Murdock and I exchanged surprised looks. “How did you know why we were here?”
Amused, Melusine pursed her lips as she picked through the shrimp. “Is it that surprising? You were both seen when the body was recovered. You and I, Connor Grey, have never spoken, and I get word from Eorla that it might be wise for us to meet.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police with the information?” Murdock asked.
Melusine leaned back among the cushions. “Why would I? Wessa was a Consortium agent. As soon as that became known, any local investigation would have been suspended.”
“What was she doing for the Consortium?” I asked.
She toyed with her hair. “Could be anything. I haven’t been inclined to find out.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because it doesn’t concern me as far as I can see. Look, Connor—may I call you, Connor?—solitaries work for the Consortium and the Guild. They all have their reasons, and I’m sure Wessa had good ones, for her anyway. How someone chooses to navigate between the Guild and the Consortium is their business. It’s a difficult strategy to play in the best of times, and these are not the best of times.”
“I thought you were a Guild director,” said Murdock. “It doesn’t bother you that one of your people was working for the other side and was murdered?”
Melusine swiveled on the lounge in order to lean closer to Murdock. “You mistake my role, Detective. A Guild director attempts to safeguard the people she’s chosen to represent. I do not answer to Maeve any more than Eorla Elvendottir does. The side I concern myself with is that of the solitaries. Whom they chose to ally themselves with is their own affair. I try to ensure that neither monarchy takes advantage in the process.”
“A woman’s dead. That feels like an extreme form of being taking advantage of to me,” Murdock said.
His annoyance didn’t bother her. She reached over and collected more shellfish. “Don’t mistake my pragmatism with callousness, Detective. I’m not indifferent. An investigation will be done. The difference is that neither of us will be privy to it. Now, that might bother you, but it does not bother me. Who does the job is irrelevant to me. You sure you won’t have something to eat? These oysters are from Wellfleet.”
At that point, I couldn’t resist. Wellfleet oysters were among the best in the world. Living near the clam beds on the cape was one of the advantages of life in Boston. I put a dash of hot sauce on the nearest shucked one and ate it. I held the bottle out to Murdock, but he shook his head.
I tossed the empty shell into a bowl provided for discards. “Does Eorla have anything to do with your lack of interest?”
“Why would she?” she asked.
“Well, she’s moved into your territory. Solitaries are looking to her for leadership,” I said.
Melusine watched the other patrons splashing in the pool. “Anyone who protects us is an ally, Connor. I do my part, and Eorla does hers. We’re not competitors.”
I wiped my hands on a cloth napkin. “Sorry. I had to ask.”
She smiled as we stood. “No offense taken. Say hello to Bastian for me.”
I laughed and shook her hand. “I’m glad we met.”
Outside, full dark had come down on the Tangle. Murdock and I didn’t speak until we were a block away. “That is one smart lady,” I said.
“Well, talking to Bastian Frye is our next logical step,” he said.
“‘Our’?” I asked.
“It’s my case until it’s not,” he said. He withdrew his phone from his pocket and read the screen. Smiling, he put it away. “That didn’t take long. Janey texted me that the Consortium picked up the merrow’s body.”
“And that makes you smile?” I couldn’t resist.
“She made a joke,” he said.
“So…. you and Janey,” I said.
“Yep,” he said.
“You didn’t say anything,” I said.
We reached his car, and he opened the door. “Nope.”
“Aaand, I’m not going to get anything out of you now,” I said.
“Nope.”
I let it pass. It wasn’t any of my business, but it did surprise me, considering Janey was as fey as they come. I wasn’t sure how well received she was going to be at Sunday dinner in Southie.
“I’m still curious about the merrow. You?” he asked.
“I have a few other questions for Bastian myself,” I said.
“I can’t believe you ate that oyster,” he said.
“Come on, Leo. She gave us information. I was being polite,” I said.
He shuddered and grimaced. “No, I mean ick, man. Raw ick.”
19
The boat sliced through the water without a sound. I wasn’t fond of water travel, but visiting Eorla had become complicated. Old Northern Avenue had become a shooting gallery, and I had become the big prize. A little nausea was better than a lot of bullets. Melusine had offered the services of a merrow to tow me across the channel. He kept underwater, his white skin a ripple beneath the surface. As bodyguards went, I couldn’t ask for someone tougher and scarier.
In the bow, a kobold hunched, his flat, suspicious face intent on the dock behind the Rowes Wharf Hotel. Apparently, everybody thought I needed some bad-ass protection. Kobolds were another species of fey it wasn’t a good idea to get on the wrong side of. Prone to anger and poor impulse control, they liked to make their points physically more often than verbally. The kobold didn’t offer his name. I’d probably never see him again.
I couldn’t walk across the Old Northern Avenue bridge without official sanction at the moment. Too much hysteria—a lot of it promoted through the Guild by Ryan macGoren—made anything as controversial as walking the street difficult for me. When Eorla sent word that she needed to see me, she made the clandestine arrangements.
