He picked up on the third ring.
“Hello?” Rusk said, his voice cautious.
“Hi, Rusk,” I said. “It’s Nadia Moran. I’m glad you’re not dead.”
“Miss Moran!” said Rusk, relief flooding his tone. “I am also pleased you came through the, er, recent difficulties alive.” He sighed. “I thought our recent encounter was the worst fight I had ever seen. I was very wrong.”
“You’re in New York?” I said.
“I accompanied his lordship to the city for his attendance at the Royal Progress,” said Rusk. “It has been…a rather unpleasant experience.”
“You’re telling me.”
“Her Majesty the High Queen required the nobles to stay at her side as they cleared the city of Rebels and Archons,” said Rusk, “and his lordship has been accompanying her. Has he summoned you?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Where are you?”
“Ah, that makes sense,” said Rusk. “We just drove to Battery Park, and are parked in front of…uh, the pier, I believe. I think his lordship will await you there.”
“Great,” I said. “Tell him I’ll be there in two hours.”
I hung up and let out a long breath.
I was so angry that I was afraid of what I might do when I saw Morvilind again.
“Nadia,” said Riordan.
I looked at him.
“I have an idea,” he said. “I won’t do it unless both you and Russell agree. But I think we might be able to force Morvilind to continue healing Russell while releasing you as his shadow agent.”
I blinked. “And just how the hell are we going to do that?”
Riordan told me.
“Good God, boss,” said Nora. “Are you actually going to try to blackmail Kaethran Morvilind?”
“He’s crossed the line, Nora,” said Riordan. “The High Queen will forgive a lot of things, but working with the Forerunner isn’t one of them. If he were any other Elven noble, we would kill him for it. Morvilind’s arrogant and cruel, but he’s not stupid. He has to realize that his deal with the Forerunner almost destroyed Earth. If he can get out of this without ruining his standing with the High Queen, he probably will.”
“I think we should do it, Nadia,” said Russell. “I’m tired of being used as a leash to control you. Lord Morvilind made you work with a monster like Connor. I don’t want that to happen ever again.”
“He might kill us all for this,” I said.
“I’m willing to take that chance,” said Riordan.
“So am I,” said Russell. “We would have died anyway if the bomb had gone off.”
“All right,” I said. “We spent the last few weeks risking our lives, why not do it one more time? I think I’m going to need some clothes.”
“I can help you with that, tigress,” said Nora.
Russell and Riordan went to wait in the living room, and Nora found some clothes for me. I closed the door, went into the bathroom, took a shower, and got dressed. The clothes mostly fit. The black T-shirt was the right size. The jeans were a little looser than I would have preferred, but a belt kept them up. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I looked exhausted, with deep circles under my eyes, my cheekbones sharper than I remembered, that crazed glitter in my eyes.
I realized that had been the very last thing Nicholas had seen.
Crazed. Yes. I had to be crazy to threaten Kaethran Morvilind.
What was I doing?
Doubt flickered through me, and I remembered those school buses filled with children.
Seventeen thousand people…
I snarled in the mirror, tied my wet hair back into a ponytail, and walked to the living room. Riordan, Russell, Nora, and Adler awaited me. Adler was fiddling with a duffel bag holding a laptop and what looked like camera equipment. They all looked up as I approached.
“Ready?” said Riordan.
“Yeah,” I said. I looked at Nora and Adler. “Sure you guys want to come? This might get messy.”
“Tigress,” said Nora, her smile a white flash across her dark face, “we’re the Family. We’ve been looking for the Forerunner for a long time. This is our business just as much as yours. Well, maybe not quite as much, but still a lot.”
“Okay,” I said. “Then let’s go.”
The condo building had an underground parking garage, and the five of us piled into an SUV. Nora drove, and Riordan took the front passenger seat. I was squeezed into the middle of the back seat between Russell and Adler since I was the smallest one. Sometimes there are downsides to being short. On the other hand, I had enough leg room, and Russell and Adler did not.
