by C. K. Sorens
“No.”
Chase stepped up, chest to chest. “You know you had me fooled. I thought you stumbled in here because you wanted to live.”
“I want to save Ember.”
“Big words. Why this sudden connection to someone you’ve happily ignored until now?”
“She forgave me.”
Chase’s eyes narrowed. Anger flushed his cheeks and pulled his shoulders back. With a curse, he twisted away from Aaron.
“How in the realms did you manage that?”
Aaron shrugged. “I asked her to.”
Chase gaped at the human. His dry, harsh laugh echoed in the empty room. “Right. You asked her and just like that, the Trimarked gave you a pardon.” Chase studied Aaron from an angle. A grudging smile lined his mouth.
“You get your way, Harwell. But you better keep up because I’m not waiting.”
“No sweat,” Aaron drawled, certain he wouldn’t be the one trailing. “Do you need your stones?”
Chase shook his head.
“That shit takes too long.”
A grin ticked Aaron’s lips and he jogged to catch up, eager to show Chase he wasn’t going to back down until the last whistle blew.
23
Tristan
The forest offered so many superb shadows to hide in, more than Tristan remembered, though having no reason to leave them proved unexpected. The chosen location of No Man’s Land was empty for now, the quarry gone astray and uninvited guests about to crash the cancelled party. What a mess.
Save him from the impatient.
It was not Tristan’s preference to leave things to chance, such as what happened with this young human, turned negligent accomplice. Attaining the aid of one of the outsiders would have been preferable. At least they were disciplined and mission focused. Though, as no one got in or out without the Trimarked Child, their stated purpose felt questionable.
They were also very loyal. That appeared to be a qualifying factor for their positions. No weak links there.
Until the last one. They had not welcomed Brandt’s unplanned appearance and did not mind his escape. After that, the easy-to-manipulate boy provided the needed entry fee. All Brandt had to do in return was set up a fortuitous meeting and perform introductions. This would provide the chance to establish expectations between those in attendance.
Brandt’s sour attitude had helped at the onset, but thoughts of revenge were getting in the way. Now the teenager followed his own small-minded idea instead of the important one.
An authentic example of youth being wasted on the young. Luckily, Tristan could make adjustments. He would set aside the original plan. At least the timeline remained intact.
For now, the focus continued to be alienating the Child, taking away support systems. She seemed to have one main crutch that, if taken out, would serve double duty of leaving her unbalanced and with a loss of purpose.
In other words, vulnerable. Vulnerable meaning malleable. Malleable meaning willing. Willing being the most important synonym of all.
Time to visit an old friend.
24
Nicu
Nicu climbed from the labyrinth and found the faint outline of the council chamber’s door. He left the tunnels and paused behind the curtain to let his eyes adjust while he patted dust motes and cobwebs from his clothing. Even though the room sounded empty, Nicu practiced caution, peeking from between the heavy tapestry and the wood column before he emerged from hiding.
He jogged through the building, exited and closed up the chamber, another layer to hide where he’d been.
The seven members of the Elder Council stood near the entrance, dressed in wraps decorated with their ancestral patterns. If they had drawn their meeting inside, he would be trapped behind the tapestry. The mass of Fae before them saved him from immobility or discovery, their numbers too great to fit within the chamber.
Nicu used the confusion to mask his insertion into the swarm, listening to the surrounding snippets to catch up.
“The scouts found the point of entry…”
“… how do Fae scouts lose the trail ten feet in?”
“Nicu!” Wist called. The crowd didn’t part, but eased around him as he answered the summons.
“Elder Councilors,” he greeted with a bow.
“Have you recovered?” Elder Ethna questioned, her hair braided up her scalp, the length spun into a balanced twist atop her head.
“Yes, Elder.”
“Was it a grave hurt, having taken an hour to mend?” Wist asked. Confirmation his absence had been noticed.
“No, Elder. I repaired the damage.”
“Without council permission?” Elder Neyu’s wrap rustled with his agitation.
“My apologies. It was manipulation, not casting, returning energy to its preferred state.” He neglected to include his pain would have continued without the repair, lest the council consider the choice selfish, as opposed to protective.
“That being the case,” Wist admonished. “We could have evaluated the tear for usefulness. An exit into the larger world may have proven beneficial. We assume our peace with the humans only works because there are so few of them in Trifecta. Perhaps an excursion out would allow us to test that theory.”
“At least this way we will know if the interloper tries to escape,” Elder Ethna said. “We can study the rupture, find the mechanism that caused it and see if Nicu’s fix is reversible.”
“We should also learn from this and discuss increasing patrols on the human side. We could claim they’re hunting parties,” Elder Neyu insisted. “I will work on different options to review.”
“Agreed,” Wist said. “Nicu, study the tear as Elder Ethna suggested. We shall meet in the morning and receive your report.”
Dismissed, Nicu bent lower before he straightened for departure. He overlooked the way the crowd parted for him this time through, their eyes bright with awareness, their ability to ignore him suspended with evidence of his purpose having import.
