by Ally Shields
Kam pounded up the steps, clearing the staircase in time to cut the fugitives off from the front entrance.
“You again!” Jermon finally caught sight of her. “What are you doing here? Somebody shoot her.”
Kam used her magic band’s power to leap over several large standing statues of Egyptian gods and landed in the clear. Without breaking stride, she raced to the far end of the hall, raising her crossbow with an arrow nocked to block any attempt to leave by the side door. Seth, Trystan, and Tad poured into the room with drawn bows, once again barring access to the front entrance. Jermon and the Cyrilian rogues took their only route…upward to the balcony.
Kam cautiously followed, hugging the wall. Going out the airshaft would take Jermon extra time…additional seconds for her and her companions to prevent a catastrophe.
She paused at the top of the steps for the others to join her, ordered Tad to guard the stairs, and the rest of them moved onto the balcony level. They were met by a shower of arrows at the first corner. Dreysel and Andolf were providing cover while Jermon retreated toward the airshaft, stopping occasionally to issue commands.
What they hadn’t met was gunfire.
Kam looked over her shoulder at Seth. “Where’s his gun?”
“On the floor in the basement. The magazine was empty anyway, but he dropped it in favor of hanging onto the statue.”
Fine. They’d do this the elven way.
They split up and began a game of cat and mouse, ranging from room to room among the display cabinets and statuary. Every corner was a source of danger, and arrows might fly from behind or on top of any display. Despite numerous shots taken by both sides, elven speed had saved everyone from serious injury until Seth and Trystan cornered Andolf in a side room. In the standoff that followed, he was shot in the shoulder, captured, and bound.
Jermon continued to work his way toward the hall with the airshaft. Dreysel laid down a continuous cover of arrows that made it nearly impossible for Kam to get ahead of them. Seth and Trystan moved up the opposite side of the room.
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and turned as Tad ducked behind a display. Why wasn’t he guarding the stairs? Suspicion flared. Was he joining his friends, betraying his brother again? She looked for Seth or Trystan to warn them but couldn’t find either one. An arrow whizzed by her head, and she dodged behind a display case to get out of Dreysel’s line of sight.
How could she get around Jermon’s last protector? Unlike the gun, Dreysel’s bow wouldn’t run out of ammunition. Elven quivers were self-replenishing. Just this once she wished it wasn’t so.
There was a lull in the thud of arrows. She took a quick breath and stepped around the corner. Trystan was just ahead of her, moving slowly forward, totally unaware of Dreysel crouched on a display case and nocking another arrow in his bow. An arrow shot from Seth’s last location clipped Dreysel’s bow arm. He yelped, leaped off the case, and disappeared. She heard scuffling sounds, but didn’t know what they meant. No one was currently in sight. Not even Trystan.
Someone swore off to her right. She turned in that direction, thinking it sounded like Seth, then whirled at the light thumping of racing footsteps. Jermon’s figure cut across the room, followed two seconds later by Trystan. A stifled cry of pain came from their direction. She jumped to the top of a statue but still couldn’t see them. She slid down and raced forward, skirting around a statue of Ramses. And skidded to a stop, her bowstring pulled taut.
“Don’t move or I’ll finish him off,” Jermon said. He’d backed up to the balcony rail. The statue sat at his feet. Trystan lay on the floor, his back propped against the wall. He clutched his bow arm where a knife had left a twelve-inch slash that spurted blood—coming way too fast. The knife lay on the floor, but Jermon’s bow was aimed at Trystan’s head.
“Let me stop the bleeding,” she said. “If he dies, you die.”
“You can doctor him all you want when I’m out of here. You better decide fast.”
“Ignore me,” Trystan said. “Don’t let him get away with the statue. Save Cyrilia.”
She barely heard him as her mind raced through the possibilities.
The airshaft was right behind him with a rope dangling from it. An elf—even Jermon’s age—could be up there in a second, maybe two. She might catch him, but by the time she subdued him, Trystan would be dead. She couldn’t do both.
