Apex: A Hunter Novel

by Mercedes Lackey

  He wearily ran a hand over his hair. “You have a point. And what this…person…has told you so far is damned interesting. In fact, it’s got the preliminary shape of that big picture I said I thought we were missing.” He took a very deep breath. “So. What do you think you want to do next?”

  “If there is a big picture, and he’s not part of it…then I am pretty sure he knows all about it, the way people in Lakeland can know about politics in Apex even though they don’t live here and are a lot less affected by those politics. I want to see if he’ll tell us,” I replied…and winced, because that sounded pretty feeble. But it was all I had. “I’ll have to meet him alone, though. I’m pretty sure he has all kinds of ways to tell if I’m not.”

  “I don’t like this,” Kent told me flatly. “But I’m desperate, and I don’t see a lot of other options. And this business of him ‘tending’ humans…I could be convinced of the truth of that part. It would explain a lot of things. Rumors I’ve heard. I thought they were just wishful thinking on the part of people who’d lost friends and family—lost kids—but maybe not.” He stood up. “Get yourself a pod and get out to Spillover. I’m damn sure not going to sign off on summoning him here.”

  “That was never my idea, sir!” I said. “No, Spillover was my plan. With the full pack with me. And my arm and leg braces, and…and a Taser. I can use a Taser without hurting myself, and I don’t think he’ll know what one is.”

  “Get to it, then. Leave your Perscom on so I can hear every word. Use my private channel.” He unlocked the door. “Don’t make me regret authorizing this. That’s an order.”

  I sent the Hounds back, with the assurance that I was going to summon them as soon as I got across the Barrier—which I did after the pod got me to a Pylon. Bya still wasn’t back, but it seemed fitting, all things considered, that Myrrdhin was in charge. After all, it was Myrrdhin who had convinced me Torcion was telling the truth. “Find me a safe and secure place,” I ordered him. “I’m going to…well, we’re going to see if Torcion is everything he says he is.”

  Myrrdhin’s head came up. You are going to take service of him? he asked, with nothing in the way he asked that question suggesting that he thought this would be anything but a good thing.

  “Not exactly.” That was true enough. “Something a lot more complicated than that.”

  Myrrdhin looked me up and down and then nodded. It would be, he said. You are a complicated person. We will find a safe place.

  And so they did, rather quickly: the brick shell of an old house, open to the sky—but before it had decayed away, someone had bricked up all the windows and one of the two doors. Had it happened during the Diseray? It was the sort of thing that someone might have done to make of his home a fortress and a shelter. It was surrounded by a thick wall of tall evergreen trees and bushes, so that from outside, it looked like a grove of trees too dense to force your way into. And in fact, we didn’t force our way in at all. Once the Hounds found it and verified it was secure, Dusana bamphed me there.

  There were trees inside too; their leafy cover made sure I wouldn’t be spotted from the air. It was perfect—and just as perfect as a trap. Hopefully neither I nor Torcion would discover how good a trap it was.

  Once again, standing in a lonely, isolated place and surrounded by all but one of my Hounds, I took my life and my safety in my hands and called his name.

  A Portal formed in front of me, between the trunks of two young trees, and he stepped through. He was still dressed in lavender, although today his outfit was a lot less elaborate than it had been in the past. It was certainly more practical for being around trees and brush—the sleeves stopped at his knees, the robes stopped at his ankles, and his hair was in a single multi-stranded braid he carried looped around one arm.

  “Well—” he began, then did an actual double take and frowned. “Shepherd, you are hurt.”

  “You can thank Lord Laetrenier for that,” I said steadily. “He’s decided I’m his personal enemy. He set a Banshee on me.”

  Torcion’s frown deepened. “I like this not at all. Dark shadows gather about you, and while you remain with your kith and kin, he can reach out from those shadows at will. His memory is long, well past your lifetime. He neither forgets nor forgives those who attempt to thwart him. Surely now you will take service of me so that I can protect you.”

  “To do so now would be to betray my own people. I cannot, for they need me, and every shepherd.” I stood straight and looked him in the eye. “It is neither right nor honorable that I desert them in their time of need.”

