Wood Sprites - eARC

by Wen Spencer

  “We’re looking!” Nikola cried.

  Louise couldn’t get her newsreader to acknowledge any updates beyond “Viceroy Lives!” The news flooded out of Pittsburgh from three television stations and one newspaper. Affiliate networks would vet the hours and hours of video and choose what to release, if anything. The twins had found that much of what came out of Pittsburgh was quickly buried in film vaults. They’d assumed in the past it was because they were the only ones interested in Elfhome. The popularity of their videos could only mean that humans were hungry for information on elves.

  Anna had been at the NBC gala like a ruling queen. Did the secret elves have a stranglehold on the news media? Were they vetting all the information to keep the humans in the dark to what was going on in Pittsburgh? It was one thing to keep their activities hidden from sixty thousands humans with limited resources, and another to blind several billion. Even if only one percent of the Earth population were obsessed with Elfhome, it would equal to millions of people analyzing all information flowing out of Pittsburgh.

  A filter was slowly releasing stories onto the Associated Press site in chronological order. The day after last Startup, Windwolf had been reported wounded but recovering quickly at the elf hospice. EIA was detaining two people, at the time unnamed, for questioning. Growling with frustration, she circumvented the filter to see what was sitting in the buffer.

  Within days of the attack, Pittsburgh was fully aware that there was a hostile force at work on Elfhome. They quickly learned even more than what the twins knew.

  “A third mirror planet!” Jillian gasped as she hit the news nearly the same time as Louise.

  “Onihida. World of the oni,” Louise murmured to let her twin know that they were on the same page. Onihida lay in a parallel universe to the two known worlds, mirroring the landmasses of Earth and Elfhome. Its inhabitants were close enough to human that they could live undetected by anyone. As she read, hurt started to burn deep inside of her. The elves had known about the third world for centuries; they’d simply never told the humans. “The elves not only already knew about Onihida, they’d had a war with the oni. How could they not tell us?”

  Jillian snorted in disgust. “Because they didn’t know if they could trust us—and they couldn’t. Ming and Yves and Ambassador Feng: they’re hiding here on Earth, pretending to be humans. They’ve been fooling everyone for hundreds of years.”

  “I don’t understand.” Nikola cocked one eyebrow and ear to show his confusion. “Is Edmond Desmarais an elf or a oni?”

  Louise and Jillian exchanged a glance.

  “Elf,” Louise said after some thought. “Feng had said something about pathways between the worlds being closed. I thought at the time that he meant Elfhome and Earth but there must have been a way to Onihida too. When Desmarais—Ming—whatever his name really is—was Emperor, the elves traveled between all three planets. What I saw at the museum was a meeting between the three factions of elves. They’d lost contact with each other when the pathways were closed. The people on Onihida don’t fully see Ming as their ruler anymore, but they want to go home to Elfhome and regain what they lost. For that, they need to work with the elves in exile on Earth and the elves like Sparrow, who are secretly loyal to Ming.”

  “Then the oni are elves?” Nikola cocked his other eyebrow and ear in confusion.

  “I think oni were the people living on Onihida before the elves arrived.” Louise shivered remembering how Sparrow talked about creating an army of monsters. “The secret elves are using them as weapons.”

  “Queen Soulful Ember is probably at Aum Renau because of the ‘oni’ attack on Windwolf.” Jillian used her fingers to denote the assumed identity of the attackers.

  “Ming and his people have had thousands of years to breed armies of monsters. There may not be any real oni left on Onihida.” Jillian eyes went wide as her own statement dawned fully on her. “Oh my god, we could meet Queen Soulful Ember. That would be so cool. And Sword Strike!”

  Hopefully no one had ever shown the queen the Lemon-Lime videos. Soulful Ember didn’t have a sense of humor—at least the way they always wrote her.

  * * *

  Louise was torn between joy and dismay to discover that because it was Shutdown, Ming did not eat breakfast with them as usual. She was happy that he wasn’t there, quietly radiating scientific interest toward her and Jillian. Nattie the cook had been persuaded to scramble the eggs and toast plain white bread and provide a small dish of Welch’s grape jelly. It meant, however, that Ming could be planning horrible things for Windwolf and Alexander.

