by Holly Evans
“You’re not going to out-lightning it, Wispy,” she said with a smile.
Wispy deflated and allowed himself to be put back in his cage.
Ok, I needed something to block or direct lightning away. I was surrounded by mountain rock. I turned a slow circle, trying to see if there was some alchemy I could pull together.
A young man emerged from the forest looking exhausted. I thanked the gods and quickly pulled out my seduction ointment. I dipped my fingers into the pale green cream and approached the man with a swing in my hips and my most charming smile on my face.
“Hi… I’m really embarrassed to say this but,” I bit my bottom lip and gave him puppy eyes as I brushed my ointment laden fingers over his inner wrist, “I moved in a couple of days ago, and I left my key inside. I don’t suppose you’d mind letting me in, would you?”
He stepped up to me and brushed his hand over my hip. His face began to relax and his eyes glazed a little as the ointment kicked in and my suggestion took hold.
“It’d be my pleasure,” he said, his eyes on my chest.
“You’re a gem,” I enthused.
I waved Tyn and Erin over and we slipped into the vast building thanks to the very kind gentleman. Although, given the way he leered at all three of us, “gentleman” seemed a little strong. Still, stage one was complete. Now we just had to find Logan, get him out, and get to the auction. Easy, right?
40
The interior of the building was a stark contrast between blunt concrete and sleek modern design, complete with very expensive alchemical flame lights and a shimmering waterfall cascading down a small section of one of the walls, the resulting stream running beneath starlight glass. The glass glittered and sparkled over the crystal-clear water that rippled and swirled in an unnatural way, clearly charmed by a water elemental.
“Follow the stars and arrows,” I said.
The ceilings stretched far above our heads. Small boxy windows were up there somewhere, adding little light, not that we needed it. The glass orbs contained small blue and orange flames. They were suspended by invisible threads, no doubt woven by a weaver. The entire thing screamed opulence. The man who had let us inside didn’t hang around to see where we went. The moment he saw there were three of us, he lost any interest past staring. Erin headed down the wide hallway, broad metal doors occasionally punctuating the heavy rough concrete. We kept looking for these stars and arrows that were supposed to lead us to Logan. My frustration bubbled up inside of me. He had better not have been lying to us.
We were deep within the building when I spotted the first arrow, a blue streak of paint with a dull point on it. Below it, a rough star had been scratched. Well, that was something. Time was ticking by. We began running through the hallways, our footsteps echoing around us as we followed the arrows and stars deeper into the complex building. Finally, we came across a steep set of stairs that descended deep into the mountain. I leapt down them two and three at a time. We were confronted with a heavy steel door inlaid with copper at the base of the stairs. Of course it was locked. I kicked it just to vent some of my annoyance. It hurt my foot rather than doing any good.
Tyn gently pushed me aside and pulled out an ornate lock-picking set complete with small alchemical vials.
“Fein’s first gift to me,” he said with affection.
“Why didn’t you mentioned you had that when I got zapped by the lightning?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I can’t pick a weaver’s security system. Locks, on the other hand, they’re fun challenges. Lockpicking was the first skill I learned when I left my elf clan and entered the… your world.”
Erin leaned in to watch his nimble hands working the picks and carefully applying tiny amounts of granules from his vials onto the lock and picks. I had to admire his skill. He was certainly better with locks than I was. I made a mental note to see if he’d teach me. It was a skill I’d been meaning to improve. The door slowly turned white and audibly clicked when Tyn successfully released the lock. He looked at me with a smug smile. I resisted the urge to hug him.
We walked through the door to find ourselves in yet another concrete corridor. This one had simple moonlight orbs spaced evenly along its ceiling, which felt low at seven feet or so. Once again, we set off at a jog. The walls felt as though they were closing in on me as the echoes reverberated around us. The sensation of spinning and falling began to overwhelm me. It made no sense. The ground beneath my feet was entirely solid. We slowed to a walk. Erin looked at me with a frown. I squeezed her hand.
“It must be some weird defence mechanism. ’It’ll be easy,’ he said,” I grumbled.
Tyn laughed.
“And you call yourself an adventurer,” he teased.
I took a deep breath and tried to shake off the sensation of falling. A redcap charged at us from the far end of the hallway. His broad shoulders were heavily muscled. His cap dripped with fresh blood. Long, yellowed claw-like nails were extending at the end of his rough stumpy fingers. We all went into our fighting stances and prepared to fight the incoming threat. He ran straight through us with nothing more than a faint breeze. It was an illusion. They were screwing with us.
“We need to get moving,” Tyn said.
“Agreed. Logan should be at the end of this corridor, right?” I said.
“Hopefully,” Tyn said.
“Let’s get this done with,” Erin said.
We started to jog again, which was more difficult than it sounded, given that my mind was sure the ground was crumbling beneath me. I almost fell against the wall twice and caught Erin as she stumbled over nothing. I don’t think I’d ever been so happy to see a plain wooden door before. Logan had to be in there. The scryer had said he was safe, just tied up - I clung onto that thought as Tyn kicked the door open.
