“Where would they go?” Devon wondered. They had no possessions, no money. Many of them were wearing the shifts they must have had in the cages and not a few were completely naked. The sylphs might not even have been willing to let them go. Sylphs were loyal to their masters and they needed them, even if they only officially kept one now, which would be typical. Sylphs were also monogamous in their affections. Still, there were five human feeders for every sylph in Meridal. There were five thousand sylphs in total, leaving up to twenty-five thousand people here behind this wall, if the sylphs kept them all.
Devon felt a great wave of compassion for them, remembering what Shasha said about raising a dome. They had to protect these people. They’d been through too much to have to deal with an invisible Hunter on top of it. Not now that they had their freedom at last.
“We have to keep them safe,” he said, looking at the numb men and women walking on the street. In a doorway, one huddled against the jamb, her arms around her bony knees as she endlessly rocked back and forth, a small spark of flame dancing around her as a fire sylph tried to console her. “We can’t let them die.”
Zalia looked at him and her gaze hardened as she nodded in agreement.
We will, Airi promised him.
“We will,” Zalia unknowingly echoed.
They just had to reach the queen and find out what she thought she was doing. These people needed more than to be left on the street, even one with a sylph wall around it. Where were the healers?
Ahead, the street continued through the expensive neighborhood. The six of them kept going, making their way through the crowds in silence themselves, Shasha leading the way, Xehm helping Gel, who was definitely recovering now that he found himself on familiar ground, and Devon following with his arm around Zalia, Airi dozing against his neck. He was sure he still stank, but Zalia didn’t seem to care at all and even here, he was happy to be with her.
She’s good for you, Airi told him again.
Devon just smiled a bit, despite the depressing scenery. He wasn’t in the mood to argue with his sylph. Especially not when he knew she was right.
After a few blocks, they started to hear music, happy and melodious and coming from up ahead, dozens of instruments playing together enthusiastically if not terribly well. Devon and Zalia shared a look and kept going, even as Airi perked up on Devon’s shoulders. She loved any kind of music, after all.
Apparently, so did the Meridal air sylphs. They came to a large square where the street opened up and stopped. It seemed not everyone who’d been a feeder was as damaged as the poor souls who haunted the outer streets of this refuge.
Hundreds of human beings were crowded into the square, most dressed in fine silks of so many colors that it looked as though a rainbow were moving in there. Many of them were playing instruments, dozens of them banging away on makeshift drums, others playing flutes or recorders or other instruments Devon didn’t recognize. Some were even slamming rocks together, or bits of steel, and everyone without an instrument was clapping. At least, everyone who wasn’t dancing.
Men and women spun and twisted wildly, dancing together with a sensual abandon that made Zalia blush and turn her face into Devon’s shoulder until she realized whom she was doing that to. Her blush deepened even more and she hesitantly pressed her side even closer against him. Devon caught his breath, his finger gently stroking her cheek as his heart hammered inside of him.
Airi squealed against his neck. It’s wonderful! she cheered and suddenly left him, flashing away. Devon blinked, looking up, and narrowed his eyes, staring for a moment before he laughed.
“Look,” he told Zalia, pointing with the hand he didn’t have around her.
She looked up, squinting. “I don’t see…” Her voice trailed off. “Oh!”
There were air sylphs above the dancers, all dancing themselves and nearly invisible, as Airi preferred to be. There were so many of them though that they moved the hot air, creating a shimmer that wasn’t like any heat haze he’d ever seen before. They danced wildly to the music that the humans below were creating, twirling in ecstasy.
“It’s beautiful!” Zalia laughed in delight.
It was and Airi was up there, dancing along with them. Suddenly, Devon itched to pull out his flute.
Xehm appeared at their side, catching Devon’s arm with an expression on his face that could have been either excitement or horror. “You have to see this,” he said, not seeming to take any notice of how close his daughter and Devon were standing. He just turned and pushed his way through the dancers.
