by Martha Carr
“Now, may we continue?”
The halfling felt the woman’s gaze on her and nodded once. “Sure.”
The recording resumed. “Ms. Summerlin, are you currently harboring the magical fugitive L’zar Verdys in your home at the Pellerville Gables Apartments?”
Cheyenne glanced at her and raised an eyebrow. “Absolutely not.”
“Were you in any way involved in L’zar Verdys’ escape from Chateau D’rahl?”
“No.”
“Thank you. For the purposes of whatever future use this recording may serve, please state that everything you’ve told us this morning is, to the best of your knowledge, accurate and true.”
“It is.”
The woman folded her hands on the table and readjusted in her seat. “I’m inclined to believe you, Ms. Summerlin. Now, I’d like to move on to a slightly different subject. Tell us about that new portal on the Summerlin estate. That’s where you grew up if I’m not mistaken.”
“Yeah.” This’ll be easy. “I was visiting my mom last night, and the portal just shot out of the ground.”
Sir snorted and folded his arms but didn’t say a word.
“Was there any type of warning preceding this event?”
“An earthquake. And a bunch of flashing lights.”
“And was there any form of magic being cast before the new portal appeared?” The woman shook her head, searching for the words. “Any spells or incantations? Something that might have gone wrong?”
The halfling frowned. “I’m guessing you know this just like everything else, but I have to bring it up. You know who my mom is, right?”
“Yes, Ms. Summerlin. I’m aware of your familial connections.”
Cheyenne’s laugh was humorless and wry. “Bianca Summerlin would put her elbows on the table before she’d let someone get away with even saying the word ‘magic.’ There were no spells or incantations. We were in the middle of dinner, there was an earthquake, and then the huge black spikes of rock shot up out of the ground. As far as I know, it was random.”
“Of course.” The woman dipped her head and gestured toward Sir. “Major Carson has informed us that he’s sent a team of his top agents to your mother’s house in Henry County to monitor this new portal, which is, in essence, why this organization was founded. Did you see any individuals cross through that portal between the time it appeared and when our agents arrived on the property?”
“No.” Cheyenne licked her lips and met every pair of eyes staring right back at her. “But something else came through.”
Sir sat a little straighter in his chair.
“Such as?”
“I have no idea what to call them.” The halfling shrugged. “Just a bunch of dark shapes, really. Trying to come through and lashing out at anything that moved, I think. If you asked some of the O’gúleesh on the reservations, they’ll all tell you that those things only exist between the portals. That’s part of the crossing, I guess—getting past them.”
“Have you made the crossing yourself?”
“No.” Better leave it at that if she can smell a lie like she says. “But I fought one of those things coming out of the portal in my mom’s backyard last night. It shouldn’t be able to do that.”
“No, it should not.” The woman eyed the three nameless men at the table, and they seemed to come to some sort of unspoken decision by wiggling their eyebrows. “I think we have everything we need from you, Ms. Summerlin. I’m sure it goes without saying, but if you come across any more of those portals, please reach out to Major Carson to inform him. We need to keep a lid on this for as long as possible while we look into what’s happening.”
“Sure. I’ll keep him updated.”
The four officials stood from their chairs, and the woman grabbed the recorder to slip it into her pocket. “Thank you for your time, Ms. Summerlin. Major.”
Sir stood as well, pressing his fingertips on the table and nodding as he watched his superiors remove themselves quickly and calmly from the room. As soon as the doors closed behind them, he turned a blazing glare on Cheyenne. “You’ll keep me updated, huh?”
“Unless you don’t want me to.” The halfling didn’t bother to stand. “Were you trying to prove something with that?”
“Were you?” He took a sharp breath through his nose, his head quivering as he forced himself back under control. “I don’t buy any of your drow-telepathy bullshit for a second. But you see or hear or smell anything about another one of those portals, halfling, and I better be the first name in your head. Then we’ll all agree to keep pretending you’re not hiding L’zar in some halfling shoebox somewhere.”
Cheyenne frowned and dropped her head back against the chair. “Okay.”