  He smiled a little. “You value honor. I like that. But…you asked me how I could prove that I am trustworthy, and your state gives me the way of that proof. If you will let me?” He made a little motion of his right hand, and I saw a drift of magic, like gold dust floating in the air, follow it.

  Is he asking if he can cast some kind of spell on me? I asked Myrrdhin, who seemed to have the best understanding of this Folk Lord.

  Yes. You should accept the offer, Myrrdhin replied. I looked at my Alebrijes, and none of them seemed to think this was a terrible idea. I took a shaky breath.

  And right now in HQ, Kent is trying to figure out what this creature is offering to do, and having a cat.

  All right, then. This would be it. My leap of faith, his demonstration he could be trusted. And if I lost, well…maybe I deserved to lose. I nodded.

  His hands traced Glyphs in the air I didn’t recognize, Glyphs that glowed with a gold-and-green energy, which drifted toward me until they surrounded me. Then, as he spread his hands wide, they enveloped me and blossomed into a gold-and-green shell that closed over me like a second skin.

  I was overwhelmed with sensation. I heard something like a harp playing meandering music in the distance. My nostrils filled with the scent of roses. I tasted honey, and I was swathed completely in the sensation of warmth, exactly like sunshine on bare skin. And everywhere, I was surrounded by a glorious green-and-gold light, with Glyphs drifting through it like lazy koi.

  My broken hand stopped hurting. Instantly.

  It would have been easy to fall under that spell, and drift away, but I kept my eyes fastened on his and stayed alert. He smiled a little in acknowledgment of my will—or my stubbornness—and drew another Glyph in the air.

  The gold-green glow faded to nothing. The harp song ended first, then the warmth. Last to go was the scent, leaving only the lingering taste of honey in my mouth. Gingerly, I removed the cast on my arm and tested my hand.

  No crunchiness. No pain. “Did you just heal me?” I asked incredulously. The army Mages could certainly heal people, and my Alebrijes’ spit could too…but not instantly.

  “I did,” he acknowledged, and then his expression clouded a little. “But I could not heal your heart. I am sorry you lost someone dear to you. That is a pain that goes deeper than flesh, and aches worse than broken bone.”

  His unexpected empathy almost broke me again; I choked up for a moment, but I remembered what I was there for. “I still need information before I can trust you. You seem to know a lot about me. I want to know everything about you and how you’re different from Lord Laetrenier.”

  One long eyebrow rose. “Everything? That would take moons. Sun-turnings, even.”

  “Then give me the most succinct version you can,” I said. He sighed a little, and cast his eyes skyward for a moment, but made another gesture. Behind us, the young trees bent and folded their trunks, and the next thing I knew, we had two seats made of interwoven trees waiting for us to use. I tried not to gawk as I sat down gingerly—it was comfortable and springy. The Hounds gathered around me as he took his seat.

  “When you opened the Barrier between our worlds, we saw the earth being destroyed—and rich opportunities for those who wished to take them. Those of us who have settled here have carved out territories for ourselves and the creatures who can also cross the Veil, who are less than servants, more than mere beasts to us. There are two philosophies
among my people. Those like Lord Laetrenier hold that you wantonly nearly destroyed your world, we are saving it despite you, and we are entitled to whatever we choose in order to be repaid. Those of my sort are gentle and kindly rulers, who make of our lands a paradise for your kind, and do not allow our underlings to prey upon you. We have learned that there is far more sustenance to be gleaned slowly from those of you who are happy than there is to be reft away in a single killing.”

  Well, gosh, that sounds just like our herds we use to harvest tissue for cloning….

  “I have had refugees come to me begging for sanctuary. I have taken the sick and dying and restored them to health and prosperity. And betimes, my underlings have lured parentless children, or those who had parents that yet did not care enough to keep a careful watch upon them, and brought them to my land.” He seemed very proud of that, and for a moment I was angry, but then…those lone kids out here in Spillover occurred to me, the ones Mark and I had been feeding with game. They wouldn’t last too long out here once winter came unless they found an adult to take care of them. If they were given a choice between freezing and starving, and what Torcion was offering, I knew what they’d take….

