Elan nodded. “In my case, I’d have to give up my job here. I’d have to give up the freedom to do what I want. It’s a big enough change knowing I’m going to be a mother. Having everything turned on its ear is another matter.”
A knock interrupted us. I answered the door. It was a guard. “Milady, Lord Tam requests you and Elan join him in the conference room. It’s urgent.”
“What’s going on?” I could tell from the guard’s face that he knew what was happening.
“Milady, we didn’t feel it in here because we’re in UnderBarrow, but there’s been an earthquake. The village has been damaged.”
“Cripes. Come on.” I motioned to Elan. As we ran toward the conference room, I knew in my heart that the Order of the Black Mist was behind this, and if we didn’t stop them, they’d continue trying to plunge the world into a chaotic nightmare.
Chapter 7
BY THE TIME we reached the door leading out of UnderBarrow, Jason, Tam, and a number of others were with us. I was muttering under my breath, hoping the body count was low. Not only did I not want to see people hurt, but too many of our healers were still out of the village, off to help Bryn with the injured in Eleveanor. Our resources to cope with a lot of injured were low.
We stepped out of the Barrow and jogged along the short path to the village square.
On first look, it was obvious there was a lot of damage. When we had first settled Willow Wood, all the houses we erected were makeshift. Over the past four or five months, those handy with tools had joined together to build homes, one after another. They were slowly working their way through the village, building tidy cottages to replace the hastily improvised shelters. The cottages had withstood the damage. The shelters, however, had collapsed.
People were milling around the village, some simply dazed, others with blood dripping down from head wounds, or obviously broken arms. Children whimpered by their parents’ sides, and everywhere, there were cries coming as people stumbled out from beneath the thatched roofs that had fallen in on the shelters.
Tam motioned to his guards. “Mobilize everyone who can walk to search for the injured. Start a bucket brigade and find water witches to extinguish the fires that might have started.” He turned to me. “Fury, Elan, please marshal any healers you can find and take them to the Grand Ballroom in UnderBarrow. We’ll set up an emergency hospital there. We could be in for aftershocks and I don’t want the injured still out here.”
I nodded, heading back to UnderBarrow. I led Elan to Memy Pendrake’s rooms. As the elderly Fae invited me to come in, I shook my head.
“Memy, there’s been an earthquake out in the village. I need a list of all the healers in UnderBarrow—doesn’t matter how experienced. We’re going to need everybody on board to help.”
“And so many off on the trip to Eleveanor.” She tsked her way over to the table. “Come in, children. You may not have time to sit and chat, but the names will take me a moment to gather.”
As she worked her way through several journals, I glanced at Elan. “You all right?”
She nodded. “Yes, if anything, this helps me make up my mind. In Verdanya, all of this—helping out, finding healers, searching for the lost—everything would be left to the guards and servants. Our culture is so much more structured than the Bonny Fae. And neither Verdanya nor UnderBarrow are the High Courts of our people.”
“So I recently learned.”
“Well, it’s even worse the higher up you go. I want to be useful. Not a decoration. That’s what it comes down to. I want to be useful and productive, and back in Verdanya, as the king’s daughter, I’d be kept on the sidelines, especially since I’m pregnant. I’d be a figurehead.”
I gave her a long look. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes, I am. I’m going to stay in UnderBarrow. Here, I have a purpose, and friends, and Jason. If he came back to Verdanya with me, he would end up resenting both me and our child. It’s not easy to fit in with a different culture. He probably could, but he’d be a prince by marriage. A minor noble expected to keep to his place and to never make waves.” She stopped as Memy Pendrake returned, a piece of paper in hand.
“Here’s a list of all the healers in UnderBarrow. I checked off those who are currently on loan to Eleveanor. You might check with the Celtic temple, as well. The Lady Brighid has a number of healers in her service.”
We took the page, thanked Memy, and headed out. After looking up Dame Ferrika and asking her to gather all the healers on the list in the Grand Ballroom, Elan and I headed back to the village. As we stepped out of UnderBarrow, we found ourselves caught in the wave of an aftershock. While it wasn’t mild, it didn’t send us reeling to the ground, which was a blessing.
“What the fuck does Lyon have hold of this time?” I muttered as we crossed the village at a slow jog, heading into the woods. The new Temple of the Sylvan Woodland was southeast of the village, about a ten-minute walk from UnderBarrow.
“Are you sure Lyon caused this?”
“How could it not be him?”
Elan shrugged. “This entire area is riddled with fault lines. They were here long before the World Shift. Earthquakes are common here, compared to some areas of the country.” She paused as we hurried along the trail. “Do you realize that there is no more country? It just hit me—the Conglomerate is dead. The Corporatocracy has fallen. Nobody’s in charge and we’re all on our own. I never prepared for this day. In some ways it’s frightening, but in some ways I feel liberated.”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking a lot about that. We get a second chance to do it right. Or a third. The World Shift gave people a second chance, and we got it right by forbidding weather magic and putting a stop to the wars that ensued from the misuse of that power. But I think we’ve been at war since then—the battles have just been economic. A battle of money against money, and damned be those who fell through the cracks. Life in Darktown wasn’t easy. I felt for all those families who were caught up in one tax law after another, tethered to the government because of their debts. But the men at the top? They never went hungry, they didn’t work sixteen-hour days trying to scratch out a living.”
