by Jan Stryvant
Jeffries smiled then and gave the rest of them a look of feigned innocence, "Well, I may have accidentally let it slip, when I was talking to my mother-in-law last night."
"Your mother-in-law?"
Jeffries snorted, "The woman has a tongue that will not stop flapping and anything she knows, the whole magical community in Queens knows within minutes. Trust me, if they're not talking about it in their national conclave by now, I'll resign my spot and go back to teaching children."
Jeffries looked around the room, "And you all know just how much I hate teaching children."
Morgan had to laugh, and the rest of the men at the table joined him.
"Okay, well in that case, I'd say we don't need to strike immediately, however we do need to start planning our campaign, and we need to be on the lookout for whoever they send. Our people are going to expect us to do something, and so we want to be seen doing just that. Also, if the opportunity arises for a decisive attack, we will take it."
"I have a question," Nick, at the far end of the table spoke up.
"Yes, Nick?"
"Does anyone even know where this kid is? As far as I've been able to tell, he's been constantly changing his location, moving from place to place."
"That may have been the case before, but our young friend has made a small mistake."
"And that mistake is?" Nick asked.
"He bought a building in Sparks. It was brought to my attention by one of the non-aligned local mages who is concerned that he may end up losing some of his better prostitutes. I'm not sure just how he learned about it, but a simple search of the city's titles and deeds found our young foe."
"So just how do we make sure that whoever the Ascendants send, assuming that they do of course, find out?"
"Leave that to me," Jerry, who sat on Morgan's left, spoke up, "I'll have my sources keeping an eye out for them; I'll make sure that they get the address, one way or the other." Jerry turned to look at Morgan, "With your permission of course."
Morgan nodded to Jerry, "Yes, take care of it."
Looking back at the others Morgan got back on track with his meeting.
"I want to thank Nick and Mike for their work at the compound. Their lycans performed very well in dealing with the situation."
"Thank you," Nick said.
"Yes, thank you," Mike agreed, "Though in all fairness, I think our handlers deserve most of the credit. They trained our wolves extremely well, and were quick to deal with any issues."
"Yes," Nick agreed, "they did a fantastic job, and Mike and I have made sure to personally reward all of them."
Morgan nodded, "How many did we lose?"
"Only three," Mike said. "However, the house to house exercise did not go off as well as we would have liked."
Morgan noticed that several of the men at the table winced at that. Nick and Mike had been assigned to the attack on the Ascendant's compound, as that was where they had expected to have the most difficulty, as both men were in charge of the council's lycan forces.
So the attacks on the homes of those members who didn't live at the compound, which was most of them, had been divided among six of the other members.
Morgan sighed, "None of us expected that Valens' people would be going to the homes with lycans in them, to free them as well. At least we didn't lose any of you to them, even if we did lose two of our more junior members. I'll expect everyone to show up at their services tomorrow, we need to pay those young men our respect, they died in our service."
"Yes, Morgan," everyone responded with a nod.
Morgan gave another nod and then moved on to other business. He'd lecture them later about always being prepared for the unexpected; the loss of those two young men really was inexcusable. But now, after the success of their first council action in what had apparently been several decades, Morgan wasn't about to criticize anyone.
He'd wait until after the two dead men were in the ground, then he'd do it privately, discreetly, with just those who needed to hear it. By then he figured they'd be looking for the absolution of being taken to task for their failure.
"So, now what?" Al Summers, Morgan's right hand man asked, as both he and Jerry Whyte, Morgan's left hand man, sat down on the couch in his office. Morgan wasn't sure how the other councils did it, but in Vestibulum, your intelligence leader sat on your left, and your military leader sat on your right.
"We go right on with planning our attack," Morgan said, dropping into the overstuffed chair on the other side of the small coffee table. "I don't doubt that the Ascendants will send someone, I just don't expect them to succeed much."
"You know, we may want to stop them, preemptively," Al said, surprising him.
"Why?" Morgan asked.
"Yeah, Al," Jerry said. "Why? Jeffries had a good point there."
"Because we know where Valens is. If they strike, the kid's going to move on us. Then we have to find out just where the hell he's gone. Again."
Morgan nodded, "A fair point. However, how long will it be, before we're able to strike?"
"I could strike tomorrow," Al told him. "However, unless we take out Valens, there's not really much of a point. He's the key. We need to kill him. With him gone, the whole thing will start to fall apart. Once he's gone, we can deal with the rest of them at our leisure."
Morgan looked over at Jerry, "How long do you think it will take you to find him?"
Jerry shrugged, "With as many people as he has with him now? A couple of weeks at most. He's getting too big to simply go and hide in some hole somewhere. I've got a few people driving by that building once a day, to see if they can identify anybody. We know about Troy's niece, she's definitely with him, as well as that lycan sheriff's daughter. But, get this; apparently one of Sam Wilston's daughters is with him now too!"
"Really?" Al looked surprised.
"Well, I guess that explains why he went after Gradatim first," Morgan chuckled, "kid's thinking with his balls."
"Could be, I heard a rumor that she's a lycan now too. Apparently her older sister has thrown her out of the family and her new hubby, the council head, threw her out of the council as well."