Nora pulled into the street, and I looked around as we drove. The Skythrone still floated overhead, blotting out the sun. Everywhere I looked, I saw signs of damage. Smashed cars and burned-out shopfronts. Walls riddled with bullet holes. The wreckage of a crashed helicopter.
And body bags. Don’t forget those. There had been so many dead that Homeland Security had taken to leaving the dead in body bags to be collected later, each one pinned with an identifying note and a warning that tampering with the dead was both a state and a federal crime.
Seventeen thousand people. Maybe more. Maybe a lot more.
And it would have been a lot more if we hadn’t stopped Nicholas.
I was usually frightened when I went to talk to Morvilind, but now I was so angry that my hands kept wanting to curl into fists.
Many intersections were closed, and though the roadblocks had been opened, Homeland Security and men-at-arms patrolled the streets in force. Twice we were stopped and told to state our business, and Nora produced some official-looking documents that let us through.
Because of that, it took us nearly an hour to get to Battery Park.
It’s a nice park at the southern end of Manhattan, where the Hudson River and the East River flow into the bay. It’s got a great view of all the ships and boats on the bay and the rivers, and you can see Brooklyn and Jersey City. We drove up to the parking lot in front of the pier, and I saw a row of three black vans parked nearby. That was Morvilind’s preferred way to travel, in several vans with sufficient room for all his human retainers and their equipment and weapons.
They tended to travel with a lot of weapons.
Nora parked a good distance from the vans, and Adler opened his laptop bag and began unpacking the camera.
“Ready?” said Nora.
“Yeah,” I said.
Adler passed her a bodycam, the kind that Homeland Security officers wore during traffic stops and crime scene investigations, and Nora clipped it to the lapel of her coat.
“I have a good angle from here,” said Adler.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go talk to Lord Morvilind.”
Russell got out, and I climbed after him. Nora and Riordan emerged and joined us. It was a beautiful day, the sky clear and blue, the air hot but not too hot. I glanced toward the Skythrone just in time to see a trio of helicopters take off from its surface and circle towards the city. Probably a helicopter was the best way to travel up and down from the Skythrone. I looked towards the pier and saw a man in the black-trimmed red uniform of an Elven noble’s household staff emerge from the vans. That would be Rusk.
We headed towards the vans, and Rusk intercepted us. He was a balding middle-aged man, and previously he had been on the paunchy side, but he had lost a lot of weight after his wife had been killed and his daughter had been in a coma.
“Miss Moran, Mr. Moran,” said Rusk with a relieved smile. He glanced at Riordan and Nora. “I’m afraid I don’t know either of you.”
“Nora Chandler,” said Nora with a charming smile.
“Riordan MacCormac,” said Riordan. “But we previously met as Rory Murdo.”
Rusk blinked. “We did?”
“Really good illusion spell,” I said.
Rusk took this in stride. Working for someone like Kaethran Morvilind probably made him a bit jaded about powerful magic. “It is good you are here. His lord
ship…has been in something of a grim mood…”
“Oh, really?” I said. “That’s good. I’m in a bad mood, too.”
Rusk swallowed and started to say something, and a van door slammed.
Kaethran Morvilind strode from the vans towards us.
He looked as calm as if he hadn’t just been fighting for his life, but I suppose the battle had been a week ago. His black robes and crimson cloak stirred in the cool wind coming from the bay, and his eyes were colder than the ice magic that the frost giants used.
It should have frightened me.
But it just made me angrier.
“My lord,” said Rusk with a bow. “Nadia and Russell Moran to see you, with, ah…”
“I know who they are, Rusk,” said Morvilind. His voice was far deeper and more resonant than his frail appearance suggested. “Check the luggage. We are leaving shortly with Miss Moran.”
Rusk bowed again and hurried to the van. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to get away.
“Nadia Moran,” said Morvilind.
I met his gaze. “My lord.”
We stared at each other. I realized Morvilind was waiting for me to kneel.
I folded my arms over my chest and waited.