He hissed and kicked the rolling desk chair. Then he had to pull it out of his way in order to get to the doors. “Get off my base.”
The man slammed his hand against one of the double doors and shoved it open before disappearing into the hall.
The halfling swiveled back and forth in the chair, then spun fully around to look at Sheila. “I think that went pretty well.”
The ogre woman blinked at the far wall, then flicked her gaze toward the half-drow slouching in the chair. A small smile lifted one corner of her mouth. “You’ve got some bargaining chip, halfling.”
“I know, right? It’s amazing I haven’t used it up yet.” Cheyenne pushed herself out of the chair and stuck her hands in her back pockets. “I can show myself out if you have somewhere else you need to be.”
“This was it,” Sheila replied, smirking. “I’ll hang out here for a few more minutes until Hurricane Sir blows over.”
With a snort, Cheyenne nodded and headed across the room. “Good idea. See ya.”
“Yep.”
The halfling pushed the doors open and slipped into the hall. It was just as quiet as when Sheila had led her down here, but two seconds later, something crashed against the wall in an office on her right, followed by Sir’s furious roar of, “Goddammit!”
Yep. Perfect time to get outta here.
Chapter Eight
When she made her way back through the pseudo-maze of the FRoE compound’s hallways and entered the lobby, Yurik was leaning against the short hall into the common room, his arms folded. “How’d it go?”
Cheyenne stopped and glanced at the front doors, then turned to look at the intensely muscular goblin with a shrug. “Better than I expected.”
“Where’s Sir?”
“Rampaging in his office, I think.”
Yurik looked over his shoulder and let out a sharp whistle. Bhandi and Tate appeared at the end of the hall behind him, their eyes showing a mix of amusement and caution.
“The Goth drow lives,” Bhandi said with a chuckle. “Unbelievable.”
“I didn’t even try, honestly. Haven’t seen you guys in a while. What’s up?”
Tate rubbed his bald purple head covered in dark, swirling tattoos. “Just trying to stay outta the shitstorm.” He glanced over his shoulder, then leaned forward and lowered his voice. “We’ve been hearing stuff about a new Border portal poppin’ outta nowhere. Is that for real?”
Cheyenne wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, it’s for real. I saw one up close and personal last night.” They don’t need to know about the one before that. Not yet.
“Man.” Bhandi jerked her head back in disbelief. “How does something like that even happen?”
“I have no idea.”
From the hallway behind Cheyenne came the echoing slam of a door, followed by another string of curses from Sir and what sounded a lot like a shiny leather shoe hitting a wall.
“We’re still on duty. Technically.” Yurik leaned forward to glance across the empty lobby. “Wanna meet up tonight and tell us all about it? Peridosh at like six or something?”
“Sure.” Cheyenne walked backward toward the front doors of the compound and shot her FRoE-agent friends a thumbs-up. “Good luck gettin’ outta here alive.”
“Na
h.” Tate waved her off. “Plenty of room to hide in this place.”
Bhandi raised her eyebrows at him and looked him up and down. “Speak for yourself.”
The troll man rolled his eyes and turned back toward the common room. Bhandi chuckled as she followed him, and Yurik jerked his chin up at the halfling. “Meet you at the elevator.”
“Sounds good.”
Sir’s stomping footsteps came down the hall faster, and Cheyenne playfully hunched over to mime creeping out the door. Yurik laughed, stole another wary glance across the lobby, then made himself scarce.
The halfling hurried across the parking lot toward her shiny new car, hitting the unlock button for that little chirp that made her smile. I passed that test with flying colors. I seriously hope those guys can handle more than one new portal if they keep showing up, but I guess it’s out of my hands.
She slipped into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “Okay, twelve o’clock, and I have nothing to do.”
Strapping herself in, the halfling drove across the huge FRoE parking lot and ran through her mental list of things to check. I’d call Maleshi if I had her number. Her office hours are at one.
The thought made her laugh as she sped between the gate towers on either side of the road onto the base. “There’s an image. Ambar’ogúl’s greatest war general sitting behind a desk at VCU. Guess there’s only one way to test that theory.”