41
Logan looked at us as we barged into the room. His dark hair had started to fall into his eyes, his shirt was torn and bloodied, but he was conscious and smiling.
“I knew I could count on you,” he said.
I rushed over to him and cut the ropes binding him to the chair. He pulled me into a deep hug, and I kissed hurriedly up his neck.
“I was so worried,” I said.
He brushed his lips over mine.
“It’ll take more than that to put me out of action,” he said.
“As much as I’m glad to see you’re ok, we have an auction to get to,” Tyn said, his hands in his pockets and a faint blush on his cheeks.
Logan stood and put his arm around Erin’s shoulders which he squeezed.
“Thank you, all of you,” he said.
“Mhm, auction?” Tyn said.
I laughed. “Lead the way, Kitten.”
He glared at me before he returned to that cursed hallway. We ran along it as fast as we could manage and remembered our lesson with the redcap. Logan stopped dead when a pair of farren charged at us. They were a terrifying sight, with long narrow jaws full of elongated teeth. Dense black and white fur clung close to long limbs that ended with small paws tipped with sharp black claws. Their long spines stood erect across their muscular shoulders and down their back. Thick bushy tails that ended in a poisonous barb stuck out straight behind them. They were formidable predators, and I was glad they were a rare sight.
“They’re illusions!” I shouted.
Logan looked between me and them and began running with us.
My heart skipped a few beats when the air around us filled with the sweet earthy scent of the farren. What if they were real this time? Their bite was poisonous. There was no way we’d be able to find the antidote in time. I ran harder and took Logan’s hand in mine. It was an illusion, it had to be an illusion.
They passed through us with a gentle breeze and nothing more. My heart started beating again, and relief washed over me. It had been a while since I’d had such an adrenaline rush.
We stepped out into the cool night air and breathed deeply. I was glad to be outside again. The concrete was feeling opp
ressive.
“I don’t suppose we have time for a shower, do we?” I asked Tyn with a smile.
“I get first round if we do,” he said, returning my smile.
I kept Logan close to me and played my fingers over him, relishing the feel of his skin beneath mine.
“Fuck, it’s midnight,” Tyn said.
“How!? We ran!” I said.
“No time to figure it out now,” Logan said as he tugged me towards the car.
Tyn retrieved his suit from the boot of the car and wasted no time in changing into it. Erin dipped into the forest to get changed. She clearly had more shame than the rest of us, who changed right there in the open. We piled back into the car and Tyn drove like a madman back down the mountain towards the city. There was a chance the stone had already been sold. How had it taken us so long!? There must have been some interesting magic woven in there somewhere.
Erin and I applied our make-up as best as we could as Tyn threw the car around the tight corners and pushed the car’s limits. Wispy shot sparks at the Cait Sidhe through the bars of his cage and emitted a high-pitched whine until I fed him a handful of succulent leaves. I didn’t think there was any problem Wispy might encounter that couldn’t be solved with food. We arrived at the ornate building at half past midnight. It was a white building, adorned with slender pillars and clusters of wild wisps dancing between tall-stemmed plants. A part of me wanted to retrieve Wispy from the car so he could meet the other wisps, but I didn’t know how they would react to him. Wisps were such social creatures, but they were also territorial. I couldn’t bear to have anything happen to him.
We walked up the shallow steps and approached the doorman.
“We’re here for the auction,” Tyn said in a very upper-class accent.
The doorman smirked. “I’m afraid the location was changed at 10pm, the important guests were told as much.”
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to smile politely.
“We were rather busy,” Tyn said with a sniff.
“It is at the Corone now,” the doorman said, lifting his chin a little.
We returned to the car. Tyn drove far more sedately through the winding city streets to the new building. Someone had really screwed us over.
The air of disappointment hung over us. The chances of us getting the stone that night were slim at best. We were going to try, but we had been out-maneuvered. I wasn’t used to losing. It wasn’t how things worked. I can’t say as I liked the sensation of it.
Tyn pulled up in front of a sprawling complex surrounded by bright flowers and heavily scented bushes. A life magician must have put a lot of hard work into making the gardens so vibrant, and in the depth of night like that. Heavy pink blossoms pulled deep purple stems downward towards dainty blue flowers on low-lying creeping plants below. It was an explosion of colour. It must have been an incredible sensory experience during the day.
We were given entry to the extravagant hall this time. The space was full of elegant chairs with expensive magical fabrics adorning the cushions. Waiters dressed in suits made from threads of shadow and night casually wove their way between the tables with brightly coloured cocktails. Everything screamed money. The bidding on a particularly ugly necklace with a large red gem enchanted with a luck charm reached a million as we sat. They weren’t screwing around, although they would be disappointed when they found the charm only worked on redheads. The magic from it was clear enough I could feel the rough details from some ten feet away. I mentally shrugged. The money was theirs to throw away.