Wary approval filled the air, cautious acceptance. Nicu disregarded it all. Attention and fame had never been his aim. His duty was important, not his person, and he left to perform it while they continued socializing.
Once in the forest a presence he had not expected derailed him from pursuing the barrier investigation. Feet slowed, he rounded a tree to discover Branna and Edan shared a perch, their closest hands loose at their sides, pinkies brushed as if by accident. As soon as the pair noticed Nicu, their limbs drew inches apart. Their contact was not what bothered him, however.
“You were to find her.”
“We cannot,” Edan said.
Nicu inhaled around the frustration, expelled it on his breath.
“Explain.”
“The obvious?” Branna asked. “She is not at home, or underground, or off with Chase.”
She’d gone to ground. To escape after this afternoon?
No.
Why hadn’t he thought Ember might have felt the barrier breach as he had? He had not found her signature and had forgotten they were both tied to the same energy.
“She’s hurt.”
Nicu launched into a sprint. Edan and Branna followed without question, highlighting their value. He could not waste time on explanation. More than an hour had passed since he discovered the taint of Brandt’s blood mixed with the magic of a knife used to carve someone’s way into Trifecta.
That meant two enemies, one unknown who could breach the barrier, and one with a personal grudge against the Trimarked Child, the hybrid girl who was suddenly lost.
Nicu arrived at the hovel the Lees called home and approached the entrance to the underground to examine the space where Ember had sparked. He searched the long, dead strands of mountain grass for a hidden trace of that power. Warm fragments brushed and stuck to fingertips, and he curled his fingers to protect his prize.
“You aren’t welcome here.”
Nicu stood to meet Susan’s emaciated form, her thin shoulders wrapped in a threadbare af
ghan, storm grey eyes sharp with instant hostility.
“Susan Lee,” he greeted, his voice low and soft.
“Why are you here? You need to leave. Now.”
“Soon,” he assured her. “Can you tell me, when was Ember home last?”
“Stay away from my baby!” She took a threatening step forward, a starved and cornered animal fighting for her life.
“Susan, she is lost,” Nicu tried to reason. “When did you see her? Was she in any pain that you noticed?”
A flush bruised Susan’s sharp cheekbones.
“I will never help a Fae. My daughter will not get involved with magic. I do not allow it in my house. You are not allowed.”
“If you care for Ember, you will tell me.”
The heat from Susan’s cheeks rose to cast a glassy sheen over her eyes. Her breath came in hard pants.
“I won’t let you murder my daughter. I would kill her first.”
“Ember will not die.” The words were a low command. A threat.
“I hope you don’t find her,” Susan spat at his feet. “I hope she gets free of you, no matter how.”
Susan spun on her heel and stumbled as if drunk, though alcohol was not her affliction, and headed back into the safety of her house.
“She is insane,” Branna whispered.
“She is sick, though currently not our concern.” He looked at the energy he’d collected, the smallest whiff of power. Nicu encouraged his tattoos to move from his forearm and across his palm to engage with the salvaged fragments. The power of the Living Ink tasted the flavor of Ember. He flicked his wrist, straightened his fingers and sparks flashed into the night, danced on an invisible breeze.
Lead the way. He willed the magic to find the being who created it.
Nicu refused to take his eyes off the glowing cloud. It hovered close to the ground, touched deep toward the forest floor, surged up as if infused with a sudden rush of temporary energy, only to drift low once again.
“She crawled,” Edan said. Nicu’s curse stayed within his mind. The flattened trail led through the foliage. Yet, he’d ignored it with his choice to focus so intently on their magic guide. Attention expanded, he regarded every lurch forward from that moment on, each trampled piece of leaf where she’d collapsed here, and then there.
“She was not injured badly,” Branna said. “There is no blood.”
“It was not a physical wound.” Nicu imagined Ember’s smaller, more fragile frame taking the pain he’d grit his teeth against. Remorse twisted through his organs and fear grew metallic in the back of his throat.
He refused to be forsworn, the cost far too high to pay.
He put aside those thoughts as unnecessary distractions to his current goal. Find Ember. Worry about the rest if it proved pertinent.
“Are you well?” Edan asked quietly.
Nicu remained silent, uncertain how to reply. Though they disagreed on how to handle the Trimarked Child, there was one truth they worked together to protect. His promise to keep her safe.
Discomfort rose anew when Nicu recognized a thick vine strangling a fading birch. A few feet further, a gentle mound marked the grave of a tree fallen one hundred years ago. The tender footsteps of his companions betrayed they were aware of the location.
Ember’s chunky trail led to No Man’s Land. Ember was not there.
The flecks flared bright the moment they touched No Man’s Land, sped in all directions within the dead patch of forest, flew up toward the canopy and concentrated at the center, then dropped in a brilliant streak deep into the ground.
They did not reappear.
Edan and Branna stepped next to him, one on either side.
“There are tracks,” Edan offered. “Multiple sets. We can split up, each take a path and report back once we find her.”
Edan knew more than any other they must find Ember. The Terraborn, true bloodline Fae had been appointed to remind Nicu there should be no unapproved secrets from the Fae. Yet, Edan had not gone to the council with news of Ember’s skill with the barrier, and he declared his loyalty by remaining steadfast this evening. Nicu would not offend by acting without thought.