I clutched the gunwales. Boats were not my favorite mode of transportation. I crouched on the little seat and stared into the damp bottom of the boat. I kept my hood pulled far down over my eyes, as much to avoid seeing the bobbing dock ahead as to hide my face.
Midway through the channel, my stomach calmed enough for me to lift my head. The inner harbor was quiet at that time of night, ships rising and falling in place like they were dozing. A few smaller boats moved among them, but nothing like the frenzied activity of daytime.
Toward the middle of the harbor, a thick, muddy haze wavered, green with essence. It resonated like a druid fog, a protection barrier meant to confuse and subdue anyone who ventured near. I suspected it was intended to keep Eorla hemmed in—the National Guard and the Consortium holding the front of the hotel while the Guild controlled harbor access. As far as I knew, Eorla didn’t have enough water fey to consider a naval force, so the barrier seemed a bit of overkill. But then, Maeve liked to use the threat of overwhelming force to intimidate her enemies.
We reached the dock. The merrow rose far enough out of the water to reveal the top half of his head. Dark eyes peered from either side of a hatchetlike nose, his black hair plastered to his bulbous gray forehead. As I stepped onto the dock, he slipped beneath the surface, a faint swirling wake trailing away through the pilings.
“Use the service entrance beyond the gazebo like you do it all the time. Someone will meet you inside,” the kobold said. Gazebo was an understatement. The hotel’s most popular function room stood like a giant cupcake detached from the main building on the dock overlooking the marina.
The kobold secured the boat, then busied himself among some crates on the dock, keeping his back to me and head down. His business with me was done, though I assumed he would jump in and help if anything happened to me. I hoped.
I understood my role. We all were acting out a scene designed to look inconsequential, another boat pulling up with supplies or workers. No one shot me as I walked away, so that was nice. Rand waited for me inside the door.
“You look a little green around the gills,” he said as he led me down an empty corridor.
“Yeah,
boats,” I said.
We waited for a service elevator. “We might not have that option left for long,” he said.
“I noticed some kind of barrier going up in the harbor,” I said.
“We’re looking into it. So far, no one’s claiming it as their own, but it’s probably the Guild,” he said.
The elevator opened on a residential floor. Rand led me through more empty corridors to a private suite. “I’ll be waiting outside.”
Inside the modest suite, Eorla stared out the window, thick protection shields blurring the view of the harbor to random smears of red and gold lights. She held her hands out at the waist as she crossed the room. We clasped hands, and I kissed her offered cheek. Her skin glowed a pale green. “How fares my fellow fugitive?” she asked.
“I don’t mind using the back entrance, but I prefer walking,”
“The channel has been the safest way for people to come and go. I’ve been thinking of moving operations into the Weird to ease things,” she said.
“I can’t picture you living in the Weird,” I said.
She tilted her head, amused and proud. “No? Would it surprise you to know I lived in a forest camp for years?”
I helped myself to bottled water from the minibar. “Nothing about you surprises me. Why the change in location?”
“The National Guard has guns and tanks out front. The Guild has snipers on nearby buildings, and the Consortium has set up a command center on the elevated highway outside the conference-room level,” she said.
I slouched into a chair. “And that’s a problem because?”
“I don’t like the view.” Few knew that in private, Eorla Elvendottir had a sense of humor. She wasn’t going to be doing stand-up anytime soon, but she appreciated sarcasm and a good joke.
“Rand hinted at something. What’s going on?”
Eorla settled onto the couch and lifted a glass of wine from the coffee table. Circumspect, she sipped. “I’ve received a communiqué from Maeve. She said she will not interfere with me if I do not interfere with her. I am assuming it’s a stalling tactic.”
I grunted. “Maeve doesn’t make equal alliances. She’s asking you to accept a truce until she can eliminate the Consortium. Then it will be your turn.”
Eorla rolled her glass, watching the light color the wine. “I agree. She’s massing her forces as we speak.”
“I’ve heard rumors,” I said. From my parents, I knew she had emptied Tara and closed the shield wall around it. No one was allowed in. Across Europe, Celtic fairy warriors were appearing in greater numbers.
“Civilians have been evacuated from the demilitarized zone around Consortium territory in Germany. She’s on the move,” Eorla said.
“Sounds like war,” I said.
Eorla nodded. “Without Donor, the Elven Court will tear itself apart in a fight over succession.”
“Giving Maeve the perfect moment to strike,” I said.
Eorla had struck out on her own as a means to force Donor and Maeve to negotiate. In the months since she founded what had become known as the Unseelie Court, unaligned fey the world over had committed to her cause and her leadership. The threat of aligning with one court or the other had kept Maeve and Donor at bay for a brief period.
“While Donor lived, the Seelie Court and the Consortium were at equilibrium. A destroyed elven court is not to anyone’s advantage,” she said.
“Except Maeve’s,” I said.
“Precisely. Thus, my dilemma,” she said.
“Are you going to remain neutral?” I asked.
“I do not think I can accept her offer, but I cannot allow the Elven Court to fail for lack of an uncontested monarch,” she said.