"Interesting. What about the Sorceress Guild?"
Jerry shook his head, "The kid has ties there, what exactly, I don't know. After the failed attack by Harkins, which only failed because the kid was actually hiding out there at the time, he gave them a bunch of those silver amulets and then split."
"A bunch?" Al asked.
Jerry frowned, "Yeah, a bunch. Some how the kid acquired a decent stock of the things."
"You don't think he's making them himself?"
"How could he? He's been practicing magic for what, two months? I talked to Gus Hampton up in Incline Village about them. He's still pretty shocked that such a thing could even be made, from what I gather he's still trying to get his hands on one.
"Anyway, he told me that a thing like that would take months to make and a lot of experience. He doesn't see how one man, much less one inexperienced and very young man, could be cranking these things out in the numbers people are claiming."
"So, are people lying about it then?" Morgan asked.
Jerry shrugged, "I have no idea. We know they work, we've heard too much about it from other reliable sources to believe otherwise. However I find the claims of there being thousands of these things out there to be questionable. More than likely, he's got a couple dozen, maybe a hundred at most, and he just moves them around to make people think he's got more."
"Yeah," Al said, "but even if that's true, it still leaves the question of just where did he get them from?"
"My best guess is that either his father had made more of them before he died than we realized, or that his father hired someone else to make them before he died. Think about it, twelve or so years, two or three a year? That gives us anywhere from eighteen to forty of the things."
"Less," Morgan said, "Sawyer's sold at least a half-dozen from what I've heard."
"I don't k
now," Al said shaking his head. "If he's only got a handful, he wouldn't be selling them."
"Obviously he needs money," Morgan pointed out. "But we're getting off the subject. What's your plan for getting rid of the kid, Al?"
"I've already started on it. I've got a couple of my men in the area. They're going to follow anyone they recognize, discreetly of course. We think the kid's been riding in the back of a van, which is why we never see him leave that building.
"Once we track him to someplace away from the building and his forces there, I've got a strike team primed to go take him and everyone with him out."
"A strike team?" Morgan said, looking surprised.
"Yup. Machine guns, hand grenades, explosives, the whole kit. I'm not taking any chances on this. They're to kill him or die trying. No excuses."
"I don't know, Al," Jerry said. "That kind of action will bring the police in big time. We saw what happened after the attack on the mall by the Lithuanians."
"Hey, fortune favors the bold, Jerry. Besides, once the kid's dead, who cares? Let them crack down all they want. Without Valens to lead them, we won't have anything to fear anymore. I say it's worth the risk."
Morgan sat back in his chair and steepling his fingers before him he thought about it. Al's point was valid, without Valens driving this, without his magical medallions that protected lycans from the effects of silver, the entire revolt would collapse.
"Al's right," Morgan said looking up at the other two. "We go with that. As for the Ascendants? Let's wait and see what they do, but if the opportunity presents itself, I want you to take it, Al."
Logistics
"Damn, what a mess," Roxy sighed looking at the crowded accommodations on the second floor.
"You got that right," Daelyn agreed. "Obviously none of us thought this through."
Roxy snorted, "You'd think after the first time just one of us would have said 'hey, where are we going to put all of those people?'"
Daelyn laughed, "Well, we got what, sixty or so from the first raid? I don't think any of use expected twice that at the Ascendants' place."
"We need another building, maybe two," Roxy paused a moment and thought about that. "Yeah, at least two, because I'm sure we'll end up with twice this after we deal with the next group."
"Should we go talk to Sean?"
Roxy shook her head, "He's up to his eyes in making magic items. We can talk to him about it later, maybe tonight. But there is one thing I think you should deal with right now."
Daelyn looked at Roxy suspiciously, "Me? What do I need to do?"
"Go buy us three or four more vans," Roxy smiled, "I don't trust anyone else here to get a decent deal on one, much less three of them. We're going to need a way to move everyone around, and right now we've got what? Two vans and your car? And one of those vans is now full of equipment for the detailing business."
"Yeah, you got that right. What are you going to do?"
"See about setting up a schedule to feed everybody. That dinning room we have seats what, thirty? And we've got more than five times that many," Roxy sighed, "I think I'm going to have Oak double the size of the security patrols, just to keep the number of people sleeping in any one room below a dozen."
Daelyn laughed, "Good luck with that!"
"Take a couple of guys with you to drive the vans back. We don't need anything fancy, just dependable and roomy."
"Maybe I should buy a bus?"
"If someone here has a license to drive one, yeah, maybe you should," Roxy said looking at Daelyn thoughtfully. "If not, maybe we need to get some of the guys here licensed for it."
"Okay, I'll go grab some cash and snag three of the guys. I should be back by dinner."
"Thanks, Dae," Roxy smiled and gave her a hug, surprised that Daelyn returned it. Daelyn was finally starting to accept the affections of her sister wives, Roxy would have to thank Jolene for that.
As Daelyn left, Roxy squared her shoulders and went off to talk to the cooking staff, to find out just what they needed, and what their ideas were on dealing with feeding so many people. No doubt they'd be going food shopping a lot more now. Yet another reason for the extra vans.