Where was Seth? She edged to her left, giving her a wider view of the room and spotted him at the other end racing toward them. Three, four seconds away.
But Trystan was out of time.
She dropped her bow and sprang to the prince’s side, clamped her hand around his arm to stop the hot, crimson flood, and grabbed her neck scarf.
Trystan stared over her shoulder. His sudden, almost-inhuman cry made her twist her head to look. She gasped in horror as the momentum of Prince Tad’s body leaping through the air carried him, Jermon, and the coveted black statue over the rail.
Seth arrived to make a last second grab for Tad, but it was too late. His loud curse as he slumped against the rail told the story.
Swallowing hard, Kam tied off Trystan’s arm, then ran to the balustrade and looked over. Tad lay crumpled on the museum’s ground-level floor. The statue had shattered into a hundred pieces around him.
Jermon sprawled over a statue of Anubis, his body impaled on the sharp, upright ears of the jackal god of the dead. Anubis’s black obsidian eyes stared straight ahead with apparent indifference.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Kam dropped off the balcony and landed next to Tad. She knelt and put her ear against his heart. “He’s alive,” she said. “Tell Trystan his brother is still alive.” There were no visible injuries, except his arm lay at an awkward angle. She patted his cheek lightly. “Tad? Tad, can you hear me?” She was relieved when his eyelashes fluttered. But he didn’t open them. “We’ll get you home. Just lie still for now.”
She contacted her spotter by phone, told him she was calling New Orleans for help and to bring the expected arrivals to the side door. Then she phoned Guild Master Barrott, told him what she needed and to have the healers waiting.
Kam stood, looking uncertainly at Tad. She hated to leave him, but Dreysel wasn’t yet accounted for. Hearing footsteps on the stairs, she turned, expecting the worst, but found Seth half-carrying Trystan down the steps. She went to meet them. “Have you seen Dreysel?”
“He’s lying up there with a large lump on his head and flexicuffs on his wrists. I think he’s done fighting for tonight.”
Twenty minutes later, Kam and Seth responded to a tap on the side door and found Rhyden with two healers and four portal guards.
Kam was so surprised to see him, she threw her arms around his neck. “Rhyden! What are you doing here?”
“Didn’t you call for help? Hey, careful,” he said. “I don’t fancy fighting a duel with my cousin for poaching on his territory.”
“I promise not to hug you,” Seth said from behind him. “But I’m too glad to see you to give you grief. How did you get the rescue call?”
“I was just heading home from Elvenrude when Barrott contacted Henre. So here I am. The rest is a very long story, and I understand we’re short on time.”
“Very short. It’s already four o’clock here. Cleaning up this mess will take longer than it did to make.”
Kam took charge again, sending two of the portal guards to help the healers get Trystan and Tad to Elvenrude. The other two and her spotter began collecting arrows scattered all over the museum.
“Ignore the damage. We can’t do anything to fix it, and the authorities are going to know something bad happened overnight. But clean up the elven blood. I don’t want any evidence of our involvement. The Mexican bodies stay. It will give them some explanation for this mess. Everyone and everything elven goes with us.”
She turned to Seth and Rhyden. “What should we do with the Mexican prisoner? If we were home, I’d turn him over to Crain, but
we can’t take him through the portal. I’m definitely not babysitting him on a long plane ride.”
“Why not leave him here? How much does he know?” Rhyden asked.
“Nothing about us. Probably lots about Jermon and Dreysel. They materialized right in front of the Mexicans tonight.” She pursed her lips. “But there’s no proof. Not even a second witness. So, what’s the worst he can do? Say he’s been working for elves? Or aliens? Most people won’t believe him.”
When the scene had been sanitized of elven presence, Kam took a last walk through. The basement was the worst, especially with four dead bodies. The arrows and elven blood had been removed everywhere. The two night watchmen slept through it all. She checked them one last time to make sure they were both OK. The tall one was still snoring.
She stopped on the main floor directly below the final scene. Jermon’s body had been removed and the Anubis statue wiped clean. She hoped Noah Crain could help her arrange an anonymous cremation. Both Seth and Rhyden were adamant the body not return to Elvenrude.
