toying with the handle of her now cold mug of khal.
Vell shook her head. “It’s not that. He knows that you need to destroy the bone sorcerer. He just believes the Lethe Stone should be destroyed, too.”
Tess thought for a moment. “What will happen, once Mab has the Lethe Stone? What’s to prevent her from turning it into a weapon?”
Vell looked at her levelly. “Because I will use it on the Crown Princess, and then I will destroy it.”
“That’s not what Mab thinks is going to happen.”
“If she truly only wants it to heal her sister, she’ll have no objections. It will help pacify Titania as well.” Vell shifted in her chair and then let out a low growl. “I hate the palace sometimes. I miss the forest.”
“Not the forest we passed throug
h on the way to Brightvale,” said Tess with an exaggerated shudder, thinking of the skin wraiths that had tracked them. She remembered Merrick’s valiant actions when he’d been the newest addition to their small band of travelers: throwing himself between Tess and an attacking skin wraith, impaling it on his sword at the cost of a dislocated shoulder.
“No,” said Vell, “the Northern forests.” She took a deep breath. “I wish I’d been able to go with you into the Northern mountains. Luca said it almost felt like being home again.”
Tess smiled slightly. Then she straightened again in her chair. “I’ll be taking Kianryk with me, won’t I?”
“Yes.”
“How is he?” she asked softly. “I haven’t seen…”
“The City feels too much like a cage to them,” said Vell. “Beryk tolerates it for my sake sometimes, but Rialla and Kianryk have been roaming the lands to the north of the city. There’s a bit of forest and some grassland there. It seems my presence here is helping to speed the recovery of the lands.”
Tess thought about telling Vell that she was avoiding the question, but she decided against it. Worry would only distract her from the preparations for the Gate. She swallowed the last of her cold khal, grimaced and reached for another book.
She awoke with a start in one of the chairs by the hearth in Vell’s chambers without remembering when she’d fallen asleep. As she blinked dry eyes, her fingers found the hilt of the Caedbranr leaning against the chair and she drew in a breath, letting her eyes close again.
“Lady Tess,” came an insistent whisper.
Tess cracked open one eye to find Haze hovering at eye level a respectful distance away from her. So that was why she’d awakened – she certainly didn’t feel like she’d gotten enough sleep. She sat up straighter and cleared her throat, scrubbing at her face with one hand. “Yes, Haze?”