by Martha Carr
“We know he bonded to Ba’rael and agreed to be the bitch’s yes-man for the rest of his life. That’s enough to know I don’t want him or anyone who answers to him anywhere near my mom. Not even in the same fucking world.”
“Your old neighbors too.” Ember picked up the pace until she floated alongside Cheyenne’s furious, urgent strides. “Ruuv’i probably knows about them by now.”
“Even if he doesn’t know who they are, he knows I have O’gúleesh friends close by. Or at least close to my old apartment. Jesus, I hope they keep their head down over there.”
“We’re making the crossing again, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, Em. Ruuv’i has at least a twenty-four-hour head start. I swear, if he touches her, I’m stepping up as Crown to take him down. Bring the whole fucking army across the Border with me if I have to.”
Ember stared down the hall and gave Cheyenne the space she needed to process her anger uninterrupted.
Cheyenne swept through command after command on her activator to find Maleshi and Corian. She hadn’t known she could do that, but just like her erupting drow magic burning through and bringing new strength despite the poisoned wounds still open in her flesh, her anger dampened her surprise.
At least they’re in the same room. She only had to think about the message, and the activator sent it through Hangivol’s massive system.
Stay where you are. I found something.
Ten seconds later, she got a reply.
We’ll wait.
Good. That’s about all the time for waiting we have left. Shit, I knew I shouldn’t have stayed over here this long.
Chapter Twenty-One
The activator pinged the nightstalkers’ locations to her until Cheyenne and Ember reached a small alcove off one of the archways into the Heart’s center courtyard. There were low couches and lounge chairs and tables filling what now served as a small meeting room.
Byrd and Lumil looked over the backs of the matching chairs they inhabited when they heard Cheyenne’s stomping footsteps.
“Hey, kid!” Lumil’s grin faded instantly. “Whoa. You look like shit.”
Maleshi and Corian stood when they saw the fury in the drow halfling’s eyes. Corian glanced at Ember. “What happened?”
“Okay, a lot of stuff.”
“Did anyone think to look for Ruuv’i after I passed out yesterday?” Cheyenne interrupted.
The nightstalkers exchanged a quick glance. “We’ve had our eyes open, kid. Haven’t found him yet, but we will.”
“Better make that a top priority.” Cheyenne ripped the folded photograph of her and Bianca out of her pocket and thrust it at him.
“What’s this?”
“I found it in their room.”
Maleshi’s eyes narrowed. “Whose room?”
“Fucking Ba’rael’s and Ruuv’i’s room! Who else’s?”
Corian unfolded the photograph and couldn’t hide the widening of his eyes. “Huh.”
“That’s all you have to say?”
“It’s an exclamation of surprise, Cheyenne.”
“Yeah, I was pretty damn surprised too. What the hell were they doing with a picture of my mom?”
“Trying to tap into finding you, I imagine.” Maleshi glanced at the photograph, then dipped her chin toward Cheyenne. “Wanna take a step back and breathe a little before we continue discussing this?”
“No, I don’t want to take a step back. I just got pumped with a necromancer’s nasty-ass potion that made me feel like I was being turned inside out and fucked up what little healing I had with these.” She jerked down the side of her shirt to show one of the dart wounds and let go again without waiting for a response. “Then I find some kind of fucked-up altar in Ba’rael’s bedroom with my stuff on it!”
“Anything with magical properties?”
“What? No. It was this and a pair of underwear.”
The nightstalkers frowned at Ember, who shrugged. “Gift from her old neighbors. Trolls.”
“Ah.” However Maleshi managed to put two and two together, Cheyenne wasn’t waiting around to ask about it.
“Which means those two fucking drow had direct access to my apartment, and now they know who my mom is.”
Corian calmly handed the photograph back toward her. “Is there a request in here somewhere? Because we certainly didn’t bring these across as a special delivery.”
Cheyenne snatched the picture from him and jammed it back into her pocket. “I need to go back.”
The general clasped her hands. “I thought you were staying until tomorrow? Hopefully through the rest of the day.”