Devon and Zalia followed, having to almost force their way through the exuberant crowd in order to not lose sight of the old man. He didn’t lead them far.
They came to a fountain, the base nearly fifty feet across and filled with water that flowed up through a statue of a woman with outstretched hands and poured over again into the pool below. Devon had seen fountains in Eferem and the Valley before and didn’t think anything of it until he heard Zalia gasp in shock beside him. Then he realized: this was a desert kingdom, a place of aridity where water cost as much as wine back home. Zalia must never have seen this much unprotected fresh water in one place in her life. There wasn’t even a covering to protect it from the sun’s drying heat. A water sylph waded through the pool, her legs merging with the liquid she moved through, her blue, watery hair trailing down her back to join the flow.
People were gathered all around the fountain, making it take a while to reach the edge as they used dippers left on the rim of the basin to drink. Remembering again how thirsty he was, Devon made his way forward until he was able to get hold of a dipper and fill it, feeling as he did how cool the water was.
He held it up to Zalia first. “Help yourself,” he told her. She looked at him with wide eyes and then touched her fingertips to the underside of the ladle’s bowl, holding it steady while he brought it to her lips, and she drank, her eyes closing with pleasure.
It was the most erotic thing Devon had ever seen.
Finally, she finished and looked up at him with sparkling eyes. “Thank you,” she told him.
“You’re welcome,” he said hoarsely and drank the rest of the water in the dipper. He was sure it was all in his mind, but he could swear that it tasted better for having touched her lips.
“This is incredible,” Xehm exulted, looking around like a child while he drank from a dipper of his own. Even with the mass of people there, there seemed to be enough for all and no one tried to jostle them for space. Having all of this water available, no one seemed to worry about it and Devon remembered bitterly how much Zalia’s restaurant charged for even a single carafe.
“It is,” Devon admitted. Gel was sitting on the rim of the basin, one hand stroking the stone ripples that formed Shasha’s hair while she held a dipper for him. When he finished it, she refilled it and held it up again, dipping her fingers in and stroking them lightly across his brow before urging him to drink more.
Airi returned to Devon’s side. She loves him, she said. He must have been kind to her, even while he was a feeder.
He must have, Devon mused and wondered where the other four feeders that had been assigned to her were.
That reminded him of everything they had to do. Happy or not, these people were nothing but targets now and even if they weren’t, everyone outside these walls was living in poverty. Meridal hadn’t changed with the addition of a queen. It had only shifted who was poor and who wasn’t.
“Shasha,” he called and the earth sylph looked up at him, her ruby eyes shiny enough to be mirrors. Devon stared at his own reflection, dark and shadowy. “Talk to the air sylphs,” he told her. “We need to get to the queen.”
Shasha hesitated, looking at her silent master and then at the sky she wanted to cover with a dome, though with Gel so weak she didn’t have the strength. Finally she nodded and turned toward the maelstrom of nearly
invisible dancers above the crowded human celebration. Devon looked up at them as well, hoping there would be someone willing to help them, and even more, that the queen would listen.
Airi pressed against her favorite spot on Devon’s back, right between his shoulder blades, where she could sense the impulses flickering through his spine and feel his heart beating. She could sense the blood and air flowing through him as well, all of it making up part of the pattern that was so uniquely him.
Looking at the hundreds of dancing air sylphs, she could see them where her master couldn’t. They were beautiful, all of them happy as they danced to the music that the humans produced, many of whom were masters and most of whom were just as happy as the sylphs. It didn’t matter to any of them that the composition wasn’t very good. Air sylphs loved music. It was as fundamental to them as their ability to control the element of air.
Shasha looked up toward them as well, speaking along the hive line, and Airi listened to her asking them to send someone who could bring them to the queen. If it had been Airi and her own hive, she would have wanted to scream out a warning about the Hunter instead. She was happy to see all the dancing and hear the music, but still she felt the uneasiness of the open air above them.