“I guess sometimes you need a revolution, but the price is always going to be steep.” Elan pointed to the bend ahead. “Around that curve is the temple.”
We kept to the center of the trail. Even though workers were constantly clearing out patches of Wandering Ivy and Thunder Root and Venus Traps, the carnivorous, sentient plants were invasive and they constantly tried to take over the endemic vegetation.
“I gather up north where the Greens used to be, the Wandering Ivy has taken over and pretty much absorbed the area. It grew like wildfire the past six months and choked out the regular vegetation.” The thought of having to trek through a jungle of the plants gave me the creeps.
“The Bogs have expanded too, thanks to the thousands of dead bodies in Seattle. But they’ve extended to the south. The dead produced so much fertilizer and mulch that the Bogs and Sandspit pretty much swallowed up most of the corpses down there. I dunno what’s happened in Seattle proper, but I’m not anxious to find out.”
“I’ll be forced to, once Heimdall creates the explosive. I have to make it to the World Tree. I wonder just how hard that’s going to be. I’m not sure if I’m more afraid of Lyon, or what’s risen out of the ruins of Seattle.”
There were probably still zombies running around, and who knew how many spirits might be lodged within the city. Lyon’s zombie attack had decimated Seattle, and the tsunami shortly after that had finished the job. The thought of the Bogs swallowing up the city was horrible, but in some ways, it seemed a fitting end to the devastation that had been wrought.
“I’m thinking that it’s going to be a long, long time before civilization returns to what it was,” Elan said.
“I doubt that it ever will. Hecate finally helped me understand that life won’t ever go back to what it was. Took me awhile to understan
d that. You and Laren and Tam…even Jason and Shevron…you have all seen a lot of changes in your lives. But I’m only thirty-one. I only ever knew the life I had.” I pointed at the sturdy building up ahead. A well sat in front of it. Of course the Celts would have a sacred well, and I had no doubt that Brighid had claimed it.
“Here we are.”
Tyrell met us in the Temple of the Sylvan Woodland. A Theosian like me, he was bound to the Dagda, and he had journeyed out of Seattle with us when we first fled the zombies.
“We need healers, Tyrell. Can you ask the Lady Brighid to send them to the village?”
“Why don’t you ask me yourself?” The voice was melodious, graceful like a flute on the wind.
We turned to see a tall woman standing near the well, wearing a long green dress. She had flame red hair that burned as brightly as my fire, and she wore a golden torc around her neck and a circlet that also looked to be made of gold.
“I’m Lady Brighid. What is it you need?” She crossed toward us, so effortlessly that it seemed as though she glided over the ground.
I blinked, wanting to melt into a puddle. Some of the Elder Gods could do that to you—their presence was so graceful, so embracing that it wrapped around you like a warm blanket.
“Your…Lady…” I paused, trying to find my words. “Lord Tam bids that we gather as many healers as we can to help out in the village. The quake…” I drifted off, hoping I had made some sort of sense.
She smiled then, and the sun smiled with her. “Of course. I’ll send my healers over to the village as soon as I can gather them up.”
As she turned away, I watched her retreat, a warmth filling my heart. Sometimes, the gods were more gracious than I ever expected. As she disappeared, I glanced over at Tyrell, who was watching me.
“Lady Brighid affects everybody that way at first. She’s grace incarnate, and yet she’s stronger than you’d ever think possible. I’ll be there shortly with as many as I can gather up. You must need help with the search and rescue. That quake was big.”
“It’s not just that,” I told him. “We’re expecting a big party of injured in from Eleveanor.” I filled him in on what Bryn had told us. “So Shay’s dead, but their village has been trounced. I know they said they’re not rebuilding but my guess is, after the shock wears off, people will drift back to their homes, wanting to rebuild. Now, it’s more important than ever to establish good relationships with other villages and towns.”
“You’re right about that,” Tyrell said. “Because for every village like Willow Wood or Eleveanor, there’s going to be a village of malcontents, looking to expand and conquer. It’s the way of the world. Best to gather our allies while we can.”
Tyrell’s point was valid. Given the nature of people, if we didn’t establish allies, eventually we might be facing them as enemies. Eleveanor could have easily been our enemy had we allowed Shay to stay in control. He had been out for his interests only, and he had manipulated others to suit his own needs. He had led an entire village of people astray. Shay might be dead now, but he had hurt a lot of people and been responsible for his niece’s suicide. I hoped he rotted, wherever he was in the afterlife.
“I’ll talk to Tam. I’m sure he’s thought of this, but it can’t hurt to remind them.” As Elan and I turned to head back to Willow Wood, Tyrell caught up to us.
“At least the gods are building quarters near us. But that means their Theosians will be making the journey here from all over the country. The Dagda told me that they don’t want to spread themselves too thin. So they’re calling all the minor gods to them. We’re going to be a powerhouse area, which means we’ll be a major target. You might tell Tam that as well.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I mulled over the thought as Elan and I headed back to the village.