Cheyenne slung her backpack over her shoulder and locked the Panamera, then headed quickly out of the student parking lot at Virginia Commonwealth University and made her way toward the Computer Sciences building. Near 1:00 p.m., the campus was buzzing with students either just finishing or just starting their lunch breaks.
The halfling picked up the pace across the huge lawn of the quad, ignoring the noise from so many college kids running around during their free time. It’s a lot weirder to be here on a Tuesday with no classes. Now I’m the one teaching them, and none of these people can tell.
The Computer Sciences building was thankfully fairly empty at this time of day, and Cheyenne approached the office of Professor Matilda Bergmann with a skeptical wariness. When she reached her old professor’s office, she found the door wide open, like it usually was when she stopped by for office hours.
Double lives is right. She went right back to her regular human-looking life after everything we saw the other day.
The halfling stopped outside the open door and knocked gently.
Maleshi—Cheyenne couldn’t unsee what she’d seen or forget what she knew about the nightstalker woman now—glanced up from her desk. She looked like Mattie all right, black wavy hair, shining green eyes, some weird wardrobe combination of black gaucho pants, a black shawl with tiny, multicolored flowers crocheted all over it, and a hot-pink shirt underneath that matched the hot-pink laces of her running shoes. The nightstalker grinned when she saw the half-drow in her doorway. “Just like old times, right?”
Cheyenne snorted and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. “Kinda. I honestly wasn’t sure you’d be here today.”
Maleshi sat back in her chair and shrugged. “Even when shit hits the fan, kid, you gotta keep going the best way you can. A little bit of normal is all it takes to keep from losing what’s left of your sanity. Which, by the way, I fully expect you to keep a tight grip on after this too. You’ve got classes to teach.”
“How could I forget?” When she reached the desk of the O’gúl-war-general-turned-low-key-IT-professor, Cheyenne slipped her backpack off her shoulders and set it gently on the edge. Maleshi raised an eyebrow. “Thought I’d update you on the good news.”
“Good news?” The nightstalker laughed wryly. “Who are you, and what have you done with the halfling?”
“Minor good news, I guess. What happens after this, well, it’s probably more bad news wrapped up with a stupid bow of destiny or something like that, but I’m trying to look on the bright side.” Cheyenne pulled out the still-open Cuil Aní with the marandúr coin inside and set it down beside her backpack.
Maleshi’s gaze settled on the open drow legacy box and her eyes widened. Then that fierce grin lit her features, and the inhuman light Cheyenne had seen so many times behind the woman’s green eyes flashed again. “You did it.”
“Yeah. I did it.” The halfling pointed at the box. “There’s my great drow legacy—a coin I can’t spend on this side. Apparently, it took almost dying at a newly erupted portal ridge to activate the rest of my magic and get this thing open. Who knew?”
Those green eyes flickered up toward Cheyenne’s face. “You haven’t lost your flair for the dramatic.”
“That’s the least dramatic I could be about it.”
“What?” Maleshi pressed her fingers on the surface of her desk and slowly stood, leaning forward to get a closer look at the open box and Cheyenne’s unassuming prize inside. “There’s a new portal?”
“That’s what caught your attention?” The halfling folded her arms and took a step back from the desk. “I was more focused on the ‘almost dying’ part, but hey, I guess that only applies to me.”
Still hunched over the Cuil Aní, Maleshi shot her former student an amused glance. “Did you really almost die?”
“Yeah. New Border portal opened, new crazy-ass in-between monster tried to squeeze out, and the thing almost squeezed the life out of me. I fried it into a pile of ashes and sent it back where it came from.”
“With what?”
“Black fire.”
Maleshi stared at the halfling with calculated intensity. The corners of her mouth twitched, and she let out a short, harsh laugh of disbelief. “Yeah, I’d say that’d just about do it. Looks like you made it out of that little skirmish well enough.”
Cheyenne shrugged. “I’m chalking that up to lots of practice getting my ass kicked, plus a huge jar of darktongue salve.”