He debated their options, knew this decision held either the weight of praise or the unbearable burden of broken magic.
“Someone comes.” Branna turned her back to the dead zone, wrapped shadows around herself until she disappeared. Edan placed his body between Nicu and the coming threat, a gift of added time.
More than one set of footsteps stomped through the forest. To even the odds, Nicu spun and faced the incomers at Edan’s side.
Nicu embodied control. When he saw a familiar figure limp through the trees, he merely stepped forward once, used the human’s momentum to swing him around, his back to Nicu’s chest, wrapped a forearm writhing with contained fury against the shout in that boy’s throat, then held still without breaking every bone in Aaron’s neck.
25
Devi
Devi stood at the center of a complicated web, stretched nodal patterns and a multitude of connections. She spun in a slow circle within the golden globular network, a gentle smile on her face as she enjoyed the artistry of the magic.
“Your pupil nearly takes over your entire eye when you Work.”
Leona’s voice broke through Devi’s concentration. She held out a hand. The bubble of power collapsed onto itself, brightened in her palm, then faded as the tubular shape of the gem reconfigured.
Leona gasped, her fingers spread and fluttered for a moment as she stared at the result. Her mother had never been comfortable with Devi’s unique ability with magic, though as High Priestess, Leona saw the benefit of it. As a parent, however, Leona feared the differences in her daughter, not because she didn’t accept them, but because she didn’t know what they would mean for Devi. Usually, Leona ignored Devi’s Work for those reasons. When presented with it, she wavered between her emotions until she settled onto a tentative perch of brave, but unwelcome acceptance.
“No scrying stone needed, after all.”
“I got creative,” Devi agreed.
“Are you closer to figuring out your puzzle?”
Devi crossed her legs, then spun to face the barrels. She had tested her crystal stretching with the gems that stored the oil composition.
“I figured out how to clean it, but the compounds produced would be difficult to manage. I will move on from trying to reclaim the waste to reconstructing the components into a usable material.”
“So you’re practicing with a quartz?”
“That was play. I wanted to make it bigger without losing its molecular structure.”
“O-oh.” Leona fidgeted with her bracelets, then stilled her fingers by gripping her wrist.
Truthfully, the exercise had been exciting. Though she presented a cool exterior for her mother, her nerve endings sparked with discovery, barely able to remain relaxed beneath her heated skin.
Devi had believed Nicu’s Living Ink would be her control and the norm. She had been wrong. She’d expanded both crystals to beach ball size, twisted and turned them around each other until she realized the main threads didn’t match. Instead, the weakest connections were perfect replicas, though so numerous that she wasn’t ready to map them so late in the day.
Between the heaviest and lightest strands, she found a third set that mostly matched but were often sidetracked by the more powerful strings. These correlated lines pulsed, a heartbeat within the very Ink of the tattoo. They were also the least prevalent, and she’d been able to sketch them for both samples, making notes for when they broke pattern to adjust around the thickest cables.
Veil energy. At first, Devi didn’t believe it. She double checked her research on the barrier to confirm and minus the adjustments, they matched.
But how did they get barrier energy into their Ink? Why did Ember have more, and Nicu less? Did the different volumes of barrier magic within the tattoo even mean anything? Were the pair connected, or was this all chance? Had
the Fae done this, or was it an anomaly of the Trimarked Child and Nicu, who had been present at her birth?
Devi wanted more samples. Maybe from Edan. Certainly from Branna. She would have to figure out a way to trade for them, or steal if she must, much as she had with Nicu. She salivated over the idea of all that data, and all she could learn about something so alien and intriguing.
In her excitement, and with no other data to study, Devi couldn’t resist playing with the crystal. The magic was gorgeous, and she’d felt so content surrounded by it. She would have stayed for hours if her mother hadn’t interrupted.
“Did you need something?” Devi asked.
“I… yes, I thought so, but if you’ve been Working most of the day, I can find someone else.”
“I’m all right.”
“Really, it’s fine.”
“Mom. I’ve been studying books and taking notes. I wouldn’t mind another errand.”
“It’s late.”
Devi crossed her arms. Her mom’s sudden hesitation had little to do with the hour and more to do with the magic she’d walked in on.
“I know it’s hard for you to wrap your head around what I can do, but I promise, the spell wasn’t as taxing as it looked. In fact, I have energy to spare. Where would you like me to burn it?”
“Is that something you can teach?”
Devi huffed, frustrated her mother wouldn’t get to the point.
“The true Earth talents should be able to do it, though we’d want to practice with flawed jewels. I expect a few will burst into dust until the skill is mastered.”
“Hmm.” Leona stared into space, fingering her gems. “And its application?”
“Ah.” Devi touched the tip of her tongue to the edge of her teeth. That part would be more difficult, at least the way Devi used them. “I’m not sure,” she hedged. “Perhaps… your scrying images could be as big as you needed….”
Leona smiled with the idea. “Well, all work and no play makes for a dull day. I suppose having fun with magic has its place.”