THE QUAKE HAD destroyed about four hundred shelters, but luckily, we only had two fatalities, and both of those had been heart attacks in older village members. There were hundreds of injuries, however. Several of them were major. The healers were out in force, setting up triage stations to attend to the worst hurt first.
A couple aftershocks hit as Elan and I wandered through the clusters of people. The guards had marshaled all able-bodied men to start clearing out some of the makeshift houses, while Tam had ordered not only the Grand Ballroom but several other large areas of UnderBarrow to be turned into shelters for the homeless until enough tents could be raised to protect everyone. Luckily, with the heat of summer, there hadn’t been much in the way of fire damage. A lot of cooking was still done at the community ovens and grills rather than in shelters.
I finally spotted a chance to talk to Tam alone, and—with Elan, Jason, Hans, and Greta behind me—I closed in on Tam before anybody else could drag away his attention.
“Lady Brighid is sending healers to the village. Also, Tyrell told us something.” I repeated the conversation, helped by Elan. “It occurs to me that we’re going to become a focal point.”
“I hadn’t yet realized the gods were deciding to make this their home base. At least what…four? Five pantheons? Which means a number of Theosians will be filtering into the area within the next few months.” He paused, then turned to me. “Perhaps we should marry sooner than later? We need to establish a strong foothold here. As soon as you’re done with the gate on the World Tree, we can go ahead.”
I was about to say something—a winter wedding had appealed to me—but then stopped. Tam wouldn’t rush things just to be obnoxious. He’d have a good reason and we could discuss it later.
“I think we’ll be fine if we keep the date the same.” I paused as one of the guards appeared. I recognized him. He was from the front gate—figuratively speaking. We didn’t exactly have gates or walls, but he was from one of the main outposts that watched to the southwest.
“Your Majesty.” He knelt before Tam, who motioned him to his feet.
“Yes?”
“The injured from Eleveanor are coming. They’ll be here in about twenty minutes. I ran ahead to tell you.”
I groaned, a thought tapping me on the shoulder. “You do realize, with as many injured as we have, we’ll be prime targets for any large party of lycanthropes who can smell blood.”
“Good point. Double the guards on duty, and start patrolling the lines between the watchtowers.” Tam turned to me. “I know this isn’t the best time, but go get dressed. We need to greet them as though we have this entire situation in hand. We can’t let them feel as though we’re not capable of handling disaster.”
He spoke in low tones, but Elan still heard him. “Lord Tam, I’ll escort Fury to her room.”
“Very good.” He brushed her off like the bodyguard she had once been, but she didn’t look hurt. In fact, as we hustled toward UnderBarrow, she motioned for me to walk in back.
“Best they see you acting like a queen now, because before long, you’ll be one.”
I started to protest, but once again, realized that I knew very little of formality—especially when it came to court manners. I had to learn, and learn fast.
PATRICE WAS WAITING with the corset and skirt. I had no clue how she knew ahead of time that I needed to change, but she helped me into the outfit. I shifted my breasts in my corset, grateful that it didn’t restrict my breathing. The laces were firm, but they weren’t laced to restrict movement, only for support. I decided that I should wear my dagger. Tam wore a ceremonial sword when he held court. I wasn’t going to be any different just because I was female.
“Bring me my dagger and the belt for it, please.” Usually I wore it on my thigh, but I also had a belt specifically designed to hold the sheath.
Patrice hesitated. “My lady, shouldn’t you wear a more ornate belt? I know where I can find one and it will be better suited toward your outfit.”
“Quickly, then.”
As she hurried out of the room, I ran over the speech in my mind, hoping that I wouldn’t forget anything. I was a quick study,
but given the quake my mind was elsewhere and I wasn’t sure how I was going to fare.
Elan tapped me on the arm. “Practice on me.”
I grinned, grateful she had picked up on my nervousness. I took a deep breath and began my speech. I stumbled a few times, but by the time I was halfway through, my nerves had calmed down, and I realized that I had this. By the time Patrice returned with an ornate belt that matched my outfit, I was ready. I buckled it around my waist, strapping on the sheath with my dagger. With one final look in the mirror, I let out a long, slow breath, and gave myself a decisive nod.
“Okay, I’m ready. Elan, walk with me, please.”
She smiled. “You’re going to be a wonderful queen. Perfect for UnderBarrow.”
“I still haven’t figured out if I’m going to be a princess or a queen. Every time I ask Tam, he’s just says, ‘It’s complicated.’ I’m confused.”
“He’s right. It is complicated. Among the Fae there are the High Courts, and the regional courts. UnderBarrow is a regional court. Tam’s parents are the King and Queen of the High Court and he’s the prince to the entire Bonny Fae realm. But he’s King of UnderBarrow.”
That wasn’t too difficult to understand. “I wonder why he just didn’t tell me that. It makes sense. So I’ll be the queen of UnderBarrow…and… Oh. You mean I’ll be a princess in the High Courts, as well?”
“That’s about the size of it. Since you’re married to Tam, if he were to ever take the throne over all the Bonny Fae, you would ascend with him as queen of the realm, so to speak.”
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