The nightstalker grinned. “Stings like a bitch, doesn’t it?”
“In the best way.”
They shared a laugh, and Maleshi tucked the long black waves of her human-illusion hair behind one ear. “So, you almost died, but you didn’t. Then you opened your legacy box and put a whole new level of detailed plans in action. Get used to it, kid. With what we’ve got comin’ down the pipeline, I’d say that’s gonna be your new normal.”
“Yeah, I figured.” Cheyenne picked up the box and stuffed it back into the bottom of her bag.
“Where did you find yourself fighting in-between monsters that almost squeezed the life out of you?”
Zipping up her backpack, the halfling shook her head. “In my mom’s backyard.”
“No shit?”
“Yeah, and I was the only one around who knew how to handle it. I almost got my ass handed to me, but it could’ve been a lot worse.”
Maleshi folded her arms, then lifted one hand to rub her lips. “A new portal on Bianca Summerlin’s property with only a drow halfling to see it happen. That’s pretty big.”
“Big enough to make L’zar break out of prison again to come find me.”
The nightstalker froze. “Say that again.”
“He’s out, Mal—” Cheyenne glanced over her shoulder at the closed office door. I can’t call her that here. “Saw him up close and personal this morning. He almost ran me off the road.”
A bark of surprised laughter escaped the professor, and she slapped her hand over her mouth. “Why the hell would he risk everything to do that now?”
Slinging the backpack over her shoulder again, the halfling could only shake her head. “He said he’s here to protect me now that I passed the trials, which I guess means he thinks he’s in the clear.”
“Since his dead-child prophecy is a moot point these days.” Maleshi’s eyes widened. “He could protect you, sure, but if the wrong people find out he flipped that prison the bird and is out walking around, it’s gonna take a lot more than one drow’s protection to stop the Crown.”
“I know. We went over all that this morning.” Che
yenne paused, studying the war general’s face. “Can you give me an honest answer about something?”
“Hmm?” Maleshi shook herself out of her thoughts. “Honest answer? I’ll try, Cheyenne, but I’ve been out of this game for so long, there’s a whole lot I can’t even pretend to know.”
“You’re back in it, though, right?”
The nightstalker smirked. “Was that your question?”
“No. That was a bonus.”
“I’m back in it. What we saw the other day at that new portal? What we did?” Maleshi tapped the edge of her desk and cocked her head. “I never thought I’d say it, especially Earthside, but I’ve lost the option of staying neatly hidden away in a fake human life to avoid the whole thing. And if L’zar’s out for good this time, I don’t have a choice anymore.”
“Lucky for us, right?”
The nightstalker laughed. “For you, maybe, and those other goons who’d follow L’zar into their own undoing without a second thought. What’s your question?”
Cheyenne tightened her grip on the straps of her backpack and scanned the bookshelf behind Maleshi’s head. “Has he always been this crazy?”
“You’re not talking about eccentricities, right?”
The halfling shot her former professor an exasperated look. “You know I’m not.”
“Yeah, I know you’re not.” Maleshi smoothed her hair away from her face with both hands and tilted her head from side to side. “The short answer is yes. He’s always been at the top of the drow-lunatic list.”
“What’s the long answer?”
“Ha. That covers centuries of O’gúl history, kid.”
Cheyenne smirked. “We have a few hours.”
“Uh-huh.” Maleshi tried not to smile, but it didn’t work.
Chapter Nine
“I can tell you this much, at least. Everyone in Ambar’ogúl knows that drow father of yours as a charlatan and a prankster, one of the greatest O’gúl thieves to make a name for himself like that before he lost his head for his crimes. That prophecy he tried for so long to disprove wasn’t the first he paid for. I’m sure it won’t be the last, and as far as I know, all the others have been just as dark and just as disappointing.” Maleshi frowned, closing her eyes briefly as the memories came slowly to the surface. “If he wasn’t a little crazy before trying to undo this last prophecy, he sure as hell is now after breaking it with you. How does anyone spend hundreds of years trying to create and groom an heir promised never to live through their trials and hold onto their sanity?”