“Why have you brought two Shadow Hunters here?” said Morvilind at last. “This is none of their concern.”
“Begging your pardon, my lord, but I’m afraid that it is,” said Nora. “I am here as a representative of the Family of Shadow Hunters.” She tapped her bodycam. “I am also recording this for future reference.”
“I see,” said Morvilind. He looked at Riordan. “And why are you here, MacCormac? Come to complain some more that your brother got himself killed carrying out my wishes?”
“Not today,” said Riordan.
“It’s done,” I said. “Your deal with the Forerunner.” Morvilind’s eyes narrowed. He knew just as well as I did that the Family was hunting for the Forerunner. “I stole all three things, and I finished the deal.”
“And then you shot Nicholas Connor and pushed the Sky Hammer into Venomhold,” said Morvilind.
“More or less, yeah,” I said.
“Very well,” said Morvilind. “Your performance has been satisfactory. You will now accompany us back to Milwaukee. There is a great deal of work to do, and…”
“No,” I said.
Morvilind stared at me, his gaze like ice, and I felt the power around him like a storm.
“No?” he said at last.
“No,” I repeated. “I’m not going anywhere with you, and I’m never doing another of your damned missions.”
“As you wish, then,” said Morvilind. His right hand disappeared into his robe and emerged holding the crystal vial of my heart’s blood he had taken from me a hundred and seventy-five years ago. “But if you break our arrangement, you condemn your brother to die of frostfever.”
“Oh, you’re still going to cast the cure spells on him,” I said. “But I’m done working for you.”
Morvilind raised his eyebrows. “And by what right do you presume to dictate to me?”
I pointed at New York. “Because this was your fault.”
“Have your wits abandoned you? The Rebels and the Archons attacked, not…”
“This was on you!” I shouted. Some distant part of my mind cringed that I was talking to him like this, but I was too angry to care. “Because you put a gun to my head and you made me work with the Rebels! What the hell did you think would happen?”
“In all candor, I suspected you would be killed,” said Morvilind.
I snarled out a laugh. “Did you? Then you don’t understand what you did to me. You made me like this, made sure I would scratch and claw and fight way past the point of sanity to save Russell. Did it even occur to you that sending me to help the Rebels was a bad idea?”
“The Forerunner chose to have you aid the Rebels, not…” started Morvilind.
“And who made that deal with the Forerunner? You did,” I snapped. “And they had me dig up the Sky Hammer weapon. They wouldn’t have been able to find it without my help. Seventeen thousand people died during the attack, and if I hadn’t thrown the bomb into Venomhold, millions more would have died. You would have died. Your whole stupid deal would have literally blown up in your face.”
Morvilind let out an irritated breath. “I see you have been infected by Arvalaeon’s thinking. The Elves are in a war for our survival against the Dark Ones, a war that will determine humanity’s survival as well. Do you think I wished to kill seventeen thousand people? No. But there are always losses in war. There are always casualties. I judged the risk acceptable, and I took it.”
“No,” I said. “No, it wasn’t an acceptable risk. You sound just like the Rebels. The ends do not justify the damned means. I had the argument over and over with Connor over the last damned year.” A flash of insight occurred to me. “Bet the Archons talk just the same way.”
Morvilind’s eyes narrowed. No, he hadn’t liked that.
“If you are quite finished with your tantrum, Miss Moran,” said Morvilind “perhaps you will explain why you feel entitled to make demands of me.”
“Because you’re going to meet those demands,” I said. “I’m going to stop working for you, and you’re going to keep casting the cure spells on Russell.”
“And just why am I going to do that?” said Morvilind.
“Because if you don’t,” said Riordan, “I’m going to talk to the Firstborn and the High Queen about you.”
Morvilind’s eyes narrowed again. “Despite your tedious personal grievance against me and your petty infatuation with Miss Moran, my arrangement with my shadow agent is none of your concern.”