The shattered pieces of the black statue had been left where they fell. It couldn’t be repaired. She picked up one of the small shards, turned it over in her fingers, and let it fall again. Any power that had resided there vanished with the statue’s destruction.
She met Seth, Rhyden, and the four prisoners near the side door. The Cyrilians seemed spent and resigned; the Mexican bandito looked terrified.
“Just one last thing to do,” she said.
She grabbed the Mexican’s arm, ignored his frightened babbling, and marched him upstairs. Replacing her flexicuffs with handcuffs from the night watchmen, she secured him to the sturdy balcony railing. “That should keep you right here waiting for our friends to wake up.”
* * *
They arrived in New Orleans shortly after 10:00 p.m. local time. Captain Brunic met them with six King’s Guards to take charge of the prisoners. He sent them ahead to Elvenrude’s Security Sanitarium and stayed to obtain the rudiments of the Cairo story.
Brunic jerked his head toward a still figure covered in a blanket. “Is that Jermon?”
“Yes. Look for yourself, if you need to verify it.”
The captain walked over, lifted one corner, and let it drop again. “I’ll let the king know it’s truly over this time. Do you want me to arrange—”
“The body isn’t returning to Elvenrude,” Seth said.
Brunic nodded.
Five minutes later, a black van arrived. Four men came in, spoke briefly with Kam, and carried the body away. No one asked where it was going.
“I guess that about wraps things up on our end.” Drained and suddenly weary, Kam accompanied Seth and Rhyden toward the portal. They’d checked on Trystan and Tad—both were stable—and agreed it was much too late to exchange stories. Their apartments were waiting, and tomorrow there’d be plenty of time for details. She just needed two more pieces. “What about Murielle? And Kurzi?”
“Murielle’s safe. She’s a tough old woman.” Rhyden sighed and glanced at Seth. “Kurzi died in the fight.”
“It almost had to end that way,” Seth said curtly. “Jermon’s genes were tainted.”
Kam frowned. Seth sounded so harsh, still so angry. She turned the conversation to a bright spot. “Tad surprised me by turning out to be one of the good guys.” She shook her head. “Amazing he would risk his life like that to keep Jermon from getting away.”
Seth stopped and stared at her. “He didn’t. He did it to save you, Kam. Jermon was going to shoot you in the back.”
She froze, her mouth dropping open. “I didn’t know.” Shock was swept away by guilt. “But I was so awful to him.”
“When I saw Jermon raise his bow…” Seth took a deep breath and let it out in a tense rush. “I was the length of a room away.”
Seth’s burning anger now made sense.
“Way too many close calls lately,” Rhyden said as they reached the portal. “It changes things…for all of us.” He stepped onto the cross key symbol, ready to depart for his apartment. Just before it whisked him away, he gave Kam a crooked half smile. “By the way, I asked your sister to marry me.”
* * *
Despite her body’s pleas for a leisurely morning, Kam was in Elvenrude at 7:30 a.m. and bouncing on her sister’s bed. “Wake up, sleepyhead. How dare you get promised without warning me?”
Esty bolted upright. “That rat! I wanted to tell you.” But the grin on her face belied any criticism of her soon-to-be-fiancé. “Can you believe it?”
“Of course I can. It was only a matter of time. When’s the formal announcement?”
“Soon.” Esty bounded out of bed and rummaged for clothes. “Mother said we could plan it this morning.” She paused and looked up with shining eyes. “He said ‘I love you’ right in front of our parents.”
“He didn’t!”
The rest of the morning was filled with planning, tea and scones, and interspersed with Esty’s growing vocabulary of Rhyden quotes until Seth and his cousin arrived about eleven o’clock. Rhyden agreed a week from tomorrow would be a great time for the ceremonial announcement. Anything Esty wanted.
Esty suddenly turned to Kam with a hand clapped over her mouth. “Oh, how could I forget? We need to finish your ceremony first.”