Airi had never suffered a Hunter attack on her home hive before she crossed the gate, but she’d heard about them. She’d heard that not even battle sylphs could stop them, no matter how much they complained that wasn’t true. Only earth sylphs could, with the hive walls they raised. Airi looked at Shasha, who was tired and sad, but still older and stronger than she. Back home, the slightest hint of a Hunter would have everyone in the hive, the earth sylphs sealing it so they could wait the Hunter out. Queens rarely sent battlers out to fight the Hunters, not if the hive wanted to survive beyond it.
Airi sighed, ruffling her master’s hair, though it was so heavy with sweat she couldn’t move it much. Shasha was exhausted, but she had to want to get to the queen herself to warn her, and get those walls started. This was an air sylph party, though, and Airi knew her own kind. She wanted to panic at the thought of the Hunter. This many air sylphs without any protection likely would. That wouldn’t help any of them, and because this was a place for air sylphs, there were no earth sylphs around. Once the earth sylphs did hear about the Hunter, those walls would be rising. Airi shot another nervous look at the sky. Shasha couldn’t shout a warning without a panic, or she would have done so already. Airi understood that intellectually, but she doubted she would have had the same courage as Shasha. If she’d been there when the Hunter came through the gate, she would have started screaming for help, instead of hiding the way Shasha had, and she would have died for it.
Shasha turned to look at her, and Airi started as she sent a silent whisper of explanation to her mind. It was more than the lack of earth sylphs that made Shasha wait. It was more than the panic of air sylphs and likely water and fire as well. The walls wouldn’t be made at all until Shasha saw the queen and she ordered it.
After all, the queen was the only one who could stop the battle sylphs from rising.
CHAPTER NINE
The flight to the palace was the strangest experience in Zalia’s life, next to the day all of the sylphs had risen and taken over the city. After they had their fill at the fountain, Shasha spoke with something in the air that Zalia couldn’t really see, and then she and the others were lifted off the ground. Devon cursed while her father started praying, and Gel just shuddered, hanging on to Shasha for dear life. The feeling of suddenly being in the air startled Zalia, but catching sight of the consternation on Devon’s face started her giggling uncontrollably.
“Oh, thanks,” he groused, though he did have a faintly ill-looking smile on his face as he rotated in midair. “At least you’re not afraid of heights.”
Zalia peered down at the ground below, already shrinking rapidly away. She could see people staring up at them and pointing, though the music continued. It was fascinating. “I guess not.”
“You’re lucky.” He gagged slightly and closed his eyes.
He was so sweet, so different from One-Eleven. Zalia reached out to pat Devon’s hand and turned to her father, who looked extremely ill. “It’ll be fine, Father,” she promised him.
“Just get me down,” he moaned. Gel wasn’t looking around at all and Shasha stroked his hair, her face expressionless as always.
A little to Zalia’s regret, the journey was quick, the palace growing in appearance with tremendous speed as they flew toward it. It was a building from the city itself, she saw. The entire underside of it was sand and rubble, a bulbous blob of it showing how the building had been scooped right out of the ground before being lifted into the air. Zalia couldn’t see the air sylphs who had to be holding it aloft, but she could see the holes of caves where they must have been and did see balls of flame indicating fire sylphs darting around and inside the building.
The palace was all archways and great windows designed to let in the breezes, the stone of the walls a pale gold that shimmered in the sunlight. Balconies and patios were everywhere around the exterior and there was a lot of vegetation as well, plants carefully tended by water sylphs and thriving despite the heat.
Their bearer brought them to a wide courtyard that started at the front doors of the palace but ended abruptly behind them at nothing. The invisible sylph set them down and Zalia stepped well away from the edge. She wasn’t afraid of heights, but without someone actively holding her the way the air sylph had, she didn’t trust the winds there. The men moved even faster, except for Gel. He still trudged slowly, but at least he was walking under his own power, his eyes dull and tired, but aware. Zalia wasn’t sure why Shasha brought him, though she supposed the sylph didn’t want him out of her sight. Gel looked like he needed a full meal and a good long sleep. That reminded her with a blush of the money she’d given to her father, and the fact that tonight, they’d all be able to have a full meal and sleep in a place that was a real home.