Daelyn smiled as she pulled her 'cuda out of the back of Steve's repair shop. She'd been keeping it in the back under a nice cover she'd bought, to protect it from both the elements and any prying eyes. She had grabbed three of the wolves from Sten's group, Tomas, Richard, and Henry. They all knew how to drive, had driver's licenses, as well as concealed carry licenses, and they didn't get motion sick when she was driving.
Honestly, the only one who really appreciated her driving was Roxy; then again, she'd seen Roxy running in full cheetah form. Being as she was a lycan, and not a 'normal' cheetah, she was even faster than one. Daelyn had clocked her at eighty while following her in this very car. Yeah, sure, they had their occasional moments of disagreement; when it came to Sean sometimes Roxy got a little over protective and got on his case about some of the risks he took.
Daelyn didn't mind that, Sean needed a good slap upside the head every so often; they were all agreed on that! Roxy's problem was she just didn't know when to let it go. Even Jolene, who it was obvious that Roxy had some pretty deep feelings for, had trouble talking sense into Roxy some times.
Daelyn was only now starting to realize that Roxy had feelings for her too, her speed at asking Daelyn for her help, and then that hug she got, was beginning to make that rather clear. She just wasn't quite sure how she felt about that yet, but after the last couple of months living as a family and sharing a husband, it didn't bother her as much as she might have once thought.
Turning down Virginia, she headed off for the used car lots. Hopefully she'd be able to use some of the business connections they were now developing among the car dealers due to their detailing business to get some better deals. With all the wolves they had now, maybe she should talk to Oak and Sean's friend Alex about a few more detailing vans for the business.
"Ah, Joseph, I'm glad you could make it!" Arthur Troy said standing up and shaking hands with Joseph Harrison, the leader of the local Council of Eruditio. If ever there was a man who looked like a wizard, Arthur reflected that it was Joseph, with his long white hair, and long white beard. While Arthur's own hair was mostly white these days, he wore his much shorter, and limited himself to a simple goatee, looking more like an executive, than a magic user.
"Well, you said it was important, Arthur, so I hardly could stay away. Who is the attractive young lady?"
"Allow me to introduce you to my niece, Jolene Valens," Arthur said with a smile.
Jolene shook hands with Joseph who smiled politely at her and then looked back at Arthur.
"The fact that your niece is here, undoubtedly representing the interests of Sean Valens, leads me to believe that what we've been hearing of last night's events are not the whole truth?"
Arthur nodded and gestured to Joseph's seat as he sat down himself, Joseph and Jolene taking their seats as well.
"Sean's people approached me and the Council of Sapientia, to perform the rituals of silence, so as to keep the rest of the world unawares of what transpired. As far as we could observe, what loss of life took place during his attack, was limited solely to the lycans. None of the council members or other members of the Ascendants were harmed."
"Yet, they are all now dead," Joseph observed. "How did that come to pass?"
Jolene spoke up, "The council of Vestibulum attacked the compound while their members were still recovering from the effects of our attack. They went in and killed everyone. They also sent teams out to the homes of the other Ascendant members, killing them as well."
Joseph looked at Jolene in obvious concern, "And you can prove this?"
"We've given our permission to the members of the Council of Sapientia, who were there to perform the ritual on our behalf, permission to speak about everything that happened after our people left the scene, as well as what the condition of the compound was when we left it," Jol
ene replied, looking rather solemn.
"Does anyone at the Vestibulum know about this?" Joseph asked Arthur.
Arthur shook his head, "They didn't know that we were there, they made no agreements with us. While we will honor our agreements with the lycan fellowship and not speak of how their engagement proceeded, we had no such agreement with Morgan or anyone from the Vestibulum council."
Joseph nodded and turned back to Jolene, "How do you know about the attacks on the homes of those who were not at the compound?"
"We had teams going to each of the homes where we knew there were lycan slaves, in order to free them while their owners slept. At several of those homes we arrived at the same time as the Vestibulum teams. We ran them off, incidentally saving the lives of those Ascendants inside. When we got to the homes of those the Vesti's got to first, we found everyone dead, and they'd removed the bodies of the lycans living there.
"It is an obvious attempt to set us up to take the blame for their mass murder," Jolene said with a scowl.
Joseph nodded slowly, "One last question. Why did you go to Sapientia for the ritual, instead of coming to us?"
Jolene smiled, "Because as the keepers of the traditions, it's historically their role. Asking my uncle for his help shows that we're not presuming on friendships, but instead trying to follow the established traditions."
Joseph nodded and turned to Arthur, "Who else knows?"
"I haven't notified anyone else in Reno, so far," Arthur admitted. "However, word is spreading throughout the other Sapientia covens. I don't know if this is just the old conflict between the Vestibulum and the Ascendants re-igniting everywhere, or just Morgan using this old hatred as a weapon to incite a greater war against the lycans here in Reno, and perhaps elsewhere."
Joseph nodded slowly, considering it.
"Well," Joseph said after a minute of consideration, "we always suspected that Morgan murdered Royce, in order to take over the local council. A man capable of this kind of attack, in this day and age, would of course have had no problems with killing any of his own people who were standing in his way.