“About that…” Kam and Seth smiled at one another. “We have some ideas of our own to discuss with everyone.”
After a lunch of cheese soup and bread and lengthy conversation that ranged from personal plans to the events of the last few days, the foursome finally set out for the Healers’ Temple to check on patients Murielle, Trystan, and Tad.
Murielle was already on her way out the door. Captain Brunic had arranged for a guardsman to see her home in a carriage.
“Everyone has been so kind.” She patted Rhyden’s hand after thanking him effusively. “It almost makes my adventure worthwhile. But I must get on my way. I still have another set of friends to thank.” She gave them a knowing smile.
Since Kam had already heard about the snowstorm and the probable intervention of the snow fairies, she nodded. “May the gods speed you. I hope we’ll meet again soon.”
“I suspect it will be no time at all.”
The guardsman helped her into the carriage, wrapped a blanket securely around her, and Murielle waved as they set off.
“What did she mean by that?” Rhyden asked.
Kam shrugged. “She’s always been a mysterious woman.”
They found Trystan in the infirmary seated beside his brother. Tad was propped in bed with a pillow supporting his back while he ate an orange concoction with a spoon. It must have been good, as he licked his lips for the last taste.
“Haven’t we done this hospital scene before?” Seth asked. “I think it’s even the same cot. So how are you?” He looked at Trystan. “Both of you.”
“I could have gone home last night after they treated my arm,” Trystan said. “But Tad had me worried until about five this morning when he finally woke. Now he thinks he’s ready to leave.” Trystan pointed to their bandages. “Matching arms.”
Only Tad’s had been broken by diving off a balcony to protect her.
“Except for the fracture, a few dozen bruises…and a mild concussion,” Trystan continued, “he came through pretty well.”
“Hard head,” Tad said, tapping his skull with his good hand.
Kam had worried how to approach Tad. How did she thank someone for saving her life when she hadn’t liked them much in the past? And said so.
In the end, it came naturally. She wrapped her arms around him in a fierce hug and kissed his cheek. “You shouldn’t have risked your life for me, but thank you. I take back every bad word I’ve ever said about you.”
Tad blushed and gave a boyish grin. “Many of them were true.”
“Yeah.” She drew back and returned his grin. “But I didn’t have to keep saying them.”
He chuckled, but his eyes were serious. “I’m glad I did somethin
g toward making things right. I wish I could have saved the statue too.” He looked at his brother. “As soon as they let me out of here we’ll start looking again.”
Kam started. She’d actually forgotten about Cyrilia over the last few hours. Before they were distracted by the search for the Egyptian statue, she’d actually wondered if there was another possible solution. She’d talk it over with Seth when she had a chance.
Seth nudged her. “Quit daydreaming. We have an appointment with the king at two o’clock. Given our somewhat shaky recent relationship with him—and Brunic’s displeasure with these two,” he pointed to Rhyden and Esty, “I don’t think we should be late.”
“How much trouble could I be in about the gun?” Esty asked, for perhaps the tenth time.
Rhyden took her hand. “The evidence of your alleged crime is no longer in Elvenrude.”
“Perhaps I can intercede,” Trystan said, standing. “I should go with you. We’re responsible for a large part of the troubles you’ve had.”
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” Seth said. “But you’re welcome to come with us. Perhaps Princess Theanne will be there.”
“Perhaps.” Trystan’s voice was noncommittal.
Tad perked up and threw an interested look at his brother. “So that’s the way the wind blows. Has my brother visited Elvenrude while I was gone?”
“Frequently,” Kam said, smiling at Trystan’s discomfort.
Tad laughed. “Then by all means, run along. By the time you return maybe I’ll have convinced the healers I can get out of here so I can see this princess for myself.”
* * *
The palace halls were strangely quiet, and their boots clicked loudly on the marble corridors. Brunic met them at his office, said the king was waiting, and hadn’t said much since. Kam was uneasy. Something felt strange, off. She frowned at Seth, and he shrugged. Obviously, it wasn’t just her.