  “So it has been, my Folk having little to do with those who prey upon you, keeping the peace for our sheep, and slowly healing this world, while those of disparate mind war upon you, and as of old, with each other. But of late, that has changed.” His expression altered to something I could not read. “Lord Laetrenier is no longer content with the bargains he made aforetime. He says that your kind are becoming a scourge upon the earth again, and that you need to be culled. He has drawn together formerly warring clans into what he terms a Grand Alliance.”

  I looked down at Myrrdhin.

  Is he lying? I demanded.

  Myrrdhin shook his head. Not about being a kindly lord, at least. I have heard much of him.

  “Laetrenier is a deadly enemy to have, and he has singled you out for retribution,” Torcion continued. He fingered the end of his braided hair. “You should take service of me. I have long suspected he covets my domain and my sheep. He may well move against me once he has attained his current goal, but with my aid to your magic, we could defend against him.”

  I looked back up at Torcion. “I have only your word for this, you know.”

  He frowned. “My word is good….” He sighed. “But you do not know that.” Then he brightened. “I have a plan. Laetrenier likes to boast. What if you were to go into hiding, and I were to bring him here? You could hear his plans for yourself.”

  My mouth dropped open. “You can do that?”

  Torcion smirked. At least, it looked like a smirk. “We are old in rivalry. Cousins, in fact. I can call him with such words that he will come, and once here, he cannot fail to brag of anything that could make him ascendant over me.”

  “Can you put this on and hide it in your sleeve?” I fumbled at my Perscom, turned off the Psi-shield, unstrapped it, and held it out to him. He looked at it curiously, took it tentatively, and strapped it on, pushing it under his sleeve, where it was hidden completely.

  “So shall I then call him?” Torcion asked. He didn’t ask about the Perscom. Then again, maybe he already guessed it was some sort of recording or broadcasting device. I just hoped that nothing about him or his magic would interfere with it.

  “First…get me into hiding,” I said.

  TORCION HAD A BETTER idea. He opened a portal that dumped us all out near the shelter where Josh was hiding. The Hounds and I bolted for the shelter while he set up what he called “precautionary defenses.” I didn’t see what those were. I was too busy flinging myself through the ruined building and down the stairs to the locked door—then I remembered I didn’t have my Perscom to unlock it.

  Bloody freaking stupid…shit, shit, shit… And then the door popped open, and standing there were Josh and Shinje.

  “I figured there was something wro—” he began, but I grabbed him and hauled us both inside, followed by a flood of Hounds. I slammed the door.

  “I need your Perscom,” I said. Looking baffled, he took it off and handed it to me, and I sprinted for his “lair” and the antenna. Once there, after I hooked the Perscom up to the antenna, I manually tuned to Kent’s personal freq, hoping that Kent had gotten Josh a Perscom that could actually receive it. I almost cried with relief when I got the handshake, entered the code that actually let us talk or listen on it, and got—well, what you’d expect to hear when someone was setting up magical defenses. Not much, other than some birdsong and feet shuffling through gravel. Josh came and sat down on the cement floor next to me, in the dim light from his lamp.

  Making sure the thing was set to “passive reception” only, and disallowing transmission because I didn’t want to startle Torcion, I turned to Josh, who looked ready to burst.

  “I’ll explain everything later,” I said. “I promise—”

  He interrupted me. “I was watching the main newsfeed. I saw about Mark. I…” His voice broke a little. “I didn’t know him all that well, not like you, but…he…”

  “Well, Cousin Torcion, for what possible reason could you have called upon me? When last we spoke, you vowed never to look upon my face again. I am curious as to why you have changed your mind, when you know I hold you in contempt.”

  The new voice startled us both, and we both turned to stare at the Perscom. I have to admit, short of some actor in an old pre-Diseray vid, it was the most immediately impressive voice I have ever heard. Deep and melodic, and even though it wasn’t loud, it had qualities I can’t properly describe. Seductive, maybe? You wanted to listen to it forever, and it really didn’t matter what words it spoke. I realized neither of us had Psi-shields on.