“Yeah, I know I said I’d stick around that long, but that was before I found an underwear-stalker altar dedicated to Bianca and me. I’m leaving.”
“No, Cheyenne, you need to stay here.” Corian studied her with his glowing silver eyes. “Venga said he’s making progress on reversing the blight.”
Ember snorted. “That’s bullshit.”
“And we still have a lot of work to do with getting Persh’al acclimated to his new role. Some of which includes guiding him in ways only you can, seeing as they require a drow to perform.”
Cheyenne shook her head, her anger subsiding now that she’d let her discovery out in the open and cemented her decision to leave. “You know enough about drow magic to fill in for me. Whatever else needs to happen can wait until I come back.”
“We don’t have time to wait until whenever you decide to come back.”
“I’m not asking for permission, Corian.” She glared at him. “I’m telling you I’m leaving today. Right now, as soon as we’re done here, whether you like it or not. And somebody needs to double up the search for Ruuv’i before he does something to fuck up whatever plans you already have. Because he will.”
The nightstalker frowned, his tufted ears twitching above his feline features. “I don’t disagree with you about that.”
“Great. We’re on the same page with something.”
“I’ll go with you, kid,” Maleshi said.
Corian, Ember, and Cheyenne looked at her in surprise. The nightstalker let out a low growl. “Finished with your role already?”
The general shrugged. “There’s only so much I can do in a few days, vae shra’ni, and if there’s an issue when we’re Earthside, at least Cheyenne will have someone there to back her up. I also have a pretend-human life to keep running smoothly despite all these brief disappearances from Maddie Bergmann’s regular haunts.”
Corian closed his eyes. “Fine. I’ll handle what I can from here. Any estimate as to when you’ll return?”
Cheyenne shook her head. “No, I don’t know. I have a huge pain in my ass to take care of with the FRoE on Monday. Depending on how long that takes, I might have a little free time to pop in for another visit.”
He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Your mastery of sarcasm is astounding.”
“Yeah, you too.”
Corian looked over his shoulder at the goblins and nodded. “Go with them.”
“What?” Byrd scowled. “Come on, man. I was starting to get comfy over here.”
Lumil lifted a tankard. “Yeah, and the booze hasn’t stopped flowing since last night. They’ll be fine.”
The nightstalker glared at the goblins until they shifted uncomfortably in the armchairs. “Go. With. Them.”
Byrd scoffed and spread his arms.
“I want you two to stay with Cheyenne until she decides to return.”
Cheyenne grimaced. “They don’t have to do that.”
“If anyone’s coming after Bianca, they’re after the best way to find you, kid.” Corian pointed at her. “Maleshi can’t be with you every second.”
“Neither can they.”
“But they can shadow you while the general tends to her pretend-human affairs. I want eyes on you, and now that Persh’al’s over here for the foreseeable few thousand years, you need someone.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Lumil waved him o
ff and slumped in her chair. “We’ll be your tails, kid.”
Cheyenne glared at the nightstalker.
He gave her an apathetic shrug. “Sorry the most useful of us are a bit busy over here.”
“Hey.” Byrd slammed the armrest. “Way to instill confidence, asshole.”
Everyone ignored him, even Lumil, who turned her attention back to her tankard.
“Well.” Maleshi clapped her hands. “Looks like we’d better get a move on.”
“One moment.” Corian set a hand on her back, and she stopped. Then he raised his eyebrows at Cheyenne. “It won’t take long. I need a few minutes of the general’s time.”
Maleshi looked at him with a confused frown.
“Okay.” Cheyenne said, “A few minutes, then I’m out of here.”
Corian nodded and nodded for Maleshi to walk with him through another doorway out of the makeshift meeting room, guiding her that way with his hand still on her back.
When they disappeared into the dark room beyond, Ember nudged Cheyenne lightly with her elbow. “You okay?”
“Not really, but they waited a few thousand years for me to show up. I can give ‘em ten minutes.”