  “We’re going out,” Anna stated as the dishes were being cleared, signaling the end of breakfast.

  “Where to?” They shrank away from her, earning a sad unhappy look.

  “We need to buy new furniture for the bedrooms. I could just buy whatever I thought would suit you, but I thought you would like a say in the matter.”

  Jillian pouted and leaned against Louise.

  “We like Esme’s bedroom—our bedroom just the way it is,” Louise said for them both.

  Anna pressed her lips together and took a deep breath, as if there were dozens of things she was leaving unsaid.

  Louise could feel the unspoken words rise up, looming over them, threatening to do harm. If they balked too much, Anna would plow through their protests. Louise understood now why she felt that they were so much alike when she first saw Anna at the Gala; the twins apparently inherited the trait from her. “Can we—can we just do Lain’s bedroom—the other room—first?” Louise picked her way cautiously through the landmines of silent arguments. “We can stay in the one room while the work is done.”

  Jillian shot her a look of dismay, but Anna sighed again and nodded.

  “Come along.” Anna held out her hand.

  Nikola bumped into Louise’s other side and looked pleadingly up at her. Despite the danger of bringing him to Ming’s notice, they had deemed it safer for the babies to come with them instead of being in the room while the maids cleaned. Louise hated the idea of leaving him in a house full of dangerous people as they traveled miles and miles away.

  “Can Tesla come?” Louise patted Nikola on the head so Anna knew who she meant since they never introduced him to her before.

  Anna gave a startled laugh. “Nikola Tesla?” The question made Louise flinch in fear. “Esme loved Tesla; he was her favorite scientist. She also had a toy dog named after him. She just loved it to pieces.”

  “Oh!” Louise looked down to cover her alarm. Had Esme known about the babies? Was that who Esme had seen in her dreams? Or was it just a weird coincidence that Esme had named a dog the same name?

  “He’s too big, Louise.” Anna continued. “He’ll take up too much room in the car.”

  “He can sit on the floor!” Louise stepped forward to take Anna’s hand. It was an old woman’s hand, veins a vivid blue under the pale, tight dry skin. It was like their Grandma Mayer’s hands, but she had been all sweetness and forgetfulness and prone to sudden naps. She would hold their nut-brown hands in hers and try to guess which twin they were. Anna had always gotten their names right.

  Tristan had said his mother was a fortuneteller. Did Anna see the future just like Esme? How did Esme keep her mother from knowing everything? Anna hadn’t known anything until Esme came to see her, and then she had the dreams of the cabbage patch. Had Esme avoided her mother because contact exposed each one’s secrets to the other?

  Louise stared at her hand caught tight in Anna’s. If that was true, then every moment with her was dangerous. But jerking her hand free might seem as insulting as a slap to the face. She forced herself to squeeze Anna’s hand tighter. “Please?”

  Anna sighed. “Oh, all right. You can bring your toy.”

  * * *

  They rode in the limo to a furniture store in Manhattan, two different male drivers than last time but both unmistakably elves. Where did Ming keep them all hidden? Was there a separate house stuffed to the rafters w
ith them? Nikola had his nose pressed against the window, staring in fascination at the parts of the city he’d never seen before. Jillian hunched over her phone, answering his silent questions.

  The salesman at the furniture store caught sight of the limo and was waiting at the door with badly hidden excitement. He didn’t glance at Jillian or Louise, staying locked onto Anna as if laser guided. “How can I help you, Madame?”

  “I need bedroom sets for my granddaughters.” Anna waved toward the twins. “You do sell furniture for children?”

  He deflated and eyed the girls for the first time. Obviously children’s beds didn’t fetch as big a commission as adult furniture. “Yes. We do. An entire floor of it. Let me show you!”

  He led them to an elevator and they went up to the topmost floor. The first large room was a vast sea of cribs and toddler beds. The room beyond was devoted to furniture fit for princesses. Most of it was pink. Even the white-painted pieces were accented with ribbons and bows of pink. There was a Hello Kitty set and a coach straight out of Cinderella.