Because of One-Eleven. Zalia closed her eyes, not wanting to think about his kindness and what else he’d done to her, along with saving her job and giving her more freedom than she’d imagined in her life. She didn’t want to think about what she felt for him, or what she felt for Devon, or what it said about her that after a lifetime of nothing but work and sleep, she suddenly felt desire for two men. Not that One-Eleven was a man…not that it was supposed to matter.
Zalia shook her head and followed the men toward the palace. Ultimately, any thoughts about her own love life were going to have to wait until more important things were dealt with. With that in mind, she followed the others inside.
Devon looked around with a bit of trepidation as they went inside the palace. It was obviously just plucked out of the ground and converted for this purpose, and he peered uncertainly at the cracks along the base of the walls. He really didn’t want the foundation to fall off while they were there.
It was still a beautiful building, the walls made from marble with silks hanging everywhere. The windows were high and arched, letting in breezes that were cooler than what he’d felt in the courtyard, and Devon wondered what fire sylph got the lucky job of keeping the place cool for the queen. From what he knew about fire sylphs, it was easier to pump heat into the air, and they had to be at least a certain age to be able to draw it out. Back in Sylph Valley, they took turns heating a central furnace in winter so the air sylphs could pipe that heat through all the buildings in the town. In summer, it was easier to just open a window. Sylph Valley didn’t even hope to get as hot as Meridal, though.
Along with the marble walls and silks, delicate wood furniture that must have been imported a phenomenally long way stood against the walls of the wide corridor, inlaid with shiny pieces of stone or shell that gleamed in the sunlight. Weapons hung on the walls as well, crossed swords and lances placed next to paintings that were different from any Devon had ever seen before, not that he conside
red himself an artist. It was the masters of fire sylphs who tended to have the artistic talents. Earth sylphs preferred masters who could make things. He looked at Gel, wondering what sort of talent for invention he had. The man walked with them, holding one of Shasha’s hands in his own and staring at the floor. He seemed to be coming out of the shock he’d been in, but he was far from recovered yet and Devon wasn’t sure he ever would be. They needed to get him food and a place to rest soon, provided they could find one. Devon huffed out a breath at the thought. It was just another burden. Ultimately, he didn’t have the time to worry about one ex-feeder. He had to make sure that everyone was safe and that all the mistakes this miserable city was making were corrected. Just do what Leon would do, he told himself, steeling his shoulders firmly and tightening his grip around Zalia’s hand just a bit as he did. His heart hammered. Do what Leon would do. He didn’t know what Leon would do.
They walked around a corner, leaving the corridor they’d been following and entering a new one. It was just as wide as the first but short, ending at a set of double doors so heavily carved they were nearly hypnotic. Not that Devon saw them. A man beautiful beyond human limitations stood before the door, dressed in plain pants and a white shirt that should have been too hot for him. He was completely unarmed as he turned toward them.
Hatred washed over them, making Devon freeze in his steps with terror, all his thoughts gone. Xehm gasped aloud, the color washing out of the old man’s face while Gel jerked upright, his eyes wild. Shasha spun and grabbed hold of him, holding him up as his knees weakened, and probably keeping him from bolting as well. Airi whimpered in Devon’s ears, but Shasha only looked concerned. Of course, the earth sylph was from the same hive as the battle sylph guarding the door. He wouldn’t bother to flash her with his hatred.
Zalia looked in confusion at Devon’s face. She wasn’t terrified either. Of course, Devon thought with an anger that didn’t get through his fear. She was a woman. No battle sylph would casually make a woman feel as if she were about to lose control of her bowels and run screaming, just for daring to come close. Men, however, were an easy target and one no bully would pass up. After all, they weren’t a threat to the battler and he was empathic. He could already tell they meant no harm to the queen he was guarding.
The Sylph Hunter Page 12