Byrd snorted. “Bet they only need four. Nightstalkers can get a lot done in four minutes when the pressure’s on. Know what I’m sayin’?”
Lumil snorted into her tankard.
Twenty minutes later, Cheyenne, Ember, Maleshi, and the goblins headed down the main avenue of the drow inner circle, making their way to the lower levels of the city.
Maleshi watched the halfling stalking ahead of her. “It does look remarkably like you know where you’re going, and I’m not saying I doubt your intuition.”
“Great. Don’t start now.”
“I wasn’t planning on it, kid. But I would love to know which portal you’ve chosen for us to take back across.”
Cheyenne slowed down a little and looked at Ember. “I haven’t yet.”
“Oh. Good thing I said something.”
“Okay, fine. Which portals are the closest?”
“Well, there’s one out in Ki’uali. Assuming the transport still runs that way and the blight hasn’t sucked all the magic out of the air by now.”
Cheyenne glanced at the general over her shoulder. “That’s not helping.”
“I’m trying to be practical, Cheyenne. I know you’re worried about your mom, and I know you’re putting everything else on the back burner until you confirm there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Yeah, making sure the Bull’s Head hasn’t shown up at her house is a nice extra helping of ‘at least it’s not worse,’ but that won’t make me stop worrying about her. She’s still asleep under Ba’rael’s curse, and that hasn’t been made a priority on this side, either.”
“It can be. Or we may stumble upon the solution when we get there. But first, we need to decide—”
“On a portal. Yeah, I get it.” Cheyenne stopped and turned around to face the goblins, who dragged their feet across the avenue and looked highly disappointed to be leaving. “Any suggestions?”
Byrd shrugged. “Karu Ga’abil isn’t that much farther than Ki’uali.”
Lumil snarled at him. “Fuck you. I’m not going back to that shithole of a city even if Cheyenne gave me a royal-assed command. Nothing against you, kid. I have a thing with Karu Ga’abil, and they might have a bigger thing with me.”
“Yeah. You’re afraid they’ll finish the job that fell-damn noose started.”
Cheyenne rolled her eyes. “Okay, stop. Seriously.”
The goblins shoved each other and finally gave up to pay attention to her instead.
“Really? There aren’t any Border portals between here and the Outers?”
“Not since the Spider broke the extra one in the dungeon.”
Ember folded her arms. “You mean the slaughterhouse.”
Cheyenne closed her eyes. “Okay, give me a minute.”
“You feelin’ okay, kid?” Byrd asked. “I mean, I get it. You’re a tough drow cookie and all that, but you look like you could use another long-ass nap. Or a drink.”
“I’m fine.” Cheyenne looked down at the system code rolling across the avenue beneath all their feet and nodded. “Does Hangivol’s system keep records of the active portals?”
Maleshi cocked her head in acknowledgment. “Interesting Plan B. I honestly never thought to look.”
“Okay, well, I did.” Cheyenne frowned at the ground when a light buzz rose in the center of her chest. She lurched forward, and Ember was at her side immediately.
“You gonna hurl again?”
Lumil laughed. “Partied that hard last night, huh?”
“What?” Ember shook her head at the goblin woman. “Not everyone drinks like you.”
“Well, excuse me.”
Cheyenne lifted a hand to ward Ember away and glanced around the avenue. “I’m not gonna puke again, Em. This is different.”
Maleshi watched her intently. “Well, now I’m intrigued.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” Cheyenne scanned the avenue, waiting for the activator to pull up any warnings or possible explanation for the sharp, not-entirely-unpleasant tug she felt again at the center of her chest. She stepped to the side to follow the pull, and the feeling intensified.
“You’re kinda freaking me out.”
The halfling glanced quickly at Ember and shrugged. “Not trying to.”
Cheyenne’s legs moved beneath her on their own, propelling her across the avenue and into the second alley coming up on her left.
“What the hell?” Ember raced after her. “Cheyenne!”