  “Gag me.” Jillian muttered darkly.

  “We don’t like pink,” Louise stated. “Do you have anything less girly-girl?”

  The salesman looked to Anna.

  Anna considered Louise and Jillian as if with X-ray eyes. “Do you have anything more exotic?”

  “Exotic? Y-Y-Yes!” The word started as an automatic statement as the salesman thought frantically and then became a solid confirmation as he thought of something appropriate. “In our adult bedroom section. We just got it in this morning.”

  Anna flicked her hand, indicating that he should show the way.

  They went back downstairs, through a room so crowded with leather sofas that the air was thick with the scent of cured hides. Jillian gasped when they came around the corner of the room to the first bedroom set. It looked like a room lifted out of an Elvish home. All the pieces were intricately carved from ironwood and stained the color of dark honey, bringing out the luminescent gold grain. The canopied bed was draped in white fairy silk that looked magical even under the showroom spotlights. The lamps on the marble-topped nightstands looked like gnarled branches holding small round LED bulbs like elf shines. The price tag discreetly displayed on the end table gave a staggering amount for the set and noted “special order” with no estimate of delivery time. It was totally and utterly perfect.

  “All the pieces are solid ironwood and are nearly unbreakable despite its delicate appearance. It’s handcrafted on Elfhome using spells and magically sharp tools. It’s one of a kind and unique on this world.”

  “Oh, Grandma,” Jillian breathed, only partially faking her enchantment. “Can we have this one?”

  Anna obviously melted, just as Jillian intended. “Of course you can.”

  Louise bumped Jillian slightly. The logical tactic would have been to only vaguely like the furniture and extend out the shopping for as many days as possible.

  “Our floor will need to be redone.” Jillian pointed out. “This hardwood has been stained black. The white flokati rug is just stunning against it.”

  Anna frowned slightly. “Louise, what do you think?”

  “I love the bed,” Louise said with all honesty. The more changes they could demand to Lain’s room, the longer they could delay moving into it. “And I love this rug!” She bent down to run her hand over the thick shag. It was like petting a sheep. “It’s so soft and warm. And I really like how everything looks on the dark wood.”

  “The black seems too depressive to me,” Anna said.

  “Please!” Jillian cried.

  Anna didn’t seem swayed by Jillian’s cuteness on the color. She was probably thinking of Esme and all the black-painted furniture.

  Louise sought to appeal to Anna’s intelligence. “The floor needs to be assertive to counterbalance the size of the bed. If the two are too close in tone, they’ll clash, and if they match, they’ll wash each other out.”

  Anna’s eyebrows went up in surprise and then she smiled. “All right. At least the rug will cover most of the black. I’ll want the largest one you stock.”

  Louise waited uneasily as the salesman wrote up the order.

  “This is a custom piece,” the salesman explained. “We got the display in a few hours ago, straight from Elfhome. You’re the first ones to see it. We expect it to be popular with the upcoming royal wedding.” He paused in the middle of filling out the order form. “You did hear the news this morning? About the wedding?”

  “No,” Anne said in a tone that stated firmly that she didn’t care.

  Jillian, however, fed him a line to keep him going. “What royal wedding?”

  “Prince Windwolf is alive and he’s getting married. Total The Queen’s Salvage.”

  “Pardon?” Anna said coldly.

  “Lemon-Lime?” He stuttered. “Videos? Pop culture? A human girl saved the Viceroy and they’ve fallen in love. Her name is Tinker and she’s a hoverbike racer! There haven’t been any pictures of her yet; everyone expects her to look like the video, but what are the odds?”

  Zero. Louise had stolen the heroine in the videos from her dream of Nigel; she was Valkyrie-tall, blonde and seemingly able to produce guns from thin air. At least Louise had the comfort of knowing that Nigel would find a heavily armed ally on Elfhome.

  Louise tried to push the conversation past the videos. “How long will it take to get our order in? Today? Next Shutdown?”

  “We phoned the manufacturer as soon as we heard about the news this morning. People always go gaga over royal weddings; every woman in the city has fantasized about Prince Windwolf at least once. It’s a small furniture company but they assured us that they could have another set ready in two months.”