  “Can you Shield us both from psionics?” I hissed urgently, even though there was no need to whisper. He looked at me with a start, nodded, and grabbed for my hand.

  “I could not but note, gentle Cuz, you and your Alliance have been spending your creatures as if they were gold and you were a new-minted, impulsive heir.” That was Torcion, for sure. His voice was nothing like as impressive. I hoped Kent was recording this.

  Laetrenier laughed. Whatever Josh was doing was working—while still very striking and sensual as a voice, Laetrenier’s next words didn’t make me want to hang on his every syllable anymore. “How now, Cousin, are you jealous they do my bidding at my will, while yours will not?”

  “That has never been my way,” Torcion replied mildly. “And you know that.”

  “If you choose to be weak, then do not weep when others take from you what you will not defend.” Laetrenier chuckled. “And do not tell me that allowing your creatures to defy you is anything other than weakness. They owe us their mere existence—”

  “This is an old quarrel,” Torcion pointed out. “We are unlikely to resolve it. But I am curious about your gathering of armies. Surely you are not attempting the siege of the stronghold yonder? After your last defeat and all that you lost there? That would be folly indeed.”

  “It would be folly had I not the upper hand.” Oh, the smirk in his voice.

  “Cuz, we are bound by blood,” Torcion said with what sounded like concern. “Though you and I quarrel, I would not see you come to grief. I fear you are…underestimating the mind-warriors.”

  With that, Laetrenier burst out laughing. “You fool! You are as blind as they. The cow that is their leader in mind-war is mine own now. She works my will, though she thinks it her own.”

  Josh and I exchanged startled glances. He mouthed the word Drift, and I nodded frantically. Abigail Drift had been working with the Othersiders! This was the “big picture” that Kent intuited we were missing.

  “Surely you do not expect me to believe that—” Torcion began, when his cousin interrupted him.

  “They are fools, these creatures, and utterly venal,” Laetrenier said, in a voice dripping with contempt. “As I have maintained from the moment we arrived here, they will commit any dishonor to advance themse
lves. I bartered to her the means of increasing her minions’ power without slaying them, and in exchange she will aid me, first against her own kind, and then against the fools in the Alliance.”

  The irony of someone who was going to sell out his own allies calling Drift a traitor and dishonorable was not lost on me.

  “I do not see how this favors you, Cuz,” Torcion replied.

  Laetrenier spoke as if he was explaining things to a child. “The Alliance will destroy the shepherds until her minions are the only defense of the Citadel. Then she and I will turn upon the lords of the Alliance. After, when she is sole defender of this place, she will discover that I had intended to betray her all along, and I shall take the city. And it all comes to a head this day. The fools of the Alliance gather now to launch their attack at the barrier that keeps us out. Today, the territories of all the other lords will be mine, and tomorrow, the citadel they call Apex will be mine in all but name.” He laughed. “And then, when I choose, it shall be mine in all possible ways. But first, before the Alliance strikes, there is enough time to end you, sweet Cuz—”

  “Dusana!” I squeaked, and Dusana bamphed out. A moment later he bamphed in, with Torcion clinging to him.

  Josh went white, scrambled to his feet, and backed into the wall. “Joy! That’s a—”

  “Folk Lord, yeah, I know,” I said as Torcion let go of Dusana, dusted himself off a little, and resumed his mantle of immense dignity. “There’s…a lot to explain.”

  “Then you’d better start now,” Josh said shakily.

  “I beg to differ, young mind-warrior,” Torcion countered. “It will be only a small matter of time before my cousin finds you. I do not have such as your companions in my retinue, so he will know I have worked with the shepherd, and he will begin searching for her. I suggest that you and your companions leave here at once.” He made a gesture, and a Portal appeared behind him. “Go. I shall find my own way to safety. And I shall inform the great lords of Laetrenier’s treachery. Whether they will believe me or not—I cannot predict.”