Cheyenne laughed and spread her arms as she turned around. When she stopped to wait for the others to catch up with her, the tug at her core was almost unbearable. “Sorry. I can feel this… don’t know. My guess is somebody or something wants me to follow it.”
“Follow what?” Lumil entered the alley next with an amused smile, followed quickly by Byrd and Maleshi.
The tug repeated, and Cheyenne spun to head in the direction it pulled her. “If I knew, I’d say something that didn’t make me sound crazy.”
Ember turned back toward Maleshi. “What is it?”
“It’s probably not the most accurate explanation, but I’d call it intuition.”
“Yeah, she doesn’t do this.”
“Drow intuition, maybe?”
They caught up with the halfling just as Cheyenne finished waving open a new door in the inner circle’s outer wall.
“Look at that.” Maleshi nodded. “Cheyenne cast a spell.”
“Yeah, that’s a thing now.” The halfling grinned at her and waved them forward. “Seriously, keep up. I don’t wanna lose you guys following this.” She lurched into the tunnel.
“Like a puppet.” Byrd snorted and shook his head. “Whoever’s doing that to her has serious balls.”
Ember ignored him and raced into the tunnel.
“I’m sure we’ll figure out what it is when she reaches the end of that invisible line,” Maleshi said.
“So you do know what it is.”
“No. That was an extraordinarily appropriate figure of speech.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The buzzing tingle and sharp tugs on Cheyenne’s chest grew stronger the deeper she led them into Hangivol’s lower levels. Somebody needs to build a damn elevator in this place. I’ve walked at least ten miles today.
“Any idea where we’re going?” Maleshi called.
“Okay, that’s number five.” Cheyenne stopped at the end of another alley on the lower level and glanced both ways before the pull returned and jerked her to the right. “The answer hasn’t changed, so you guys can stop asking.”
Ember tried to ignore the gazes of the other magicals filling the busy street, who all noticed the strange, jerking motions of the Black Flame moving through the crowd. “It’s weird that you’re so calm about this.”
“Doesn’t feel like something I should be freaking out
about, Em.” Cheyenne opened another door when they reached the city’s outer wall and shrugged. “So I’m going with it.”
“I could go for another drink.” Lumil paused at the opening of the short, temporary tunnel through the hall and bent over, propping her hands on her thighs. “Didn’t have nearly enough spirithead this morning to not be hurting right now.”
“I think the answer to that is to drink less.” Byrd thumped her on the back and laughed as he followed Cheyenne and Ember toward the walkway on the other side.
“Bite me, asshole.”
“Maybe if you catch up.”
Maleshi didn’t wait for the goblin woman to recover but gestured toward the open exit as she stepped through. “This is temporary.”
“Yeah, yeah. Shit.” Lumil straightened and jogged after the general, barely squeezing through before the city’s outer wall sealed back up.
“This is crazy.” Ember scanned the bleak, dry expanse of the grasslands surrounding Hangivol and the steep hill rising up into the closest mountain range on her right. “Can you slow down a little?”
Cheyenne chuckled. “Not really, Em. I think I’m close.”
“Yeah, but to what? I’m not a fan of not knowing what’s on the other side.”
The halfling stumbled forward when the sharp tug nearly pulled her off her feet, and she picked up the pace around the curving walkway. “Whatever it is, it’s gotta be…”
When the flickering, multi-colored flames of the Sorren Gán’s makeshift bed and the creature’s flaming form came into view beyond the fellfire pits, she forced herself to stop, fighting the continuous pull.
“Shit.”
The Sorren Gán sat in the center of the massive crater it had made for itself, eyes closed, wings stretched wide and pumping columns of black smoke into the sky. Both of its giant flame-covered hands were extended, each of them emitting a stream of silver light tipped with more flames into the crushed earth in front of it.
Ember, Maleshi, and the goblins caught up with Cheyenne and saw the drow-eating creature.
The general hummed in calm surprise. “Looks like it’s had its fill of the overflow.”
“Damn.” Byrd rubbed his bald green head. “Never thought I’d see one of those things in real life. That’s one ugly bastard.”