  Jillian ducked her head to hide her grin. Louise felt her stomach drop. Two months for anyone else, but Anna had the family trait of plowing through everything in her way to get what she wanted. She wanted to get them out of Esme’s bedroom as quickly as possible. She wasn’t going to let anything slow her down.

  “I’ll take the display model then,” Anna stated firmly.

  The salesman visibly jerked to a full halt. “What?”

  “I came to this store to buy quality furniture, not wait for two months for a knockoff copy.”

  “This furniture is handmade on Elfhome.”

  “It’s made in Pittsburgh by a human, who you called on the phone. You implied that it’s made by elves. ‘Spells and magically sharp tools.’ I have no way of knowing if the set that the human is capable of creating in two months is anywhere near this level of quality.”

  “I-I-I never said that elves…” The salesman flailed as Anna plowed through him.

  “We want this set,” Anna said firmly. “Now. I would suggest you don’t offer anything else or I’ll have my lawyers draw up a bait and switch lawsuit.”

  The salesman blinked at her for a minute and a half, gears spinning wildly as he considered all the ramifications. Without a sample, he couldn’t sell more sets, but there was a chance that no one else would be willing to pay for such expensive furniture. Or that another salesperson might close the future sales. His eyes went to the confirmation of payment from Anna’s bank. The amount could have bought their house in Astoria. He winced, obviously thinking of the commission he would lose if Anna backed out of the sale.

  Anna relented and sweetened the deal. “Deliver it within the week and we’ll take a second identical set.”

  “Identical?” The salesman’s voice broke. “Okay. How does tomorrow sound?”

  35: OF COURSE YOU REALIZE THIS MEANS WAR

  Another night, another nightmare.

  Louise jerked awake, breaking free of the bad dream. She’d gone to sleep feeling safe in the high loft bed, but the nightmare had stripped away all sense of being protected by Esme’s spirit. Panting with fear, Louise touched each of her family members to make sure they were all safely huddled around her. Jillian was curled into a tight ball, her back pressing against Loui
se. Joy slept tucked between them. Nikola lay carefully beside her so his weight wouldn’t crush them.

  Nikola lifted his head as she sat up. “What’s wrong?”

  “I had a bad dream. Bad, bad dream!” She hugged him tight, using his solid presence to drive away the horrible visions. Since arriving at the mansion, every night she had a nightmare, but this one was the worst. Ming had locked the twins in a birdcage, deep in caves under the mansion. All the babies had been killed when Nikola tried to free the twins. “Promise me, you won’t fight. Please, whatever happens, don’t ever try to protect me or Jillian.”

  “But—but—but that’s my function.”

  “No, that was Tesla’s function, but you’re not Tesla. You’re Nikola and I love you so much and I couldn’t stand to lose you. You have to be made into real babies and get to do everything real people do. You need to laugh and eat and sleep.”

  “I don’t know. Sleep doesn’t seem to be very interesting. You just lay there.”

  “Please, promise me. You’re really just a little fragile egg inside of Tesla. If that egg breaks, you’ll die. Tesla has to protect you.”

  “If someone is hurting you…”

  “Jillian and I can get ourselves out of any problem we get into. We’ve been doing it for a long, long time. If someone grabs one or both of us, or locks us up, or even if they seem to hurt us, you can’t do anything to try and save us. Promise me that you won’t.”

  “Lou!” he whimpered.

  “You have to trust us, Nikola. We can take care of ourselves. You need to trust us to do that.”

  “Sometimes I feel so useless.”

  “If things go bad, the most useful thing you can do is to just pretend you’re a robot that anyone can order around.”

  “Just do nothing while someone is hurting…”

  “You’ll be doing something. You’ll be acting. Just like Jillian was Peter Pan in the play. Your character is the robot dog, Tesla, and nothing more.”

  He made a soft whimpering noise. Louise suspected that if he was a real little boy, he’d be crying. It was so sad that all he could do is little half vocalizations so it sounded like he was mumbling “Ow…ow…ow…ow.” She was sure that the pain was real, but he had no way to shed tears.