Eorla walked a fine line between supporting monarchy and the will of the ruled. More than any other royal I had met, she recognized that Convergence had changed the way of life for those born in Faerie. Absolute monarchies were a thing of the past, for good or ill, and adjustments had to be made for the modern world. While Donor and Maeve clung to their old ways, Eorla saw that new paths needed to be considered. At the same time, she saw the need for transition, that a people conditioned to accept royal rule needed something familiar to guide them to something new. That was the primary motivator for establishing her new court.
“Support for the elven monarchy seems strange coming from you,” I said.
“Not if the alternative is accepting a foreign monarchy. That’s what’s at stake, Connor. Civil war among the elves will mean nothing if the end result is fealty to Tara,” she said.
“Who’s officially in line for Donor’s crown?” I asked.
“A few cousins with competing claims. No one everyone will agree on. I have a stronger claim and a larger following than any of them,” she said.
Eorla’s father had been king. Donor’s father usurped the throne. When he died, Elven Court rules refused the crown to a woman, and the court passed to Donor. “You’re going to claim the crown? You were denied the throne before,” I said.
“Over a century ago, in another time and place. I think my people have changed enough that they will favor survival over legal niceties.”
“You’ll need support,” I said.
“I’ve already reached out to Bastian,” she said.
Bastian Frye had been Donor’s chief advisor, spy, and assassin. “Strange bedfellows.”
She chuckled. “But very elven.”
“Are you going to make a formal reply to Maeve?”
“Not yet. There are other considerations, which is why I asked to see you. I cannot lead the Consortium unless I am in Germany. I will have to leave Boston,” she said.
I stared at my water bottle. Eorla was the only thing standing in the way of the Guild steamrolling over the Weird. “What about the people who rely on you?”
“They don’t rely on me, Connor. They rely on the idea that someone cares. I’m not going to abandon them,” she said.
I tilted my head. “Who can replace you? Rand?”
A cryptic look came over her though with a touch of evasion. “Rand would not be…. suitable. I have someone else in mind.”
“Who?”
She stared into my eyes. “You.”
I laughed and swigged water from the bottle. “That’s crazy talk.”
She couldn’t be serious. Eorla’s amused expression made me wonder if she was teasing me. “Not at all. You know the people and the city. You know how it works and, more importantly, how it doesn’t. And you know how to work with anyone.”
“A lot of those people think I caused the destruction of their homes,” I said.
She crossed to her desk and arranged some folders. “Not true. Guild and Consortium agents spread those rumors, but the people down here are suspicious of anything they hear from those quarters. You have more allies and supporters than you think, Connor.”
“Eorla, I appreciate what you’re saying, but the fact remains, I have no abilities. How can I lead fey folk with no abilities?”
She arched an eyebrow. “Donor Elfenkonig was an extremely powerful man with many abilities, yet here I stand in opposition to what he stood for. Having abilities didn’t enable him to stop me.”
“That’s different. You could hold your own against him in the power department if you needed to,” I said.
“Connor, you stood in the room when I unmasked Donor’s disguise and revealed that he wasn’t Aldred Core. A physical altercation did not ensue. Donor asked for my cooperation, not my submission.”
“You make a lot of sense, but ruling a court isn’t something I’ve ever wanted. You know I don’t like monarchies,” I said.
She shrugged off the comment. “No one said you have to. Don’t call it a court. Make it a transition to something else. I don’t care what you do with it. I didn’t ask to be here. I serve at the will of these people. You would, too. The point is, the old ways are over. We have to create the new ways. They won’t be handed to us.”
“I don’t know what to say.�
��
“Say you will think about it,” she said.
I laughed. “That I can do. In fact, I doubt I’ll be able to think about anything else for a while.”
“Good. Events are speeding up, but we have some time before a decision needs to be made. Shall I call Bastian in now?” she said.
“He’s here?”
She gave me a sly smile. “Of course. You said you wanted to ask him some questions about these murders. He agreed to wait until we were finished.”
20
Bastian Frye moved with a formal bearing, methodical and deliberate, as if the act of walking into the suite was a practiced art. Despite his reputation as an assassin for the Elven King, I had never been in a physical confrontation with him. It was hard to imagine the frail old man in a fight. Of course, he had spent a lifetime learning shamanic rituals, honing his body in ways known only to the initiate, and as an Alfheim elf, his ability to manipulate essence rivaled that of the most powerful people in the world. He probably didn’t need to lift more than an eyebrow to defeat an opponent.
“You’ve brought war upon us, Mr. Grey,” he said.
“I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration, Bastian. How are the funeral preparations coming along?” I asked.
“Exaggeration? I think not. Intelligence reports indicate massive numbers of Celtic warriors moving on Germany,” he said.
“Not that part. The ‘it’s Connor Grey’s fault’ part. Donor brought this on all of us,” I said.
“But you killed him,” he said.
“I’m not going to lie, Bastian. Yeah, I killed him, but in point of fact, I was already dead anyway. It was pure luck I hit him with the spear. I’m not going to shed any tears for Donor,” I said.
“What do you mean you were dead?” he asked.
“He threw me off the damned building. I was falling to my death when I hit him with the spear,” I said.
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