“You’re absolutely right, my lord,” said Riordan. “But your arrangement with the Forerunner is very much the business of the Firstborn and the Family of Shadow Hunters. And if you don’t agree to Nadia’s terms, then I am going to the Firstborn and the Elders and asking them for a writ of execution against you for your deal with the Forerunner.”
“You are a fool,” said Morvilind, “to drag the Shadow Hunters into your personal dispute with me.”
“With the utmost respect, Lord Morvilind,” said Nora, “he’s not. I happen to agree with him. As will the Elders and the Firstborn, because your deal with the Forerunner almost destroyed New York and killed the High Queen. How do you think the Firstborn will view that? Or the High Queen?”
“Ridiculous,” said Morvilind.
“I will make sure to mention it to Her Majesty,” said Riordan, “when we collect the payment for fulfilling the writ of execution on Nicholas Connor.”
Morvilind blinked, once. Ah. He hadn’t known that Riordan had been the one sent to carry out that writ.
“Then you resort to blackmail,” said Morvilind.
“It’s not blackmail,” said Riordan. “It’s coming to an arrangement. I know the High Queen and the Firstborn would be reluctant to move against you. But if they know about your deal with the Forerunner, you’ll leave them with no choice.”
Morvilind snorted. “I am trying to save Elves and humanity from the Dark Ones, but I am always hindered by the calumnies and threats of lesser men. And of fools such as yourself, MacCormac.” He tapped the vial of blood in his hand. “You play a dangerous game with her life.”
“I’m not the one who started that game, my lord,” said Riordan. “Because if you hurt or harm her or Russell in any way, then I’m going to the Firstborn right now.”
Morvilind smiled his cold, dangerous smile. “It is your word against mine. Which do you think the High Queen will believe? Yours? Or mine, when I have always done what is necessary to save the Elves? Even making deals with the Forerunner to use my enemy’s weapons against him.”
“That is a good point, my lord,” said Nora. “Which is, after all, why I’m recording this conversation.”
His cold eyes turned towards her. “Child. Do you really think you can stop me from taking that toy from you? Or from erasing
this conversation from your minds? Or from killing all four of you? Because I do not tolerate threats against me and my work, and you are coming dangerously close to making threats.” He looked at me. “Think very carefully, Nadia Moran, about your next words.”
I grinned my mirthless rictus of a grin at him.
“Yeah,” I said. “Which is why another Shadow Hunter is in our SUV with a camera and a high-sensitivity microphone…”
“Another toy,” said Morvilind.
“And he’s not recording this conversation, he’s live streaming it to the Sanctuary of the Shadow Hunters,” I said. “A bunch of them are watching it right now. And listening. Do you want to wave for the cameras, my lord?”
He didn’t say anything, but for the first time, I saw his anger, his genuine, terrifying anger, start to creep over his gaunt face.
“So, if you do anything,” I said, “if you cast spells or kill us or whatever, a bunch of Shadow Hunters are going to see it happen in real time. You’ll have just declared war on them. The Firstborn won’t even need to know about the Forerunner then.”
“The Shadow Hunters do not concern me,” snapped Morvilind, but I could tell that he was pissed.
“They better,” I said. “Do you really think they won’t find a way to kill you? That you won’t have to watch over your shoulder for centuries? My lord, I’ll be blunt. You screwed the hell up.”
“Did I?” said Morvilind, his deep voice quiet, dangerous. “Perhaps I did. My mistake was that I underestimated you. Your assignment to the Forerunner was…a long shot, let us say. A gamble that I thought would not pay off but was nonetheless worth the risk. I expected you to die, but instead, you triumphed. And it seems the Forerunner underestimated you as well. He expected his pets to kill you, but you slaughtered most of them in nuclear fire.” His eyes dug into me like knives of ice. “Do not make a mistake of your own and underestimate me.”
“You screwed up,” I said, “and I’m offering you a way out. Keep healing Russell, and once he’s completely healed, we’re done. You can go on stealing magic relics or whatever the hell it is you’ve been doing for the last three hundred years, but I’m done.”
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