42
We each ordered a non-alcoholic drink and watched the rest of the items come up for bidding. They cycled through a box said to be made from the tree of life, a vial of blood from the trickster gods (I wished I could have heard the story about how that came to be), the very first tattoo magic needle, and a number of trinkets and baubles. I leaned against Logan as the final item of the night came up for bidding. It was a rather pretty gold ring made almost entirely from sunbeams and life magic. The wearer would not only live a very healthy life, but they’d feel on top of the world doing it. A pair of older women aggressively bid against each other trying to win the ring. A young succubus sniped them at the very end and took it for just shy of four million. The looks the older women gave the succubus suggested that she’d be lucky to make it to the end of the night.
We waited for the majority of the bidders to exit before we stood and approached the master of ceremonies. He was a regal man, a high elf in an impeccably tailored suit complete with moonbeam and winter-woven waistcoat. His waistcoat alone likely cost him what Fein was going to pay me for retrieving the stone. He looked down his long nose at us and raised a carefully preened eyebrow while pursing his thin lips.
“Yes?” his voice was as smooth as silk and slightly higher than I’d expected.
I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from being rude and snippy.
“We wish to enquire about a particular item,” Tyn said.
The elf sighed.
“No,” he said as he closed his ledger and walked away.
Logan cut him off and smiled at him.
“You seem to have misunderstood,” Logan pressed.
“I understood that you wish to know who won a particular auction so you can bribe said buyer, or perhaps steal the item from them. I will have no part in such an endeavour.”
Logan stepped closer to the elf. He was very intimidating when he put his shoulders back and turned on his predatory edge. The elf didn’t seem to notice.
“One item, one name,” Logan said, his smile unwavering.
Tyn took a different approach.
The Cait Sidhe moved silently. His movements were sinuous and precise, his focus absolute. Logan widened his smile and showed his sharpened teeth. They were from his incubus father. The elf had the gall to roll his eyes.
“I’ve denied far more impressive specimens,” he drawled.
“Oh, I very much doubt that,” Logan said, turning on his incubus charm.
The elf’s face softened. Tyn grabbed the ledger and ran for it. I didn’t think I’d seen a more feline thing as the Cait Sidhe high-tailed it out of the room. I grabbed Erin’s hand and went after him. Erin kept up with me with ease, which it quite the feat given the height of the heels we were running in. We were almost home free when my stiletto slipped from under me on the marble floor and I pitched sideways. Logan caught me and carried me out to the car, where Tyn looked like, well, the cat that got the name.
We dove into the car, and he began our getaway, complete with squealing tyres and raucous laughter.
“They don’t know who we are, do they?” Erin asked as we wove our way through the late-night traffic, heading the gods only knew where.
“No, we never gave them any names, and my face isn’t that well known,” Tyn said.
“They’re following us,” Logan said.
Tyn scowled and put his foot down, throwing me into the door as he shot around the car in front of us and skidded around a corner.
“Subtle,” Logan said.
Tyn grinned at him. “I used up all of my subtlety for the night.”
I had no idea where Tyn was heading. The buildings passed us in a blur of colour. The road began to grow quieter, with fewer parked cars and pedestrians. He turned another corner without warning and was greeted by a wall of fire.
“Fucking fire elementals,” Tyn spat before he shot down an alley and burst out onto the road on the other side, sending a cluster of drunk tourists diving for safety.
Our pursuers followed us and proceeded to throw fireballs at the car. At first, they flew by us, bright orbs of orange and yellow, hot enough to curl the paint from the car as they passed. Wispy tried to squeeze through his cage and go and give them some of his fire. I kept it safely out of range. I loved the little wisp, but he wasn’t a match for full-blooded fire elementals. Unfortunately, their aim improved as Tyn ran out of insane corners to throw the car around. The fireballs collide
d with the back window, causing Erin and me to duck for cover while Tyn cursed in a range of languages.
“We can’t outrun them,” Logan said calmly.
“Do you have a suggestion?” Tyn asked.
“They’re fire elementals, surely we have some water we can use.”
“Sure, I have a spare lake tucked behind your seat,” Tyn retorted.
The window shattered and the back of Logan’s seat caught fire. I batted at the fabric trying to put the fire out as quickly as I could. The fabric and filling had mostly burnt away, leaving the bare metal frame. Logan looked nonplussed.
I wracked my brain, trying to think of some alchemical solution, something, anything, to get us out of this situation. Erin squeezed into the foot well next to me as we fought to put out the fire on the back of Tyn’s seat. The car wouldn’t take much more of this abuse.
“We’re heading to the El Lugar Oscuro,” Tyn said gravely.
The rest of us looked at each other, wondering if we were supposed to know what the fuck that was. The car suddenly swerved and rocked violently while Tyn fought with the steering wheel.
“We’re almost there, hold on!” he shouted.
The sound of shredded rubber running on tarmac was almost deafening from the foot well. Tyn gripped the steering wheel with everything he had, but the car still kept jumping from side to side. The sound of the engine behind us began to fade, and suddenly, everything went dark. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.
“Welcome to El Lugar Oscuro, the dark place,” Tyn said.
“I see they were very inventive with their naming,” Logan said drily.